Blood Syndicate

The Blood Syndicate is a multicultural vigilante gang of superhumans created by Milestone Comics and published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in Blood Syndicate #1 (April 1993), and was created by Dwayne McDuffie, Ivan Velez Jr. and Denys Cowan.

Blood Syndicate
The Blood Syndicate, artist Denys Cowan.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Blood Syndicate #1 (April 1993)
Created by	Dwayne McDuffie (writer) Ivan Velez Jr. (writer) Denys Cowan (artist)
In-story information
Member(s)	Aquamaria Boogieman Brickhouse DMZ Dogg Fade Flashback Holocaust Kwai Masquerade Oro Tech-9 Third Rail Wise Son

Publication history

In Milestone Comics' fictional city of Dakota, the Blood Syndicate is a loose affiliation of super-powered individuals brought together by circumstance; 35 issues of their eponymous comic book, written largely by Ivan Velez Jr., were published between 1993 and 1996.

The Blood Syndicate differed from other supergroups in being a gang. In fact, they were the surviving remnants of multiple street gangs (thus the name, a combination of "Paris Island Bloods" and "Force Syndicate"), who had gained superpowers in the so-called Big Bang, and decided to use them for a greater purpose. Their constant in-fighting, the unsustainability of their methods, and their lack of a central vision (particularly after the death of their first leader), however, led to the Syndicate's eventual disintegration.

Fictional team history

The "Big Bang" refers to an incident in which gang members from all over Dakota met in one, huge battle. The police got word of the coming attack and planned to gas the lot of them with tear gas laced with a radioactive marker and take them all into custody. Their plan was to track down any gang member who got away using the radioactive marker. Unknown to them, or even to the police involved, the tear gas used to disperse them was laced with a mutative agent called "quantum juice". Many gang members and police officers died, while others gained superpowers.

Coming together

The surviving gang members eventually came together and formed a new gang. Tech Nine, Flashback, Fade and Dogg from the Force Syndicate reached out to whoever else they could find. They reached out to Holocaust first, but he killed them all with his fire powers. Flashback saved them with her power to turn time back three seconds. They convinced him not to attack them again, and he helps them recruit Wise Son by threatening his family. They found Third Rail in a homeless camp deep below the streets, suffering from guilt over his father. They tricked Juan Templo into leaving the safety of a local church to join them. The group agreed to work together, and after a healthy disagreement, chose the name Blood Syndicate (a combination of the names of the two rival gangs they came from, "Force Syndicate" and "Paris Bloods").

Their first action as a gang was when they attacked a crack house to steal the money for "operating expenses". Their raid killed many addicts and criminals, and gained them another member, Masquerade. He was hired to guard the drugs, but the new gang recruited him to join them instead. They went back to "Ground Zero", the place where the Big Bang happened, only to be ambushed by a large contingent of local criminals. Templo was killed, but the new gang worked together and killed every last one of their attackers.

Media spotlight

Brickhouse and DMZ joined the team at some point after their first crackhouse raid and the annihilation of the attack force. Their exploits attracted the attention of Dakota's local media. The Dakota Chronicle, the city's most popular newspaper sent reporter Rob Chaplik to score an interview with the Syndicate. Chaplik followed them to a raid on a crack-house, their main source of money. She was killed by one of the drug dealers, but Flashback reversed her death by turning back time three seconds and pushing Rob out of the way of the shotgun blast that killed her the first time. Holocaust burned the shooter to death before he could fire again.^[1]

Holocaust challenged Tech Nine for leadership of the gang, and by the rules they had set down, they had trial by combat to choose which of them would be the leader. Tech Nine took a horrible beating, but ultimately won the fight. Holocaust left the gang in anger rather than submit to Tech's leadership and went off to form a criminal empire.

They took in a new member, a rat-man called the Boogieman, and sought purpose. The gang did not have a true focus, but as their leader, Tech Nine tried to give them one. They discovered and destroyed a hidden lab under the local hospital where scientists experimented on Bang Babies. Boogieman was a big help in fighting the armored security guards protecting the place, and Brickhouse remembered being experimented on in the lab. The gang destroys the lab, but its creator escapes to set up shop elsewhere.

