While trying to reorganize his life into more peaceful pursuits, he encounters Justice League members at the World Trade Center restaurant and has a mental breakdown.
After hearing of Hal Jordan's resurrection, he decides to live in the rebuilt Coast City to stay close to his foe.
While still a young boy, Hand has a severe preoccupation with death and the dead that includes implied necrophilic tendencies.
No particular trauma or event seems to have inspired this; even as a toddler, William is deeply fascinated by death and dead people, calling them "pretty".
At first, William tries to control his urges by engaging in taxidermy, but his hobby becomes a source of concern after he kills the family dog in pursuit of his favored pastime.
William simply shrugs off every attempt to "cure" him, learning how to hide the most prurient manifestations of his necrophilia and accept the role of the "black sheep".
[14] As part of his newly written background, his energy-absorbing weapon is now portrayed as being built by Atrocitus, a fervent enemy of the Guardians of the Universe.
Atrocitus is stopped by Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and Sinestro, while Hand (encouraged by a strange voice) pockets the weapon and flees the scene.
[14] The mysterious voice that tells Hand to steal Atrocitus' weapon for himself traps him under its thrall, influencing him into resenting the Green Lanterns.
Never revealing his weapon's true origin, Black Hand continues to fight him over the years, retreating to a desecrated grave after each failure.
[16] Black Hand returns to his family's house, kills his two brothers, his mother, his father, and then finally commits suicide.
She reveals that Hand is the physical embodiment of death, in the same manner that Ion is for willpower, Parallax is for fear, and the Predator is for love.
[11] Black Hand spies on Hal Jordan and the Flash as they pay their respects at the unmarked grave of Batman.
He is later seen after Black Lanterns Elongated Man and Sue Dibny kill Carter Hall / Hawkman and Kendra Saunders / Hawkgirl.
[19] When Flash attempts to attack Nekron, Black Hand steps in, using Batman's skull as an "emotional tether" to weaken the heroes, inspiring such an intense emotional reaction that Nekron is able to release a new wave of black rings to 'recruit' the resurrected, such as Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Arrow.
Black Hand is later revealed to be in an unknown location on Earth somewhat trapped inside of Proselyte, the compassion entity, as the members of the Indigo Tribe gather around them.
Hal implies that given Hand's role in the Blackest Night, other Indigo Tribe members may have committed evil deeds in the past.
[28] Following his reanimation, he returns to Earth and murders everyone in a Chinese food restaurant and then raises his family from the dead to "have dinner" with him.
The Guardians intervene, charging him up — which apparently grants him enough power to kill both his adversaries — before teleporting him in the Chamber of Shadows for unknown purposes "until he is needed".
[33] When they began battling Black Hand, he sends Simon to the Dead Zone where Hal and Sinestro are trapped.
[35] Hal soon makes the ultimate sacrifice by killing himself to harness the power of the black ring, escape the Dead Zone, and stop the First Lantern Volthoom.
[39] Hal Jordan explains that New Genesis has stolen the entire Power rings for a weapon as the Life Equation for their pursuit.
When Black Hand is awake and attacks them, but he is getting hit back with a huge grappling hook sending him to the Source Wall by Hal's colleagues on the spaceship.
Hand usually recharges his device during battles with Green Lanterns and has been shown to use it to help him locate nearby power rings.
In Secret Origin, this device was quoted as being a cosmic divining rod, designed by Atrocitus to locate William Hand and defend himself against Green Lantern interference.
[11] Reanimated by the ring, the head injury he inflicts upon himself during his suicide is erased, restoring his body to a working state.