Dirk Garthwaite (Earth-616)

Your explodin' arrows are like love taps to the Wrecker, Cupid. I've gone one-on-one with Thor! You're just dead meat waitin' to be tenderized!

—Wrecker^[src]

History

Dirk Garthwaite came from an abusive home, with an alcoholic father that repeatedly beat his mother and himself. When he was four years old, his father reportedly died, which later turned out to be false. After that, his mother took several odd jobs to try and keep a roof over their head and food on the table, leaving young Dirk by himself for long periods of time.

File:Wrecker 001.gif

The Wrecker

Dirk Garthwaite was a manual laborer employed by a demolitions company who was fired for his anti-social behavior and fits of violence. Deciding to turn his talent for mayhem and destruction to criminal activity, Garthwaite fashioned himself a simple costume to conceal his identity. He then committed a series of crimes under the name of the Wrecker, his trademark being the crowbar with which he devastated the scene of the crime. The Wrecker became more daring with each theft, and continually evaded the attempts of the police to capture him.

Seeking another victim to rob, the Wrecker happened upon a hotel room occupied by Loki, the Asgardian god of mischief, whose magical powers had at that time been temporarily removed by the Asgardian monarch Odin. The Wrecker smashed his way in while Loki was in the midst of summoning his sometime ally Karnilla the Norn Queen. Loki hoped that Karnilla would grant him magical power with which he could battle his archenemy Thor, the Asgardian thunder god. The Wrecker overpowered Loki. Then, while trying on Loki's horned helmet, the Wrecker was mistaken for the god when Karnilla hastily materialized to grant Loki's request. Thus it was the Wrecker whom Karnilla endowed with magical power. This power gave the Wrecker superhuman strength, which he used to embark upon a brazen wrecking spree, no longer fearing the authorities.

The Wrecker's rampage came to the attention of Thor, whose power had also been diminished at the time by Odin's spell. The Wrecker battled Thor for hours and finally bested the partially depowered god of thunder. But the Wrecker was finally defeated by the Destroyer, a virtually invincible Asgardian automaton that was at this time animated by the spirit of the Asgardian goddess Sif.

The Wrecker was imprisoned under heavy sedation (to prevent him from using his superhuman strength) in an upstate New York hospital for several months, but developed an immunity to the tranquilizers and broke free. The Wrecker once again battled Thor, who now again possessed his full godly power, and overcame him. Thrown upon the electrified third rail of a New York City subway track, the Wrecker had his superhuman strength drained from him by a discharge of energy from Thor's enchanted hammer.

The Wrecker was imprisoned, but he paid people to keep track of the whereabouts of his crowbar, into which he believed his enchanted power had fled after being driven from his body. Together with three other inmates at Ryker's Island Prison, Dr. Eliot Franklin, Henry Camp, and Brian Phillip Calusky, the Wrecker made a successful jailbreak and managed to locate his crowbar. Willing to share his power with his allies, the Wrecker had the three other convicts join him in holding onto the crowbar outside during an electrical storm. Lightning struck the crowbar, magically distributing the enchanted strength bestowed upon the Wrecker among the four of them.^[1] The Wrecker's three allies then adopted costumes and aliases as well: Franklin became Thunderball, Camp became Bulldozer, and Calusky became Piledriver. Together the four superhuman strong criminals became known as the Wrecking Crew, who were led by the Wrecker himself.

File:Wrecker 001.jpg

The Wrecking Crew then terrorized New York City by threatening to destroy buildings unless they were paid enormous sums of money, and then carrying out their threat when they were not paid.^[2] The Wrecking Crew set out to recover the gamma bomb that Eliot Franklin (Thunderball) had built some years before and that had been stolen from him by Edgar Pennysworth of Richmond Enterprises. The Crew intended to use this bomb to blackmail New York City, but their scheme was thwarted by the superhuman champions called the Defenders, who defeated the Crew.^[3] The members of the Wrecking Crew were each taken to a different prison. One of the Defenders, the sorcerer Doctor Strange, had mystically banished the Wrecker's crowbar to another dimension, but it was recovered sometime later by the Puppet Master, who used his mystically powered clay to coerce the Wrecker into battle with the Fantastic Four^[4].

The Wrecker easily escaped custody after his defeat by the Fantastic Four and spent the next few weeks traveling from one penitentiary to another, freeing the rest of the Wrecking Crew. In order to reestablish their credibility as dangerous criminals, the Crew decided to take on the Wrecker's original nemesis Thor and to defeat him publicly. But instead the Crew were defeated at Avengers Mansion by Captain America and Iron Fist, aided by "Danger Room" equipment that was being utilized in the Avengers' gymnasium before being turned over to the X-Men.

