Battlestar

Background

Powers and Abilities

As Battlestar, Hoskins is still super-strong, super-durable and very fast. He also wields an Adamantium -reinforced shield. He’s much more experienced and clear-headed than he was as Bucky. He greatly improved as an operative, a fighter and a leader. He’s a solid professional.

Battlestar usually fights in melee, since few weapons can hit as hard as he does. However, if the assignment requires weaponry — for instance sonic pistols to go against Venom — he’s well-trained to use those.

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History

Hoskins switched to the Battlestar name and costume, and finished training with the shield he had recently been allowed to use. By that point the government thought that Captain America (John Walker) and Battlestar had enough field experience to be trotted out for a public appearance. As it turned out, it was a disaster.

Their former friends Lennox and Johnson, as Left-Winger and Right-Winger, attacked Walker and Hoskins in front of a crowded stadium. They had the time to reveal Walker’s name in front of the public, but not Hoskins’s, before they were defeated.

Captain America and Battlestar continued to be one of the main two superhuman teams the government could field, the other being the Freedom Force. They were more like enforcers or soldiers than heroes, but while this fact distressed Walker, Hoskins didn’t really care.

Among other missions they apparently killed Professor Power, arrested various mutants for resisting registration, and only narrowly survived a clash with the Resistants.

Terror against terror

Walker and Hoskins later were caught in the Viper’s deadly master plan. She mutated much of the Washington D.C. population into serpent people – including President Reagan. During this crisis, Battlestar ended up fighting Cap’s ally, Demolition Man. He won without realising that the much stronger D-Man was hindered by severe poisoning.

Several weeks later, Hoskins earned another victory – he obtained his high school diploma.

The consequences of Johnson and Lennox revealing Walker’s name eventually struck home. The Watchdogs captured Walker’s parents. Hoskins covered for his buddy when he left to rescue his parents, but the situation went south fast. The elderly Walkers were murdered, and a demoralised Captain America was captured by Flag-Smasher.

Battlestar was sent to request the original Captain America’s help, and the two men fought ULTIMATUM forces to free Walker. In the wake of this case, the Commission was revealed to have been manipulated by the Red Skull all along.

De-Commissioned

Crushed, Walker resigned. He also stonewalled his friend Lemar, who wanted to help. Walker then appeared to be gunned down by a Watchdog.

Lemar investigated, discovered that John’s casket was empty, and then resigned too. He told Dr. Valerie Cooper that he would do community service work in Chicago. What he actually did was continue to investigate Walker’s bogus death.

Hoskins determined that Walker’s sister and her family had vanished, that the assassin wasn’t a Watchdog, and that the ambulance company that had picked Walker up after he was shot was a fake. Hoskins confronted Dr. Cooper about that, but she just told him that if Walker wanted to contact him he would.

Feeling that something was fishy, Battlestar continued to investigate – but he was reaching the limit of his skills. He decided to improve as a hero by training with a well-established hero, preferably somebody who knew Captain America. Given these criteria, the Falcon naturally came to mind, since his identity and location were public knowledge.

When Battlestar came to meet him, he ran into three Serpent Society operatives trying to steal the Falcon’s flight harness. Lemar helped vanquishing them. Presumably, the Falcon then took Battlestar under his wing for some weeks or months to help him become a better hero.

The investigation ends

Battlestar eventually recognised USAgent, a new member of the West Coast Avengers, as John Walker. After doing surveillance on the Avengers Compound, he managed to attract his attention and confront him.

While Hoskins was certain that USAgent was Walker, the man — whose face was looking different than Walker’s — angrily denied it. The situation degenerated into a brawl. The Avengers intervened to separate the two, and Battlestar left.

Hours later, Hoskins was called by his old manager Ethan Thurm, who was desperately looking for protection. As Battlestar came to check what was up, the Power Tools attacked him and Thurm. Hoskins had to surrender to prevent them from killing his old manager.

Thus was he taken captive by Dr. Malus and the Power Broker himself, who were researching ways to undo Power Broker augmentations.

With a little help from my friends

Battlestar became their most precious test subjects, and their experiments depowered him. Nevertheless, Lemar escaped and took Malus hostage. Things were still looking grim when USAgent intervened, thrashed the security and forced Malus to repower Hoskins.

USAgent explained that he was now using the name Jack Daniels, and was under strict order to avoid being seen with people associated with John Walker. Though the two friends couldn’t spend much time together, Lemar realised that “Jack”’s memories had been tampered with. He did not remember the death of his parents.

