Born in Oak Lawn Chicago, Mike was a normal, if not-to-bright kid growing up. He hit his growth spurt early, and used his large size to good effect as a bully and terror of the neighborhood. Him and some cronies also turned to petty crime and breaking & entering around the neighborhood. When he was 15 they set out for bigger game and broke into a nearby Bionetics lab that had been shut down the day before due to corporate concerns. Climbing the fence and getting in by the expedient of breaking a window, the boys explored the labs, where most of the equipment and some of the material had yet to be removed. In one particular lab there was a huge vat of some kind of green substance, surrounded by a gantry and various equipment. Horsing around with another boy named Joey on the gantry Mike, pretended to push him in. Joey panicked and slipped, and grabbed Mike for support; Mike wasnt expecting this and they both tumbled into the vat head first. The panicked Joey thrashed around and drowned in the vat, but Mike was just tall enough to stand on the bottom of the tank and grab the lip of the edge, and was able to pull himself out.
There was no hiding the fact that Joey was dead, and a huge uproar resulted but got inured in legal proceedings. Over the next few days, Mike got sick and nauseous, but it was written off as depression regarding his dead friend. After the 4th day, he emerged from his room healthy again, and though it was not visible, also forever altered. The chemicals in the vat had caused him to develop superhuman strength and durability, but Mike did not yet realize this.
The corporation was able to hire enough lawyers to ultimately dodge any negligence charges, and Mike went to a jeuvenile facility for his criminal act of breaking and entering along with his toadies. The first day in juevie, Mike was challenged by the current reigning bully, and in the ensuing fight almost killed the kid with one solid punch that sent him flying across the room. This landed Mike in solitary for a month, and so it went until he established his dominance. After getting out of juevie at 18, Mike matriculated back into society and got a job almost immediately with the mafia as kneebreaker. He worked for the mafia directly for 6 years before striking out on his own as a freelancer. Without a smarter organization to look out for him he soon ended up in jail for a stretch, and this cycle has repeated several times over the last four years.
Somewhere along the way he worked a few jobs under the leadership of the superhuman black mask known as the Machine, and this time when he got out of prison, he went to work for the Machine's new firm Enforcers Inc. He started out working contracts but after a hit wrecked the offices the Machine hired on Jackhammer and another old associate known as Bronto to provide some extra muscle to deter further difficulties. In addition to those unofficial duties of being on hand just in case, Mike is also officially responsible for Collections, though in reality Unger handles the administrative end while Mike is sent out to "remind" debtors if necessary. Mike is actually fairly loyal to the Machine for his part -- he's always done well for himself following the Machine's lead, and actually does have an avuncular interest in the well being of the bosses son Jonathan Brinks (aka Tenacious). |
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