What would you do initially if your entire body was made up of metal fragments? Well, DC helps you out by telling you what you shouldn’t do, which is to become a supervillain.
Shrapnel is a supervillain who was once a scientist and a person, but now he has the ability to utilize his entire body as a weapon. He appears to be able to fling strong metal shards at his foes at command.
That’s what you get when you combine a scientist’s body with something that has the potential to become the world’s most lethal weapon. But did you know that this supervillain has also faced off against some of the most powerful superheroes in the world, like the Vision and Aquaman?
You’re probably wondering how he became a walking, talking metal tank. So, let’s go right into the movie to answer all of your questions and learn some more fascinating Shrapnel facts.
Shrapnel in Batman: The Brave and the Bold
The character of Shrapnel is introduced to us in the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold for the first time in Season 1, Episode 23, titled “When OMAC Attacks!” Now, before getting into the story, let us talk about an agency that plays a significant role in the story of Shrapnel. The Global Peace Agency, or G.P.A. for short, is a law enforcement organization that looks after preserving peace but also secretly battles threats to Earth. In this episode, they have employed the services of Batman.
The Agency’s first action was to create Project OMAC, One Man Army Corps. But in order to execute this project, they first needed to construct a satellite called Brother Eye. Basically, they would use the alien energies housed within this satellite to transform a human into a champion named OMAC. Brother Eye would grant immense superpowers to the human by conducting instant remote molecular rearrangement within the human’s body.
Now, the episode begins with Batman reporting to the Global Peace Agency regarding the mission they had given him. This mission was to capture a man named Marshal Kirovan Kafka alive. A while back, when the Global Peace Agency attempted to prevent Kafka’s country from going to war, a defenseless village was destroyed. As a result of that, Kafkabecame a militant criminal, and his activities declared him an enemy of the Global Peace Agency. So, basically, he is now classified as a terrorist.
The G.P.A. is disappointed that Batman still does not have any concrete leads on General Kafka. As it turns out, they are aware that Kafka plans on disrupting the balance of world power by building an organic transient metal. If he succeeds in making it, his mission will be achieved. The Global Peace Agency finds Batman incompetent and has now decided to give him a partner in order to stop Kafka.
Just then, a janitor named Buddy Blank comes into the office for a clean-up. He tells Batman that he himself wanted to be a hero just like him. In fact, he joined the G.P.A. for that very reason but is currently working as a janitorial operative. When Batman asks the council about his new partner, it is revealed that janitor Buddy is the one they have assigned. Naturally, Batman is confused because Buddy appears to be rather too clumsy to pass as a hero.
But this is when Brother Eye is introduced to Batman. The council clicks a button, and in space, we see a circular satellite with a massive eye in the middle. A strong ray of light emits out of the Brother Eye, enters the Earth, into the G.P.A. building, and hits Buddy Blank. In an instant, Buddy’s body is completely transformed, his muscles expand, and he grows taller. The council introduces him as the perfect weapon called OMAC, the One Man Army Corps. The Brother Eye gives him enhanced strength, reflexes, and an endless array of instant upgrades.
After transforming into OMAC, he now has no memory of being Buddy Blank. Batman and OMAC then go to Kafka’s camp, where OMAC calls up Brother Eye to give his powers a bit more juice. OMAC immediately attacks all of Kafka’s soldiers and successfully defeats them. The two heroes then break into Kafka’s control room, and it turns out that he knows much more about OMAC than you imagine.
WhileOMAC attacks Kafka, Batman is stopped by his old enemy, Equinox. Apparently, Equinox considers himself the caretaker of good and evil and maintains balance in the world, even if it means the deaths of many. With his sly comments, it does not look like he works for Kafka as he refers to him as his pawn. On the other hand, OMAC still continues to fight Kafka and it seems like he is just about to kill him.
They are surrounded by two huge containers of liquid which is possibly the organic transient metal that Kafka has been working on. When OMAC is about to land a death blow on him with his laser ray, Batman intervenes because they are supposed to capture him alive. However, OMAC’s laser attack hits the two containers, Kafka gets submerged in that liquid, and his control room blows up.
