Dr. Howard Hodges was the friend and colleague of Mike Morgan, Mary Michaels and Stewart Lowe, until he turned them into the Terrific Trio.
History[]
Hodges was a long time friend of Mike Morgan, but was secretly jealous of Morgan's intelligence, successful career and relationship with Mary Michaels. At some point, he started coveting Mary Michaels, Morgan's fiancé, so he orchestrated a laboratory accident, which he believed would be fatal, that would take him out of his way. He eluded the same fate by using the pretext of a budget meeting, so as to justify his absence in the time of the accident. However, he did not intend for Mary to be present in that moment either. Hodges believed the radiation would kill Morgan and anyone else present, but instead he, Mary, and fellow scientist Stewart Lowe were instead transformed into metahumans. Nevertheless, he sold all of them out to the military, to use them as weapons.
Dr. Hodges guaranteed to General Norman that the Trio could be controlled once they managed to adjust to their new condition. However, the group's genetic stability started to unravel, and Hodges realized they would become psychotic. After Magma broke into his lab, Hodges warned General Norman, who soon assaulted the Trio Tower in an attempt to purge them. The Trio used a decoy to escape, which only Batman caught on to. Believing he had succeeded, the general called to inform Hodges of the assault. Hodges was distraught at the belief that the Trio was dead, but this belief was rebuked when they ambushed him for information.
Escorting him the same laboratory where the experiment occurred, the Trio accused Hodges of knowingly exposing the Trio to a dangerous experiment, which Hodges adamantly denied. Unconvinced of his innocence, they froze his feet to prevent escape and reactivated the device. In the face of impending obliteration, Hodges finally admitted that he knew that the radiation, which would be lethal, could not be contained once it reached critical mass, confessing to setting up the accident, but only for Morgan. He didn't plan for Mary to be exposed, as he claimed to love her, and was hoping to gain her affection once Morgan was gone, which disgusted her. Hodges begged them to turn off the device before the radiation reached critical mass, but the Trio, who had become mentally unstable, was now determined to destroy themselves and take everyone down with them. At that point, Batman intervened and engaged the disgruntled heroes. Hodges, who used a stray Batarang to cut himself loose, tried to crawl his way out, but Magma blocked his exit. Magma prepared to murder his former best friend for betraying him, but Batman managed to douse Magma and hit the abort button. After the crisis was averted and all three Trio members supposedly perished, a disgusted Batman confronted Hodges and asked if he was satisfied with their demise. The disgraced scientist denied this, pronouncing that he was their friend. Unconvinced, Batman left, leaving Hodges looking seemingly regretting his decisions and mourning his friends. It's likely he was exposed and arrested.
Appearance[]
Batman Beyond
- "Heroes"