The gang went back to their home (an abandoned factory on the land where the Big Bang took place) to celebrate. During the party, the quantum juice destabilized Tech's body and he died as his flesh melted off of his body. Wise Son took over as leader, but it was clear he was less popular than Tech.

As Wise Son sought to fill Tech's shoes, the team faced multiple threats and disasters. They pondered what to do for money when they ran out of crack houses to rob, but before they could plan, Chinese mobster John Wing sent his forces to kill the Syndicate so they would not interfere with his plans. When they captured him. Wise Son chose to humiliate the man by urinating on him. Wing felt that he had to get revenge at all costs, and murdered his own wife in a supernatural ritual and summoned the Demon Fox. The Fox warned him of the cost of its services, and Wing agreed. After decimating the Syndicate, the Fox returned to Wing to take payment - Wing's life.

The Fox attacked the Syndicate in their headquarters and nearly killed the entire team. In the process, the Fox revealed their deepest secrets; the various revelations hurt worse than the significant physical damage from the fight. The Fox would have killed them all if not for the appearance of Kwai, who was reborn in response to the Fox's rebirth. Kwai revealed that they were mirror sisters - one cannot exist without the other as a counterbalance.

As the gang members woke up slowly, some of them learned each other's secrets. Flashback woke up near Boogieman, and saw that, his speech pattern and mannerisms notwithstanding, Boogieman was white. Fade and Masquerade woke up near each other. During the fight, the Fox reached into Fade's mind and revealed that Fade is gay, something he did not want his teammates to ever know. Masquerade overheard, right before taking a severe beating from the Fox. Fade woke up before Masquerade, and saw that Masquerade had reverted to a female form when knocked cold. Fade promised not to tell anyone that Masquerade was born a woman, and Masquerade threatened that if he did, he would tell everybody that Fade was gay.

Soon after they survived the Demon Fox, a super being named Rift with reality-warping powers nearly destroyed their reality and the one inhabited by the DC superheroes. The Syndicate had to fight alongside the heroes they knew (Static, Icon, Rocket, Hardware) and with Superman, Superboy and Steel from the DC Universe. Eventually they all manipulated Rift into reversing the damage he caused and to go into hibernation, where he could not alter reality any further.

The team's tensions escalated. Wise Son embarrassed Boogieman by forcing him to reveal that he was white. He acted like he put Boogie off the team for lying to them, but then told him he could stay. This furthered dislike of Wise's leadership, particularly by Third Rail. He and Brickhouse developed a romantic relationship and contemplated moving out on their own when Masquerade betrayed the team. They chose to raid one last crackhouse to raise money. Kwai was shot during this raid and nearly died. Wise Son blamed Flashback - he had told her to watch out for Kwai since she was new, but Flashback was more interested in stealing some of the crack to fuel her habit.

They got Kwai back to their headquarters at her request; she was able to heal herself supernaturally. As the rest of them made their way home, Masquerade stole the money and successfully made a break for it. This widened the growing rift in the team and prompted Third and Brick to take their remaining money and leave the gang to start a life together.

Tensions

Masquerade and some other Bang Babies dealt with another branch of S.Y.S.T.E.M.^[2] They were captured for a brief time, but escaped, transformed and with their powers enhanced. Masquerade knew he could never return to the Syndicate and sought to make a team of those who were captured, but they all went their separate ways.

Third Rail and Brickhouse left the gang,^[3] but still found trouble. They opened a burger joint together, but Third was attacked by a gigantic foe, the Techno Shaman. He possessed Third, but Brickhouse called on her old friends for help and they defeated the Shaman. When he lay defeated, Brickhouse sent the others away and finished him off.

