Villain Profile: Black Hand

I was originally going to finish this off with a member of the Sinestro Corps, but after looking through the character list I learned that, really, the only memorable member of the Sinestro Corps is Sinestro himself. Well, that’s not true, there have been a few memorable characters that have donned the Yellow Ring, The Anti-Monitor, Mongul, and even a version of Batman, but these are all characters that have been known before and after their inclusion in the Corps. So, instead of doing an SC member that not a single person knows like Arkillo or Amon Sur, I’ll instead cover the character that was responsible for one of the biggest DC Stories in recent years, the “Blackest Night,” and someone I've mentioned a couple of times this week, Black Hand.

And the dead shall rise.

Pretty much from the get go, William Hand was a pretty messed up fellow. His parents were coroners, and it would seem that the Hands career had a pretty severe psychological effect on their son. William was obsessed with death, to the point where it’s heavily implied that he… well, suffers from necrophilia. If you don’t know what that is, good for you, don’t look into it. For those that do know what that is, yeah, Will Hand is a pretty screwed up SOB. As a cherry on top of his messed up Sunday, he developed a habit of referring to corpses as “pretty.” At first, Hand tried to control his less than normal impulses by getting into taxidermy. Show of hands, anyone else think that this makes about as much sense as a car thief becoming an auto mechanic to stop thinking about stealing cars? Yeah, that’s what I thought. His parents finally caught on to their son’s… special issues when he killed the family dog so he could turn it into a creepy ornament. From that point on, Hand spent the rest of his developing years in psychiatrist’s offices. Rather than trying out the techniques that his shrinks suggested to ‘cure’ himself, he just learned to hide the most obvious signs of his disturbing predilection, and just accepted his place as the Hand’s black sheep.

A few years later, the alien Atrocitus was brought to Earth by the Green Lantern Abin Sur. Atrocitus was able to escape the GL and set about tracking down the one prophesized to initiate the end of life in the Universe, a being simply known as The Black. Atrocitus built a device that tracked down the Black, revealed to be William Hand. He attacks Hand, believing that the “black power” is literally in Hand’s flesh, but is stopped by Green Lantern Sinestro and Sur’s successor, Hal Jordan. During the fight, Hand is encouraged by a “mysterious voice” to steal the device that Atrocitus used to track him down. Hand steals the device and then runs off while the two GL’s fight Atrocitus. A short time later he breaks into a hospital morgue and tries to steal a body. Before he can get away with the body and do something horrible with it, he’s stopped by a security guard. Hand uses the device to kill the guard. He rather creepily states that “the death was good.” Creepy little weirdo.

Well, we're boned.

The voice that commanded him to steal Atrocitus’ device very quickly takes over Hand’s deeply disturbed mind, making him hate Green Lanterns. He takes one of his parent’s body bags and fashioned a costume out of it, becoming Black Hand. It’s a somewhat disturbing in joke about him being the Black Sheep of the Hand family. Apparently Hal’s about as dense as the civilians of the DC universe, as he never realizes that William Hand whom Atrocitus attacked with an energy absorbing weapon, and Black Hand who uses an energy absorbing weapon are the same person. Come on, Hal, they both have Hand in their name. He couldn’t have made this easier if he tried. After several years of causing crimes, getting caught, escaping, and then doing disturbing things to dead bodies, Hand’s destiny finally arrives. While being transported to prison, Hand is hit with a surge of energy that kills his guards, allowing him to escape. He starts having visions of a dead world called Ryut and a Black Power Battery. Hand wanders across a desert, hearing Death calling out to him, instructing him to reclaim the souls of all those that died in the DC Universe. Hand finally arrives to his family home, and... cleans house. And by that I mean he murders his parents and brothers, and then kills himself. The evil Guardian of the Universe, Scar, arrives and states that the deaths of the Hands “pleases him,” and regurgitates a Black Power Ring. The ring flies to Black Hand and reanimates his body. Hand swears to use his new power to extinguish the light for his new master.

