Hybrid (DC Comics)

The Hybrid are a fictional group of supervillains appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. 

Publication history
The Hybrid's first appearance as a group was in New Teen Titans (vol.  2) #24, which was written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Eduardo Barreto, with inks by Romeo Tanghal. 

Fictional group history
Left insane by the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline, Mento believed that it was his destiny to recreate his old team, the Doom Patrol.  Gathering people who had suffered bizarre accidents (with some of those accidents possibly caused by him), Mento experimented on them with the artificial compound Promethium, turning many of them into superhuman freaks.  Under Mento's influence, the Hybrid was set to fight the New Teen Titans in order to kill Mento's adopted son the Changeling, a fellow surviving Patroller whom Mento blamed for the death of the original team.  Eventually dissuaded after several conflicts, they left Mento to fight alone.  After his defeat at the hands of Raven, the Hybrid took him with them as they harbored at his estate. 

The Hybrid was briefly seen much later, where they are shown still living on the Dayton estate.  Harpi mopes about having to isolate themselves from normal society. 

Later, members of the group joined battles at "the House", a fight club organized by Roulette, where all but Pteradon seem to have died, as only he is not displayed on the wall commemorating "Fallen Players of the House". 

One month after this issue was released however, Harpi, Touch-n-Go, and Scirocco turned up alive as three of the many female villains working for Circe. 

In the "Watchmen" sequel "Doomsday Clock," Pteradon was listed as a member of the Hayoth while Scirocco was listed as a member of Iran's sanctioned superhero team called the Elite Basu. 

Membership

Mento
President of Dayton Industries and one of the world's richest men, Steve Dayton invented a cybernetic helmet which amplified his latent psychic powers.  As the superhero Mento, he became an unofficial member of the Doom Patrol, from which he married Elasti-Girl and adopted Beast Boy.  This family ended tragically when the adult Patrollers were apparently all killed by old enemies of the Doom Patrol's leader the Chief.  Years later, Mento joined a gathering of mystics and psychics to help the Swamp Thing prevent an ancient evil from taking advantage of the Crisis, only for his helmet to overload, leaving him in a vegetative state.  Mento later recovered to a degree, but was left insane, as well as psychosomatically paraplegic.  Taking his new wheelchair-bound state as a sign that he was destined to be the new Chief, Mento resolved to recreate the Doom Patrol, assembling people turned into superhuman freaks as the Hybrid.  After several encounters with the Teen Titans, he is apparently cured by Raven, although long-term use of his Mento helmet continued to cause bouts of paranoia and dementia, during which he would engage in ruthless and manipulative behavior.  While naturally psychic, Mento needed the cybernetic devices to fully utilize them, and was capable of telepathy, psychokinesis, and limited mind control. 

Behemoth
Born a mutant, Taro Raiden grew to an abnormal size and became a Sumo wrestler, until he was recruited by agents of Mento.  Undergoing Promethium experiments voluntarily, he gained super-strength and denser-than-human skin.  He was one of the two members of the Hybrid who was honestly loyal to Mento. 

Gorgon
Greek archaeologist Andonis Bal and his wife Angelika were on an excavation at the base of Mount Olympus, when a statue of Medusa they had found came to life and attacked them.  Blinded by the attack, Mento's experiments changed Andonis' hair into snakes so that he would be able to see in all directions.  These snakes were also capable of firing beams which temporarily turned anyone caught in their path into stone.  Gorgon served Mento solely out of fear. 

Harpi
The wife of Andonis Bal, Angelika Bal was at the same excavation site and also mortally wounded by the Medusa statue.  Infused with Promethium, she did not respond well to the treatment, as her body was constantly wracked with pain, slowly driving her insane.  Like her husband Gorgon, Harpi also served Mento solely out of fear.  After curing Mento, the Teen Titans member Raven used her empathic powers to cure Harpi of her pain.  Harpi was able to fly, fire powerful force bolts from her hands, and possessed razor-sharp talons on her fingertips, capable of slashing through brick or steel. 

Prometheus
Curt Calhoun was the shop foreman of the metallurgy lab at Kord Omniversal Research and Development Inc. and a former henchman of Doctor Alchemy.  Curt Calhoun was covered in a molten alloy of titanium and vanadium laced with Promethium when he pushed his employer Ted Kord out of the way of an industrial accident.  Taken to the hospital, Calhoun's ambulance was intercepted by members of the Hybrid.  While the Blue Beetle was fighting them, Mento transformed the molten metal, covering Calhoun with a permanent metallic shell.  As an easy-going Texan, Prometheus did not wish to fight the Titans, but did so under Mento's duress.  Aside from the invulnerability that his "skin" provided him, he possessed great super-strength and was capable of raising the temperature of his armored form to several hundred degrees Celsius, which was easily capable of melting most other metals. 

Pteradon
Captain Israel Harel was an Israeli commando who led the rescue of a jumbo jet which had been forcibly landed at a Qurac airport, during which he was shot in the back and dropped into the ocean.  Recovered by Dayton's agents and subjected to Promethium, Harel became a humanoid Pteranodon.  Possessing claws and the ability to fly at supersonic speeds with his pterosaur wings, Pteradon combined his powers with tactical knowledge. 

Scirocco
Cassandra Sharp was an amateur geologist until she was smothered by a sandstorm in the heart of Death Valley.  Barely alive when she was rescued, Cassandra was subjected to Promethium.  This transformed her into the "Mistress of the Desert Winds" where she is able to generate both blasts of sand and hurricane-force winds by which she could fly.  Combining her sand-blasts and wind-blasts, Scirocco could cause enormous damage. 

Touch-N-Go
A young street thief living in Chicago, Illinois, Amelinda Lopez was struck by a truck while committing a robbery and was more dead than alive until she was subjected to Promethium.  As far as she was concerned, Mento had saved her life.  Along with Behemoth, Touch-N-Go was honestly loyal to Mento.  Touch-N-Go was able to temporarily steal the kinetic energy of anyone she touched, thus adding their strength, speed, and skill to her own. 

References

External links
 Hybrid at DC Comics Wiki
 Hybrid at Comic Vine
 Hybrids profile at the Titans Tower

Category:Comics characters introduced in 1986
Category:DC Comics supervillains
Category:Characters created by Marv Wolfman