COCKROACH

PERSONAL DATA

HISTORY

No one knows who, or even what, the Cockroach is. He first appeared in Pacific City several years ago threatening to blow up a writer's convention at a local hotel with a bomb he had strapped to his body. Two members of the original Enforcers of Justice, Tarantula and Headlong, intervened and managed to disarm the bomb but the Cockroach threw himself out of a 17th story window at the hotel and plunged to his apparent death. No body was found however and his identity and motives remained unknown.

Cockroach next appeared in New York City and confronted Justice Inc. members Tarantula (who had left the Enforcers some months earlier) and Quiksilver. Cockroach claimed that he now considered the Tarantula to be his hero and proclaimed himself the hero's sidekick. He then proceeded to make a major annoyance of himself and led the two heroes on a chase around the city before apparently losing interest and disappearing. He showed up again a few months later claiming to be running for mayor of New York and assaulting the city with characters from television and movies brought to life. Justice Inc. was able to stop him this time by locating the source of the living fictional characters, a powerful but autistic psychic boy named Timothy Pryce. The hero Mindblade managed to convince young Timmy to make the fictional characters go away and Cockroach disappeared yet again.

A month after the apparent death of Tarantula the Cockroach appeared again. He claimed to have been trying to emulate Tarantula but after a few weeks of trying to be dead he instead chose to choose a new favorite hero, Quiksilver. In honor of his new hero the Cockroach was wearing a costume similar to Quiksilver's and called himself Silverfish. In addition to his new identity, Silverfish also had a team with him, an ersatz version of Justice Inc. he called the Expendables. The two teams battled across Queens and the Bronx before Justice Inc. convinced the Expendables to turn on Silverfish. He was defeated when the powerful psychic Blockhead pulled Silverfish into his complex mind, which would serve as Cockroach's prison.

At some unknown point in time Cockroach escaped from Blockhead's mental prison and discovered that his "hero", Tarantula, was not dead but had faked his death and adopted a new identity, Renegade of the New Enforcers of Justice. Cockroach appeared in Superior City, Renegade's home in the form of a 150-foot armored being calling himself the Millennium Cockroach. His arrival had been preceded by several bizarre and inexplicable computer and electronics failures in the city. A computer expert named Harold Barnes began loud demonstration in downtown Superior City claiming that the failures were signs of the Y2K Bug.

Just before the Millennium Cockroach appeared he transformed Barnes into a super-powered "herald" to proclaim his arrival. During the ensuing confrontation with the Enforcers of Justice, Barnes turned on the Cockroach who then somehow transported himself, Renegade, and ArcAngel to what appeared to be a wild west town with Renegade dressed as a western sheriff, ArcAngel as a school marm and himself as an outlaw. The Cockroach then challenged Renegade to a shootout, which he lost. Renegade and ArcAngel were transported back to Superior City and the Cockroach disappeared again.

In his latest "appearance" the Cockroach did not actually appear at all. Instead he transported the members of the Enforcers of Justice into an alternate reality, or changed the existing reality, where the greatest heroes of Superior City were a team called The Superiority. The Enforcers attempted to get to the bottom of this strange new team that everyone knew about but themselves, but could make no sense of them or of the enigmatic philosophy the Superiority claimed to uphold, the Periplanetary Americana. The situation ended as abruptly as it started when a frustrated Renegade exclaimed that he could never understand the Periplanetary Americana. With that the team found themselves back in the Superior City they were familiar with, at the exact moment prior to the appearance of the Superiority. (The Cockroach was assumed to be responsible when it was pointed out to the Enforcers that Periplaneta Americana is the binomial name of the common American Cockroach in biology).

So the mystery of the Cockroach remains and the only thing known for sure is that he will likely be seen again.

POWERS & WEAPONS

Cockroach's true abilities are completely unknown and may theoretically be limitless. When he first appeared he had no discernable powers, other than the fact that he apparently survived a 17 story fall. On his next two appearances he appeared to possess high agility and the ability to withstand or instantly heal large amounts of damage. He also seemed to be able to materialize objects from nowhere, like a flamethrower and eggs which he used to test the "non-stick" properties of Quiksilver's Mercurialite coating. As Silverfish he manifested a completely different set of powers, including an outer coating which had the opposite effect of Quiksilver's Mercurilaite. Instead of objects and attacks deflecting off a nearly frictionless surface as happened with Quiksilver, anything that touched Silverfish would be stuck to him. Silverfish had also somehow managed to create a headquarters in Queens for the Expendables out of thin air.

In Cockroach's most powerful manifestation to date, as the Millennium Cockroach, he was over 150-feet tall and was able to transform Harold Barnes from a normal human into a powerful super-human being. It is unknown whether the wild west town he transported himself and others to was a real place sometime in the past or whether he had actually created it himself solely for that encounter.

From all evidence it is highly likely that the Cockroach is not even human, but possibly an extra-dimensional creature, perhaps similar to Superman's nemesis, Mr. Mxyzptlk. The Cockroach obviously possesses a vast array of powers and abilities, but seems to restrict what he uses to the specific situation at hand. For example as the Millennium Cockroach he apparently had enormous power but in the wild west town he appeared to have no powers.

THE EXPENDABLES

The Expendables were a group of super-powered beings assembled by the Cockroach (then calling himself Silverfish) as an equivalent team to Justice Inc. During a confrontation with the Expendables, Justice Inc. convinced them that Silverfish was just using them and they sided with the heroes against him. After Silverfish's defeat the members of the Expendables have gone their separate ways. Recently, however, the transformed Harold Barnes, calling himself Number One, has sought out the members of the Expendables and reformed the team to defend the Earth from those threats that the more mainstream heroes like the Justice League are unaware of. Exactly how successful the team will be in their mission remains to be seen.