The Wrecking Crew were incarcerated once again at Ryker's island. The Wrecker's crowbar was placed in the same room at Ryker's as other impounded weapons taken from so-called "super-criminals." By concentrating on the crowbar from his specially designed cell, the Wrecker was finally able to take mental control of a prison guard who touched the crowbar. Under his control, the guard broke into the Wrecker's cell using the crowbar. The Wrecker then freed the rest of the Crew from their cells end they escaped prison. The Crew began wreaking havoc at New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in order to bring Thor to the scene. But Thor defeated the Crew, and all but Thunderball were taken into police custody.

Later, the Wrecker and the rest of the Wrecking Crew were transported to the world created by the alien Beyonder to take part in the first of the so-called "secret wars". Sometime after returning to Earth, the Wrecking Crew clashed with Spider-Man and the second Spider-Woman.

The Wrecker and the rest of the Wrecking Crew afterwards joined Baron Helmut Zemo's Masters of Evil and participated in his takeover of Avengers Mansion. In battling the Masters of Evil Thor used his enchanted hammer to transfer the superhuman powers of Bulldozer, Piledriver, and Thunderball into the Wrecker. The Wrecker was defeated along with the other Masters of Evil.

The Wrecking Crew showed up in Los Angeles with Piledriver's son, Excavator, but they were defeated by the Runaways.

The entire Wrecking crew including the Wrecker were sent to the raft, but then escaped because of the big breakout from Electro. The Wrecker and Piledriver began to look for wrecker's spare crowbar soon after the breakout. The "spare" happened to be hidden at the Museum of modern art where the alien symbiote known as Toxin defeated them, but Wrecker, not Piledriver got away.

Wrecker later went to a house on long island and found his uniform once more in a basement with other villain costumes. He was caught when leaving the house by the New Avengers. He was defeated and returned to the raft prison.^[5]

Along the rest of the Wrecking Crew, Dirk joined Hood's criminal army, but was later imprisoned after the events of the Siege of Asgard, where they helped Iron Patriot.

Attributes

Power Grid^[6]

Powers

The Wrecker possesses various superhuman attributes as a result of the magical power bestowed upon him by Karnilla the Norn Queen.

Superhuman Strength: The Wrecker is superhumanly strong and, while fully empowered, is capable of lifting about 40 tons. However, while sharing his strength with the other members of the Wrecking Crew, he is only able to lift about 10 tons. This changed when Ulik, another foe of Thor, taught the Wrecker how to master his Asgardian-based powers. The Wrecker is now capable of retaining his original strength and greater use of his powers while still empowering the other members of The Wrecking Crew.

Superhuman Stamina: The Wrecker's musculature generates less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of an ordinary human. While fully empowered, he can exert himself at peak capacity for about 24 hours before fatigue begins to impair him. However, while sharing his powers with the other three members of the Wrecking Crew, his stamina is considerably diminished. In this state, he is capable of exert himself at peak capacity for about 6 hours.

Superhuman Durability: While fully empowered, the Wrecker's body is highly resistant to all forms of physical injury. He is able to withstand armor piercing machine gun shells, temperature and pressure extremes, falls from great heights, multiple blows from Thor's enchanted hammer, etc. without sustaining injury. While sharing his powers with the other members of the Wrecking Crew, his resistance to damage is substantially decreased. However, his body is still much tougher than that of an ordinary human. He can still withstand great impact forces, high temperatures, and .45 caliber bullets.

Mystical Link: The Wrecker has established a mental link with his enchanted crowbar. In the past when the Wrecker has lost his superhuman powers, the power has transferred itself into the crowbar. By making physical contact with the crowbar, the Wrecker can transfer the power back into himself. Also, by touching the crowbar, the Wrecker can magically transform whatever he is wearing into his costume. By concentrating on the crowbar, the Wrecker can use it to take mental possession of whoever touches it, and cause an enchanted aura that can repel bullets to surround that person. The Wrecker can also locate members of The Wrecking Crew by concentrating on his crowbar.

Abilities

The Wrecker is a formidable hand to hand combatant and is particularly adept at using street fighting techniques that enable him to make full use of his strength and durability.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Wrecker's Crowbar : The Wrecker wields a four-foot long cast iron crowbar which has become virtually indestructible through extensive contact with the Wrecker's enchanted skin. Wielded by the superhumanly strong Wrecker, the crowbar becomes a weapon of vast destructive potential. The Wrecker has used the crowbar to demolish entire buildings in minutes and to hold off the thunder god, Thor, in battle. The Wrecker has used the crowbar offensively as both a throwing weapon and a bat. Because of the teachings of Ulik, The Rock Troll, he can throw his crowbar and have it return to him, much like Thor's own hammer.

Links and References

References

Template:Mighty Thor

[Defenders_Vol_1_#18-1] Defenders #18

[Defenders_Vol_1_#17-2] Defenders #17

[Defenders_Vol_1_#19-3] Defenders #19

[Fantastic_Four_#168-4] Fantastic Four #168

[New_Avengers_#7-8-5] New Avengers #7–8

[6] Avengers NOW! Vol 1 1

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