History: The Society of the Golden Wing, comprised of the Kendall family and their associates were determined to breed a flying man. In the 1960s' they bombarded a pregnant Kendall woman with radiation, and her child Ryan was born a mutant. Ryan was raised by Creighton Kendall, leader of the Golden Wing, who sheltered him from the outside world and subjected him to various chemical treatments to enhance his natural-born powers. One treatment put Ryan into a coma and he was committed to the Franklyn Special Care Facility. Ryan came out of his coma two years later and moved to Pine Barrens, New Jersey where he lived as a recluse. He befriended park ranger Ned David Smith, who gave him the name Black Condor and encouraged him to take up a life of superheroics.

(Justice Leagues: Justice League of Aliens #1, Justice Leagues: JLA #1) - When the Advance Man made the world forgot that the JLA ever existed the individual members still had a vague memory of the team and formed their own Justice Leagues. Black Condor was recruited to be in Green Lantern IV’s Justice League of Air. The League of Air aided Martian Manhunter’s Justice League of Aliens quell an outbreak of human mutation in California that was caused by the Advance Man. Advance Man’s client, Plura, arrived on Earth and prepared to ravage it, but she was temporarily thwarted by the Justice Leagues of Air and Aliens. The Justice League of Air disbanded following the reformation of the Justice League of America.

(JSA: Our Worlds at War #1) - During the Imperiex War Condor was called in as a JSA reserve on a mission to disrupt Imperiex’s link to his ship’s power supply. The JSA found that Imperiex’s ship was leeching it’s power from the planet Daxam, which Imperiex had pulled out of its’ orbit. Black Condor was teamed with a group of reservists who dubbed themselves the Freedom Fighters, and they freed the Daxamites from Imperiex control, while the JSA not only cut off Imperiex from his power, but managed to blow up his ship as well.

(JSA #34, 35) - The Ultra-Humanite used Johnny Thunder’s Thunderbolt to conquer the world, and imprisoned Black Condor and virtually every superhuman on Earth in stasis tubes, only reviving them when he needed mind-controlled slaves to serve in his personal guard the Thunderfront. Condor served as a member of the Thunderfront when they attacked the JSA, the only heroes not under the Humanite’s control. The JSA used a device that disrupted the braincaps Humanite used to control the Thunderfront, leaving them unconscious but freed from Humanite’s mental domination. The JSA later defeated Humanite.

(JSA #49-51) - Black Condor and the Freedom Fighters aided the JSA in a battle against Eclipso, who’d possessed hundreds of New Yorkers and was tearing the city apart. The Freedom Fighters wrested away Eclipso’s black diamond and gave it to Alex Montez, who used it to make Eclipso manifest in him, and kept Eclipso bound to his will using magic glyphs. The Freedom Fighters then aided the JSA in battling and defeating Eclipso’s ally Mordru.

(Identity Crisis #1) - Condor, along with a number of other superheroes, attended Sue Dibny’s funeral.

(Nightwing II #140) - Black Condor’s body was taken from Metropolis’ Valhalla cemetery by Dr. Kendall’s agents. Kendall created the Loyalists, a winged army created from the DNA of Condorr and several other superhumans.

Comments: Created by Brian Augustyn & Rags Morales.

Black Condor received a profile in The DC Comics Encyclopedia.

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