Kwai recovered from her injuries but learned that she was on the last of a series of mystically granted lives. She traveled to her home realm, Kwen Lun, the Wondrous Lands, in a desperate attempt to gain at least one more buffer life. During Kwai's troubles, Tech Nine seemingly returned from the dead. They looked for Dogg to confirm things, but Dogg was gone. He had been captured by operatives of a murderous organization called S.Y.S.T.E.M., who wanted to experiment on him and other Bang Babies.

Tech spoke boldly to Fade about having feelings for him, something the real Tech never had. Fade was attracted to Tech, but Tech never took it seriously, nor did he slam Fade for his sexual orientation. As the gang searched for Dogg, suspicions mounted about Tech.

Upon returning home, Kwai met with her old friend, the Monkey King, and the two pleaded to her father, the Jade Emperor for another life. The Emperor denied this request, declaring that she had grown too attached to the mortal world. He then sentenced her to death without reincarnation stating that she broke the blood contract between them by rebelling against him.

To save Kwai's life, the Monkey King recruited most of the Syndicate to go with him to Kwen Lun to save her, while Tech-9 and Flashback stayed behind as backup. In the Kingdom of Ti Yu (Hell), Kwai was offered marriage to the Dog God to save her existence, but decides she could not marry him and went to meet the Grey Lady. There she learned that her entire existence as Kwai was nothing more than entertainment for the gods of the Wondrous Lands in the form of a never-ending battle against the Demon Fox. The Grey Lady offered Kwai another chance to live and marry the Dog God, but Kwai refused, deciding that she would no longer allow those gods to control her existence, even if it meant her death. The Grey Lady, impressed with her spirit allowed her to return, with the warning that her father would not stop until he had his revenge.

Disbanding

After returning to Earth, the gang barged into Utopia Park uninvited. Their presence caused a riot. Wise Son was responsible for stopping it, as chronicled in the Milestone crossover event Long Hot Summer. Tech-9 persuaded him to use the Utopia Park PA system to appeal for an end to the violence. Wise did so eloquently, and the rioters backed down.

After this, they had a final battle with the Demon Fox. They found out that she dug up Tech-Nine's body and gave his essence to Masquerade. This enabled him to impersonate Tech so well that he actually believed he was him, and to wield his powers. The Demon Fox and Masquerade, who was in thrall to the Fox, fought the Syndicate tooth and nail. During the fighting, the Fox revealed that Brickhouse was pregnant with Third's baby, and apparently caused her to miscarry. Kwai rose up and destroyed the Fox, at the cost of reverting to a child form.

The Syndicate now knew that Masquerade was born female, and confronted him for his deception. He proclaimed that under his leadership they became more efficient than ever before, and that with him, they could achieve their true potential as a team. He convinced none of them and left the team in disgrace. Wise Son disagreed with his methods, but admitted that he was right and that they "never lived up to the hype". He states that they all kept too many secrets from each other and that they fought each other more than their enemies. The team decided they were tired of the pain that they had endured and the constant violence around them and disbanded.

DC Universe

Following the death of Darkseid (as chronicled in Final Crisis), the space-time continuum was torn asunder, threatening the existence of both the Dakotaverse and the mainstream DC Universe. The being known as Dharma was able to use energies that he harnessed from Rift to merge the two universes, creating an entirely new continuity. Only Dharma, Icon and Superman are aware that Dakota and its inhabitants ever existed in a parallel universe.^[4] Holocaust, formerly a member of the Blood Syndicate, appears as an enemy of the Teen Titans.^[5]

