Henry Creel was born between 1945 and 1950 to Victor and Virginia Creel in Rachel, Nevada, and had a sister named Alice. From a young age, he displayed extraordinary psychic and psychokinetic abilities, which set him apart from his peers and led to a troubled childhood marked by isolation and a sense of being "broken" according to his teachers and doctors. He was also skilled with codes and ciphers and enjoyed reading Captain Midnight comics.