SAVAGE STEEL

Real Name: Paul Trent

Identity/Class: Human technology user

Occupation: Vigilante;
formerly police officer

Group Membership: The Cabal (Billy, Ernie, Vinnie, others)

Affiliations: The Cabal (Billy, Ernie, Vinnie, others);
formerly Harry Lennox, Johnny Leone, Mike Powell, Jimmy Zafar

Enemies: Philippe Bazin, Darkhawk (Chris Powell), Harry Lennox, Johnny Leone, Mike Powell, Punisher (Frank Castle), Arthur Vale, Jimmy Zafar

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: A Cabal hideout in Brooklyn, New York, USA;
formerly an abandoned service station at the corner of Allen and Delaney Streets in Manhattan, New York, USA

First Appearance: Darkhawk I#4 (June, 1991)

Powers/Abilities: Paul Trent had no superhuman powers but was a trained hand-to-hand combatant and marksman due to his time as a police officer. He often carried a gun and briefly wielded a Stane-designed superweapon capable of blasting a hole through a brick building.

The Savage Steel armor granted Trent superhuman Class 75 strength and housed a variety of weaponry and equipment including hand blasters that fired multi-directional, high-frequency electric bolts, gas grenades, flares, sonic offensive weaponry, a built-in targeting computer and self-contained air supply with a maximum of one hour's worth of oxygen. The armor could also fly via built-in boot jets.

Height: (as Trent): Unrevealed; (as Savage Steel): 7'0"
Weight: (as Trent): Unrevealed; (as Savage Steel): 620 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Red

History: (Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Master Edition I#36 - Savage Steel entry (fb) - BTS) - High school graduate Paul Trent later graduated from the police academy, where he trained in hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship to become a police officer.

(Darkhawk I#15 (fb) - BTS/Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Master Edition I#36 - Savage Steel entry (fb) - BTS) - Paul Trent joined the radical rogue group of police officers known as the Cabal and, after the Cabal purchased the Stark-designed, Stane-modified Savage Steel armor to be their "edge against crime," Trent and the other Cabal members were to take turns wearing the armor to punish criminals.

(Darkhawk I#15 (fb)) - Trent was wearing the Savage Steel armor when most of the Cabal and himself decided that killing the criminals was the only solution to stop crime, prompting Cabal members Mike Powell and Harry Lennox to leave the Cabal.

(Darkhawk I#4) - Paul Trent donned the Savage Steel armor to field test it against a gang of drug smugglers. Savage Steel appeared as Darkhawk was investigating a cocaine deal near the Lilliput ship, grabbing Darkhawk and punching him aside. Announcing that Darkhawk had picked the wrong night to meddle, Savage Steel managed to knock Darkhawk's helmet off and was shocked at the face beneath the helmet. Taking advantage of Savage Steel's shock, Darkhawk blasted Savage Steel with his amulet, prompting Savage Steel to fire his own blast before ripping the wing off a plane to hit Darkhawk. Darkhawk retreated into the rafters of the airplane hangar, where he used his grappling hook to drop a plane on top of Savage Steel. Darkhawk then noticed the drug smugglers leaving and flew after them, only to be knocked aside by Savage Steel, who attacked the smugglers himself, killing them. Later that evening, Savage Steel met with the other Cabal members and suggested that perhaps he should not have attacked Darkhawk but insisted that he could not take the chance of Darkhawk ruining his attack on the drug smugglers. Savage Steel then announced that the Cabal would keep to their agenda to show criminals they were not safe anywhere, warning that if Darkhawk ended up in their way, he too would die.

