Ethan Hall (born Ethaniel Michelangelo Halloway) was born to a wealthy African-American family in South Carolina, of all places. His parents were Edward and Maria Halloway, who got their great wealth from working for a crime boss called The Kingpin. One day while he was attending a local private school for enrollment, he received a call from his nanny saying that his parents had been killed by a rival crime syndicate. He was heartbroken by this and decided to make something of himself but vowed to get even with the people that killed his parents. So he faked his death, changed his name to Ethan Hall, and went to live with his pen pals at an orphanage in New York.