THE BROTHERHOOD

Created by: Rik Offenberger
Art by: Gilbert Monsanto

Militia extremist groups are anti-government by nature. What sets them apart from other domestic terrorist groups is that they’re often organized into paramilitary groups that follow a military-style rank hierarchy. They tend to stockpile illegal weapons and ammunition. Many militia extremists view themselves as protecting the U.S. Constitution, other U.S. laws, or their liberties. They believe that the Constitution grants citizens the power to take back the federal government by force or violence if they feel it’s necessary. They oppose gun control efforts and fear the widespread disarming of Americans by the federal government. Militia extremists often subscribe to various conspiracy theories regarding the government. The extremists often train and prepare for what they foresee as an inevitable invasion of the U.S. by United Nations forces. Many militia extremists also believe that the federal government will relocate citizens to camps controlled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or force them to undergo vaccinations. Espousing anti-government rhetoric is not against the law. However, seeking to advance that ideology through force or violence is illegal, and that’s when the FBI and law enforcement become involved. The G-Men are part of the FBI Caped Agent Program and they have faced many militia groups, including the Aryan Alliance, Cilantro, and the Brotherhood. The Aryan Alliance is a white power militia group. Cilantro is a hard-left eco-terrorist militia group. The Brotherhood is a hard-right neo-Luddite militia group.

Brotherhood was formed in the 1990s. Original members had been in other militant groups that had contentious standoffs with the FBI around the country. The paramilitary traditions of these previous groups were passed down to the Brotherhood as members of the prior groups joined the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood opposes technology as all neo-Luddite groups do and opposes the government as a militia group do. The Brotherhood in its charter claims that militia groups are sanctioned by law but uncontrolled by the government; they are designed to oppose a tyrannical government.

Members of the Brotherhood hold a variety of beliefs and goals, however, they all espouse anti-tax, anti-immigration, Luddism, survivalist, sovereign citizen, and land rights views. Most of them believe that a global socialist dictatorship already exists in the United States, that this government will soon become despotic and that armed force is necessary to overthrow it. This totalitarian regime will begin when technology overthrows governments and unites the entire world into a single artificial intelligence hive mind.

When the global pandemic began, Rothländer Industries created an anti-virus “quantum dot” microchip that is added to its vaccine to target the coronavirus. Rothländer Industries benefited from the fact that many nations paid obscene amounts of money to receive his vaccine as quickly as Rothländer could produce it. The brotherhood is strongly anti-vaccination and had a major split with the Aryan Alliance over this stance.

A conspiracy theory began to circulate that Henry Rothländer had bioengineered the coronavirus himself to microchip the world with his “quantum dot”, and that he was the one who would bring about the one world government by mind-controlling the populace with his “quantum dot”. The Brotherhood immediately embraced the theory and vilified Henry Rothländer. Unbeknownst to the Brotherhood, Henry Rothländer is secretly the leader of the Aryan Alliance. Because of Henry Rothländer’s involvement in the production of the vaccination, the Aryan Alliance is very pro-vaccination. This split between the Brotherhood and the Alryan Alliance has been beneficial for the FBI’s counter-terrorist activities as both groups are happy to tip off the FBI to bring down the other.

BASE OF OPERATIONS: Washington DC
FIRST APPEARANCE: Simon N. Kirby: The Agent #8, May 2024