Darkling
Age: 22 and looks to be in early to mid 20sHeight: 5 8
Weight: 145
Average height and with a very thin and almost gaunt build, the being who calls itself Darkling is hardly an imposing figure. His short hair is as dark as night while in stark contrast to his skin which is almost flawlessly smooth and white as a sheet. His eyes are solid black without discernible irises or sclera that tends to unnerve people meeting his gaze. He tends to wear a smile most of the time which often doesnt help improve his perception by others much. Which is probably why he normally wears a hooded jacket with the hood pulled up most of the time and long pants with combat boots all in a jet black.
When "working" as a superhero he mostly transforms into a vaguely humanoid shaped swirling mass of darkness and shadow with little to no details not even eyes or mouth. This form is intangible and can pass through most things harmlessly. His voice takes on a hollow quality like a mild reverb which is due to this dimensional shift. He sometimes jokes that he is a shadow of a ghost because of this.
The shadow form seems to be ever moving like dark swirling clouds held together by his mind though wind does not seem to affect it at all. This swirling is present even if he is holding still. The exception is while in darkness or shadow he disappears and becomes invisible to all visual senses. Not surprisingly Darkling himself seems can see normally in even complete darkness.
He can interact with the solid world thanks to tendrils of pure darkness which seem to be made of vanta black colored matter and while they are 3 dimensional, they often appear to be 2 dimensional thanks to the darkness not reflecting any light making depth difficult to determine. These tendrils are as numerous as he needs to make them to accomplish a task of moving and manipulating his environment. They can reach out quite far if needed and can both perform small and delicate tasks--or hit with a surprisingly brutal amount of force.
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Preferred and heroic name: Darkling
Real Name: Devin Jonathan Franklin
Age: 22
Real name of Devin Jonathan Franklin will take digging to find out as he has no current social media presence, no bank accounts, no credit cards, nothing under this name since about 4 years ago. At 4 years ago there will be a story of a family killed in a car crash with a drunk driver with the only survivor being Devin. His bank accounts were closed a few months later and all social media accounts were pretty much abandoned shortly after that.
Family: Father and Mother Jason and Katherine Franklin listed as ages 46 and 53 at the time of their deaths. A sister, technically she was his older sister named Heather Franklin also listed as deceased at age 19 in the same car accident that killed their parents.
Devin was 18 at the time of the accident with the drunk driver, a young man named George Herbert Hallenbach II who is the son of the wealthy investor George Herbert Hallenbach Sr who owns parts of many profitable electronics companies. George II got only a few fines and probation due to a technicality which his expensive lawyer used to acquit him of the vehicular manslaughter of Devins family.
He has a maternal grandmother Ingrid Lawrence (age 88) who lives on the other side of the country listed as living in a care home memory care facility and an estranged maternal uncle Peter Lawrence (age 55) who has a wife and three children of his own, none of whom Devin has never met since his mother had a falling out with her family years before Devin was born. If he has other family than them, he does not know them as his father was an only child and both of his parents died of cardiac problems when Devin was younger.
Since the accident seemed to activate his powers, Devin, sought justice for his family using the legal system but due to some legal trickery by Hallenbachs lawyers, he had to give up having exhausted what money he had from inheritances and his college funds. Devin soon abandoned the name Devin Franklin and embraced a new moniker given to him by a youtuber who witnessed him stopping a mugging with his powers.
Darkling himself is a rather pleasant person. He attempts to be outgoing, though often awkwardly as he tends to babble. However scattered he seems in person while working as a vigilante he can be laser focused on the task at hand. While he had only the beginnings of a college education, he is smart, but no genius and often ignorant of some things due to his limited education. His major was still undeclared at the time of his dropping out of college after the second semester but at the time he was doing fairly well in his classes.
Darkling has taken to the streets fighting crime and putting criminals in the hospital as much as jail since he isnt all that forgiving of those breaking the law. Concussions and broken limbs were the most common injuries seen. His pursuit of justice can drive him to become a downright frightening predator. His powers of darkness and shadow coupled with his strange appearance and sometimes brutal way of handling problems have some swearing he was a demonic creature rather than a metahuman. He has mostly handled street level crime, but has potential to take on more given training and time to develop control over his powers in the future