JackValhalla

Brood is a dark, dystopic figure with a black-caped costume, a grimacing cowl, and an affinity for nighttime and rooftops. He is known for his edgy patter, his barely-restrained mental health issues, and his fighting skills, gadgets and theatricality. Also, his penchant for teen or child sidekicks dressed in flashy colorful costumes. Though the rumors of the underworld would make him out as a demon or powerhouse, among the super-powered set he is known to be basically unpowered, though certainly a very exceptional unpowered human.
 
He likes them to think that.
 
Under Stately Dayne Manor is a cave, a Brood-cave, where the hero does his work. All of it. All of him. Hundreds of Broods that design new costumes, assemble new smoke grenades, tune up the grappling swingline, work on the Broodmobile, and wait their turn to fight and die for justice. An exceptional athlete, a gifted inventor, and a superb detective, he is also a duplicator of the highest order, unbeknownst even to his own teammates. Whenever he fights for the USAT, and is struck by a lightning bolt or hovertank or carbide chainsaw, his teammates see him fly backwards and disappear in a cloud of smoke, only to reappear later from the shadows and attack the unwitting enemy. His fellows believe he is just that damn tricky, stealthy, and skilled. Rather, the Brood just lost another brother, and another reason to mourn and another reason to enact revenge on criminals everywhere.
 
His very most well-kept secret is the teen sidekicks: they are the results of his failed attempts to clone himself younger and sustain his career further. There have been rather a lot of them.

On January first, 1915, a German U-24 was lurking in the English channel. In its torpedo bay, an experimental weapon was ready to deploy. High-ranked scientists from Germany were present to see the effects their one-of-a-kind device would have when it struck the British ship. The payload was a bomb centered around a piece of hyper-dense material, which the scientists hoped would crack open at the atomic level and unleash truly unique devastation. Their science was not all worked out, and they had spent weeks haranguing about the right way to construct the device, but the rush to production had caused... shortcuts.
 
Jerry Stonedoubt was an engineer's mate on the night shift, and was more than annoyed at needing to be on his duty station without even time to take one drink of Ruther's smuggled gin when the clock had struck the beginning of 1915. He was leaning against the hull when the U-24's torpedo struck the HMS Formidable and gashed open the engine room, then activated.
 
The Formidable probably could have survived the torpedo. But when the atomic payload inside activated, it transferred its hyperdense properties to Jerry instead. His weight, multiplied by the density of plutonium, was enough to buckle deck plating and tear the hole even wider. He grew denser and denser, heavier and heavier, as he lay panting and recovering on the floor of the flooding engine room. In minutes, his weight was sufficient to drag the whole ship under the waves, lost and leaving all its crew floating in the ocean waiting for rescue.
 
All except one man, who was whisked away by Father Time to serve with the New Year's Evil. His mass is matched by his strength and toughness, making him an effective brick and a mainstay of the team, using the name of the ship he had dragged to its death. Formidable.
 

Hey, maybe the door doesn't swing that way... 

"On a long enough timeline, everyone has an evil twin."
 
"One way or another, the bleeding always stops."

Luthor's entire plan hinged on the following: that Superman would be able to find Lois in the five seconds that it would take for her to hit the ground. And that Superman would not be able to find his own mother in ten minutes in a deliberate search. 
 
He needed both of those things to be true for his plan to work.
 
He needed Superman to hear Lois' scream and come to the rescue before she hit the ground so he could steer Supes to Gotham. And then he needed Supes to be unable to find Martha, so Batman and Supes would actually come into contact. It's probably the biggest single, most concise plot hole in a movie that was basically just a Russian nesting doll of plot holes.

Luthor's entire plan hinged on the following: that Superman would be able to find Lois in the five seconds that it would take for her to hit the ground. And that Superman would not be able to find his own mother in ten minutes in a deliberate search. 
 
He needed both of those things to be true for his plan to work.
 
