PALADIN

PERSONAL DATA

HISTORY

Very little is known of Christopher Davis' past before he joined Checkmate. Chris was one of the few Checkmate Knights to survive the events of the Janus Directive. After the Janus Directive, Chris was placed on medical leave due to the injuries he sustained and to undergo therapy to help him deal with the trauma surrounding the death of the squad of Knights under his command. Chris was still on leave, debating whether or not he would return to active duty, when Sarge Steel came to him with an ultimatum. He was given the choice of returning as part of a special project or Steel would have him declared psychologically unfit for duty and cancel all his benefits. Seeing no alternative, Chris agreed to return to duty.

Chris was given a a prototype suit patterned loosely on the field uniform of the Checkmate Knights but with enhanced offensive and defensive systems. While he retained his designation of "Knight One", Chris was assigned a new code-name: Galahad. While testing the suit's capabilities, Galahad became involved in a fight against the Royal Flush Gang alongside several other heroes. As a result of the fight, Galahad wound up joining the second group of Enforcers of Justice, serving as the team's liaison to the DMR (predecessor to the DEO). It is likely that the fight with the Royal Flush Gang was arranged by Omega to recruit a new team of Enforcers. Galahad remained with the Enforcers until the team's effective demise. At the end, Galahad was the only person making regular use of the team's headquarters and equipment.

After the end of the Enforcer's team, Galahad occasionally found himself allied with Justice Inc., a team led by his former Enforcer teammate Tarantula. It was during one of the adventures with Justice Inc that Galahad first met the hero Arcangel, then going by the name Arclight. For Galahad, the combination of Arclight's power armor and sword, along with her personal code of honor (which paralleled Chris' own), meant love at first sight. Galahad was a major ally during Justice Inc's battle to free New York City from the other-dimensional conqueror Overlord. During this crisis Arclight began to reciprocate some of Galahad's feelings.

It was at this point in his career that Galahad embarked on an journey that would change him forever. During a battle with the villain Extant, Galahad was struck with a blast of chronal energy. The energy reacted with the energy absorbing materials in his power suit and Galahad was thrust into the timestream, starting him on a journey that would span three millennia and take him across the galaxy.

His initial jaunt through time took Galahad to the 5th century where he sided with King Arthur, Merlin, and the Knights of Camelot against Morgan le Fay. After the battle he was knighted by Arthur. Merlin offered to help Sir Christopher find his way home and told him about a magical pool in central Europe that could allegedly allow those who entered it to travel through time. Along with his new squire, Geoffrey, Galahad went in search of the magic pool. After three years of searching, Sir Christopher and his squire found the pool. Galahad entered the magical waters, hoping to be sent home and Geoffrey started the journey back to Camelot (Galahad would later learn that when Geoffrey returned to England he was knighted and adopted Galahad's name, becoming Christopher's ancestor).

When the pool sent Galahad into the timestream he discovered that his armor was still charged with chronal energy. Instead of returning to his proper time, Galahad overshot his mark by 1,000 years. In the 30th century, Galahad was assisted by the Legion of Super-Heroes and he was instrumental in preventing the assassination of UP President R.J. Brande. Legionnaire Brainiac 5 discovered that Galahad's armor was still charged with chronal energy. Everytime he would enter the timestream it would deplete more of the chronal charge, reversing polarity at each jump. This meant that since the last time jump was into the future, the next would be into the past and the one after into the future and so on. Each jump, however, would be over a progressively smaller time as the chronal energy was depleted. All Galahad could hope for was that when the charge finally wore off he was close to his proper time. With the help of the Legion's ally Rond Vidar, Galahad again went into the timestream.

During his time jumps, Galahad encountered many famous figures. He met the Viking Prince in 971, and helped the time-traveling second Flash (Barry Allen) and future Flash John Fox battle the Reverse Flash in 2462. He was present during part of the Revolutionary War and met Tomahawk and Dan Hunter. In the 23rd century Galahad encountered the Space Ranger, Tommy Tomorrow, and Star Hawkins. He next found himself in the late 19th century where he met Jonah Hex, then met Hex again during the period when Hex had been kidnapped to the 21st century.

In the post-holocaust world of the late 21st century Galahad and Hex met with that time period's Omega. Galahad learned the truth about Omega and vowed to thwart the A.I.'s master plan when he returned to his proper time. The next time jump took Galahad to 1945 during the Allies final assault on Berlin. He met his former teammate Patriot, who had been trapped in the past several years earlier, and also encountered the time-displaced Viking Prince. Galahad, accompanied by Patriot, made one final jump into the timestream. The final jump took them back to the present, a few months after Galahad had disappeared.

Knowing the connection between Omega and the U.S. Government, including Checkmate, Christopher abandoned his Galahad codename and adopted the name Paladin. Knowing how pervasive Omega's influence was, Paladin went underground, only informing Arclight that he was back in the present. Needing allies, Paladin went to the newly-formed team the Guardians, figuring that Omega would not have had a chance to get to that team yet. Along with the Guardians and some other allies Paladin was able to thwart Omega's master plan and destroyed the satellite headquarters, forcing Omega to download itself into the global computer net to escape. Paladin then joined the Guardians and soon became the team's leader.

