"It just might be because you're a politician, and that means You're corrupt from your marrow to your epidermis. You have the mind of a vulture and the morals of a rabid rat. Oh, and did I mention that You're weak? very, very weak! Pathetically weak! Don't you agree? Senator?" -- Nicholas Scratch (killing Senator Etherbrook Halivan).

Until he was 21 years old, Nicholas Scratch was a loser. Although his I.Q tested high, no one knew he was intelligent because he was, from earliest childhood, over-weight, clumsy, cowardly and timid. In college, he majored in astronomy because the study of stars allowed him to be isolated for long hours.

An Astronomer at a university facility on the West Coast, and at the tender age of twenty-one. He was also a nerd. Jerk, creep, stuffed shirt. Squeaky voiced, sissified teacher's pet. A loser. It all changed, he claimed, in a single instant: anyway one night He was working alone using a small telescope to do some routine observations when something happened. A beam of blusing light stabbed through the lens and he felt as though every cell in his body had been turned inside out and blowtorched.

This particle of light was from a distant solar system struck his eye. He says the particle contained an encoded program, which altered his mind and body. Within months after, he changed, he grew taller, slimmer, handsomer. Learned to make charming small talk. Became a huge favorite with females between ages two and ninety. Besides he learned to play the guitar and formed a band that had three hit records in row. Next, he starred in a network talk show that clobbered the late-show competition until he got bored with it after a season and quit.

After a year, the shy, stumbling, tone-deaf Scratch was the most popular and richest rock star in the country, and within two, the confidant of some of the world’s most powerful men.

He founded a new religion. He calls it The Church of the Blue Sword. The Times estimates that it already has a half million members.

His greatest gift, everyone said, was his trustworthiness; people immediately believed anything he told them, regardless of how unlikely it might be. Soon, he was not satisfied with being the advisor of movers and shakers; he wanted power for himself. He began to assemble a cadre of assistants; some of these he genetically and surgically altered to resemble devils.

Scratch decided that Gotham City would be his first base of operations. After the earthquake that decimated Gotham City, Scratch persuaded government officials to quarantine the area. Scratch then hoped to take control of the city.

Fist Appearance

Nicholas Scratch is introduced in Azrael: Agent of the Bat #47 in Road to No Man's Land arc story.