My name is John Hancock. I thought I knew who I was. You see, about five years back I found myself in the City of Los Angeles, California. Living the life of a renegade superhero, half-hated and half-worshipped by the denizens of Southern California. Is it me or does California have a love-hate relationship with brothers in general? Before OJ Simpson became a pariah, people in Los Angeles used to love him. Not that I got anything in common with that fool. Anyone looking at me would see a six-foot-one, athletically built Black man. I look like your average brother, only I can do things that no other man, Black or White, could ever dream of doing. Let me give you the rundown, ladies and gentlemen.
If push came to shove, I think I might be able to lift up an entire mountain. Not that I'd ever try something like that. I used to have a drinking problem but even on my most die-hard drunken moments I still had my God-given common sense. I'm by no means invincible but I can do amazing things. I can fly at supersonic speeds, and I am also monstrously strong. I can lift an entire train with just one hand and I can lift a blue whale and hurl it through the air with ease. Bullets, flames, nothing can hurt me. Also, I'm immune to the aging process. Got no idea exactly how old I am but I've been looking like a thirty-something brother for a LONG time now.
Yeah, I can shrug off pretty much anything. I'm virtually indestructible. Just don't call me an asshole. If you do, I might lose it and something bad will happen to you. I thought I was unique...until she came along. Who am I talking about? A certain five-foot-nine, curvy blonde-haired and green-eyed Caucasian beauty with a heavenly face and the temper of a she-devil. Mary Embry. The wife of my good friend and benefactor Ray Embry. My former lover in a past life. According to what she revealed to me, she and I go way back. We're supposedly thousands of years old, and were put on earth by some primordial entities to be the protectors of mankind. In ancient times we've been called gods, angels and at times, monsters. Today, it's superhero.
I thought what Mary Embry revealed to me to be a load of crap, but I can't dismiss what she's told me. Especially the part about us growing weaker and losing our special powers when we get close to another one of our species. I got close to Mary, not as close as I would like ( alright, I tried to kiss her and the hussy tossed me out the window, literally ) but close. Um, that's when everything started to go wrong. See, there's this crook named Kenneth "Red" Parker Jr. and he's what you'd call a criminal mastermind. Dude tried to rob a bank in downtown Los Angeles with some well-armed friends packing some military-grade ordnance and I was urged by my buddy Ray to go save the day. Parker and his buddies wounded a female cop and barricaded themselves inside the bank, expecting a siege. I came along, took them out and also disarmed the bomb that Kenneth planned on detonating...by severing Parker's hand with the detonator in it. Guy's been holding a grudge against me ever since.
Now, I don't know what possessed me to follow Ray Embry's plan for rehabilitating my image but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I went through the process of redeeming myself in the eyes of American society. The more time I spent around Ray's wife Mary, the more fascinated I became with her, and the weaker I became. In all sorts of ways. I lost my powers temporarily, and got shot by two thugs robbing an Indian dude's convenience store. When I ended up at the hospital, Mary came to visit me along with Aaron, Ray's son, who's a big fan of mine. I was bleeding from two gunshot wounds but I was happy to see Mary and Aaron, man. The sight of Mary still took my breath away. I've seen beautiful women of all shades but this broad is something else. If you saw her you'd understand.