Wretch

Wretch is sidekick and bodyguard to Ghost Widow of Arachnos in the MMO City of Heroes. Wretch is slavishly loyal to the supervillainess Ghost Widow and gained his super strength and freakish appearance trying to save her life. While he seems to be a slow-witted brute he is in fact perhaps the only person Ghost Widow trusts completely.

Paolo Marino was one of Arachnos's many Wolf Spider Commanders, troop leaders of the base units that make up Arachnos. Paolo was not the only one in his family with ties to Arachnos, he had a sister named Pia who was part of the Arachnos Widows as a Seer. Paolo was also in a long term relationship with a woman named Belladonna Vetrano also within the Widows as a Night Widow. In 1989 Paolo and Belladonna were sent to Mercy Isle by Arachnos to track down a member of the Mafia style crime syndicate known as the 'Family'. The Family member was wanted for crimes against Arachnos an was known to be particularly well stocked on guns explosives and chemical weapons, so rather than send in a simple raiding squad Arachnos treated the fugitive as a high-risk and sent a two part team to weed him out of his hideout. Widow Vertrano was the head of the stealth unit which was to go in and take out the Family member quickly Wolf Commander Marino was the in charge of the back up unit, if something went wrong or Vertrano was discovered the Wolf Spider unit was to be support fire. However soemthing went wrong. Sinces his hunters were clsoing in on hi mand not wanting to take the chance of being bought before Lord Recluse the Family member decided to go out in a literal blaze of glory and blew his chemical weapons once inside his hideout before Vetrano could get to him. When the explosion occured It wiped out the Family, and the Stealth squad, Widow Vetrano included. Paolo charged the flames, wreckage and chemcials to try to go inside and save Belladonna. He retrieved her body but she was already dead and Paolo himself became badly burned by the chemicals and was rushed off to an Arachnos medical facility for treatment as the only survivor.

Though his life signs were stablized Paolo underwent a radical mutation from the chemicals and was transformed into a twisted hulking brute. Paolo's face was never normal again, whether this is because his features were too warped for plastic surgeons to do anything or he just refused out of depression is never stated. Arachno units were sent later to do a follow up on the wreckage of the building but were attacked by a ghost. Mu'Rakir, a member of the Mu Mystics of Arachnos, was in charge of the expidition and the one man who escaped the carnage, Mu'Rakir reported the attack by what he believed to e the ghost of Belladonna Vetrano kiling off his men. Lord Recluse then ordered a follow up unit of Mu Mystics to go to the build and release Widow Vetrano's ghost from it's unfinished bussiness...and instead bind her to Arachnos! The Mu unit returned and reset Belladonna's anchor to this world not as anger or regret of sadness but as her duty to Arachnos and so the same things that bound Belladonna's ghost to the world and allow her to manifest her ghostly powers also bound her in service to Lord Recluse until Arachnos itself ceased to be. Widow Vetrano was given the new title Ghost Widow and was appoited as one of Lord Recluse's Patrons, his right hands and amoung the msot powerful and "trusted" among Lord Recluse's minions. But Ghost Widow herself was allowed as a Patron to choose a sidekick, a go to henchman/bodyguard within Arachnos, Belladonna choose Paolo, whome the other soldiers were now calling "The Wretch".

Paolo kept the name Wretch and Arachnos offically declared Paolo Marino dead to protect him and by extention Ghost Widow from any unresolved issues with his former life. The player may find all this out by agreeing to help Pia Marino discover the mysterious circumstance of her brother's death from levels 15-20.

Wretch appears to be dimwitted because of his simpltic manner of speech that apparently resulted from some light brain damage from the explosion however he still has the military training common to all Arachnos soliders and as a Wolfl Spider Commander would have recieved the psychicly induced hypno threapy from the Seers of Arachnos to reinforce loyalty and protect them from mental manpiulation considering his links to the head of the Widows now this psychic condisioning seems even more likely. But hypno-thearpy aside Wretch is extremely loyal to Ghost Widow by his own right. Though Wretch is still in love with Ghost Widow and she is fond of him she is currentlt incappable of returning the feelings to him or displaying any emotion that excceeds her now muzzle-like loyalty to Arachnos. Ghost Widow inablity to fully reciprocate love has not discouraged Wretch in his duty to her though and he aims to protect her from anyone that might seek to further hurt her.

Powers and Abilites:

Wretch has super human strength and is highly resistant to most damage. He has been know to knock clear through walls with a single punch, rip appart and throw fragments of cement streets and tear people appart with his bare hands. Though more vulnerable to psychic assaults than anything else his mind is very difficult to manipulate and he has a empathic link to Ghost Widow and the two can sense when the other is in danger. Mu'Rakir in an attempt to destroy Ghost Widow once and for all to pay her back for killing his team, masterminded a plot to kil lher by destroying Wretch as her link to the world. However Mu'Rakir would find his theory wrong and that he that Arachnos itself was her binding and all he had done in trying to kill Wretch was effectively piss her off...