Here's page 5 of Fusion #9, and it seems Brooder's mention of Grasshopper and Fusion last page rang a bell for X-Pletive.
For those wondering about Brooder's alter ego sitting in a wheelchair, as you'll find out in the interview with Adam Conroy that I'll post after this issue, to the public's knowledge, Adam was rendered paralyzed from the waist down at the age of nine when he was in a car accident (that also claimed the lives of his mother and little brother).
Ha! Didn't even think about that, but, yeah, gives an extra dimension to Brooder's infuriating non-answer.
As for the bio, since the interview is with Adam Conroy, you'll have to read between the lines to see how Adam's history shaped Brooder, but in a later issue (probably issue 13 or so), Savunn will explain how she figured out Brooder's identity and fill in some more of those blanks.
Now he only needs a way to explain his leg muscle tone, far from atrophied and well beyond what normal physiotheraphy usually do. But you being you and Brooder being Brooder I'm sure he has ;)
Now I'm curious, however. Was he really paralized at age 9 and somehow cured, or was it a farce since the beginning? So many questions...
Now that is an alter ego. Brooder must have this down to an art.
I feel bad for X-plicite, despite Brooder's teachings I feel X has been more of the "supportive big brother" mentor to Fusion. He's probably worried sick.
Yep. The history of Conroy Tech (formerly Conroy Financial) is a big part of what led up to his injury. You'll get a brief history of the company back to when Adam's great-grandfather founded Conroy Financial back at the turn of the previous century.
To be fair, Brooder is the one who gave Fusion the intel. It'd be kind of silly for him to NOT know who it was. As far as we know, up until now, only six people have known who it was. Riveter, Brooder, Savunn, Bob, Alanna, and James.
You'd think Brooder would be better at keeping a secret.
brooder would make a horrible spy, being that he can't keep a secret in the slightest.
as for why brooder is the detective, isn't that he knows, it is that it is taking x-pletive a long time to wrap his head around a young super hero with unknown limits on her abilities, flying to another country to right publicized wrongs. the timing of things means that there wouldn't be many candidates, and most likely the only local one that brooder might know of would be fusion. the moment that he found out that brooder was aware of a rogue hero over there the most likely candidate would be fusion. given that more information is being given than just the darmar incident is at hand it would be logical to not pursue the one piece of information that you don't need to pursue (like what speculations brooder might have on the local problem).
in other words a detective in x-pletive's position would either not have pursued fusion's involvement in darmar due to having figure it out without the need for confirmation, or would know enough to focus on things that can be checked up on easily enough from other sources.
Brooder can keep a secret (the existence of Black Members can attest to that). However, as you'll see later (issue 11, to be exact), Brooder trusts X-Pletive a lot (same goes for Riveter and Stupendous). I could be wrong on this (like I said before, Brooder isn't open with his thoughts), but I think Brooder allows certain trusted heroes in on his machinations, knowing that their care and compassion will help temper his cold logic.
For those wondering about Brooder's alter ego sitting in a wheelchair, as you'll find out in the interview with Adam Conroy that I'll post after this issue, to the public's knowledge, Adam was rendered paralyzed from the waist down at the age of nine when he was in a car accident (that also claimed the lives of his mother and little brother).