Axel Brass
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Axel Brass is a fictional character from the comic book Planetary. He is essentially Doc Savage, Man of Bronze, though rewritten in certain aspects to avoid copyright infringement.
What is known of Brass is fairly limited despite how central he is to the comic's plot. Brass is the child of an incestuous brother and sister whose lineage stretches back to the French Revolution when a group of forward thinkers dedicated themselves and their children to a doctrine designed to produce the most from human potential. (This likely included special diet, exercise and aspects of eugenics.) Brass is profoundly intelligent, incredibly strong, immortal, has a superhuman sense of smell, is able to go without sleep or sustenance for years and is able to heal his wounds through the power of his own mind.
Brass was born at midnight on New Year's Eve, 1900 joining the number of Century Babies. He would eventually have many adventures finally bringing together various extraordinary individuals (who, like Brass, are analogues of other characters such as Tarzan, Fu Manchu etc.). In 1945, seeing that World War II was ending, they activated a computer that performed calculations through multiple universes to advise them of how to build a perfect world. Unfortunately a side-effect of this calculation was the construction of parallel Earths, the last of which housed an analogue of the Justice League of America. These beings wished to annihilate every man, woman and child on this Earth to make way for the population of their Earth who would be destroyed as the computer finished its calculations. All of Brass' team and the other team were killed in the ensuing battle, with the exception of Brass who was crippled. Brass then stayed awake for 54 years until he was discovered by the Planetary team. He has since made reappearances in the series, often providing advice to Elijah Snow.
The battle between the two teams is a metaphor for how pulp fiction heroes were supplanted by comic books in popular culture.
