Characteristics
Real Name: Blake "Hurk" Anderson.
Aliases: Matthew Redmayne, Axis, Shadowlurker, Quiver, Looper
Age: 26.
Height: 6' 3".
Weight: 185 lbs.
Hair: Blonde.
Eyes: Brown.
Place of Birth: Crimson City.
Occupation: Assassin, Thief, Bodyguard.
Affiliation(s): Storm Breakers.
Identity: Secret.
Family: Parents - Phillip Anderson, Beatrice Malone.
Birth of a Weapon
"You have just as much blood on your hands as I do, I didn't ask for this!" - Phillip.
Blake Anderson was born to the infamous vigilante, Phillip Anderson also known as "Looper", and Beatrice Malone - a waitress whom Anderson had raped after having not paying her debt to him. Phillip had made a lot of enemies over the years, including Anthony Brock - the killer of his family. Though Anderson sought this revenge purely out of guilt, he decided to take up the mantle of a vigilante after seeing the entire world filled with them, stating "Heroes are today's killers."
Once Beatrice had given birth to Blake, Phillip went to retrieve him. Beatrice was revealed to have died during Blake's birth in which Phillip was given the task of raising his son alone, something he had planned. Phillip saw Blake as his path to continue his family's honour by turning him into an assassin. One unique trait that Phillip possessed was his expertise in Archery.
When Blake had reached the age of 15, he had already accomplished over 20 murders withhis father. When Blake was 17, he had already mastered archery. By this point Phillip had gotten on Damian Carter's radar, Anthony Brock's predecessor who planned to bring him down. Phillip had no reason to back down and decided to go after Carter on his own. Phillip had gotten a lead on his company and infiltrated one of his warehouses which turned out to be a trap. Unknown to Phillip, but Blake followed him there, only to witness his father's brutal death at the hands of his nemesis. Overwhelmed with grief, Blake planned to bring matters into his own hands, hoping to continue his father's legacy by finishing what he started: War.
Axis - First Target: Damian Carter
"Unfortunately, my father taught me how to use... 'Pointy' things..." - Axis.
Over the course of the next few months, Blake had been eliminating smaller factors of Brock's company. Detective Jones, a longtime assistant of his father had been feeding him intel. During this time, Blake had made quite a name for himself. Blake donned his fathers uniform and arsenal, roaming the streets at night as a vigilante.
Physical Appearance
Blake is 6'3" and 185 pounds. He has blond hair and brown eyes. Blake had a scar in his chest in the shape of the Holy Cross from when he was burned by Justin Thain, but had the scar covered via plastic surgery.
Blake has generally kept the same appearance. His hair has stayed in the same style since his father always kept it short, only sometimes it has grown out slightly. He is sometimes seen with an unshaven appearance, mostly when he goes on drinking binges.
Blake's style in clothing is very rough and somewhat similar to his father's, as they both dress casually and wear trench coats. Blake also owns a red and black leather jacket that he sometimes wears when riding his motorcycle.
As Axis, Blake masks his identity with a black and red costume. He brands black sunglasses which contain a voice changer and special electronic features.
Personality
"Death comes to all, eventually." - Blake.
Anderson is charismatic with an affable demeanour Known for his sometimes wit and subtle humour, he is very easy to talk to. He is in his late twenties.
Blake believes that the ends justify the means, and is willing to commit crimes to achieve his goals.
- Stealing: As Axis, Blake adopts a Robin Hood-type philosophy —he steals ill-gotten valuables from the rich and donates the proceeds anonymously to charity (the opposite of his father). Hal argued with him that stealing was wrong for any reason, but Blake disagreed.
- Murder: Blake has shown he is even willing to commit murder for the greater good or even in revenge, as shown when he attempted to assassinate Brock.
Blake has faced no legal consequences so far. However, after Hal helped him become Axis again, he had a greater apprehension for murder and showed restraint when fighting his old mentor, as well as telling Hal that vengeance and murder is not the way to get justice - this has turned him into more of an Anti-hero.
Blake has been overcome with despondency in the past, going back and forth between a belief that his life has no purpose, and the belief that he could make a make a difference as the Axis:
- After Elizabeth died, Blake lost himself. After some time he decided to become Axis and fight crime in New York.
- After Blake failed to stop Buffoon, he began to think his life had no purpose and almost committed suicide until Jones talked some sense into him.
- After Martha Goode told him that Diamond Man was behind Garcia's death, Blake lost hope. Hal convinced Anderson to seek help from Justin Thain. Justin reminded Blake that being a hero is an important part of his identity.
- After Blake overpowered Max in an attempt to kill Thomas Blake, he was overcome with guilt when Thomas later killed Wyatt. He turned to gambling, drinking, and fighting in underground fight clubs to numb his pain. He was rejected in his advances by Diana and continued to spiral out of control. Finally, Joanna manipulated him with a series of tests so that he could face his demons and once again become Axis.
