background

Hayden Carter or Hayden Kent, also known by his Kryptonian name "Hal-el", is one of many attempts to recreate the legendary man of steel, and one of the few successful clones to survive the process. Grown in a test-tube, Hal was an abandoned experiment initially ran by C.A.D.M.U.S. in the hopes of creating a stronger, faster, and more resilient version of Superman, one of which could be controlled and used maliciously. 

Hal was found and raised in the future by Booster Gold, whom initially took the then-young kryptonian under his wing with the idea that his alien-origins could be used to make some money. Thus, Hal was raised for most of his life in the 25th century. 

Being raised in the future and by Booster Gold, Hal was built on the idealism that heroism shouldn't be done for free, and that playing dirty to get what you want is okay. Despite such morally grey origins, Hal still holds genes of the good-hearted, golden boy Clark Kent -- thus Hal never truly had it in him to deny people help in a serious crisis. However, Hal rarely finds incentive to go on smaller scale hero missions such as stopping theft, small scale shootings, drug rings, etc. Instead, with a very business-focused state of mind, Hal decided that he would make money off the big need for superhero help around the world.

Coining himself as the superman for hire, Hal will solve any crisis for just 50 cents. 

Despite his genetic roots, Hal-el holds little association with the actual Superman and the superfamily. It was not until his adulthood that he had even met his 'real' father in person. However he does wear the infamous "S" on his chest. His relationship with superman is quite the complicated one; As Hal always saw Booster Gold as a father instead of Clark Kent, it was initially difficult for him to connect with his genetic father at all. And Clark doesn't quite agree with Hal's views on being a hero.

Hal's abilities consist of flight, superhuman strength, frost breath, heat vision, hyperspeed, hyper resilience, and x-ray vision. He also makes use of futuristic tech in a similar way that Booster Gold does, and relies on it a lot for communication and guidance. Hal is also immune to green kryptonite, due to his man-made genetic makeup as well as futuristic advances that helped him grow this resistance. Ironically enough, Hal's weakness lies platinum kryptonite, in which he can be completely debilitated by. It is unknown why this is.

Despite often doing work for money, Hal could never truly turn down a person in need. His fixation on money lies mostly in his upbringing and the stressed importance of it that was pushed on him as he grew up. As well as the normalization of sleazy hero practices that he was involved in as he grew up. So he tends to put money first in situations where it has the opportunity to be made. Nonetheless,  Hal loves being a hero just to help people, and strives to be someone people can look up to. He won't outright admit it, but he does hope to be as beloved as the man of steel himself one day.