Andrian is a highly trained Spetsnaz officer who was selected to become the platoon leader of the Skull and Bones unit, one of the finest commando units in the world - he thus received additional training in a large number of commando techniques including weapons, infiltration, demolition, vehicle handling and so on. He has an atypical amount of training and talent in the martial arts and acrobatics, allowing to act and move just like a two-fisted American superhero like Nightwing or Daredevil.

History

Andrian’s parents were apparently sent to the gulag when he was a child, and he ended up in a model orphanage in Moscow. Strong-willed, independent and full of life he became a close friend of another orphan names Feliks, and together they committed numerous pranks. Despite their antics, they were selected to become Young Pioneers and later became top students. Feliks was gifted for academics and technical stuff, while Andrian was a natural student and athlete, excelling in many subjects. At one point they followed different ways, as Andrian discovered the truth about his parents and wanted to assassinate Leonid Brezhnev when he would come to visit the orphanage. Feliks ultimately convinced him not to, and left for the university where he was one of the few studying computers. Andrian declined going into the university, which meant being drafted for the war in Afghanistan.

In the Army, he was chosen to become an officer in a spetsnaz brigade, then to the GRU academy and the Frunze school. By that time he was more ideologically reliable than ever, and a good soldier. He was sent to an elite commando company in Afghanistan, which trained hard. At that point it was revealed that he had a secret benefactor, general Kozakhov, which made certain the best and most intelligent soldiers ended up in that commando company. He had clearance to begin testing his personal theories about counter-insurgency, and had “his” company moved deep into Afghanistan, near rebel-controlled land. There they received new uniforms (full black bodysuits with a skeleton painted on) and trained even harder than before in martial arts, infiltration, assassination and so on. The training was like initiation in a cult, and there were numerous rituals. The members of that strange brotherhood rarely took off their mask, allowing them to forego their individuality and simply become death.

Despite the mental conditioning, Andrian came to his senses and defected, but was captured by the mujahideen. He successfully warned them about the fact that a death squad was going to start hitting small villages and leave nothing alive, but they reached the first target village too late, as the massacre had already started. All of the members of the death squad were killed by the much more numerous mujahideens with the help of Andrian, although few mujahideens and village members survived.

Andrian then went native and fought along with the mujahids, teaching them advanced military tactics and becoming one of them. The sight of children and innocent women being mass murdered by his countrymen had definitely turned him against the State. Ultimately he went back to the USSR with the intend and means of blowing up the Kremlin, but he discovered that his old mate Feliks had became known as “Elektrik Feliks”, a dissident leader living in the underground and a master electronician and hacker with a strong network of informers.

Feliks dissuaded Andrian of blowing up the Kremlin, and they started a complex action that prevented an untold number of deaths through a radical killer virus, despite attempts by the KGB and the CIA to recover it to their own ends.

Andrian and Feliks later went on to fight against the many criminals in the former Soviet Union, including at times the State. Among their most renowned actions was Andrian single-handedly preventing a Black Beret commando from landing on Boris Yeltsin’s stronghold during the attempted military coup in 1991.

Description

Andrian operates wearing his old Skull&Bones uniform, which is now quite grimy. At night or in darkness, he almost appears like an actual skeleton, although the costume is easily visible to an attentive observer.

Personality

Andrian is both a battlefield-haunted soldier and a semi-inscrutable martial artist. A proud nationalist, finding his land to be both the most beautiful and the most miserable in the world, he does not want it, or any other land, to go through dark times again, he he’s willing to kill to prevent greater slaughter. In Afghanistan, however, he took a strong stance against terror tactics, and is always looking for a way to minimize bloodshed, using blunt weapons and martial arts as much as possible.

He’s very confident in his abilities, and justifiably so. Conducting solo raids on secure installations or even the Kremlin itself is not a problem for him, and he’s at ease taking huge risks against most opponents. He is a very pragmatic man and spent years hand to mouth in hostile country, so he often acts like an outdoorsman, a bit distrustful when there is too much sophistication, luxury or high technology around. He’s quite wary of capitalist-style wealth.

He sometimes refer to himself as a knight fighting for good.

DC Universe History

Andrian operates pretty much in a cinematic real world, and is a cross between street-level and James Bond-level. He’ll stay centered on Russian matters, however, and I don’t think Russia ever played a big role in the DCU.