Razor-Fist

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Background

Powers and Abilities

Like the other bearers of the name, Razor-Fist II is a large and powerful man. He sports lots of muscle and excellent training in close combat and the martial arts.

One, then both his hands were replaced with heavy, very sharp blades. Using those he can cleave through thick wood (one swipe will dramatically shorten most palm trees, for instance) or even stone. They are extremely sharp, razor-thin at the tip, and wielded with great precision and experience.

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Devotees of the Razor, part 1

As odd as it may seem, Razor-Fists had numerous followers and potential followers. They are all people with a fascination toward self-inflicted wounds. This doesn’t seem to affect all “cutters” (who constitute a sizeable population), but rather a specific subset with a pathological addiction.

Scott is himself such a pathological cutter. From his practice of cutting himself has learned to wound others in ways that inflict exquisite pain but leave practically no marks. This skill of his make him fascinating to some.

In DC Heroes RPG terms, Razor-Fist’s weird charisma and his ability to understand them give him the equivalent of Attractive toward pathological, addicted cutters of any gender and orientation.

The first documented devotees were said to be a former homecoming queen and a diplomat’s daughter. They helped bathe him, feed him and generally compensate for his lack of hands by being his slaves.

Devotees of the Razor, part 2

While these two young women were not seen again, he developed a larger following after escaping from the Raft. At least a half-dozen Manhattan teenagers were following him.

This was a large enough crew for them not to be full-time slaves. Instead they took turns in assisting Razor-Fist so at least a pair would be helping at any given moment, in exchange for receiving Razor-Fist’s masterful cuts.

After acquiring this cult-like following, Razor-Fist started referring to his current headquarters as the “House of the Razor”.

The devotees always call Razor-Fist “master” when they address him or talk about him. They have a number of more or less prestigious assignments – assisting Razor-Fist in accomplishing his daily chores and needs, washing his bandages, sharpening spare blades, etc.. Another is to help booby-trap the current House of the Razor, starting with a trapdoor in the entryway.

Razor-Fist prefers kids with a solid resume – influential parents, excellent academic level, unusual beauty, a gift for sports, etc. However, he will not hesitate to abandon them if needed, trusting his ability to assemble a new circle of devotees whenever needed.

In DC Heroes RPG terms, is Omni-Connection represents his ability to find useful people with a pathological addiction to cutting or masochism in the unlikeliest of places. It included at least one NYPD officer.

Piranha tots

Razor-Fist once turned the youngest members of his latest, largest circle of followers into the so-called ’piranha tots’. He brainwashed them, gave them school uniforms and blades and taught them how to kill with knives. The tots had normal stats for kids – but were also adequate knife-fighters.

History

The Scott brothers, William and Douglas, were unusually large and muscular men. After an accident that each cost them a hand, they were recruited by international crime lord Carlton Velcro. Velcro offered to make them the new Razor-Fists by training them and replacing their missing hand with a special blade.

Given the timing, some suspect that Velcro was secretly behind the accident.

(The mercenary Pavane mistakenly thought that all three Razor-Fists were triplets. In actuality, the Scott brothers are not related to William Young – the first Razor-Fist – and are not twins.)

The Scott brothers thought that Velcro was their benefactor and a good employer. That was a grave failure in assessment. They would be proven wrong in 1981, when the war between Velcro and Sir Dennis Nayland-Smith’s operatives reached a new peak.

Death of a Razor-Fist

William Scott (now Razor-Fist III) obtained intelligence about where to find Pavane, a mercenary Velcro accused of having betrayed him. Douglas Scott (now Razor-Fist II) was immediately sent to act on this and kill Pavane. However, Nayland-Smith agents Shang-Chi and Leiko Wu heard about William Scott’s inquiries. They reached Pavane first.

The arrival of Douglas Scott forced Pavane to ally herself with Shang and Leiko. Together, they defeated Razor-Fist. Pavane told Scott about her own experiences with Velcro and his treacherous nature. After this testimony, Scott agreed to volunteer information about where to find Velcro.

