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Brock Genevro was born in the City of St. Mary’s in Pennsylvania to a relatively poor family, the middle child, and the only son of three children. His father was discharged medically from the Marines for mental health reasons, or, “Other Designated Physical and Mental Conditions Discharge”, and taught his son how to street fight since the age of 6, integrating the close-quarters combat fighting styles he learned in the service. As Brock got older, the lessons became more intense and abusive as the father continued to get more mentally unstable. By the age of 12, Brock’s mother moved out and took his sisters with her, leaving Brock behind with his father. His father soon after turned to drinking and, on occasion, opioid use. The “training” continued well into his teenage years, with Brock showing up to school sometimes with bruises he would attempt to keep covered. Brock started working odd jobs to help support him and his father. While in high school he met Joleen and the two began dating, until her family moved to St. Louis in their senior year. Brock was grief stricken and swore he would find her again. After graduation, Brock continued to work various jobs, but his father, between the alcohol and drugs, continued to get worse, and it became more difficult to cover their expenses. High school friends got him involved in selling marijuana and opioids, the very drugs that his father abused, to help make ends meet. Still determined to find Joleen and fed up with having to support his father, he left home on his 19th birthday for St. Louis.

Nearly a year after moving, he found Joleen still single, attending community college, and working in a coffee shop. The two quickly rekindled their love for one another and Joleen became pregnant with Brock’s child. Joleen’s parents didn’t approve of their relationship. They believed that Brock couldn’t provide for a family and encouraged Joleen to get an abortion. Brock, angry and desperate, started selling drugs again, this time transporting drugs across state lines. One of his routes took him to Oklahoma. The drug deal went wrong and Brock was left to fend for himself in a shootout with an Oklahoma State Trooper. Brock managed to kill the trooper and flee back to Missouri. One of the people involved in the drug deal was caught and blamed everything on Brock. Back in St. Louis, he visits Joleen at her parent’s home but is arrested before getting to the door. He puts up resistance but is eventually subdued with Joleen and her parents watching. Standing trial in Oklahoma, he was charged with a laundry list of offenses, but killing a state trooper and showing no remorse during trial was what encouraged the jury to recommend the death penalty as requested by the state prosecutor. At 21 years old, Brock was committed to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Joleen visited Brock once so that he could see his newborn daughter, but she never returned and the letters to him eventually stopped coming.

It is in prison that Brock’s powers became noticeable. While leaving the shower he was jumped by a group of inmates over an incident in the mess hall. His father’s training helped him fight back, but he realized that he felt none of the punches or kicks, or any pain afterwards. On another occasion, he was shanked on the way to his cell, but the attack only scratched him and failed to draw blood. Brock continued to work out in order to deter would be attackers, but over time he realized that he could feel no pain and his skin couldn’t be bruised and damaged. It’s been 15 years since Brock was put on death row, and the Oklahoma Department of Corrections is making final preparations for his execution by lethal injection.

Lukeni Kwilu was born in 1612 as a member of the royal House of Kwilu of the Kingdom of Kongo, an African kingdom located in west central Africa that occupied what is now, in whole or part, Angola, Cabinda, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Gabon. He was the son of the Duke of Mbamba, but his House did not have control of the throne.

Growing up, Lukeni enjoyed all the pleasures that children of royal families indulge themselves into, and he was somewhat shielded from the tensions brewing around him and his family. In 1622, the Kongo-Portuguese War took place, and the Kingdom of Kongo succeeded in driving back the Portuguese, but the newly elected king refused to push the army into the Portuguese territory and destroy whatever remained of their settlements. This allowed for factionalism and the return of the House of Kwilu to the throne. In 1632, Lukeni’s cousin, Alvaro IV was placed on the throne by Lukeni’s father but was only eleven years old. Trusted advisors began to manipulate the young king, and so Lukeni’s father marched on the capital to protect him.

