FWS Members

The Architect

Anderson Brown is the "mastermind" of the group, with no superhuman abilities whatsoever, just an amazing understanding of people (and how to motivate, inspire, and manipulate them) and a solid head on his shoulders. He's not a super-genius, but is able to reach out to his research team to figure out the answer to almost any question. He was the "money man" for countless villain organizations -- AIM, Hydra, Baron Zemo, the Hand, you name it. If you needed someone to squirrel away $10 billion where no government would ever find it, trust the Architect. And that trust he'd built served him well in the 2000s when he decided to steal all of that money and put it toward his own plan to financially conquer the world via hostile takeovers and bribery-based coups!

The Architect underestimated the resources of the world's heroes, along with the willingness of the villains to share information with the good guys. In the end, Jessica Jones was the one to track him down, learning along the way that she and Anderson were actually twin siblings. Her appeal to him as family fell on deaf ears, but her intimidation via effortlessly destroying his secret lair worked just fine. Anderson surrendered, after leaking enough info for the villain organizations to recoup most of their funds . . . and squirreling away several billion for himself, of course. He ended up in a low-security prison ("Camp Cupcake") where his people on the outside continue to take his orders.

El Rey

Maximiliano Guerrero was born on April 28th, 1900 in San Francisco. His parents Isabella and Diego raised Max and his three younger siblings as best they could while being racially persecuted. His grandfather Diego, a Latin-American prizefighter, owned a renowned boxing gym called The Golden Glove, so with his family’s support Max took to boxing at a young age, from defending classmates from bullies to amateur bouts.

Max met his wife Gabriela while helping his parents fight for Hispanic rights. Due to segregation policies in California, Max graduated with an 8th-grade education. Max taught how to weld by his father chose instead to pursue his boxing career.

Max's career took off in the roaring twenties when he was dubbed the "Tijuana Terror." This success protected his family from the mass deportation that occurred in California; that injustice ended in 1963 thanks in part to his activism. In 1931, his second attempt to dethrone heavyweight champion Max Schmeling succeeded, making him a household name. During his 10-year career, Max lost that belt five times, always coming back to retake it. In 1938 his wife gave birth to twins, his daughter Adriana and son Marco.

In 1940, Max was drafted into the Army. After boot camp, he was selected for an experimental program, an early version of the super soldier serum that would (a year later) create Captain America. Max was the only survivor of these tests, gaining an inherent connection to kinetic energy plus enhanced strength and durability. Given the other deaths, and Max's minority status, the program was classified and canceled. Not one to let a tool go to waste, the Army trained Max further and sent him into the African campaign. He was code named “Knuckle Duster” due to the tank-destroying powers of his punches and given the rank of specialist. His accomplishments were kept out of the media until Captain America made it onto the scene, after which the media marketed Knuckle Duster as his ally.

Captain America and Knuckle Duster were friends who agreed to disagree about American politics and whether this truly was the land of equal opportunity. Knuckle Duster, now technician grade 3 specialist X, was given command over his own squad, specialized in demolition (unlike Cap’s commandos). Max and Steve would team up again on four notable joint operations.

1942: The two infiltrated the Tokyo Zoo to rescue Doolittle Raid survivors.

1943: The destruction of the Norwegian water facility. Captain America faced Baron Zemo while leading both their squads to safety. Knuckle Duster stayed behind to bring down the facility after the explosives were stopped.

1944: They dismantled a portion of The Hand that was protecting Leyte, so that Allied forces could deny Japan oil and other valuable supplies, crippling the nation’s ability to defend itself in the Philippines. The Hand there was led by the Oni, a Japanese monster who looked like the Red Hulk with a club.

1945: Max’s team were holding back enemy forces while Captain America and Bucky tried to disable Zemo’s experimental drone plane, but were both seemingly killed in the attempt.

After the war ended, as a decorated hero and heavyweight boxing champion, Max raised his family while fighting alongside activists for Latin American rights. Max helped get protection for the families in California who filed a class-action lawsuit against four Orange County school districts. He then used the momentum to argue for and rally the community towards higher learning and education reforms and accessibility programs. Those in political power viewed Max as a threat and discredited his title belts arguing that Max had powers back then and thus cheated. Max couldn’t prove otherwise (as that program was classified) and was removed from the Heavyweight Boxing Hall of Fame. He moved his family to New York for safety, better education, and opportunities for his kids.

Max founded the Kings in the 1950s as a Latino progress movement to help immigrant families struggling with racial discrimination. By the 1960s, the Kings were targeted by both local government and hate groups. Adopting the masked persona of El Rey, Max trained the Kings using what he learned as a soldier. El Rey became a player in criminal politics to supply them with the tools needed to protect their families from hate groups and become a powerful force of good in Latin communities.

