Brian Braddock's life was planned for him from before he was even born. Merlyn sent his father James Braddock to Earth to sire a champion who could defend the multiverse. As a young man, Brian Braddock visited America in a student exchange program, rooming with Peter Parker (a.k.a. Spider-Man), alongside whom he faced the assassin Arcade and the lycanthropic menace know as Litter.