While the Duke of Mbamba was away assisting his nephew, Lukeni was left behind and was lured away from the safety of home by a childhood friend. He was attacked by members of the royal House of Kimpanzu. Limestone dust was blown in his eyes, so that his attackers could find little resistance, permanently damaging his eyes. He was chained and dragged to the Portuguese settlements where hundreds of slaves were being gathered for shipment across the Atlantic Ocean. With Lukeni out of the way, the Duke of Mbamba would become distracted and the House of Kwilu would lose strength. Although the Duke was successful in restoring his nephew, Alvaro IV to the throne, Alvaro V of the House of Kimpanzu managed to poison him and ascend the throne. The House of Kimpanzu’s plans were eventually thwarted and Alvaro V was eventually killed himself and the House of Kinlaza, led by Alvaro VI in 1636, took over. With the loss of Lukeni and the eventual death of the Duke, the House of Kwilu never regained the power it had since its inception in 1567.

During the first leg of the trip across the Atlantic, Lukeni, grief stricken, was visited by Nafari, the Celestial Magus and a Trustee of the Realm of Zion. She rescued him from bondage, granted him the ability to see “all things that are hidden in the darkness”, and made him into one of the Celestial Magi. Lukeni chose to draw his power from the Shadow Realm, and now being aware of the end of his family’s dynasty, he retreated to the Shadow Realm and has lived there ever since.

As a Celestial Magus, Lukeni ages incredibly slow, but time also stands still in the several realms, so Lukeni has essentially not aged over the centuries. From within the Shadow Realm, Lukeni has also been able to see anything in any place he wishes. During the Iraq War, a young US Marine by the name of Dennis Washington was pinned down by enemy fire after rescuing fellow Marines. Since becoming a Magus, Lukeni had refused to interfere in the lives of those on Earth, and his anger from being betrayed by his own people still lingered. However, he felt great sympathy for Dennis and knew that without help, he would die. Lukeni pulled Dennis into the Shadow Realm and imbued him with the ability to move in and out of the realm whenever he wanted, as well as the ability to see at night. He taught Dennis the secrets of the Shadow Realm, and how not to fall victim to its trappings. Dennis Washington would eventually become Revenant, a member of the Delta Squadron. Today, Lukeni still stays within the Shadow Realm, coming out sparingly, and continues to look in on Dennis from time-to-time.

February 8-14, 2016

This week, Dwayne Farver is a GEHM Among Us!

We honor our GEHM of the Week by sitting them down for a one-on-one conversation with the Editor-In-Chief, Lincoln Farquharson . . .

LF: Thank you, Dwayne. This is our second installment of our GEHM of the Week and we have the pleasure of honoring you. Where are you from?

DF: I’m from Berwick, a rural town in northeastern Pennsylvania.

LF: Do you still live there?

DF: Yes.

LF: I started reading comic books pre-teen, mainly X-Men. I would go to the comic book shop and get as many as my dad would buy. When did you start reading comic books? What makes you buy them?

DF: I think my interest in sci-fi/fantasy novels is what fuels my current interest in comics. I've been reading on and off for 35-plus-years. I was under 5-years-old when I got my first comic. It was at a newsstand. My father would go to pick up scratch-lottery tickets, and I could pick a comic from the spinner rack. Mostly Superman, Green Lantern, or Justice League - definitely a DC fan. Now, I'm still mostly a DC fan, but branch out into the independants. Kickstarter is a good source as well as conventions. I love walking artist alley and looking for new people excited to share their work. The story will keep me reading. I like conflicted characters that grow, not just stew in their angst or anger.

LF: My favorite question: who is your favorite character in the FarCorners Universe?

DF: All of the characters are so complex, it’s hard to pick just one. Stampede would be my one pick, though. I like his back story and want to see it evolve.

LF: Stampede? Nice!

DF: When did you know you wanted to venture into comics?

LF: I never had a passion to venture into comic books. I actually wanted to bypass it and go straight to television, but this opportunity to start with a comic book presented itself, so I took it. I settled with finally seeing the thoughts in my head become tangible, but my goal continues to be to see this in animation.