In the 1970s, the political powers at play viewed the Kings and El Rey as an obstacle to power in New York. The government trumped up false mental health charges against Max to discredit him as a War Hero, then sent Captain America and Wonder Man to bring El Ray and his organization down. Cap pled with El Ray for a peaceful resolution, but El Rey saw no way to protect the Kings without fighting Cap and Wonder Man so his lieutenants could escape. Without their founder, the Kings were gradually infiltrated by truly criminal elements, and eventually changed their name to the Latin Kings.

Tried in New York, El Rey was given a hundred-year sentence. Cut off from his community, Max dedicated his time to bettering the penitentiary. After gaining the respect of the warden and prisoners, he helped it become a place of reformation for those in prison. El Rey's family kept in contact with him and visited regularly. When his 7-year-old great granddaughter Valery started developing powers, they brought her to him for superhero tutelage. Although the confines of the prison prevented them from using their abilities, he schooled her in self-discipline and combat.

As Valery grew older, El Rey realized that the only way he could genuinely help her and his people as a role model was to dawn the mantle of hero once again. After Captain America had a heart-to-heart with El Ray, Steve used his connection to get him into the Redemption Squad.

Megalodon

John Bolton and his three brothers, Jacob, James, and Todd, grew up in public housing in Atlanta, and became affiliated with the underground at an early age. Their crimes were mostly innocuous and drug-related until Todd was approached by a shady man offering them the chance to make a lot of money. The brothers, throwing caution to the wind, agreed but soon found themselves in over their heads in a fight with Captain America himself as they were hired muscle for AIM. When the gig failed, they fled the scene, but were picked up by an AIM squad and “recruited” into a science experiment as punishment.

AIM scientist Dr. Paradigm transformed all four men into humanoid shark monsters: Jacob a whale shark, James a nurse shark, Todd a hammerhead, and John a great white. He implanted mind-control devices so they could serve as his squad of personal enforcers. However, Arnim Zola, a rival of Paradigm’s within AIM, developed a way to break those mind control implants to sabotage the doctor. Zola engineered a confrontation with Paradigm, during which he freed the shark men, but this had the unforeseen consequence of driving the uncontrolled brothers into a blood frenzy. Paradigm was killed while Zola and the other AIM agents fought the beasts. Eventually, all but one were brought to heel with only Jacob, the largest of the monsters, unable to be subdued so instead he was killed.

The brothers were separated, each kept in stasis and used as AIM muscle. Eventually both James and Todd were rescued by heroes, given a chance to recover, and then freed to lead relatively normal lives (James as a therapist, Todd as a welder). But John was never given that opportunity. After some time, he was sold by AIM to the Hood. Then, during Norman Osborn’s time as head of the Avengers, he was gifted to HAMMER. In the aftermath of HAMMER he was recovered again and used by both AIM and the Weapon X project.

It was while working for AIM that John, now called Megalodon, was dropped into an Atlantean village where he was induced into a blood frenzy. During the carnage, Captain America and Namor came to the village’s rescue; the Atlantean king was incredibly offended by Megalodon's existence and beat him near-senseless before unceremoniously dumping him with the police. The supermax prison psychologists discovered that classical music helped soothe his bestial side and had a water tank with speakers built to help him learn to be at peace. And it worked, as long as he was never hungry . . .

Mental Maiden

Autumn River was born to an Asian father and black mother, both big believers in the healing power of Nature. So when their daughter began exhibiting schizophrenia, they turned to "natural solutions" to help. Autumn got worse, eventually leaving to live on the street. Over time, she discovered that she could project the voices in her head into other people's heads, and disassociate so strongly that it affected reality itself in subtle ways. Once she taught herself how to shoot a pistol (amplified drastically by her probability control), she was ready . . . to become a superhero!

As the Mental Maiden, she wavered between doing good deeds and doing awful ones, based on whether she was strong enough to overrule the dark voices in her head. She was already considered a (quirky) villain by most when she did something that crossed the line: seeing a couple "abusing" their child (yelling at it), she ran up, shot them both in the head in front of the boy, and then "rescued him" so he could have a better life. ("Please stop screaming? I know that was stressful but I promise, you don't need them. You're strong enough to overcome their abuse. Um, how 'bout I get you ice cream?") Rogue and Gambit caught up with them; Gambit disabled the car and rescued the boy while Rogue absorbed her abilities and used them against her. Mental Maiden plead insanity and ended up in the psych ward of a supermax prison, where she was finally put on medication and therapy (with James, Megalodon's brother). Still schizophrenic, but now manageably so, she feels terrible about the people she hurt, especially Noah, the young boy.

