Origin

A former professional gambler, Nicholas Powell combines his new career with his old hobby. Unlike most criminal mercenaries, Chance does not get paid in advance. He bets his services against his fee: only if he succeeds in his mission does he receive payment, if he fails, he gets zero payment and even has to pay his employer a similar amount. Normal bets include $5000 for burglary, $10000 for murder and $20000 for theft of a major item.

He considers life is dull at best, and is made tolerable only by risk. The greater the risk, the greater the worth. The greater the very appreciation of living.

Creation

Nicholas Powell (Chance) is a Marvel character created by David Michelinie and Mike Harris, first appearing in Web of Spider Man #15

Character Evolution

Powell became Chance because he loves the thrill of risking his life for a grand prize, and his compulsive gambling ways meant that he seeked greater and greater stakes, so he became a mercenary. He first met Spider-Man when he was hired to kill a criminal named Andre Bouillon. Chance also wagered his fee at double-or-nothing that he could slay Spidey, too within the space of 24 hours. Powell lost that particular bet and was arrested by the police, but the charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence and he was let go.

Major Story Arcs

Daredevil Encounter

After Daredevil got a cab driver exposed to one of Chance's major jobs working for a corrupt governmental struggle against two foes, he was forced to protect the random citizen when the employers get the deadly mercenary to go after the driver himself. Matt was eventually able to defeat Chance and got the guy to safety.

The Life Foundation

A survivalist group called the Life Foundation hired Chance to hijack a shipment of experimental weaponry. But the Life Foundation had other plans, too. They kidnapped Chance and attempted to duplicate his wrist blasters and ankle jets. Still on Chance's trail, Spider-Man was forced to save the mercenary's life. Working together, Spidey and Powell battled and defeated the Life Foundation.

Other Missions

Chance was hired to assassinate casino owner Raymond Trask after the latter refused to let Kingpin's gang get into his business. But Spider-Man arrived on the scene and drove the mercenary off. A few months later, Trask appeared at Powell's penthouse and offered him another wager. He knew someone else wanted to kill him, so Trask bet Chance $20,000 that the mercenary couldn't keep him alive. Chance took the wager. When Trask tried to double-cross him by trying to kill him, Chance outsmarted the casino owner and collected his winnings.

Chance was also hired by Golddigger to assassinate Tulio Guzman at the Sherman Hotel. Hawkeye was meeting with Guzman that night, with the big league Avengers interference now being a factor he decided to double his rate with $500,000 for his head as well. Him and Hawkeye would fight, with the archer offering his own wager: his own life or the name of Chance's employer. Chance however was pinned down by a third party during the fight, which made the offer null and void. Him and Hawkeye would later play poker at Ryker's Island under the same conditions, with Clint winning by a hair. Chance relented and gave him the information he wanted.

The Palace

After a hot streak, Chance invested his new riches in The Palace, a flying casino above Manhattan. It is cloaked and undetectable and capable of teleporting to international waters in a second. It was open to not just supervillains but anyone with loose morals and deep pockets. He had all the classic games plus five-star service and ambiance. He also had a sportsbook that hacked into various security systems so they could bet on any on-going superhero activity. Sometimes, he would even send drones to interfere with the superheroes just to keep it interesting.

After cheating The Foreigner on a bet, Foreigner got him back by pressuring him into a new bet in front of everyone so he couldn’t say no. He offered to cover all the bets that night if he could steal Spider-Man’s web-shooters. He used this opportunity to get his Jack O’Lanterns to help him out and move in as his partner in the casino. Together, they hassle a lab friend of Spider-Man’s for his future predicting device to help them fix bets. Unfortunately, all but one of the Jack O’Lanterns were Chameleon doubles on The Finisher's payroll and betrayed Chance and Foreigner.

While they try to make off with the prediction machine, the doubles sabotaged the engine and The Palace started plummeting to Manhattan. Spider-Man managed to save it from crashing, but the operation was ended. Chance got himself, Foreigner, and some of their hired help (Slyde and the real Jack O Lantern) to safety using the casino's cloaking tech.

Sinister War

The Foreigner blamed Spider-Man for this fiasco. He hired Taskmaster and Black Ant to join his new Wild Pack, which Chance was apart of. The team was lured to a graveyard where Spider-Man was, as was a few other supervillainn teams including: the Sinister Six, the Savage Six, the "Superior-Foes", and Sinister Syndicate.

Once assembled, the demon, Kindred announces they were all hellbound villains who could earn a spot as Kindred's assistant, avoiding torture in the afterlife, if they killed Spider-Man. Spider-Man tries to get away while they all fight each other for the chance, but he fails. Eventually, Doc Ock uses a piece of Black Ant's helmet to knock everyone out, including Chance, through the ear centipedes Kindred was using to control them all.

Powers and Abilities

Chance's suit of armor grants him peak human strength (he is able to lift twice his own body weight) and stamina, energy blasts and flight speeds of up to Mach-1.

He is also a trained hand to hand combatant.

Physical Characteristics

• Gender: Male
• Height: 5'11'
• Weight: 170 lbs (77kg)
• Eyes: Brown
• Hair: Black