He spies on Hal Jordan and BarryAllen as they pay their respects to the recently fallen Batman, at his unmarked grave. Once they leave, he digs up Batman’s body while reciting the Black Lantern Oath. “The Blackest Night falls from the skies, / The darkness grows as all light dies, / We crave your hearts and your demise, / By my black hand --- The dead shall rise!” He takes Batman’s skull, and proclaims that no one escapes death. He then uses Batman’s skull for two reasons, 1.) To demoralize the DC Universe’s heroes, and 2.) To create more Black Lantern Ring. Black Hand’s army quickly grows, as fallen Heroes and villains are revived to serve the Black Lantern Corps, and others fall at the Black Lantern’s hands. Every time a Black Lantern kills someone and removes their victim’s heart Kali Ma style, it causes the Black Power Battery on Ryut to increase in power by .01%. Once it finally hits 100% the Battery teleports to Earth, right on top of the Hand Mortuary. On the ashes of Hand’s former home, Hand’s master, Nekron, rises. His revival causes more Black Rings to fall, and even living heroes are now vulnerable to their influences. So long as they’ve died and returned to life at least once. The Flash and Hal Jordan just barely escape when the Flash jumps the two of them two seconds into the future.

Not sure if this is worse or better than that
Venom pic I used in Mac Gargan's post.
Either way, more nightmare fuel.

Black Hand and Nekron are ultimately defeated when Hal Jordan unites with the Entity, the physical embodiment of life itself. The new White Lantern uses his powers to transform and revive several heroes and villains as White Lanterns, Black Hand included. Why is that important? Black Hand was essentially the “Entity” of the Black Lantern Corps. The GL’s have Ion the being of Will, the Sinestro Corps have Parallax the being of Fear, the Red Lanterns have the Butcher the being of Hate, and so on. By reviving Black Hand, the Black Lantern Corps was deprived of its Entity. Black Hand barfs up several more White Lantern Rings, reviving more heroes and further weakening Nekron and the Black Lanterns. They’re weakened to the point that the Anti-Monitor, a powerful cosmic being trapped within the Black Power Battery to be used as a power source, escapes and destroys Nekron. As the dust settles, Black Hand is taken by the Indigo Tribe and transformed into one of its members. And so the bringer of Death is imprisoned, for now.

Black Hand has drawn power from a number of different sources. His original weapon was an energy absorbing device designed by Atrocitus. The device absorbs energy from either a Green Lantern power ring, or from the residual energy left on items that were manipulated by a GL’s constructs. This weapon was eventually replaced by a Black Power Ring. The Black Ring gives Hand the standard Lantern Corps powers, flight and Hard Light constructs. It probably would give him the ability to create a protective aura around himself, if, you know, he wasn’t an intelligent corpse. The ring lets Hand regenerate at an absurd rate, healing him if he’s decapitated or destroyed. The black ring is rooted to Hand’s hand, making it all but impossible to remove. Once he was revived, he was forced into being an Indigo Tribe member, giving him all the powers of an Indigo Tribe.

Black Hand has never been used outside the Comics. Most likely because of the graphic subject matter involved with the character. Hard to show a character that is so grossly obsessed with Death and Decay. It seems like Green Lantern: The Animated Series might have tried to adapt the story, what with including all but two of the Lantern Corps, and various characters implying that a greater threat is coming. If so, it’s a shame we couldn’t have seen it. Although, such hints could just be my wishful thinking. He is an unlockable character in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, but they don’t delve into the characters origin.

Black Hand is a deeply disturbing character. His obsession with Death does make him the perfect character to be the Avatar of Death itself. It is interesting to note that Black Hand was originally a D-List, gimmicky criminal. He was reworked after “The Infinite Crisis” into the sadistic, death obsessed sociopath that would gladly kill all live in the Universe.  And, I mean, he’s a super powered Zombie. What’s not to enjoy about that? He’s the Bringer of Doom, the Destroyer of Life, the very Avatar of Death itself, Black Hand, the original Black Lantern. Next time, The Flash Season 2 opening review.

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