Months later, Elektra, still rebuilding her life, climbed the Chaste’s mountain in an effort to reach the retreat, a typical test of a would-be acolyte’s drive. Now aware the Hand also realized Elektra’s potential, a troubled Stick returned to the Chaste retreat. She ignored Stick, and tracked the man who hired her father’s abductors to a church where she killed him, but his henchman overpowered her and almost killed her before a Hand assassin killed him instead.įollowing Elektra’s departure, Stick confronted the Hand agent, who disintegrated before him. While tracking those responsible for her father’s death, she was approached by Stick, who warned her the path of vengeance and hate might destroy her. Murdock ignored Stick’s advice, but the relationship ended anyway when Elektra’s father, ambassador Hugo Natchios, died while being held hostage, and she broke up with Matt. He also saw the possibility for great evil, however, and he warned Murdock to stay away from her. When Murdock inadvertently almost killed a young prostitute, Stick deemed him too undisciplined to serve the Chaste and departed.Īt college, Matt fell in love with Elektra Natchios, herself an accomplished martial artist in whom Stick saw the same potential he had initially seen in Murdock. Stick intended for the boy to integrate his new senses into his everyday life, but Matt, whose father was killed by gangsters, soon took to anonymously harassing criminals, wearing a mask to hide his identity.

Informed by Izo of Murdock’s condition, Stick, sensing the boy’s great potential, trained him in mastering his new abilities, as well as acrobatics and martial arts that almost surpassed human achievement.Īlthough Stick admitted Murdock might help him later in life, he never told him of the Chaste, Izo, or anything else regarding his past. At this point, Stick resembled a man in late middle age, and he aged little over the next several decades.Īfter a young Matt Murdock was blinded by radioactive material, the boy developed enhanced senses and a “radar sense” much like Stick’s proximity sense. Stick was tempted by Logan’s wandering life, and the Ancient One predicted his protege would eventually stray from his current disciplined existence, only to eventually renew his dedication.ĭuring World War II, Stick and the Chaste fought evil abroad, including the Hand, which also clashed with Captain America (Steve Rogers) and other heroes both Chaste and Hand sought recruits during the war, and in Japan, Stick’s group encountered an African-American soldier with innate martial arts talent, although he did not accompany them back to their home. Impressed by Logan's bravery, military officer Ogun allowed the three to depart. Confronted by soldiers, they were rescued when Logan (James Howlett, later Wolverine) intervened. Whether living or dead, Stick is a master hand-to-hand combatant trained in multiple martial arts forms he wields a long wooden bo staff in battle.Ĭirca 1919, the Ancient One and Stick sought to retrieve a mystic artifact from the Japanese military in Shanghai, China. In his ghostlike state, Stick demonstrates an apparently unlimited ability to materialize wherever he chose and is seemingly immune to any physical injury.

Stick apparently ages little if at all over several decades, during which his fighting skills remain undiminished, suggesting a slow maturation process. He can telepathically communicate with others, project illusory scenarios directly into surrounding minds, and mentally drain life force from his foes, killing them if he so chooses, although he can only absorb so much before overloading his system and perishing. In life, Stick’s “proximity sense” enables him to perceive surroundings despite his blindness his senses of hearing, smell, taste and touch are highly developed, possibly to superhuman levels. After Izo was voted out of leadership, Stick became head of the Seven and repealed the group’s injunction against training women. He rose through the ranks quickly, and although it was his right to bear the Grasscutter in battle, Stick instead used a wooden battle staff, from which he drew his name, claiming a weapon made of natural material better suited him than one forged by man. At some point Stick developed a “proximity sense,” enabling him to detect his surroundings’ details he later claimed that anyone could develop such an ability with sufficient training, but whether he learned it from Izo or developed it independently is unrevealed.īy adulthood, Stick had joined the Chaste, which Izo led as head of the inner corps called the Seven. Later, while still a young man, Stick was mentored by Master Izo, a blind, centuries-old martial artist and a former member of the demon-worshipping Hand, who subsequently joined the Chaste, a mystic order devoted to keeping evil (particularly the Hand) in check.

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