Shaken by the tragic consequences of his irresponsibility, Richmond was glad when he was drafted into the army, and hoped that he would die in action. However, during his physical examination, a heart murmur was detected and he was rejected. On the same day, his father died in an airplane crash, and Kyle found himself in charge of Richmond Enterprises. Wisely believing him self to be incapable of handling the business, Richmond turned over the management of the firm to the company’s chairman of the board, J. C. Pennyworth. He then divided his time between leisure and a search for a chemical cure for his heart ailment.

Richmond soon discovered a mysterious book which contained alchemical formulae, among which was a formula to increase physical strength. Concocting the formula, Richmond drank it, and learned that it did confer upon him heightened strength, but only at night. Richmond was then contacted by the Grandmaster, the cosmic gamesman, who made Richmond and two other human beings into counter parts of members of the Squadron Supreme, a team of heroes of an alternate Earth. The Grandmaster also transformed nonliving matter into a duplicate of Squadron Supreme member Hyperion. Richmond took the name of Nighthawk, the costumed identity of the Kyle Richmond of this alternate Earth. The Grandmaster’s new team, consisting of criminal versions of Hyperion, Nighthawk, Doctor Spectrum, and the Squadron Supreme’s Whizzer, was known as the Squadron Sinister.

As Nighthawk, Richmond decided to use his powers for “kicks” and tried to make a quick reputation for himself by battling Daredevil. When this ploy failed, Richmond retired his Nighthawk identity for a while.

Some time later, Richmond was unwillingly reunited with the Squadron, when Hyperion volunteered the group to assist the alien Nebulon in his plan to melt Earth’s icecaps. Acting responsibly for the first time in his life, Richmond told the Defenders. Assisting them, Nighthawk was struck by radiation from Nebulon’s “laser-cannon” and was on the brink of death. The sorcerer Doctor Stephen Strange performed an elaborate spell to mystically resuscitate his life force by drawing upon the collective life force of the Defenders. When Nighthawk revived, he began to associate with the Defenders.

Richmond revelled in the sense of life and purpose that his association with the Defenders afforded him, and converted his private riding academy into their acting headquarters. He later used his financial resources to develop for himself powerful jetpack and wing apparatus to enable him to fly. With the increasingly long absences of Doctor Strange, Nighthawk became defacto leader of the group. He remained active with the team until agents of the Internal Revenue Service, investigating tax fraud, brought forth an injunction to prevent him from donning his costume until the charges were cleared. Richmond eventually beat the charges.

Months later, when the Defenders were under siege by the demonic Six-Fingered Hand, the mystic link that Doctor Strange created to save Nighthawk’s life after the Nebulon encounter was severed. Kyle Richmond was left paralyzed except at night when he regained full mobility. He stoically accepted his infirmity and reduced his involvement in Defenders activities accordingly. Returning to the college he once attended, Richmond discovered that Mindy Williams had not died in the car crash he caused, but was severely crippled. Insane with bitterness and possessing certain psionic powers, Mindy tried to kill the man she blamed for her condition. Nighthawk managed to survive the attack with the help of Spider-Man. This encounter led Nighthawk to a secret project in Colorado run by a superpatriot named August Masters who planned to launch a psychic assault on the Soviet Union, employing the minds of unwilling telepaths as weapons. Mindy Williams was one of these telepaths.

When the Defenders were taken captive, Richmond established a mental link with his former girlfriend and contacted Doctor Strange to bring reinforcements. But the subconscious minds of the six psychics took control of Richmond’s mind, conferring upon it their collective power. Through Richmond, they activated the destruct sequence on the main computer/power system of the whole secret complex. Apparently of his own free will, Richmond ordered Doctor Strange to evacuate the other Defenders, while he remained behind as a physical focal point for the minds of the psychics. When the secret complex exploded, Kyle Richmond, the six telepaths, August Masters, and his private army were all inside. Possessed as he was by the six psychics, it is not clear if Kyle Richmond purposely sacrificed himself so that a nation could live or if he was their pawn.