Shang-Chi and Ms. Wu acted upon it, but during their fight with Velcro’s security the drugs lord panicked and shot William Scott dead.

After this, Douglas Scott — now the sole bearer of the Razor-Fist name — had his valid hand amputated and replaced by another Razor-Fist blade. One imagines that it may have been a deranged way to deal with the loss of his brother.

Mercenary man

In 1986 Razor-Fist resurfaced as a mercenary. He banded with Zaran (Maximilian Zaran) and Shockwave (Lancaster Sneed) to attack three of the West Coast Avengers — Mockingbird, Hawkeye and Iron Man. Razor-Fist engaged Mockingbird but underestimated her fighting prowess and was defeated.

The three martial artists had been hired by the Deltite conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D. to kill the heroes. Howbeit, they fed the Avengers a cover story about working for the “Blood Tong”, then managed to flee.

Razor-Fist was later hired by the then-top dog of Madripoor organised crime, Roche. Roche’s cadre of enforcers had been thrashed by Wolverine, and the crime-lord assessed Razor-Fist by pitting him in a fight to the death against them. Razor-Fist easily killed four of his five opponents, and after Roche disposed of the fifth, he hired Scott.

Hairy Canadians

Razor-Fist and the life-force vampire Sapphire Styx then went after Wolverine. Styx greatly weakened the hairy mutant with a surprise kiss and Razor-Fist then struck. Surprised to find their target still conscious, they finished him off and brought him to Roche’s estate. There, Wolverine was tortured for hours.

At night, Razor-Fist came alone and of his own initiative. He offered Wolverine a quick, clean death rather than days of pointless torture. Scott found that the Canadian had just escaped, but was barely able to stand. Still considering a quick death more honourable, Razor-Fist mauled Wolverine with his blades then threw him off a cliff.

Scott then resumed his work. A rival had been emerging for Roche, called the Tyger. As Roche’s enforcer Razor-Fist killed a number of smugglers who had pledged loyalty to the Tyger. It was also presumably Douglas Scott who captured one O’Donnell, an important Tyger ally.

Hours after O’Donnell was brought to Roche’s estate, a still-weakened Wolverine and the Tyger invaded. Wolverine and Razor-Fist fought toe-to-toe until Logan lured Razor-Fist closer and revealed the existence of his claws, stabbing Scott in the chest with both hands.

Hawkeye ; “Crossbones”

Razor-Fist survived his wounds. In 1989, he joined a large group of mercenaries seeking a bounty promised by Crossfire. The payment would be on delivery of Hawkeye’s bow arm.

Scott found the archer, but Hawkeye tricked him by jamming a putty arrow between his blades, sticking them together. Surprised and unable to fight properly, Razor-Fist was knocked out by Hawkeye.

Scott recovered and removed the putty in time to join Crossfire and other mercs as they surrounded Hawkeye. However, the gang was beaten by the archer and his allies Trickshot and Mockingbird.

In 1993, Razor-Fist was selected as one of five fighters whom Batroc pitted against Crossbones. Razor-Fist was the next-to-last opponent, but was defeated. Not only couldn’t he realistically expect to defeat Crossbones, but his opponent was one of the very few fighters superior to even Crossbones – a disguised Captain America.

The ninja and the cat

In 1997, Razor-Fist entered a sort of tournament. It was organised among mercenaries and assassins in New York City by the Architect. Assisted by the first two documented Devotees of the Razor, Razor-Fist when to fight the most dangerous participant in the competition, the dreaded Elektra.

He was defeated. The Devotees thanked her for not killing their master, and evacuated him to tend to his wounds.

For about a month, Razor-Fist was equipped with a pair of fully-functional bionic hands. An unrevealed employer — probably the ones who procured the cyber-hands — hired Razor-Fist and Shockwave to kidnap the son of the Cat (Shen Kuei). The goal was to force the Cat to stay out of the New York City underworld.

