Cole Cash/Grifter (August 7, 1992) This Day In Comics
A former member of the US Army’s Special Forces, Cole Cash’s natural talent for combat landed him in black ops, taking the dirtiest jobs as part of a squad known as Team 7. He debuted in WildC.A.T.S. #1 (August 7, 1992). Cash’s codename during these operations was Deadeye. The group was deliberately exposed to an experimental chemical called the Gen Factor, which activated a variety of psi powers in them, but which also detrimentally affected their mental health and sense of morality. Cole suspects that in fact their own superiors, International Operations (I.O.), were behind the experiment, while their superiors claimed that it was an unknown chemical weapon. Cole ends up working as an assassin for International Operations (I.O.), but he soon became disenchanted with them too. He went freelance, and it was during this period of his life he encountered the ancient Kherubim warrior Zealot. They fell in love, and she took the unprecedented measure of teaching him, a male, the ways of the Coda, the warrior order she had once belonged to. Her Coda-teachings stabilized Cole’s sanity and locked away what remained of his psionic powers. Some time later Cole and Zealot broke up; for Zealot it was just another relationship, but Cole had become devoted to her, being eternally grateful to her for restoring his sanity. However they remained on good terms, and both were recruited to become part of Lord Emp’s Daemonite hunting team, the WildC.A.T.s.
Thousands of years ago, a war raged between the alien races the Kherubim and the Daemonites. One of the high-ranking Kherans was lord Yohn Kohl, crash landed on Earth during one of the battles. Yohn Kohl called himself John Colt and became a renowned adventurer and hero. He was asked to join Team One, a group of superheroes and gifted military men. During their disastrous first mission, Yohn Kohl convinced teammate Lord Majestros to kill him to stop Daemonites from launching a nuclear warhead. Majestros obliged, but Lord Emp was later able to transfer Colt’s personality to a prototype Spartan. Colt’s body was left for dead, but regenerated. Spartan was an android constructed by Lord Emp, using technology from the rogue island of Gamorra. Yohn Kohl’s memories were locked away and Emp worked on perfecting the android. Spartan was named after a series of bodyguard cyborgs used by Kherubim Lords on their homeworld of Khera. When Emp assembled the Covert Action Team, also known as WildC.A.T.s, Spartan was chosen to lead them. He debuted in WildC.A.T.S. #1 (August 7, 1992).
