Red Dawn is a member of the Red Winter mercenary villain team; he wears a suit of powered armor.
Background/History[]
A top-notch engineering student recruited into the weapons development program of the Red Army, Fyodor Mikhailov has been working on powered armor systems for most of his adult life. He became intrigued by them during his college days, when he designed a prototype gauntlet blaster for his graduation project. Getting to work with the best technology the Soviet Union had to offer soon turned that interest into an obsession. With the help of some other Soviet scientists, Mikhailov soon achieved major breakthroughs, eventually designing a suit of armor his superiors codenamed Krasniy Rassvet — “Red Dawn.” The one drawback to the armor was that to operate it a person needed to have certain cybernetic control modules implanted in his brain, spine, and nervous system. No one wanted to undergo the risky surgery, so Mikhailov volunteered to do it himself. (Secretly he was happy for the opportunity, but he pretended to be making a noble sacrifice to earn the favor of his superiors.) The procedure was a success, and he soon joined the ranks of Red Winter. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Red Dawn joined his voice with Drago’s to urge that the team become mercenary villains. He had no particular loyalty to Russia or Communism — what he wanted was money, power, and technology, and being a villain could get him all three. Succumbing to their urging, the other team members agreed, and as far as Red Dawn’s concerned things have gone smoothly ever since.
Personality/Motivation[]
Red Dawn is a greedy, amoral person who wants all the money and power he can get out of life. Being a supervillain satisfies that desire, and also lets him use his beloved armor in battle. He enjoys the excitement of battle and the chance to blast his enemies into oblivion, though he’s not a hothead about it. Red Dawn is obsessed with improving his armor — making it tougher, more powerful, and to his way of thinking “the best ever created.” Deep down, though, he’s aware that his design simply isn’t as good as many created by Western and Asian superheroes, and this chafes at him. As a result, he’s often in an acerbic, surly mood. The situation’s not likely to improve until he finally admits the truth to himself and does some major redesign work on the gauntlets and other primary components of his armor... and that, in turn, is unlikely until he has lots of samples of better armor to study.