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Bruce Stinson (Extreme)

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 Another night, another love. 
—Bruce Stinson[src]

Bruce Stinson was a war veteran[1] and mercenary, using the codename Chapel.[2][3] He joined the government task force Operation: Knighstrike with his best friend Albert Simmons,[4] where he was supplied with regular injections that seemed to optimize his physique.[5] Chapel quit when Al was murdered by Jessica Priest[6], and the forces of Hell manipulated his memories to make him believe he had been Al's killer.[7] In parallel, Chapel became a member of the superhero team Youngblood[8] but, after refusing to obey corrupt orders from Director Jason Wynn, Wynn revealed Chapel's enhancements included a dormant form of HIV and he activated it to punish his insubordination. To maintain their public image, Chapel was kicked out of Youngblood.[5] After briefly leading Bloodstrike[9], Chapel realized his old friend Al had come back from the dead as Spawn, so he attempted the same method to cure himself of HIV and killed himself.[10] He went to Hell, obtained demonic powers, overthrew the Devil, and became the evil Lord Chapel.[11] Lord Chapel attempted to enslave the entire world, but Earth's superheroes stopped him. Following Lord Chapel's defeat, Bruce's normal body was spit out of Hell.[12] Chapel fought his way to redemption by stoping his Lord Chapel persona when it resurfaced.[13]

History

Origin[]

In school, a young Bruce Stinson's best friend was Albert Simmons.[4] On Halloween Night, 1978, Bruce was assaulted by a gang of kids led by a kid wearing skull paint in his face, an event that traumatized him. Shortly after, Bruce's mother passed away and he was forced to go live with his abusive Uncle Theo. To cope, he turned to religion and took communion.[14]

Sometime between 1979 and 1983, Bruce joined the army, where he served alongside Lou Jacks.[1] He went on to be a mercenary,[15] who worked for the government several times assassinating third-world dictators[16]. His team was composed of Roger Dickenson, Jeff Jackson, Jet Li, Kevin O'Brian, Brad Smitts and Billy Zane.[3]

Nicaragua[]

Chapel from Chapel Vol 1 1
In 1983, Chapel and his team of mercenaries were hired to go to Nicaragua and eliminate a rogue U.S. colonel named Black for practicing voodoo. Upon landing in the jungle, they were immediately ambushed by Contras. Chapel and his team slaughtered their attackers and stripped them of weapons. One of the corpses briefly reanimated and taunted Chapel, but he ignored it. The team moved on and came across a riverside Contra outpost. Chapel’s men opened fire, ultimately blowing up an ammunition storage shed and killing all the contras present. They then waded into the river until Chapel was pulled underwater. He quickly resurfaced entangled with a large, red snake.[3] Smitts tossed Chapel a grenade, and Chapel shoved it down the snake’s throat, killing it. Chapel and his team proceeded onward and came upon a village. They found the locals brutally slaughtered, many dumped in a cave with their hearts ripped out. Horrified and enraged, Chapel ordered his team to move on and set off a grenade in the cave, destroying the bodies. Deeper into the jungle, Chapel and the team reached an ancient temple. Zombie Contras burst out of the ground and attacked, killing most of the team. Only Chapel and Jackson survived, wiping out the zombies by blowing their heads off. Inside the temple, they split up, and Chapel found their target, Colonel Black, sitting on a throne in front of a giant statue of a demon. Black magically brushed off Chapel’s gunfire, transferred his mind into the statue, and attacked. Chapel killed Black’s human body and then cleaved the statue in two with a sword, destroying him. Afterward, Chapel and Jackson were exfiltrated by helicopter.[17]

Youngblood[]

In 1984, Chapel was interviewed to see if he would fit to form part of "The Young Project." Battlestone pretended to be the supervillain "Fist of the Bizarre" and, after a fight, passed Chapel's audition.[14][18][8] Later that year, the Young Project became the superhero team Youngblood.[19]

Operation: Knightstrike[]

