Brother Blood

Brother Blood is the name of two supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The first iteration, Sebastian Blood VIII, is a power-hungry priest and head of the Church of Blood, as well as the eighth person in the DC Universe to assume the mantle, after killing his father and taking the Brother Blood mantle from him. This tradition had gone on for generations, dating back to the 13th century, when the first Brother Blood was born after obtaining Jesus of Nazareth's prayer shawl and gaining superhuman abilities. As Brother Blood, Sebastian served as a recurring adversary of the Teen Titans, until being killed by his successor, Sebastian Blood IX.

A different iteration of Brother Blood appeared in the 2003 Teen Titans animated series and its 2013 spin-off Teen Titans Go!, voiced by John DiMaggio. Sebastian Blood was also a recurring character on the second season of The CW Arrowverse show Arrow, portrayed by Kevin Alejandro. Joseph Morgan appeared as the character in the fourth season of the HBO Max series Titans.

Publication history
The first Brother Blood, Sebastian Blood VIII, debuted in The New Teen Titans #21 (July 1982), created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez. He was a regular foe of the Teen Titans for many years.

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

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 Christ's prayer shawl. The shawl gave him invulnerability and reduced his aging, but the priest he killed cursed him to be slain by his son before his hundredth birthday. Upon doing so, his son became the second Brother Blood. He, in turn was killed by his son, and this continued for seven centuries.

The eighth Brother Blood is, seemingly, the first who wishes to extend the Church of Blood beyond Zandia. He wants the Church to be a world power. The Church of Blood began operating in America, and the Titans were called to investigate when an ex-girlfriend of Cyborg attempted to escape this cult. Because of the Church of Blood's influence, the Titans found moving against him difficult, especially when public opinion was turned against them by Bethany Snow, a reporter who was also a member of the Church. As such, Blood often got the better of the Titans in some aspect in their clashes, even when he appeared to have been killed in defeat since it gave him the opportunity to fake his resurrections to solidify his follower's fanatical devotion to him.

Brother Blood brainwashed Nightwing and attempted to take control of Raven's power. She defeated him, and his mind was seemingly destroyed. Brother Blood's wife Mother Mayhem later birthed a girl, suggesting the curse was over.

Sebastian Blood IX
Some time later, in Outsiders vol. 3, Brother Blood returned to villainy. Shortly after recreating his cult, he was killed by a young boy, Sebastian, claiming to be the new Brother Blood. 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 "Infinite Crisis" storyline as a member of Alexander Luthor Jr.'s Secret Society of Super Villains, where he claimed an undead Lilith Clay to be his mother. He also summoned the first Hawk and Dove, Phantasm, Kole, and Aquagirl from the dead to be his own Teen Titans. Brother Blood was stopped by Kid Eternity and sent to the eighth level of Hell, but not before Kid Eternity summoned the past Brother Bloods, all of whom took out their anger and hatred on Sebastian.

In the aftermath of the "Reign In Hell" miniseries, Blood, now an adult, escaped from his incarceration and was opposed by Kid Eternity. The fight between the two brought them to Titans Tower, where Blood fought the Titans. After draining Red Devil's powers, Blood realized that he had tainted himself with Neron's influence and fled the battle. He was later seen approaching an unknown woman, looking to make her his new mother.

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.

The New 52
In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, The Cult of Blood (once again as Trigon's pawns) makes their debut in issue one of the Phantom Stranger. Brother Blood himself appears in Ravagers. Blood kidnaps the team intending to use Beast Boy's powers in a ritual to travel in The Red's dimension. The Ravagers manage to interrupt the ritual as Terra buries him alive. He survives and returns in Animal Man, where it is revealed his obsession with the Red came from being their first option for champion before Buddy Baker was chosen.

Mother Blood
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.

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.

Television

 * Brother Blood appears in the third season of Teen Titans (2003), voiced by John DiMaggio. This version is the charismatic and sadistic headmaster of the H.I.V.E. Academy and rival of Cyborg who possesses psionic powers such as 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". 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.
 * Brother Sebastian Blood appears in the second season of Arrow, portrayed by Kevin Alejandro. This version was born in the crime-infested Starling City district of the Glades and raised by an abusive, alcoholic father named Sebastian Sangre and a submissive mother named Maya Resik. As of the present, Blood moonlights as a charismatic and highly motivated politician and friend of Oliver Queen while working to rebuild the Glades. In secret, he operates as the leader of the "Church of Blood", which he inherited from its founder Father Roger Trigon, via a skull mask outfitted with a voice modulator. Through the cult, he kidnaps criminals and injects them with the Mirakuru serum in an attempt to replicate the process that empowered his ally and secret backer Slade Wilson, with cultist Cyrus Gold eventually becoming Blood's first successful test subject. Following the death of his campaign rival Moira Queen and learning Slade intends to completely destroy Starling City, leaving nothing to rebuild from, Blood attempts to betray him by giving Queen vital information and Mirakuru samples in exchange for leniency, only to be killed by Slade's ally Isabel Rochev.
 * Brother Blood appears in Teen Titans Go!, voiced again by John DiMaggio. 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) to aid him, who later befriends Cyborg and defects to the Titans.
 * An original incarnation of Brother Blood named Sebastian Sanger appears in the fourth season of Titans, portrayed by Joseph Morgan.  This version is the son of Trigon and 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.

Film
Brother Blood appears in Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, voiced by Gregg Henry. This version is the leader of an unnamed cult that seeks divine dominion over mankind; claims to be centuries-old, attributing his long lifespan to his practice of bathing in his enemies' blood; and is served by Mother Mayhem as an aide. He tasks Deathstroke and Terra with kidnapping the Teen Titans so he can use their blood to become a god-like being. However, Nightwing and Terra thwart Blood's plot before Raven depowers him and Mayhem kills him to prevent him from being imprisoned.

Video games

 * Brother Blood appears as a boss in Teen Titans (2005), voiced again by John DiMaggio.
 * Brother Blood appears in DC Universe Online, voiced by Ev Lunning.
 * Brother Blood appears as a character summon in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.

Miscellaneous

 * Brother Blood appears in Smallville Season 11: Harbinger, in which he attempts to sacrifice Rachel Roth to summon the Sons of Trigon, only to be thwarted by Zatanna and John Constantine.
 * An original incarnation of Brother Blood appears in the Arrow tie-in comic Arrow: Season 2.5. Following Sebastian Blood's death, devout theologian Clinton Hogue takes up the mantle of Brother Blood and leadership of the Church of Blood. Using his ties to the mercenary group, the Renegades, he takes Felicity Smoak hostage, but Oliver Queen saves her while Roy Harper kicks Hogue out of a window, sending him falling to his death.
 * The Arrow incarnation of Brother Sebastian Blood appears in the tie-in novel Arrow: Vengeance, which explores and expands on his backstory. As a result of his father Sebastian Sangre's abuse, Blood suffered skull-related nightmares. Amidst these, he befriended teenager Cyrus Gold and the latter's mentor Father Roger Trigon, who killed Sangre after he threatened to kill Blood. Blood's mother Maya Resik was framed for Sangre's death, arrested, and placed in a psychiatric institution while Blood was placed in the Zandia Orphanage. After creating a skull mask to help him conquer his fears, Blood formally joined the Church of Blood as Brother Blood, vowing to protect Starling City's poorest citizens and Zandia's orphans, no matter the cost. Sometime later, he met Slade Wilson, who offered to help him become mayor of Starling City.