STARGATE

HISTORY

Stargate was a member of the royal family of a race of energy beings related to the Nemesinian race. She was destined to marry the leader of the Nemesinians but when she learned that their true sovereign, Nemesis, was on Earth she journeyed there to attempt to marry him. She agreed to join Silverfish's group because it offered her an easy way to contact Nemesis. When he rebuked her Stargate went back to her people and married the current leader of the Nemesinians. She was killed by Cat when the Nemesinians attempted to invade Earth during Revelations. Another member of her race has since adopted the Stargate name.

POWERS & WEAPONS

Stargate was a being of pure energy capable of flying unaided in space and of crossing interstellar distances by creating space warps called Stargates. She could also absorb large amounts of energy without harming herself and could project devastating force beams.

SPONGE

HISTORY

Sponge was a normal person living in Harlem in New York when he developed super-powers. His powers first appeared when he was a bystander in a drive-by shooting. A few stray bullets hit him, and stopped. Sponge had developed the ability to absorb and store energy. When the bullets had impacted on him he had simply absorbed all of their kinetic energy, leaving them to fall to the ground. He later discovered that he could expel the energy he absorbed. The heroic identity was the idea of Silverfish, who simply saw the necessity of having someone named Sponge as his team's counterpart to Justice Inc's resident water elemental, Uktena.

POWERS & WEAPONS

As stated above, Sponge has the ability to absorb various kinds of energy, the exact number and range of which have not been determined. He can also expel the energey that he has absorbed. Since his initial appearance Sponge has been gaining better control over his power and has now perfected how to travel large distances by leaping off of buildings, absorbing the kinetic energy at impact, and redirecting it to launch himself off again. This allows him to bounce much faster and farther than he could travel by more conventional means.

BLOCKHEAD

HISTORY

Blockhead is perhaps the greatest intellect on Earth, but his problem is that he swiftly became bored with the world. He eventually decided to explore the vastness of his own mind and as a result he has almost completely withdrawn from reality, spending all his time inside his own mindscape. Even a telepath like Mindblade of Justice Inc. can barely achieve contact with Blockhead, and then only for short periods of time before he is overwhelmed. Blockhead's one point of contact with the outside world appears to be his teammate Warhound. It is Rex who keeps Blockhead up to speed on what is happening around him and he is also the one who typically needs to convince Blockhead to use his powerful mental abilities when they are needed. Blockhead's bodily needs are maintained by his hover chair, an advanced device built by Blockhead to keeps his body nourished and clean and prevent any deterioration of his musculature. Blockhead acknowledges that he is dependent on his body to survive and so has taken the necessary steps to keep it safe and in good working order while he continues to explore his mind.

POWERS & WEAPONS

Blockhead possesses a supremely powerful mind. His intelligence is nearly immeasurable, enabling him to perform unimaginable feats of mental agility. Additionally he possesses powerful telepathic abilities. His senses have been so profoundly expanded that he observes reality on a cosmic level, so much so that for the majority of the time Blockhead is completely unaware of his immediate surroundings. Blockhead's main drawback is that his phenomenal mind is trapped in an otherwise normal human body. He is unable to dial back his rate of mental activity to a level where he can interact with his normal senses; the nerve impulses from his eyes, ears, nose, skin, etc. are simply too slow for him to be able to effectively process them. Even with his telepathy he cannot communicate with other human beings, with the exception of the most highly intelligent beings on the planet (notably Warhound).

WARHOUND

HISTORY

Warhound is the warrior king of a race of extraterrestrial canines (his teammates call him Rex). He has come to Earth because his people have a legend that their messiah will appear here. Warhound has come to find the messiah and protect him from a rival faction from his world who have their own claims to the messiah and want to prevent another from appearing to contest that claim. Warhound typically appears to be a normal dog, perhaps a breed of Husky, but he has two distinguishing features. One, his gray fur has a faint metallic sheen and two, his eyes glow faintly red. This is, of course, his normal appearance; in battle it is an altogether different story. At the moment he tolerates the rest of his teammates, but Rex is beginning to gain a greater respect for them as time goes on.

POWERS & WEAPONS

When engaging in combat Warhound grows in size until he is almost 40 feet in length and his fur transforms into a coat of alien metal that protects him from harm. In either form Warhound can communicate verbally with other intelligent animal or hybrid beings, like Cat of Justice Inc., but to speak to humans he uses telepathy. Warhound generally considers humans to be beneath him and will only speak to them if necessary. The one exception seems to be Blockhead, who Warhound considers to be more evolved than most humans.

NUMBER ONE

HISTORY

Eccentric computer expert Harold Barnes was holding a one-man demonstration to raise awareness of the seriousness of the Y2K computer bug when he was transformed into the super-powerful herald of the Millennium Cockroach. Among his powers initially was the ability to split into six identical but less-powerful version of himself. During the confrontation with the Enforcers of Justice the sixth one (Number Six) rebelled and sided with the Enforcers against the other five and the Cockroach. When Cockroach was defeated the other five disappeared and Number Six became Number One. Afterward he flew east to find the former members of the Expendables to reform the team.

POWERS & WEAPONS

While not as powerful as when he was originally transformed, Number One retains some superhuman strength and resistance as well as the ability to fly and project beams of energy. Perhaps his most unusual power is the ability to animate any object with electronic components. Even objects that are normally inanimate can be made to move under his control.

Warp Zone | DC Heroes | Villains | Cockroach and the Expendables