Operation Knightstrike from Operation Knightstrike Vol 1 3
On February 1986, a U.S. helicopter carrying a microfilm listing the names of Soviets working undercover for America headed to Afghanistan rebels when it was forced out of the sky by the Russian airforce, led by General Grozny. Wanting to retrieve the documents and the pilots, Alexander Graves hastily put together a task force named Operation: Knightstrike to take care of the matter. On February 12th, Chapel and Al Simmons rescued a mechanic in detroit named Benjamin Randall, who was being robbed, hoping to give the streets more control from crime. Afterwards, they met John Stone, who hired them for Operation: Knightstrike. Chapel accepted on the condition that Al came with him. On February 14th, Chapel, Al and Stone met their teammates, Dutch, Peter Frehley and Duke, and were briefed about the Afghanistan situation.[4] The Knightstrike team deployed to the Afghan-Pakistani border and met their guide, an Afghan woman named Roxanne, and her son, Mujahadeem. When Knightstrike was stopped by Pakistani bandits, Battlestone killed one with a mortar, and the team wiped out the rest. Knightstrike continued on until they were attacked by a Soviet response force. Frehley used a rocket launcher to destroy a Soviet helicopter while Dutch took down another, and Battlestone crushed a Soviet tank with a boulder. Simmons blew up a transport truck, but one soldier survived and attacked him. Mujahadeem shot and killed the soldier, saving him. That night, Knightstrike reached the outskirts of Kabul, and Roxanne left with her son.[20] Knightstrike hid in a cave prior to their assault. Chapel challenged Battlestone’s leadership, but Simmons talked him down. The team moved into Kabul and was soon attacked by Soviet troops. They returned fire but were soon cornered in a back alley. A squad of genetically enhanced Spetsnaz troops was deployed to attack Knightstrike. The team killed them all, so they dropped barrels of knockout gas, and the team was taken captive by Lt. Fruman. The members of Knightstrike awakened in restraints, facing Russian General Grozny, who revealed the captured U.S. pilot was Stone’s brother, Cabbot.[21] The rest of the details of this mission are unknown, but Operation: Knightstrike continued operating.


In 1987, Director Jason Wynn ordered Knightstrike to check out the extent of terrorist organization Cybernet's infiltration in Philadelphia. Dutch, Duke, Simmons, Chapel and Battlestone faced Cybernet's leader Giger's forces. When Dutch and Stone were left alone, Dutch revealed he worked for Cybernet and killed Stone via a shot in the head. He was later resurrected through Project: Born Again, and went back to Knightstrike.[22] The same year, Chapel and Knightstrike raided a Cybernet base in St. Louis. Chapel had special orders by Director Wynn to execute Duke for treason, with no other explanation than that. After escaping a trap put in place by Giger, Chapel shot Duke and killed him. When they discussed the mission with Wynn, he told them not to worry about Duke's specific actions.[23] During all this, Chapel received regular injections that seemed to optimize his physique. Shortly after Duke's death, Al tried to warn Chapel against the injections, but he believed Wynn would never let him be harmed. In reality, he was being injected with a strain of HIV that could be activated on command if Chapel ever went rogue.[5] Later, Cabbot Stone joined Knightstrike alongside new member Yuki. During a mission in Afghanistan, they attempted to kill general Nicholi Gregoriev, but the Soviet train they blew up turned out empty.[24]

A year after joining Knightstrike, Cabbot died through unrevealed means.[24] Shortly after this, Al was murdered by Jessica Priest[6], sending Al's soul to Hell, where its inhabitants manipulated his memories and Chapel's to make both men believe Chapel had been Al's killer.[7] Following these two deaths, Knightstrike was presumably shut down.

