The Truth About Black Dragon

In 1980 Black Dragon was betrayed after a battle with the Coven's Li Chi Huan. Huan, the Dragon's heir apparent, revealed himself as an agent of the Chinese government and killed the wounded Dragon. Huan's mind was clear, his purpose set and his skills all but unmatched, but the Dragon Spirit passed him over. This was the first time a Black Dragon had died so far from China. The Spirit locked on to the next worthy successor: Mike Coolican, a teenager in a Harborview suburb. Coolican woke to a flood of skills, powers, languages, senses, history. It would take him nearly three years to assimilate it all, but he knew one thing: he was the Black Dragon. A child of Western culture, Coolican designed an outlandish costume and began stalking the city at night, fighting the crime of all sorts in Harborview.
    While he lost the more outrageous aspects of the costume over time, his appearance brought him media attention, in which he flourished. While all the previous Black Dragons had been shadowy figures, this one appeared on Letterman, endorsed McDonalds, and had Nike make Air Dragons. Most people "in the know" assumed that the correspondence of name and powers were a fluke, or that this Black Dragon had taken his name from legends of the real Black Dragon.
    While Coolican's brain struggled to sort out the centuries of information, three people knew who and what he truly was. One was the agent of the Black Dragon Monastery, sent to discover the location of the new Black Dragon. Another was Grimouir, the cryptic sorcerer with whom Coolican sometimes worked. The third was Huan. Huan, now calling himself Dragonhand, began hunting Coolican, certain that he had found ways to ensure his rising to Black Dragon when Coolican died. Dragonhand would become Black Dragon's most bitter foe for the majority of his career.
    Black Dragon worked constantly, fighting magical forces on his own or with Grimouir, battling gang threats throughout the city alone or with Wildcard, fighting variant menaces with Split Second. While a strong patriot, Coolican refused to join Ground Zero, and worked infrequently with Rapidfire and Impulse. His upbringing and the source of his powers divided his loyalties. Much as Coolican loved America, Black Dragon could not work for the U.S. government.
    Coolican, a student at St. Judes Catholic High School, was chagrined by his lowered success in the last years of school. Unable to focus on school between the pressing need of the Black Dragon soul and the glamour of his public affairs, he left America for a time. Circumstances led to his final battle with Dragonhand in the Monastery itself, and when the battle was over, Coolican had fully integrated the memories and abilities of his predecessors. The Monastery understood his need to leave, and allowed him to return to Harborview to continue fighting for justice and teaching the powers of Chi. He swore that he would always return when they needed him.
    Upon his return, his focus had changed, broadened. Using the money from his endorsements, he set up a trust fund for himself, then arranged for the rest to go to movements liberating oppressed countries. The Black Dragon Fund is not large or well known, but it does good direct work in all corners of the globe, especially Tibet. Dragon abandoned all plans for more direct endorsements and changed his appearance in the public eye to an older, more experienced hero, one dedicated to world justice. Coolican also changed his personal focus, struggling for a position at the small but prestigious Boulanger Institute. There he majored in Chemical Engineering, refusing the easy route of majoring in Chinese history, where he knows more than any man alive. During all of this, Black Dragon continued to work alongside Ground Zero, battled menaces on his own, and taught classes in Chi and combat to Variant Studies students at Lancaster University.
    Also during this time the Sidari, having learned Coolican's real identity through telepathy, kidnapped his younger brother, Patrick. Inquisitive and precocious, Patrick had inadvertently discovered his brother's dual identity and become an unofficial mascot to Ground Zero, nicknamed Jellybean. By the time Black Dragon and Ground Zero were able to rescue Pat, he had been transformed by the Sidari. Genetically coded knowledge filtered through his brain, bio-cybernetic systems improved his body. He was now Black Jellybean, dedicated to the destruction of his older brother and Ground Zero. Despite his foolish name, Black Jellybean is a force to be reckoned with, bringing entire superteams to their knees.
    Shortly after his graduation from Boulanger, Coolican was called back to China. The Communist regime was mounting another assault on the Monastery. While his duty forced him to China, Coolican was unwilling to leave Harborview without a Black Dragon, especially considering Ground Zero's growing international focus. To this purpose, he selected one of his students from Lancaster, Douglas Killson, to fill his shoes until he could return. Killson's natural variant abilities and the devices Dragon provided made him an acceptable substitute. Coolican returned to China, fighting a shadow war against the Chinese government for two years until the attempted conquest was ended. During this time, Killson fell to supernatural forces in the Demonwar. The world thought Black Dragon was dead, and would continue to do so until the real Black Dragon returned to Harborview. In 1990 Dragon revealed his deception, and Killson was recognized for his valor.
    Today, Black Dragon continues his crusades, operating to protect Harborview, the Monastery and the world; teaching other heroes the secrets of Chi; still bringing his name and recognition to the causes of oppressed peoples. Coolican maintains a cursory secret identity, but his activities prevent him from making much use of it. For better or worse, he is the Black Dragon, and will be until he dies. At that point, another will take up the mantle, and the cycle will continue.
    Coolican is the one hundred and eighth Black Dragon, possessing the combined Chi, knowledge and experience of his predecessors and of the eleven warriors who cast the initial Soulwarrior enchantment. This makes him greatest human martial artist on Earth. His speed and agility are absolute human maximum and his talents are greater than anyone else alive, given millennia of experience. His only limitation is that he is not actually superhuman; none of his abilities are greater than what a human's could be, save for his boundless experience.
    In addition to his combat skills, the memories of his forebears provide him with vast knowledge of Asian history, language, philosophy and culture, as well as all other skills and languages they developed over time. This, added to his own training in aeronautics and chemical engineering, makes Black Dragon an amazingly versatile scholar and scientist. His willpower is beyond reproach, with the Chi of hundreds to draw upon. He seems stronger and more durable than he should be, as he has learned to use his Chi to maximize his physical abilities. Black Dragon is a thin, tall man, but his strength is equivalent to that of an Olympic weightlifter, and his endurance is equal to that of the greatest marathoners.
    More noticeably, all Black Dragons can project their Chi has heat and fire and are immune to heat and flame themselves. Since the Chi spent in this fashion regenerates slowly, and is lost if overused (causing a loss of a previous Black Dragon from his psyche) he uses this cautiously. While his power might be sufficient to generate the equivalent of a thermonuclear blast, he never uses it at anything more than a moderate level, capable of slagging metals with a few moments' exposure. He most commonly coats his hands or feet with flame and strikes his opponents with them, adding the fire to the force of his blow.

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