Real Name: Charles "Charlie" Burlingame
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Shaved bald
Legal status: Deceased
Place of Birth: Unknown
Known Relatives: Father-Calvin Burlingame.
Group Affiliation: Redeemers, former member of Thunderbolts and of the Secret Empire/Imperial Forces of America.
First Appearance: Thunderbolts #19

Charlie and his father moved around a lot, since his dad had trouble getting work. A few years back, his father took him to a rally. The Imperial Forces of America held the rally. The people attending the rally and Charlie's father really liked what they were hearing about the Imperial Forces of America's ideas, and having someone take care of them. So Charlie and his Father went with the Imperial forces and swore an 'Oath of Fealty'. The Imperial forces ended up taking Charlie away after they found something different about his genetics and ran tests on him. They hooked him up to machines and injected him with stuff. They said he had the right potential and turned him into Charcoal. The boss of all the scientists was a freaky-looking with no real head. The bosses figure is shadowed in a mirror and appears to be Arnim Zola, the same one that mutated Jolt.

While being a member of the Thunderbolts, Charcoal has seen many things like Jolt's death that made him angry. His anger has grown and has caused him to leap into action without thinking on occasion. His methods in battle have also been questioned, as sometimes they are a little brutal.

Like Jolt, he became a member of the Redeemers. The Thunderbolts were no longer a team at the time because they were pardoned; he was a member of the new team that is less like a family. Since he's young like Jolt and since he specially used to be with the Imperial forces of America, S.H.I.E.L.D and the CSA could keep an eye on him with him being part of the Redeemers. While with the Redeemers Charlie's dad came looking for him again and involved him in some more Imperial forces business which Charlie was not impressed about. The confrontation resulted in his father falling into a big vat with a substance that ended up freezing him.

Charcoal was the second to attack Graviton with the Redeemers in Thunderbolts #56. Graviton broke him into small chunks initially and then reduced him to dust challenging Charcoal to reform himself since Charcoal has never tried his ability to reform from that extreme a degree.