Blake easily assumes a leadership position and, as Axis, has been the leader of the Storm Breakers. He holds great concern for his team members and his friends and is willing to do whatever it takes to rescue them from harm. Anderson believes that he has a duty to find people who need saving.
Blake is portrayed to being quite fond of female company. He cheated on Sarah Polyme, and admitted to Joanna that he had left several girls behind, but never regretted it. Blake's exception in his love life concerns his romantic relationship with Elizabeth. She is the first woman that he has professed his love to, and is a relationship where he could be completely honest about his double life. He's also spoken about her in a prayer to his dead father. Blake was faithful to Elizabeth though she left him for several years. Upon her return, Elizabeth and Blake rekindled their relationship.
Abilities
"Presto." - Axis.
Blake has no superhuman abilities, but he makes up for it with his extraordinary skills as an archer, as well as his athleticism. He is at the very peak of human conditioning; he is an exceptional fencer, acrobat and a grandmaster marksman, having been trained from childhood by his father. This includes considerable strength, as a supervillain found out when he tried to use the superhero's 250 pounds-force (1,100 newtons) draw weight bow and found that he could not draw back the string to launch an arrow.
Axis has also been thoroughly trained by the Arcadian in tactics, martial arts, and hand-to-hand combat. Axis excels in the use of ranged weapons, especially the bow and arrow, and carries a quiver containing a number of customized "trick arrows". Axis is able to fire six arrows faster than the average human can fire six bullets and is known to be have extraordinarily fast reflexes, exceptional dexterity, and near-perfect aim. Anderson shows great proficiency with the katana and other melee weapons. He has gained a reputation for being able to "turn any object into a weapon", and has been seen using items such as tin plates, coins, sticks and other debris to great effect against his enemies.
- Master Archer: Blake Anderson is an extremely skilled archer. He was able to aim his arrow inside of the hole of a pop tab of a soda can. He was also able to anticipate a bullet in flight and block it with an arrow. He was able to hit a super powered robot with a explosive arrow, despite the target being as fast as a superhuman. Blake is now skilled enough that he can shoot 3 arrows at once. As a master archer Blake uses a mechanical bow and crossbow he developed.
- Expert Marksman: He possesses very keen eyesight, and his accuracy is virtually unerring; he was trained in his youth by his father with throwing blades, balls, bolas, and boomerangs. He now has near-perfect precision with any aimed or thrown weapon. He can hurl objects with extreme speed and accuracy, both in direct aim and complicated rebounds/interactions.
- Master Martial Artist: He is proficient in several forms of hand-to-hand combat including Judo, Kickboxing and Karate. He is exceptionally athletic. He has a shown a great amount of strength on several occasions, although he seems to be limited by his human skill, relative to metahumans, he can become powerful.
- Peak human conditioning: Through intense training, specialized diet, and biofeedback treatments, Axis represents the pinnacle of human physical prowess. Strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes and coordination are at peak human perfection. Axis began his physical and mental conditioning when he was 11 and then intense physical training and weight lifting at age 13. He has mastered full body control by the time he was 18 (his fathers death). Blake Anderson, since the age of 15, has created a strict diet to enable his body to develop and operate at its most proficient, along with biofeedback treatments (using portable/non portable machines to stimulate muscles to contraction). Axis has performed amazing physical feats due to his superior physique. He engaged in an intensive regular regimen of rigorous exercise (including aerobics, weight lifting, gymnastics, and simulated combat) to keep himself in peak condition, and has often defeated opponents whose size, strength, or other powers greatly exceeded his own. He has spent his entire life in pursuit of physical perfection and has attained it through constant intensive training and determination.
- Peak Human Strength: Axis regularly bench-presses at least 1000 lbs. during his exercise routine.
- Peak Human Reflexes: Blake's reflexes were honed to such a degree that he has caught one of Silverstrike's arrows in mid flight when she tried to shoot him. He has also been able to dodge point blank gunfire.
- Peak Human Speed: He could run at speeds (almost) comparable to the finest competing athletes.
- Peak Human Endurance: His endurance was comparable to that of the finest Olympic Decathlon participant. His lung capacity was so great that he could hold his breath underwater for 3 minutes and 5 seconds.
- Peak Human Agility: His main phase of movement was Parkour which he learned in France and used that to scale the cities rooftops in an acrobatic manner.
- Peak Human Durability: He has been shot numerous times, but wears Kevlar lined body armor.
- Acrobatics: Blake has displayed on many occasions that he is an expert in acrobatics, and often uses this skill while evading enemy fire and scale rooftops.
- Skilled Tactician: As shown in his leadership of the Assassins and the Storm Breakers, Anderson is a highly competent strategist, tactician, and field commander.
