Trey Rollins grew up in a rough Brooklyn neighborhood, avoiding the local street gangs and concentrating on his study of classical mythology. His close friend James once pushed Trey to safety during a drive-by gang shooting, but James himself would later join the street gang Lobo's Boys. On his way home from school one afternoon, the teenage Trey heard a strange noise coming from an abandoned building. Inside, Trey found a mystical breastplate he recognized as the Aegis, the legendary Medusa-faced shield of the Greek goddess Athena. Using the breastplate, Rollins became a masked crime-fighter as Aegis, winning the admiration of locals, including young graffiti artists Lester and Payton. After helping the New Warriors defeat the alien menace Blastaar, Aegis was awarded Warriors membership. However, the Warriors in general and Nova in particular were slow to trust the inexperienced Aegis, partly because he was the only member of the group who insisted on concealing his secret identity from the others.
When Brooklyn-area street gangs began wielding high-tech A.I.M. weapons, the Warriors set out to stop the gang war and cut off the weaponry supply. Aegis repeatedly protected James during this conflict, but an ungrateful James nearly killed the Warriors several times over. He also threatened to expose Trey's dual identity, and helped Lobo's Boys destroy the Warriors' Crashpad headquarters. The Warriors eventually nailed the arms dealer supplying the gangs, organized crime boss Joseph Manfredi, and defeated his armored enforcers Heavy Mettle. James fled into hiding after killing a member of the rival Born 2 Die gang during a scuffle. Trying to explain his ties to James, Trey finally shared his true identity with the Warriors and began to bond with the team. When the Greek demigod Hercules mistakenly accused Trey of stealing the Aegis, the goddess Athena revealed that she had left it for Trey to find as a gift, and declared Trey her newest mortal champion. With the support and blessing of Athena and the other Olympian gods, Trey found new confidence as a hero. However, Aegis has been seldom seen of late, perhaps because he needs to keep his school grades up if he hopes to qualify for a college scholarship.
