Bengal is a very proficient martial artist — able to match the early Night Thrasher in combat, though he’s outclassed by Daredevil. His training includes a host of warrior-monk-like skills, and he’s very good with those, too. The Bengal is skilled at pain management, and was still fighting after Daredevil shattered both his ulna and his radius to stop him. He hits hard enough to shatter parts of Night Thrasher’s armour - provided that he wields sufficiently hard melee weapons (in game terms this is Martial Artist EV, plus the Paired Weapons bonus shunted to EV).

The Bengal carries two knives with broad, leaf-shaped blades ; those can spring open in a sai-like configuration. Those later became ordinary sai, though this was probably an artistic mistake. He also occasionally uses a bow, which seems made of bamboo, and carries a few throwing stars as an extra option.

Bengal is also superiorly stealthy and an accomplished adventurer and assassin. He can generally be considered to be a ninja-type, though of course he has little association with medieval Japan (except for his weapons being sometimes drawn as Japanese-style sai).

Despite being a stranger in a strange land and not speaking the language, the Bengal seems to be extremely perceptive and could understand complex situations (such as Jane’s redemption and asking for pardon) without any verbal communication. This perceptiveness is modelled by his high INT/WIL and his Empathy power, and it was later confirmed that Bengal is a superiorly observant and intelligent man.

History

The man who would become the Bengal was born in the early 1960s in the central highlands of Viet-nam, near Buon Ma Thuot ; it is likely that he’s from one of the Montagnard cultures. In 1968, his village was “visited” by an exhausted American fireteam ; one of their member, Sgt. Janes, was cracking under combat fatigue. A grenade was thrown at the Americans ; the Lt. of the unit, Lincoln, managed to throw it away but was grievously wounded in the explosion, eventually losing his sight.

Janes snapped and opened fire, immediately followed by the others ; dozens of villagers were indiscriminately massacred before the fireteam would retreat, carrying Lincoln. They emptied pretty much everything they had, slaughtering everything they saw in the village and lighting up trees they thought served as cover for VC troops. Apparently, some of the carnage was caused by indiscriminate return fire from the jungle from Viet Cong soldiers — likely the same men who had thrown the grenade at the patrol.

One child escaped from the carnage, and went berserk. The six-year old charged the Americans with an empty gun as they were being evacuated by a Huey piloted by James Rhodes, USMC. Despite being shot in the leg by someone in the woods, he managed to jump and grab a skid. Shellshocked, Janes started stomping his face and hands until the kid lost his grip and fell back into the jungle.

The kid survived the fall. Traumatized by both the events and survivor’s guilt, he decided the reason he was still alive was that he could be the agent of vengeance for his village. He dedicated his life to training, and to get to the US when he was ready to find the soldiers. When he did so, he was wearing a costume and calling himself (in Vietnamese) the Bengal.

(Why a Vietnamese man would name himself after an area in India and Bangladesh is unclear - but the Lee Falk comic strip The Phantom has been released in many countries as The Phantom of the Bengal. It is somewhat popular in some areas of India and further East, and it is reasonable to suggest that Duc No Tranh may have been inspired by the Phantom.)

Did the jungle breathe?

Meanwhile, the American soldiers went on with their lives. At least one of them, Janes, was court-martialed and found guilty. During his 25 years in prison at Quantico, Janes craved redemption for his actions and found God, then studied to become a priest. When he got out he was ordained, and started his ministry in a series of poor and violent urban areas, where he tried to bring peace and understanding.

The Bengal stated by murdering Chin Fong, who had been one of the soldiers kicking him off the helicopter. He then killed former private Samuel Birulin in his home as he was sleeping with his wife, then moved on to kill the former Lt. Lincoln. Willie Lincoln had encountered Daredevil and Matt Murdock a few years earlier (he was a former client and ally of Murdock, saved his life once, and knew Daredevil would sometimes “assist” Murdock), and contacted him for protection. Lincoln knew that he was stalked, since he had been on the phone to discuss their traumatic flashbacks with Birulin when the private was killed.

The Bengal clashed unsuccessfully with Daredevil, then came back to challenge him to a fight among the trees of Central Park, where Daredevil defeated him. When the Bengal woke up, Daredevil forced him and Lincoln to face each other ; seeing Lincoln’s empty eye sockets, the Bengal reacted with horror and, now unsure about his vengeance, crashed through the window and jumped away.

