Elias Wirtham is Cardiac, a doctor who is motivated by the death of his brother to fight evil. Not only is he a doctor but he is a physician, a surgeon, and an owner and administrator of his own company. When he found out that the condition of his brother was curable but the corporation wouldn’t release it because they didn’t feel it would have been profitable, he decided to act. Because of this, Cardiac mainly targets corporate villains. He believes himself to be an instrument of justice.
Cardiac’s heart has been surgically replaced with a beat-particle reactor. He can channel that energy to provide him with superhuman strength and regeneration, and enhanced speed, agility, reflexes, and endurance. He can also channel that power through external objects such as his pulse staff, which fires concussive pulse bolts and his remote-controlled stingray hang-glider, both of which were invented by his company.
Cardiac is more a vigilante than a superhero. Like the punisher, he is willing to take the life of the people he goes after which are generally white-collar criminals. His first appearance was in The Amazing Spider-Man #342 (Dec 1990). He has not appeared often since then but at the time of this writing there is a one-shot issue starring him on the horizon. I remember his debut in the comics and I had hopes for him but I also remember how hard it was to gauge his power level. I also wondered if the Marvel Comics universe would long tolerate a killer who believes himself to be a good guy outside of the Punisher and maybe Moon Knight. Did someone say anti-hero?
…Not bad. The costume design is fair. The characters motivations resonate. I’ll check it out.
[...] Cardiac. [...]
I just found a old 2 part issue in my spiderman comic collection featuring him (amazing, #376-7). Thanks for this short bio, I remember him being part human and part machine or something like that. I never fully know his history but I knew he felt the need to seek revenge for what happened to his brother.