Background: Richard Phalanx was a reasonably good particle physicist. He'd been continuing the work from his Ph.D. on dark particles in an attempt to prove their existence. The intrinsic field equations and even relativity itself was thrown into doubt when his then-advisor Rebecca Werner discovered the equation that governed dark particles. Without approval from the NSF for a human trial, however, his work would be at a dead end. Richard, driven by desire to "publish or perish" became the first and only human subject of his doomed experiment. To this day he does not know what went wrong, but exposure to the darkness field changed him. His body became somehow attuned to darkness and shadow and he discovered that he could manipulate darkness. But the worst part was that his body changed at night. He would grow wings and his body became much more dense and he somehow had a preternatural sense of the night. If he was driven before, he is now doubly so, in order to reverse the process that has happened, or even better to harness it. He is currently focusing on the nature of the intrinsic field and subatomic particle generation. What has caused him to transform at night - is it the material projection of a Shadow Realm version of himself? Did he create a rift to the Shadow Realm? Has he been infected by something? These thoughts occupy his nights.

Appearance: Richard is a tall, good-looking man with deep brown - almost black - eyes. He always seems to have a five o'clock shadow gracing his face. He has short black hair and a balanced attitude that reflects in the way he carries himself. He seems to exude inner peace, even though he struggles to understand his powers. At night, however, he transforms to have wings and an extremely dense body. It also changes his physical appearance slightly - he is no longer tall dark and handsome - and psychologically it's harder for him to deal with so the calm exterior is gone.

Personality: By day, Richard is driven to determine the source of his powers. Yet he also takes time to pursue philanthropic endeavors, helping those less fortunate than he. At night a more primal instinct takes over when he transforms; although he is not evil or mean-spirited, he is more self-preserving and less restrained. If by day he is more merciful, at night he is more judgmental. He has studied jujutsu to help him balance his life - physically, emotionally, spiritually.

Tactics: He is perfectly at home in the darkness. During the day, he is often not the aggressor, and uses his skills in jujutsu to pin, hold or subdue his opponents. He will sometimes use the darkfield to disorient those opponents and try to get them to surrender, or use their own shadows to contain them. For opponents he prefers not to fight toe-to-toe, he will use the Dark Wave or Dark Beam. During the night he is more aggressive and will often initiate the attack with the darkfield, then move in to assault those caught in the field. He holds no quarter at night.

Quote: "Are you afraid of the dark? You should be."