Doctor Brainstorm (Developer Character)
Overview
Doctor Brainstorm, aka Dr. Reichart Von Gehirnsturm, is the world's leading authority on the Inventions System.
Background
Bio
Born to noble parents, Doctor Brainstorm took to inventing at an early age. He has mastered fusing technology and magical salvage into the greatest inventions the world has ever seen, and is now sharing his secrets with the rest of us.
Dossier
Dr. von Gehirnstrum is credited as the inventor of the Hypothetical Framework, whether or not he did the research himself, or stole it, is hotly debated. The Hypothetical Framework allows for the fusing of magical and technological devices to generate a unique result. This has been embraced by the hero (and villain) communities as a new and exciting way to enhance their already formidable powers.
Reichart von Gehirnsturm was born in Austria to noble parents in the late 1930’s. His parents were strict disciplinarians who made sure he excelled at math and the sciences, which impacted his social skills to the point of being bullied around in school, forced to do other’s homework for them, and generally being the school punching bag.
Reichart’s lower education ended when a gas main exploded and leveled the school, killing most of the students and faculty. Reichart escaped unscathed however, as he was home with the flu the day of the disaster. With no bullies left to muscle him around Reichart moved on to medical school where he received a doctorate and graduated at the top of his class.
Now known as Dr. von Gehirnsturm, he moved swiftly to set up a research company in the United States. The atmosphere of the late 1960’s allowed him to get many free-thinking “volunteers” to try out his new mind enhancing drugs, furthering his research. It was around this time that he discovered that magic was a real, powerful force in the world, and began to incorporate it into his designs. In the late 1970’s he found himself becoming wildly successful and rich marketing such trinkets as The Experience Bar… a device that super-powered individuals could use to measure their power levels and exactly determine when they would become more powerful, gaining new powers or improving their old ones. This commonly became known as “leveling up”, and is all thanks to Dr. von Gehirnsturm.
Decades passed, and eventually all of his companies folded in the late 1990’s due to shoddy and illegal business practices. Dr. von Gehirnsturm then moved his operations to the shelter of the Rogue Isles and continued his research under the nom de guerre of Doctor Brainstorm. Doctor Brainstorm was never above stealing technology he needed, or robbing a bank to get the money required to purchase illegal equipment. Generally regarded as a super-criminal by the general populace, he was still respected in the science field for his innovations and past contributions.
With the conclusion of the Rikti War, Doctor Brainstorm had access to new, alien technology that was the final piece in unlocking the secret of the Hypothetical Framework. The Framework utilized modern technology, magic, and the Rikti alien tech as a blue-frame cube where various pieces of apparently useless garbage could have their most vital parts assembled into a powerful Invention. These Inventions can easily augment the powers of a given hero or villain.
Now mass marketed as the Hypothetical Framework by Crey Technologies (with knockoffs and generic versions made by other, more reputable companies) every hero and villain has access to the key ingredient in creating Inventions that can augment and improve their powers.
Later on in life, Doctor Brainstorm created a device called the Resonance Manipulator, which somehow altered the energy strands connecting every hero and villain to their powers. In the incident dubbed Power Set Proliferation, heroes in Paragon City found themselves with new power sets formerly used by evildoers, and the same happened in the Rogue Isles, with villains finding themselves with new power sets used by the side of good. The effects were to be long-lasting, as over the course of months and years, more power sets would be shared between both sides.
On the Official Forums
Doctor Brainstorm briefly appeared as a "redname" on the Official City of Heroes forums between January and April of 2007. This redname was in charge of gathering information and bug reports on the Invention System being developed at that time. Although he never revealed his real life identity, astute forum readers eventually discovered that the developer behind the red name was actually Matt Miller, finding that Positron and Doctor Brainstorm's forum avatars were both being hosted on Matt Miller's personal web site.
Eventually in October of 2009, during the introduction of Dr. Aeon, Chris "Back Alley Brawler" Bruce stated the fictitious dismissal of Doctor Brainstorm:[1]
"That guy was caught stealing snacks out of people's desks and promptly given his walking papers.
Snack time is serious business!"
The "Doctor Brianstorm" redname has been retired since April of 2007, with Castle, Synapse, and other developers taking over the official responsibilities of Invention Origin Enhancements' powers, bug fixes, and rewarding.