History
Hannibal Bates was the very first subject of Lex Luthor‘s Everyman Project, granting superpowers to ordinary people.
Infinity Inc.
Hannibal becomes ‘Everyman,’ a member of Luthor’s new Infinity, Inc., where he spies for his boss using his abilities.
Everyman is constantly using his powers to manipulate and spy upon the other members of his team.Everyman survives the ‘Rain of the Supermen,’ in which most of Luthor’s super powered civilians lose their powers and their lives. However, at the meeting of Infinity Inc. directly after the incident, he is strangely absent. Luthor tells the other members that Everyman has retained his powers, but is simply elsewhere.
Hannibal the Cannibal
In Week 39, we learn where Everyman truly was. As Natasha Irons (Starlight) and Skyman are trying to get to the bottom of Luthor’s Everyman Project, Skyman tells Natasha he has something to show her that will “explain a whole lot.” Natasha is led into an operating room in which Skyman’s dead body has been gruesomely carved up. On the table, which is spread with what appears to be a red gingham tablecloth, there is a plate with red, bloody meat and a glass of wine.
Everyman reveals that he has been eating Skyman in order to assume his identity and spy on Starlight. He also reveals that he has developed an almost unsatiable appetite for human flesh, since he only needs to eat a fingernail to assume Skyman’s form, but seems to have been eating his arm and legs instead.
Everyman’s Demise
In Week 40, as Steel and the Teen Titans assault Luthor’s headquarters, Everyman transforms into a giant crab, but is quickly dispatched by Steel. Everyman’s hand is broken, and in his great consternation, he accidentally falls through a deep hole in the floor and dies at the feet of the Teen Titans. His death is remarked upon by Beast Boy, who says “not enough room for two shapeshifters here.”
In Green Arrow and Black Canary #1, Everyman is discovered to have impersonated the Green Arrow. Due to his “sexual problems”, Everyman panics when he must consumate Green Arrow and Black Canary’s marriage and attacks Black Canary. She kills him and later, during his autopsy, Batman and Doctor Mid-Nite reveal that it was Everyman she had killed and not her Green Arrow. Everyman had been identified as one of the deceased entombed below the Hall of Justice.
“Dark Arrow”
Somehow revived, Everyman found himself on the streets of Star City believing himself to be Oliver Queen. He later attacks Green Arrow in his home. He has since teamed up with Cupid against the Green Arrow family and is referred to as ‘Dark Arrow’. It is believed by Green Arrow that when Everyman was revived, his memory was locked into his last identity on purpose.
Powers
The Gothamite received the ability to morph into any form, as long as he eats a piece of it beforehand.
For instance, if he wants to transform into another person he’ll have to eat a part of that person – something he has no problem doing.
Other Media
Television
Arrow
Hannibal Bates appears on Arrow´s list of powerful and corrupt men in his city on the same page as Adam Hunt, Albert Davis, David Drayson, Martin Somers, Isabel Rochev and Danny Brickwell