Elias Wirtham is a complicated man. When he was a young man he watched his older brother Joshua die from an incurable disease. It's in that moment that he dedicated his life to researching cures for diseases. He didn't lose focus either and soon he graduated from medical school where his roommate was a man named Kevin Trench and befriending Tony Stark along the way. This is important because Tony actually provided him with a grant to start his medical research company. He learned of a drug that could have saved his brother's life and attempted to take it to market, only to learn another company had created the drug decades ago and refused to release it because they could make more money treating the symptoms with multiple drugs than curing the disease with just one.
That's when things changed for Elias. He now felt that his brother's death was for no reason. He felt as if he had wasted his life because all of that work meant nothing. Disgusted by greed Elias made some major changes to his life. First he had his skin infused with vibranium, then he replaced his heart with a particle reactor. Together the two allowed him to channel the energy to give himself super strength and speed. It's at this point he put on the costume and began calling himself Cardiac and planned to take revenge on medical companies that exploited the sick, and he did it.
On one oh his outings he destroyed a company funded by Justin Hammer that was creating artificial cocaine and selling it in the streets. As retaliation Hammer hired Rhine and Boomerang to kill Elias. However he managed to take them both out as Spider-Man, Peter Parker, arrived on the scene. This was the first of many attempts he made at becoming friends with Peter because he looked up to him as a hero, but Peter considered him to be too violent.
Disparaged, but determined Cardiac didn't change his ways to appease Spider-Man. Instead he moved on to his next target. A compoany called Techtoy that was creating nerve drugs funded by filmmaker William Grant. He was stopped from harming Grant by his mercenaries, one of which was Styx. He noticed that Styx was weaker than normal and was able to see Styx was suffering from a rare form of cancer. He convinced Styx he would help him as a way to murder him, but he was stopped by Spider-Man. His next outing wasn't successful either. He was targeting Steven Polk who had was running a children's charity that was actually selling children into prostitution. He managed to expose the charity but Police arrived before he could kill Polk and he left because he didn't want to beat up a bunch of police.
He gets back to success by Albert Brukner the head of Stane International. They were creating electronic dolls for children that had a high failure rate which would electrocute the child. When he invaded their offices he also found plans for a sonic missile that he destroyed as well. He next ran into Spider-Man when taking out a shipment of drugs. This time he had done his homework and managed to get the best of Spider-Man. Spider-Man expected to be killed but Cardiac stated he had no intentions of doing that and simply set Spider-Man aside while he took out the men on board and destroyed the ship.
Cardiac is next seen going after Morelle Pharmaceuticals. They were responsible for creating small armies of cybernetic soldiers and selling them to the highest bidders. When investigating them he came across a hero calling himself Nightwatch, he soon recognized him as his old roommate Kevin. Kevin was after the company because they had wronged an ex-girlfriend of his, Kevin's life is a mess. The two also engage in some time travel shenanigans that Cardiac didn't know he was helping with. The two teamed up and took them out.
He's next seen when Wolverine goes crazy after being taken control of by an alien, because X-Men can't stay out of space. He teamed up with a hero named Solo and was thoroughly washed by Wolverine. At one point Wolverine took Cardiac's staff and used it to blast Cardiac into a building before bringing the building down on top of him. Cardiac continued to take out companies for some time after. He soon learned Kevin had been murdered in The Great Game and went looking for revenge but the game was called off due to Civil War.
During Civil War and Fear Itself he continued working in his clinics and taking care of people. Putting his heroics to the side even when listed as an potential recruit for The Initiative Program. While calming riots near one of his clinics he comes across Charles Davies a CEO for Jerixo Healthcare. Cardiac planned to kill him but stopped when he saw he was trying to get his son suffering from meningitis to help. He helped his son and let Davies live but Davies did change his ways and Cardiac saw that there might be a way to help people without murdering.
We next see him in Superior Spider-Man, which is a great story. Elias had opened up the HEART Clinic, or Hospital for Emergency Aid and Recuperative Therapy. There he was also running an underground facility where he performed experimental treatments and surgeries. He often stole objects from both criminals and heroes to perform these surgeries with no remorse. That's when he came into contact with Doc Ock acting as Spider-Man. He attempted to steal a neuro-scanner that Ock had created to control satellites with his mind. He managed to take out Spider-Man and escape with the scanner.
Spider-Man managed to track him to the clinic where Cardiac refused to fight him until he started breaking things looking for the scanner. After he was defeated Spider-Man found the scanner on Amy's head. Amy was a girl who had lost her parents in Doc Ock's scheme and she was afflicted with severe brain damage. Doc Ock performed the surgery himself because he thought Cardiac would have never figured out how to work the scanner. The two come to a mutual respect and Ock hires him to fix Aunt May's leg bowing to his skill in experimental surgeries. Sadly his clinic is destroyed when Goblin King attacks the city. He hasn't been seen since then but it's assumed he still works for Peter in some way.
Powers, abilities and equipment
- Genius level intellect
- One of the top minds for biotech enhancements
- Creator of hundreds of surgical procedures
- Created pseudoskin that hides his enhancements
- Artificial Particle Accelerator Heart
- Allows him to create particle blast from hands
- Super strength
- Super Speed - enough to keep up with Spider-Man
- Vibranium Skin
- Increased durability
- Bulletproof
- Beta Staff
- Channels his blast into precise areas
- Attachable glider allows him to fly
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Black Superheroes