Spider-Man saved Cat’s son, leaving the extraordinary Shen Kuei free rein. Razor-Fist was mauled and his cybernetic hands destroyed. He did not replace them, stating that he preferred to remain handicapped.

Early 2000s

Razor-Fist was a participant in the 2001 Madripoor Bloodsports fighting tournament. He was apparently killed by Zaran but, as with other “fatalities” of this event, later showed up in perfect health and without an explanation.

Douglas Scott was one of the criminals who took part in the huge 2005 breakout as the Raft super-prison, triggered by Electro. Quickly assembling a circle of Devotees of the Razor, he established his new headquarters in a particularly squalid and foul-smelling Manhattan basement. The vagrants already living there tried to oust him, and were slaughtered.

The cult, part 1

Razor-Fist extended his cult among a specific sort of deranged Manhattanites – mostly teenagers. However, by that point, a new version of the Avengers was busy recapturing Raft escapees. They also recruited allies to speed the process up.

As part of this, Spider-Man gave the vigilante Toxin a bandage with Razor-Fist’s dried blood to track him down and arrest him. Toxin was way more powerful than Razor-Fist. However, dissension between the host and the symbiote  allowed Scott to flee, abandoning his House and Devotees behind.

Meeting with a Devotee policeman, Scott soon learned how Toxin had tracked him down. Razor-Fist swiftly procured a new, similar headquarters and Devotees, and had them extensively groom him several times per day so there would be no bodily residues for Toxin to track.

Determined to do something big, he assembled and trained a pack of insane children whom he called the “Piranha Tots”. He had them attack a restaurant en masse, killing 28. He then blackmailed Manhattan, informing parents that their kids could very well be secretly part of the Piranha Tots.

He threatened to have his youngest followers reveal themselves on the next week-end to kill their parents and siblings with blades, “turning Saturday into Slasherday”, unless vest quantities of money were deposited on his bank account.

The cult, part 2

Meanwhile, Razor-Fist worked on taking Toxin out. Thanks to his NYPD follower, he captured police chief Meadows, torturing him to learn Toxin’s name and address. He then handed the chief over to the piranha tots for them to make him their 29^th victim. However, the cop survived, and was found and hospitalised.

Razor-Fist invaded Toxin’s home of Toxin. The symbiotic creature was not there, but Scott found and killed his father, then fled when the creature showed up. Toxin soon tracked Scott down and overcame him. Trying to find the worse punishment, Toxin arranged for Razor-Fist to be fitted with prosthetic hands that he could not remove.

Scott was then imprisoned on Ryker’s.

Spider-Man nabbed some of the Piranha Tots, but most of them just disappeared and merged back into society. House of the Razor members who had committed no crime were also soon released.

Civil War era

Within months, Razor-Fist was again working as a mercenary. Hired by crime lord Ricadonna, he killed excruciatingly minor villain Freezer Burn and his former girlfriend Heather McDermott. However, Scott was stopped by private detective Colleen Wing before he could murder their baby.

While imprisoned at the Raft, Razor-Fist allied with two other cons (the Grim Reaper and Justine Hammer, aka the Crimson Cowl) in an attempt to escape. Using subterfuge, the trio had Razor-Fist take Robbie Baldwin (formerly Speedball) hostage. Hammer then used a tiny leftover scrap of her cowl to teleport into the control room.

Several guards were killed or badly wounded, and the entire wing of the prison was briefly freed. However, Speedball used the pain that Razor-Fist was inflicting on him to explode with tremendous force, knocking out all of would-be escapees.

Razor-Fist was next spotted attending the Hood’s pitch for a new criminal organisation in the aftermath of the Civil War. He earned $25K just to be there. Scott apparently liked what he heard. He was a part of the Hood’s supervillains army as they attacked the ’Secret Avengers’ in Doctor Strange’s sanctum sanctorum.

