DARK WIND

Real Name: Kenji Oyama

Identity/Class: Human (samurai weapons and advanced technology user);
    World War II through modern eras

Occupation: Warrior, inventor; former soldier

Group Membership: Led own army of samurai warriors; formerly the Japanese army

Affiliations: Kira, numerous samurai and ninjas;
    formerly Bullseye

Enemies: Blindspot, Daredevil, Mystique, Rogue, USA, Tomo Yoshida, modern Japanese government
    formerly Yuriko Oyama

Known Relatives: Yuriko Oyama (Lady Deathstrike, daughter), unidentified son (deceased)

Aliases: Lord Dark Wind

Base of Operations: An unidentified island off the coast of Hokkido, Japan

First Appearance: Daredevil I#196 (July, 1983)

 

 

Powers/Abilities: Dark Wind is a scientific genius (or possibly he just employed scientific geniuses) and a skilled swordsman. He employed a large group of warriors, mostly samurais using swords and bow and arrow, but he also used a number of ninja as well (or perhaps these were purchased/loaned from the Yakuza).

 

 

 

 

History:
(Daredevil I#197 (fb) - BTS / Alpha Flight I#34 (fb)) - In 1945, during World War II, Kenji Oyama was a famous pilot and war hero.

(Daredevil I#197 (fb) - BTS / Alpha Flight I#34 (fb)) - As the tides of war turned against Japan, he volunteered for a Kamikaze suicide mission. He crashed his explosive-laden plane into an American aircraft carrier, but the bombs he carried did not go off for some reason, and Oyama was somehow denied his glorious death.

(Alpha Flight I#34 (fb)) - Scarred and shamed, Oyama became a prisoner of war.

(Daredevil I#197 (fb) - BTS) - Considering his survival a great disgrace, Oyama spent the rest of his life atoning for this.

(Daredevil I#198 (fb) - BTS) / Daredevil I#199 (fb) - BTS) - Oyama took to wearing a hood over his head to hide his face as his nation hid its shame. He vowed to restore Japan's tarnished honor and his own, and not to reveal himself until Japan was righteous again.

(Alpha Flight I#34 (fb)) - Oyama's code of honor attracted devotees.

(Daredevil I#198 (fb) - BTS) - Oyama made a bundle after writing a book about his war experiences. He bought an island and set himself up as its lord, after which he married and had two sons and a daughter.

(Daredevil I#198 (fb) - BTS / Alpha Flight I#34 (fb)) - He branded his children's faces and spirits as a sign of superiority, perhaps to mirror his own scarred life.

(Daredevil I#198 (fb) - BTS) - He financed a lot of reactionary political activity, and it is believed that his sons were killed trying to assassinate the Japanese prime minister. He was also known to employ the Yakuza and to have killed anyone that got near his island.

(Daredevil I#199 (fb) - BTS) - Oyama became disgusted with changes towards a "New Japan," a nation of merchants who bought their conquests instead of claiming them with blood and steel. Seeing this as a disgrace to Japan's samurai ancestors, he plotted to return Japan to its values of old.
    Dark Wind's samurai were fiercely loyal to him, valuing that he gave them something to die for: him and his ideals.

(Daredevil I#199 (fb) - BTS) - Oyama named himself Dark Wind, symbolizing a wind that would come from the past to sweep the shame from the land.

(Alpha Flight I#34 (fb)) - Believing that a soldier of his empire must be strong in both body and mind, Dark Wind began his quest for the ultimate warrior. Turning to science, Dark Wind invented a process for bonding to human bone the rare near-indestructible metal Adamantium.

(Alpha Flight I#34 (fb) - BTS / Wolverine minus 1) - Dark Wind's formula and notes were stolen by parties unknown to him. It took him decades to reinvent the process.

(Alpha Flight I#34 (fb) - BTS) - Dark Wind's formula was obtained by Department H and the Weapon X program and used on the mutant Logan, who became Wolverine.

(Rogue III#10 (fb)) - Tomo Yoshida sent his nephew, Sunfire, alongside Mystique, Rogue, and Blindspot, to steal Dark Wind's formula from his facility in Yokohama, intending to use the formula to create his own army of warriors to fight his American enemies and to restore Japan's honor. They defeated Dark Wind's ninja warriors, but Dark Wind escaped with his computer hard drives before Mystique and Blindspot could reach him.

(Daredevil I#196 (fb) - BTS) - Dark Wind decided to use his Adamantium-bonding process to replace/repair the broken bones in the assassin Bullseye's spine to restore his mobility and make him stronger than ever before. In exchange, he intended that Bullseye would serve him, training Dark Wind's people in his skills, and kill for him.

(Daredevil I#196 (fb) - BTS) - Learning that a Japanese outfit, possibly connected to those who bonded Adamantium to Wolverine's skeleton, was trying to abduct the then-crippled Bullseye from hospital custody, Wolverine traveled to Manhattan to investigate.

(Daredevil I#196) - Despite Wolverine's efforts, Dark Wind's men escaped with Bullseye, and Wolverine teamed with Daredevil to recover him. Dark Wind, meanwhile, met with the Kingpin, offering him a large sum of money to aid in getting Bullseye to Japan so they could reconstruct his shattered spine; the Kingpin accepted, and put 20 men at Dark Wind's disposal. As Dark Wind explained his plans to Bullseyse, the heroes tracked Dark Wind's men to the Osama Maru ship on the East River. Daredevil and Wolverine took out the Kingpin's men, but while Wolverine went after three of Dark Wind's men, Daredevil decided to take a critically injured attacker to the hospital, and was thus unable to stop Dark Wind from escaping with Bullseye.
    Sometime later, Dark Wind informed Bullseye that they were leaving United States territorial waters and the no one could interfere with them now.

