Hank is a humanoid with gray skin, a black cross on his face and hands that float separately from his body. He wears a black coat, a black bandana on his head, another black bandana on his face, black goggles with red lenses, gray shoes and black fingerless gloves. Bandages cover a majority of their head beneath their head coverings, due to damage from the past. Their jaw, covered by a mask, has been replaced by a metal one. They hold a knife in one hand and an all-red microphone in the other.
Origin
Hank from their origin series, Madness Combat.
Hank is the main protagonist of Madness Combat, a series of Flash animations started on the 25th of July, 2002, by Matt "Krinkels" Jolly. A cunning mercenary from the apocalyptic deserts of Nevada, he is wanted by the Agency Against Hank Wimbleton (A.A.H.W), a weaponized organization dedicated to wiping them out and keeping them in the afterlife. He has to go against the hundreds of agents assigned to kill him for good.
Hank as he appears on the Madness Day 2007 preloader.
The Madness series has a special Newgrounds holiday named "Madness Day," which occurs on the 22nd of September every year since 2007.
Personality
Hank is an uncaring murderer who takes pleasure in killing. They don't care for much other than causing the bloodshed of the people they hate. They have been shown to use any means necessary to kill their enemies. He is feared for being very chaotic.[4] Hank is also very rude and indifferent to his teammates as he contently berates and insults them and couldn't tell Deimos and Sanford apart, asking which one was "the funny one".
Despite this, Hank isn't devoid of empathy or any other generic human traits.[5] At one point, he got incredibly excited upon seeing a giant blender, which he then used to kill various grunts. He also protected Sanford by carrying him off the roof after realizing that the Auditor was going to explode once the latter indirectly absorbed Tricky. He is also overconfident to the point of being suicidal, as seen during his multiple encounters with Project Gestalt in MADNESS: Project Nexus, claiming he can "take him" despite the fact that Gestalt is far beyond his limits.
Hank has incredibly bad social skills,[6] and is even said to lack cooperative tendencies by the Asylum's security system. He also apparently does not have dating skills as stated by Krinkels.[7]
He is also the only known character in the game to have a middle name.
Many people suspected Hank to be the opponent of Week 8, especially after PhantomArcade posted a drawing of Hank and Boyfriend on Twitter, presumably to celebrate the publication of the MADNESS: Project Nexus release date trailer. However, this was confirmed to be false during a Twitter Space, meaning that he will be the future opponent of another week.[8]
Some time later, Hank would also be assumed to be the opponent of Week 9 after PhantomArcade revealed that one of its tracks is named "Homicide,"[9] but this was quickly debunked.[10]
Boyfriend makes a cameo in MADNESS: Project Nexus as an Easter egg. A Nevadean version of him can be seen lying on the ground near Tricky; the two also have microphones in their hands and are in front of speakers resembling Girlfriend's.
It is very likely that Hank will have a different design when they are added to the game, as the design shown in the game's teaser was traced and used in a very popular mod. A similar situation happened with the unused stalkers.
Lore
The J in Hank's middle name standing for "Motherfucker" was stated by Krinkels on Discord.[11] This was initially believed to be a joke, since Krinkels said that anything Madness Combat related discussed on Discord servers is not canon,[12] but when asked about Hank's middle name, he confirmed it to be canon.[13] Oddly, Motherfucker doesn't start with J.
Hank has a record of over 780 kills (105 of which are non-canon), which makes him the character with more kills than anyone else throughout all of his series.
Hank is the only known character in the game to have previously died and come back to life (possibly excluding Cassandra).
Krinkels has confirmed that no character in the Madness Combat series has a gender.[19][20]
In the description for the first part of "Madness Combat 9.5," Hank is referred to with both he/him and they/them pronouns.[21]
Krinkels has noted that the identities of the characters are up for interpretation, including gender.[22]
The characters in Madness Combat are also sexless[23] and do not have reproductive organs.[24] Nevadeans are born out of nothing; they just appear.[25]
Hank is asexual, described by Krinkels as an "ace sigma".[26]
They are aromantic as well, as Krinkels has confirmed that dating and relationships do not occur in Nevada.[27][28][29]
Krinkels jokingly stated that Hank is in a "complicated relationship with his job."[30]
Hank's physical strength and speed came naturally, not from doing any fitness routine.[31]
When asked if Hank is the type of person to show off at the gym, Krinkels responded by saying, "Nah[,] he ain't an ego lifter." This also indicates that Hank may not be egocentric.[32]
Hank is not a hero, but he is not a "villain" either; in Nevada, everyone is horrible.[33]
Hank was born because of the universe wanting him to exist.[34]
Hank is somewhat unintelligent, as "he has a hard time staying alive."[35]
Hank is not affected by fear, as fear is not a powerful source of motivation in Nevada.[36]
If Hank, Sanford and Deimos looked more like humans, Deimos would be the shortest, while Hank would be the tallest.[37]
Hank has no education,[42] although he can still do basic math.[43]
A first 01 Generation Nevadean, Hank is likely one of the oldest of the main characters in the Madness Combat series, with Krinkels stating that he has "been there since earlier times."[44] This means that they are older than Jebus, which means that Hank is a couple of decades old.
Apparently, for Nevadeans, the concept of "old age" is something meaningless or nonsensical.[45]
If anime were a thing in Nevada, then Hank would watch it, as would everyone else there.[47]
The emotion of ecstasy is a rather powerful factor in Hank's strength.[48]
Krinkels previously said that their strength isn't "off the charts" when it comes to Nevadeans, describing Hank as "just a guy".[49] However, Krinkels later changed his mind and said that Hank is very strong, even to the point of being able to beat someone like Deadpool.[50]
According to Krinkels, Sanford and Deimos aren't Hank's friends;[51] they simply have the same objective.[52]
According to Krinkels, Hank probably plays poker with Sanford and Deimos during the weekends (if their work schedules line up).[53]
If there were kittens in Nevada, Hank would probably take the time to pet one.[54]
↑Krinkels; Cethic; cheshyre; CturiX-Kemilon (October 2, 2020). "Madness Combat 9.5 pt1". From Newgrounds. “Time and space are angular, jagged things. Hank, acting in their very nature, cuts like a knife through everything that moves out of tangent with them. Hank cuts and slashes their way through a sort of hell reserved for armies, showing no particular malice or disdain towards the destruction caused, acting as if following a script written on the very atomic structure of Nevada. During this phase hank encounters the clown, who (spoiler alert) died alongside them at the hands of Jebediah Christoff. The clown's manic shenanigans, however, became subdued at the approaching presence of a threat that is said to only exist in the more distant hellscapes; A Retainer. He can not handle this on his own, but who will help him overcome this threat?”
↑Michael Swain. "Madness: Project Nexus 2". From Kickstarter. “Hank: A psychopathic mercenary gunman on a take-no-prisoners mission to wipe out an all-powerful Agency...one which maintains a stranglehold on Nevada with its seemingly unlimited supply of loyal and disposable soldiers.”
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Sketch of Hank with Pico posted on PhantomArcade's Twitter.
Drawing of Hank on PhantomArcade's Twitch stream.
Hank and Tricky being best buds by PhantomArcade on Twitter.
Hank lurking in the shadows preparing to end Boyfriend's life with a knife.
Drawing of Hank in the rain by PhantomArcade.
