Cardiac



Inspired by the death of his brother, Elias Wirtham set out to right the wrongs that slip through the cracks. He is the vigilante heart of justice. He is Cardiac.

Origin
Eli Wirtham and his young brother were close as kids. So when his brother died of a rare disease, Eli vowed to become a great healer to honor his brother and help those in need. Through his studies, he discovered that a company had developed a cure to the same ailment his brother had suffered and died from. Over time he built a medical empire using his business prowess and intellect, eventually buying the company that had developed the cure that could have saved his brother's life. One day when he was looking over the company's records, he discovered the company had developed the cure years before, but they kept it off the market until the economy was more profitable. This happened to take place while his brother was still alive. If the company put life before profit, he would likely still be alive. Outraged over this information, Eli made another vow: to not let justice slip through the cracks because of technicalities and greed ever again.

Eli underwent an operation and had his heart replaced with a artifical heart, capable of generating vast amounts of power electrical charges. He then developed a staff to focus the energy into concusive blast, able to blow holes in concrete and steel. He also created a psuedo-skin made out of vibranium mesh to help protect him in dangerous situations. Coupled with the padding from his costume, Eli can vault over high walls and jump from great hieghts without getting hurt. With these new powers, he became Cardiac; a heart that beats for justice.

On his mission of destroying factories, he has encountered battle Spider-Man (both Parker and Reilly) numerous times. Despite never seeing eye-to-eye with the wall crawler, it's clear he has no real intention to do critical harm when Parker gets in his way. During one of these encounters, he took on the duo of Styx and Stone, even blasting their glider out of the air. He's also bumped heads with Rhino, managing to KO the brute with a blast from his staff. In the middle of one encounter with Spider-Man, Boomerang interfered and disabled Cardiac with a boomerang that shuts down technology. However, upon recovering Cardiac was able to sink a massive boat with the power from his blast. While briefly teaming up with Solo, Cardiac faced a bone claw version of Wolverine twice. Black Cat and Spider-Man were in his way once, but despite his power he was slugged in the face by Spider-Man while giving Black Cat a bearhug. He then flew away on his bird. He also had a stalemate with Chance before teaming up with the flying character. Eli also teamed up with Nightwatch and took on his first and only unique enemy, Cardiaxe. Naturally, we haven't seen that enemy since. And finally, on another mission he faced off with Scorpion, who was hired to protect the location. Injured by being shot multiple times, Cardiac performed well against the Spider-Man villain, dodging some of Gargan's attack and slugging the villain across the jaw. But then Eli became light headed from the damage he previously suffered. Scorpion gained the momentum, but Cardiac used his glider to evade the enemy. They encounter one more time, but Cardiac swiftly ended it by blasting Scorpion's tail, resulting in the device flailing and sending Gargan down an elevator shaft.

Cardiac has only appeared twice in recent years. Once for a short encounter with Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up (2007), and finally Cardiac appeared in a short story during Fear Itself. It served as essentially "Cardiac 101" for new readers, laying out his motivation and goals with some excellent artwork. Unfortunately, that was the last we saw of the hero. He is set to return in the pages of Superior Spider-Man with issue #8.

Power and Abilities
Electrical Generation: Cardiac's artifical heart generates excess huge amounts of beta particles which he can discharge by through his hands or via his staff. He can modify how much force he produces. It can be weak enough to lightly knock out a human, or powerful enough to sink an entire vessel.

Power Staff: Cardiac uses it to focus the energy from his body into concussive blasts that are powerful enough to bring down entire buildings and it can even knock out durable opponents like Rhino. The staff can be disguised as a walking stick and activated by a surge of energy from his hand. Cardiac also uses the staff to vault walls and fences, as well as engage enemies in close combat.

Flight: Cardiac can signal a remote-controlled, beta-propelled stingray hang glider (which he calls "bird") to carry him to and from destinations by hooking onto his staff and dragging him behind. He is able to channel his energy blasts through his glider the same way as he can through his battle staff.

Strength: Cardiac has superhuman strength and he can lift up to 15 tons.

Accuracy: Cardiac has never tagged an in motion Spider-Man, but he has a few impressive showings under his belt. He's tagged Styx and Stone's fleeing glider, Spider-Man's webbing (with a melee attack), and Scorpion's tail during combat.

Speed / Agility: Cardiac has some very impressive speed and agility showings. He has shown that he is able to dodge multiple bullets, blasts from Stone, tail strikes from Scorpion, and even Spider-Man's webbing.

Durability: Due to the vibranium mesh and armor, Cardiac is very durable and difficult to injure. He has proven capable of withstanding gunfire from pistols and submachine guns, but the damage can take its toll on the hero.