(Daredevil I#197 (fb) - BTS) -  Dark Wind gave Bullseye preliminary treatment during their voyage.

(Daredevil I#197 (fb) - BTS) - The Osama Maru stopped about 10 kilometers offshore, and Dark Wind and his men took Bullseye via a smaller boat to an island off the coast of Hokkido.

(Daredevil I#197) - After receiving a mild concussion, Daredevil flew to Japan and investigated the Osama Maru, but found Bullseye, Dark Wind, and his men long gone; instead he found Yuriko Oyama chained up. She offered to lead him to Bullseye, and he broke her free and then fought his way past Dark Wind's men.
    Dark Wind noted that the preliminary treatments had been successful, and he told Bullseye that after his damaged bone would be replaced by metal, he would be treated with herbs to insure his body he wouldn't reject the artificial parts. In addition, they would pray to a Kami, the warrior god of Dark Wind's household (see comments). Bullseye would either be better or dead within a week.

(Daredevil I#198) - Dark Wind sent agents to kill Daredevil, but not to harm the woman he was with. Daredevil defeated the attackers, and as and Yuriko approached Hikkido and then took a boat to the island, he and Bullseye began to sense each other's presences, and Dark Wind acknowledged the psychic bond between the two. Bullseye had recovered to the point of walking on crutches, and Dark Wind instead sent his samurais against them, though he held back Kira (Yuriko's lover), who was not yet sufficiently trained. Bullseye subsequently informed Dark Wind that Daredevil had beaten three of his samurais. Meanwhile, Daredevil correctly determined that Yuriko was Dark Wind's daughter.

(Daredevil I#199) - As Bullseye demonstrated the recovery of his throwing skills, Dark Wind explained his plan for him to assassinate Japan's minister of trade the next week in New York City. After Dark Wind explained his motivations, Bullseye told him he was a nut case. Dark Wind again forbade Bullseye to yet confront Daredevil, instead sending more samurai against him and leaving himself as the final challenge should Daredevil defeat the samurai. In addition, Dark Wind again forbade Kira from confronting Daredevil, instructing him to instead take Bullseye back to the mainland and see that he boarded an aircraft for America. When questioned by Bullseye, Dark Wind told him that the mission was repayment for restoring him to health. As Kira rowed Bullseye across the sea, however, Bullseye revealed he had no intention of doing Dark Wind's mission for free. Kira attacked him, and Bullseye knocked him overboard and then rowed himself back to the mainland.
    Knowing Yuriko was with Daredevil, Dark Wind had his archers dispatched with the instruction of aiming well. As Daredevil defeated the assassins, an earthquake began, and he became trapped under a caved in room. Dark Wind then appeared, intending to execute the helpless hero, but Yuriko instead slashed him across his back with a sword she had taken from an assassin. Dark Wind dropped, apparently dead.
    Yuriko met Kira as he swam to shore, attempting to soothe his woes for failing his master and telling him he was free of Dark Wind forever.

(Alpha Flight I#34 (fb) - BTS) - Unable to live with his failure, Kira committed suicide. Yuriko studied her father's past to learn what bred such fanaticism, and she came to embrace his goal of restoring Japan's honor through the creation of an army of super-soldiers. As Lady Deathstrike, she attempted to track Bullseye by his Adamantium implants, but she instead was led to Wolverine.

Comments: Created by Denny O'Neil, Larry Hama, and Klaus Janson.

    Please let me know if I missed any appearances.

If we put Oyama as 20 years old in 1945, that would have put him at close to 80 years old when he met Daredevil. Not completely unreasonable with good, clean living, but he's soon going to be old enough that he may need to have had some sort of age suppression factor.

A sword slash to the back? Since when is that fatal to a comic book character? Especially when he may have subjected himself to some sort of chemical that extended his life? C'mon...Dark Wind ain't dead!

Hachiman is the Shinto god of war and protector of the Japanese people.  That's my best guess for the Kami shown in that picture based on the info provided.   
Note: Yoshiro Hachiman is also the name of Decay of the Exemplars.
--Zen Harawada

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:


images: (without ads)
Daredevil I#197, p19, panel 6 (masked face),
            panel 7 (Kami/war god)
    #199 cover (main image)


Appearances:
Daredevil I#196 (July, 1983) - Denny O'Neil (writer), Larry Hama (breakdowns), Klaus Janson (artist), Linda Grant (editor)
Daredevil I#197 (August, 1983) - Denny O'Neil (writer), William Johnson (penciler), Mike Mignola (inker), Larry Hama (breakdowns p2-6), Klaus Janson (artist, p2-6), Linda Grant (editor)
Daredevil I#198-199 (September-October, 1983) - Denny O'Neil (writer), William Johnson (penciler), Danny Bulanadi (inker), Linda Grant (editor)
Alpha Flight I#34 (May, 1986) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema ("storyteller" - penciler), Gerry Talaoc (finisher/inker), Carl Potts (editor)
Wolverine minus 1 (July, 1997) - Larry Hama (writer), Cary Nord (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Mark Powers (assistant editor), Bob Harras (editor)
Rogue III#10 (June, 2005) - Tony Bedard (writer), Karl Moline (penciler), Rick Magyar (inker), Molly Lazer (assistant editor), Stephanie Moore (editor), Tom Brevoort (supervising editor)


First Posted: 11/24/2007
Last updated: 11/24/2007

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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