Byron Lewis was born into a wealthy family in Bethlehem, Connecticut. In his young adult life, he sought adventure around the world, at one point making an extended visit to Africa. When he returned home from his journeys, Lewis saw that his country had been taken storm by crime fighters. Seeking to help the less fortunate and fight oppression and corruption himself, Lewis utilized his inventive talent to create special wings that allowed him to glide through the air, taking to the streets as 'the Mothman'.
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Shortly after, Lewis joined the crime fighting group "The Minutemen", which were based in New York City. After years of vigilantism, crime fighting began taking its toll Lewis, who became addicted to liniment and alcohol to cope with the pain. At the height of the McCarthy era in the 1950s, Lewis came under pressure of the House of Un-American Committee trials due to previously befriending left-wing friends during his student days. Because of the investigations, Lewis was committed into a mental asylum - the Fitzgerald Mental Home - in Maine in 1962, becoming the second Minuteman to officially go into retirement.
Having spent several years in the mental home, Lewis would frequently write letters to his sister Betty, remembering memories from their childhood and staying in touch. Lewis was present in the asylum the day a giant space alien attacked and killed three million people in New York. With his wealth still in his possession, he would make several hefty donations to the massacre victims donation fund. Having never lost his Mothman talent, Lewis had developed a reputation for being crafty and escaping the asylum due to his ability to craft incredibly successful moth wings out of just his bed sheets and bed springs.
Sometime after the attack in New York, Lewis befriended Reggie Long, a New York survivor, who had been institutionalized due to trauma from the attacks. Lewis and Long would bond for some time, with Lewis retrieving some of Long's father's possessions from his old home on one of his nights escaping the asylum. Lewis would even go as far as to train Long in the ways of the Minutemen, reliving his days when he was allowed to freely be Mothman.
When suspicions went public that Adrian Veidt had secretly caused the invasion of the alien that destroyed New York, Reggie Long organized an escape from the asylum in order to seek out and assassinate Veidt, setting the mental institution ablaze. Leaving his friend Reggie with a handwritten letter and a gift he had picked up on one of his escapes - Rorschach's mask, Lewis couldn't bring himself to escape the burning mental institution, believing his destiny was to stay, returning and perishing in the burning building like a moth to a flame.