Charles Williams
From Herocopia
Vitals
Real Name: Charles Raymond Williams
Born: October 19, 1946
Debut: Astro City/Arrowsmith The Flip Book
Hometown: Astro City in Bakerville neighborhood
Occupation: Vigilante; former E.A.G.L.E. trooper; former Police Officer
History
After their parents were killed in 1959 during a conflict between the heroic Silver Agent and a PYRAMID Assault Squad, Charles and Royal Williams grew up following very different paths. But they stayed close, until 1973, when turmoil in the city drove a rift between them, shattering their long but shaky friendship.
On that fateful day in October 14, 1959, Charles and Royal's life changed in so many ways. After the first big clash between Pyramid and Honor Guard ended up in Bakerville and created a stir, leaving Pyramid troops everywhere. While Royal was the good one and smart one, Charles was the leader and general troublemaker. After the Black Badge met up with them encouraging them to help report the knocked out Pyramid troops. He'd also noticed Charles, stealing an apple from Orrin's Grocery and facetiously warned the boys about seeing a kid steal from the market. But it did help inspire the boys and give them a more hopeful outlook and encouraged Charles to turn things around. But that evening was when another Pyramid retrieval unit was coming around to get lost technology and battling on the rooftops with the Silver Agent. The leader of the group came into the Williams house and killed their parents and went on looking for an escape. As the brothers were hiding and scared, the Silver Agent came by, apparently unaware of the two, just going on his way tracking down the killer. The brothers never got over the events of that day and night.
As a kid, Charles was more of a troublemaker until the meeting with the Black Badge inspired him to turn around his hoodlum ways. After the tragic incident with his parents, Charles became more interested in trying to make order of the chaos of the world and became a police officer. Both he and his brother naturally had a deep distrust of heroes. Charles was more that he wanted to be able to prove we could get along fine without them, destroying property and taking collateral damage with peoples lives. Even into adulthood, Charles was always looking to be the protector to his younger brother, who often resented that, even letting him slip away after a crime. In 1972, Charles' fiancee, Darnice, whom Royal easily pegged as a "golddigger" when Charles could not seem to face the fact, putting another difference into their already rocky relationship. Eventually Royal had to return Charles, after becoming involved with the Scarpelli Mob and making him a target of the Blue Knight needing protection and supplies while he hid in the sewers. On the day of the Silver Agent's death and Madame Majestrix's Invasion, the Blue Knight had tracked Royal down again and was ready to kill him. But Charles stepped in one more time protecting his younger brother. He told the Knight, who was secretly Charles' partner Josh Stone, 'That he'd have to kill a cop, if that meant anything to him, if he wanted to kill Royal.' The Knight backed down and led to continued estrangement over the next three to four years.
By 1976, Charles had been promoted to the major crimes division on the Astro City Police Department and he had married Darnice. But the downside was that his marriage was always rocky and Darnice was more interested than spending his money than being with him and the fact that he was stuck with a corrupt partner and unit on the force. And Inspector Saaf was trying to get Charles to point fingers and help weed out the corruption, but Charles wanted no part of it. When, Darnice found about Charles' refusal of bribes, she moved out and left him. He tried to date others, but found himself not caring and preoccupied with other things. His refusal to go along and take bribes with his partners, eventually got him shot in the back and left for dead by his fellow lawmen. By happenstance it was a dropoff point for Joey Platypus's weapons cache and Royal was on his way there and discovered him still alive. Unable to break a communications jam, he started firing off major weapons to draw police attention. It was successful and they managed to get Charles attention, though Royal was arrested, but not before being able to see that his brother was still alive and telling him he found Aubrey Jason, the man responsible for killing their parents.
While recuperating from his injuries and while Royal was in jail, Charles came up with the plan to help track down Jason, by planting Royal within Pyramid. Charles at the point was almost totally revenge minded, even after getting into E.A.G.L.E. after leaving the police force to further his goal of tracking Jason down.
Charles helped Royal escape from a base during an E.A.G.L.E. raid in April 1982, but Royal just drifted back into Astro City and eventually told Charles, 'he only told him about Aubrey Jason, so it would give him something to cling to to pull him out of his coma," not realizing how far and obsessive Charles would become.
