(person) by NothingLasts4ever Tue Mar 19 2002 at 12:37:18
Name:
Kyle (Last Name Unknown).
Father of:
Kyle Jr. and Nash (Last Names Unknown).
Grandfather of:
Kyle Knight

First Appearance:
(Golden Age): Adventure Comics #67 (October 1941)
(Post-Golden Age): Brave and the Bold #61 (August-September 1965)
Pre-Crisis Fate:
Still Active
Post-Crisis Fate:
Dies in Starman vol 2 #73

History:

Kyle, the man who would become the Mist, was born before the turn of the 20th century in Canada. He enlisted in the army during World War I and rose to the rank of Captain. One night, he faced a crisis of character as Germans bayoneted his men and bid to kill them all before the evening was done. Kyle snapped and, in a nationalistic rage, led a heroic charge against the German trench. He slaughtered his way across the plains and into the German trenches. His men rallied and held the field. Kyle was awarded the Cross of Valor for his efforts.

After the war, Kyle enrolled in college and obtained a degree in the sciences. He developed a wide array of inventions using his own funds but met with little success in promoting them. The two main inventions he generated was an invisibility solution and a matter destabilzer.

Disgruntled by his lack of success, the Mist moved to New York City. Lacking adequate funds and now an alcoholic, Kyle took the last name Smythe and contacted various criminal elements in the city, offering to use his device against their enemies. Pursued by the Golden Age Sandman and drinking heavily, the Mist obliterated the wrong building for the mob. He fled New York City severely injured by his experience.

The Mist recovered and renewed his efforts with his invisio-solution. In 1941 he determined to repay the government for it's rebuke by destroying the steel producing factories in Pittsburgh, Bethlehem and other western Pennsylvania cities.

Setting up a base in a large cave in Kentucky, he sent henchmen bathed in invisio-solution to steal plans for key installations from the office of Woodley Allen in Opal City. But Ted Knight, as Starman, was distracted by the theft at Allen's office. Starman rocketed to Kentucky and confronted the Mist's men. Starman was captured and flung into an abyss by the Mist. Starman came to and used his gravity rod to return to the surface.

Meanwhile...

Starman intercepted the Mist. Burning a hole through the wall of the Mist's ship, Starman confronted him and knocked him unconscious. The Mist survived and was captured and arrested by the local authorities.

This was only the first of many, many confrontations with Starman, the JSA, and various other heroes of the Golden Age.

By the mid-90's, the Mist was nearly 100 years old. Dying and vengeful he launched one final campaign against Ted Knight, Starman, himself now old and his mantle passed to his son David. The new Starman was an easy mark for the Mist's son Kyle, who had replaced him.

The Mist family then destroyed Ted Knight's observatory and a museum wing dedicated to Knight's deceased wife Doris. Finally, the Mist captured Ted Knight himself and held him hostage to blackmail the entire city.

The Mist's scheme was foiled by two miscalculations: The heroism of Jack Knight and the Shade. The Shade had long made Opal City his home and did not care for the Mist's ´desire to destroy it. The Shade alerted Jack Knight to Kyle, and to the location of the Mist.

Meanwhile...

Jack Knight battled Kyle (Mist II) over Opal City and killed him. He then captured the Mist and his daughter Nash. The old man´s mind was crushed by Alzheimer's by this defeat and he was committed to an insane asylum.

Most recently, the Mist was revealed to be restored by Neron (Starman #71). With his health and mental faculties working again, the Mist went back to work, pledging to destrroy Opal City and Starman.

In his final confrontation with the Knights, he murdered Nash, his own daughter and heir. He then announced that he has rigged a skyscraper with a nuclear warhead. The nuke would explode when his failing heart stopped beating. Ted Knight arrived with a backpack version of his cosmic rod and levitated the building, the Mist and himself into space, where all three were destroyed saving Opal City.

The dynasty of both the Mist an Starman lives on merged with Kyle Knight (son of Nash and Jack Knight - long story... she kidnapped him and knocked him out and then raped him when he was unconcious in order to get pregnant, which she did) grandson of both hero and villain alike.


Power and Abilities:
The Mist's powers stem from his own research. In the early phases of his career, he possessed no real super-powers, relying on an invisio-solution to give him the illusion of invisibility. He had in his arsenal elaborate flying craft and potent narcotics.
As time passed, either through chronic use of various chemical or direct manipulation of his own biology with strange devices, the Mist developed the powers of invisibility and intangibility.
I like it! 3 C!s