Leonard Henke was an engineer working in the field of researching and accurately predicting severe weather and tornadic outbreaks. He had invented a device that he believed would deliver a powerful electromagnetic pulse to a tornado supercell, thereby dispersing the tornado altogether. Upon the creation of his first fully-functional prototype, Henke traveled to the American Midwest with the intention of testing his device, and successfully proving its value both in saving lives, and as a revenue stream.

After receiving notification that a tornado had formed just outside Oklahoma City, he was amazed to find a powerful EF5-scale tornado moving across the countryside. Henke placed the device in the tornado's predicted path, but it shorted out when he attempted to activate it. Unwilling to abandon it, Henke frantically worked to repair it, and mere moments before the storm struck he finally activated it. Unfortunately, the device badly malfunctioned, creating a massive electromagnetic pulse that mixed with both the machine's own sub-zero cooling systems as well as the energy of the tornado itself. This exotic mix of elemental forces washed over the unprotected Henke, and transformed him into a being with power over both wind and cold.

Calling himself Polar Vortex, the badly unstable Henke began a rampage through Oklahoma City. After causing massive damage to the city, the heroes Steel Wolf and Auren arrived. And after a prolonged battle, were able to subdue him. Henke was taken into custody and transferred to The Brick, a facility designed for the detainment of powered individuals.

Following that incident, Henke was freed from imprisonment by the environmental terrorist known as Tempest. Tempest sought to gather a group of like-minded beings with elemental powers to aid him in his plans. Henke, as Polar Vortex, along with the criminals Sunshine and Breezeblock, presented with little other choice, joined Tempest in his endeavor. Together, this group calls themselves “Gaia’s Hand”, and seeks to stop mankind’s abuse of the planet through any and all means necessary.

Recently, in a fit of revenge, sought out and battled Steel Wolf once more in the hero's home of Vance City. Steel Wolf managed to divert Henke's attention away from the city, and the battle took them far to the north, ultimately coming to ground in the city of Humboldt, Saskatchewan. It was here, home to the Canadian hero Auroraman, that Henke met his defeat at the hands of the two heroes.

As a result of the accident that granted him his powers, Polar Vortex now possesses the ability to generate high-intensity sub-zero temperature winds. The winds can reach a maximum sustained speed of up to 500 mph and a temperature of -200° Celsius. Polar Vortex has been witnessed reducing a building to rubble in mere moments and freezing objects solid in seconds. By tightening the diameter of the wind he generates, he is able to bore through a 2 foot thick plate of titanium-reinforced steel in under 10 seconds.

Polar Vortex is able to fly by means of creating a cyclone beneath him and lifting himself into the air. In this manner he is able to fly at speeds of roughly 175 mph, the speed at which he can still breathe without difficulty. While in flight, it appears that his entire lower torso is enveloped in a snowy tornado.

Polar Vortex is able to produce large hail and shards of ice within his winds, forcing a target to not only deal with the high-intensity wind and cold, but potentially suffer injury from icy shrapnel as well. And by trapping an individual within a cyclone, Polar Vortex is able to remove the oxygen from the immediate area and render them unconscious.

Polar Vortex's body is covered in a layer of flexible ice that offers him a heightened degree of resistance to physical attacks. Additionally, his body constantly radiates an aura of cold typically dropping the ambient air temperature of a room he enters by at least 50° Celsius from its present temperature. He can also absorb the heat from another target, be it mechanical or living in nature, adding to his own power and rendering that target frozen and dead.