By the date of the Silver Agent's return and the Rise of Kerresh the Devastator, Charles himself had infiltrated Pyramid, looking to further track down Jason and help give E.A.G.L.E info. During the events and battles, Charles found that Royal was himself secretly back in the Astro City base and found out that Aubrey Jason was back in Astro City and about to receive a promotion to the inner ring of Pyramid's leaders. Charles was initially going to report to E.A.G.L.E. about the capture of the Apollo Eleven, but Royal questioned what he was truly here for.
The brothers did come face to face with Jason and were about to go through with killing him, when a stray blast from Kerresh the Devastator turned the tables on them. Soon, they were knocked out and Jason had them within his grasp. But another battle going on between the Omega Rangers and Pyramid, separated them from Jason. Injured, they did get medical help, with Jason watching from the shadows and later vowed to continue their mission of getting revenge on Aubrey Jason.
Over the next two years, the brothers tracked Jason and hounded him out of Marrakesh, Haiti, Oslo, Upstate New York and Burma. Charles even tried to use the powers of Nostradamien to their advantage.
The brothers were operating out of one of the Underlord's former bases and in a twist of irony, were both in costumes and using whatever technology at their disposal. They were able to track Jason after he left Burma to San Diego and eventually to Las Vegas.
The brothers were making their way towards Ganss' hideout, as well as Mirage, Hellhound and the Silver Agent battling Ganss' Dynamoids. Just as the brothers arrive, Ganss has transformed Jason, into a powerful being. He had the ability to read the Williams brothers minds and manipulate energy. After he started threatening them, the other heroes arrived with a bang causing a distraction. This allowed Charles and Royal to blast Dr. Ganss' machine, with the power transfer not complete and sent what was left of Jason in pain and in the wreckage. Though once they did find him, in his weakened state, a blast of energy rejuvenated his new body, though unstable, let Jason get away from the brothers, heroes and other authorities.
Charles and Royal also came face to face with the Silver Agent again, who was trying to stop the Final Crisis Point. The brothers were too busy and managed to get away from the heroes and E.A.G.L.E.
The brothers returned to Astro City waiting for Jason to pop up. Charles, using his former E.A.G.L.E. connections managed to intercept data that showed Jason breaking into a Tuscon facility and stealing a piece of the Sekhmet Stone and expanding his power.
A couple of days later, Jason was back in Astro City and the brothers had tracked him down again. After confronting Jason, in which he had now became Lord Sovereign, he dispatched his mind-controlled Liegemen to stand in the way.
During the fight, The Silver Agent appeared and explained that Sovereign and the Pale Horseman who had just started his reign were tapping into the rift in reality caused by the Point Man two years before and he was trying to shut it down. He deputized the two brothers to distract Lord Sovereign so he could power down his machines. Charles reacted more angrily but both brothers ended up helping.
By this time though, the Pale Horseman had noticed Lord Sovereign dipping into his power source. Sovereign seemed to have the upper hand, knocking the Horseman across the river and almost had Royal drained as well, before Charles shot him in the back. And in the course of this the Agent had managed to shut down all of the machines and Sovereign started to escape.
The brothers were about to make chase, when the Agent fell off a collapsing floor and was hanging on for his life. Royal's natural instincts kicked in and gave him a hold even with thinking back to the Agent passing them by as young kids. Charles wanted him to forget about the Agent and keep on. But Royal wouldn't do so, not wanting to be part of the dark reflections he was seeing and feeling. As they both started falling, Charles naturally went to help his brother and saved both. In that time, Lord Sovereign and the Pale Horseman blinked out of existence.
The Agent thanked the two brothers for their help as he reassured the Astro City populace the worse was behind them. And the hatred the brothers had for the Agent seemed to finally evaporate, as not being worth it and the retaliation wouldn't have ended there.
After that the brothers left town, first to the Gulf of Mexico for a few years then later to Baja California.
In 2010, Elliot Mills was visiting the brothers in Baja California for a book he was writing on the "Dark Age" of Astro City and he decided to make Charles and Royal's story the focus. It was here he revealed that Charles and Royal were just aliases for the brothers so their real names wouldn't be known.
Apppearances
Astro City/Arrowsmith The Flip Book
Astro City: The Dark Age Book One #1, 2, 3, 4
Astro City: The Dark Age Book Two #1, 2, 3, 4
Astro City: The Dark Age Book Three #1, 2, 3, 4
Astro City: The Dark Age Book Four #1, 2, 3, 4
