Brother Blood will be joining Titans season four to cause the heroes all kinds of havoc. Blood is an age-old DC villain and has had quite the history with the team of super-teens. In the upcoming season, Joseph Morgan (The Originals, Vampire Diaries) will return to the darkness as one of the heroes’ greatest threats, and he couldn’t be any more excited about it.
In the season three finale, the Titans thwarted Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow, who placed explosives all over the city, and in Titans season four they will be leaving Gotham City and heading back to San Francisco. Before making it to their destination, they’ll stop in Metropolis first where they find themselves in the crosshairs of a supernatural cult. This is where Brother Blood comes in, and he will present a danger unlike anything they’ve faced before.
Morgan will be playing Sebastian Sanger, an intelligent loner who works at a dead-end job. He wants to change the world, but no one is all that eager to listen to him. After a supernatural event, he becomes the dark and powerful Brother Blood, a vampiric, energy-sucking, sorcerer, in order to see his vision of a new world come to life. Regarding this transformation, Morgan teased via Twitter that the villain is dark, damaged, emotional, vulnerable, and so very vengeful.
Brother Blood is part of the evil cult known as the Church of Blood along with May Bennet/Mother Mayhem played by Franka Potente. Mother Mayhem is described as a natural leader and a predator in human form. She has strong convictions about her mission to change the world, and she’ll no doubt have a connection to Brother Blood, who shares grandiose dreams of his own. Traditionally, the woman with the title “Mother Mayhem” is the one responsible for giving birth to the next Brother Blood.
Brother Blood made his first comic book appearance in The New Teen Titans #21 by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. Cyborg’s ex-girlfriend, Marcy Reynolds, finds herself in the clutches of the Church of Blood, and she dies while trying to escape. Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and Raven infiltrate the cult to learn more about it, but they’re soon discovered and defeated by Brother Blood and his followers. Raven’s able to send out her soul-self, and the rest of the Titans arrive and fight off the Church of Blood, rescuing them from their awful torture.
Since then, there have been many who have taken up the insidious mantle of Brother Blood. Sebastian Sanger is probably more closely tied to the ninth incarnation, Sebastian Blood from Teen Titans #10 by Geoff Johns and Mike Mckone. This version had to perform an act of patricide before he could become the High Priest, and he did just that, stabbing his father to death. He wore his father’s garments and took his place as the new Brother Blood with loyal followers ready to serve him and the goal of summoning Raven’s father, the interdimensional demon, Trigon.
Brother Blood’s first mission was to kidnap Raven, marry her, and father a child with her to usher in an even greater power the Church of Blood has never seen before. He wanted their unholy union to wipe out the non-believers from the Earth, but during her capture, Raven lashes out to send a message to her friends. This manifests as birds flying together, the San Fransisco Bay turning to blood, and a skeletal Trigon rising. This alerts the Teen Titans, and they find Raven in Blood’s underground domain where they fought the cult. Blood was able to get away and perform the ritual, using Raven’s soul-self as a portal for flying demons to enter and terrorize people. It was Beast Boy who saved the day by transforming into a roundworm and entering Blood’s stomach to make him vomit up Raven’s chakra he had consumed. With her power restored, Raven uses her soul-self to imprison him in the eighth plane of hell.
Brother Blood has a long history with the Teen Titans, and Titans season four is shaping up to be one of the team’s greatest challenges. They will also have to face Jinx (Lisa Ambalavanar), a sorceress who wields bad luck, and legendary bad guy Lex Luthor (Titus Welliver), who will be luring Superboy (Joshua Orpin) onto his side. Superboy shares DNA with both Superman and Luthor, and the boy of steel is struggling to understand his true identity.
