CODENAME: ASSASSIN (Jonathan Drew)	BIOGRAPHY
Created by Gerry Conway, Steven Skeates, Carmine Infantino, and the Redondo Studios

PERSONAL DATA

Real Name: Jonathan Drew
Occupation: Vigilante, Assassin
Marital Status: Unknown
Known Relatives: Unnamed parents (deceased), Marie (sister, deceased)
Base of Operation: New York City, NY
Group Affiliation(s): None
Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond
First Appearance: 1st Issue Special #11 (February 1976)
Creators: Gerry Conway, Steven Skeates, Carmine Infantino, and the Redondo Studios

"I've a feeling this is a fight we're all going to enjoy!" - The Assassin Quote taken from First Issue Special #11 (February, 1976)

HISTORY

When Jonathan Drew was ten years old, his parents died under as yet unrevealed circumstances. Standing by their gravestone, his older sister Marie said to him, "now that mom and dad are gone, I'll take care of you, and you'll take care of me." She promised never to leave him and that he didn't have to be afraid. He believed her.

Eleven years later, Jonathan found himself completing his first year of Graduate School at Antioke University. After flunking his psychiatry course, he agreed to participate in an E.S.P. research experiment designed by a Doctor Andrew Stone. By doing that, he would pass his exam.

But something in the experiment went horribly wrong. While Jonathan was still attached to Stone's "E.S.P. machinery", Stone's colleague, Doctor Anderson, accidentally stumbled on a power cable, which resulted in the testing device blowing up, and a surge of power flowing through Jonathan Drew's body.

Waking up in a hospital, Jonathan was thirsty and was going to ask for a glass of water. However, the water came to him before nobody had had the chance of giving it to him. Watching the decanter floating in the air, Jonathan let out a scream of shock as he realized that he had gained telekinetic powers.

More shocks were on their way. Leaving the hospital, Marie started telling Jonathan a secret she had kept for years, but before she had even finished the first sentence, she was gunned down by machine-gun fire from a passing car. In shock and rage, Jonathan instinctively let out a burst of his newfound power, crushing the car with it.

He later found out that Marie had been working for a crime boss named Victor Grummun, only to earn money so that Jonathan could go to college. For some reason, she became a security risk, and was killed. After learning this, Jonathan went underground for some time, training and developing his powers for the task that had to be done. When he appeared again, it was as the costumed vigilante with the codename: Assassin.

Going after Grummun's employees Rossi, Morganthau, and Carmody, killing some and delivering others to the authorities, the Assassin made a name of himself, angering Victor Grummun himself. Grummun vowed to kill the Assassin before the Assassin would kill him.

The Assassin evidently had some associates since establishing himself. He has mentioned a man named Ben who possibly was another casualty in the war against crime. While the district attorney Roberts and police commissioner Runyon seemed to be thankful for the Assassin's contribution to their daily work, Jonathan's own friend Doctor Stone considered him a very ill man. Judging from their comments, it also seems that the Assassin's real identity was public knowledge, at least among the authorities.

When last seen, the Assassin had just entered Grummun's yacht, and was engaged in a fight against two hired metahuman thugs called Snake and Powerhouse. It is not known how this conflict ended.

Obsessed and uncompromising, the Assassin would seemingly do anything to put Grummun and his likes to justice.

The Assassin has not been seen since the mid-1970s, but according to Ted Knight, the original Starman, he ended his short career in Opal City.

POWERS AND WEAPONS

The Assassin had a variety of mental powers. His telepathic abilities allowed him to read the thought of other humans, as well as noticing their presence before seeing or hearing them come. His telekinetics allowed him to move objects at least as heavy as himself, and to walk in the air. Occasionally, he could also emit devastating blasts of mental energy, enough to blow up a car, or to burn out a man's psyche. However, this ability seemed exclusively restricted to acts of pure reflex. The Assassin's mental powers were not inexhaustible, and he had to let them re-load once in a while.

Apart from using his mental powers, the Assassin was also an excellent hand-to-hand combatant. He carried a gun with which he could shoot tranquilizer darts, and he sometimes used other equipment such as a pocket blowtorch, which he carried in his utility belt.

CHRONOLOGY

For a definitive list of appearances of Codename: Assassin in chronological order click here