Origin
“If you care enough for something, you have to be willing to kill for it!”
Mack Bolan is originally a fictional novel character of over 100 novels dating from 1969 and written by American novellist Don Pendleton, now adapted to comic book by IDW Publishing. Pendleton retired from the character in 1980 but sold the rights to publishers Gold Eagle Books, a division of Harlequin Books, who have kept the series going until the present day due to constant high demand for the character and his adventures. A Master Sergeant from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Mack Samuel Bolan was born of Welsh-Polish heritage to steelworker father Samuel Bolan and mother Elsa. He is the eldest of three children; brother Johnny and sister Cindy. He joined the army aged 18 and quickly stood out as an exemplary marksman and munitions expert. His father, Samuel, was a dedicated family man who worked his whole life in a steel mill. But after suffering a heart attack and having to quit, the bills piled up and he found himself taking out loans from mafia sharks at illegitimate loan company Triangle Industrial Finance. But when he couldn’t pay back the loans, Samuel had his arm dislocated and was threatened with escalating violence if he missed another payment.
The pressure began to get to the family. Johnny was bullied at school, Cindy tried to reason with the mafia men and wound up becoming a prostitute to help pay back the money and when the sickness and stress of knowing all of this finally caused Mack’s dad to snap, he took a gun and shot his own family dead before turning the gun on himself. But Johnny just barely managed to escape with his life…
Mack was granted compassionate leave to see his brother and after seeing and hearing the extent of the damage done to his family, Mack broke into a gun store, armed himself with a long range rifle and left money to pay for the purchase, he then pursued the loan sharks and killed them all. It was this cold and murderous act that brought back 1 of his 2 nicknames which he earned in Vietnam ‘The Executioner’ but the other nickname which alot of innocent people see in him is ‘ Sergeant Mercy’ because he goes out of his way to try not to hurt or harm innocent bystanders with his personal war against the Mafia.
From there he deserted the military and led a long history of wars against the mob, the KGB and Middle Eastern Terrorists, formed the Stony Man agency and went on missions for none other than the President.
Skills and Abilities
Bolan is a weapons and munitions master, expert sniper and master of guerilla warfare tactics. He is also the leader of an A team with 7 other soldiers. He maintains peak physical condition through extreme sports such as canoeing in flood season and likes to read. He also fluently speaks Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Vietnamese and German amongst other languages.
Weapons
His preffered weapon is the Italian Berretta 93R, a pistol that fires in three round bursts. He maintains a chest rig to store magazines for the 93R, and to holster the pistol itself. He also lately carries a Desert Eagle Magnum and the .460 Weatherby Mrk V Sniper Rifle he obtained from hitman Nicholas “Nick Trigger” Woods, who was sent to kill him.