Henry "Hank" Clover Jr was the brother of Claire Clover. Inspired by Batman, he became a Metahuman crime fighter called Gotham. However, an encounter with Hugo Strange and the Psycho Pirate caused Hank to lose his sanity.
Biography
Growing up in Gotham City, Hank began admiring Batman after the Dark Knight saved him and his parents from a mugger. With his sister Claire, he decided to repay him by helping protect the city. As part of an experimental procedure, Hank and Claire were transformed into metahumans with similar powers to Superman. However, every use of their powers would shortened their lifespans.
Taking the identity "Gotham", Hank and Claire introduced themselves to Batman by saving him and a plane full of civilians from crashing into the Gotham Bay. Taken under the Dark Knight, they helped him patrol the city and were involved in several incidents, such as helping battle Solomon Grundy.
Task Force Z
After his death, Hank's body was recovered by Harvey Dent for his muscular build, with the intention of ressuscitating his corpse with Lazarus Resin and Venom and masquerade him as Bane in his Task Force Z project.[1] With his memories rewritten by Mister Bloom and The Thinker and under the leadership of the Red Hood Hank worked as one of the undead peons of Dent to fight crime in the city under the mask of Bane. This would come to a first stop when Red Hood asked for increases in Lazarus Resin intakes with the goal of having "Bane" fully lucid, like he was never dead. This achieved, he isolated himself with Hank during an assault on the Kobra Cult and beat up "Bane" as comeback for the murder of Alfred Pennyworth (who the real Bane had indeed murdered) before shooting him off a roof to his assumed permanent death.[2]
Hank later returned, still as undead Bane, with Dent and a newly undead Mr. Freeze to rescue Red Hood from KGBeast.[3] After this he kept on working in Task Force Z until his capture by Mister Bloom and Powers International, with the latter giving him his original memories back as well as the name of Gotham.
Powers and Abilities
- Ultra Powers: Hank had "ultra" powers which let him tap into a vast array of abilities (typically resembling those of Superman) albeit with a great cost. The more of his powers he uses, the more it drains him over-all lifespan.
- Flight
- Super Strength
- Invulnerabilty
- Superhuman stamina
- Ultra Vision
- Heat vision
