| “ | Let's rumble! | „ |
| ~ Back Alley Brawler |
Back Alley Brawler is a hero from the MMO City of Heroes. Real name Michael White, Back-Alley Brawler started out as a radical in the late 70s and eventually became one of Paragon City's main heroes. Back Alley Brawler works closely with the police force of Paragon City after encountering a variety of legal corruptions in his youth. White has no powers, but uses a set of re-enforced hydraulic gloves specifically so he can throw as hard a punch as he likes without breaking his hands. In addition to his gloves, White is also very physically fit and trains constantly to fight the forces of evil wherever he sees them. Unlike most other members of the city's premier heroes the Freedom Phalanx, Back Alley Brawler focuses more on lesser street crimes and civil liberty violations to make sure lesser known criminals and dirty cops can not escape justice.
Background
Back Alley Brawler and the first "Manticore".
Michael White was the son of a gang enforcer, Michael tried to do the right thing by going to the police and reporting gang violence as he saw it unfold but soon realized nobody on the force had the principals or courage to act against gang violence in the more rugged parts of the city. When he came of age Micheal joined The Paragon Police Department to try to make a difference as a cop.
While doing his part he would meet the hero Manticore, who patrolled such neighnorhoods as well. Manicore and White would become partners in their quest to clean-up gang neighborhoods. White would eventually find out Manticore was quite wealthy and used a variety of high-quality weapons to fight crime; Manticore offered White his own high-tech weapon of choice and White wanted a pair of mechanical gloves to enhance his already considerable strength to super human levels. During his time on the force Michael reformed much of the police department's unspoken policy of staying out of gang-run neighborhoods. Micheal's willingness to go into back alley streets and deal with the gang members head-on earned him his nick-name, "Back Alley Brawler".
By the 90s Michael had retired from beat work and gone into basic-training instruction for newer members on the force. Manticore had semi-retired as well, but was killed, along with his wife, by a super-villain robber named Protean. Manircore's son, Justin, had seen his parents murdered, survived and would take-up his father's mantle as the new Manticore to hunt Protean down. White found and stopped Justin before he went down a dark path and has looked in on Manticore inbetween his police work as Justin has grown as a hero. In 2004 aliens known as the Rikiti invaded earth touching down in Paragon City, every able bodied man, woman, mutant, robot and other was needed to fight the Rikiti and Back Alley Brawler gladly came out of his retirement to defend his city. The force's of humanity would triumph over the Rikiti invaders, not without many causalities, but Back Alley Brawler realized there were new waves of super-villainy a foot and that heroes like him were still very much needed, thus did Back Alley Brawler come out of retirement to help defend his city once again. Back Alley Brawler was not only retired from the police force but semi retired from his place in the Freedom Phalanx, Paragon's signature hero organization. When Back Alley Brawler returned to his patrol of the streets of Paragon he rejoined the Freedom Phalanx proper and works as one of it's signature veteran members. Though Back Alley Brawler isn't interested enough to take his place with the likes of Statesman and Sister Psyche' as a decision maker for the Freedom Phalanx he frequently makes certain to be well informed of major operations so he can lend a mechanical hand. Still true to his roots as a community leader Back Alley Brawler spends less time foiling world domination plots and more time focusing on protecting the common man. Back Alley Brawler often fights the Family and even put them out of business for over two decades with a major bust of their drug operations.
Powers and Abilities
Even before he had hydraulic gloves to take the strain-off Michael was the strongest cop on the force, focusing his body to near super-human extremes, after Manticore gave him his gloves Michael became outright superhuman in strength. Back Alley Brawler has been around long enough to have tussled with nearly every type of super villain and continually adapts to new techniques, through improved technology, augmentation programs and personal training, Back Alley Brawler can work through the pain of being shot, stabbed, set on fire or electrocuted but it is just shear determination that gives Back Alley Brawler the ability to resist poisons, mind-control and magic. While Back Alley Brawler is vulnerable to psychic assault he is still able to resist it more than most. Brawler uses his strength to leap over tall buildings with ease and jumping across the city in a couple of bounds is his primary mode of transportation. While officer White is licensed to carry fire arms, he has never employed them, instead preferring to deal with criminals in a more pugilistic way, by knocking them unconscious with a sound beating.
Personality
Back Alley Brawler standing watch in Atlas Park Police station.
Back Alley Brawler specifically likes to keep an eye on the small picture. As far as White is concerned there will always be some mad man bent on taking over the world or assassinating the President and there are a variety of other heroes who will gladly stop such threats, to Michael the important jobs are the ones most heroes overlook, like stopping muggings, convenience-store robberies, residential break ins and domestic abuse cases. Back Alley Brawler's philosophy is to apply the power of a super hero to that of normal police work to reform communities. Michael was appalled by the state of the police in the 70s and spent the decade into the 80s reforming the police department's more corrupt and dirty practices. More than a few police consider Michael White their personal hero since his reformation helped make being an honest cop much easier under the norm the police department currently runs by. Michael frequently shows up to community events and is a strong advocate against racism, sexism, xenophobia and the like. Though a human himself Back Alley Brawler frequently supports mutant rights and the rights of sentient A.I.s as well as aliens and interdenominational refugees. Though he patrols with the likes of Statesman and is considered a veteran of the Freedom Phalanx, he forgoes any formal authority in the organization so he can instead focus on local concerns, like pushing the war on drugs and illegal weapons.
