Crabclaw
NAME: Nolan Trent
AGE: Unknown
EYE COLOR: Seafoam
HAIR COLOR: Green
OCCUPATION: Supercriminal
PLACE OF BIRTH: Cardiff, England
POWERS:
- Chitin - surrounded by a strengthened shell.
- Crustacean Growths - controls a number of mutated crab-like claw appendages.
- Waterbreathing - can survive underwater with no oxygen.
Nolan Trent never met a fish he couldn't catch. They called him 'Codsbane' in his hometown of Cardiff. In a port town like that, whatever you could pull out of the water was worth a fortune. That's how Nolan managed to buy his own boat by age 18. For years, the sea life was fresh and plentiful in the region, but over time, pollution and warmer water led to a decay in the industry. Eventually every local fishing crew had to make long voyages off-shore to haul in any quality product. It wasn't feasible for really anyone to continue unless they had exceptionally deep pockets to cover all the overhead.
That's right about when they showed up: 1,000 Leagues. They were the number one name in flash frozen seafood in the States. Practically every diner served their fish sticks on the kids menu. Now they were expanding and chartering boats all the way out in the UK. Nolan balked at the idea of working for them until he saw how much money they were offering. A $50,000 signing bonus was promised to whoever joined up with one of their vessels. With incentive like that, Nolan couldn't turn the opportunity down. He had a family to support -- and a few trips out to sea for 1,000 Leagues made it seem like he could be set for life.
Unfortunately for him, the first boat he was on had a course set into some treacherous, underserved waters in the East Atlantic. Fishing where nobody else dared to go was an ominous prospect, but with the paperwork signed, there was no backing out. About a week into their work, a fearsome storm picked up. Every hand was on deck helping to throw rainwater overboard. A swell was whipped up that no one saw coming and the whole ship was nearly capsized by an oncoming wave. In all the fracas and panic, nobody noticed that one of their own was missing. Nolan had been sucked under the seawater, lost to the depths.
Miraculously, Nolan survived his ordeal and had washed up overnight on an island. Marooned, Nolan had no choice but to build himself a shelter and try to hold out for rescue. Over the next few days, he explored his surroundings in search of food, but what little wildlife he found appeared to be acting bizarre. Seagulls would drop from the sky, reptiles would be too sickly to move, and boars appeared covered in tumors. None of it was exactly appetizing so he stuck with consuming plant-life, but it did little to sate his constant hunger. He was starving, slowly but surely.
Then, driven to desperation by malnutrition, he began to hallucinate. An undulating shape beckoned him towards an oasis in the center of the island and told him to swim to the bottom. Obedient, Nolan did as the voice commanded and what he found was beyond anything he could've imagined. Ritualistic stone ruins that were erected had been overtaken by a primordial algae. In a hypnotic trance, Nolan reached out to it -- it told him it was the Old Growth and that if he consumed it, it would save him. Some part of Nolan's mind may have resisted, but it wasn't strong enough. He ate the algae to survive and soon, it mutated him.
In a truly agonizing transformation, Nolan's body and skeleton were broken and reformed into that of a crustacean. A hard chitinous shell grew out from where there was once flesh. The hair on Nolan's body changed to a damp moss. Left a mangled monstrosity, any remaining trace of Nolan's mind seemed locked away. Now, he was Crabclaw, a horror from the depths and a servant of the Old Growth.
As a husk controlled by the Old Growth, Crabclaw became connected to a higher consciousness that controlled him through unconscious instinct. He soon was imparted knowledge of the locations of other concentrations of the Old Growth on Earth and sent to tend to them. Along the way, Crabclaw encountered the Clam, another creature born from the Old Growth's influence, and together the two began spreading the algae that birthed them. They learned that their master thrived in places of great power, so they traveled to an underwater temple off the coast of Cyprus dedicated to the goddess Atargatis.
Guarding the Old Growth there was uneventful until the goddess brought her mortal champion back to the sacred ground to be healed. That attracted the Vanquishers to the site, and their intervention cleansed the temple of the Old Growth. Crabclaw and Clam were forced to flee, but their resolve was unchanged. Both must continue their service to the Old Growth and allow it to overtake all of the seas.