When Brian Philip Calusky receives the power of Asgardian Gods, he becomes the costumed super criminal Piledriver and joins the Wrecking Crew.
From Prison to Powers
Born in Brooklyn, Brian Philip Calusky chooses a criminal path that leaves him jailed. But Calusky escapes Ryker’s island Prison with fellow inmates Dirk Garthwaite, AKA The Wrecker, Dr. Eliot Franklin, and Henry Camp. The Wrecker offers them a share in his mystical powers and tells them to grab hold of his crowbar during an electrical storm. When lightning struck it, it released the crowbar’s stored Asgardian magical energy. They each receive a quarter of the Wrecker’s power accompanied by super-strength and unique abilities. Taking on costumed identities, Calusky becomes known as Piledriver, while Dr. Franklin and Camp take the codenames Thunderball and Bulldozer, respectively. Together they form a super criminal quartet with the Wrecker as the Wrecking Crew.
Power of the Asgardian Gods
Calusky is endowed with mystical super-strength from the Wrecker’s crowbar and as such, superhumanly durable. He is also able to enlarge his hands into massive, powerful fists. Though when he is too far away from the crowbar’s proximity, his powers diminish considerably.
Righteous Rivals
Often, Piledriver battles the Wrecking Crew’s most formidable foe, Thor Odinson, AKA Thor. He also goes up against the Avengers, Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, and the Defenders. Despite losing many battles against these righteous rivals, Piledriver can hold his own against them.
Convicted Colleagues
Piledriver is a loyal Wrecking Crew member, never questioning his leader, the Wrecker, unlike his teammate Thunderball who vies for his power and position. Alongside his trusted team, he joins other Super Villain teams like the Masters of Evil and Parker Robbins, AKA The Hood’s gang, always with lofty world-conquering goals or epic robberies that go down in history books.
A History of Violence
Piledriver helped the Wrecking Crew attempt to reclaim Thunderball’s previously built gamma bomb from Richmond Enterprises executive J.C. Pennysworth. Although, they were interrupted by the Defenders and were promptly defeated. The Super-Villain team was then dispersed to different prisons. When Wrecker regained his crowbar, he freed Calusky from Wyoming’s Yellowstone Prison and the others to slay the strongest Super-Hero, Thor, which would help regain their reputations. Instead, they encountered Danny Rand, AKA Iron Fist, Misty Knight, and Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, and were again defeated. Landing themselves in jail, the Wrecker again helped his fellow villains escape to eventually meet Thor in battle, losing again to the God of Thunder.
After another escape from prison, Piledriver joined the Masters of Evil and other Super Villains to launch an assault on Avengers Mansion where they bested Heracles, AKA Hercules, leaving him comatose. To avenge his teammate, Thor used his powers to transfer their powers back into the crowbar and despite locking the Crew up in prison, they made another slick escape.
While Piledriver continued to battle the best of the Super Heroes alongside his criminal comrades, including more run-ins with Thor, and endured numerous defeats, he remained loyal to his team.
Piledriver next decided that the Wrecking Crew should prepare for their later years by training a new generation, bringing his teenage son Ricky into the group as the Excavator. The Crew then learned of the Los Angeles-based Pride’s apparent deaths, and began robbing Los Angeles banks, bringing them into conflict with the Pride’s children, the Runaways. Despite attempts to return Ricky to his grandparents’ custody, the Runaways beat the 5-man Wrecking Crew, leaving them for the police.
Sent to the Raft, the Wrecking Crew escaped during a mass breakout, with Wrecker and Piledriver traveling to the Museum of Modern Art to retrieve Wrecker’s “spare crowbar” hidden there. Defeated by Patrick Mulligan, AKA Toxin, Wrecker managed to get away, only to be recaptured by the new Avengers team formed in the aftermath of the Raft breakout.
Piledriver continued to terrorize others with the Crew, including up in Canada where they severely beat Walter Langkowski, AKA Sasquatch. They also faced off with Canada’s government-sponsored Super Hero group Omega Flight. Losing to Omega Flight, they returned to America and Piledriver joined the Hood’s Army alongside the Crew. Their goal, to rob Dr. Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. Although, they met defeat at the hands of an outlaw team of Avengers before making another escape. With the Hood’s Gang, Piledriver helps defeat the Skrull invasion of Earth and eventually ended up working for Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin.
