Origin

Robert Hunter was born in Pennsylvania and due to genetic alteration carried out on him by the Kree Lunatic Legion, Robert gained the ability to explode and reform himself at will. Later, he exposed Captain Marvel to a nerve gas which ended up giving him a cancer and causing his death. Since then he has clashed with Earth's superhumans.

One such appearance was Iron Man(v3 #15) where he was hired to murder Stark. A fight developed between Nitro and Iron Man. Iron Man (whose sensors and telecommunications gear had been recently upgraded) noticed that after every time he exploded a high frequency pulse was emitted from his body. Iron Man decided to recreate the pulse, causing Nitro to explode without meaning to. After he exploded several times in a couple minutes, he passed out from exhaustion (apparently it takes energy to blow yourself up). Iron Man handed him over to S.H.I.E.L.D., along with a recommendation on constructing a null-harness.

CIVIL WAR

The New Warriors performed a raid of a house containing the Cobalt Man, Speedfreek, Coldheart and Nitro (who had recently escaped from the Ryker's Island Incident) The New Warriors attacked each member, with Namorita (Namor's cousin) going after Nitro. Slamming him into a school bus, Namorita continued to make fun of him until Nitro let off a massive explosion. This explosion supposedly killed Namorita, Night Thrasher, Microbe, and the supervillains he was with during the raid, along with some odd amount of children at the nearby elementary school and surrounding neighborhood in town where they all fought. the aftermath was picked up by the superhero teams, who were already split over the issue of superhero registration, none more so than Spider-Man, who was recently recruited by Iron Man to join and serve by his side. Wolverine began hunting Nitro after he saw him escape in the back of a pickup truck.

Recently, Nitro was found by Wolverine and a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but Nitro used his powers to kill the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Wolverine. Nitro then took a phone call to a government official who may be involved in the Stamford Incident. After the phone call Nitro found himself in the grip of a nearly fully regenerated, (and very very angry) Wolverine. As Wolverine beat the ever loving crap out of Nitro (theorizing correctly that Nitro's powers cannot affect anyone or anything in very close proximity) Nitro revealed that he had been taking Mutant Growth Hormone to increase his powers. Nitro also hinted that there was someone bigger behind the events of Stamford, but before the name was given the two were confronted by the three mystery agents. They were revealed to be Atlantean royal guard sent by Namor to apprehend Nitro for the murder of Namorita (Namor's cousin). There was a fight and wolverine was knocked unconcious. when he awoke he chased the atlanteans in a Stark Suit and found that Nitro had only exploded and fled from his captors to finally end up escaping. His secret benefactor turned out to be Walter Declun, the CEO of Damage Control.

POWERS AND ABILITIES

Self-explosion, After explosion, exists as diffuse gaseous form, Ability to reform at will. (like an everlasting kamikazee)

Physical Characteristics

Height: 6'3"

Weight: 235 lbs.

Eyes: Blue

Hair: White