RALPH HINKLEY
Real Name: Ralph Hinkley
Occupation: High School Teacher, Assistant High School Principal, Government Advisor on Public Education
Marital Status: Married, formerly Divorced
Known Relatives: Paula (mother), Alicia (first wife, divorced), Pamela (second wife), Kevin (son), Charlotte ("Carli," daughter), Harold ("Harry," father-in-law), June (mother-in-law),
Base of Operations: Palmdale, California
First Appearance: The Greatest American Hero," ABC TV-Series
History: Ralph Hinkley was an optimistic teacher raised with All-American values. His mother had been a receptionist in the law firm where his father had worked, and they equally raised Ralph under the values and morals of 1950s America. When Ralph appeared at Whitney High School ready to inspire and guide the futures of hopeful young students, he was instead stuck in the remedial class full of bitter and burned out would-be toughs and underachievers. It was a challenge for him, and he tried to reach out to the kids using non-conventional methods and a lot of hopeful optimism.
As an added disgrace, Ralph's wife divorced him. Although Ralph had joint custody of their son for a while, Paula eventually received full custody. The incident was lessened by the fact that Ralph was falling in love with his divorce attorney, the impossibly attractive Pamela Davidson. Eventually, she shared her feelings with him and they married after a tumultuous relationship.
Through consequences that have never been completely understood, Ralph encountered FBI Agent Bill Maxwell and was inadvertently teamed up with him on cases for the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Maxwell's partner, Johnathan Mackie, had been murdered by members of a quasi-religious cult that they were investigating, and Maxwell latched on to Ralph to bring them to justice, eventually becoming close friends. According to one account, Hinkley and Maxwell had been forced together after experiencing extra-terrestrials in the desert near Twenty Nine Palms Air Force Base. The alien race gave Hinkley a costume of unspecific properties to work with Maxwell in staving off humanity from a dire fate as well as a guide on how to master the abilities "the suit" would give him. Overwhelmed by this experience, Hinkley absent-mindedly lost the guide to the costume, but he still managed to work with Bill in otherwise difficult FBI cases with him. Pamela was dismayed often by their adventures together, but after being dragged into a few of them herself, she began to accept what seemed to be Ralph's calling.
Despite the conventional Federal case files, Hinkley and Maxwell ran aground of certain supernatural cases that taxed them to their limits, including a few seemingly extra-terrestrial encounters and a paranormal encounter at Redman Manor. During a case in the Bermuda Islands, Ralph became convinced that sea serpents were responsible for the disappearances of ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle. Maxwell at opt times tried to use the suit for financial gain such as using its abilities against the files of the Old Dutchman Mine, a lost gold mine in the Old West. His unbridled success in previously unsolvable cases in the bureau and his exorbitant expense account meanwhile gave him his own file often under scrutiny by his supervisors.
Pursuing his usual unusual story reports, newspaper editor
Carl Kolchak in Chicago eventually "outed" Hinkley's seemingly
superhero antics with Maxwell and made him somewhat of a TV personality.
Although the public never believed his so-called extra-terrestrial exploits,
Hinkley used his new found celebrity status to serve as a positive role model
and positive thinking spokesman to reach out to more school teens on a more larger scale. His
friendship with Maxwell, however, fell apart, and Bill latched with another
optimistic teacher named Holly Hathaway. Somehow, Maxwell convinced Holly to use
"the suit" which as incredible as it seemed actually gave her the
powers which Hinkley had said it granted to him. Hathaway eventually crossed
paths with OSI agent Jaime Sommars and ghost hunter
William Collins in two cases
with Maxwell.
In 2000, Maxwell's suspicious case file came to the attention of fellow FBI Agent Fox Mulder who delved deeper into "the suit's" so-called extra-terrestrial origins. By now, Hathaway had abandoned the costume citing psychological entanglements and Bill had reunited with Ralph, now, however, successful, was now out of the public eye. Ralph and Pamela had by now had a daughter, Charlotte. Mulder clashed with Maxwell in trying to get close to Ralph, but it was his partner, Dana Scully, who inadvertently realized that "the suit" reportedly had the powers it bequeathed to its wearers.
Reportedly, a motion picture based on Hinkley's alleged adventures was once in consideration with Owen Wilson playing Ralph, but it never came to fruition.
Abilities: Ralph is a college graduate with a teaching degree from Stanford University.
CLASSIFIED: *TOP SECRET* FBI, X-Files Division (Updated 1998 by Fox Mulder)
Known Superhuman Powers: Ralph Hinkley possesses superhuman powers derived from the extra-terrestrial costume with which he wears. Although the alien race which created the costume had never been identified, it is obvious that the costume was based on the certain tabloid notion of costumed crime-fighters or "superheroes" known in literature and graphic novels. The costume is composed of an indestructible material similar to but microscopically dissimilar to synthetic stretch fabric. Flame retardant and bullet proof, it seems to serve as a battery of unique other-dimensional energies which Hinkley can mentally manipulate into specific feats. Link to his personal body rhythms and biochemistry, the costume tends to extend its impervious field of energy over Hinkley to his uncovered head and hands, effectively rendering him immune to bullet, flame and friction. He can be superficially injured if a significant amount of concussive force is used against him. The costume is also linked to his amount of concentration and its power can waver and prove unstable with his mental commands.
The energies of the costume greatly increase and augment all of Ralph's physical parameters, granting him superhuman strength, enabling him to lift (press) up to five tons under optimal conditions. All his other physical abilities have also been increased. He can run up to 50 to 80 miles per hour with his stamina fortified that he tires out very slowly, but his mind is unable to process his surroundings at such speeds. His senses while wearing the suit are also increased that he can hear sounds above normal humans.
With the suit, all of Ralph's latent but undeveloped psychic senses are increased that he can perceive psychic phenomenon, such as ghosts and spirits. He has skills similar to clairvoyance and psychometry, enabling him to have holographic-like mental images of other people, especially after handling an object or item of clothing from that person. He also has limited psychokinetic/telekinetic prowess to move objects by will power, although sometimes this ability is activated unconsciously.
By tapping into the power of levitation and generating a mental propulsion of energy, Ralph Hinkley can propel himself into the air enabling him to fly, albeit with limited aerodynamic maneuverability due to his shaking mental state at extreme heights. He can generate enough propulsion to enable him to fly carrying up to two people or an automobile with strained effort. With considerable practice and mental control, he has greatly improved in his maneuverability.
Ralph can also render himself invisible by mentally shifting the energies about him into a cloaking field which bends light around him. Since the costume and its energies are linked to Ralph's unique genetic signature, this field can remain about him even when he sheds the suit. Aided by the handbook, he can also extend his molecular structure extra-dimensionally, enabling him to shrink in size at will, down to the size of a grain of sand, but since losing his replacement handbook, he has not excised this ability since.