(Darkhawk I#9) - Savage Steel was tasked with finding and killing the Punisher, as well as anyone else who got in his way. Tracking down Punisher as the vigilante was killing several men who had stolen weapons from A.I.M., Savage Steel targeted Punisher and snuck up to attack, forcing Punisher to duck for cover behind a brick smokestack. Punisher soon escaped but the arms dealers followed and forced Punisher to flee into a mall, where Chris Powell transformed into Darkhawk to aid Punisher before Savage Steel erupted through a wall to continue his mission to kill Punisher. Realizing the arms dealers were just as dangerous, Savage Steel took down several of the men before noticing the injured Darkhawk. Claiming he would help Darkhawk after he took care of the arms dealers, Savage Steel then asked for help against the arms dealer from Punisher, suggesting that perhaps he could talk his people into calling off the kill directive against the vigilante in exchange for his assistance against the arms dealers. After teaming with Punisher to kill all of the arms dealers present, Savage Steel predictably turned on the Punisher, claiming that he was targeted because he refused to work with the Cabal. Darkhawk attempted to aid the Punisher by using his grappling hook to pull back Savage Steel's arm but Savage Steel blasted Darkhawk back and renewed his focus on killing Punisher. Punisher fired several rounds into Savage Steel to no avail and Savage Steel managed to get Punisher into a chokehold before a recovered Darkhawk returned and blasted Savage Steel from behind. As Savage Steel, surprised to see Darkhawk recovered, battled Darkhawk, Punisher picked up one of the A.I.M. weapons dropped by the arms dealers and blasted Savage Steel. Preparing to kill Savage Steel, Punisher was talked into letting Savage Steel go by Darkhawk, who felt as if Savage Steel had killed enough people that day to be sent to jail for life. While the injured Savage Steel laid on the ground, Punisher and Darkhawk discussed what to do about Savage Steel as Punisher inched his way around Darkhawk in hopes of getting a clear kill shot at Savage Steel. When Darkhawk got in the way of Punisher's blast, Savage Steel managed to stand up and prepared to kill both Punisher and Darkhawk until the police arrived and ordered Savage Steel to stand down. Realizing his non-lethal weaponry had been disabled when the Punisher shot him and not wishing to kill police officers, Savage Steel fired at the ground for a diversion and flew off into the night with his faltering boot jets.

(Darkhawk I Annual#1 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Trent was caught and arrested, his armor taken into custody. A man named Arthur Vale drove the truck carrying Trent's Savage Steel armor and decided to confiscate for himself to use as the new Savage Steel.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Master Edition I#36 - Savage Steel entry (fb) - BTS) - While convicted in prison, Trent earned a criminal record and his identity as Savage Steel became known to the authorities.

(Darkhawk I Annual#1 - BTS) - Apparently unaware of Trent's incarceration and identity as Savage Steel, Darkhawk searched a Bensonhurst construction site looking for Savage Steel, unaware that he was being watched by Tony Stark and Jim Rhodes, who considered him as dangerous as Savage Steel and who knew about the Cabal financing the Savage Steel armor and persona. Stark questioned Darkhawk's origins while admitting that he had lost sleep over his involvement in the Savage Steel armor's creation. Donning his Iron Man armor, Stark remarked that even if Savage Steel and Darkhawk were not entirely products of his technology, it was his responsibility to find out more about each of them.

(Darkhawk I Annual#1/5) - After rescuing Arthur Vale from assassination at the hands of a Cabal member, former Cabal member Jimmy Zafar visited the cell of Harry Lennox, where Paul Trent and other incarcerated Cabal members were beating Lennox up. Remarking that Lennox was always a moron and that he had lost the Cabal when he stole the Savage Steel armor to play hero, Trent was ordered to freeze by Zafar, who interrupted the fight with a gun. Trent was then handcuffed to a pipe with the other Cabal members and Trent exclaimed that the traitorous Zafar would now be a marked man in the eyes of the Cabal, prompting Zafar to remark that he didn't kill and that was why he had left the Cabal to begin with. Continuing to rant, Trent claimed that Grace Powell was no longer of use to the Cabal now that her husband (and former Cabal member) Mike Powell was dead. Trent then admitted that killing Grace now would only make her a martyr and reminded Zafar that he was the one who killed for the Cabal, having fought both Darkhawk and Punisher as Savage Steel. Trent then accused Lennox of ruining the Cabal's plans by trying to be Savage Steel himself and accused Zafar of being an outdated dinosaur just like Mike Powell. Zafar warned Trent not to insult Powell and accused Trent and the Cabal of becoming no better than the criminals they killed but Trent told Zafar to get out of his face. Agreeing, Zafar gathered together Lennox and Vale and left Trent and the other Cabal members handcuffed to the pipe in their prison cell. The next morning in the prison mess hall, Trent and the others read in the newspaper that Zafar, Vale and Lennox had apparently been gunned down, unaware that the trio had faked their deaths, and remarked on how someone had done their work for them while Trent and the others all had gotten sympathy for being handcuffed to a pipe.

(Darkhawk I#24) - Following a release from prison (whether through legitimate channels or otherwise), Paul Trent and some of the Cabal members learned that Arthur Vale was alive and well, living in a mobile home in Staten Island, New York. Traveling there, Trent participated in an attack on Vale, where they learned that Vale, Zafar and Lennox had faked their deaths with the help of the police. Leaving the beaten Vale on the ground, Trent thanked Vale for the information on the Cabal's behalf, informing Vale that they would have to take him with them when they killed Lennox and Zafar to assure Vale was telling the truth. When his ally Stew found weapons in Vale's garage, Trent commented that the weapons were nice stuff.

