Reno Bryce (Wildstorm Universe)

Warblade is Reno Bryce, a green-haired artist and member of the WildC.A.T.s He is a Kheran Shaper who can turn body parts into a liquid metal, forming them into blades.

History

In his youth, Reno's parents were killed by the alien Daemonites and left orphaned in Hong Kong. Reno swore vengeance to rid the Daemonites from Earth, dedicating his life to the martial arts to avenge his parents.

He was kidnapped by the organization known as Cyberdata, brain-washed and transformed in a member of their strike team, the S.H.O.C.s. His teammate Misery used her powers to make him think that he was in love with her and quickly changed the focus of her manipulations to Ripclaw. She was revealed to be a traitor and Warblade killed her. After this, Ripclaw attacked Reno, thinking that he was the traitor and almost killed him.

Reno was found bleeding in Gamorra by Jacob Marlowe. He was saved by Jacob, and joined his Daemonite hunting team, the WildC.A.T.s. Like many of the WildC.A.T.s, Reno turned out to be half human and half Kherubim, a race of aliens that had fought the Daemonites for millennia.

Warblade met Ripclaw (at this time a member of the Cyberforce) again and after some fighting between their teams and Ripclaw's realization that Misery was a traitor, they amended their previous hostility and became friends.

During his time with the WildC.A.T.s, Reno fought Pike, a half human, half Kherubim assassin. During a Native American ritual, Pike had taken the drug peyote and had a vision of himself killing a WildC.A.T.s member, a goal he would dedicate the rest of his life to. Their first fight ended indecisive.

Reno went with the WildC.A.T.s to Khera, home of the Kherubim, where he met other shapeshifters like himself. He became an apprentice to the ancient shapeshifter Lord Proteus at the Shaper's Guild and learned many new ways to use his powers. Great was his disappointment when fellow WildC.A.T.s members Voodoo and Spartan uncovered the darker side of Kheran society. The WildC.A.T.s left Khera soon afterwards and returned home.

Back home, Reno stayed with the team and began a relationship with Jules, Emp's assistant. Soon afterwards the team disbanded following the apparent death of their teammate Zealot.

Retirement

Reno retired and focused on his art. Pike hadn't forgotten his vision though. He attempted to kill Warblade and managed to disperse Warblade's molecules with an explosion that killed also Reno's girlfriend. Reno was able to literally pull himself back together and wanted revenge. He tracked Pike to Sarajevo, where they fought again. This time Warblade won and he killed Pike and added the final insult to the dying Pike: even if Pike had killed Warblade, he would have failed his quest, because the WildC.A.T.s had been disbanded for months.^[2]

Afterwards he fell into a state of depression, that eventually led to the loss of his powers and his hands. After a little soul searching, some violent confrontations that almost led to his death, and an experimental drug given to him by the scientist responsible for suppressing his alien genes, he regained his powers.

Reno returned to New York City and retired as a superhero. He became a full-time artist again, though he still met up with his teammate Grifter from time to time. He was forced to use his powers again during one of his expositions, when the Kherubim Brotherhood of the Blade turned a large part of New York's population into bloodthirsty creatures.

When Captain Atom was brought to Warblade's universe and his presence threatened its very existence, Warblade along with the other WildC.A.T.s was summoned by Grifter to confront Captain Atom. The end result was that Captain Atom and the new Void entity Nikola Hanssen saved and rebooted the Wildstorm Universe.

In this new reality, Warblade was one of the several WildCats that Hadrian has managed to recruit; under the black-ops codename of "Cutlery Kid," he is deep in Kaizen Gamorra's extraterrestrial colony, providing intelligence back to Spartan on Earth.

World's End

After the world was greatly devastated by the clones of the High, Warblade was among the Wildcats living in Los Angeles and helping survivors and their situation whenever they could. After the Wildcats were attacked by Majestic, he offered a few members of the team, including Warblade, if they wanted to come with him to his paradise in Hawaii. Warblade along his teammates refused Majestic's offer.^[3] The Wildcats later came into conflict with Defile and his Daemonites, in which Warblade was badly injured by Defile during the fight. However, he turned himself into a sword that Maul used to stab Defile and the team struck up a tentative treaty with the Daemonites.^[4]

Reno later participated in helping Team-7 against former Wildcats member-turned villain Tao. Following Tao's defeat, Reno was granted by Max Faraday a new and improved version of his costume based on his original attire.^[5] He and the Wildcats were later summoned to UnLondon by the Authority and offered the chance to leave Earth on the Carrier. Though Reno stayed on Earth and fought in Earth's war against the Knights of Khera, which he battled against and was seriously wounded by his counterpart Sabre.^[6]

Reno was hospitalized on Stormwatch's satellite Skywatch in which he suffered from severe spinal damage resulting from his battle with Sabre.^[7] After the three month period of Earth's restoration, Reno's injuries were partially healed through physical therapy with help from StormWatch personnel nurse Luisa Biondi in which the two shared an intimate bond despite the latter being already married.^[8] Reno later helped Luisa in finding her family, who were separated during the advent of Armageddon, in the ruins of Phoenix, Arizona. The couple tracked their way to a shelter where Luisa's family was supposed to go to if anything happened, but only found everyone dead inside. At this moment, Reno tried to reassure Luisa but was emotionally lashed at by her for giving her hope and making her come down to Earth to look for her family.^[9]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Shaper Physiology: Shapers are a subspecies of Kherans. They are shapeshifters born with a special genome who are able to change their bodies into a mercury-like substance.
- Bio-Morphic Liquid Metal: He is essentially a bio-morphic being possessing the ability to assume the properties of a type of biomolecular, high-tensile metal that he can manipulate into objects of various sizes, shapes, and density for a variety of uses. Primarily, as per his namesake, he forms bladed weapons out of his fingers and arms yet is quite capable of forming shields, hammers, and other basic shapes and properties.
  - Radio Block: Warblade is capable of manipulating his bio-molecular metals in such a way to create a negative zone immediately around him that renders him immune to most sensory capabilities. Essentially, granting him limited stealth aspects that enable him to get through most security systems undetected.
  - Enhanced Durability: Warblade can fight, and fight, and fight. His Kheribum blood grants him a high resistance to pain and damage, even beyond those of most other cross-breeds. He's taken a sword to the gut and lived through a lengthy fall when he should have very well died. Taken high end energy assaults. Been stabbed repeatedly, lost lots of blood and still kept going. If you want Warblade down only death will stop him. Knocking him out temporarily, doing haphazard damage just doesn't work. His malleable and bio-metallic body might be the reason behind this as on top of his high endurance he's resistant to injury far more then it may appear he is. While not 'bullet proof' or invulnerable, it takes a lot to hurt him and slow him down.
  - Enhanced Stamina: His high willpower and refusal to give up, grant him the endurance that he needs to continue to push through. Almost as bad as Zealot.
  - Regeneration: Warblade has an incredibly powerful healing ability, he can regenerate parts of his body mere seconds after destruction, he was once able to reform his body after Pike dispersed his molecules with an explosion, although this took him months.

Abilities

Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced): Warblade is a skilled hand to hand combatant. Well versed in many forms of fighting. He maintains some degree of skill at bladed weapons, obviously, and is highly skilled in Kung Fu and other martial arts. When not using his blades, Reno is still a noteworthy foe.
Artistry: Reno is a skilled artist.

Trivia

Warblade has appeared in the following non-WildStorm Image publications: Savage Dragon #13 (Erik Larsen version) and 41; Vanguard: Strange Visitors #4; Savage Dragon: Red Horizon #1.

Reno Bryce (Wildstorm Universe)

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