Membership

• Aquamaria - Maria (last name unknown) survived the Big Bang while floating in the James River; as a result, she gained the ability to manipulate and transform into water. She also has substantial control over water in all its forms, being able to create tsunamis and geysers, and shape near-freezing vapor into ice sculptures.
• Boogieman, or Boogie - Martin Berger is able to transform into a giant humanoid rat. He is also able to communicate with the hyper-intelligent rats of Dakota, even when untransformed.
• Brickhouse (or Brick): Marta (last name unknown) survived the Big Bang while pressed up against a brick wall; as a result, she took on its characteristics, becoming a 10-foot-tall, super-strong woman of living brick, but this led to a substantial amount of brain damage, and she was subject both to epilepsy and retrograde amnesia.
• DMZ - DMZ's name is an abbreviated form of the term, demilitarized zone. Little is known about him. He has superhuman strength and durability and is able to fly; furthermore, his eyes glow red. DMZ never speaks (except during the Worlds Collide crossover, when he said the word "Damn"); nor does he ever take off his mask. Dwayne McDuffie stated that DMZ is a human who teamed up with a member of the D'amsi police force when she chased a criminal to Earth. He was severely wounded saving her life, so she used her technology to optimize him, unlocking his full human potential. She left the Earth to chase the villain as he healed, promising to return for him.^[6]
• Dogg: Originally Texador's/Tech-9's pet dog, Dogg gains human-level intelligence and speech, while remaining a dog in shape, personality, and abilities.
• Fade: Carlos Quinones Jr. is the brother of Sara Quinones (Flashback). He can fly and pass through solid objects (quantum tunnelling), and frequently has difficulty becoming substantial. He is actually "spread out" over a three-second interval, and is thereby able to, for instance, punch someone and leave them unharmed until after he has left. He is a deeply closeted gay man, and was in love with Texador (Tech-9).^[7]
• Flashback: Sara Quinones is a sister of Carlos Quinones (Fade). Flashback can fly and can travel back in time three seconds, an ability she uses to change the past. She considers herself responsible for the welfare of the Syndicate as a whole because she has witnessed (and reversed) their deaths and severe injuries on multiple occasions.^[8]
• Holocaust (later Pyre): Leonard Smalls, Jr. is the illegitimate son of Dakota mayor Thomasina Jefferson. A superhumanly strong pyrokinetic, Smalls left the Syndicate after a leadership struggle with Texador/Tech-9, and chose to abandon the small-scale world of gangs for the greater possibilities offered by organized crime.^[9] As an initiation ritual, he was obliged to surrender something of great value to him: his name, and the reputation that came with it. Unable to call himself Holocaust, Smalls renamed himself Pyre.

Kwai, art by ChrisCross.

• Kwai (Shen Hsien Pu Kwei) - one of the two non-Bang Babies in the Blood Syndicate (DMZ being the other), Nina Lam was the 77th - and last - incarnation of a Chinese mystical being. Originally a 9-year-old girl, Lam was mystically transformed into a 7-foot-tall adult woman with pale skin, long hair, and pointed ears.
• Masquerade: A shapechanger able to assume the form of any animal (including humans), Masquerade is a transgender man. He kept his assigned gender (female) to himself, using his abilities to present himself as the man he truly was. He fled the Syndicate after reflexively stealing several thousand dollars from them. A brief encounter later failed to convince him the Syndicate had changed their ways, and he would not be killed for his betrayal. He returned in the guise of a resurrected Rolando Texador (Tech-9), hoping to be accepted as their leader. As leader, Masquerade was responsible for the Syndicate instigating the Utopia Park riot.
• Oro: Miguel Medina is a former police officer who survived the Big Bang as a member of the Riot Squad. After the Big-Bang, he was for a time a member of the Shadow Cabinet but was kicked out, and later framed for the murder of his ex-partner. He subsequently sought refuge with the Syndicate and helped protect their territory. He can fly, project energy blasts and produce blinding visual displays.

Tech 9, art by ChrisCross.

• Tech-9 (or Tech): Rolando Texador, formerly leader of the Force Syndicate, had the ability of "talismanic telekinesis", making him able to shoot endless quantities of bullets from any and all guns, with perfect accuracy. He could also materialize guns in his hands; his favored was the Tech-9 semi-automatic handgun, which he takes his name from. Charismatic and with military training, he masterminded the Syndicate's formation and led them in their raids on crackhouses, but his flesh spontaneously melted off his bones when his superpower destabilized.^[10]
• Third Rail: The son of Korean immigrants, Pui Chung is able to absorb any form of energy and use it to grow in size and strength.
• Wise Son (or Wise): Hannibal White, leader of the Syndicate after Texador's death and a Black Muslim ("Wise Son" is a Qur'anic reference), is invulnerable and has superstrength. He has also shown the ability to resist mental manipulation, and to survive the draining of large quantities of life force. He is the father of Edmund White, and has sole custody of him.