(Darkhawk I#26/2) - With the Cabal, Paul Trent traveled to the safehouse where Jimmy Zafar, Harry Lennox and Johnny Leone were under watch by the FBI. Once there, Trent and the Cabal members masked themselves and attacked the safehouse using a Stane-designed gun they had found in Vale's garage while another Cabal agent watched over the bound Vale.

(Darkhawk I#27/2) - After one of the Cabal members blew away the table that Zafar, Lennox and Leone were using for cover, Jimmy Zafar recognized Paul Trent and exclaimed that he would turn Trent in. Trent accused Zafar of being out of touch with reality and Zafar replied that the Cabal was supposed to be about justice not murder, prompting Trent to remark that Savage Steel had given murder victims justice by avenging the victims' deaths. Trent then led Zafar, Lennox and Leone outside and announced that the entire Cabal would fire on them at once so that they would all be responsible for their former allies' deaths. Before the Cabal could kill Zafar and the others, a duo of police officers shot Arthur Vale, who had escaped Cabal imprisonment and was preparing to fire on the Cabal to save Zafar and his allies. Upon seeing the police, Trent fired his gun at the building to create falling debris, which the Cabal used as a distraction to escape police custody.

(Darkhawk I Annual#2/4 - BTS) - From their Brooklyn, New York headquarters, Paul Trent and the other Cabal were preparing an explosive device to use against their enemies when the explosive went off, killing Trent and ten other Cabal members before they could acquire a new suit of Savage Steel armor.

Comments: Created by Danny Fingeroth, Mike Manley and Ricardo Villigran.

Paul Trent was not identified by name until Darkhawk I#27, nearly two years after Savage Steel's first appearance in Darkhawk I#4. A red-haired member of the Cabal claimed to have been the Savage Steel who battled Darkhawk I#4 & #9 and online sources list Darkhawk I#4, 9, 15 & 27 as appearances of Trent. With that in mind, the red-haired man seems likely to be the actual Paul Trent, who would have been in the Savage Steel armor in Darkhawk I#4 & #9 for sure. Unfortunately, coloring and art errors in Darkhawk I#27 lead to some confusion as to which Cabal member was Paul Trent, as the man claiming to be Trent in that issue was alternately depicted as a large African-American or a larger, brown-haired Caucasian man. We do see the red-haired man as part of the Cabal attack in Darkhawk I#26 so it seems likely he would also be there in #27 so I'm guessing his depiction as an African-American was a coloring error (the story somewhat suffers from that, as a police officer's uniform is colored pink in that story as well) and his depiction as a larger man was likely due to the appearance of a larger, brown-haired man standing near the red-haired man among the Cabal in Darkhawk I#26. My theory is that Paul Trent is the slender, red-haired Cabal member who was in the Savage Steel armor in Darkhawk I#4, 9 and the flashback in #15, as well as the unarmored, unidentified red-haired Cabal member seen in Darkhawk I Annual#1, Darkhawk I#24 & #26. If something later proves otherwise, I will adjust this profile as needed.

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Savage Steel has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Darkhawk I#4, p15, pan1 (Trent as Savage Steel, punching Darkhawk, main image)
Darkhawk I Annual#1, p52, pan3 (Paul Trent unmasked)
Darkhawk I#4, p22, pan4 (Savage Steel, headshot in armor)
Darkhawk I#26, p18, splash page (masked Paul Trent with gun)

Appearances:
Darkhawk I#4 (June, 1991) - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Mike Manley (pencils), Ricardo Villigran (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)
Darkhawk I#9 (November, 1991) - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Mike Manley (pencils, inks), Ricardo Villigran (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Darkhawk I#15 (May, 1992) - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Mike Manley (pencils), Ricardo Villigran (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Darkhawk I Annual#1 (1992) - "Search (Assault on Armor City, Part 1)" story - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Mike Manley (art), Nel Yomtov (editor); "The Cabal" story - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Kev Hopgood (pencils), Bud LaRosa (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Darkhawk I#24 (February, 1993) - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Mike Manley (pencils), Tim Dzon, Aaron McClellan (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Darkhawk I#26 (April, 1993) - "Beyond the Law!" story - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Al Garvey (pencils), Mike DeCarlo (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Darkhawk I#27 (May, 1993) - "A Tale of the Cabal" story - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Al Bigley (pencils), Mike DeCarlo (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Darkhawk I Annual#2 (1993) - "Savage is the Night" story - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Scott Kolins (pencils), Tim Dzon (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Master Edition I#36 (November, 1993) - Peter Sanderson, Murray Ward, Glenn Herdling (writers), Keith Pollard (pencils), Josef Rubinstein (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)

First Posted: 03/09/2019
Last updated: 03/09/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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