BLOCKBUSTER

Real Name: Bart Dietzel

Identity/Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Professional criminal

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Formerly Silas X. Cragg

Enemies: Captain America (Steve Rogers), Silas X. Cragg, Foolkiller (Greg Salinger), Omega the Unknown

Known Relatives: Robert (son)

Aliases: Man-Brute

Base of Operations: New York City

First Appearance: (Man-Brute) Captain America I#121 (January, 1970);
    (Blockbuster) Omega the Unknown#7 (March, 1977)

 

 

 

Powers/Abilities: Blockbuster possessed superhuman strength (enhanced human to Class 10 (see comments)), durability, endurance, etc. He was an experienced street fighter, though he did not demonstrate any advanced fighting skills.

History:
(Captain America I#121 (fb) - BTS) - The man who would become Blockbuster had a son at some point, but lost custody of him after going to prison.

(Captain America I#121) - Mad at the world, he encountered Silas X. Cragg and fit his ideal subject for his efforts to duplicate the Super Soldier process. Cragg injected him with ZXX serum, exposed him to an unspecified energy, etc, transforming him into the Man-Brute. Cragg then tricked Captain America into appearing at an orphan's home for a charity performance, where he had the Man-Brute ambush him. The Man-Brute threatened to overpower Captain America, but he was distracted by a young orphan who rushed up and beat on him, trying to make him let Cap go. The Man-Brute then fled back to Cragg's base, where he revealed that the orphan had been his own son, and that he blamed Cragg for making him try to kill one of the bravest guys he had ever met. The Man-Brute prepared to take out his anger on Cragg, but Cragg backed into some of his own equipment and died from electrocution.

(Omega the Unknown#7) - Renaming himself Blockbuster, he sought to acquire wealth so that his son, Robert, would not be forced to sink to the same level he had. He robbed a bank, leading to a struggle with the New York Police Department and then the enigmatic hero Omega the Unknown. After some back and forth struggle, Blockbuster told Omega that he was stealing the money for his son. Feeling empathy due his own fatherly link with James-Michael Starling, Omega allowed Blockbuster to escape with the money.

(Omega the Unknown#9) - Blockbuster robbed a diamond store, and the owner offered a thousand dollars to anyone who could stop him. Omega heard this and, seeking to obtain the funds to help his friend "Pops," attacked Blockbuster. Blockbuster twice flattened Omega and ran off, but the third time they struggled, Omega drained himself with a powerful energy blast. Angered over his repeated interference, Blockbuster rushed forward and prepared to snap Omega's neck, but he was then incinerated by a blast from the Purifier Gun of the Foolkiller, who had judged Blockbuster a fool.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Gene Colan, and Joe Sinnott.
    Redesigned as Blockbuster by Scott Edelman, Jim Mooney, and Joe Rosen.

    Cragg described his process as amplifying his strength "a dozen times." Even if you consider the guy an athlete, I doubt he could lift more than 200-300 pounds (How many of you guys were ever actually able to press your own body weight and thus be considered "normal" by the power charts? I work out 5 days a week and can just barely do that. It's a little unrealistic)...any way, that would put him around 2400 - 3600 pounds. Omega can lift 2 tons, and Blockbuster definitely seemed stronger than he. He ripped a bank vault door right off of the wall. Maybe the process continued to increase his strength over time.

Add Blockbuster to your list of Super-Soldier Serum recipients...especially the Captain America types...

Cragg claimed that the super-soldier serum amplified its recipient's strength, and thus a stronger man would receive greater power than a frail person, like the pre-Cap Steve Rogers. I guess this is the premise behind Protocide as well, but it's not really true. Captain America is the absolute pinnacle of human strength and physical ability. Other factors are at work if a recipient actually gains superhuman strength, like Blockbuster/Man-Brute. Perhaps it's the sanity stabilizing Vita-Rays that prevented Captain America from gaining superhuman strength. Captain America of the 1950s and many others have superhuman strength. It's also possible that the variant treatment is closer to the treatment that empowered the anti-Captain America (Super-Sailor), which itself was related to Noah Burstein's treatment, which empowered Cage.

Blockbuster's real name was revealed in the New Avengers: Most Wanted Files.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:

Silas X. Cragg has no known connection to:

Silas X. Cragg

 

    An enemy of Captain America from the World War II era, his past adventures are unrevealed. Over the years, Cragg pieced together information from reports on Captain America to synthesize a variant of the Super Soldier Serum. When Captain America revived in the modern era, he sought out an imposing physical specimen so that his subject would be more powerful than Cap. He empowered the Man-Brute and then arranged a fake charity event at which the Man-Brute ambushed Cap. However, when the Man-Brute ran into his own son, he was so upset at what he had become that he attacked Cragg instead. Terrified, Cragg backed into a high voltage machine and was killed by electrocution.

 

--Captain America I#121 (121 (fb) - BTS, 121

 

 

 

Robert

    The son of Blockbuster/Man-Brute, he was placed in an orphanage after his father was sent to prison. Not recognizing his father, he ran up to the Man-Brute and began hitting him in the middle of his fight with Captain America. This event shocked the Man-Brute, causing him to abort his mission and run away. Blockbuster later began stealing money, allegedly to support Robert, but I doubt he got any of it.

--Captain America I#121 (121 (fb) - BTS, 121, [Omega the Unknown#7]

 

 

 

 

images:
Omega the Unknown#7, p17, panel 5 (Blockbuster)
Captain America I#121 cover (Man-Brute)
    p (face)
    p (Robert)
    p (Cragg)

Captain America I#121 (January, 1970) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Gene Colan (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)
Omega the Unknown#7 (March, 1977) - Scott Edelman (writer), Jim Mooney (artist), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Omega the Unknown#9 (July, 1977) - Steve Gerber & Mary Skrenes (writers), Jim Mooney (artist), Steve Gerber (editor)

First Posted: 08/15/2004
Last updated: 08/15/2004

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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