- Weapons Proficiency: Although he is not known to use melee weapons, Blake's incredible reflexes and hand-eye coordination allow him to easily master most weapons. He also received training in swordsmanship during his youth from his father. Blake is also skilled with swords, knives, nunchucks and staffs.
- Master of Stealth: His Ninjutsu training has made him a master at stealth and capable of breaching high security facilities without being detected.
- Professional Sketch Artist: He has great artistic skill which he developed from childhood. Blake enjoys drawing and does so with his free time.
- Multi-lingual: Anderson is fluent in English, German, Russian, Japanese, and Italian. He might be lingual in other languages.
- Expert Vehicular driver: He is proficient in driving cars, motor cycles, Trucks, jets, Tanker, helicopters, motor boats, sub marines, and some types of trains and utility vehicles.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Trick arrow quiver: Axis' quiver is supplied with a multitude of different arrow heads in the bottom. By dialling up an armament setting from a control on his bow, Axis can cause the quiver to affix these special arrowheads. This effectively increases the capabilities from conventional arrows, to explosive arrows, a grapple line, and more.
Costume/Gear: As Axis he wears a water and fire retardent costume, which is made of kevlar and nomex. The costume also offers a medium level of resistance to electric shocks and force impacts ie, falls from 30 mts height and the suit cannot be pierced by normal conventional sharp edged materials like sharp wood, glass, iron, copper and aluminium. He carries a voice-operated, wireless communicator in his left ear, which has its frequencies blocked making it highly difficult to trace its call. He briefly wore the Shadowlurker suit, which provided protection and allowed him to blend in with the shadows
Utility Belt: Blake wears a utility belt containing mission-specific equipment such as a first aid kit (containing tweezers, antiseptic gel coated band aids, bone and muscle pain reliever spray cans and antidotes for some toxins.) and others.
Weapons
Collapsible Recurve bow: The bow is capable of folding on itself (most likely for either easier transport, concealing it, or both) & has a selector and transmitter that allows Axis to control his mechanical quiver. It also has a laser sight.
Compound bow: Used as back-up.
Strider uses katana, nunchaku (which can also extend into a bo), and shuriken. Some of the specialized arrows Blake has used and developed are:
- Normal Arrow
- Mini Arrow
- EMP Arrow
- Electro-disrupter Arrow
- Smoke Bomb Arrow
- Sonic Arrow
- Electric mini Arrow
- Grappling Arrow
- Net Arrow
- Cable Arrow
- Acid Arrow
- Flare Arrow
- Tranquilizer dart
- Knockout Gas dart
- Tear Gas Arrow
- Explosive Arrow
- Rocket Arrow
- Boomerang Arrow
Transportation
Additionally, as Axis, Blake rides a customized Husqvarna SM610 with customized tires, forks and headlights.
Vulnerabilities
As a human with no known metahuman skills, Blake is extremely vulnerable to physical attacks. As a result, he often uses his archery skills to maintain distance between him and his opponents. Blake also often carefully plans his assaults, such as when he's stealing jewelry to give to the poor. He also uses technology whenever possible to gain an informational advantage.
Blake also compensates for his physical vulnerability by partnering with metahumans whenever possible. The ultimate manifestation of this strategy is his allies.
Trivia
- Many of his enemies include: Indicator, Diamond Man, Mr E, Silverstrike, Bo and Arrow, Don Reaper, Meta, Snowstorm, Jawsmith, Four Eyes, Johnny B. Goode, Buffoon, Captain Blast.
- Blake received the alias "Axis" after being known for his perfect aim.
- According to Jawsmith's files, Blake is 6'3, weighs 185 pounds, has brown eyes and blond hair.
- When Blake started out as Axis, he became known for his grimness and inclemency due to his fathers death. As 8 years have past, he has now become a more charismatic person - making constant jokes in battle, as well as creating many allies.
- Blake loves apple pie.
- Once had his arm broken by his father.
- After Elizabeth's death, Blake stated that he would no longer have any relationships.
- Blake's Birthday is 4/11/86.
- Is fluent in German, Russian, Japanese, Italian and Korean.
- Once took up the mantle of Shadowlurker which was previously held by John Ford.
- Though Axis is seen as a vigilante, he has worked with the Government on numerous occasions.
- When ordering equipment via the internet, Blake sends the items to several locations to brush off suspicion - using the alias Matthew Redmayne.
- Blake never attended school.
- Hal Jones - a detective and one of Phillip Anderson's associates, has an entire room dedicated to "Looper", including every murder he had committed.
- Blake stated that he hates crossbows for their "lack of skill".
- Blake does not drink alcohol (Although, after Elizabeth's death he eventually did).
- At one point, Blake was bitten by the Vampire Don Reaper. Though unconfirmed, it has been said that Anderson may have some sort of immunity as he was not affected.
- According to his father, Blake was a very "convincing actor."
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