Other characters

• Babe is a bodyguard of the House of L'Amour beauty salon, and possibly lover to its transvestite beautician. As a Bang Baby, he resembles a humanoid blue ox.
• Bubbasaur/Bubbasaurus: Bubba Brown is able to turn into a huge dinosaur-like creature resembling a Carnotaurus. Introduced in issue #11 as a spurned student going after a high school principal—Carlos Quinones Sr. (Fade's father), though Bubba was seemingly killed in a fight with Fade (Carlos Quinones Jr.), he was picked up by Mom's S.Y.S.T.E.M. troops and taken to Garden Station. He joins in an escape attempt by the other prisoners.
• Demon Fox is a Chinese mystical vampire who first appears in issue #6. John Wing, leader of the Demon Fox Tong, awakened it after killing his wife, in response to being humiliated by the Blood Syndicate after failing to kill them. The Demon Fox finally strikes in issues #7 and 8 as it tears apart the Blood Syndicate, bringing up each member's darkest secrets. After defeating the group, the Demon Fox kills Wing after granting his wish. Afterward, it is defeated by a newly transformed Kwai (previously Nina Lam) who comes to the rescue of the Blood Syndicate. The Demon Fox aided Masquerade in imitating Tech-9, by giving Masquerade some of Tech-9's essence so she can assume leadership of the Blood Syndicate. In issue #35, "The Beginning of the End" - in an all-out battle between the Demon Fox and Masquerade vs the Blood Syndicate - Kwai and the Demon Fox destroy each other.
• Edmund and Cornelia are Wise Son's illegitimate son and little sister, respectively. They frequently visit him at the factory the Blood Syndicate call home, regardless of the constant danger they place themselves in. The two children have a teleportational ability; they can write a location or person on a mirror and enter, encountering what they desire.
• Mom is the head of the Amber Cell of the S.Y.S.T.E.M./Coalition and heading the research into creating custom-made Bang-Babies and controlling them. Mom runs the Garden Station, the command center for the Amber sector of S.Y.S.T.E.M.
• Templo: Juan Templo is a telekinetic and one of the founding Blood Syndicate members.
• White Roaches and the Rats are two groups of vermin who acquired human characteristics during the Big Bang. They are large, intelligent, and (especially in the case of the White Roaches) hostile.

In other media

• Characters based on Blood Syndicate members appear in Static Shock:
  • Aquamaria appears in the episodes "Bad Stretch" and "Wet and Wild", voiced by Erika Velez in the former and Yeni Álvarez in the latter.^[11] This version left her family to join Ebon's Meta-Breed. After being defeated by Static and arrested by authorities, she eventually and voluntarily undergoes experimentation to remove her powers and rejoin her family.
  • A character based on Flashback named Nina Crocker / Time-Zone appears in the episode "Flashback", voiced by Rachael MacFarlane.^[12] This version is a teenager with uncontrollable chronokinetic powers. She temporarily joins Static and Gear, but ultimately decides that her powers are too dangerous and goes back in time to stop herself from getting them.
  • Brickhouse, Tech, and Fade appear in the episode "Army of Darkness", with Brickhouse voiced by Dawnn Lewis and Tech and Fade both voiced by Freddy Rodriguez.^[13][14][15] This version of the trio are members of the Night-Breed, photosensitive Bang Babies who are forced to live underground during the day. Additionally, Brickhouse lacks brain damage while Tech possesses superhuman intelligence.
• Holocaust appears in Young Justice, voiced by Zeno Robinson.^[16] This version is a member of the Light via the sub-group Onslaught.