Haywire

Origin

Harold Danforth, known as Haywire, was discovered by the Redeemers and asked to join them in opposing the Squadron Supreme's rule over Earth. Acting as an infiltrator in the Squadron Supreme on behalf of Nighthawk and the Redeemers, he eventually came to join the Squadron Supreme properly and fell in love with the Squadron's Inertia.

Creation

Haywire was created by Mark Gruenwald and Paul Ryan and first appeared in Squadron Supreme #10.

Character Evolution

Haywire was created for the original Squadron Supreme series but unlike many of the other Squadron Supreme characters, Haywire is not a nod to a DC character, rather he is an original creation. He was among the Squadron Supreme who they came to Earth-616 in Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe and continued to appear alongside them in books such as Quasar and Avengers. When the Squadron Supreme were sent back to their native reality, Haywire stayed behind on Earth-616 with the Avengers. Originally, Len Kaminski, writer of Squadron Supreme: New World Order, planned to kill Haywire off because he didn't want to use the character, however, Kurt Busiek suggested the character stay in Earth-616 rather than kill him off. Ironically enough, in Haywire's next appearance, in Steve Englehart's Avengers: Celestial Quest, he was killed off.

Major Story Arcs

Death of a Universe

When the mysterious entity called Nth Man arrived in their reality and threatened to destroy the sun and plunge the Earth into darkness, Haywire and the rest of the Squadron responded by going into space to battle the being. Amidst the battle, Inertia was unfortunately killed which drove Haywire into despair and in a moment's madness Power Princess was forced to knock him unconscious to avoid him damaging their ship in his fury.

The rest of the team were able to defeat Nth Man with the help of the Scarlet Centurion and the infant Benjamin Jones, who had become the Sorcerer Supreme following the death of Professor Imam. Benjamin managed to swap bodies with the Nth Man, thus seemingly ending the immediate threat. However, the Nth Man, know in the body of Jones, cast a spell which sent the Squadron away to another reality and left their Earth undefended and ripe for conquest.

Journey into Mystery

Not long after arriving in Earth-616, the Squadron Supreme befriended Quasar and began residing at the Project PEGASUS facility searching for a way back home. Both Haywire and The Shape were taken control of by Overmind who commanded they attack Quasar. While Quasar fought the heroes, Overmind used the distraction to escape from Earth without Quasar's attention. Haywire and the Shape were released from the mind control of Over-Mind later.

Infinity Gauntlet

When Thanos obtained the Infinity Gauntlet, he wished away half of all living things in the Universe to Death. While many of the living heroes assembled under the guide of Adam Warlock and the Silver Surfer to battle Thanos in space, the Squadron Supreme were not summoned by Warlock and instead remained behind on Earth. Fighting alongside other heroes such as the Black Widow, Darkhawk, Deathlok, Moon Knight and Sleepwalker against the carnage Thanos had caused on the planet by wishing away half its population.

When Thanos later used the Infinity Gauntlet to destroy Eon, by turning his entire body inside out and sending it to Earth, the Squadron and the rest of the heroes on Earth fought against the still-animated body of Eon.

Supreme Justice

While stranded on Earth-616, the Squadron Supreme became a more prominent superhero team when the Avengers seemingly perished battling Onslaught. When the Avengers themselves returned, the Squadron Supreme confronted them and accused them of actually being imposters dishonoring the memory of Earth's Mightiest Heroes who had died.

The two teams battled at the site of a downed plane in the North Atlantic and Haywire attempted to battle Ms. Marvel, who was instead focusing her efforts on Doctor Spectrum. After Ms. Marvel beat Doctor Spectrum, Haywire was also rendered defeated when the platform that he was stood on, a construct created by Spectrum's Power Prism, dissipated.

The rest of the Squadron fared a bit better in battle against the Avengers, but the biggest blow to the team were the Squadron's claims that they were frauds. With the public questioning the validity of the Avengers identities, the team decided to learn what had provoked the Squadron Supreme to make such accusations and investigated their living quarters at Project PEGASUS.

