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Mr. A is some kind of Gotham phantom or vigilante. With impeccable dry cleaning.
Rex Graine is a hard-boiled Gotham journalist, known for sometimes waxing conspiracy in his writing. Shame about his dad...
Background
Rex Graine is a Gothamite, born and bred. He was born the son of a widowed GCPD detective in the west side district, and as a young man wanted nothing more than to follow in his father's footsteps and be one of Gotham's Finest. He grew up enamored with stories of law dogs and one of his biggest heroes was the notorious vigilante The Shadow from years prior over in New York.
All of that changed when his father was busted by Internal Affairs for racketeering. He couldn't believe it, and his father protested it passionately but they insisted he was tied up with the Falcone crime family. So it was that his father, known for being one of the most upright and straight shooting in the Gotham police force, was publicly destroyed as a corrupt fraud. Soon thereafter while his father was in custody, Rex was sent to live with a sitter. This would be only the first time Rex would be uprooted.
Rex's father, Steve Graine, would eventually be aquitted for lack of evidence. Within a week however, Steve was murdered to prevent reprisal as he claimed to have proof of a conspiracy against him within the department itself. Whatever evidence he had disappeared with the passing of tragedy.
Rex found himself in one of the Boys Homes run by the Wayne Foundation, and his life was a wreck. He was singled out for bullying routinely as the son of a corrupt cop, it not mattering one iota that his dad was exhonerated. That changed for him whem one of the staff members, a volunteering nun, introduced him to a book on various western philosophies. Rex immediately engrossed himself in the stories of Plato's Atlantis.
From there, Rex moved on to Homer's The Odyssey, The Iliad, Aristotle's Eudaimonia, then on to the middle ages with Thomas Hobbes and Marcus Aurelius, and on to early America with the poetic works of Ralph Emerson. It didn't stop the others from bullying him, but it made it bearable and taught him how to handle it maturely. More importantly, it saved his drive for an education. By the time he was in his late teens, not only was Rex set to graduate early, but he found the philosopher who would inform his adult thinking. This was Ayn Rand.
Rex was able to go to school by qualifying for the Wayne Foundation's Orphan's Education Fund. Rather than directly following in his dad's footsteps, he went into journalism reasoning that his dad's fate was proof positive that the problems lay with the people in the system more than the criminals on the street per se. With goals firmiy in mind, Rex pursued and aquired a degree in Journalism and later an advanced degree in Philosophy. His chosen thesis was A Defense of Ayn Rand, and it would ultimately prove the end of his educational path due to its extreme unpopularity with his professors.
Rex applied his skill with pen and keyboard immediately upon his departure to the real world, churning out papers and articles for any who would read them. He found a pleasant surprise in the meantime, for upon graduating he was greeted with the bittersweet reception of his father's will containing the remnants of his liquidated assets. This jarred him back to his ultimate purpose. Calling out and punishing the corrupt.
While brainstorming stories and articles to sell, Rex would often put pen and paper to figuring a means to safely confront his enemies. A means to avoid his father's fate. Seeing Batman in the news, it came obvious that he needed a mask. He perceived a problem with Batman's approach for him right off the metaphorical bat. Rex was no ninja. He started taking classes with Ted Grant, and while there decided that Gotham needed a figure less dark. One who represented the light of morality rather than the danger of darkness. A righteous man to inspire, rather than a demon to warn.
Thus was Mr A eventually born. A man whose reflective placid face showed his enemies their own fear and whose white clad figure stood for the purity of justice. Mr A would speak only the truth, and his steel clad fists would harm only those who hurt others. A stoic and objective counterpoint to the brooding Bat.
Personality
Introspective: Rex is given to bouts of internal monologue as a byproduct of his longterm solitary lifestyle. Much of this is devoted to the nature of good and evil, right and wrong, and the progressive slippery slope of corruption.
Absolutist: Rex is firmly of the opinion that there is a right way and a wrong way to do everything, and is a fierce and outspoken crusader against corruption of any sort. His black and white calling cards are a reflection of this strict ideology.
Stoic: Rex is a philosophically trained young man who grew up hard knocks and worked for everything he has in life. He learned the hard way how to step back from situations and see them for what they are, and it's a skill he uses quite frequently. It's quite amazing how much one can learn simply by listening and watching with an open and unbiased mind. This is reflected in his day to day outlook as he strives to see things and people for who and what they are. He isn't given to being governed by his emotions, but rather a strict set of moral and ethical guidelines that keep his actions in check.
Melancholy: Like most from that dark cesspool of violence known as Gotham, Rex is a dark sort with frown lines at an early age from being dealt a harsh hand in life. He isn't one for smiling much, because in that city joy tends to be fleeting. Danger and trauma are facts in life in a city ruled by syndicates and crime lords, and it takes a hard sort that recognizes these forces for what they are to rise up and meet them head on.
Logs
- TBA