Brick (comics)

Brick (Daniel "Danny" Brickwell) is a DC Comics villain and enemy of Green Arrow. He first appeared in Green Arrow vol. 3, #40. He was created by Judd Winick and Phil Hester.

Although his origin has not been revealed, Brick is a metahuman with a reddish, stony skin that grants him invulnerability and super-strength. His success as an underworld kingpin is due to his brilliant criminal mind rather than his superhuman powers.

Fictional character biography

Green Arrow had previously rallied Star City's police and gangsters to confront a demonic power that had cut off the city from the outside world. In the ensuing battle, many lives were lost and a power vacuum was created in Star City's underworld. Into this stepped Daniel "Brick" Brickwell.

Brick was originally a low level henchman/enforcer for various mobsters in Star City and also ran his own street gang. However, he had a brilliant criminal mind and higher aspirations to go with it. In the wake of the demonic attack against Star City, he began to expand his gang's criminal activities, particularly drug sales, into areas left vacant by other criminal organizations.

His major success was to unite the various street gangs of Star City under his leadership. These low level criminals were previously denied access to many lucrative areas by more "up-market" mafioso, but once united under the leadership of Brick they became an overnight crime syndicate with greater manpower and resources than the now greatly weakened traditional organized crime families.

As his criminal empire grew, he came to the attention of Star City's police department, Green Arrow, and the council of mafia/gang leaders who represented the various criminal families of Star City. Brick was invited to a meeting of this council and told that his new criminal enterprise would be allowed to continue in Star City, but only if the Mafia were given a cut; his alternative was death. Brick had the house leveled by a missile. His invulnerability left him the sole survivor of the blast and the unopposed ruler of Star City's underworld.

Next, he killed the mayor and district attorney of Star City, using a suicide bomber. When he was arrested for the crime, he revealed that he had kidnapped the new mayor's infant daughter (having bribed her security detail) and would kill her if he was not released immediately. Green Arrow was brought in to search for the child, but was unable to find her; Brick's release seemingly proved that he is above the law.

Though unable to take Brick into custody, Green Arrow challenged Brick to a duel over who owns Star City. Not being able to best Brick in a test of strength, he shot a glue arrow into Brick's mouth, blocking his throat and suffocating him. Rather than allowing him to die, Green Arrow saved Brick, warning him that should he step too far out of line, next time he will die. Since this incident, his interference with law enforcement and the political figures of Star City has either ceased or vastly subsided.

Brick was responsible for hiring Deathstroke to blow up Green Arrow's first house as a member of Alexander Luthor, Jr.'s Secret Society of Super Villains.^[1]

In One Year Later, Brick started fighting the crime that grew in the ruins of the ravaged city and the mutations that appeared in the "Glades" after Doctor Light and Merlyn blew up most of Star City.^[2] However, it is later proved that he is still the source of illegal activity in the Glades and that he is only fighting the crime that he does not approve of, particularly the drug killing his customers. He has recently teamed up with Red Hood.^[3]

Brick is later apparently killed by the obsessed Cupid, his dead body left as a "gift" for her beloved Green Arrow. Apparently surviving this experience, Brick relocates to San Francisco and is seen attempting to kidnap a young girl in order to extort money from her wealthy parents. Upon entering the child's bedroom at night, Brick is ambushed and knocked out by Teen Titan member Miss Martian.^[4]

Brick returns in The New 52 in Green Arrow #31 as one of Richard Dragon's group "The Longbow Hunters", whose aim is to kill Green Arrow because of the $30 million bounty Dragon put out on him.

Powers and abilities

Brick's primary power is his invulnerability. He is able to easily withstand a surface-to-air missile strike and numerous attacks from Green Arrow. He also has an unproven level of super-strength: he clearly outmatched Green Arrow, but he did not or could not win with a single hit. Brick is also a highly effective criminal leader. He was able to gain control of Star City's entire underworld, and has great influence over the legal authorities as well.

In other media

Television

Animation

• Brick appears in Young Justice voiced by Khary Payton. In the beginning of the episode "Welcome to Happy Harbor", Brick's gun smuggling operation in the docks is thwarted by Speedy. He and his gang attack the hero, but are later defeated by him and the group (Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad). In "Terrors," Brick was seen as an inmate at Belle Reve. He was part of Icicle Sr.'s plan to escape from Belle Reve. The breakout was interrupted by Superboy who defeated him and Blockbuster. In "Coldhearted," Brick was seen in Belle Reve's cafeteria serving cafeteria food to Count Vertigo, mocking him along with other prisoners.

• Brick is the main antagonist in the 2014 DC Nation Green Arrow short Brick.

Live action

• Vinnie Jones portrays Danny "Brick" Brickwell on The CW series Arrow. His name was previously seen on Oliver's list in the first season.^[5] Unlike the comics, he is portrayed as an English Caucasian man. He is a vicious gang leader that violates Starling City's government and plots to take over the Glades and is shown to be highly resilient to physical pain. His name, "Brick", is derived by the number of bullets he's taken and survived. He is also responsible for the death of Malcolm Merlyn's wife, Rebecca, during an initiation of joining a criminal mob, the Orchid Bay Butchers, and thus the cause for Malcolm's transformation into a ruthless villain. In the show's third season, a trilogy of episodes where Stephen Amell's Oliver Queen is absent shows Brick taking control of the Glades, enforcing gang rule- he was opposed by the Arrow's team, including John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Roy Harper and the new addition Laurel Lance, as the Black Canary. His gang rule was ended in an uprising led by Arsenal (Roy Harper) and the Black Canary, before Brick himself was ultimately defeated by Malcolm Merlyn.

See also

• List of black supervillains

References