He needed Superman to hear Lois' scream and come to the rescue before she hit the ground so he could steer Supes to Gotham. And then he needed Supes to be unable to find Martha, so Batman and Supes would actually come into contact. It's probably the biggest single, most concise plot hole in a movie that was basically just a Russian nesting doll of plot holes.

Luthor's entire plan hinged on the following: that Superman would be able to find Lois in the five seconds that it would take for her to hit the ground. And that Superman would not be able to find his own mother in ten minutes in a deliberate search. 
 
He needed both of those things to be true for his plan to work.
 
He needed Superman to hear Lois' scream and come to the rescue before she hit the ground so he could steer Supes to Gotham. And then he needed Supes to be unable to find Martha, so Batman and Supes would actually come into contact. It's probably the biggest single, most concise plot hole in a movie that was basically just a Russian nesting doll of plot holes.

Luthor's entire plan hinged on the following: that Superman would be able to find Lois in the five seconds that it would take for her to hit the ground. And that Superman would not be able to find his own mother in ten minutes in a deliberate search. 
 
He needed both of those things to be true for his plan to work.
 
He needed Superman to hear Lois' scream and come to the rescue before she hit the ground so he could steer Supes to Gotham. And then he needed Supes to be unable to find Martha, so Batman and Supes would actually come into contact. It's probably the biggest single, most concise plot hole in a movie that was basically just a Russian nesting doll of plot holes.

Cetaceus didn't even want to stop thieving. But his hand was forced. Flipper. Whatever. God this takes some adjusting. 
 
There was no reason for the darn thing to be cursed. Who would curse a scrimshaw collection? Seriously? Sure, it was worth a few thousand dollars, but it wasn't a priceless antique or something. But somewhere in the past couple hundred years, someone loved this thing enough to put a curse on anyone that would steal it. And Tommy stole it. So then he was turned into a whale. A hundred-ton sperm whale. Well, a humanoid sperm whale. 
 
Sure, with some practice he was able to condense his form down to normal human size and back, but he was still not going to blend in anywhere ever again, and his old contacts and fences dropped him as soon as he developed superpowers. And the thing was, his only marketable skill was cat burglary. There was nothing for him to fall back on. It was either supervillainy or superheroism for him, no other options. And no villain team needs a cat burglar whose only asset was that he could grow himself too big to fit into most spaces. But he was surprised to find out that as a superhero, his inside knowledge of criminal procedure was a real asset, as was his giant size and his sonar powers. And the ability to hold his breath for five hours made him particularly adept at surviving many standard supervillain deathtraps. 
 
He'd rather be stealing. It was fun. But until he loses his powers, he'll be the superhero Cetaceus. 

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!
 
"I dunno what the big deal is, they done me a real favor. Look, I never got no respect, no matter how hard I tried. I would tell everyone how great I was, and how tough I was, and at the end of the day, I was always a laughingstock. Then I got this image consultant, right, said he'd done this kinda work before. So, now I'm not Bulldozer anymore. Got my tattoos removed an' ev'rything. I'm taking elocution classes now, but the instructor says it'll take a long time to see real progress. Least I can pronounce 'elocution' now. And, yeah, I'm supposed to stop hittin' on ladies during jobs, and stop callin' people wimp or egghead. My PR guy says that looks real bad. I gotta think about my image now.
"Like the new look? Don't be fooled. I'm still Dozer-strong under these fancy threads. But the threads themselves? Dig it, feel this material. Looks like Italian wool, feels like steel wool, amiright? Actually, it's got this stuff called na-no-tubes in it. Means its bulletproof, just like me. Not because I need the protection, but just so I'll look as good after the fight as before. Just like the tie, the shirt, everything. Looks sharp, right? Hang on, I gotta put on the fedora for the full effect. How about it, eh? And, I got these neat knuckle-dusters. Titanium-iron alloy, strong as all hell. I hit as hard as Ironside now, even Ogre. Sure, I miss feeling some wimp's ribs break under my knuckles, but it's part of my new image. It's all about Kneecapper now."