The Blood Syndicate is a fictional 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.
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. However, their constant in-fighting, the unsustainability of their methods, and their lack of a central vision (particularly after the death of their first leader) led to the Syndicate's eventual disintegration.
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 transformed according to their state of mind or what they were close to when the gas hit them. One woman (a member of the Sociedad De La Cruz gang) landed in water; her body became water and she developed the ability to control other water as well. She named herself Aquamaria. Another woman stumbled into a brick wall, merged with it and became solid brick. Other entities were affected in other ways. A police officer gained the power to emit golden energy blasts and joined the Shadow Cabinet as Oro. Dogg, a normal dog who was the pet of the Force Syndicate, developed human level cognitive abilities and the ability to speak.
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 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.
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, Roberta "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'd set down, they had trial by combat to choose which of them would be the leader. Tech Nine took a horrible beating, but thanks to Holocaust's arrogance and his own power of unlimited gunfire/telekinetic control over his guns, he 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 didn't 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 that very lab. They blew the place sky high, but the lab's creator got away 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 with food and beer. During the party, the quantum juice destabilized Tech's body and he died painfully - 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, a Chinese mobster named John Wing sent his forces to kill the Syndicate so they wouldn't 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'd tell everybody that Fade was gay (he used an anti-gay slur to drive his point home).
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 couldn't alter reality any further.
Wise Son's son Edmund and his little sister Cornelia developed teleportation powers, presumably from following Wise to the Bang. They wrote their destination on mirrors and could then travel through said mirrors to get there.
The team's tensions escalated. Wise Son embarrassed Boogieman by forcing him to reveal that he was a white male under all his fur. He acted like he put Boogie off the team for lying to them, but then told him he could stay and don't lie to them ever again. 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 (they'd spent most of their reserves on renovations to their headquarters). Kwai was shot during this raid and nearly died. Wise Son blamed Flashback - he'd 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.
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. His grave was empty, and they had to believe it was him. 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 couldn't 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.
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 her own life. Kwai didn't perish - she reverted to 9 year-old Nina Lam, but seemingly with Kwai's memories.
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. A few days later, while recounting the events of the past ordeal to Rob Chaplik, Dogg appeared before Wise Son and told him that "the Syndicate isn't over; it's just stopped for a while is all". Wise Son smiled and replied "thicker than blood, G. Thicker than blood".
Since their disbanding, the Blood Syndicate left a hole in the hearts of its members, powerful people left to fend for themselves. Holocaust made his inevitable return and reinstated the Blood Syndicate as they once were; a gang. He tried to take his actions out into the streets and claim Dakota City as his own, but the others rose up against him. Wise Son challenged Holocaust to a battle for the rightful leadership of the Syndicate. Wise Son won, and it seemed that Holocaust burned himself to death, yet again. It remains to be seen if Holocaust actually died, but Wise Son became their undisputed leader. Wise had ideas to bring his family to the light, away from Holocaust's fire.
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 (upon that being's defeat in Worlds Collide) 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]
In the revised continuity, Holocaust has been defeated in battle by Static (now a member of the Teen Titans) and the similarly powered Black Lightning (of the Justice League of America).[5]
Solicits have revealed that in February 2010, Holocaust will show up as an adversary of the Teen Titans in issue #80 of their series.[6] On the covers for issues #80 and #81, he is shown battling Aquagirl and Superboy respectively.[7]
