Nicholas Spaw (Universe-3.120151)

Appearance
Nick Spaw is a young male African-American with short black hair. He is of average height, with a slender yet muscular build. Due to his mutation, Nick has a tail that resembles that of a tiger. He also has thin whiskers that, to the naked eye, looks like stubble. Nick has said that he had a strange lump on his left butt cheek and a scar on his arm from when he was playing with a butter knife.

Conception and Early Life
After Shock defeated Richardson and was put in stasis, the spirit of the hero transferred out of his body. Instead of it going to someone gaining their powers, it entered the womb of a woman and became a child. Becoming a new entity, the spirit became Nicholas Spaw. Growing up with a younger brother and sister, Nick had to help take care of them. He was a child prodigy, excelling in school. He met his best friend and future surrogate brother, Chris Delasondro. At some point in time, he and Tyris grew into rivals.

Becoming The Claw
The Claw #1-15

One day on a field trip to a science lab, Nick was chased by bullies. While trying to escape, he ran into a poorly guarded lab and was pricked by a gene altering experiment. Once returning home, Nick passes out from the exhaustion of his DNA changing. When he awoke, he discovered that his body drastically changed, sprouting a tail and a fit body. Later that day he discovered that he gained powers of the cat genus such as superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, and senses.

Nick decided to use his new powers for good. After several nights of trying to master his abilities, Nick developed his costume and donned his new name: The Claw. After a month of being a vigilante, Chris became frustrated with Nick neglecting him and ends their friendship. But he soon forgave him after Nick saved him and accidentally revealed to Chris that he was The Claw.

Rise of Villains
A while later, Nick tries to join the school's football team using his powers. Because of his skills the coach assumed that he was using performance enhancing drugs. The officials asked Nick to take a drug test, which he agreed. The vice principal, Jack Hyne, was tasked with bringing the samples to be tested, but the strong ammonia tampered with with his sanity. Descending into insanity, Hyne formed the alter ego Psych. As Psych, Hyne executed numerous crimes, stealing weapons and technology. The Claw confronts Psych during on of his heists, but failed to stop him. A few days later, Hyne becomes completely insane and holds students and staff hostage with a bomb in the center of the school rigged to blow. Nick slips away and battles Psych as The Claw. After subduing the villain, The Claw disarmed the bomb and saved the school. Nick later investigates suspicious activity around a major technology manufacturing company TriTech. He tries to stop a heist of a team of thieves trying to steal weaponry from the warehouse, but fails to. Nick faces off with the team again when they rob a bank the next day. After subduing most of the team, the leader Drax takes their tech and uses it to battle Nick and narrowly escape. Nick crosses paths with Drax many times afterwards, also his right hand man, Bubba, who he helped escape.

The Hood, The Xterminators & J75
The Claw #24-38

Nick finds a new foe when he stops a group of thugs in the Harlem slums where he used to live. A hooded figure distracts Nick long enough for the thugs to escape and disappears. The next day, Nick defeats the same group of thugs who had somehow acquired plasma rifles. Nick investigates the neighborhood as The Claw. He encounters the hooded figure again, now calling himself The Hood, the two battle with The Hood being the victor. The Hood and Nick continue to battle while The Hood's empire in Harem grew. With a seemingly endless and anonymous funding, and dozens of troubled black teens, The Hood became practically unstoppable. The Claw met even greater foes when The Hood broke wannabe villains out of jail and helped them improve. The team of villains, Bow, Saw Blade, Porcuman, Boxer and Pitch formed the first roster of the Xterminators. They almost succeed in killing Nick but when The Hood step in to finish the job, they turn on him. The Hood then reveals that the improvements he gave them were harmful, resulting in the deaths of Pitch and Boxer, Porcuman's mutation, Saw Blade's anemia and Bow's inability to survive without his exoskeleton. The Claw and The Hood face off several times after the Xterminators. During one very close battle, The Hood knocked off Nick's helmet revealing his identity. The Hood then revealed his identity as Nick's childhood friend Juice. Juice explained that he wanted the world to be peaceful and look out for each other and to do so he created an organization that would conquer the world called Da Hood, which was funded by J75. After this their encounters became more personal. Nick and Juice fight for a final time in a warehouse, which was going to explode and kill everyone in the area. Juice sacrifices himself to save the people, and dies in Nick's arms. Nick faces one of the many challenges in his superhero career when Chris is targeted by the assassin Slaughter of J75. Chris, frustrated with Nick and his powers, accepts Slaughter's offer for him to undergo a surgery that gave Slaughter and Captain Tech their powers. Facing off with Chris, who was supposedly under J75's control, he had trouble fighting him, due to the fact that Chris' abilities rivaled his own and that he was his best friend. Chris reveals that he wasn't under their control (due to him not being smart) and would not become an agent. The two friends battle and beat Slaughter and became a crime fighting team.