Lemar took him to see the grave. The shaken Jack agreed to let Lemar tell his sister Kate that her brother was still alive. He would later discover that the memories about the death of his parents had been removed at his request by the government.

Hoskins next worked as a super-hero, likely in Chicago, but he couldn’t get traction. He found it difficult to be accepted as a legitimate crimefighter, and his financial reserves approached zero.

Silver Sable International

Hearing that the mercenaries of Silver Sable International were clashing with the Watchdogs, Battlestar made an appointment with Silver Sable herself. He hoped to leverage his experience with the Watchdogs into gainful employment.

Sable narrowly agreed to have Hoskins tag along her elite squad as they worked on stopping the assassin Gattling. Wanting to convince Silver Sable to hire him at any cost, Battlestar went all-out and was hired. He was allowed to immediately join Silver Sable International’s elite team, the one working directly with the boss.

Battlestar demonstrated remarkable ability as a Wild Pack member, despite the misgivings of crassly racist teammate Powell. Lemar grew into becoming the second-in-command tactical leader, leading the “A” team in the field when Sable wasn’t available. Hoskins became a close friend of the feral operative Man-Eater, and the lover of Lightbright.

Civil War

During the Civil War , Battlestar predictably joined the Anti-Registration Underground organised by Captain America. Arrested by the authorities, he was deported to the Negative Zone for imprisonment, but fellow dissidents organised a breakout and he escaped.

When last seen Battlestar was back to his first Battlestar costume. He was providing backup to a superhuman crisis response team hired by the US government. It is unclear whether Hoskins is back working for the government, is a freelance mercenary, was subcontracted by Silver Sable International, etc.

Description

The costume with the white star on the chest is the one he wore as a government operative.

The costume with the “S” in the upper left corner of the chest is his Silver Sable International uniform.

The costume with the tricolour star in the upper left corner of the chest is the costume he uses as a freelance mercenary.

Personality

Early on Hoskins is still a thug. However, all the work he produced to improve his education have obviously paid off. He has become fluent in standard American English, ditched his most extreme beliefs, and is trying to be a good agent type.

However he’s still prone to cutting corners and looking for easy solutions even if that means killing someone. As such he is much closer to being a hired gun than to being heroic – but he wants to become a hero, and will eventually succeed.

By the time he starts questing to find John Walker, he can reasonably be called a super-hero. Especially since he’s driven by personal loyalty toward his buddy.

By the time he joined Silver Sable International, Battlestar proved that he was a smart, knowledgeable man and a disciplined, competent soldier. This allowed him to continue climbing the ladder and demonstrate that he was fit to be a leader, whether in the field or out, and a principled hero.

As a SSI member, he spared no effort in proving that he was now an intelligent, open-minded, reliable, calm, respectable professional. Lemar Hoskins has gone miles beyond the man he used to be.

Growth

Battlestar is particularly civic-minded. He does his very best to protect innocents and use ethical methods. He routinely takes risks to protect his fellow operatives, even those disliking him such as Powell, and objected to the use of torture by Chen and Crippler.

He no longer relishes violence. In fact prefers to talk if that seems to be the more rational approach.

Racism remains Hoskins’s bugbear. His growth as a person means that he no longer sinks to the depth of the opposition, and he makes it clear that he’s the bigger man when confronted by a racist. He’s always willing to help a brother, but reacts with irrational annoyance when they match some racist imagery.

At one point he even berated the dark-skinned Fin for eating a watermelon – though Fin knew nothing about American cultures, much less soul food references.

In many ways, Battlestar is closer to the legacy of Captain America than USAgent is. He understands what makes Cap great, and strives to be as excellent as the man whose sidekick’s garb he once wore. Though his track record is of course not as awesome as Captain America’s, Battlestar is a pretty good super-hero.

He greatly respects other well-established heroes, such as the Human Torch or the Falcon, but Cap is of course #1.

Battlestar may still be in a relationship with Lightbright.

Quotes

“Ma’am, I won’t lie to you… I’m flat busted. The only thing I ever did that made me feel like I wasn’t worthless was fightin’ crime. All I’m asking is a chance to prove myself.”

“You can’t hit what isn’t here. A little something I learned from Captain America.”

“I don’t know why you persist in this racist behavior toward me, but it’s getting real tired !”

“Sorry ma’am, but if our lives are at stake we’re going down fighting, *not* running, no matter how ragged we are !”

“You’ve seen what I can do. What make you think you can succeed where the others have failed ?”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel Universe.

Helper(s): Frank Murdock, Roy Cowan, Taliesin, Eric Langendorff, Adam Fuqua, Ethan Roe.