They were again confronted by the Squadron and this time Haywire battled against Hawkeye but was again bested by an Avenger. Eventually, the Avengers were able to expose a member of the Project PEGASUS personnel as the mind-controlling Corruptor, who had been controlling the Squadron and orchestrated the whole thing all along. With the Corruptor exposed and hastily subdued, the two teams parted on better terms.

Contest of a Champion

The Squadron Supreme next teamed up with the Avengers when they were forced to battle Imus Champion, a wealthy thrill-seeker who wished for worthy opponents. Haywire teamed up with Hawkeye to tackle Imus Champion but both were easily subdued by Champion.

After Giant Man was able to defeat Imus Champion with the element of surprise, the two teams discovered Champion had an Nth Projector which when combined with the power of the Avengers' Magdalene's staff would return the Squadron to their Earth. As the team left, Haywire elected to stay behind believe that there was nothing left for him on their Earth now that Inertia is dead. With his team-mates gone, the Avengers offered Haywire membership and a place to stay, but he declined opting to travel across the world instead.

Celestial Quest

On his travels, Haywire happened upon the former Avenger Mantis battling Thanos while he was climbing a mountain. Haywire intervened and helped Mantis fight against Thanos and were soon joined by some other members of the Avengers. Thanos was forced to withdraw from the battle and instead set out to target Mantis' son Quoi.

Mantis asked for the Avengers help in stopping Thanos from delivering Quoi to Death and they agreed to aid her , with Haywire agreeing to join them on their quest. The Avengers' Silverclaw made several attempts to strike up a friendship with Haywire, due to her attraction to him, but was repeatedly pushed back by Haywire who instead kept lamenting his love for Inertia.

While on Tamal, the Avengers were attacked by the Cotati race and Haywire and Silverclaw departed to get the Quinjet for the rest of the team to escape. While evading attacking hordes of plants, Silverclaw kissed Haywire in a moment of passion, only for Haywire to scold her and again remind her he is only interested in Inertia.

After trying to make amends with Haywire and get him to come to his sense, Silverclaw discovered Haywire is really only there because he wants to confront Death and force her to return Inertia to him. Realizing he was a lost cause and insane, Silverclaw abandoned her attempts to lighten up Haywire.

The Avengers were approached by Death, who came to them to tell them of the imminent threat of the Rot, the spawn of Death and Thanos, which threatened to consume everything. Uninterested in the situation, Haywire yelled at Death and demanded she hand over Inertia. Death ignored him completely and simply stared straight at him.

Shortly after the Avengers and Thanos faced the Rot, and it was killed by it's father, the Avengers were confronted by Death again. Again Haywire continued to demand Death release Inertia, asking what one person could possibly mean to Death. Haywire received a response from Death; that Inertia "means everything" to her. Haywire, frustrated at his inability to save Inertia, plunges forth to attack Death and is absorbed into her being. As the other Avengers mourn the loss of Haywire, Silverclaw tells them he "died a long time ago" and tells them of his crazed obsession with bringing Inertia back.

Powers and Abilities

Haywire has the ability to create metal wire from his fingertips and never run out, as far as can be tested. He can entangle foes and make his wires as sharp as he wanted. He could use this ability for a variety of effects including restraining, binding, whipping and simply forming hard objects. Haywire also possessed some hand-to-hand fighting skill, having being trained by Nighthawk, and showed acrobatic prowess.

Alternate Earths

Earth-31916 (Supreme Power)

In the Supreme Power universe, Haywire is briefly seen as a member of Black Archer's army sent to capture Hyperion.

Earth-523002

When Haywire and the rest of the Squadron Supreme fell under the control of the Corruptor during their stay at Project PEGASUS, they were sent to battle the Avengers over the North Atlantic Ocean. Only difference this time was that the Avengers had recruited Jessica Jones onto the team some years earlier. Jones' presence turned the battle between the Avengers and the Squadron to the Avengers favor and the Squadron were defeated.