Origin

Doctor Randal Pierce was working for Multicorp, a large multinational with a reputation for using its wealth to fight for environmentalist causes. Pierce was a true believer and developed armor that would enhance the strength and intelligence of six animals in his custody to protect the environment. This would later prove to be a part of the Weapon Plus program, specifically Weapon II. While armoring the gorilla, a group of mercenaries dressed as clowns broke in and stole him. At first, Pierce was afraid of armoring the rest, since the gorilla was injured and could have died without the armor. The other five animals were healthy, but when Pierce connected the clowns to a rival company, Flex, who was also responsible for damage done to the Amazon Rainforest, he waited no longer. He armored up the animals, who were able to speak intelligently almost immediately:

• Wreckless - A bear
• Surfstreak - A dolphin
• Lionheart - A lion
• Hiphop - A kangaroo
• Soar - An eagle

Creation

Brute Force debuts in Brute Force #1 by Simon Furman and Jose Delbo

Major Story Arcs

Protectors of the Environment

The animals were quick to choose new names and assemble as a team they called Brute Force. They were in a rush to use their new powers. Pierce needed them to find the gorilla, who Pierce believed was working with the mercenaries currently terrorizing the Amazon tribes to make way for construction vehicles and machines. As soon as they landed, they saw the mercs transporting the gorilla at the airfield. Unfortunately, they fail to recover him.

Pierce was enthusiastic about their chances as a team and allowed them to continue targeting polluters, poachers, and all sorts of enemies of the environment. Eventually, they crossed paths with the gorilla, now going by Uproar and was part of his own team, called Heavy Metal. It was revealed they were working for Adam Frost, CEO of Multicorp and Pierce’s boss. He was using them to sabotage his business rivals.

The two teams of animals were pitted against each other with Brute Force ultimately victorious.

Animal Style

Brute Force eventually joined SHIELD and worked closely with Agent Coulson. Unfortunately, a mission went south, and they were disavowed. They went underground where they continued to work as animal freedom fighters, saving animals from captivity. Surfstreak, now going by Dr. Echo, had upgraded their armor with a nanotech virus not dissimilar from the Extremis Virus.

The owners of the aquatic park that was keeping the animals hired Deadpool to take them out. Deadpool made a fool of most of the Brute Force at the Texas Water World, however, Wreckless, now just going by Bear, was able to knock him unconscious. With more money and more backup, Deadpool tried again at the Florida park, but he found a killer whale undergoing a strange and dangerous experiment in a lab. He decided to turn on his benefactors and had Coulson arrange a meeting between him and Brute Force.

Together they take on Deadpool’s new security measures but are nearly taken down by the killer whale, now wearing armor similar to Brute Force’s. Luckily, a staff member who has grown close to the animal was able to talk it down.

Project: Jojo

After Brute Force was blamed for an attack at NASA, Pierce’s former graduate student intern, Lily, tracked Brute Force down with a file labeled Project: Jojo. She didn’t have the full file, so Echo tried cross-checking Pierce’s old hard drive. It led them to a former partner of Pierce’s, Dr. Otto Octavius. Otto revealed to them that Project Jojo was a precursor to Pierce’s intelligence chip in Brute Force’s armor. Otto and Pierce implanted chips in two chimps who were going to be sent into space: Jojo and Link. Feeling human emotions for the first time, Jojo and Link fell in love, but their romance was short-lived since the heat shielding on their space capsule failed and they reportedly died in space.

Once he was done with his story, Otto gassed Brute Force and Lily and handed them over to Jojo, who had been living in a sanctuary in the Caspian Sea since fighting her way back from space. Link had perished saving her, and she blamed Pierce for abandoning them there. She had been plotting her revenge on mankind, but she needed a quantum A.I. computer from NASA to do it. When Brute Force refused to help, Jojo ordered their deaths. They managed to fight off Jojo's guards, but Lily was taken.

Brute Force tracked Jojo down to a NASA space shuttle. The shuttle has the computer on board. To keep them busy, Jojo threw Lily from the catwalk. Luckily, Lionheart caught her. He confronted Jojo in the cockpit, but Jojo was stunned when the AI computer was revealed to be Link. After he died on their space trip, she tried to upload his consciousness using his neural chip. She thought she failed, but she actually succeeded. However, Link was disappointed in Jojo’s new attitude. After Lionheart knocked her out, Link requested that the lion leave Jojo with him so that he could take her somewhere safe. Link piloted the shuttle to parts unknown.