William Joseph "B.J." Blazkowicz, or simply known as Billy or B.J., is a legendary World War II veteran and a founding member of Vanguard where he aided Joe Colton in defeating the technological branch of the Nazis by installing in himself bio-organic enhancements.
Appearance[]
William Blazkowicz appears as a Caucasian male of Jewish descent, standing well over 6 feet and 3 inches with a heavily built physique. He has blue eyes, strawberry blonde hair, two scars running diagonally across his temple and over his eyebrow with a square jaw. His attire consist of a black and yellow leather jacket and a brown leather shearling jacket complete with military pants and combat boots.
History[]
Background[]
William is a third generation Polish American, born on August 11 (or 15), 1911, in the United States. He is the grandson of a Polish immigrant, and the son of Rip Blazkowicz, an ambitious, but crooked and racist Polish-American con-artist and businessman; and Zofia, a young Polish Jew. He grew up on a farm called the Blazkowicz Estate in Mesquite, Texas, near Forney Lake, in the 1900s. His childhood was abusive, with his father venting his anger on him, his mother, and their dog Bessie for his failing business.
Once B.J. reached the right age, he ran away from home and joined the United States Army, much to his father's chagrin, and to his mother's heartbreak. In the army, he joined the Army Rangers and was sent to boot camp. B.J. would later join the Office of Strategic Reserve or the OSR, and befriend fellow agents Richard Wesley and Pippa Shepherd. Around the same time, B.J. also befriended Wing Commander Fergus Reid, who referred and nicknamed him "Blazko".
World War II[]
At age 32 (c. early 1944), he alongside his fellow task force members the Howling Commandos were employed by the OSR to travel to Jürgen Voller's X-Labs where Projekt Antikythera was being implemented, swimming through the cesspools to destroy the base while also retrieving valuable research regarding the Nazi's work on the super soldier program known as C24; a biogenetic agent that enhances human genomes to where it completely restructures their DNA. In addition, C24 was purportedly developed using resources found in archaic Sarkic tomes.
During his mission, he and the Commandos uncover a more drastic plot in Isenstadt regarding Projekt Antikythera where he encounters Wilhelm Strasse attempting to build a device to reach the Black Sun Dimension, an extra dimensional realm with power stronger than the atomic bomb. B.J. managed to thwart Strausse's plans for harnessing a power greater than that of any on the planet but the malfunction of the machine resulted in a catastrophic blowback that created a singularity that caused the zeppelin to collapse into itself before bursting into an explosion that was near fatal to Blazkowicz. Thankfully, he was rescued in time by a squadron sent by Joe Colton and brought onboard their base. Seeing the potential in Blazkowicz, Colton had him volunteer as a recipient for the super soldier experiment that was conducted by the Nazis.
Legacy[]
In his coma and barely clinging onto life from the explosion, Doctor Set Roth injected Blazkowicz with C24 which is revealed to be a bioengineered chromosome or enzymes greatly enhanced Blazkowicz's physical abilities to superhuman levels. Before long, B.J's injuries were completely healed and had awoken from his coma, now being far stronger and faster than he could ever think possible. He was more than prepared to continue the fight and was enlisted by Joe Colton to join his Vanguard to destabilize Nazi facilities that utilized the advanced paratechnological remains of the Church of the Broken God. His World War II exploits made B.J. a living legend.
Blazkowicz ultimately helped the Allies and the OSR win the war and destroy the Ahnenerbe and the Thule Society as a whole, completely dismantling any chance of the Nazi regime attaining absolute dominion over Europe and the United States using their inhuman armies and alien-like technologies but crashed into the Arctic during his final mission to stop a plane carrying bombs bound for the United States. Blazkowicz then spent sixty-six years unaging due to his superhuman attributes and would go into hiding, before he was eventually found by the Global Occult Coalition in the early 21st century. B.J. has become a prominent revolutionary icon and highly revered war hero throughout the US and the rest of the free world. His face becomes the poster man for rebel factions across the world with his image and legacy being used to encourage the oppressed people to rise up against their conquerors.
When he awoke, Blazkowicz found himself alone in a modern world that he hardly recognized, with no idea what to do with his life. Following the growing threat of the Illuminati, Roy Mustang enlisted Blazkowicz's help in stopping the Illuminati from destroying the world. Joining the Dark Knight Initiative, Blazkowicz played a key role in several battles against the Illuminati's terroristic attacks, often being looked at as a leader of sorts that directed the human forces of the joint organizations as well as the superhuman members of the Initiative.
Personality[]
B.J. Blazkowicz has always been portrayed as a fierce and unwavering patriot, a true believer of truth, justice and above all, liberty. Blazkowicz has always had a noble and honest spirit, intolerant towards injustice and abuses of power. Since he grew up weak and small and under the tyranny of his racist abusive father he learned on his own that true strength is having the courage to fight against abuse, no matter one's power, and having compassion for the innocent which he inherited from his mother. Despite being transformed into a perfect human by C24, he maintained his original values and character. He's unflinchingly loyal to his allies and fiercely defends them, and as the series progresses, develops a knack for recognising the good in others. He is also extraordinarily brave and remarkably fearless as he would charge head-on into battle against monstrous beasts and apocalyptic forces.
