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There have been many many different vigilantes operating in Gotham City, but one of the most tragic heroes was named a Hulk-like boy named Abuse.
Tons of vigilantes have operated in Gotham City throughout DC Comics‘ history, but one Hulk-like hero has an origin even more tragic than Batman himself. Colin Wilkes aka Abuse wanted nothing more than to protect other runaway or orphan kids like himself which he did through his very incredible powers.
When he first appears in Detective Comics #847 by Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen, Colin Wilkes is a 10-year-old orphan who has a whole list of phobias, including chiroptophobia, the fear of bats. This naturally makes him an interesting target for the villain Scarecrow, who abducts Colin and injects him with a combination of his fear toxin and Venom, the steroid that powers Bane. This transforms Colin into a giant hulking monster who can barely control himself, which is only aggravated when Batman shows up. Scarecrow thinks that Batman won’t fight a child, making Colin a perfect enemy, but thankfully Batman has experience fighting Hulk-like people. He manages to cut Colin’s Venom lines, transforming the terrified boy back into his normal form. Batman arrests Scarecrow and returns Colin to the orphanage and that’s where Batman believes the story ends, but Colin has been changed.
Unbeknownst to Batman, Colin actually gains a superpower due to the weird mix of fear toxin and Venom he has been injected with. He finds that if he concentrated hard enough, he can activate the residual Venom in his blood and transform into a significantly larger, significantly stronger, version of himself. In Batman: Streets of Gotham #1 by Dini and Nguyen, Colin decides he’ll become a superhero with his newfound power and defend other kids like himself, which is a natural course of action for any 10-year-old boy. Eventually, his amateur crime-fighting leads him to discover that Victor Zasz has committed his darkest crime yet, creating an arena where he pits homeless children against each other before fighting the winner himself. Colin decides to infiltrate Victor’s crime ring in his normal child form and runs into another vigilante child who apparently has had the exact same idea: Damian Wayne. The two team up and defeat Zasz, which as far as first superhero team-ups go is a pretty good start for Colin.
After their first solved crime together, Damian and Colin actually become rather good friends, which is Damian’s first real friendship at the time. Damian even gifts Colin a motorcycle called the “Cycle of Abuse” so that Colin can get around faster. But unfortunately readers never really get to see him use it, as Colin only appears in eight issues and hasn’t ever really been used again, which makes him join the list of forgotten Paul Dini characters.
The fact that Colin has not appeared since 2010 is unfortunate, as his powers make him rather formidable. After all, he can turn bulletproof and have near Bane-level strength just from thinking about it. If he were given the proper training from Batman, he could become a great crime fighter. The fact he is also only 10 years old gives him vulnerability, and it would give Damian a much-needed character to interact with around his age, considering his other best friend Jonathan Kent has aged into an adult. Maybe someday DC Comics will bring back the brass knuckle-wearing Hulk known as Abuse to help Batman clean up the streets of Gotham.
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