Mauler Twins

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Both of the Maulers possess limited superhuman strength and durability. They have been witnessed lifting at least five tons each in the past, but are clearly capable of lifting much more.

In the past, they have proven capable of injuring the superhumanly resilient Invincible with repeated blows from their fists. But it is important to note that his powers had just recently emerged at the time. He grew much more powerful in later years.

They blinded him with science

Mauler and his clone’s true power is his vast scientific intellect. It surpasses that of any known academic or individual besides the original Robot and his clone. They possess an enhanced capability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn.

They have the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person. Their memory is so efficient that Mauler and his clone can store, retain, and subsequently recall 99.9% of information with no misinterpretation of data or omission of facts.

While their areas of expertise cover a vast number of subjects (from astrophysics to structural biology), the twins are especially adept at the science of cloning. The Maulers have independently created numerous clones of themselves.

Unlike embryonic cloning, the Mauler’s clones possess the same memories and cognitive capabilities as the Mauler that cloned him. They also appear to be of the same age and physical development.

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History

The villainous duo known as the Mauler Twins were not actually twins at all. Rather, they were a progression of clones. The “leapfrogging” clone effect made it next to impossible to pinpoint who the original Mauler was. But it is known that they existed around the time Omni-Man first appeared on Earth.

The when and why of the cloning are not known. But in almost every venture they undertook, the Maulers referenced their plans. What these plans entailed has been lost to time.

vs. Invincible

The Maulers first fell afoul of the young hero Invincible when they were in the middle of stealing a load of video game consoles from a toy store. During the battle, the Teen Team arrived to help overpower the Twins. They incapacitated one, but the other escaped.

Robot, the leader of the Teen Team, erased the captive Mauler’s memories. He then released him to his own vices. The amnesiac Mauler immediately returned to the Twin’s hideout without realizing that he was being followed by the heroic trio of Robot, Atom Eve and Invincible.

When the Mauler’s were reunited, the Teen Team attacked. They foiled the Mauler’s plans to build an army of robots powered by the stolen game consoles.

Even though they were incarcerated, the Mauler’s quickly escaped. They laid low for some time.

The Guardians have fallen

They eventually resurfaced at the memorial service for the Guardians of the Globe, swearing that their intent was peaceful and honorable.

The Twins took no violent action during the service. But unbeknownst to the heroes present, they returned to the cemetery later that night and stole the remains of the Immortal. Using their advanced technology, the Twins attempted to revive the Immortal’s superhumanly powerful body and use it as a slave.

However, their technology failed and the reborn Immortal fled the scene. The Twins then abandoned their new lair and attempted to once again lay low, but were tracked down by the resurrected Immortal and returned to federal prison.

Levy’s patronage

Their stay in prison was short lived, due to the interference of the dimension -hopping Angstrom Levy.

Levy freed the Twins to commission them. They were to use their technical prowess to invent a machine that would copy all of the memories of his dimensional counterparts to his own brain. This would enhance his dimension travelling abilities.

Unbeknownst to everyone involved, the location of the work was being monitored by Cecil Stedman’s (Invincible’s government handler) agency. When the machine was activated, Stedman sent Invincible to apprehend the escaped prisoners.

During the fight, Levy brought an army of Maulers from a multitude of alternate dimensions to battle Invincible. Invincible began to succumb before the combined strength of the Maulers, but before they could kill him, Levy attempted to intervene.

In order to do so, he disconnected himself from the machine the Maulers built causing a catastrophic explosion. As a result:

1. All of the Maulers save one were killed in the explosion.
2. Levy was horribly mutated.
3. Invincible survived bruised yet whole.

I’m unique, but not for long

The surviving Mauler was horribly scarred. But he continued the cycle of cloning himself. The new Mauler lacked the horrific scars from the battle and thus it now was immediately clear whom the original Mauler was.

The original Mauler lorded over his clone for some time, until the clone had had enough, and poisoned his sire. Even as his sire’s body grew cold, the clone cloned himself once more continuing the cycle anew.

It was at this point in their short lives when the Mauler Twins were approached by the Guardian of the Globe, Robot, who had an unusual request.

The future, is coming on

He commissioned the two criminal’s services to build a cloning device that would allow him to transfer his consciousness into a cloned body free of defects. Agreeing to a price, the Maulers constructed the device and put it to use.

When the process was complete, the Robot clone euthanized his sire, per instructions. He then informed the Maulers that they would not be receiving their money. Instead, he told them that they would be returning to prison.

The Maulers immediately rose to his challenge. They smashed the Robot automaton. But before they could reach the newly cloned human, a second massive automaton appeared and defeated the twins. They two found themselves in prison once more.

The nuclear option

The twins remained in prison for several weeks, until they were once again (unintentionally) freed during an attempted breakout by Doc Seismic. Once more the Twins returned to their scheming ways, and eventually found themselves taking control of a nuclear missile silo in Andersontown, Wyoming.

