Night Thrasher is a superhero in the Marvel Universe and a member of the superhero team known as the New Warriors.
☀Dwayne Michael Taylor led a hard life. As a child in New York City, he saw his wealthy parents slain before his very eyes. This event drove him to hone himself into a human fighting machine in the pursuit of vengeance. Over time, this desire for revenge later evolved into an obsessive desire to punish all wrongdoers. He was unable to fully remember the exact circumstances of his parents' deaths, and he was unable to remember the face of their killer; he assumed that this was due to his mind trying to block the memory. Later in life he discovered that the entire circumstances of his parents' death and his own rearing by his guardian Chord and an elderly Asian woman named Tai, had in fact all been orchestrated by Tai herself.
The driven, conflicted young man lived a dual existence: during the day he ran the Taylor Foundation, and at night he relentlessly trained himself to human perfection, studying with the best private tutors money could buy. He then began patrolling the streets of New York City as a crimefighter, to provide a test-bed for his skills. Silhouette and Midnight's Fire were operating as independent vigilantes in the streets of New York City when they met Dwayne who was doing the same thing but as a solo operative (before he became Night Thrasher). The trio began an organized effort to lessen the influence of New York City street gangs. Silhouette and Midnight's Fire were the children of Andrew Chord who was serving at the time as Dwayne's guardian.
Their partnership ended when Silhouette was shot and paralyzed from the legs down in a sting operation gone badly. Midnight's Fire blamed Dwayne and became a cop killer and a drug lord in order to lure Dwayne into a physical confrontation he could not possibly win. Later the partially paralyzed Silhouette reunited with Dwayne, distancing herself from her brother's evil actions. Dwayne created a suit of special body armor, partially as a response to the threat of Midnight's Fire who was determined to kill him, and also because he felt it was the most effective way to carry out his mission. Night Thrasher meticulously researched several young solo heroes and selected three as targets for recruitment. He based his group on the Fantastic Four, with him being the Reed Richards of the group: the leader and brains. Each additional member was slated to reflect roles of each of the FF. The first of his recruits was Richard Rider, the retired and supposedly depowered Nova (filling the role of the Thing due to his sheer power). Deducing he could reignite Rider's powers with a high-stress incident, Night Thrasher abducted Rider and dropped him off a building. Although Rider was understandably upset at Night Thrasher for risking his life, the fact that the incident allowed him to regain his powers (his greatest desire) made him feel obliged to join the team.
Media
- Night Thrasher was added to the mobile game Marvel: Contest of Champions.