Holden Carver (Wildstorm Universe)

Holden Carver was the son of a military man, James Carver. He followed in his father footsteps and joined the military himself. John Lynch saw potential in Holden and became his mentor. During a mission in South-America, Holden and his team found an artifact that came from the Bleed. Holden touched the artifact and the artifact attached itself to Holden's nervous system. The process killed the other soldiers and Holden was secretly taken back to the International Operations base. Lynch saw a golden opportunity for Carver to infiltrate the nameless syndicate of the notorious criminal Tao when he discovered that the artifact prevented any form of mind-reading done on Carver. Holden agreed and left behind his fiance Veronica. A cover story was set up for Holden: his recently deceased father was officially branded a traitor and Holden had become a rogue agent, blaming John Lynch for his father's disgrace. Holden had stolen the Bleed artifact and disappeared.

Point Blank

Months later, Holden was approached by Steeleye, a high ranking member of Tao's organization. He was recruited and slowly worked his way up in the ranks. Lynch was the only one in IO who knew that Holden was not really a traitor. When IO dissolved, Lynch asked his friend Cole Cash, also known as Grifter from the WildC.A.T.s to help him bring in Carver. Grifter came under Tao's influence though and shot Lynch, putting him into a coma. Holden saved Grifter later and told him his story, but before Grifter could get help, Tao erased Grifter's memory, leaving Holden stuck in Tao's organization.

Sleeper Season 1

A few weeks after Lynch was put into a coma, Carver's friend Genocide Jones killed Steeleye for sexually abusing children. Holden covered up for his friend during a hearing with Tao. Tao told Carver that he didn't believe the story, but promoted him for his courage. Carver was now one of the three Prodigals, the highest rank within Tao's organization apart from Tao himself. Peter Grimm, another Prodigal, didn't trust Carver, but the third Prodigal, Miss Misery, took a liking to Carver and Misery had a sexual relationship with him that slowly grew into more. Despite his situation, Carver fell in love with Miss Misery and she returned his love, but Miss Misery's powers were unique: she thrived on evil and was physically strengthened by it. Anything she considered wrong would make her stronger, while taking the right action would result in disease and weakness for her. By having a meaningful relationship with Carver instead of just sex, the relationship was no longer "wrong" according to her and she began to fall ill. During this time Carver was forced to take many illegal and amoral actions to protect his secret identity and he came to rely on Miss Misery for comfort.

During a mission, Genocide Jones was killed and Carver knocked out Miss Misery to prevent her from being killed as well. Tao's troops rescued Miss Misery from the secret facility they were taken to, but Carver panicked and fled, now on the run from both the law and Tao's organization. Tao finally managed to track him down and revealed that he had known about Carver's status as a sleeper-agent all along. Tao argued that Carver now was more at home in Tao's syndicate than anywhere else. He was a survivor, willing to do whatever it took to stay alive, beyond petty concepts like "good" and "evil." Believing Tao and seeing no other options, Carver rejoined Tao's syndicate and continued his relationship with Miss Misery. Unaware to both Tao and Carver, John Lynch came out of his coma.

Coup D'Etat

Main article: Coup d'État

Holden was partially responsible for the destruction of Florida and the Authority's subsequent take-over of the United States. He gave the American government access to booby-trapped Bleed technology similar to that used by Stormwatch and the Authority.

