Douglas Killson was born in upstate Vermont, the child of a family of licensed international mercenaries. Douglas learned to hunt, track, shoot and fight while other children his age were learning soccer and basketball. Trilingual (English, Spanish and French), his family tutored him in tactics and military history along with reading, writing, and 'rithmatic. Douglas never attended public school, but had dreams of going to college. While his parents fretted about his decision, the decisive factor was the development of his variant powers at age 17. Wishing only what as best, they enrolled him in Lancaster University's Variant Studies Program. There he learned to use his powers safely and responsibly, began work on a Political Science degree, and gained a new tutor in the martial arts: Black Dragon.
    [I feel the need to point out that Doug's parents were far from backwoods hicks shooting 'coons and talking about overthrowing the government. They were professional soldiers, perhaps addicted to the rush of combat, but professional nonetheless. They were patriotic, but made better money working outside the US, and did what any independent contractor would do: they went where the money was. They trained anticommunist rebels, helped overthrow dictatorships, and defended cities in danger zones. The CIA had their business card on file. These were not bad people. Strange, yes. Bad, no. - Brian]
    Forces abroad compelled Black Dragon to leave the United States. Unwilling to leave his city without a Black Dragon, Dragon selected Killson to replace him during his absence. He outfitted Killson with devices that would mimic Dragon's powers, concocted a story about amnesia and a radiation incident to explain the discrepancies, and the two parted ways. Black Dragon returned to China, where he expected to stay for several years. Killson went to the streets.
    Killson's variance was a form of personal gravity control. This enhanced his effective strength and agility by subconscious alteration of weights. Killson had limited control; he could shift his direction of gravity to other surfaces and focus his control for individual feats of vast strength. Other aspects of Killson's variance enhanced his endurance, increasing his resistance to toxins and disease as well as raising his resistance to heat and cold. These, with childhood training, tutoring from Black Dragon, and natural cunning made him capable of being Black Dragon on the streets. What Killson lacked was Dragon's long perspective, something only gained with lifetimes of experience. Killson eventually became disgusted with plots and counter plots, with people beating the system and getting away with it.
    Knowing that Black Dragon would not approve of his plans, he started leading a triple life: student Killson, Black Dragon, and the vigilante known as Concussion. Using Dragon's files and funding, he outfitted himself with specialized weapons and ammunition, located criminals who had escaped justice, and killed them. Dozens in the underworld died,. Killson worked his way up the path of corruption, casting a long, bloody shadow. Concussion became feared by criminals throughout New England, and through it all Black Dragon kept a visible presence in Harborview. Killson's own life suffered—Lancaster nearly expelled him, and he lost contact with his family. He was pushing the edge, hard. Only his variant metabolism enabled him to keep up the charade at all.
    Unfortunately for Killson, other heroes took interest in his activities. Rapidfire and Impulse, never Black Dragon's closest allies, began investigating the Concussion murders, tracing the whole affair back to Killson and Black Dragon. The whole situation would have come to an ugly confrontation that Killson could not have won, but for an outside event: the Demonwar broke out in New York, and all the country's variant heroes converged. Killson died during the course of the war, slaughtered by agents of the World Crime League. Killson had earlier come to the attention of the WCL, who deduced his activities as Concussion and used the violence of the war to cover some vengeance; their enclave was destroyed in the fighting mere hours later. Impulse died as well, and Rapidfire, mired in grief, dropped the investigation. Killson's connection to Concussion was never known. In fact, the conflict so damaged his body that he couldn't be identified other than as Black Dragon. Harborview mourned one of its greatest heroes (a statue of Black Dragon stands at the Ground Zero memorial in Heroes Square), police scratched their heads, and teachers at Lancaster wondered what had happened to that promising student.
    It was not until Black Dragon's return in 1990 that these questions were answered. Black Dragon revealed his actions and his choice of Killson as a successor. A statue of Killson now stands on the grounds at Lancaster University, honoring the student who fought the good fight with no thought to personal recognition. The dark deeds he performed under another name are known only in the shadow of that statue, and remain a secret to the world to this day.
    While acting as Black Dragon, Killson wore a fireproof costume that further protected him from heat and flame. This worked with a glove on his left hand, which generated flames, allowing him to mimic Black Dragon's "fire fist" attack to the casual observer. This glove was somewhat bulky, left a chemical smell when used, and had a limited number uses before the fuel supply needed refilling. As Concussion, he carried a supply of cutting-edge military weaponry, often specially constructed or modified. This included various forms of grenades and bombs, automatic pistols, machine pistols and rifles, sniper rifles, flash suppressors and silencers. His costume served as limited body armor, and he had light enhancement gear built into the mask.

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