When Nick Adams dropped out of college due to lack of motivation, he sulked around life for a while as everyone around him succeeded.  After entering an arm wrestling tournament and winning out of what seemed to be pure spite he applied this idea to other aspects of life, becoming insanely rich and successful.  After seeing the exploits of metahumans in the newspapers and on TV, he decided that spite would propel him towards even greater accomplishments and used his jealousy and bitterness as fuel to develop superpowers.  He has yet to meet a foe or a challenge that cannot be bested by his will to overcome. Spite was the first member to join the Fancymen and has since used his fortune to fund the team's adventures.