Origin
Ernest Thornberry always had an aptitude for puzzles and seeing how things connected. He did not realize how genius level this aptitude was until he was twelve years old. His alcoholic, divorced father was beating him when he suddenly realized all the ways his father could die. The next puzzle was himself, and from that day forward, he started removing the things that did not fit in his grand design, thus becoming a supervillain.
Creation
Brain Tease debuted in Minor Threats #1 by Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum, and Scott Hepburn. He seems to be an analogue of The Riddler.
Major Story Arcs
The Bounty on Stickman
After The Stickman killed Kid Dusk, the sidekick of The Insomniac, a bounty was put on Stickman’s head. Insomniac’s superhero team, The Continuum, was desperate to brutalize the costume crime-fighters into going into hiding as the Insomniac upped his aggressiveness against them in the wake of his sidekick’s death. Brain Tease was one of four supervillains to be recruited by Playtime to find Stickman on their own before either Insomniac or Continuum get to them.
Brain Tease believed his genius intellect would allow him to see many moves ahead, however, much of their search for Stickman was dead ends, including sneaking into the night club for the supervillain elite which was a trap from Stickman himself. With this team now on Stickman’s radar, he tricks them into working for him thanks to convincing one of the members, Pigeon Pete, into betraying them.
Brain and the others are teleported into the lair of The Insomniac so they could plant bombs and destroy it. Brain believed the traitor member was a ruse so the team planned to be at each other’s throats, forcing Stickman to arrive to whip them into shape. When the team tried to confront Stickman, Pigeon Pete revealed himself. Stickman bonked Brain on the head with a hammer, knocking him unconscious.
When Brain awoke, he found the hideout trashed, with Stickman and Insomniac both dead and his team gone. When the police arrived, Brain decided to take credit for both deaths and was arrested.
Fastest Way Down
Prison turned out well for Brain. He had a number of underlings who did his bidding and his commissary was always full thanks to Playtime. Unfortunately, he was targeted by a new team of teenage heroes calling themselves The Action. They tortured him for answers over who really killed Insomniac.
Powers & Abilities
Genius Intellect: Brain Tease claims to have a genius level aptitude for puzzles.