The Gladiator is a superhero and a minor antagonist in Supercrooks.
Description[]
The most beloved of the superheroes, The Gladiator is a muscular, middle-aged man with a receding hairline of black hair. Like other superheroes, he spends his days countering super villains and regular petty crime.
Biography[]
The Gladiator is married to a man, who is another superhero (shown in last episode of the show). Online, he goes under the alias "Glenda" to arrange hookups for anonymous sex, preferring to meet up in exotic locales far from his home country. One day in New York City, The Gladiator received a report of a jewel store robbery, and was utterly confident that the robbers would not be able to withstand him. Indeed, he quickly jumped into the train they had boarded and beat them all into submission. When the train arrived in the 72nd street station, where The Gladiator predicted he would have the criminals at, the police were waiting to arrest the defeated super villains.
Unfortunately for The Gladiator, one of the super villains was Johnny Bolt, who received Intel on Gladiator from a prison guard while serving time in the Super Max. When Johnny was released, he posed under the alias "Poppabear" to arrange a meetup with The Gladiator for anonymous sex. When The Gladiator arrived however, Johnny blackmailed The Gladiator into helping him rob someone, threatening to expose his illicit activities to his husband and the world. Although The Gladiator was initially willing to risk exposure rather than commit a crime, Johnny assured him that they would in fact be robbing another super villain; The Bastard, the greatest super villain ever, and also going up against The Praetorian, whom Gladiator despised for sullying the name of superheroes with his bad reputation. Gladiator agrees to join the crew. Johnny adds that he would donate Gladiator's share from the job to an LGBTQ charity of his choice.
Despite agreeing to help Johnny in exchange for him not exposing his secrets, The Gladiator bitterly complained at even being in the same room as the super villains he so despised, and helping them soured his mood yet further. Worse still, Johnny took every opportunity to insult him, always calling him "Glenda", giving him a pink costume to wear, and constantly mocking his sexuality.
The Gladiator complaining in his pink outfit
During the heist itself, The Gladiator was meant to be muscle in case the corrupt superhero, The Praetorian, showed up. During the heist he constantly complained about their methods, and was particularly disgusted by Roddy and Sammy Diesel's method of circumventing laser beams by means of simply walking through them. Their bodies would always regenerate on the other side, but they left piles of limbs, organs, and other gore behind them as they did.
Finally, after the heist crew had retrieved the take and was on the way out, The Praetorian confronted the group as they were leaving. Finally time for him to do his part, The Gladiator instead chose not to, allowing his hated comrades to be beaten by The Praetorian. However, The Gladiator hated The Praetorian as well for his corruption and, worse, for acting as a super villain's bodyguard. The Gladiator then revealed himself, and although The Praetorian tried to placate him, The Gladiator hit him full in the face with a punch powerful enough to incapacitate The Praetorian and leave him with permanent brain damage.
After ensuring that the heist crew got away safely, The Gladiator parted ways with them, his task and the heist itself both done. However, he wanted to prevent himself from being blackmailed ever again, so he announced his homosexuality to the world on his own terms, and was accepted by his community.
Powers[]
The only power The Gladiator exhibited was increased strength and martial prowess, easily dispatching a gang of super villains, and even defeating a corrupt superhero with a single punch.