EXPLORE THE DEVIL’S BARGAINVERSE
Biographies courtesy of Ed Hellman, Bill Nedrow, and Joseph Aquino. Bill has also further developed these characters in his wonderful novel, Devil’s Bargain: Of Masks and Martyrs.
Artwork by Sebastián Piriz and Damian Navarro.
THE SHIELDS OF LIBERTY
SIDEARM
The Human Bullet
Pronouns: He/Him
Birthplace: Carlsbad, New Mexico
Eternally searching for his place and purpose in life, Jody Aquino-Barr has gone by many names. He fell from grace while working for the CIA and found a temporary home amongst the Sky Pirates. Their brutality proved too much for Jody, and he fled, quickly finding himself behind bars. Dr. Ursa saved him from prison and helped him reclaim the mantle of The Bullet Man, but it was Uncle Sam Jr. who showed Jody what true teamwork looked like and welcomed him into the Shields of Liberty. As the heroic Sidearm, Jody is now able to fly using his helmet alone, allowing him a greater range of movement while dodging and dolling out bullets.
UNCLE SAM JR.
The American Spirit
Pronouns: He/Him
Birthplace: ‘Merica.
The reborn Uncle Sam leads the Shields of Liberty in their fight to uphold the saying, “Of the people, by the people, for the people” and ensure everyone gets a fair shake. Despite his striking white hair and 1776 birth date, he appears no older than thirty. This youthful appearance has given him the nickname of “Junior.” He works closely alongside the Unknown Soldier, a mysterious mole inside the Pentagon who has grown concerned by Dr. Ursa’s growing Gold Star initiative. Uncle Sam Jr. is often accompanied by his robot gold eagle, Eaglet.
GLORY
Crossbow Sharpshooter
Pronouns: He/Him
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
David Labiosa was at one time ashamed to come out as gay to his fellow faculty at Brooklyn College, not to mention his Catholic Afro-Ecuadorian-American family. Something switched in David when he saw his students under attack by violent agitators, and he put himself in harm's way to protect students on both sides of the protest, all while debating with them as a way to deescalate the situation. It was then that he truly understood what his strengths were and how he could use them to help others and knew he was ready to live his life openly. This event led to Uncle Sam Jr. recruiting him as Field Commander of the Shields of Liberty, where his calming demeanor and ability to make snap decisions has led the team out of many situations that seemed otherwise hopeless.
HANGING CHAD
Covert Ops Specialist
Pronouns: He/Him
Birthplace: Nogales, Arizona
Having been targeted negatively for his traditional Mexican-American upbringing, Luis Cano latched onto a feeling of National pride and attempted to distance himself from it for much of his youth. He worked as a border patrol agent, hiding his naturally soft-spoken nature behind a macho persona, but found himself stuck between two worlds. He ultimately chose to walk away from his career, finding the President’s policies too tough to stomach. Uncle Sam Jr. recruited Cano to the Shields of Liberty as a Scout, but his desire to hide behind masks made him an ideal Covert Ops Specialist. He frequently picks arguments with the perennially petulant Party Line, but the two share a commonality knowing what it feels like to not be comfortable in your own skin.
PARTY LINE
Commando
Pronouns: They/Them
Birthplace: Bijie, Guizhou Province, China
Jesse Laska was adopted as an infant from China and brought up in an upper middle-class American family. Having shown a talent for studio art from a young age, Jesse was encouraged to pursue their love of painting and attend art school. It was due to this same environment of gentle stability and support that they felt safe coming out as non-binary and bisexual. The shyness that had once defined Jesse as a child grew into a quiet confidence. Uncle Sam Jr. saw something special in Jesse and trained them to fight alongside him, viewing Jesse as the future of the team. They have become the most agile and deadly member of the Shields of Liberty. Perhaps due to their youthful, sulky appearance and their almost petulant demeanor, Jesse is often perceived as younger than their years and underestimated in the battlefield. This is a costly error in judgement felt most painfully by those who cross them.
SENTINEL
Grenadier
Pronouns: He/Him
Birthplace: Yakutat, Alaska
Aakw'taatseen (or Lance Mehner, as most on the team other than Uncle Sam Jr. call him) grew up on a share of land that a massive pipeline exists on, proud of his Tlingit heritage and that his people were not hunters or fishermen but chiefs and warriors. This instilled in him a sense of aristocracy that would counter the traditional indigenous portrayals. Hanging Chad learned of him through Lance’s Twitch channel, where he makes a living streaming video games, often peppering in the Russian language he’s so proud of mastering. They became friends, and when Chad saw how skilled Lance was in real life with heavy weapons, he introduced him to Uncle Sam Jr. Lance is the joker of the group, with his humor sometimes hitting the wrong way at the wrong time. He means well, though, and truly wants to honor his family line, representing both Alaska and the Tlingit.
