Brickhouse

Part of the Milestone brand was to have more super-heroes who aren’t wealthy White men. Thus, Blood Syndicate members gained their abilities due to an experimental gas used in the streets of a minorities-majority American city, Dakota. This type of superhuman is colloquially called “Bang Babies”.

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Brickhouse was fused with a brick wall during the Big Bang. This gave her enormous strength, durability, and density, as well as an unusual appearance.

Brickhouse’s physical enhancements came at a price. She suffers from retrograde amnesia, no longer remembering much of her life prior to her transformation, including her own last name.

Brickhouse would also occasionally have epileptic seizures.

History

Brickhouse is a Bang Baby, a gang member who received superhuman powers in the wake of the Big Bang. The Big Bang was supposed to be a rumble between all of the major gangs of Paris Island to settle their turf wars, once and for all. The Dakota City Police Department learned of the impending showdown and developed a special tear gas that also contained a radioactive marker.

Their plan was to use the gas to break up the Big Bang and then trace the gang members down the next day by tracing the radioactive “tags.” Instead, most of those exposed to the tear gas died. And the handful of surviving gang members that lived had all developed superhuman abilities.

One of the Bang Babies, Rolando Texador, took the name Tech-9 after his favorite type of pistol. Texador gathered his fellow survivors together with a proposal. Tech-9 wanted to form a new gang, the Blood Syndicate, with the aim of achieving substantive positive social change. They took over an abandoned door factory, which they simply dubbed The Factory.

Operating from The Factory, the Blood Syndicate smashed crack houses throughout Paris Island. They tried to rid the neighborhood of the dealers while taking the money captured in these operations to fund their activities. In the course of their work they would acquire new members, and put an end to many threats in Paris Island.

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Blood Syndicate represents

During her time with the Syndicate, Brickhouse developed a romantic relationship with another Syndicate member, Third Rail. The two even left the Syndicate for a time and operated independently due to their disagreements with Wise Son’s leadership.

The two returned in time to help the Syndicate defeat its greatest enemy, the Demon Fox. The Blood Syndicate finally prevailed, at the cost of Syndicate member Kwai’s life.

After this final battle, the Blood Syndicate disbanded and went back to their separate lives, with Brickhouse and Third Rail opening a restaurant together.

And I bring you… fire

In the wake of the original Syndicate’s disbanding, former Syndicate member-turned-criminal Holocaust began forming a new Blood Syndicate that was more sympathetic to his schemes. He recruited several villainous Bang Babies as well as some former members of the first Syndicate. He then arranged a confrontation with Icon to remove that hero as an obstacle to his plans.

This became Holocaust’s ultimate undoing. Icon had brought Hardware, Static, and Rocket as backup. Furthermore, one of Holocaust’s new recruits was an undercover Federal agent. And all of the members of the previous Syndicate who had joined had only done so to uncover Holocaust’s plots and partners.

With the rest of the original Blood Syndicate also arriving to support their friends, Holocaust’s crew was quickly subdued and taken into custody.

In a last ditch dominance play, Holocaust challenged Wise Son to a one-on-one duel for leadership of the Blood Syndicate. Wise Son agreed and capably battered Holocaust. Frustrated, Holocaust grappled Wise Son and pushed his powers to the limit. The conflagration consumed Holocaust, leaving naught but a skeleton behind, while leaving Wise Son unharmed.

Having earned the Blood Syndicate’s respect anew, Wise Son took leadership of the reformed team with a promise to focus on fighting for justice.

Milestone Forever

One result of the Final Crisis series was the integration of the Milestone Universe into the mainstream DCU. The cataclysmic events therein destroyed the universe in which Milestone took place but the powerful psychic Dharma was able to harness the power of Rift, the powerful being behind the original Milestone/DC crossover, to save his universe’s inhabitants.

The two realities have been merged as if they were always one. Dharma altered “histories and memories of both, but only enough to smooth out any inconsistencies.”

The only people currently aware of the transition are Icon, Superman, and Dharma. Icon and Superman have agreed to keep the secret and help Dharma when necessary to complete the interweaving of realities.

This process was hindered by Starbreaker’s attempt to steal Dharma’s powers. It is thus on-going — Dharma stated that it would be months, if not years, before it was complete. This was likely also a metatextual statement on the incorporation of the Milestone characters into DC Comics’ mainstream titles.

As of this writing (February 2010) it is unclear what alterations to the Blood Syndicate’s history may have occurred as a result of the merging.

Description

Brickhouse is a large African-American woman with shoulder-length curly black hair.

Her skin has the consistency of the bricks that she was fused with, right down to the striations from the mortar. She looks as if she were a statue made of brickwork. Myra greatly resembles the Thing from the Fantastic Four, except for her darker hue and the regularity of the cracks creasing her surface.

She usually dresses in simple overalls or whatever other clothing she can find in her size.

Brickhouse has a particularly gravelly voice.

Personality

Brickhouse is a sensitive, compassionate person. She can get greatly upset when her friends or innocents are injured.

She has a low self-esteem stemming from her appearance, which has only gotten worse since her transformation. She verbally berates herself often, and many times seeks solitude when struggling with depression. However, her outlook has been improved by her relationship with Third Rail.

Quotes

“Oh, I’m so stupid ! I’m SO STUPID !!”

Early Wise Son: “Who’s the bitch ?”
Brickhouse: “What did I tell you about calling people that ?”
Wise Son: “Fuck her. Fuck you too, Brick.”
(Brickhouse hammers Wise Son through the floor)
Brickhouse: “Don’t talk to me like that, alright ? I’m a *lady*.”

DC Universe History

The Big Bang and the Blood Syndicate can dropped whole cloth into any urban area where gang activity plays a major role. Brickhouse fits in well in any urban environment as a metahuman, and will likely have Third Rail by her side.

By Kynn Bartlett, edited by JD and Roy Cowan.

Source of Character: Milestone Imprint, DC Comics.

Helper(s): David J Oakes, milestone.luthor.com (defunct).