Richard Benson (New Earth)

Avenger
Mainstream Universe‎‎, 1950s-2011‎
Gallery
Real Name	Richard Henry Benson
Main Alias	Avenger
Relatives	Alice Benson (wife, deceased), Alison Benson (daughter, deceased)
Affiliation	Justice, Inc.
Base Of Operations	New York
Status
Alignment	Good
Identity	Public Identity
Citizenship	American
Marital Status	Widowed
Occupation	Detective · former Adventurer
Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	5' 8"
Weight	165 lbs (75 kg)
Eyes	Grey
Hair	White
Origin
Universe	Earth-One · New Earth
Creators	Paul Ernst
First Appearance	Justice, Inc. #1 (June, 1975)
Last Appearance	Justice, Inc. #4 (December, 1975)

Smitty and I are part of an organization called Justice Incorporated, dedicated to destroying crime... destroying it utterly!

— The Avenger

Richard Benson, The Avenger, is a private investigator with his organization, Justice, Inc..

History

Origin

After his wife and daughter were kidnapped and killed, Richard Benson's personal life began to curl up and die too. The shock of his family's death had a bizarre effect on him, as his face and hair became dead white, giving him an "ice cold" paralyzed appearance.

To cope with his tragedy, he founded the crime-fighting firm "Justice, Inc." in hopes of bringing some sense of order to his world and to fight for those who had suffered at the hands of criminals. He set up shop on Bleek Street, the most crime-ridden neighborhood in New York. His firm took on cases not based on how much the client could pay, but on how dire their need for justice was.

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

• Disguise: Benson was a master of disguises and could change his physical appearance to resemble anyone he wanted to, with perfection.
• Marksmanship: Benson never shot to kill. He was such a great marksman that he could "crease" a bad guy's skull with a bullet and knock him out.
• Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced): Benson is an experienced foe, and can best many people in combat.
  • Judo: Benson has studied the art of judo.
    

Paraphernalia

Weapons

• Mike
• Ike

Notes

• This character is an adaptation of the Avenger, a character from the the pulp series created by Paul Ernst in 1939. The character was used at the time under license from the actual rights holders. More information can be found in the Wikipedia.org article Avenger (pulp-magazine character).

• The Avenger was originally a character found in pulp magazines from 1939-1943. DC's first take on the character originated with a 4-issue series published in 1975. The stories took place in the late 1930s and were set on Earth-One -- we know this because this version of the Avenger met the Earth-One Shadow in The Shadow #11.

Related

• 5 Appearances of Richard Benson (New Earth)
• 2 Images featuring Richard Benson (New Earth)
• 5 Quotations by or about Richard Benson (New Earth)
• Character Gallery: Richard Benson (New Earth)

Footnotes

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