Mirror Image

Emily Nguyen was born with the ability to "borrow" the DNA of others, to enhance her own natural prowess and optionally to literally shapeshift into the person. This may be why she grew up with so many mental issues and ended up homeless, where she basically lived via identity theft. Right when she was finally feeling ready to "be something more," she met a lady with whom she became completely obsessed. She couldn't hurt her, of course, so instead she tied up her neighbor, kept him in a closet, and as him became incredibly close friends with the lady. Eventually, he escaped and she ended up in prison.

Emily was not originally part of "Redemption Squad," but was instead given an emergency change in status when Silent Raven escaped. The Dept. of Justice had her replace Jonathan so the others wouldn't realize he was gone, and so she could figure out if other members were involved in his escape. Once she was satisfied that none were, she reported as such and revealed herself to the others.

Molecular

Using extreme genetic engineering of mutant DNA, the High Evolutionary created Subject 271 as a living tool to assist with terraforming planets. Despite being no more impressive than an average kid in most ways, this bespoke mutant had high survivability and the power to alter the state of up to 50 tons of matter at once, making it anything from hard as diamond to pure liquid. Working in tandem with other living tools, they were able to accomplish impressive changes on a short timetable, though it was never clear to them exactly where they were or what the grand plan was. One day, one of the tools "malfunctioned," and began throwing off fireworks-like energy blasts; the others panicked and ran. Subject 271 ended up in a windowless escape pod with three other tools, which flew (across dimensions? from another planet? just a few miles across the county? who knows?) and crashed just outside of Atlanta. The others ran off, each in their own direction.

He started learning about society from the other homeless folks, eventually coming to the attention of Cloak and Dagger (who would travel from city to city, making sure the homeless were safe). They helped him acclimate further, and tried to help him join society properly, but he wasn't ready for that. He did take their advice to adopt a real name (Andre Evans, inspired by Andre 3000, a musician he admired) and a "super" name (Molecular). Life was unremarkable until one day when a mugger threatened the teenager at (fake) gunpoint. Andre panicked and brushed up against a nearby fire escape, turning it into a thick liquid that collapsed atop the mugger fatally. Unfortunately, several people caught this on camera, and it went viral in a bad way. Adding in his "refusal" to explain where he came from, and the fact that he was obviously mixed race, made him the perfect target for those rallying up anti-mutant sentiment. Molecular became the face of the "evil, dangerous mutants living right underneath your nose," and his trial and subsequent imprisonment were a media spectacle. Fortunately for him, Silent Raven (below) has a soft spot for kids, and helped keep the boy from being taken advantage of.

Former Members

These folks are no longer on the team: pardoned, escaped, killed, etc.

Silent Raven

Jonathan Reed didn't have the best early life. An unremarkable black boy, born with one leg (the other a stump) into a terrible neighborhood and an abusive-stepfather situation, his best option was to join up with a gang, and even that was difficult due to his disability. He proved to be a natural gunman, however, and quickly became indispensable in a drive-by or as distant cover for ops. But his inability to run away was his downfall when a rival gang spotted his perch, climbed up, kidnapped him, and tortured him by slowly removing his other leg ("so now you match!"). Jonathan dropped out of the gang and became a straight-up hitman (code named Silent Raven), since you don't need legs to snipe. Eventually, Silent Raven's reputation grew to the point where he could pick and choose his own contracts, leaving him time to do the occasional pro-bono job (usually killing a child abuser). This led to some calling him "Black Punisher," though those folks didn't live very long. (Neither did his stepfather, come to think of it, but that was probably an accidental poisoning.)

Understanding the importance of financial discipline, Raven split his earnings between long-term investments and personal "upgrades." The first was the commission of a dead silent .50 caliber rifle able to take a variety of ammo (and fire underbarrel grenades) that he nicknamed "Raven's Whisper." Shortly after, Dr. Doom himself commissioned Raven long term, paying generously enough that the assassin could afford an illegal operation to graft on a psi's "harvested" brain tissue; this gave him minor telepathic and psychokinetic abilities, mainly so he could now "walk" effortlessly (even on air!), but the ability to link up nearby minds and ranged-Judo-sweep a closing foe were nice perks. Unfortunately, while Doom made him a billionaire, it also put him squarely on the radar of the world's heroes. In the end, Spider-Man brought him in, though Raven had had the foresight to transfer 95% of his fortune to the imprisoned Architect (above) so it would be waiting for him if and when he finally got released.

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