Origin
Steele was captured by Cruz Bushmaster’s agents and mutated by Noah Burstein for his “power man” project. He was then told that the process was fatal after an small amount of time unless he helped them acquire subjects to perfect the so that he and the other power man can be cured. He obeyed orders for Cruz and his agent Hardcore and acted as one of Cruz’s Power Man. He was a guard at the Black Hole facility and would pose as a police officer. Steele pulled over Jordan Hamlin and after running a background check learned that Hamlin was a fugitive and would not be missed, Steele brought him to the Black Hole facility where Hamlin was used as a test subject for the process.
Creation
Power Man Steele was created by Marcus McLaurin and Dwyane Turner and first appeared in Cage Vol.1 issue 3 (1992).
Major Story Arcs
Meeting Cage
One day Luke Cage went with his partner Mick Hamilton to investigate the disappearance of Anders but where pulled over by Steele and attacked, after the scuffle Steele lit the fuel line that leaked form cage’s car and caused a landslide with the cars explosion leaving Cage incapacitated. Steele brought Cage in to the facility and put him in a cell when one of the Power Man guard’s powered out and died, cage took this opportunity and attempted to free himself but was subdued by Steele and his guard’s with electric prods.
After a week of imprisonment cage ambushed two Power Men as they opened his cell door, after a brief fight he was able to convince them that he could take down the head of the Black Hole and put an end to the madness. Steele found Cage as he approached the testing center and sucker punched him but Caged tackled Steele and forced his way into the chamber only to be subdued by Hardcore.
Later on he was able to break free again and both he and Anders began to destroy the lab. Furious that they were killing the only chance for a cure Steele attacks them both. Cage overpowered the enraged Steele and told him that he should stop blaming him for the “Power” that was killing him and to look to himself to find his survival. Steele took Cage’s advice to literally and took the last three vials of the Power Man treatment which was re-synthesized into viral form. While Cage continued to fight with Hardcore, Steele escaped with the vials and tossed them into the reservoir. Steele believed that if a large part of the population was turned into Power Men it would become a world wide priority to find a cure. Cage found Steele and stopped him before he could throw the last vial into the water supply, the gelatin vials would dissolve in less than an hour and spread the epidemic but Iron Man was able to find one vial while Cage tried to convince Steele to reveal to him where the last vial was located. Finally after some talking to Steele told him the location, Iron Man and Cage found and destroyed the last vial before it was able to leak its contents but when Cage returned to pick up Steele he found a powered out dead Steele on the floor.
Power/Abilities:
Superhuman Strength (Able to Lift 10 Tons) and Invulnerablity.