History:
Stephen Hawking was born on January 8th, 1942 in Oxford, England. His parents' house was in north London, but during the second world war, his parents Frank and Isabel barely escaped a London being bombed by Nazi Germany. Thanks to the mysterious "Nameless One," the Hawking family escaped death and fled to Oxford, a safe haven from the war. Stephen William Hawking was born a healthy baby boy. His father was a doctor specializing in tropical diseases and his mother Isobel was a Glasgow doctor's daughter. When Stephen was eight, his family moved to his mother's home in St Albans, a town about 20 miles north of London. The house was unique: carpets and furniture stayed in use until they fell apart; wallpaper was allowed to dangle where it had peeled through old age. The family car was a London taxi, bought for 50 pounds.

Hawking, who amongst two younger sisters and a younger adopted brother, became fascinated by his birthdate: January 8, 1942. It was the three hundredth anniversary of the death of Galileo, the Italian mathematician and astronomer who revolutionized astronomy and was persecuted by the Inquisition. It was then that Hawking's interest in science and mathematics began.

He spent most of his childhood in and around London, and was always a bit of a self-educator. He was interested in the stars, and his family used to lie out on the grass looking at the stars. His writing was appalling, and he was one of the only people at school to be issued with a copybook. He was never really good with his hands, and gave the impression of nervousness, being lanky and awkward in movement.

After school, Hawking wanted to study mathematics and physics in a university, but his father believed that there would not be any jobs in mathematics. Accordingly, Hawking declared physics and chemistry his major. Hawking still studied mathematics at University College, Oxford in 1959, his father's alma mater. Hawking's peers didn't really realize how intelligent he was until his second year of University. He was a coxswain in the Boat Club, and was of course a member of the Boyle Society (the University College's physics society). In his 3rd year of college, he began to first notice some weakness in his hands.

While at Oxford he did a vacation course at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, helping the then Astronomer Royal, Sir Richard Woolley, with research into binary stars. However, upon looking through the telescope and seeing merely a couple of hazy dots, he was convinced that theoretical cosmology would be much more interesting.

Hawking graduated from Oxford in 1962. Back home in St. Albans he waited for his results. It turned out to be a first-class honours degree, the highest possible qualification. At the age of 20, Hawking and took a trip to Persia with a friend. During the visit he began to feel ill. After having tests done, he was diagnosed with amytropic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gerhig's Disease, or motor neuron disease as it was called in England. Hawking was diagnosed with 2 1/2 years to live. Not deterred by this terrible news, Hawking arrived at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, as a postgraduate student in October 1962. Hawking's work problem was to find a sufficiently taxing research assignment for his Ph.D. course. Relativity research at that level being fairly unusual and challenging assignments were elusive. He was also aware of a personal crisis. He had difficulty in tying his shoelaces. He kept bumping into things. Without warning, his legs would give way. It was at this time that he met his future wife, Jane Wilde.

Hawking now had the confidence to take on Professor Fred Hoyle, the most eminent cosmologist of the day and a big name among the scientific community at Cambridge. Hoyle was developing the "steady state" theory of the Universe, maintaining that it has always existed, looking much the same as it does now. Hawking detested the theory of a spontaneous creation; it just wasn't dignified or elegant. Hoyle coined the term "Big Bang" to ridicule Hawking's idea. In the end, Hawking proved him wrong.

In July 1965, Hawking applied for and received a research fellowship at Caisus College, Cambridge. Also in 1965, Hawking experienced what he considered the most beautiful day of his life: he married longtime love Jane Wilde. A picturesque rented house in Little St. Mary's Lane became their home.

Hawking's research at Caisus College centered on Black Holes, and from the late 60's onward he has been in the forefront of Black Hole research. One discovery of Hawking's is that Black Holes emit radiation. Based on Einstein's general theory of relativity, nothing can escape the event horizon of a Black Hole, but based on quantum mechanics, for every particle there is an antiparticle. These particles are created at the same time, go through an existence, and collide to annihilate each other. With respect to the Black Hole, one of these particles falls into the Hole, leaving the other outside of the event horizon, emitting radiation. This radiation has been coined as "Hawking Radiation" in honor of its discoverer.

The next turning point in Hawking's life was the birth of his first child, Robert, in 1967. His career was in the ascendance: he had won the prestigious Adams Prize for an essay entitled "Singularities and the Geometry of Space-Time" and in 1969 Hawking and Roger Penrose published momentous theorems proving mathematically there really had been a Big Bang. Their studies showed definitively that the Universe must have been born out of a singularity some 15 billion years ago.

The 1960s ended with Hawking being forced, after much persuasion from Jane and close friends, to abandon his crutches and take to a wheelchair. Those who had watched his gradual physical decline viewed this major step with sadness but Hawking refused to let it get him down. In 1970, the year his second child, Lucy, was born, Hawking focused his scientific attention on black holes even more closely.

By 1974 Hawking could still feed himself and get into and out of bed, but his wife Jane was finding it harder to take care of him and the 2 children. Hawking had one of his research students to live with them, to help Jane out. In 1975, Hawking received the Pius XII medal from Pope Paul VI, as "a young scientist for distinguished work." In 1975 Hawking was elected to the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University, a title once held by Isaac Newton. There is a registry book that everyone who holds this title are supposed to sign. After a year as Lucasian Professor, it was realized that Hawking never signed it. They held a great ceremony for the signing, but little realized the true implication of that momentous occasion: that was the last time Hawking ever signed his name.

