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| Steeljack
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© Juke Box Productions
AstroFacts
| Status:
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Retired
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| Real Name:
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Carl Donewicz
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| Earliest Appearance:
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Mid-1960s
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| Origin:
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Kurt Busiek's Astro City Vol.2 #14
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| Affiliation:
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The Terrifying Three
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| Base of Operations:
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Astro City in the Kiefer Square area
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Personal Data
| Aliases:
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The Steel Jacketed Man
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| Date of Birth:
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early to mid 1940s
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| Height:
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6'4"
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| Weight:
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600 lbs
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| Eyes:
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silver
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| Hair:
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silver
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InfoDump
| Appearances (in Publication Order):
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Kurt Busiek's Astro City Vol.2 #14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
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Event Timeline
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Steeljack
History
Carl "Carlie" Donewicz was a young boy growing up in the Kiefer Square section of Astro City when he started to run with gangs. You had to in that part of town, or you ended up in a world of hurt. Carl wanted out, and studied as best he could in order to make it happen, but things got complicated. He had minor gang association with the Skullcrushers, and when it came to learning, well, he struggled.
After a fight in which he killed a boy, Carl went a little crazy, committing an assortment of violent crimes. At this point, he heard about Dr. Norton Ganss, who could turn people into superhuman beings, and somehow, managed to arrange an appointment to discuss potential opportunities. After being told he was acceptable, Carl was placed in a tank, and emerged as the "Steel-Jacketed Man." Trying to pay back Ganss (and Donnelly Ferguson, who had gotten him the appointment in the first place), Carl entered into the world of the "black masks" (a.k.a. "super villains").
In the early or mid 1960s, he was part of the Terrifying Three with Cutlass and the first Quarrel, though the partnership didn't last long.
Although he had some moderate success, Carl ended up in and out of prison, spending over twenty years in the Biro Island Correctional Facility. He was released in 1998 and vowed to "go straight" and never return. This proved to be difficult due to his well-known reputation and distinctive likeness.
At the time he was released in the fall of 1998, there was a string of "Black Mask" killings going on in and near his old haunting grounds of Kiefer Square. The residents of the square with the broker Ferguson aiding them, hired him to investigate who was behind the series of brutal killings of their own. They reasoned with that Steeljack would be harder to hurt and therefore able to find out more information. Even though he didn't have much of a clue on what to do, Steeljack accepted their offer(knowing it was also breaking his parole agreement) to try and help out his fellow residents, as well try to for some kind of redemption for his past mistakes.
After starting his investigation, by interviewing the loved ones of the recently killed black masks, he was shocked to hear the same old stories over and over. "One big score and we'd be out," he'd hear and the realization of it all just made him sad.
The daughter of Goldenglove sought out Steeljack, insisting upon him helping her start a career as a cat-burglar with her fathers old power gloves. Steeljack tried talking sense into her telling her the small time crime racket was no way to get out of the Square. Again, she would hear none of it, thinking her youth and way of thinking was different and that she wouldn't wind up a loser in her fifties. Again, this hit Steeljack close to home as he heard a lot of himself in her.
After a few days, he still found himself getting nowhere and the feeling of being a loser prevalent. Ferguson decided to take him for a drive, up to Patterson Heights and an old worn down mansion home to an older Hispanic man. After a little prodding from Ferguson, the man started introduced himself as Esteban Rodrigo Suarez Hidalgo, better known as El Hombre. Hidalgo, told his tale of a life in wealth and the boredom and the need for becoming El Hombre. And he also told of his downfall, in hiring the Assemblyman to build a dangerous robot that only El Hombre could stop and wound up getting double crossed by the villain.
Ferguson wanted to shore Carl that it wasn't always the lowly thieves and black masks who made mistakes and tried to make atonements for their past sins. Even heroes who had it all can become tarnished angels.
Soon, the Mock Turtle came flying into the Square with the Red Queen's troops in the Chessmen armor in hot pursuit. Steeljack naturally, helped him to safety, while gathering all hands on deck to set up an ambush. After soundly defeating the armored criminals, everything showered Carl with praises, as they figured he stumbled on whoever was gunning them all down.
Sadly, Steeljack and everyone else was wrong, as a few weeks later the Mock Turtle, was found murdered like the others after having been hired. This led to total doubt and the feelings of a failure stuck with Carl. It reached the point where he had to reach out to Ferguson, to help him secure a job for both money and continuing his investigation.
Steeljack was blinded and taken to the man hiring people, The Conquistador. Going over all his plans, of a nationwide disruption capturing the attention of heroes and E.A.G.L.E., while using the small time criminals to rob Astro City's banks, jewelery houses and other places, Steeljack seems to pick up who the Conquistador actually is, surmising him to be Hidalgo, but he couldn't put all of the pieces together.
He started visiting Hidalgo's potential contacts, including Maria Alvarado and the Irregulars, which led him to Detective Ruiz. Ruiz didn't want to hear anything though, which led to Carl sinking back to the Square with downward spirits again.
Upon returning he was confronted by Goldenglove's wife, telling her that Ferguson set up Yolanda with a job and she begged Carl to stop her from completing it. Carl tracked her to South Kanewood, where she was in the middle of the robbery and he tried talking her out of it. But some of the probes that the Conquistador had been using had been tracking the two of them and started opening fire, eventually leveling the house and by the time Carl dug himself out, he wound up surrounded and captured by police.
Ferguson came to his cell and Carl finally got him to admit, that he figured out mid way that it was Hidalgo hiring everyone and setting them up for a big fail. Ferguson was too scared to let everyone know the truth at this point fearing for his own life. Carl meanwhile was stuck in a quandary, realizing that he had to breakout or otherwise the Conquistador's Plot was going to go on unhinged.
Powers
Steeljack is super-strong. His DNA has been chemically altered, making his body tissues incredibly resilient, behaving in a manner similar to high grade metallic steel. Even by super-being standards, he is highly durable. Like regular human skin, the outer layers of his steel skin decays and dies over time to be replace by new metallic cells. It does heal when injured, but it is showing sign of rusting as he ages. So far there is no sign of a cellar return to a more normal human-like composition.
The basis for Steeljack's physical appearance is actor Robert Mitchum. Mitchum played several film noir roles whose characters shared many of the traits make up the flaws of Carl Donewicz.
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