I'm just like everybody else, after all the hype it's hard to tell - Smash Mouth
Everyday Superhero | Smash Mouth
"In the pursuit of Justice there is no speed limit" who wrote that one?
Name: Henry William Ingram
Nicknames: Hank
Callsign: Zip
Age: 42
Appearance: Hank, in this and many other ways, is a surprisingly everyday man. He is not tall like many other male superheroes. In fact, he's pretty short at all of 5'6". He has rough, workman's hands, with short fingers. He is fairly solid and muscular, but again, not enough to make people turn in the street. His family tend to describe him as stout, which he assures is very kind of them. He has lost his blonde hair, but it had thinned long ago, so he came to terms with that many years ago.
Hank's clothes tend towards practicality over form. Plaid shirts, jeans, hardy jackets and work boots dominate his wardrobe. His favourite colour, blue, features prominently, both in his 'civvies' and his old Zip costume. His uniform is a bright blue spandex suit, with some selective pieces of very lightweight armour, on his chest, shoulders and hands. His boots are specially designed to help him maintain traction at his higher speeds. Lastly, on his head he would wear a thin, light helmet with a visor to keep dust out of his eyes.
Powers: Superspeed, minor invulnerability
"We've raced before, you're not that much faster than me!"
"Those were for charity."
Defence and Rescue Professor
Family: Nora Ingram (Mother, deceased), John Ingram (Father, retired), Wendy Ingram (Wife, reporter), Britney Ingram (Daughter, 13)
Strengths:
- Confident
- Brave
- Down-to-Earth
- Generally well-adjusted
- Firefighting experience
- Self-deprecative
- Inappropriately timed jokes
- Trusting
- Somewhat uncouth
- Terrible liar
- Coffee (drank a lot of it before gaining his powers, now it's a bad idea to drink any)
Hank is a very mellow guy. He tries not to take himself too seriously, nor anyone else for that matter. He has a surprising lack of awe. He'd equally joke around with his bosses in the firestation before the Rip, as with his most powerful friends and foes after. Even so, the one thing he does take very, very seriously is those he works to protect. He has always been one to pull out every stop to preserve as many lives as he possibly can. It's born of his past as a firefighter. And it's what's made him the ideal candidate for the Defence and Rescue professor.
History: Hank's had a pretty ordinary upbringing. The son of an Ohio factory worker and family man, Hank always looked up to his ever solid, ever steady father. His mother was a gentler soul, taken too soon by cancer, even if it only happened after Hank had reached high school. Hank didn't pursue higher education himself, in favour of jumping directly into the world of work, first as a factory worker like his father before him. But, after redundancy fell to him, he decided to try pursuing his dream. Firefighting.
It was soon after he donned his local department's bunker gear that he met his future wife. Then just an up and coming journalist, Hank still long thought of her as far out of his league. Thankfully, Wendy did not share this view. She appreciated how much of an honest, hard working man Hank was, even if he could be somewhat old fashioned. She diligently pursued him, much to his surprise, and eventually convinced him to make an honest woman of her. Though she mostly focussed on her career, they did eventually get around to having their daughter, Britney, 7 years after their marriage. Just after the Rip had opened.
Hank did not get his powers immediately upon the Rip opening. As these things often go, his powers were gained not just out of the blue, but from a specific incident. In Hank's case, this was, what else, a fire. Specifically, a fire that had started in a research facility, hidden in the Ohio backwoods near Hank's home. Hank realised someone was trapped inside, and dove into the inferno to drag them out. In the midst of his daring rescue, machinery he couldn't identify, buckling in the heat, toppled. It, thankfully, didn't pin him or his charge, but it did strike Hank on the way out. He worried for a moment, as his ears rang from the impact. But then, the next thing he knew, he and the man that had been trapped were out on the grass. And his helmet was missing. He turned to find his department all turned, staring at him as if he had grown another head.
And thus was the start of Hank's illustrious career as Zip, the fastest man on Earth (252). His career was long, and he caught the attention of the media. Wendy very quickly took to being his own personal PR agent. And much to Hank's alarm, she turned out to be very, very good at that. Hank quickly became one of the most beloved superheroes of this new age. He was never quite comfortable with the adulation and awe he came to earn. Keys to cities, monuments, comics with weird catchphrases and kids in costumes of him. Though he must admit, the last one is adorable. Britney even wore one for her first Halloween. In his heart of hearts, to this day, he still just thinks of himself as just a firefighter. Sure he can do some pretty impressive things with his powers, but he feels any firefighter in his boots would have taken just the same path.
And now, finally, he's hung up the blue spandex. He knows he's getting older, and possibly slower in the coming years. Now, it's the new guard's turn, and they're gonna need people to show them how the old guard did it back in the day. Really did it, not just what gets published in the comics.
Housekeeping
Robinwing | #CE7D15 | Bruce Willis