Razor-Fist badly slashed Iron Fist when he attacked from behind, but all the villains were then subdued by a Zom-empowered Dr. Strange.

Razor-Fist continued to serve as a soldato on the Hood’s underworld army. He teamed up with the Wrecker to take on the classic Enforcers – who were working for a rival of the Hood, Mister Fear. Razor-Fist badly wounded Fancy Dan, but also lightly wounded the Wrecker with a stray blade swipe when an intervening Daredevil kicked him.

At the end of the fight the Enforcers were forced to flee to save Dan, and Daredevil was trapped under a wrecked building. This left Razor-Fist and the Wrecker victorious.

Working for the Hood

Razor-Fist was a regular of the Hood’s tavern-like hideout. Apparently the opportunity to network, socialise, drink and enjoy the services of prostitutes made him forego his own schemes and just work for the new crime boss.

As one of the Hood’s enforcers, Razor-Fist had a front-row seat for the Invasion  and Dark Reign  events. One comment vaguely implies that Razor-Fist was one of the more frequent lieutenants for the Hood, though there’s to little information to tell.

During his service for the Hood, Scott participated to an ambush against the Punisher (Frank Castle). Castle shot all assailants and blew up the Hood’s hideout. The Punisher had been using an alien gun shooting a sort of super-dense ice, and those caught in it were later recovered and revived.

The Initiative

When the Hood reinforced his alliance with Norman Osborn, it was agreed that his men would join the Initiative and pass for registered “heroes” so they could operate freely. The first team that the Hood activated was composed of Razor-Fist, Griffin, Scorcher and the Living Laser.

They were first dispatched to hunt down renegade Initiative members Tigra and Gauntlet. However they were cut off by the New Warriors, who collapsed a sewer tunnel on them. Emerging mostly unhurt, the villains went on to attend classes at Osborn’s new facility, Camp HAMMER.

These included combat training with Taskmaster, and instruction in how to operate while maintaining their cover as reformed criminals assisting law enforcers.

As part of a vendetta between Tigra and the Hood, the feline heroine stalked and beat up a number of the Hood’s lieutenants, including one of the Brothers Grimm. The other Brother, Cutthroat and Razor-Fist set up a trap for her, assuming that she would come for the second Brother.

They underestimated her, however. Tigra caught them completely cold, while Razor-Fist was sleeping without his blade attachments. She pummelled them all, though Razor-Fist refused to talk.

As Osborn’s insanity clawed its way to the surface, he had the Hood’s core operatives — including Razor-Fist — hunt down the Avengers. It was too little, too late – the Avengers now had momentum, and Osborn further made the grave mistake of declaring war against Asgard.

As Osborn and his Avengers found themselves overwhelmed by the real Avengers, he called the Hood and his core team of lieutenants to the rescue.

Battle for Asgard

The Hood, Razor-Fist and the rest had been battling the Avengers Resistance team at Camp HAMMER, and not doing well. Still, the Hood had to honour his deal with Osborn and teleported with his lieutenants to the battlefield under Asgard. They had a considerable edge, though – the Hood held the Norn Stones, empowering him and his crew.

Even so, Razor-Fist didn’t make much headways. He again ran into Mockingbird — who again proved to be significantly faster than him — then, after they were separated, fought Hogun the Grim.

Though the power of the Norn Stones did not enhance their skills, it enhanced their strength beyond that of an Asgardian warrior’s. Nevertheless, the Avengers and their allies turned the tide, especially after Loki switched the enchantment of the Norn Stones from the Hood’s crew to the Avengers and allies.

As the battle was lost, Razor-Fist and most of his colleagues were rounded up by Asgardian warriors. But Scott escaped, then swiftly took hostages. A number of civilians had gotten too close to take then sell video footage.

Scott’s luck ran out, and he ran into two Captain Americas – Steve Rogers and James Barnes. Still, he fought hard – inflicting a serious but not fatal wound on a little girl to force Rogers to apply immediate first aid and take him out of the fight for a while. Scott fought Barnes toe to toe for some time, but was eventually taken down.