Sleeper Season 2

John Lynch contacted Carver and offered him the one thing he wanted: a way to get rid of his powers. John Lynch revealed that IO had captured an alien in the same area the Bleed Artifact was found. Over the next few months both Lynch and Tao tried to manipulate Carver against the other. Carver formulated his own plan though, he hoped that Lynch and Tao were so obsessed with each other that they would stop noticing him. Carver recruited Miss Misery (though he didn't tell her the full plan) and together they brought down Tao's empire and captured Tao with a little help from Grifter. When Carver revealed to Miss Misery that he wanted to cure her as well, Miss Misery turned on him, telling him that she didn't want to be cured. Veronica St. James, Carver's former fiance, saw Miss Misery attacking Carver and shot her. Carver returned fire without thinking and saw that he had shot Veronica. Having lost everything, Carver tore out Tao's tongue and had the alien operate on him to remove the artifact. The operation succeeded, but left Carver in a coma. John Lynch used his mental powers to create a permanent fantasy for Carver where he happily lived on a tropical island with Miss Misery and Veronica.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Extradimensional Exposure: Carver's physiology has been altered after being exposed to an artifact during an I.O. mission. The item in question originated from somewhere within The Bleed, estimated by Lynch to be an equivalent of an extradimensional spacesuit, and latched itself to his central nervous system. Holden fell into a coma and developed anomalous lesions deposited all over his body, which endowed him with a number of superhuman traits that made him exceptionally tough to put down.
- Pain Conduction: The artifact absorbed pain and damage to Carver's body and stored it. Carver would then transfer the pain and damage to other organisms via touch. This transfer was largely involuntary with the amount of pain transfered over directly correlating to the duration of contact and amount available. He had previously induced cardiac arrest in an elderly man after shocking himself with a broken lightbulb. On another occassion a gunshot conducted via a kiss wasn't enough to kill.
- Superhuman Durability: Holden had a superhuman ability to tolerate and shrug off damage. Throughout his time with Tao's organization Carver survived several instances that would've left an ordinary man dead. He himself noted that his body could continue to operate just as well broken and damaged as it does normally after letting himself get beaten to a bloody pulp by a group of Arabs in a bar. Usually bullets and common ordnance wasn't enough to take him out as he would regularly let himself get shot to build up a charge. He has also survived the entirety of a compound's power grid and being shot through the chest by a lightning bolt.
- Regeneration: His ability to surive pain was further reinforced by enhanced healing. This facet of his powers was fairly efficient despite being somewhat poorly defined. After he had most of his knee disintegrated by an energy blast, he estimated it would take him two hours to regain mobility. Routinely gunshots appeared to mend under an hour. At its most extreme this allowed him to nigh-immediately rise again even after being shot in the head.
- Telepathic Resistance: An aspect that made him the ideal candidate for Lynch's attempt at infiltrating Tao's organization. Holden was immune to mental manipulation and telepathy due to these powers using the CNS as a vector. However, the alien Aldo appeared to be able to bypass the metal protection provided by the artifact.

Abilities

Espionage
- Deception: Holden was a capable liar, able to come up with a convincing cover story in a manner of seconds capable of fooling all of Tao's subordinates. Principallly he was known for making the most of any situation to his advantage.
- Multilingualism: Other than English Agent Carver was capable of speaking Arabic albeit with questionable fluency. He also understood enough Russian to get the gist of a conversation.
- Stealth: Employed several times throughout the series to sneak either in or out of secure areas and avoid security systems. Holden could often get the drop off on unsuspecting targets or sneak away in the middle of an encounter.
- Counter-Surveillance: Carver has established himself as an expert when it comes to avoiding surveillance. He used this skill to remain one step ahead of Peter Grimm and others who suspected he could be a traitor.
- Urban Survival
Military Protocol
- Tactical Analysis:
- Marksmanship
- Hand-to-Hand Combat

Weaknesses

Restricted Senses: The artifact rendered Holden virtually insensate. He was unable to feel any tactile sensation other than possibly pressure. For example hot and cold were both the same thing to him and a shower merely felt 'wet'. The only way for him to feel pleasure was to have his partners introduce pain.

Power Instability: Holden had to wear gloves at all times as failue to do so would risk accidental transfer to people he interacted with.

Notes

Holden's name references, simultaneously, Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and American short-story writer Raymond Carver. Brubaker chose the name because he is a fan of both writers, and he thought that "...naming a guy after Holden Caulfield in a book about everything being phony was a funny idea."^[1]

Holden Carver (Wildstorm Universe)

Contents

History

Point Blank

Sleeper Season 1

Coup D'Etat

Sleeper Season 2

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Abilities

Weaknesses

Notes

Related

Footnotes

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