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Jim Tate was a highly successful weapons engineer at Wayne-Powers until he was fired. The pressure to provide for his family compelled Jim to commit robberies and became Armory.
History
A former Special Forces operative, Jim Tate later acquired advanced degrees in electronics and engineering, with which he made an impressive career as a light weapons designer. Employed by Wayne-Powers, he made a good living. At some point, he met Lorraine, with whom he fell in love and married. Jim always provided his wife and stepson Jared with the best.
At one point Paxton Powers down-sized his division, allegedly to move the light weapons division into new areas. However, Jim accused Powers of firing him to save money. He got a modest severance package and looked for a job anywhere else, but was turned down. His last resort was Istivan Hegendash from ForceTech, who couldn't afford to hire him, but expressed interest in illegally purchasing a sonic wave device of Jim's design.
Ran out of legitimate alternatives, Jim donned a combat suit equipped with an array of weapons, and broke into Wayne-Powers to steal his prototype to build the weapon. He managed to elude the GPD, but he was intercepted by Batman. However, Jim's sophisticated weaponry overpowered the hero, and allowed him to flee. Jim's exploit caused a big impact on the Web and people dubbed him the "Human Armory."
During the subsequent week, he set up a workshop at home and dove into work. He became unusually distant from his family, which made Terry suspicious of him. When Armory broke into Gotham Industrial Electronics, Batman followed and intercepted him once again. This time, Armory used an electromagnetic discharge to disable his suit and then tried to ram him. After failing, he targeted Batman with a bazooka. Batman dodged his assaults, but Armory still managed to escape.
When Jim was delivering the weapon prototype to Hegendash, he was confronted by Jared, who had just ascertained his involvement in the robberies. The commotion drew Lorraine too, and Jim could no longer hide the truth about his criminal activities. Batman interrupted the family feud and Hegendash took him on. He subdued Batman with the sonic wave weapon, but Jim foiled him and saved Batman's life.
Jim gave himself up and cooperated fully with the authorities. Due to his act of redemption, he received a lenient prison sentence.
Equipment
Armory was a very competent thief who used a wide range of non-lethal weapons, which allowed him to elude Batman on two consecutive occasions. These included:
- a grenade that produced an impassable force field
- a TASER pistol
- a rifle that shot bursts of adhesive liquid that solidified within seconds
- electromagnetic pulse emitters that disabled electronic devices.
His van was also capable of changing its external color to provide camouflage.
Armory didn't possess any special powers or abilities, but as a former Special Forces operative, he was in top physical form and possessed above-average martial arts skills.
Appearances
Batman Beyond
- "Spellbound"
- "Armory"