In 1981 Hawking was in the Vatican attending a conference in cosmology. When granted an audience with the Pope, Hawking was told that it was OK to study the evolution of the universe after the Big Bang, but to not inquire about the Big Bang itself, as it was the moment of creation and therefore the work of God. Hawking's lecture at the conference was on the possibility that space-time was finite without boundary (ie, no beginning, no end, no creation). Obviously the Pope wasn't at the conference. In 1986 Hawking met with the Pope again, when he was admitted to the Pontifical Academy of Science.

In 1982, Hawking wrote his most famous book: "A Brief History of Time." While in Switzerland, after he finished a first draft of the book, he developed pneumonia and had to undergo a lifesaving tracheohtomy, which removed his ability to speak. He began using the Perspex Device, which is basically a sheet of Plexiglas with letters on it such that when he looks at a letter you can see which one he's looking at. Conversing letter-by-letter is tedious, and he moved onto a computer program that allowed him to pick words from a series of menus, accompanied by a voice synthesizer attached to his chair. He can speak up to 15 words a minute, and can save them on disk if he wants. The only bug in the program, he feels, is that it gives him an American accent.

"A Brief History of Time" was meant to explain the basic ideas of laws that govern the universe. Hawking said that "Equations are necessary if you are doing accountancy, but they are the boring part of Mathematics. Most of the interesting ideas can be conveyed by words or pictures". The book was published on April Fool's Day, 1988--6 years after he started writing it. Since then it has been translated into 30 languages, and has sold about 5.5 million copies.

At this point in his history, Professor Hawking had twelve honorary degrees, was awarded the CBE in 1982, and was made a Companion of Honour in 1989. He was the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes and was a Fellow of The Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences. His many publications include the aforementioned "The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time" with G. F. R. Ellis, "General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey" with W. Israel, and "300 Years of Gravity" with W. Israel. Stephen Hawking has two popular books published; his best seller "A Brief History of Time," and his later book, "Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays."

Hawking's life began to take a turn for the worse. In early 1990, while the film version of "A Brief History of Time" was being edited, the seemingly unthinkable happened. Stephen and Jane separated after 25 years of marriage. The academic community in Cambridge was shocked by the news. To outsiders the partnership seemed a perfect example of security. In fact, the two of them had been growing apart. As Hawking's career reached new heights, Jane had felt increasingly isolated. No longer responsible for nursing her husband, she had turned to her own interests - her teaching, her garden, her books and choral singing. Their disagreements over religion, which had been swept under the carpet, had reappeared with the writing of "A Brief History of Time. " By 1992, Stephen Hawking grew apart from his three children (Timothy had been born in 1979) in favor of his research. Yet another utter shock was thrown his way after what he called "the Anton Vole incident".

Stephen's eldest son Robert (who received his degree in Physics at his father's alma mater Cambridge), began working for Vole Industries in 1992 in the R&D Department. He was hired as an associate developer and was assigned to develop basic genetics experiments toward the improvement of horticulture. Robert found out while working late one night about other, highly illegal genetics experiments performed by Vole Industries with Anton Vole's permission. Robert leaked information to his father when asking him for advice, but then disappeared a two weeks later. According to Vole Industries' records, his son left the company a week prior and have no knowledge of his whereabouts. Hawking became suspicious and pushed for an investigation, but Hawking had no hard proof to support his claims. Hawking was soon contacted by his old friend the Nameless One, and the two compared notes on Vole's atrocities. Hawking told the Nameless One thay they should bide their time- Vole would slip up soon.

Over the next eight years, Hawking gathered two bodyguards and began design/construction of a secret base in Arizona. While working at Oxford, Hawking began compiling a list of super-heroes he figured would be sympathetic to his crime. Hawking soon found out that he had a short time to live, and geared his immense knowledge towards deveopig a means to download his consciousness to computer form- a fact he kept secret from his estranged family and friends. Finally, in 2000, all the various pieces came together to organize his team and get his revenge on Anton Vole for the disappearance of his son.

Strength Level:
When a human, Stephen Hawking suffered from amytropic lateral sclerosis, causing him to be quadrapeligic and giving him less-than-normal strength.

Skills:
As one of the world's pre-eminent physicists, Stephen Hawking is a Scholar and a Scentist. Hawking has knowledge in General Science, Photonics, Sonics, Mathematics, Physics, and Quantum Mechanics. Along the way, Hawking has also picked up knowledge on Computer Programming, Cryptography, Deduction, Navigation, and a familiarity in Electronics, Forensics, Paramedics, and Mechanics. Since his run-in with Anton Vole, Hawking has become an expert in Vole's activities, as well as current events, super-villains, world geography, and US cities and towns.

Known Superhuman Powers:
Stephen Hawking, in his current form, is a sentient computer system in the Phoenix Company's headquarters. As such, Hawking has instantaneous information at his fingertips. Hawking can interface with both the base and the Blackhawk's computer systems, giving him remote access.

Beyond these abilities, Hawking also possesses a mind of sorts, and as such can be linked via mindlink to Oversight.