The Maulers had constructed a massive gun. It proved capable of taking down the entire Guardians of the Globe team. The two prepared to launch one of the nukes into space, to detonate within the sun’s corona.

This would disrupt satellite communications long enough to seize control of the satellites. They hoped to hold the world’s communications hostage. But their plans were interrupted by Invincible and his younger brother Oliver.

The Mauler’s realized that they didn’t have to actually beat the two Viltrumites for their plan to succeed. So they fired the nuke at the first moment they could.

He was an unruly kid

As Invincible raced into space in the desperate hope of stopping the missile, Oliver impulsively attacked the Maulers by himself. His first blow shattered one of the Mauler’s jaws, enraging the much larger criminal causing him to retaliate with abandon.

Unfortunately for the Maulers, they underestimated the strength of a Viltrumite. Even a pre-teen Viltrumite proved to be many many times stronger than they could have handled. Oliver, also known as Kid Omni-man, flew straight through the chest of the first Mauler.

The second Mauler attempted to surrender in the face of the young viltrumite’s rage. But Oliver ignored his request and drove his fist through the remaining Mauler’s cranium. With that, the criminal careers and lives of two of Invincible’s most enduring foes came to an abrupt end.

Description

The Maulers were massively muscled, blue skinned, hulking brutes. Other than their hairlessness (and skin tone), they appeared to be Human in every way. They generally wore blue (or black) and white body stockings that covered them from their feet to their necks.

The stockings changed from each one of their appearances, but almost always had a stylized “M” somewhere near the chest of them.

When working in the lab, the Mauler Twins often dressed appropriately. They would wear lab coats, or overalls, and could often be found with various accoutrements that suited the work that they were doing.

Personality

The Maulers were brilliant criminal geniuses with serious sociopathic/psychopathic tendencies. There wasn’t a line that they would not cross in order to accomplish their goals, from stealing equipment to grave robbing to murdering children.

While their overall plans were never revealed, they definitely were working towards amassing enough power to seize control of their immediate surroundings.

A typical scenario that the Maulers could be found in would involve them acquiring resources (illegally of course), in order to build their latest devices which they would then use to conquer a city.

The Maulers always worked alone and never work through hired underlings, as their innate sense of superiority prevented them from depending on anyone outside of themselves.

The Maulers technological prowess was always for sale to anyone that could pay, even heroes (despite their intense level of disdain for them). More so, if the project was particularly interesting, they may taken part in it pro-bono in order to simply about an unfamiliar subject.

Quotes

“Finally ! With this equipment we’ll be able to decipher which one of us is the original — and which is the clone.”

Mauler 1: “Welcome to the land of the living CLONE.”
Mauler 2: “I suppose I could say the same to you, CLONE.”
Mauler 1: “Yes, we are both the same but it is strange to know that we are both clones. I know in the past the dispute between which of us was the clone and which one wasn’t drove our ambition. We were constantly trying to impress the other to prove that we were superior.”
Mauler 2: “Is it not possible that the Mauler who died in Angstrom Levy’s explosion was the original and we are both clones of the original clone ?”
Mauler 1: “How DARE you. We are not second generation clones !”
Mauler 2: “Well, one of us is for sure. Even if the Mauler we killed was the original, one of us was cloned from a clone. So while we are both certainly clones of one Mauler — one of us is a clone of the other. I believe I’ve discovered a new source for dispute between us …”
Mauler 1: “I do not see it. It is clear to me that you are the clone and I am the original.”
Mauler 2: “Exactly — and I feel the same way.”
Mauler 1: “Then I suppose we should get back to work.”
Mauler 2: “Yes, let’s.”

(While talking to Robot)
Mauler 1: “I cloned this one a few short weeks ago — and he can’t even tell. It’s a seamless process. That’s why you’ve contacted us.”
Mauler 2: “Right — I’m the clone. That’ll be the day.”

“You have no hope. We’re smarter than you and twice as strong. This won’t take but a few seconds.”

“You got any more superheroes on the payroll that you’d like us to kill ?”

Mauler 1: “I can’t believe that worked —”
Mauler 2: “Of course it worked. We built that gun. I told you it would work.”
Mauler 1: “— SO WELL. You cut me off. I can’t believe that worked so well.”
Mauler 2: “I told you it would work that well. I think I’m the original clone. You’re obviously suffering from extensive degradation.”

“Entire nations will have to pay us for the right to converse. Those who oppose us can be manipulated into war. We won’t ‘rule’ the world… but we will CONTROL it.”

“I’m not usually one to kill children, but whatever.”

DC Universe History

With their past shrouded in mystery, the Mauler Twins can be inserted whole sale into the DC universe without issue. They would make fascinating foes for either the more technically gifted heroes (like the Blue Beetle) or a young team of heroes like the Teen Titans or Superboy in particular.

By Bryan Gittens.

Source of Character: Image Comic Book Series – Invincible, created and written by Robert Kirkman.

Helper(s): Darci.