After Osborn’s fall

Within months, Razor-Fist was outside and operating as an associate of the Assassins’s Guild of New Orleans. This may have been a result of contacts developed while hanging out in the Hood’s hideouts.

Razor-Fist and a team of assassins were sent by guildmistress Belladonna to find and kill the mutant Domino. The hit failed, in large part due to the intervention of Wolverine.

When Wolverine and Domino came to Belladonna to put an end to the war, Razor-Fist was among the bodyguards. He seriously damaged Wolverine and destroyed most of his face, but Belladonna and her forces were then taken down by X-Force. Domino had developed some sort of vendetta against Razor-Fist, and later kidnapped him for unknown purposes.

As of this writing, Razor-Fist is working as an enforcer for what seems to be a renegade branch of the Eternal Empire (a.k.a. “Atlas”).

Description

During his contract with Roche, Razor-Fist wore a slightly different costume, in a much lighter shade of blue.

In 2005, he was first seen was the more modern costume, with pants.

The costume he wore while he had cybernetic hands was essentially a variant HYDRA uniform. This might be what he quickly stopped wearing it.

Personality

Despite being such a minor villain, Razor-Fist has developed a sort of underground legend and mystique about him. It is inherited in small part from the two other men who bore the name.

Part of the Razor-Fist myth is warrior’s honour. Though he’s but a merc and a killer, he shows an undeniable, codified courage. Razor-Fist greatly respects the bravery, endurance and fighting prowess of others. He prefers to see such persons killed cleanly.

He seems to have less respect for women and people he assumes or knows are not Christians, though. Also, his sense of honour focuses on duels to the death between dedicated warriors.

Razor-Fist is always interested in duelling highly reputed fighters. Beyond his warrior ethos, he’s aware of the marketing potential for his mercenary services if he kills somebody famous for their fighting skill. He considers himself to be a world-class fighter and thinks that he has a shot against the likes of Elektra or Shang-Chi, despite having fought them before.

Elektra commented that she understood why Razor-Fist had to develop his legend and his rep. If he was not Razor-Fist, all he could be was but a sad, mad amputee. The truth is more complex — Razor-Fist is pathological addicted to self-harm.

To him every cut and every drop of blood on his own body or, to a lesser extend, the body of others is a sacred language. It can express things he cannot put into words. While he cuts himself, he tends to make himself bleed profusely (his ’assistants’ apply and wash bandages when he does so).

Razor-Fist is fascinated by squalor, death, anonymity and murder. He prefers to live in awful places. He also enjoys killing random animals, vagrants, passerbies, etc. to let the corpses laying around so he can watch and smell them decompose.

Although his typical missions involve getting there, killing people and getting away, Razor-Fist is actually fairly smart. He has decent deductive abilities. It’s just that his usual role is that of a heavy.

Quotes

“That’s a lie, heathen ! Carlton Velcro takes care of the people who work for him !”

“Fah ! You dart and dance, Mockingbird, but Razor-Fist needs hit you only once to still your dance forever !”

“There’s no escape for you tonight, my friend. Your fate’s signed, sealed, delivered… courtesy of Razor-Fist !”

“I know you have nothing to tell Roche. So I offer — instead of the torment of another day in the Inquisitor’s hands — the release of a quick, clean warrior’s death !”

“It’s damp, dark, desolate. It reeks of stale urine and vomit. A lingering, lonely odour of lonely death.” (beat) “Yes, a man could feel at home here.”

“I’m two hundred and sixty pounds of sociopathic rock-hard muscle and razor. What are you gonna do ?”

“Might have guessed. A guy who tucks his shirt into his underpants. I’m doing civilisation a big favour by killing you.”

“Hear me, New York City. I’m going to cut you ! I’m going to make you bleed !”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel Universe.

Helper(s): Darci.

Writeup updated on the 5^th of November, 2011.