In Summer 1988, Chapel was part of a Youngblood operation alongside Riptide, Raines, Battlestone, Boggs, Gamble and Diehard. They were deployed to Kuwait to prevent Hassan Kussein's Iraqui Army from invading. Although they defeated the first strike, Boggs and Raines were killed by a booby trap when checking out an underground supply bunker. When Gamble confronted Battlestone's authority over this tragedy, Stone murdered him, and Diehard pulled rank and began beating Stone. After Chapel stopped Diehard from murdering Stone, Chapel arrested John, ending the mission.[25]

In 1989, Chapel welcomed his new field leader, Shaft, who led him and Diehard, Bedrock, Vogue, Combat and Link.[25]

1992[]

On March 1992, Chapel was at his apartment in Arlington when he received a notification to go to Youngblood's headquarters. He told the woman he was in bed with that she should leave her number just to give her hopes. Chapel travelled to Washington, where he joined his Youngblood teammates and stopped supervillains Strongarm and Gage from breaking out the other half of their supervillain team, The Four, composed of Deadlock and Starbright.[26]

A week later,[27] Chapel responded to an alert informing him there was a breakout going on at The Pentagon alongside Shaft and Bedrock. They arrived to find The Four being freed by a villain named Showdown and a group of ninjas. The Four tried to teleport away, but Chapel was able to shoot Gage clear of teleport range. Afterwards, Diehard appeared with the news that there was an incident with the Away Team, and they needed to go to Germany to provide support immediately.[28] For this mission, Chapel and the Home Team were joined by Photon.[29]

After flying for ten hours, Chapel and the Home Team found the Away Team knocked out in a G.A.T.E. International laboratory where the they had been called to supervise the transport of a super-soldier named Jonathan Taylor Prophet. Prophet was the only remaining combatant against an army of robotic soldiers called Disciples of Doom, who were arriving through a portal from the planet D'khay. Also present were the Berzerkers, a group of freedom fighters from D'Khay. Shortly after, the tyrant ruler of D'Khay, Darkthornn, also joined the fray.[29] When Darkthornn opened up even more portals, letting through an army of winged demon soldiers, Chapel could barely keep his head above water, until Away Team member Psi-Fire overpowered Darkthornn with his psychic powers and made him retreat back to his home planet, ending the crisis.[30]

Chapel joined his teammates Bedrock, Diehard, Shaft, Vogue and Combat to guard vice-president Dan Quayle at Strategic Defense Initiative Astronomics along with two mercenaries named Pike and Hestia. There, the VP was assaulted by a rogue Covert Action Team.[31] Chapel shot the terrorist named Spartan to kill, despite Shaft's orders to bring the terrorists alive. Another terrorist, Maul, began growing in size to the point of almost bringing the building down on everybody, but his teammate Voodoo put him to sleep psychically. Seeing she had saved them, Combat was willing to entertain the possibility that there was more going on there than met the eye. When the Vice-President tried to execute Voodoo, Shaft told him to let them handle the terrorists, but the Vice President, outraged at being touched and questioned, shot at Shaft and grazed his skull. With Youngblood turning against him, Voodoo extracted an alien named B'lial from inside the Vice President, exposing the being who had been controlling his actions.[32] Shortly after, Chapel, Combat and Bedrock received an energy blast from the alien in charge, named Lord Helspont. As the Wild C.A.T. left to take care of him, Youngblood directed its attention to his cronies, Pike and Hestia. Shortly after, the facility started self destructing, and Youngblood was forced to run with the Vice-President, praying the C.A.T. could make it out on their own. After the explosion, there was no sign of any of the involved parties, except for the C.A.T.'s cyborg, who sacrificed himself to stop Helspont. Shaft commented the C.A.T. seemed like a resourceful bunch, and that he wouldn't be surprised if their paths crossed again.[33]

