Hybrid (DC Comics)

The Hybrid are a fictional group of supervillains appearing in DC Comics.

Publication history

The Hybrid first appearance as a group was in New Teen Titans vol. 2, #24, which was written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Eduardo Barreto, with inks by Romeo Tanghal.

Fictional group history

Left insane by the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Mento believed it was his destiny to recreate his old team, the Doom Patrol. Gathering people who'd suffered bizarre accidents—some possibly caused by him—Mento experimented on them with the artificial compound Promethium, turning many of them into superhuman freaks. Under Mento's influence, the Hybrid were set to fight the New Teen Titans, in order to kill Mento's adopted son Changeling, a fellow surviving Patroller whom Mento blamed for the death of the original team. Eventually dissuaded after several conflicts, they left Mento to fight alone. After his defeat at the hands of the Titan Raven, Hybrid took him with them as they harbored at his estate.

The Hybrid were briefly seen much later in issue 87 of the New Teen Titans, shown still living on the Dayton estate, Harpi moping about having to isolate themselves from normal society. This was supposed to be the beginning of a storyline that would have led to the Hybrid having a spin-off series in 1993; however, matters such as questions on royalties appeared before too much was planned, and the proposed series was shelved.

Later, members of the group joined battles at "The House", a fight club organized by Roulette where all but Pteradon seem to have died as only he is not displayed on the wall commemorating "Fallen Players of the House." One month after this issue was released however, Touch-n-Go and Scirocco showed up in Wonder Woman Vol. 2, issue 175 as two of many female villains causing mayhem in New York City. The chronological reading order of these two issues is not certain.

Since this last appearance, the history of the Doom Patrol was retconned by the events of The Infinite Crisis, resurrecting the original Doom Patrol and largely restoring them to their original forms and mentalities, including Mento. How or if this affects the Hybrid has not yet been shown.

Membership

• Mento - President of Dayton Industries and one of the world's richest men, Steve Dayton invented a cybernetic helmet which amplified his latent psychic powers. As the super-hero Mento, he became an unofficial member of the Doom Patrol, from which he married Elasti-Girl and adopted Beast Boy. This family ended tragically when the adult Patrollers were apparently all killed by old enemies of the Patrol's leader, the Chief. Years later, Mento joined a gathering of mystics and psychics to help the Swamp Thing prevent an ancient evil from taking advantage of the original Crisis, only for his helmet to overload, leaving him in a vegetative state. Mento later recovered to a degree, but was left insane as well as psychosomatically paraplegic. Taking his new wheelchair-bound state as a sign that he was destined to be the new Chief, Mento resolved to recreate the Doom Patrol, assembling people turned into superhuman freaks as The Hybrid. After several encounters with the Teen Titans, he is apparently cured by Raven, although long-term use of his Mento helmet continued to cause bouts of paranoia and dementia, during which he would engage in ruthless and manipulative behavior. While naturally psychic, Mento needed the cybernetic devices to fully utilize them, and was capable of telepathy, psychokinesis, and limited mind control.
• Behemoth - Born a mutant, Taro Raiden grew to abnormal size and became a Sumo wrestler until he was recruited by agents of Mento. Undergoing Promethium experiments voluntarily, he gained super-strength and denser-than-human skin. He was one of the two members of the Hybrid actually loyal to Mento's schemes.
• Gorgon - Greek archaeologist Andonis Bal and his wife were on an excavation at the base of Mount Olympus when a statue of Medusa they'd found came to life and attacked them. Blinded by the attack, Mento's experiments changed Andonis' hair into tresses of snakes, so he was able to see in all directions. These snakes were also capable of firing beams which temporarily turned anyone caught in their path into stone.
• Harpi - The wife of Andonis Bal, Angelika was at the same excavation site and also mortally wounded by the Medusa statue. Infused with Promethium, she did not respond well to the treatment as her body was constantly wracked with pain, slowly driving her mad, but like her husband served Mento solely out of fear. After curing Mento, the Titan Raven used her empathic powers to cure Harpi of her pain. Harpi was able to fly, fire powerful force-bolts from her hands, and possessed razor-sharp talons on her fingertips, capable of slashing through brick or steel.
• Prometheus - Curt Calhoun was the foreman of the metallurgy lab at Kord Omniversal Research and Development, Inc and a former henchman of Doctor Alchemy. Curt Calhoun was covered in a molten alloy of titanium and vanadium laced with Promethium when he pushed his employer Ted Kord out of the way of an industrial accident. Taken to the hospital, Calhoun's ambulance was intercepted by members of the Hybrid. While Blue Beetle was fighting them, Mento transformed the molten metal covering Calhoun into a permanent metallic shell. As the easy-going Texan, Prometheus did not wish to fight the Titans, but did so under Mento's duress. Aside from the invulnerability that his "skin" provided him, he possessed great super-strength and was capable of raising the temperature of his armored form to several hundred degrees Celsius which was easily capable of melting most other metals.
• Pteradon - Capt. Israel Harel was an Israeli commando who led the rescue of a jumbo jet which had been forcibly landed at a Qurac airport during which he was shot in the back and dropped into the ocean. Recovered by Dayton's agents and subjected to Promethium, Harel became a human pterodactyl. Possessing claws and the ability to fly at supersonic speeds, Pteradon combined his powers with tactical knowledge.
• Sirocco - Cassandra Sharp was an amateur geologist until she was smothered by a sandstorm in the heart of Death Valley. Barely alive when she was rescued, Promethium transformed her into the "Mistress of the Desert Winds" where she is able to generate both blasts of sand and hurricane-force winds by which she could fly. Combining her sand-blasts and wind-blasts, Sirocco could cause enormous damage.
• Touch-N-Go - A young street thief living in Chicago, Illinois, Amelinda Lopez was struck by a truck while committing a robbery and was more dead than alive until she was subjected to Promethium. As far as she was concerned, Mento had saved her life. Along with Behemoth, Touch-N-Go was the only Hybrid member honestly loyal to him. Touch-N-Go was able to temporarily steal the kinetic energy of anyone she touched, thus adding their strength, speed, and skill to her own.

External links

• Hybrids profile at the Titans Tower