Puma
The Claw #39-41

As time went by, Nick's stress of being The Claw grew. His grades were dropping, it was beginning to get harder to keep his identity secret as well as slip away to fight crime. At some point in time, he found a shard that prick him and gave him his powers. Nick began to work on an antidote for his mutation if he ever wanted to be normal again. He completed his antidote, but decided to keep it secret from Chris. Around that time, Nick's cousin Tyris visited his family from Boston. Before they could socialize, Nick gets a call from Chris about a crime. Tyris goes up to Nick's room and finds his antidote. In a moment of jealous rivalry, he takes someone to experiment on, pricking himself in the process. Soon after, Tyris gains similar powers as his cousin, and with them he takes on the persona Puma. After multiple run ins with each other, Nick confronts Puma as The Claw, battling him. The two stop their spat when a villain called Rat Trap threatens to conquer the world with his army of sewer dwelling rats. The Claw and Puma race Rat Trap but fail to subdue him due to their inability to work together. After Rat Trap escaped, Nick and Tyris decide to settle their differences in order to save the city. After defeating Rat Trap, they reveal their identities to each other. Nick out of kindness gives Tyris a grapple claw and a hairball shooters to start his career as a superhero.

Seladon Mutants
The Claw #41-49

Nick is called to Seladon, the same laboratory where he gained his powers by the scientists Dr. Edwin Poun and Dr. Thomas Seladon. They discovered that the experiment that Nick had been pricked by had be tampered and concluded that The Claw was responsible. They requested to perform tests on him, which he accepted at first. After several tests, Nick went off to stop some crooks. Poun, who was convinced that the same thing that happened to Nick would happen to him, injected himself with canine DNA. At first it seemed to work, but later that night he mutated into a grotesque monster. The doctor goes on a rampage and is confronted by The Claw and Commando, who gives Poun the name Hound. The heroes subdue Hound and allow officers to take him away. Sometime later, Psych escapes from his prison and goes on the run. He breaks into Seladon where he hacks into the database and discovers The Claw's secret identity. He takes blood samples of Nick's blood and uses it to gain powers. Psych continued on to give the blood samples to his former student, Jack Durham, who hated The Claw and with his powers he took on the new identity Jock. Psych then injects the blood into his nephew, turning him into a wild beast he called Fluffy. Psych as well as his mutant allies each confronted The Claw individually and all failed. They all managed to escape and continued to battle the hero. Nick must battle yet another friend when his childhood pal Alonzo is mutated by a poorly discarded vial of Mutagex, turning him into Fission. First encountering him alone in Time Square, Nick had trouble subduing him because of the vast amounts of radiation emitting from his body. Though difficult, Nick defeated him, sending Fission coursing through the city's power grid. The two battle once again a few nights later, but the problem with the radiation continued to rack Spaw body, making it impossible to go near him. With the help of Dr. Seladon, Nick was able to combat Fission with a radiation proof, heavy-duty armor. It held its own against Fission for a majority of the battle but the villain proved too much for the suit and destroyed it, leaving Nick helpless against the radiation as he finally subdued him once and for all. Unfortunately, because of the fight, Nick contracted cancer. Seladon assisted with the treatment by constructing a chamber that would accelerate Nick's healing factor. Meanwhile, Chris took over the superhero duties and, temporarily, the mantle of The Claw. As more mutated humans began to appear, a new superhuman girl who goes by the costume persona Quik suddenly shows up to help Nick and Chris. Reluctant to let her join due to her lack of background information, there was friction between she and Chris. After facing off with Bubba, Quik revealed her identity as Mia Parks and joined the team.