Youngblood Strikefile Vol 1 1 Flip cover
Later, Chapel was contacted by his old Operation: Knightstrike boss, Jason Wynn. Wynn needed him for a mission, but Chapel refused the offer.[23] Following that, he was having sex when a group of Cybernet's War Dogs stormed his apartment and killed the woman he was with. After disposing of them, one decapitated skull relayed an audio message from Chapel's old enemy Giger, saying the attack was to gain his attention and to meet down on the docks tomorrow evening. The following night, Chapel met Giger, who warned him Wynn had hired him to murder Chapel. Giger offered to hire Chapel to murder Wynn, but Chapel simply shot Giger's decoy body. From its remains, Giger's voice warned Chapel to watch his back.[34] Afterwards, Chapel raided Wynn's home. When he was about to kill him, Wynn revealed the injections Chapel received during his time with Operation: Knightstrike included a strain of HIV that had been activated. Wynn had also alerted Youngblood of Chapel's medical condition, which would result in his firing unless he took Wynn's cure. To gain access to that, though, Chapel would need to obey Wynn's commands. When he refused, Wynn made good on his word and had Chapel kicked out of Youngblood.[5]

Later, Chapel was briefed by Government officials from the Pentagon, who let him know the outlaw team named Brigade was considered a threat that needed taken out. They explained they had set up a task force called Bloodstrike to deal with them, but Chapel agreed to help if necessary.[35] Chapel also received a call from his old war buddy Lou Jacks, who now worked for the New York City Police Department and needed help capturing the vigilante ShadowHawk. However, Chapel said he was too busy and recommended a different mercenary to Jacks.[1] Later, Spawn fought Chapel, believing him to be his killer. Angered, Spawn ripped the skin out of Chapel's face, giving him a permanent skull marking.[36] Following his expulsion from Youngblood, Chapel was assigned as Bloodstrike's field commander.[9]

1993[]

Desperate to find a way to beat his HIV, Chapel killed himself to obtain the same powers as Spawn,[10] and, going into Hell, obtained demonic powers, overthrew the Devil, and became Lord Chapel.[11]

1995[]

Lord Chapel attempted to enslave the entire world, but Earth's superheroes stopped him. Following Lord Chapel's defeat, Bruce's normal body was spit out of Hell.[12]

1996[]

Chapel fought his way to redemption by stoping his Lord Chapel persona when it resurfaced.[13]

Attributes

Powers

Chapel uses various types of weapons, from guns to swords; he is a formidable fighter.

Abilities

Weaknesses

  • Illness(formerly): Chapel was infected with an artificially created strand of HIV.

Trivia

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 ShadowHawk #6
  2. ↑ Youngblood Trading Cards, 1992: #30 - Chapel
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Chapel #1
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Operation: Knightstrike #1
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Youngblood Strikefile #3
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 King Spawn #5
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Spawn #61
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Bloodstrike #24
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Bloodstrike #6
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Youngblood #10
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Youngblood Strikefile #11
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Extreme Sacrifice
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Chapel (Volume 2) #1-6
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Bloodstrike #0
  15. ↑ Youngblood Trading Cards, 1992: #30 - Chapel
  16. ↑ Youngblood Trading Cards, 1992: #31 - Killing Time
  17. ↑ Chapel #2
  18. ↑ Bloodstrike #23
  19. ↑ Youngblood Trading Cards, 1992: #4 - The Beginning
  20. ↑ Operation: Knightstrike #2
  21. ↑ Operation: Knightstrike #3
  22. ↑ Battlestone #1
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Youngblood Strikefile #1
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Bloodstrike Assassin #0
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Youngblood #0
  26. ↑ Youngblood #1
  27. ↑ Brigade #2
  28. ↑ Youngblood #3
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Youngblood #4
  30. ↑ Youngblood #5
  31. ↑ WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams #2
  32. ↑ WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams #3
  33. ↑ WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams #4
  34. ↑ Youngblood Strikefile #2
  35. ↑ Brigade #4
  36. ↑ Spawn #13
  37. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20240612230243/https://www.cbr.com/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-2/
Spawn Villain(s)

This character, team or organization, is or was primarily an enemy of Spawn, or members of the Spawn Supporting Cast. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Spawn Villains."

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