The Bengal eventually resumed his path of vengeance, this time targeting former private William Talltrees. Talltrees, the most level-headed of the group, had even tried to oppose Janes and private Fong from kicking the boy away from the Huey, but not strongly enough. He had become a high-rise construction worker, then the newest bearer of the mantle of the Red Wolf — but was still wracked with guilt over what he did.

When the Bengal confronted him, Talltrees did not really fight back due to his guilt, and was hospitalized in a critical state ; his pet wolf Lobo was killed by the Bengal. While dying in the ER, Talltrees underwent a series of vision and a dialogue with the Wolf Spirit. Understanding that his constant guilt was what had helped forge him into a better man and a hero, the Red Wolf eventually mustered the will to survive his wounds.

Night Thrasher

The Bengal then moved on to the former Sgt. Janes. However, the superhuman Silhouette was present in his church when the Bengal attacked, being part of Janes’ flock. She fought the Bengal off until Janes could flee, then shadow-melted away. Her former lover, Night Thrasher, decided to protect Janes and intervened during the Bengal’s next attack. The fight was interrupted by the Punisher, who was tracking Silhouette for her criminal past. After two clashes between the Punisher and Thrasher and Silhouette, the Bengal made another attempt on Father Janes’ life, fighting with Thrasher a second time. Again, the fight was broken by the Punisher, and the redeemed Janes and Bengal made a sort of peace.

Janes and the Bengal apparently tried to stay in touch and communicate (likely through an interpreter from the local Vietnamese-American community), and Janes gave his version of the incident, mentioning that many of the shots (including the one that had hit the future Bengal in the leg) did not come from them but from the jungle. Investigating, the Bengal grew to suspect that Li Pan, a North Vietnamese general with a reputation as a mass murderer, was responsible for some of the deaths at his village during the crossfire — and that Li Pan was now known as Gai No Don.

The Bengal confronted him, but Gai No Don did not appear to speak Vietnamese. Determining that he was guilty, the Bengal moved in but was stopped by Night Thrasher and Silhouette, who had been warned by Father Janes, and had investigated to determine that Gai No Don and Li Pan were two separate persons. He then attacked the Poison Memories, a Vietnamese-American street gang involved with Gai No Don, but Thrasher and Silhouette intervened again and Bengal accepted that Li Pan and Gai No Don were not the same man.

A possible impostor

The Bengal was later seen as a henchman for Tombstone, opposing the so-called “Marvel Knights”. The characterizations during that episode were quite off, with the Bengal being a violent mercenary speaking fluent English and familiar with American and Chinese adventurers. Much like with Big Ben Donovan (who also was completely out of character during this appearance). I’d suggest disregarding this appearance when it comes to the character’s continuity, though for Marvel this episode did feature Duc No Tranh.

A likely hypothesis is that this man was just a mercenary wearing a replica the Bengal’s costume — it is a pretty cool and striking costume, after all. This person seemed trained in Kung Fu and very interested in confronting Shang Chi, and may thus have been Chinese.

If the man see during that incident was indeed an impostor, it is likely that Bengal was at that time in Viet Nam to track Li Pan down.

Drafted into the Shadow Initiative

His life’s mission being done, the Vietnamese warrior decided to retire from fighting and violence, and came to live in the US ; he soon married an American woman, who may have been the reason why he decided to establish himself there. They had a son, and the former Bengal learned to speak and write English, reaching full fluency.

When the Superhuman Registration Act went live in the 2000s, Duc No Tranh was drafted by the Initiative despite not being American, not having any powers and being retired from his life as a fighter - considerable pressure was exerted on him since he was married to an American national and the father of an American son. Using the Bengal costume and identity again, he was pressed into service with the Shadow Initiative, the special operations arm of the project - though he originally was processed along with a batch of young super-powered cadets.

Bengal’s wife and son came to live on Camp Hammond, with little Minh being raised with the other kids at the day care center - implying that Duc No Tranh’s wife was assigned to some sort of job on the base.

When the Bengal joined the Shadow Initiative, the roster was made up of three Scarlet Spiders (secretly clones of Michael Van Patrick), the Constrictor, Trauma and Mutant Zero (secretly Typhoid). The Shadow Initiative was deployed early on during the project, to rescue a group of cadets who had engaged the Hulk and his alien Warbounds against orders during the so-called World War Hulk. The operation, in which Bengal served as a field leader, was a success, though it established that team member Trauma couldn’t take down the Hulk with his mental powers. The Shadow Initiative was also scrambled to protect Henry Gyrich from insane clone KIA, which they did.

