Gavriel

Yosef "Yosi" Zalman (Yosef ben Shmuel) was born to Jewish Russian refugees fleeing persecution to Dallas, Texas on March 19, 1920.

Yosef was one of six boys and three girls. When the family arrived in Dallas, the family feared renewed persecution due to their Jewish identity.

Joseph's father, Samuel "Sammy" Hyde, changed their family name from Zalman to Hyde. At the age of seven, the family moved to New York because Yosef's father, Sammy, was looking for work.

His cousin, Baruch "Barry" Zalman, offered a job running a warehouse in the Lower East Side. In spite of the fear the family felt, they moved to New York and used the family name Zalman once more.

However, they never changed their names back legally. The family squeezed into a one-bedroom flat. Unused to the suddenly cramped space after having lived in Texas for several years, many members of the family, including Rebecca "Rivki" Zalman, Yosi's mother, wanted to move back to Texas.

Unfortunately, there weren't any jobs in Texas, and managing the warehouse paid well. As Yosi grew up in an aggressive New York environment; he developed a temper. Despite his temper, he was generally well-liked.

He had a strong sense of justice and refused to join any of the prevalent Jewish gangs. When he turned fourteen, he started training in a local boxing gym. He had a lot of talent for the sport even though he was only five feet ten inches tall.

Yosi started boxing and soon gained the moniker, Joey Doyle (at home he went by Joey Hyde). Using an Irish-sounding name instead of his Jewish name.

He quickly became a favorite in the New York boxing scene. During a shoot-out between mobsters in New York, Yosi's second eldest brother, Yankle, and his wife, Freida, was caught in a gun battle and died.

Deciding to avenge and protect others from these rampant mobsters, Yosi decided to emulate the burgeoning movement of civilians who took on colorful disguises to fight crime. Yosi called himself "The Human Tank."

He costume consisted of a pair of dark red boxing pants over a black athletic hose and boots. He covered his torso with a dark red long-sleeved shirt and wore a black mask. A pair of black boxing gloves hung from the belt. For a couple of years, "The Tank" became a force for good.

He fought outside the Jewish community to hide his identity. Even going so far as to move out of the community and joining the larger non-Jewish community.

Getting a job as an errand boy for a gangster, Yosi was able to pick out targets for his fists of justice. Overhearing a conversation one night, Yosi learns that one of his cousins, Alex "Big Head" Herzl, a known member of the Bugs and Meyer Mob, was walking into an ambush at the docks.

Yosi rushed to the docs to save his cousin arriving just as he was about to be shot. Shoving his cousin out of the way, Yosi fought the gangsters and was shot four times.

One of the gangsters ran away and drove his car onto the dock and rammed his car into the stubborn Yosi. Knocked into the harbor the gangsters thought they killed "The Tank." "Big Head" Hertzl already escaped at this point during the confusion.

The next morning, Yosi woke up under a pier and realized that not only was he not dead, but all of the wounds he received the previous night were gone. As he inspected himself, he discovered more amazing changes to his body!

His strength, durability, and speed were increased to superhuman levels. After testing his strength, Yosi rushed home and changed. He came into work late and claimed he was up drinking the night before.

No one the wiser, Yosi returned to his life of spying on the mob and taking action against them at night. With his new abilities, Yosi's adventures became more and more bold.

He took on many of the mobsters head on. Sometimes, he would fight mobsters with abilities, but more often than not, he fought against regular gangsters.

All of this changed when Yosi answered the patriotic call of every American and joined the war effort. Revealing his identity as "The Human Tank" and demonstrating his amazing abilities; he was placed with other super soldiers to form America's strongest Battalion of patriots, the Secret Battalion.

The Battalion had a membership of over six hundred masked heroes. The more than six hundred heroes were given military training and assigned according to military standards.

Yosi is assigned to a squad of heroes within the battalion. The heroes making up the squad are:

1. The Human Tank
2. The Blue Diamond
3. Old Dog
4. Robin Hood II
5. Dr. Immortal
6. Mr. Mercury
7. The Tin Woodsman
8. The Invisible Man II
9. Mr. Flag
10. The Red Beam

Diamond Squad, named after squad leader Blue Diamond, completed several intense missions. On one mission, the squad was ordered to capture a German scientist and retrieve his research as well as any test materials. Intelligence didn't discover the presence of the Nazi's super soldiers.

The mission was a disaster. The Nazi super-soldiers were some of their strongest. The German super agents they encountered were Pantheon the most elite German Battalion.

Among the group was its leader Borr and his son Woden, Balðraz, Magni, Hermóðr, Loki, Hel, Donar, Jofur, Dvergr, Dökkálfar, Ljósálfar. The scientist under the protection of Pantheon was Dr. Immortal's nemesis from America Dr. 9 (also known as Dr. 9 Lives).

Diamond Squad was completely outclassed in the battle and Yosi was captured. Robin Hood, Old Dog, and the Red Beam were killed almost immediately while the Tin Woodsman was turned into scrap.

The remaining members of the squad fled and barely escaped with their lives. Mr. Flag lost his left arm and the Invisible Man was MIA for the remainder of the war. He turned up several years later. He fled to a village in the Bavarian Alps and recovered from his wounds. There he found love and started a family.

Dr. Immortal, The Blue Diamond, and Mr. Mercury were the only three from the squad who could continue fighting. They carried out missions for the Allies for the remainder of the war and eventually tracked down the Pantheon and with the help of others, including Mr. Flag and a rebuilt Tin Woodsman, killed most of the members of Pantheon.

Yosi was captured and taken the Auschwitz after Hel discovered he was Jewish. There, Yosi spent the remainder of the war being experimented upon by Dr. Joseph Mengele. Forced to watch the horrors of the Angel of Death every day and faced with endless torture, Yosi wanted to give up his life.

Without the ability to escape through death, he could only endure. A steel-willed determination born in total despair emerged from within. He vowed that if we lived and attained his freedom, he would become the protector of the Jewish people.

Beyond the expectation of the Nazis, the torture and experimentation perpetrated upon Yosi increased his power more and more. Finally, they were forced to encase Yossi in steel and concrete while sending a constant stream of electrical currents into his body.

He was later discovered by the Russians when they came to free the Jews from Auschwitz. The matter of Yossi in the concrete and steel tomb was made top secret.

Yosi returned home to find his family were informed he was KIA. The family was happy to hear he survived. Not keeping any secrets, he told his family of his secret identity and adventures. He also talked about his experience in Auschwitz and the experiments.

The family was horrified, but Yosi then shocked them by stating his intention to move to Israel and help protect the Jews of the holy land.

Unconvinced by their arguments to do that in America, Yosi boarded a boat and finally arrived in the soon to be state of Israel. From then on, he has worked hard to protect Israel, taught and trained other super powered Israeli soldiers and pursued his roots as a Torah observant Jew.