Starlight
The Claw #50-55

After taking down more villains, press slandered the heroes names, saying that they couldn't save everyone from everything. At the same time a very suspicious acting new girl joins Nick's school. A crane malfunctions one day and destroys a skyscraper. The heroes hurry to help, Quik and Commando helping the people while The Claw shut down the crane. The Claw fails to shut it down in time and the building starts to fall. Out of nowhere, a flying woman stops the falling building and puts it back. She then throws the crane into the ocean and flies away. The flying woman appears again when an airplane malfunctions and was about to crash into the city. Nick, Chris and Mia try and soften the landing with a tornado, but were outdone by the woman stops the plane. After letting all the passengers off of the plane, she throws the plane far from the city, which angered Nick. After a tense arguement, the woman flew away. Being discreated by the news more than ever, the hero trio continued to serve and fight crime. While trying to stop a bank robbery, the woman steps in again and stops the criminals, seriously injuring them and almost harming civilians. Nick blew up at her for endangering the people, almost willing to fight her. One night at the Port of New York and New Jersey, a Ditan from Teevee attacks workers. Despite using their best weapons, the heroes couldn't hurt the creature. When the Ditan was about to kill Nick, the flying woman comes in and saves him. The woman and Ditan battle, which results in the destruction of Time Square. Nick, Chris and Mia help fight the creature, drawing it back to the port and trapping it into the ocean. They take the injured woman to Mia's House where it's revealed that she was the new girl, Tracy Gonzalez, going by the name Starlight. They discover that Tracy was the princess of Teevee and the unofficial queen. After training Tracy on how to control her powers, the heroes prepare to battle the Ditan who emerges from the ocean. With Mia helping evacuate the civilians, Nick, Chris and Tracy battle the Ditan in a small neighborhood. Unable to beat it, Tracy recieves the true power from the Star Band and destroys the creature. Thanking the trio of heroes, making sure to kiss Nick for dealing with her, Tracy flies to Teevee to save her country and gains her throne.

In The Shadows and The Tunnel
The Claw #60-80

After the ordeal with Starlight and the numerous other battles, the people of New York demanded the trio of heroes to pay for the damage in the battles. NIck, Chris and Mia go to the press, denying their affiliation with Starlight, stating that they were doing their jobs and Starlight was just fighting on her own accord. The city doesn't believe this unfortunately and police threaten to arrest them. They decide to lie low, but it was difficult to when they had to do their superhero duties and avoid being arrested. Nick comes up with the idea to go out with different superhero personas. Going out as the vigilante Shadow, Nick and his friends patrol the city at night.

They manage to do this for a while without any problems until Nick runs into a gang of vigilantes apart of a secret underground organization called The Tunnel. He befriends the organization's leader SK8 despite them having a hatred for his alternate identity The Claw. Nick becomes a member of The Tunnel, assisting many of their members with their own patrols. When the damage costs are paid for by an anonymous source, the trio go back to their main personas, but Nick still goes around as Shadow with The Tunnel. He faces trouble when one of The Tunnel's most powerful members Crash grows corrupt and fights for his own personal gain. His behavior rubs off on Nick, who inadvertently creates a split life between The Claw and Shadow. When his late night antics effect his day time heroic duties, Chris and Mia request for him to stop.

When Crash becomes fully evil, Nick assists The Tunnel as Shadow but accidentally brings Commando and Quik into the fray. After nearly escaping death from the first encounter, Nick reveals himself to be The Claw to his new allies who in turn shun him. Nick and his friends continue to fight together against Crash and defeat him. In the process of doing so, Nick wins back the trust from The Tunnel and is accepting into the organization once more.

