Dirk Leyden

Dirk Leyden is one of the powered men emerging across Depression Era New York, a criminal who can generate and hurl electricity, terrorizing the streets of the Diamond District with his newfound abilities. He revels in what he can do, making a theatrical spectacle of himself as though performing for a crowd.

His rampage draws out the Spider, and the two come to blows in the heart of the district. Leyden gives the vigilante a hard fight, knocking him around with blasts of electricity while Robbie Robertson and a crowd of bystanders look on, the reporter documenting the clash. The Spider comes out on top in the end, but the brawl becomes a public spectacle that Mayor Morris is quick to seize upon, announcing the masked hero as the city's champion to bolster his own campaign.

Dirk Leyden sits in a darkened police station after his defeat at the hands of the Spider. Beaten and tortured for information as to where he and the others came from, he never loses his dramatic flair nor attitude. His imprisonment does not last. When Flint and Lonnie storm the precinct making a clear path for Silvermane, Leyden is offered a position among his powered men. Leyden verbosely accepts and is freed from his chains to join the crime lord's growing army claiming that he plans to take many lives.

He wastes no time showing what he brings to the coalition. Reveling in his own theatrical flair, quoting Shakespear and playing the part of the wannabe actor even among hardened criminals, Leyden turns on the detective who had been interrogating him and presses an electrified kiss to the man's lips, killing him on the spot. He is the most gleefully vicious of Silvermane's new lieutenants, taking open pleasure in the killing that the others approach with grimmer resolve.

Dirk Leyden joins Silvermane's crew in raiding Dr. Faber's hidden laboratory, bringing his usual gleeful menace to the gang's hunt for the doctor's work. True to his vicious streak, he becomes hostile toward Dr. Faber. When Ogden turns up and fires upon Megawatt, he turns on the now young Ogden and moves to attack the man, only for Flint to step in and try to stop him.

His electricity, however, proves the spark that undoes the whole scene. As the confrontation turns and Faber grabs a gun to fire, Leyden's power electrifies the weapon, sending it clattering to the ground and igniting a fire that quickly consumes the laboratory. He pulls away with the rest of Silvermane's men as the building goes up in flames, the raid ending in the deaths of Faber and Ogden.

Dirk Leyden carries out Silvermane's strike against Mayor Morris, storming one of the mayor's campaign offices alongside Flint Marko. The two force the people there to show them where Morris keeps his cash, then load their bags with the money and leave, crippling the mayor's campaign at the crime lord's command.