ASYLUM (II)

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Real Name: Henrique Manuel Gallante
Aliases: Darkling, Henry Gallante, Manny Gallante
Identity: Known to Authorities
Occupation: Former Mental Patient
Citizenship: American Citizen with a Criminal Record
Place of Birth: Unknown
Known Relatives: None
Group Affiliation: Psionex
First Appearance: (As Darkling) #32 (V1), (As Asylum II) New Warriors Annual #4 (V1)
History: Henrique “Henry” Gallante was a young boy when he left his home, where he had been abused and beaten. On the streets, Henrique Gallante quickly fell into a life of drug abuse. Pounded by the endless sense of depression, Henrique was eventually committed to Smythers Drug Rehabilitation Clinic. However unbeknown to the doctors, who held little hope of any form of recovery for Henrique, his powers over the Darkforce had manifested themselves, and he was unknowingly displacing his feelings of darkness and despair into it, allowing it to mimic an empathic sentience that fed off his depression.

As the depression increased, the Darkforce began to use Gallante to allow itself to seep into the world; where it then began abducting those who were able to control and manipulate the Darkforce (such as Shroud, Cloak, Vanisher, Quagmire), trapping them all within the Darkforce Dimension. The Darkforce began to flood New York City, and tainted those with violent tendencies to escalate their behavior. At its height, Henrique himself surrendered to the Darkforce influence and desired nothing more than destroy the world that showed him only pain.

 

Henrique adopted the name Darkling and was confronted by a number heroes, such as The New Warriors, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange. Among the New Warriors, Firestar and Dagger were able to use their individual powers to disrupt Henrique’s hold on the Darkforce Dimension, and thus allowed everyone else to put a stop to Darkling, thus allowing the others to talk to Henrique and convince him what he was doing was wrong. Rather than ultimately surrender, Henrique slipped himself within the Darkforce dimension, pulling in all the residential Darkforce energy with him.

Henrique would eventually return to Earth again, when a gang member found the original mask of Asylum and donned it on; thus seeing the darkness in everyone. It opened the portal to the Darkforce Dimension and allowed Henrique to return. Using the mask, and adopting the name Ayslum, Henrique sought out the members of Psionex, in an attempt to make things right in the world.

Unfortunately, despite Henrique’s best intentions, his ill luck continued, as he led Psionex to attack a group of armed suspected gang members. Henrique pulled one of the members into the darkness of the Darkforce Dimension, to teach him the darkness within him and scare him straight; however when he released the boy from the Darkforce, he returned dead. That’s when they learned that they were not gang members, and that they were not real guns, but merely toy guns.

Henrique, unable to deal with the idea he had killed an innocent child, immediately fled, being chased down by the members of Psionex, who were determined to make him stand up to what he had done and face justice. With the New Warriors help, they were finally able to stop Henrique and convince him to face what he had done; and that vigilantes are not above the law and needed to be held accountable, even if the death was accidental.

Later, Baron Zemo, leading the Thunderbolts, got Henrique out of the mental ward he had been placed in and recruited him into the Thunderbolts to help rescue Atlas’ brother, who had adopted the name The Smuggler, and vanished into the Darkforce dimension after a battle with Gravaton. Having helped rescue Smuggler, Asylum remained with the Thunderbolts when the Superhuman Registration Act came into effect and joined the Thunderbolt Army.

His current whereabouts after Baron Zemo’s departure of the Thunderbolts remains unknown.

Height: Variable as Asylum
Weight: Variable as Asylum
Eyes: Brown, White (As Asylum)
Hair: Black, None (As Asylum)

Powers: Henrique has the mutant ability to draw from the Darkforce Dimension and control/manipulate it; his power of the Darkforce Dimension is perhaps unparalleled by any other who has the ability to control the Darkforce, for he opened a rift the size of Manhattan at the height of his power. His control over the Darkforce, however, is minimal as it seems to act on its own. He has been known to create a giant sized body for himself, as well as tendrils, blasts of Darkforce energy, etc. He could even use it to step through the Darkforce Dimension and teleport extreme distances. Those he traps within the Darkforce dimension are forced to confront their greatest fears as the Darkforce creeps into their psyches and heightens the ‘darkness’ within everyone.