Grunt

GRUNT

Real Name: Henry Butcher

Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Superhero, formerly high school student, circus freak

Group Affiliation: Doom Patrol, formerly Tenth Circle

Known Relatives: Unnamed parents

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Oolong Island, formerly Harbor City, Oregon, Key Mordaz, Florida

First Appearance: JLA #94 (May, 2004)

Powers: Grunt possessed superhuman strength and agility, but had limited intelligence and communication skills.

History: (Doom Patrol IV #10, 11 (fb)) - Honor student Matt Butcher followed his friend Nudge, who was doing experimental Boost drugs with a group of her friends. The drug expanded their minds, and the minds of everyone in the vicinity, including Matt, whose mind forged a permanent connection with Nudge. The drug’s creator Rhonda Lorre determined that Matt’s brain was suitable to her purposes after the exposure. He showed him an ape-like genetic creation he engineered and transferred his brain into the beasts’, who was named Grunt. Matt found his intellect dulled and his power of speech gone. After a time he escaped and killed Lorre in retaliation for what she had made him. He ran, and was picked up by Hank Gambol.

(Doom Patrol IV #9 (fb)) - <six month ago> Grunt became part of Hank Gambol’s circus, and when the runaway Nudge applied for a job at the circus Gambol hired her because she had a calming effect on Grunt, allowing him to perform for an audience without going berserk. The Doom Patrol purchased Grunt for scientific research, and Nudge used her powers to convince them to take her along with them.

(JLA #94, 96-99) - Nudge didn’t like Grunt being caged like an animal, and decided to leave the DP. With Chief’s old enemies the Tenth Circle making a bid to return to Earth he sent Nudge and Grunt out as bait, knowing Crucifer was collecting metahumans for his vampiric lords to possess. Nudge and Grunt were sick of the DP, and since they were leaving anyway Chief placed trackers on them. Crucifer mentally dominated them, and they were forced to do the Circle’s bidding, abducting other young metahumans. When Superman intervened Nudge mind controlled him, and Crucifer bit him, bringing him under control. Nudge and Grunt escaped Castle Crucifer with the help of fellow abductee Vortex, and they returned to DP’s Key Mordaz hq. Nudge and Grunt warned the DP about the Circle, and they teamed up with the JLA to destroy the vampire lord. Nudge and Grunt were welcomed back to the DP.

(Doom Patrol IV #1, 2) - Grunt and the Doom Patrol responded to a disturbance at the abandoned penitentiary where the Chief kept old DP villains. Wormhole had freed Barrage, Megalith, and Snake, and they allowed themselves to be possessed by vampire masters of the Tenth Circle. Nudge and Faith teamed up to expel the vampires from their host bodies, exposing them to sunlight and destroying them.

(Doom Patrol IV #3, 4) - Chief sent the DP to the Soames Lake Project in the South Pole, but left Grunt behind to finish his training.

(Doom Patrol IV #6) - Grunt saw Cliff Steele in his new robot body, failed to recognize him, and attacked because he was too close to Nudge. Robotman fought him off, and Chief warned Nudge to control him, or he’d put Grunt back in a cage.

(Doom Patrol IV #7) - Grunt and the DP celebrated Christmas together, but the party was cut short when the Chief located Harbor City, Oregon as the center of a string of dinosaur attack. The DP went to Oregon and fought prehistoric creatures that had been devolved from a dog and pigeons. The Devolutionists devolved Rita and Cliff into mindless apes, and they turned against their teammates, with Cliff badly injuring Grunt. His uncurious body was picked up by the police.

(Doom Patrol IV #9-12) – The police gave Grunt back into Hank Gambol’s custody, but Nudge and Vortex confronted Gambol, demanding he give Grunt back to them. They helped Grunt escape, and Grunt revealed himself to Nudge as her high-school friend Matt Butcher. The police arrived and shot Grunt down, but his life was saved by the DP, who returned Grunt, Vortex, and Nudge to hq. Nudge explained her link with Matt Butcher/Grunt to her teammates. They brought Grunt to his parents, and with their blessing he decided to stay with them.

(Doom Patrol IV #14)- Larry Trainor called Grunt’ parent to make sure their son was getting readjusted to family life, and Grunt was very happy to be back with his loved ones.

(Doom Patrol IV #16, 18) - Grunt sensed Nudge’s danger when the submerged minds she absorbed when she took Boost took over her. In a panic Grunt left his parents, located a DP flyer, and made his way to Key Mordaz. He rescued the Chief, who’d been tossed into the waters of Mordaz by Nudge. Vortex’ people, who’d been looking for him, took Nudge out of action. They determined that Larry’s Negative Man was one of their own, accidentally merged with Negative Man, causing him to grow to gigantic proportion and burst from DP hq, before going to Florida’s mainland an sapping the lifeforce of its citizens. Chief stopped the Negative Man’s rampage using a device that sapped chronomorphic energy. Grunt decided to stay on with the DP.

(Teen Titans III #32) - Grunt and the DP aided the Teen Titans and JSA in a fight against Superboy Prime, who was trying to kill Superboy and take his place. Flash Jay Garrick, Flash and Kid Flash took Prime out of action by running him into the Speed Force.

(Doom Patrol V #1) - Chief reformed the Doom Patrol, operating out of the newly sovereign nation of Oolong Island. Nudge and Grunt were placed on the team, but their teammates ignored if not disdained them. Chief's first mission for the DP was to have them fly to Buena Suerte and destroy the lab of mad scientist Botfly, who was bioengineering a monstrous army. The team succeeded, but Buena Suerte military gunned down Nudge. Grunt went berserk, and took her body into the jungle as the rest of the team flew off in a helicopter. The DP's chaplain Fathe Davis tried to council them, but no one seemed phased by Nudge's death.

Comments: Created by John Byrne & Chris Claremont.

Grunt had a cameo in Doom Patrol V #6.