Origin

In 1985 the townspeople of Slateboro, New York, burn a cursed house to the ground. The house's bricks were the first made by the clay from the town's quarry, but the clay contained an evil force within and all who resided in the house were brutally murdered. The malevolent entity - known as The Bricklayer - is an elderspawn servant of Chthon that possesses anything containing even one of its "bricks" ("bricks" being any physical molecule of its being).

Creation

Bricklayer was created by writer Steve Orlando and artist Paul Azaceta, and first appeared in Crypt of Shadows (2023).

Major Story Arcs

Vs. The Scarlet Witch

The Hudsonview Hostel in Lotkill had become possessed, killing its tenants until the Scarlet Witch intervenes. Wanda insists she can exorcise the evil from the hostel, but Bricklayer has infected every nail, floorboard and brick. Wanda sees her energy aura and determines it is a spawn of Chthon, and grants it mercy to end its suffering, erasing the hostel from existence. However she fails to sense another cursed brick, in another house in Lotkill..

The Bricklayer later reemerges in Hell's Kitchen, when some brick dust is brought into the subway system on the bottom of someone's shoes. Scarlet Witch teams up with Daredevil to investigate and they find the Bricklayer deep within the underground tunnels of New York. There, it brought a subway train full of civilians into the depths, infecting them with red dust to turn them into ravaging worshippers of Chthon. Wanda insults the entity by calling it a tool of Chthon and not his child, but now that Chthon has escaped her prison Bricklayer pays homage to its god by raising an army in his name. Daredevil manages to exorcise the possessed civilians while Scarlet Witch, angered by Bricklayer's corruption of chaos magic, destroys the cursed brick in the Bile of Satha. Before she does, Bricklayer promises vengeance in the name of its sire.