Paladin led the Guardians through the Revelations crisis, at the end of which Paladin and ArcAngel (as Arclight was now calling herself) became engaged. When Damien Omen was reduced to infancy by the demon Mellikon, Paladin adopted the child. Paladin and ArcAngel's first attempt to get married was interrupted by Death Spider. Shortly after this point the Guardians disbanded in the wake of the arrival of the Millennium Giants. After the team disbanded, Paladin, baby Damien and Damien's nurse, Ms. Kensington went on a cross-coutnry road trip. While in Arizona, the three were attacked by Harrier, though unknown at the time Harrier was under the control of Lucifer's Six in an attempt to kill Paladin and kidnap baby Damien. The mind-controlled Harrier killed Ms. Kensington but then the attack went drastically wrong when Flashback suddenly appeared. A few weeks in the future Flashback had heard Paladin had been killed and had come back to stop it from happening. Paladin's armor reacted with the temporal energy released by Flashback's arrival and both Paladin and Flashback were transported over a month in the future while a mysterious force grabbed baby Damien in the timestream and carried him hundreds of centuries into the future.

After a brief adventure in Skartaris, Paladin returned to a world that thought he was dead. Lucifer's Six had substituted a burned corpse when Paladin had vanished, making the authorities think he had been killed along with Ms. Kensington. It was at this time that Paladin was approached by Sarge Steel. Steel told Paladin that the United Nations was forming a special rapid-response strike force to deal with global metahuman threats, alien invasions, and other similar worldwide threats, and offered to assign him as part of the American contingent of the new organization, code-named Knightwatch. Paladin accepted the offer and, as the field commander of the new organization, helped build and organize Knightwatch. During the time that Knightwatch was being started Paladin allowed his "death" to remain official, but once the organization was ready for action he took steps to restore his civilian identity. Once he was officially "alive" again, Christopher married Gabrielle (ArcAngel). Though finally married, both Christopher and Gabrielle know that they weren't ready to settle down and their respective commitments kept them apart for long periods of time, Paladin leading Knightwatch missions and ArcAngel's self-appointed duty as protector of the Paradise Cities. Unknown to both of them, Paladin and ArcAngel were transported to the future during their honeymoon by Merlin. In the future they raised and trained the child Damien and helped organize the future Earth's defenders against the forces of Darkness. They remained in the future for almost 13 years before being returned to the present at the instant they were taken by Merlin, with no memory of what had happened to them.

When ArcAngel was killed by the mercenary Thunderblade, Paladin took a leave of absence to hunt down the villain and take his revenge.

POWERS & WEAPONS

Paladin is a skilled marksman thanks to his time as a Checkmate Knight and is a master martial artist thanks to training he received from the Warlords of Okaara in the 23rd century. He is also an expert with many forms of medeival weaponry and is an accomplished horse rider and trainer. His military experience gives him a good level of tactical knowledge as well.

One of Paladin's greatest assets is his power suit. The suit started out as a prototype for a new Checkmate armor. It was constructed with a material designed to absorb the energy from incoming attacks and distribute that energy throughout the suit. The harder the suit was hit the stiffer it would become (a hard enough impact could cause the suit to stiffen to such a degree that Paladin would not be able to move). Only one suit was ever made, though. The energy absorbent material used in its design was unique, the only successful attempt at duplicating the Silver Shield alloy used in the Captain Atom Project. As Galahad, Paladin had used a jet pack for flight and also carried a standard issue Checkmate telescoping baton.

The suit is considerably more powerful now than it had been when it was originally designed, due to advanced technologies acquired by Paladin during his journey through time. Thanks to Element Lad of the Legion of Super Heroes, portions of the suit were converted into Valorium, the same material used in the Legion's Flight Rings. Paladin can now fly in the suit by force of will. He has also added a Legion telepathic earplug to the suit's helmet which acts as a universal translator, allowing Paladin to understand (though not speak) nearly any language spoken in the galaxy. With help from Space Ranger, Paladin has added a force shield and energy blasters to his gauntlets. The most dramatic change was made when the suit's energy absorption capabilities were enhanced by OMEGA in the mid-21st century. The suit's very nature now increases Paladin's natural strength. Plus, when the suit absorbs energy its on-board computer redirects the energy to enhance several of the suit's systems. The systems that can be enhanced are the offensive (blasters), defensive (resistance to damage), and reactive (strength). The helmet contains telescopic vision systems, allowing Paladin to see in infra-red and image enhancement modes, and contains a recording system that can hold several hours worth of material.

Paladin also carries what he calls an Omni-weapon, a hand-held device that creates solid energy weapons such as staves, swords, and axes.

Galahad

Warp Zone | DC Heroes | Enforcers of Justice / Guardians / Knightwatch | Paladin