DF: Who is/was your biggest influence as a creator?

LF: I have no influencer as a creator; shocking I know. Is influencer a word? (laughs)

DF: I use it. (laughs)

LF: But no, I can think of no one who has influenced me actually. I know of these "legends" in the industry, more so within the last 12 months than I ever did in all my life. I just like great art with great stories, regardless of who writes or draws.

DF: I would have thought you had a literary influence. The story is unique, but has classic 50's sci-fi themes.

LF: It's interesting because I write, but don't read . . . as much as people think I should or do. I just know what I like, I know what others say they like, and I know what is mainly being pushed out there. I think my influence comes more from television than it does the comic books actually, even though I don't have cable. (laughs) For me, I am not trying to duplicate, but to perfect.

DF: I can understand that. I get a lot of, "I can't believe you're not watching or reading That New Thing.” Take the Walking Dead. I am not a fan of cheezy zombie movies/stories, but Kirkman made the story about the people. There just happens to be a lot of zombies trying to eat them. You're doing something similar. The story is about the people, they just happen to be GHEMs.

LF: Exactly! This story isn't about people running around fighting bad guys all day, or even saving the world! That just becomes a result of their actions. The story is really about one man trying to get back home.

DF: What power would you most like to have?

LF: If I can have any power . . . hmmm . . . that's tough. So many to choose from. I guess I would choose either time travel or flight. It's hard. I like to know stuff, so time travel will allow me to know what really happened or what will happen even if I don't live to actually see it all unfold. Flight, because I love the ability to escape it all, just fly away and regain my sanity.

DF: Time travel is up there for me too. I'm a sucker for a good time travel story, paradox and all.

LF: I guess I would choose time travel. That would probably be more exciting and I would definitely die happier. (laughs) And I will try my best to not cause irreparable harm to the space-time continuum. (laughs)

DF: (laughs) I don't know if I could just be an observer

LF: Oh man! You might commit suicide and don't even know it!! You have to be careful!!

DF: Exactly! But I’m a fan of the bootstrap paradox. Sometimes effect precedes cause.

LF: You mean you doing exactly what caused it to happen in the first place? You causing your own birth?

DF: That would be bizarre, but yes. Going back to meet someone, but finding them to be different than what you learned of them. So, you get them interested and on the track, you know.

LF: In TG (Team Genesis) there will be different types of temporal paradoxes explored.

DF: That’s great! I like seeing new takes on time. Where did the first thought to do it come from?

LF: Too much television growing up! (laughs) In our universe, time has no beginning or end. To linear beings, even in the story, that's not true, or it’s inconceivable.

DF: That's very close to my personal view. It isn't linear, only our perception of it. I'm not a scientist and have no math to back it up.

LF: Neither do I, but I do read up on the subject, just to get a better understanding of real theories. Like how Star Trek did. Although it's science fiction it should beg the question: is that possible?

DF: It's great when they use actual theory in the story.

LF: Indeed. So what is your message to  those who may want to venture into the FarCorners?

DF: To talk to you. The passion you showed for your story is what got me hooked. The artwork on the cover was great too, but you were really excited to share the concept in depth; not just a quick standard response.

LF: Thank you for that.

DF: You’re very welcome. I really look for that kind of excitement when I’m at a convention. It's the quickest way to make me reach for my wallet. (laughs)

LF: My first time ever going to a comic book convention was when Team Genesis launched in June of 2014, and what I realized was that the fans make the comic cons, the cosplay make the comic cons, and you are all not appreciated nearly enough in my opinion. To be honest, I probably wouldn't go if it wasn't part of the job of creating a following. So I respect the time, the money, and the patience you all spend in being there. Even when we are dead tired, we always try to find that energy to engage the people when they come to the table. So I thank you for that.

DF: You did a great job of hiding any exhaustion.

LF: Fans like you inspire us to keep pushing.

Get your copy of Team Genesis today and see why Stampede is Dwayne’s favorite!!

Team Genesis #1: Pleasant Introductions