Name: Shousei Kougami
Age: 108
Alias: Lord Death Man
Appearance: "EEEEYYY."
Skills/Abilities: A master contortionist and criminal mastermind, king of Japan's criminal underground. Through his mastery of the yoga arts, Lord Death Man has ceased to age and transcended death itself. He returns from death shortly after the fact, fully healed and raring to go. He has an eidetic memory. He doesn't sleep, and his brain cells never die.
Weaknesses: He's pretty noticeable, and has a very different idea of how a criminal enterprise should run from most Gothamites. While he revives fully healed, he must heal damage he survives normally. However, obsessing about vengeance for a decade has left him a bit... unhinged.
History: Ever since the 1940's, one name has been synonymous with Japanese crime: the immortal supervillain, Death Man. Generations of superheroes have risen to face him, and withered in the face of father time. This is because Death Man can afford to play the long game. No one is sure where this skull-faced marauder comes from, who he really is, or what allows him a level of mastery the most dedicated of yoga mystics can only dream of.
The answers are surprisingly simple. Shousei Kougami was born in 1908 to a fisherman and a prostitute, and was left at an orphanage. At the age of nine, he was sent to live with Buddhist monks. These monks were the keepers of one of eight scrolls, each holding a portion of the true knowledge the first yoga mystics discovered. Contemplation of these secrets, detachment from the world, allowed the monks to recover from nearly injury. For eight years, he was raised in the strict environment of the monastery, watching as they performed amazing feats, forever told that he would receive the mystical power when he was spiritually ready. Well, that just made him mad, so he broke into the main building one night and stole the sacred scrolls containing the teachings of the monastery's founder. Thus, at the age of 13, Shousei committed his first theft and joined the yakuza. He worked loyally, serving as a lookout and decoy for years and slowly working his way up to an actual member of the family. Things began looking up for him during a heist in 1941, when he stole one of the remaining scrolls from a museum. This allowed a breakthrough in his practice of the scrolls, and began noticing his body was more flexible than ever. Over the coming days, more and more secrets revealed themselves- all the secret yoga powers of the mystics, his to command. It wasn't long before he challenged the heads of the families, using his newfound immortality to kill them off one by one.
It wasn't long before the police began talking. Calling him "Death Man," describing him as a twisted version of the American Mystery Men. Death Man took his new mantle, becoming the head of organized crime in a large section of Japan, using his yoga powers to maintain his position and gather followers- thugs, spiritualists, ninja, genius investors, the indigenous monsters of Japan. Lord Death Man's syndicate was unstoppable... but never moved beyond organized crime. After all, while he had a powerful criminal empire, there was no sense risking it by getting greedy. No, he had a clear goal in mind: to maintain his power in Japan's criminal underworld and use that power to track down the remaining six scrolls, as well as any mystical artifacts or discarded superhero gear he can get his hands on. His search for the remaining scrolls didn't really pan out, but he's spent 75 years on the effort so he's not stopping now.
Over the years, his criminal empire has brought him into conflict with the Bat Family a few times. However, his final confrontation with Batman involved the caped crusader shoving him in a safe and launching him into orbit. He spent over a decade in absolute darkness, dying and reviving in the cold, harsh vacuum of space. Lord Death Man believes that this was entirely unmerited torture. He wasn't a metahuman, he had no special powers other than his immortality- why was normal prison not enough? Ten years later, he came down after the safe imprisoning him crashed into a telecommunications satellite over Japan, sending him hurtling to Earth. Ten years, he spent formulating his plot for revenge. He returned to the underworld, killing those who tried to take his place, and declaring his intent to have revenge upon the Batman... only to discover that Batman was gone. He gathered the remnants of his splintered empire, leaving his lieutenants to handle things. If Lord Death Man can't kill Batman, he'll settle for bleeding Gotham dry.
Age: 108
Alias: Lord Death Man
Appearance: "EEEEYYY."
Skills/Abilities: A master contortionist and criminal mastermind, king of Japan's criminal underground. Through his mastery of the yoga arts, Lord Death Man has ceased to age and transcended death itself. He returns from death shortly after the fact, fully healed and raring to go. He has an eidetic memory. He doesn't sleep, and his brain cells never die.
Weaknesses: He's pretty noticeable, and has a very different idea of how a criminal enterprise should run from most Gothamites. While he revives fully healed, he must heal damage he survives normally. However, obsessing about vengeance for a decade has left him a bit... unhinged.
History: Ever since the 1940's, one name has been synonymous with Japanese crime: the immortal supervillain, Death Man. Generations of superheroes have risen to face him, and withered in the face of father time. This is because Death Man can afford to play the long game. No one is sure where this skull-faced marauder comes from, who he really is, or what allows him a level of mastery the most dedicated of yoga mystics can only dream of.
The answers are surprisingly simple. Shousei Kougami was born in 1908 to a fisherman and a prostitute, and was left at an orphanage. At the age of nine, he was sent to live with Buddhist monks. These monks were the keepers of one of eight scrolls, each holding a portion of the true knowledge the first yoga mystics discovered. Contemplation of these secrets, detachment from the world, allowed the monks to recover from nearly injury. For eight years, he was raised in the strict environment of the monastery, watching as they performed amazing feats, forever told that he would receive the mystical power when he was spiritually ready. Well, that just made him mad, so he broke into the main building one night and stole the sacred scrolls containing the teachings of the monastery's founder. Thus, at the age of 13, Shousei committed his first theft and joined the yakuza. He worked loyally, serving as a lookout and decoy for years and slowly working his way up to an actual member of the family. Things began looking up for him during a heist in 1941, when he stole one of the remaining scrolls from a museum. This allowed a breakthrough in his practice of the scrolls, and began noticing his body was more flexible than ever. Over the coming days, more and more secrets revealed themselves- all the secret yoga powers of the mystics, his to command. It wasn't long before he challenged the heads of the families, using his newfound immortality to kill them off one by one.
It wasn't long before the police began talking. Calling him "Death Man," describing him as a twisted version of the American Mystery Men. Death Man took his new mantle, becoming the head of organized crime in a large section of Japan, using his yoga powers to maintain his position and gather followers- thugs, spiritualists, ninja, genius investors, the indigenous monsters of Japan. Lord Death Man's syndicate was unstoppable... but never moved beyond organized crime. After all, while he had a powerful criminal empire, there was no sense risking it by getting greedy. No, he had a clear goal in mind: to maintain his power in Japan's criminal underworld and use that power to track down the remaining six scrolls, as well as any mystical artifacts or discarded superhero gear he can get his hands on. His search for the remaining scrolls didn't really pan out, but he's spent 75 years on the effort so he's not stopping now.
Over the years, his criminal empire has brought him into conflict with the Bat Family a few times. However, his final confrontation with Batman involved the caped crusader shoving him in a safe and launching him into orbit. He spent over a decade in absolute darkness, dying and reviving in the cold, harsh vacuum of space. Lord Death Man believes that this was entirely unmerited torture. He wasn't a metahuman, he had no special powers other than his immortality- why was normal prison not enough? Ten years later, he came down after the safe imprisoning him crashed into a telecommunications satellite over Japan, sending him hurtling to Earth. Ten years, he spent formulating his plot for revenge. He returned to the underworld, killing those who tried to take his place, and declaring his intent to have revenge upon the Batman... only to discover that Batman was gone. He gathered the remnants of his splintered empire, leaving his lieutenants to handle things. If Lord Death Man can't kill Batman, he'll settle for bleeding Gotham dry.