The Gladiator

Origin

Melvin Potter was one of the first enemies that Daredevil fought at the start of his super-hero career.  Melvin was a costume designer who decided to become a criminal. He was obsessed with Gladiators, so he made and doned the costume and persona of a Gladiator. He has fought Daredevil and Iron Man, and has teamed-up with other villains and groups such as Maggia.  Melvin has been in and out of prison several times. One of his last times Melvin began therapy from  Betsy Beatty durning his trial.  He would ally himself with Electra and Daredevil against the Hand, who were all set-up by Kingpin( W. Fisk).  After Melvin is freed from prison, he and Betsy would get married. After marriage he would open-up a costume shop and become content with life for awhile. That is if you count the one time when the Kingpen ( Fisk) forced Melvin to fight his now friend Daredevil. Other than that Melvin would only put on his costume two more times,and that was to discourage kids from crime. He and his wife lived in peace for a couple of years. Sometime later Melvin and Besty would get a divorce. He would later get married to Li Lung who worked at his costume shop. They will have a daughter named Meleanie. Please note that Melvin was unaware about his daughter.

Melvin's costume shop

Then he was forced back into his evil ways when the former Kingpin Alexander Bont  (Before Fisk) was released from jail. He blackmailed Potter by saying that he had a 4 year old daughter that he had never seen before and that she would die if Potter did not assist him. As a result, Potter re-assumed his Gladiator persona and attacked Daredevil bringing him to Bont who then tried to kill him to reclaim his title as Kingpin. However, overdosing on the drug MGH caused him to die from a heart attack and shortly after Gladiator was defeated by the new White Tiger and was sent back to prison.

While in prison, Potter is accused of killing two of his fellow inmates and Daredevil took it upon himself to represent him as he believes that he is not as evil as he has been made out to be. In fact, his super-senses tell him that Potter is in fact telling the truth and is innocent. However, shortly after this he is insulted by another inmate and snaps, breaking out of his handcuffs and horrifically assaulting both the inmate and a guard before giving himself up and once again claiming that he had nothing to do with it. Potter manages to escape from prison and defeats Daredevil only to go on a killing spree through Chinatown and attacking Murdock in his civilian identity. Later he kidnaps Murdock's wife and taunts Daredevil that he is going to kill her only to be defeated and then attempting to kill himself only to be stopped by Daredevil. It was revealed that Larry Cranston (Mr. Fear) used chemicals to make Melvin have outburst and try to kill Daredevil and his wife.

House Of M

Powers and Abilities

Despite not having any superhuman abilities, Potter is an expert Martial Artist and has vast amounts of strength. His costume was metal armor and his main offensive weapons were the knives and whirling blades that he could use either at melee range or fire with supreme accuracy.