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Quote1 You have the heart of a warrior. You are young, but you are a man of great promise. Let me teach you how to fish. Because people need you. And they'll need you for a lifetime. And when I say you, I do not mean the White Tiger. And I do not mean another Black Panther again. You have traveled these paths already. I want the man to step up. I want Kevin Cole. Are you ready for what comes next? Quote2
Black Panther[src]

History

Origin[]

Kevin Cole (Earth-616) from Black Panther Vol 3 51 0001

Kevin Cole

The son of Jonathan Payton "Black Jack" Cole, hardline African-American cop nicknamed "Black Jack" because of his dark skin tone, and Ruth Cole, a white Jewish mother, Kevin Cole was nicknamed "Kasper" by his peers because of his light skin tone. As a teenager, he saw his father arrested for drug offenses.[5][8] Although Kasper believed that Black Jack framed,[5][8] Black Jack was secretly the leader of the 66 Bridges Gang and continued to run their operations from prison.[13]

Kasper grew up to became a narcotics officer in the 74th Precinct's Organized Crime Control Bureau, supporting both his mother and his pregnant girlfriend Gwen.[5] Although, he still pined for his high school sweetheart Grace, he stayed with Gwen when she had become pregnant with his child.[14]

Opportunist[]

Kevin Cole (Earth-616) from Black Panther Vol 3 50 0001

Posing as the Black Panther

Hungry for promotion, Cole and his crew carried out unauthorized drug busts, drawing unwelcome attention from Lieutenant Sal Anthony, his superior officer and a crooked cop working for the 66 Bridges Gang. Around this time, Kasper "borrowed" a bulletproof Black Panther costume being stored by his boss Sergeant Tork, and began wearing it under his clothes instead of his department-issued bulletproof vest. Kasper thought that the costume would give him the necessary edge to stand out and get his desired promotion. After failing to recruit Kasper, Sal had Kasper and his fellow officers ambushed. Thanks to the costume, Kasper survived, though the other officers were hospitalized in the ICU.[5]

Suspended for not wearing his vest, Kasper posed as the Black Panther to bring down Sal and the 66 Bridges Gang. Kasper eventually learned that he was a pawn being manipulated of T'Challa and Hunter, the White Wolf. His crime-fighting eventually pitted him against the 66 Bridges Gang and its regional manager Nigel "Triage" Blacque, the CEO of Grace & Tumbalt.[7] Unbeknownst to Cole, Triage was secretly his half-brother.[13]

Mistakenly identified as the one posing as the Black Panther, Sgt. Tork was seemingly murdered by Sal's men.[15] However, Tork's death was staged by T'Challa and the DEA.[1] Seeking to control his own destiny, Kasper offered to find Sal's kidnapped son in return for assistance in tracking down Kibuka.[13]

Becoming a Hero[]

Crew Vol 1 2 Textless

As the White Tiger

Advised by the Falcon that he needed to be more than just a man in a catsuit to achieve his goals, Kasper sought permission to eat the heart-shaped herb and gain enhanced powers like T'Challa by undertaking the Rite of Ascension. Erik Killmonger offered him another option, a synthetic version of the heart-shaped herb and help finding Sal's son, in return for Kasper dropping the Black Panther identity, becoming a White Tiger acolyte of the Panther Cult, and owing a favor to Killmonger in the future. Kasper accepted, but then tracked down the boy using his newly enhanced senses and help from Queen Divine Justice and Everett Ross, lessening his debt to Killmonger.[16]

After taking on the identity of the White Tiger, Kasper continued to chase promotion to detective. During his cursade against the 66 Bridges Gang and Triage, Kasper was relucantly recruited to Rhodey's Crew along with Danny Vincent and Josiah X.[17] Together, they were able to take down Triage and dismantle the 66 Bridges Gang's operations in The Mog.[18]

As the White Tiger, Kasper attended the wedding of Black Panther and Storm,[19] and the funeral of Jim Rhodes.[20]

Retirement & Return Offer[]

After giving up being a superhero and returning to the police full time, Kevin found himself in a dead-end desk job working for inconsiderate superiors for lousy pay. His ex-girlfriend Gwen threw him out of his mother's apartment and wouldn't let him see their newborn son without proper child support. Kevin ended up living in a massively downscaled apartment complex that he could barely afford on a desk jockey's salary.