Along with other Initiative troops, Bengal fought Skrulls during the Secret Invasion in its least secret stages. When Camp Hammond was invaded by Skrull troops led by their Queen, the Shadow Initiative decided to take the monarch out as a strategic strike. This nearly worked, but the Skrull the team assassinated turned out to be a ringer and they were taken down in return by Skrull trickery. Still, this strikes allowed their associated Ant-Man to escape with strategic plans held by the Skrull Queen, facilitating Earth’s eventual victory.

The Shadow Initiative was held and briefly tortured for intelligence, but the Skrull invasion was soon defeated and the prisoners recovered before any serious damage was done.

All work and no play

The Shadow Initiative, with a slightly changed roster still including Bengal, was then sent after Hydra plant Hardball, formerly an Initiative cadet, who had returned to his actual employer. They parachuted over Madripoor for a commando mission, but were located by Hydra first and surrounded. Hardball produced a SPIN powers-neutralising weapon and captured Initiative member Komodo, his ex-lover, forcing the unit to retreat without her to regroup. As they did, they learned that the Initiative had been disbanded - which likely meant that there would no extraction flight from Madripoor.

Taskmaster, who was leading the commando, decided to scuttle the mission and have the team switch sides. It was a ploy - for starters, Bengal was not leaving Komodo in Hydra hands - and enabled the team to briefly infiltrate the Hydra headquarters in an attempt to abscond with the SPIN weaponry. The Shadow Initiative eventually prevailed and secured the weaponry and Hardball, also recovering Komodo.

When they came back, HAMMER liaised with them and made them offers, looking to take over and reorganised the remnants of the Initiative. A new Shadow Initiative was created under the leadership of Taskmaster, but it was essentially an expendable goon squad packed with superhuman criminal nobodies.

When the 42 prison in the Negative Zone was taken over by local aliens, this new Shadow Initiative (including Bengal and Komodo) was thrown at them to absorb the casualties and soften the opposition. Bengal and Komodo were essential in preventing a massacre and limiting the casualties, taking command and making the situation clear to the troops ; their expendables breached the prison and held until the more valuable troops could be safely sent in to mop up.

Since Bengal had made it clear to the Shadow Initiative that they were all just being used as cannon fodder, the handful of smarter and less tractable members were kept under armed guard, while the more easily manipulated mooks were deployed to storm Asgard. Though HAMMER had Bengal’s wife and kid under their thumb, they kept him with the dangerous ones.

Along with minor superhuman Butterball II and Batwing, Bengal was freed from this headquarters by Penance when he rebelled against his masters, and the foursome engaged HAMMER’s close underworld ally, the Hood, just as the Avengers Resistance attacked the facility. The former Shadow Initiative agents essentially joined the Avengers Resistance on the spot, though the Hood magically escaped. Bengal and his ad hoc allies then fought the Hood’s army of minor supervillains and HAMMER agents. They eventually prevailed, and as the news that HAMMER was over spread the troops surrendered.

A free man again

In the wake of the fall of the Osborn regime the former Captain America, Steve Rogers, took over the superhuman assets of the US and started fixing things. Bengal was freed from his obligations, as were his wife and kid. The family moved to Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where Duc No Tranh opened a martial arts school and put the Initiative part of his life behind him.

Bengal hasn’t been seen since, and likely intends to keep it that way.

Description

See illustration. The Bengal is shaved bald and has very strong muscle definition. He fights powerfully, gracefully and in complete silence. He originally knew but one sentence in English, which he speaks with a strong Vietnamese accent — “did the jungle breathe”. The “breathing jungle” was a slang phrase used by some American troops to describe a patch of jungle full of Viet Cong soldiers silently waiting in ambush.

Personality

The Bengal is a dedicated avenger, but sometimes seems conflicted when it comes to actually killing in revenge. I suspect he’s a Buddhist to some degree, and has trouble reconciliating his mission of vengeance with his faith. He rarely speaks, even in Vietnamese (since most people would not understand him anyway).

Despite the language barrier, he finds tricks to roughly communicate. To defy Daredevil, he gave him a piece of a map of Central Park (wrapped around an arrow), and he unmasked himself so he would be identified by his targets.

DC Universe History

The Bengal would most likely be a Batman or Nightwing encounter in the DCU.