Dr. Axel Brass

Doctor Brass is the Wildstorm Universe's tribute to the pulp hero Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze.

Axel Brass was destined for greatness. He was born a "Century Baby," one of the lucky children born in the first moments of January 1st, 1900. Like other Century Babies, Brass developed metahuman powers. Unlike other Century Babies, however, this was perfectly in line with what his family had planned for him.

Brass' family was an old one, traceable all the way back to the French Revolution. Some of the more progressive thinkers of that time proposed a radical new lifestyle and method of raising children that would eventually lead to the birth of a superman. They worked out special diets and exercises, all in the hopes that one day they would create the perfect man. Over a century later, that man was Axel Brass. The fact that his parents were brother and sister, though, was an indication that perhaps the radical method that had created him was still a bit flawed.

His powers increased as he aged. By 1942, he had eliminated his need for food and sleep. By 1943 he had stopped aging, and by 1944 he had learned how to heal himself with the power of his mind. He was truly formidable.

Brass was incredibly intelligent, strong and fast. He sought out adventure, working to assemble a team of like-minded individuals that would fulfill the hopes of his ancestors - save the world from itself.

By 1939, Brass had assembled a group of the best adventurers and heroes the world had to offer. They fought monsters and horrors, but soon realized that humanity was on a path toward its own destruction.

With the advent of World War Two, they began to build the world's first supercomputer, and probably still the world's most powerful. The computer they built was able to comprehend the universe as it really was - a 196,833-dimensional "snowflake" that described billions upon billions of universes. With this computer, they hoped to find a solution to world war, with the least loss of life and resulting in the best possible society. The computer would create and destroy universes in the attempt to find the answer.

One of those universes decided to fight back.

They activated the computer in January of 1945, hoping to end the war with the snowflake. A group of seven metahumans emerged from the snowflake and attacked Brass and his colleagues, with the intent that they would destroy Brass' Earth to save their own. All the metahumans were killed, but so were all of Brass' teammates. Only he survived, crippled and wounded. He couldn't turn off the computer, so he stayed in the room with the snowflake, just in case anything else should come through.

Fifty-four years later, Brass was rescued by *Planetary*. He was taken to one of their medical facilities where he has made great progress in rehabilitating. He has grown close to Elijah Snow, and often gives his fellow Century Baby advice.