Bret Leather

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bret Leather is a fictional character. He is a creation of writer Warren Ellis and illustrator John Cassaday. He appears in two issues of the comic book series Planetary. He is the son of John Leather, the Dead Ranger, a character who is similar to the Lone Ranger. Bret Leather himself is an amalgam of The Green Hornet, The Spider, and The Shadow or simply "Batman with guns."

Leather was born at midnight, January 1, 1900, making him a "century baby." Other 20th- "Century Babies" include Jenny Sparks, Elijah Snow, Dr. Axel Brass, and Lord Blackstock. All century babies have special abilities, and Bret Leather is no exception. He has the ability to disintegrate himself into spiders and reconstitute himself at will. He also may have an understanding of ethics which transcends that of mortal ken. All century babies represent an aspect of their century. Sparks is the "Spirit of the 20th Century." Snow is the "Ghost of the 20th Century." Brass is the Mind of the 20th Century. Leather, then, is the Justice of the 20th Century. It is also safe to speculate he experiences the same retarded aging Jenny Sparks enjoyed, however his use of a mask and his premature death leave this unclear. Operating under the alias "The Spider," Leather terrorized the criminals of 1930s and 40s Chicago with an antihero's justice. He uses the "turbo-guns" Brass mentions in earlier issues of Planetary in one panel to blow an assassin's guts out from behind him, when a disabling blow would surely suffice. Leather also has the ability to throw or transmit his voice around enclosed spaces and speaks with a hissing voice. ("Serious business in Chicago" comes out "SSSeriousss businessss in Chicago.")

Publicly, Bret Leather applied his silver mine inheritance from John Leather to philanthropic ends. He owned a business in Chicago and was married. He didn't pay attention to his wife (it is assumed she was ignorant to his alter ego's activities) and the inheritor of his surname, William Leather, was born through an affair. Since Bret and William Leather shared no genetic connection, William Leather was deprived of the post-human abilities that Jakita Wagner enjoys as the offspring of Kevin Sack, Lord Blackstock.

In Wildstorm continuity, Leather is now deceased. He, along with Kevin Sack (a Tarzan analog), Jim (a Operator No. 5 analog), Edison (a Tom Swift analog, not known to be connected to Thomas Edison), Hark (a Fu Manchu analog), and The Aviator (a G-8 analog), comprised Doc Brass' group of Pulp heroes. All the members of Brass' group except for Brass himself died in combat against analogs representing Superman, Batman, The Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman, the popular comic book heroes.