THE GOLD STARS
DR. URSA
Intergalactic Svengali
Pronouns: He/Him
Birthplace: Unknown
In the past few years, the combined impact of Cameron Ursa’s Bullet Man program and Gold Star initiative, not to mention his rapidly multiplying private prisons, have catapulted him into the public eye. He is a frequent dinner guest on Capitol Hill and has become the President’s closest advisor, holding his implicit trust, despite his lack of formal title. Dr. Ursa has, in fact, ingratiated himself so fully into the inner-workings of Washington D.C. so seamlessly that few have considered where this self-made billionaire with roots in space tech and military engineering came from. Only his former protege, the mad anarchist, Black Jet, knows of Dr. Ursa’s truth: This man of ambiguous ethnicity and age is an alien walking among us, one who preys on people’s fears and insecurities with the goal of enslaving all of mankind and destroying the home world that spurned and betrayed him.
GOLD STAR AGENTS
Government Watchdogs
Pronouns: Various
Birthplace: Gold Star factory
These heavily-armed soldiers are in fact robots designed to keep order by any means necessary. They were initially used to guard private prisons, but Dr. Ursa used Operation: Yankee Doodle to convince the President to expand their reach outside the prison walls and against the public. They have been programmed to disregard law and order as we know it, implementing increasingly draconian rules and regulations. When they aren’t on assignment, Gold Star Agents are known to mill about on top of buildings, looking to the sky for some unspoken directive.
“YANKEE DOODLE” JONES
Reanimated Horror Show
Pronouns: He/Him
Birthplace: Jessup, Maryland
Archie Hoffman ran Dr. Ursa’s non-technological science division out of a secret lab underneath the Jessup Correctional Facility. It was there that he created the monster who would be known, by some, as Solomon Jones by fusing together body parts from dead prisoners. Ursa used Jones to enact Operation: Yankee Doodle but lost control of the creature whose power had yet to be fully tested. Jones escaped after coming to blows with Uncle Sam Jr and has not been seen since. His goals are unclear, but what is known, through Hoffman’s lab notes, is that Jones likely suffers from a monopoly of fragmented memories: those of not one but many past lives from the dead that make up his body. Hopefully, in time, Jones will find his own voice and place amongst the living, but for now, he is more ghost than man. He should be considered extremely dangerous.
AGENT MARLOW
Scout Sniper
Pronouns: He/Him
Birthplace: Albany, New York
Jeffrey Marlow served in the Marine Corps in expeditionary units. His fellow Marines found him deeply unlikeable and unnerving, as he was known to pick fights and antagonize anyone unfortunate enough to spend time with him. He became known for his almost glazed over thousand-yard stare that gave the impression he had seen far more combat than he actually had. Despite his skill with a rifle, he was viewed as generally unsafe and was transferred multiple times to new units. When he left the Marine Corps, Marlow worked security in the hospitality industry. It was there that he crossed paths with Dr. Ursa, who hired him as his personal bodyguard. On his hours off work, Marlow can be found in his apartment either still in uniform or half nude and neglecting to eat or shower. He spends far too much time reading conspiracy theories online, and it’s been awhile since he’s slept.
THE SKY PIRATES
BLACK JET
Sky Pirates Leader
Pronouns: He/Him
Birthplace: Carcassonne, France
Gaspard Moreaux faced racism in his youth as a mixed race half-Chinese man growing up in an aristocratic castle in France. He was mentored out of university by the charismatic and controlling genius, Dr. Ursa, and hired to design the Gold Stars’ technologically advanced uniforms. Everything changed when Moreaux discovered Ursa’s dark secret: something so terrifying that Moreaux abandoned society and became the nihilist, Black Jet. Now, high above the Grand Canyon, Black Jet and his coterie of French anarchists patrol the skies, sowing chaos and destruction. Cross their airspace at your peril, no matter whose side you’re on.
SKY PIRATES #5, 8, & 21
Anarchist Hijackers
Pronouns: Various
Birthplace: Various
The Sky Pirates are fueled by a common desire to hijack, not for profit but to destroy what they steal and thus level the playing field. The actual working number of Sky Pirates fluctuate day to day, as Black Jet views his followers as what some might call aggressively expendable. The most noteworthy of his lieutenants are #5 (Le Vol), #8 (La Cloche), and #21 (Corbeau). Despite being Black Jet's closest confidant, Corbeau rarely asserts himself as second-in-command and instead cedes power to the more outspoken La Cloche. Cold, remorseless, and a skilled saboteur, La Cloche can be caught bristling at Black Jet's directives, perhaps considering himself the greater tactician and thus a more deserving leader. Corbeau often hangs back, smugly observing his fellow Sky Pirates, and then whispers their shortcomings into Black Jet's ear. Described as an "acrobat in the sky," Le Vol is the resident daredevil and frequently finds himself out of favor with his teammates for disobeying orders. His skill as a marksman is only exceeded by his arrogance though and his ego took a hit when Jodv Aquino-Barr shot him through both hands with a single bullet.