Joseph Rotkowski (Earth-50)

From DC Database

Contents 1 History 2 Powers and Abilities 2.1 Powers 3 Notes 4 Trivia 5 See Also 6 Links and References 6.1 Footnotes

History

A mechanical prodigy since he first developed fine motor skills as an infant, there were few things Joe Rotkowski couldn't fix. Enlisted by renowned physicist Professor Kingston Kirbey to aid Kingston's landmark development of the world's first H20-fueled automobile, Joe eagerly rolled up his sleeves and got to work. In only a few years, Kirbey and Joe had built a prototype vehicle from the chassis out, working in secret on a design utilizing new lightweight alloys as tough as tempered steel. Unfortunately, their intentions were not so secret to the automobile manufacturers of Detroit, who were afraid that the prototype would put them out of business.

Working late one night after Kirbey had gone home with his beautiful and brilliant daughter Dot(whom Joe was secretly in love with), Joe was accosted by a gang of hired thugs. They beat him near to death, then trapped him under the prototype's hydraulic lift and demanded that he destroy the car. Refusing to destroy his and Kirbey's life's work out of honesty, he was left under the hydraulic lift while the thugs set a bomb and ran. When the bomb exploded, it destroyed most of the garage/laboratory, but Joe survived, partly shielded by the prototype. When Professor Kirbey found the mortally-wounded Joe, he vowed to save him, using his research to create a new mechanical body to give Joe a fighting chance.

Now more machine than man, Joe became a living vehicle, and went to Detroit to make the unscrupulous car manufacturers pay for turning him into a vehicular vigilante.

Sometime since then, he lost contact with Dot, without telling her how he felt (though she had enormous respect for him). During the Second World War, Engine Joe and other Allied metahumans were abducted by their government into the Number of the Beast program, in which Joe's body was housed in the Motor Pool in a specially designed pod filled with special hot oil solution, and has been a member of the Paladins in the program's virtual world.

After the High freed the Paladins and others from the NOTB program, and the Earth's cataclysm Engine Joe joined with Mago and Tumbleweed in finding those involved with the NOTB program and held them accountable for the World's End, starting with Zebulon McCandless the founder of the NOTB program.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

• Mechanical body - Engine Joe is one of the strongest beings in the City.

• Mechanic prodigy

Notes

• This biog is primarily based on a biographical note in the back of Number of the Beast #2

Trivia

• Engine Joe was the very first character designed for Number of the Beast, by artist Chris Sprouse, and is Sprouse's favorite character.

See Also

• Discuss Joseph Rotkowski (Earth-50) on the forums
• Appearances of Joseph Rotkowski (Earth-50)
• Character Gallery: Joseph Rotkowski (Earth-50)
• Images featuring Joseph Rotkowski (Earth-50)

Links and References

• None.
  

Footnotes

Wildstorm Character This character exists under the Wildstorm Imprint, and their continuity takes place within the Wildstorm Titles. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Wildstorm Characters."