The heroes soon discover that apparently, Kafka survived the explosion because his body bonded with the organic metal. He now appears before us as the newly born super villain, Shrapnel, with a body that looks like it is made of pure metal. He starts attacking them with a burst of liquid metal shards, which hits OMAC in the middle of his chest, the power center, and knocks him out.
When Batman goes to help him, he realizes that OMAC has now turned back into Buddy Blank. He flies away with him back to the G.P.A. office. Batman informs the council that he believes Equinox is responsible for OMAC’s malfunction, but of course, there is no concrete evidence of that. He tries to tell them that Buddy is not just a weapon but a person as well, and OMAC would certainly be of more help as a soldier with a heart like Buddy’s.
Soon after, Batman’s conversation with Buddy is interrupted as Shrapnel attacks. Brother Eye instantly transforms Buddy back into OMAC. It looks like Shrapnel fires scales from his body, and despite continuous attacks, he does not seem to be losing any body mass. OMAC proceeds to attack him and once again, Batman is confronted by Equinox. His motives are still unclear but he suggests that perhaps he and Batman are the same since they both want to bring justice.
On the other hand, OMAC is being brutally beaten by Shrapnel. He confesses to OMAC that the Global Peace Agency gave rise to Kafka’s revenge by destroying the village and OMAC brought Shrapnel into this world. It looks like this battle is being headed by Equinox because he tells Batman that he is trying to createstability and balance the destruction of Kafka’s village with the destruction of another, which is New York City.
Batman rushes to OMAC’s aid and discovers that Shrapnel has smashed OMAC through the walls of a nuclear power plant. Their battle has damaged the safety control panel inside the nuclear power plant and thus triggered a meltdown. The entire city will be destroyed if this blows up, just like Equinox has planned. But Shrapnel assures OMAC that the explosion will certainly make him stronger than he already is.
OMAC then gets a feeling that maybe he needs to stop fighting back and focus on defense as Batman had earlier advised. So, he asks Brother Eye to focus all of his power on creating a defense shield. Shrapnel continues to attack OMAC but he does nothing.In the meantime, Batman rushes into the nuclear power plant where he is attacked by Equinox and the two engage in a fight.
OMAC appears to be having the upper hand in his battle against Shrapnel because his punches seem to be growing weaker. His physical form also seems to have shrunk compared to his initial humongous form. He soon realizes that fighting Shrapnel only makes him stronger because all his strength comes from other people’s energy. OMAC then knocks Shrapnel unconscious to the ground and traps him with a large block of bent metal for the authorities to find and capture him.
At last, Shrapnel is defeated and Brother Eye instantly turns OMAC back into Buddy Blank who then rushes inside the power plant to help Batman. The episode ends with Batman bringing down the containment rods manually and successfully stopping the meltdown.
Mark Scheffer aka Sharpnel in Arrowverse
The character of Shrapnel first appeared in the Arrow series in season 2 and goes by the name Mark Scheffer. In the series, he is a toy shop owner turned serial bomber who creates immense chaos all over Starling City. He follows a militia group and takes part in anti-government movements. Although he never physically appears as Shrapnel, that is the name he has chosen for himself.
Since he prefers going against the government so much, he is known for often setting bombs in government buildings. In the tenth episode of the second season when Sebastian Blood had started his campaign as a mayor, he also decided to organize and execute a Unity Rally in the city. Green Arrow tried to warn him to be safe because by this point, there had been several bombings conducted by Mark Scheffer, and every time he managed to escape from Green Arrow’s grips.
Seeing it as a clear chance to go against the system, Scheffer makes the Unity Rally his target and since he owns a toy shop, he chooses to plant a bomb inside it. When Team Arrow is alerted about this, they go after Scheffer, and in the middle of the chaos, Scheffer shoots John Diggle, Oliver’s partner. Oliver then continues to chase after him and eventually captures him this time. All the bombs set up by Scheffer are deactivated and he is arrested.
Later on, in the sixteenth episode of the second season, we once again see Shrapnel who has now joined the Suicide Squad. He was recruited by Amanda Waller, a.k.a. Mockingbird, the corrupt director of ARGUS. But his arrogancesoon leads to his downfall. During a mission when Shrapnel was supposed to be in charge of the getaway car, he abandons his fellow teammate Deadshot and tries to escape in the car. However, he soon meets his death by being blown up due to a failsafe explosive chip that Waller had implanted in his head.
