Curtis Calhoun

Prometheus

Curtis Calhoun

## Background

### Early Life

Curtis Calhoun was born to two crooks. He grew up on the lam, finding homes in various motels and acquaintances of his parents, always moving about. Finally, one day, his parents were captured in a Las Vegas hotel room, and both were gunned down before his very eyes.

Placed in the care of the state, Curt was jostled between rough foster homes, where he faced violence from the other children. He taught himself to fight back, fine-tuning his young body to deal damage to the others who tortured him. This wound him up in juvie after one fight went horribly wrong, and he put another foster boy in a coma.

Curt survived juvie and was put into a Catholic reformatory school, where the priests regularly took sexual liberties with the boys, including Curt. While he was a force to be reckoned with in his age group, he didn’t stand a chance against an adult, who silenced him.

When he got out of reformatory school, Curt moved to Metropolis and was living on the streets in the Suicide Slum. He fell in with the 100 Gang, who offered him a warm place to sleep and a nice, good meal. The 100 Gang indoctrinated him to grow his hatred of authority, now targeting that hate at metahumans - and the growing trend of superheroes.

The 100 Gang whipped the young Curt into shape. The Director of the 100, Henry Ballard, took an interest into Curt, and explained to him how the recent Justice League was like a pantheon of Gods, and how they needed someone to use the Gods power to destroy them.

### Triumph

Curt spent the next decade training his body and mind to fight the Justice League. The 100 gave him access to everything he needed, including genetic and cybernetic implants custom-made by Cadmus to give him enhanced abilities. Cadmus also created a sword for him to use that came from AMAZO technology.

But, to Curt, a plan was forming. He slowly began forming the superhero persona of Triumph, and making a name for himself in Metropolis. After helping Superman defeat Parasite, he told him of the 100 Gang, and sold out all of them to Superman and helped him defeat each of them, even putting a sword through Ballard’s throat to guarantee his silence.

Now, out on his own, he began hatching his plan to destroy the Justice League. However, as he began trying to obtain membership to cripple them from the inside, Jason Todd was killed, and the Justice League underwent a temporary shutdown. Left without much to do, Triumph became one of Metropolis’ namesake heroes, attracting the attention of Lex Luthor, who offered to sponsor him through his team, the Conglomerate.

While in Luthor’s employ, he was introduced to Lex’s business associate - Miranda Tate. Tate had an interest in using Triumph for her own less-than-legal business. Curt didn’t mind - and soon this professional relationship turned sexual. Tate had him guarding black market arms deals and human trafficking schemes correlating with the League of Assassins. This caused her to reveal she was actually the daughter of Ra’s al Ghul, and introduced the two men to one another, bringing Curt into the fold of the Light Cabinet.

### Prometheus

The Light Cabinet told Curt of their plan, to outfit him with the weapons capable of fighting members of the Justice League, getting him on the Watchtower, and using its ion cannon to level a city - forever tainting the League’s legacy.

He agreed. As the League of Assassins lost their footing in Gotham City, they began outfitting Calhoun to have the ultimate anti-metahuman armor. As Luthor became President, he allowed the Justice League to return, and Triumph became a new member of the Justice League.

The date was set - correlating with Maxwell Lord’s overtaking of the OMAC Project. Calhoun, with his modified armor, stepped aboard the Watchtower and fought the Trinity, before charging its ion cannon towards Bludhaven, and then powering down the Watchtower, sending it hurtling towards San Diego.

Calhoun was lost in the wreckage of the Watchtower. His sword and broken helmet were found - but whether or not he made it out alive remains to be seen. Triumph was outed as the perpetrator, destroying Luthor’s legacy. The plan was successful, it took the League awhile to return to public favor due to these actions.

## Notes

* This version of Prometheus is a composite character of the comics' Prometheus, another unrelated Prometheus named Curtis Calhoun, and the superhero Triumph.