Oliver Kaldwell/Iron Skull

Oliver Kaldwell had tremendous rage issues growing up. He often would fight with other students who picked on him in school due to his short stature. At home, he lived with his drunken uncle whose wife had died of a drug overdose. The uncle never cared for Oliver, meaning he never had a true role model. When he was old enough to live on his own, Oliver moved out, leaving the man to eventually drink himself to death.

Oliver, in an attempt to turn his life around, would join the Skymar War Force. The military saw him as an asset due to his ferocity and determination. They sent him on many missions, including one fateful one.

He and his squad were sent after a Tyrak terrorist cell that was responsible for several terrorist attacks on most of the Bridged Worlds, including Skymar. Kaldwell’s squad was killed off one by one, leaving only him standing as he went in to kill the leader. However, the leader brutally beat him down and almost killed him until SWF reinforcements arrived. The Tyrak leader fled.

Kaldwell’s body was horribly mangled and damaged by the beating. His commanding officer, Colonel Sterling, offered him a solution that would supposedly not only cure his physical ailments, but make him better than ever before. He agreed, and discovered that they were robotic implants. Intrigued, he entered. However, once the procedure began, he started to feel agitated. He chose to keep his violent rage issues a secret, and this costed him. His anger caused a spike in the lightning that was being connected to his brain to fuse his body to the parts, and it caused him to lose all control and break free, killing everyone in the laboratory, including Sterling. While the lightning coursed uncontrollably through his body, it seared off his face, leaving only his skull visible. This caused Kaldwell to adopt the moniker “Iron Skull”. He escaped, and disappeared.

Oliver would then involve himself with underground criminals to gain the resources to return to Tyra and kill the leader of the terrorist cell, and he learned a lot more about the criminal underworld of Skymar and the Bridged Worlds in general. He started as a hired thug, working his way up to the top of a powerful criminal empire. However, the boss, Anthony Darknoll, refused to let Oliver take over due to his mistrust of the unpredictable cyborg. At this, Kaldwell pinned the crime boss to the ground and cut of his face to wear as a disguise. Kaldwell then brutally murdered him by tearing him in half. He took over the empire, killed all those that remained loyal to Darknoll, and turned what was left of it from a lowly mafia to a disciplined, organized, well trained militia of military-trained mercenaries.

Now with a small army of his own, he then traveled to Tyra. Upon arrival, he investigated leads on the cell. He eventually heard reports of a small village that was supposedly home to many criminals. Kaldwell and his people went there, and found a small Tyrak task force already there, albeit losing the battle with the terrorist cell. Kaldwell swept through, killed all the remaining terrorists and every other criminal in the village, and then finally murdered the leader by shocking him to death with his lightning abilities. The survivors thanked him, and he offered them positions on his team, lying and telling them that it was a private security firm he was looking to expand. The Tyrak squad leader, Kazman Elmont, accepted the co-leadership position that Kaldwell offered him, and they recruited many more Tyraks to the cause.

However, Elmont would eventually catch on to the criminal activities, and confront Kaldwell about them. Kaldwell would rebuff him and say that they were making a profit, living like kings while the spoiled and arrogant slowly start to pay for their mistreatment of the hard-workers of society. Kazman refused to give in to this line of thought, and left the gang, which was now dubbed the Iron Raiders, the namesake coming from their modus operandi of raiding ships, and Oliver’s moniker. Kaldwell would eventually hunt down and kill Kazman in a hidden mechanical shop on Tyra, much to the chagrin of his son, Norvok.

Over the years, the Iron Skull would eventually build his base of operations into an oasis in the middle of a Tyrak desert. The base was actually inside the ruins of an ancient Tyrak temple, the stone structures providing maximum fortification against any intruders. The base would include training areas for recruits, and a large gladiator pit for new recruits to fight in before they officially became part of the Iron Raiders. In addition to these features, Kaldwell would construct a massive contraption dedicated to the sole purpose of producing lightning to recharge his cyborg parts. This room was also originally a burial chamber for ancient Tyrak warriors encased in coffins. With a strong enough surge of lightning, they could potentially be brought back to life.

Another feature of his mostly-iron body was that his left arm transformed into a cannon, and the right a knife.

 

Motivations-

Due to living in poverty for most of his life, he is motivated to improve his life and those under him. He relishes stealing from the rich and keeping things for himself, and putting on display in his fortress.