El Hombre

History

Origin

The heir to his family's California silver mining company, Esteban Rodrigo Suárez Hidalgo was more interested in the adventures of his circus performer uncle than in continuing the family business. But Hildalgo was forced to upon his parents death in a plane crash along with his uncle. He eventually returned to Los Angeles as it was his home, and tried to help rebuild the community which has started to decay physically and morally. He wanted to do something more then just throw money at the problems and decided to become El Hombre as a role model to the youth of The Barrio. By the early 1960's he found himself a member of Honor Guard after having helped them on a case. But the duties of being with the team took him away from his community and the started loosing the love, Maria Alvarado. He had always pined for to another activist, Ramon Vega, in the community and felt even further outcast as El Hombre was accused of just helping the statues quo of the outside world. A few years later he picked up a new ward (Bravo) in to help him refocus. But after Maria married Ramon, he started realizing that his life was an empty joke.

He fought the Myth-Master and Zzardo with Honor Guard in 1964.

El Hombre's Disgrace

When El Hombre found out that he was the least popular member of Honor Guard, he convinced The Assemblyman to create a robot to terrorize the people of Los Angles, intending to save them and win their adoration. However, Assemblyman double-crossed him, and El Hombre was unable to stop the robot. Instead, it went on a rampage, killing civilians and destroying property, until it was eventually defeated by Honor Guard. In the ensuing investigation, El Hombre's plan was discovered. Hunted by the law, he and his sidekick, Bravo (who had nothing to do with this plan), were publicly disgraced. Bravo left Los Angles for Astro City and went on to form the Astro City Irregulars. El Hombre retired, moving to Astro City to watch Bravo's triumphs.

The Conquistador's Scheme

At some point in 1998, Hildalgo had somehow mastered technology and became a new criminal mastermind called The Conquistador and started to hire many low-leveled villains (mostly Black Masks from Kiefer Square), intending to use them to pull crimes at various pre-determined locations and plunge Astro City into chaos. Steeljack, who had been hired by the Conquistador, found out that he planned to kill all the Black Masks, triumphing in the public as a new hero El Guerro. Unlike the Black Masks who had discovered the Conquistador's plot and died with the secret (Block and Tackle, The Chain, Goldenglove, Handgun, and The Mock Turtle), Steeljack was able to survive his attempts to kill him. Unable to secure any allies, Steeljack eventually confronted Conquistador on his own and just barely managed to defeat him. Honor Guard arrived after their fight as they were surprised that it was really Hildalgo as The Conquistador as Steeljack told them and took him to an asylum somewhere and not disgracing him all over again.

Powers & Skills

As El Hombre, Hildalgo wielded a special titanium steel whip that contained technology enabling him to catch bullets and stun his victims. He was highly skilled in its usage, as well as in acrobatics.

As The Conquistador, his armor is super-strong, quite durable, and has a built-in oxygen supply. Both gauntlets possess an energy blast. The armor can distort its wearer's voice beyond recognizability, even altering it to precisely mimic the voices of others. Further more, it can project a hologram to disguise the wearer's face as another person's.