The role of Mark Scheffer, a.k.a. Shrapnel, is played by American actor Sean Maher. He executes the psychopathic personality of Scheffer brilliantly. An interesting analogy makes us think that this version of Shrapnel seems quite a lot like Mad Stan from Batman Beyond. This version of Shrapnel looks a lot like Mad Stan from Batman Beyond. Scheffer, like Stan, is a rebellious militant psychopath who considers the entire government system to be corrupt and obviously has no sympathy for the lives of innocent people. These two characters also have in common their love for explosives.
His run-in with Doom Patrol
Shrapnel made his first comic book appearance in Doom Patrol Volume 2, Issue #7. His character was created by Paul Kupperberg and Erik Larsen.In the comic books,his actual name is Mark Scheffer, although he certainly shares the same powers as General Kafka’s Shrapnel from Batman: The Brave and The Bold. As we already know, he was not born Shrapnel, but just a regular human being.
He had a wife and two beautiful blonde-haired daughters. After he became Shrapnel, he was a bit ashamed to appear in his true form before anyone else, so he chose to stay incognito. However, he lived with the constant fear ofsomebody getting a peek at him. Eventually, he went into slaughter mode and started to kill anyone and everyone who saw him.
During one of his slaughter episodes in Kansas, the superhero team called the Doom Patrol found him and engaged in a fight with him. Celsius, who is also known as AraniCaulder, tried to overwhelm Shrapnel and succeeded in imprisoning him inside an ice prison block. But Shrapnel was able to break free and struck Mrs. Caulderso hard that she ended up in the hospital.
Clearly, the fight did not appear to be tipping in favor of the superheroes. Even Rhea Jones was unable to stop Shrapnel despite her many attempts. Eventually, the energy blasting Tempest realized what all his other teammates failed to notice. Shrapnel was not just any villain because his body contained individual organic cells that shared the same mind and fed on the blood of his victims.
This fight was notin any way fruitful for the superheroes because Shrapnel managed to escape the Doom Patrol. Since his encounter with the Doom Patrol, we have also seen Shrapnel as a part of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, as well as in the seven-issue limited series of Salvation Run. He also made an appearance as a member of the Cyborg Revenge Squad in the DC Special: Cyborg mini-series.
However, his most remarkable encounter has to be when he appeared in the intercompany crossover between the Justice League of America and the Avengers. He actually made the first move and fought against the Vision and Aquaman in Metropolis. Initially, Vision blocked his attack by increasing his density, but Shrapnel was able to temporarily overpower the two heroes. Although in the end, Green Lantern attacked him and knocked him unconscious.
What makes him such a deadly opponent?
Shrapnel’s body is probably what makes him a formidable opponent for any superhero out there. Actually, it is not just his body but his control over it. The body of Shrapnel appears to be made up of spiky, hard scales that have been built from organic metal. Each of the scales seems to be a separate living thing and is controlled by Shrapnel’s mind.
He also has the ability to throw these metallic scales with such force that it turns into strong explosive bursts. Due to his control over them, he can mentally manage their direction and even retrieve them back into his body. So, basically, his entire body serves as a weapon. If enough force is applied to Shrapnel, he will burst into his individual parts, but at the same time, he can also reassemble himself in a matter of seconds.
The tiny shards of organic metal that make-up Shrapnel appear to live on his blood. So, of course, the shards that Shrapnel loses eventually die, but he has the ability to regenerate new ones on his own. Perhaps that is also something his enemies need to fear him for. As for Shrapnel’s superhuman strength, it is enhanced to such a high level that he can lift objects as heavy as cars with ease.
A super villain like Shrapnel is hard to look for nowadays. The creators certainly put a lot of uniqueness into building his character. From his build to his psyche, everything reeks of evil, which is precisely what makes him such a great super villain. Well, guys, that is all for today; we hope you enjoyed watching this video as much as we enjoyed making it for you. Have a fantastic day ahead!