Claw No More
The Claw #82-87

Shortly after the incident with The Tunnel,

As The Claw

 * Superhuman strength- After being mutated, Nick gained strength far greater than that of a normal man. With his strength he can easily lift cars, break concrete and destroy heavy machinery.
 * Superhuman speed- Nick acquired speed far greater than that of a human. He can easily out run cars on foot and reach speeds of over 100 mph in a sprint.
 * Superhuman senses- With DNA of feline origin, Nick has eyes that can see things practically miles away, ears that can detect the faintest sounds and a nose that can smell the slightest scent.
 * Whiskers- A part of his mutation, Nick grew faint stubble that act like whiskers. With them, he acquired a heightened sense of environmental awareness. Sort of like a sixth sense, he can detect danger as well as a number of other things.
 * Superb agility- Also due to his feline DNA, accompanied by his whiskers, Nick can perform acrobatic stunts that are impossible for a normal human, such as scaling buildings like it was second nature.
 * Superhuman reflexes- With his sixth sense, Nick's reflexes are beyond that of trained professionals. Able to dodge automatic fire with ease, he can also use his grapple devices without looking at where he's aiming.
 * Superhuman equilibrium- Because of his mutation, Nick has a superb sense of balance, sometimes finding it impossible to fall.
 * Claws- Nick has retractable claws that resemble ordinary human fingernails that are able to slice through metal and concrete.
 * Roar- A special ability discovered on one of his adventures, the Roar is a powerful sound blast that fires from his mouth, resembling a wild cat's roar. It is powerful enough to tip a train on its side, wipeout entire armies, easily blow holes in walls and even hurt a Ditan.
 * Superb intelligence- An ability he had prior to his superhero career, Nick is one of the most intelligent people on Earth. He designed his own gadgets, solved equations faster than a supercomputer by 5 seconds, and even technically stumped himself in an argument with a A.I. with the exact same brain flux.
 * Healing factor- With Healer being his father, he contracted the healing factor gene for himself. Before actually activating the laten gene, he could heal from wounds in minutes or hours depending on how severe.
 * Superhuman durability- Even if he didn't have his healing factor, Nick could take very powerful attacks. He took on several tank shells to the chest and fell hundreds of stories on to a car.

As Shadow

 * Ninja Training- Due losing his precognition abilities, Spaw was invited to the Shadow Clan of Ninjas School in order to learn a substitute. Once he lost all of his powers, he continued to learn how to be a ninja. These skills helped him continue to pose as The Claw and amplified his powers when he later regain them. He never really used them anymore until he began to do rogue missions as Shadow.
 * The Roar- A sound attack created for when he lost his powers, "The Roar" is almost as strong as his actual roar but is harder to maintain and perform.
 * Wall Walking- A beginning technique in the ninja world, Spaw learned this move to make it appear that he still has his powers. He uses variants of it occasionally, but like all of his other ninja techniques he shelved it.
 * Clones- One of his illusion techniques, Spaw can make it look like he has cloned himself

As The Claw

 * Costume- Though he has many costumes his primary ones are the Original Claw Coustume and The C.O.R.E. issued. Each are almost exacly the same except that the original was a homemade suit made of durable but heavy material while the C.O.R.E. issue was made of light weight nearly indestructible fabric. Both suit comes woth the standard equipment
 * Helmet- Used to conceal his identity, The Claw's helmet is an undisputed requirement for him. Besides using it as a mask, the helmet also amplifies his hearing to unbelievable levels. The helmet is wirelessly connected to a supercomputer he had been building for years that is wired into a police scanner. It scans objects and surroundings, giving him function, problems, calculations, etc. The lenses focus his vision, shields from glare and also has infared vision.
 * Grapple Claws- Most used and important piece of equipment in The Claw's arsenal, the grapple claws were designed to make up for the lengths that Spaw couldn't reach due to the weight of his early costume. They have been modified to be apart of his suit. It is said that he relies on them too much, which he admits. The Claw uses them not only for transportation but for rescue, restraints, reeling, disarming and arming himself. He keeps numerous backups on his person at all times. They are strong enough to hold Pound back and able to support several tons.
 * Hair Ball Shooters- Taking inspiration from a neighborhood alley cat, Spaw manufactured a gadget than fired various adhesive and versatile pellets. The type of "hairballs" that are shot can vary from standard sticky, to explosive, and extra strength.
 * Clawmour- A heavy duty mechsuit designed by Dr Seladon to battle Fisson without harm, the Clawmour suit is a power force. Equipped with a sound wave amplifier powered by his roar, rocket jets and coated with a gold-titanium alloy, it can take just about anything. HIs whiskers are connected to the central command so he can use it as if it were his own body.

Weaknesses

 * Shaving- If Nick shaved his facial hair, not only would he loose his sixth sense, but he'd loose his balance in general. He wouldn't even be able to literally see straight. They are extremely sensitive, especially around those with whiskers as well. The closer they are the harder it is to coordinate and if they happened to touch, they would not be able to move their bodies on command.
 * Tail- The Claw's tail is a vital area to him and if someone happened to grab it in a certain place, he'd immediately become weaker than a human.
 * Mental block- Though having godlike powers, Nick refused to be more than just a mutant. The mental barriers block out his omnipotent power. Only by meditation he can access these powers.