The Blood Syndicate is a fictional multicultural vigilante gang of superhumans created by Milestone Comics and published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in Blood Syndicate #1 (April 1993), and was created by Dwayne McDuffie, Ivan Velez Jr. and Denys Cowan. Publication history In Milestone Comics' fictional city of Dakota, the Blood Syndicate is a loose affiliation of super-powered individuals brought together by circumstance; 35 issues of their eponymous comic book, written largely by Ivan Velez, Jr., were published between 1993 and 1996. The Blood Syndicate differed from other supergroups in that they were (in Velez's words) "not a team - they're a gang". In fact, they were the surviving remnants of multiple street gangs (thus the name, a combination of "Paris Island Bloods" and "Force Syndicate"), who had gained superpowers in the so-called Big Bang, and decided to use them for a greater purpose. However, their constant in-fighting, the unsustainability of their methods, and their lack of a central vision (particularly after the death of their first leader) led to the Syndicate's eventual disintegration. Fictional team history The "Big Bang" refers to an incident in which gang members from all over Dakota met in one, huge battle. The police got word of the coming attack and planned to gas the lot of them with tear gas laced with a radioactive marker and take them all into custody. Their plan was to track down any gang member who got away using the radioactive marker. Unknown to them, or even to the police involved, the tear gas used to disperse them was laced with a mutative agent called "quantum juice". Many gang members and police officers died, while others transformed according to their state of mind or what they were close to when the gas hit them. One woman (a member of the Sociedad De La Cruz gang) landed in water; her body became water and she developed the ability to control other water as well. She named herself Aquamaria. Another woman stumbled into a brick wall, merged with it and became solid brick. Other entities were affected in other ways. A police officer gained the power to emit golden energy blasts and joined the Shadow Cabinet as Oro. Dogg, a normal dog who was the pet of the Force Syndicate, developed human level cognitive abilities and the ability to speak. Coming together The surviving gang members eventually came together