Howdy guys, I'm working on my herofiles for the Squadron Supreme, and I'm having a bit of trouble with Nighthawk. It seems that all the information I'm finding about him relates to the Defenders version, which is not the alternate reality fellow I'm working on. Wikipedia, Ben Riley's Marvel RPG page, and Comicvine have the former listed as having minor super strength and a Nocturnal Avenger thing going on. Is that true for the Supreme version as well?
I happen to have a pdf file of various heroes (geared towards more Silver Age abilities), and it makes a distinction between the Earth-616 Nighthawk and Earth-712 Nighthawk.
In the pdf file, it labels the Squadron Supreme Nighthawk as being much more like Batman than what Earth-616 Nighthawk is. He isn't labeled as having the ability to become twice as strong at night while the Earth-616 Nighthawk does. This is all in RPG stats, but I find this book of characters to be pretty accurate when it comes to the portrayal of characters.
As this is the only source that I can find that makes an absolute distinction between the two Nighthawks and since this file is heavily researched, I'm going to have to say that Earth-712 Nighthawk is much more like Batman; a human with great talents, but no superhuman abilities.
And to me, that fits pretty well seeing how the Squadron is a parody of the League.
Well, seems like we do have a bit of contradiction here :P
In the Official Marvel Handbook, Earth-712 Nighthawk is labeled as having "doubled" powers at night:
http://phantombunburyist.freedomforceforever.com/cripp12/M-N/tf_Nighthawk1back.jpg
Now don't I just look silly after saying "As this is the only source that I can find...," hahaha :P
Ha! Ohh man, and the situations becomes even murkier. ;) Thanks Spyder, that is actually really helpful. I think I'm just going to make this guy a straight Batman parallel, as that really is the intention of the Squadron, and Nighthawk never seemed terribly strong in the appearances I've read.
Split the difference. Say Kyle Richmond never reached the physical prowess of Bruce Wayne; he only got to be half as strong as Bruce.
Then, at night, when his strength inexplicably doubles....