That said, despite having a blunt, compartmentalised, practical-minded approach to all things, including his personal life, he is shown to have a philosophical and poetic side through internal monologues on subjects like the love, loss and war. Blazkowicz occasionally reveals a dry sense of humour despite his usually serious demeanor. In addition, B.J. showed tremendous compassion, looking past their nationality, ethnicity or entitlement. He was also very empathetic; being able to understand and relate to Sigrun Engel, despite her being a member of the Nazi Party; witnessing first hand her impossible situation under the evil Irene Engel. Blazkowicz finds the courage to defend the weak and innocent, and does not hesitate to stand up to corrupt politicians, hypocritical authority figures, powerful individuals like the Salvatore brothers with Lucian Salvatore himself remarking that he could not a smell a single ounce of anxiety from Blazkowicz even when face-to-face against his exceedingly violent little brother Jakob, or even Satan himself. His determination also aids him, giving him a boost in physical power to allow him to hold off beings of much greater strength and firepower.
Blazkowicz is not afraid to do what's right for the greater good and make the tough choices, even if it might be costly to him personally. As a soldier and captain, Blazkowicz knows full well that war has its casualties and some of his dearest friends, or even himself, may need to make the ultimate sacrifice. He was willing to justify violence and killing to defend others and to preserve peace and freedom, even when Roy Mustang called him out on various war crimes he and the American army committed during World War II. His patriotism and sense of priorities means he can hold a blind spot to America's past history in regards to race, and struggles to argue with Fred Dugan when he points out that, to him once, men like Blazkowicz are no different to the Nazis, which he takes great offense to. Similarly, when Lucas Woods feigns apathy when describing the South as run by the Ku Klux Klan, B.J. simply dismisses them as 'turncoats', either not believing or unwilling to believe that the average American would truly embrace the views of their invaders so readily. B.J. does not oppose striving for equality and liberty on principle in the least, but he deeply resents those goals being used as excuses to avoid fighting or to paint himself as a hypocrite.
He does have a darker side, however, with the Shepherd noting that Blazkowicz had been a soldier for so long, he subconsciously craved conflict and battles to avoid a civilian life and being forced to confront all he lost. His attitude towards anyone that has a similar ideological mindset as the Nazis themselves is one of unflinching, instinctive hatred, at times dispassionate, other times murderous. Major Heinrich Himmler compares B.J.'s whole existence as a penance towards the Nazi's for their immoral crimes against God and humanity. Even then, B.J., however reluctantly, alders to a strict sense of soldier's honour - he does not inflict torture, instead preferring to kill his opponents quickly, nor does he kill captives without reason.
Powers and Abilities[]
After being injected with the C24 enzymes, all of Blazkowicz's bodily functions were enhanced, such as his strength, durability, speed, agility, stamina, reflexes, senses, healing, and lifespan to superhuman levels. He is very muscular, athletic and physically capable. The C24 also healed all of his ailments, physical and genetic imperfections instantly, giving him a perfect body better than that of a man in his physical prime.
Blazkowicz's physical strength is enhanced beyond the peak of human potential. His strength allows him to physically overpower elite-trained humans, genetically altered humans/monsters, robot sentries, and even demons. B.J. had initially required visible effort in bending metal bars when he was injected, but later he effortlessly slammed through solid walls and reinforced glass, pry open steel doors, and even briefly hold back an accelerating helicopter. His immense strength allows for him to send enemies flying several meters in the air from mere punches and kicks during his fight. C24 also made B.J. incredibly durable. Though he is not bulletproof, he can survive extreme blunt force trauma, such as being hit with solid objects and physically powerful superhuman beings. Blazkowicz has been tasered, shot, stabbed, caught in several explosions, and taken several beatings including being blasted off of a causeway into a city bus by a launched grenade.
Another of his capabilities that his enemies tend to overlook are his martial arts skills. Even before he was enlisted in the army, B.J. himself claims that when he was a child his father taught him how to box and even knife fight. As he grew B.J. became an extremely skilled and formidable hand-to-hand combatant and martial artist, having extensive levels of knowledge of melee combat as well as being considerably experienced in combat operations, making him one of the most powerful and best fighters on the planet. He was also trained under some of the best combatants in the world, among of which was Joe Colton himself and Deckard Yeager. He has mastered numerous martial arts such as muay Thai, boxing, Krav Maga, Taekwondo, savate, wushu, judo, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, wrestling, aikido, karate, and wing chun. Even in World War II, when he was still inexperienced, William Blazkowicz has already proven to be a skilled fighter. His skills in combat were so profound that training simulators in the Global Occult Coalition were used for their soldiers. They were also recognizable and can be easily improvised such as when Jack Krauser recognized the movements in Leon Kennedy's fighting coordinations.
Blazkowicz is a skilled marksman, being able to throw projectile weaponry with extreme accuracy and is well-versed in the use of firearms. He can even aim accurately while dual wielding or even while wheelchair-bound. He is skilled in the use of knives and other melee weapons (including improvised weapons such as hatchets and pipes), able to throw a knife and hatchet at his enemies at long range. Aside from being a combat veteran, B.J. was highly skilled in stealth and espionage. His stealth skills are so effective he can clear an entire room of opponents without being noticed. During World War II, Blazkowicz and the Vanguard successfully raided several Ahnenerbe bases, rescued allied POWs, and captured one of the top Nazi scientists of Projekt Antikythera, Jürgen Voller.