Brother Blood

The second Brother Blood, Sebastian Blood IX, debuted in Outsiders vol. 3 #6 (January 2004), created by writer Judd Winick and artist ChrisCross.

Fictional character biography

Sebastian Blood VIII

The first Brother Blood encountered by the Titans was the eighth to bear the title. Seven hundred years earlier, a priest in the fictional nation of Zandia named Brother Sebastian killed another priest to gain possession of what he believed to be

Some time later, in Outsiders vol. 3, Brother Blood returned to villainy.^[5] Shortly after recreating his cult, he was killed by a young boy, Sebastian, claiming to be the new Brother Blood.^[6] This version reappeared in Teen Titans vol. 3.

This teenaged Brother Blood seemingly based all his decisions on advice from Mother Mayhem, but this was actually a female cultist chosen at random and killed if the advice was not what he wanted to hear. He also exhibited vampiric abilities. He revealed that the Cult of Blood was based on the worship of Trigon. It was for this reason that the new Bride of Blood was to be Raven. The Titans were able to save Raven, but the Church of Blood continued.

Brother Blood later appeared during the "

Sometime later, the Secret Six was hired to infiltrate one of Blood's cults and rescue a wealthy teenager who had been forced into the group against his will. After the team's cover was blown, they proceeded to kill a number of the church's members and ultimately destroyed their compound.^[9]

The New 52

In September 2011,

In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called DC Rebirth, which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to the New 52. Sonya Tarinka is a woman who has a deep connection to The Red, as well as the previous leader. As Mother Blood, she is shown to have the power of mind control as she mind-controlled Beast Boy.^[15]

Powers and abilities

The first Blood is a formidable opponent who is backed by a massive number of fanatical followers. He is an expert manipulator who feeds off of the faith of his members coupled with a capable staff that can see through disguises to detect infiltrators and assist in public relations. He ages at a much slower rate than normal humans. Brother Blood is immune to Raven's soul-self due to his shawl's powers. He is also nigh invulnerable and has supernatural physical strength.

The second Blood's powers work in a manner similar to those of a vampire: he gains strength from blood, and can take on the abilities of anyone whose blood he has sampled. Like the first Blood, he is backed by a massive number of fanatical followers.

In other media

Television

• Brother Blood appears in the
  mind control, teleportation, telekinesis, energy shield creation, and a photographic memory. Additionally, in comparison to the eponymous Teen Titans' previous enemy Slade, series producer/writer David Slack stated: "In the end, we tried to make him the anti-Slade. Where Slade hides in the shadows, Brother Blood loves the spotlight. Slade always has some ulterior motive, Brother Blood will tell you what he's planning right away. So there's some contrast there. We weren't even sure we'd get to use that name. I think what was important that we kept was that he was the leader of a cult. We kept that role and drew inspiration from cult leaders we read about. They are very charming seeming people. From that, we gave him this sort of 'power of temptation' – this ability to control people's perceptions. And the power of persuasion. We didn't get too deep into the character from the comics, because so much of it was so outside of what we'd be able to do. He's definitely one where we've strayed more".^[17] After Cyborg proves immune to his mind control, destroys the H.I.V.E. Academy, and thwarts his plot to destroy Jump City, Blood seeks revenge by brainwashing Titans East
  into serving him, creating robotic copies of Cyborg to aid him further, and becoming a cyborg himself in an attempt to better understand Cyborg's immunity. Ultimately, he is defeated by Cyborg.
• Isabel Rochev
  .
• Brother Blood appears in Teen Titans Go!, voiced again by John DiMaggio.^[16] In his most notable appearance in the episode "Waffles", he creates a torture robot called Pain Bot (voiced by Scott Menville in the first season and Khary Payton in the second)^[19] to aid him, who later befriends Cyborg and defects to the Titans.
• An original incarnation of Brother Blood named Sebastian Sanger appears in the
  Mother Mayhem and half-brother of Rachel Roth who was orphaned by his parents and became a Metropolis taxidermist
  . After seeing hallucinations of blood and hearing chanting, Sebastian becomes the leader of the Church of Blood to seek Trigon's power for himself.