While working on an assignment, Kevin was contacted by T'Challa to request his services one last time, he accepted since his assignment correlated to the favor T'Challa was asking him. This task involved him sifting through suspect reports about grizzly killings regarding Elias Wirtham who'd been conducting illicit surgical experiments on the black market. It turned out that the Wirtham's research had been funded with Vibranium smuggled out of Wakanda by the mutant criminal The Vanisher. With the villain's latest drop being centered near his neighborhood, Kevin busted Wirtham in his White Tiger persona and found out that Elias was only dealing with the Vanisher because he needed new Vibranium implants as his powers were on the wane. Cole left Cardiac handcuffed to his unlicensed patient while he headed to the Bar with No Name, the designated meeting place between Wirtham and the Vanisher.

Kevin Cole (Earth-616) and T'Challa (Earth-616) from Black Panther World of Wakanda Vol 1 6 001

Kevin approached the Vanisher, pretending to be Wirtham's go-to-guy. He let down his disguise when tagging the villain with his Vibranium knives. When the Vanisher teleported all the way back to Birnin Zana with the stolen Vibranium, White Tiger hitched a ride and doused him with it in order to trap him in place. Discontented with having ended up where he didn't want to return, Kevin immediately asked for a flight back to New York. T'Challa instead made Kevin an offer to properly train him and school him in the ways of Wakanda for his past and present services, coupled with a Wakandan arsenal of weapons and gadgetry, and an all-new look with augmented body armor.[11]

In his new costume, Kasper was one of the many heroes assisting Black Panther in fighting the dark forces of Ras the Exhorter.[21] He was also among the many heroes that fought against the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda.[22][23]

Attributes

Power Grid[33]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Experienced Fighter:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Single Type: Short Range:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Enhanced:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Peak Human:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Learned

Powers

Thanks to Killmonger, Kasper was given a synthetic version of the heart-shaped herbal potion that gives the Black Panther their powers.[24] That gave him superhuman and peak human physical abilities including:

  • Superhumanly Acute Senses: He can see with greater clarity and greater distances than any ordinary human. His vision extends into the ultraviolet and infrared areas of the electromagnetic spectrum, allowing him to see in near-total darkness and retain the same level of clarity. Kevin's sense of hearing is enhanced enabling him to hear sounds that an ordinary human cannot and to be able to hear sounds that an ordinary human can, but at much greater distances. Kevin can memorize tens of thousands of scents and track them to the exact location, Kevin can sense others’ emotions, can smell fear, and detect if someone is lying. Kevin's sense of taste is sensitive to the point that he can taste the exact ingredients of any food he is eating. Kevin's sense of touch allows him to feel minute temperature and pressure changes in the atmosphere around him as well as pick up even the slightest vibrations enabling him to sense his entire surroundings constantly and flawlessly.
  • Peak Human Strength: The special herb has enhanced Kevin's physical strength to the pinnacle of human perfection. His physical strength is superior to any Olympic-class weightlifter and far superior to normal humans, allowing him to consistently sustain lifts exceeding 800 lbs.
  • Peak Human Speed: Kevin can run and move at speeds superior to those of any Olympic athlete. He can reach speeds of 35 mph.
  • Enhanced Stamina: Kevin's body eliminates the excessive build-up of fatigue-producing chemicals in his muscles; he is unable to feel the fatigue toxins flowing through his body, granting him exceptional endurance and lung capacity. His lung capacity is at the peak human levels, enabling him to hold his breath underwater for 6 minutes. As a result, he has virtually limitless stamina in all physical activities.
  • Accelerated Healing: Healing speed and efficiency is beyond the highest limits of human potential, which means he can heal faster than most human beings. Kevin can flawlessly regenerate injured tissue and brain cells to an extraordinary degree, heal broken bones, broken neck, torn muscles, and regenerate damaged or destroyed limbs and/or organs.
  • Disease Immunity: Due to his highly efficient immune system, Kevin is immune to all Earthly poisons, toxins, venom, viruses, bacteria, diseases, disorders, parasites, allergens, gas attacks, and nerve-toxins of any kind.
  • Enhanced Durability: Kevin's resilience is enhanced. His skin, muscle, and bone tissues are augmented to levels that are much denser and harder than normal humans. When a normal man repeatedly punched him, Kevin felt no discomfort and the assailant hurt his hand. Kevin was unfazed by an entire Warehouse collapsing on him. When he was shot at close range, rather than penetrating through his chest, the bullets were lodged in his muscles.
  • Enhanced Agility: Kevin's agility, equilibrium, balance, flexibility, dexterity, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels superior to any Olympic-level athlete that has ever competed. He is extraordinarily limber; his tendons and connective tissues are twice as elastic as the average human being's. He can perform any complicated sequence of gymnastic stunts such as flips, rolls, and springs. He is flexible enough to move through the narrowest creeks and dodge attacks even at close range.
  • Perfect Equilibrium: Kevin instantly achieves a state of perfect equilibrium in any position. He adjusts his position by instinct, enabling him to automatically balance himself on virtually any object, no matter how small or narrow.
  • Enhanced Reflexes: Kevin's reaction time is superior to that of any Olympic athlete that has ever competed. He can effortlessly dodge bullets, blitz multiple opponents before they can react, and move his hands so fast that they have acted as makeshift blades. When a situation emerges, an optimal solution is executed automatically. He can automatically identify and escape dangerous situations and evade opponents without consciously thinking out a plan of action.

Abilities

  • Combat: Hand-to-hand combat training due to being a law enforcement officer.
  • Expert Tracker & Hunter: Due to his enhanced sense of smell, Kevin is a dangerous/proficient tracker and has memorized many different scents.
  • Detective Skill: Experienced detective, capable of observation, forensic investigation, inductive and deductive reasoning.

Weaknesses

  • Sensory Overstimulation: Kasper has been frequently overwhelmed by his heightened senses (especially smell) since taking the synthetic heart-shaped herbal resulting in severe nausea and vomiting.[1][2]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

  • White Tiger Habit:[1] Vibranium microweave body suit capable of dissipating the kinetic and hydrostatic shock damage of bullets or bullet-like objects.[2] It also has special Vibranium soled boots for scaling vertical surfaces that allow him to survive a fall from eight stories.[15][25] The habit also came equipped with Antarctic Vibranium ("Anti-Metal") claws and boots that are capable of breaking down any known metal including Adamantium.[4][26]

Weapons

  • 9mm Pistols: Loaded with non-lethal knockout gel bullets.[27]
  • Vibranium Energy Daggers: Hand-held energy emitting weapon capable of cutting through most surfaces. The blade can also be used as a ranged weapon firing from the handle.[28] It leaves a detectable mark his targets with which he can track using his Kimoyo Card.[26]
  • Kimoyo Card: An extremely powerful and versatile PDA. Given to him by the original Black Panther to aid in his superhero career, the Tiger could use it in conjunction with his Vibranium Knives as the ultimate tracker system to follow anyone anywhere so long as he had a lock on their unique energy signature.[28][2] Cole could also utilize it as a communications device and 3-D holographic projector system to have a more meaningful face to face conversations.[11]

Notes

Trivia

  • Kasper was considered as a "potential recruit" for the Initiative.[10]

See Also

Links and References

References

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