Nostromos is the mastermind behind a new age scam that some of Bruce Wayne's friends joined. He is a psychic and a first class fraud. Bruce joined the Brotherhood in an attempt to stop Nostromos and discredit him. Nostromos, predicting the fall of civilization, urges his acolytes to transfer their bank funds to his new age Brotherhood.
History[]
Carl Fowler was once a professional actor, until he was arrested for petty larceny. Once out of jail, he bode his time until he could apply his acting abilities to a different scene: the Gotham City Elite. Acting as a prophet and donning the name "Nostromos", Fowler began making deathly predictions that his partner Lucas would then act out, "proving" the predictions true. Using the gullibility of the Gotham Elite to his advantage, he began arranging for more and more disasters to occur, including sinking gambling cruise ships, igniting oil fields, and causing cave ins. As each prediction drew more crowd members, Fowler acquired more money. His cons quickly turned grander, and Nostromos' "predictions" got bolder. After some time, he tricked the Elite into believing an economic collapse was imminent, and conned them into creating a super-fund to "protect" themselves to rebuild both their own fortunes and society. In truth the scheme was merely designed to leave the followers clueless and Nostromos and Lucas very wealthy. However, the single clause was that Nostromos needed authorization from Ethan Clark.
When Ethan fell prey to Nostromos' "vision", he began making entire life decisions based around Nostromos, and even joined a secret brotherhood. He became so obsessed that he urged his friend Bruce Wayne to join at an upcoming party Ethan planned to hold in Nostromos' honor. At the party, Nostromos "communicated" with the spirits of the astral plane. While in truth he was improvising the entire ordeal, his "predictions" left the group awestruck as Bruce himself was in danger. Using cheap parlor tricks, Nostromos levitated Bruce's drinking glass, and shattered it.
Bruce may have been skeptical, but Nostromos wasn't about to let an Elite out of his realm of influence. He arranged for Lucas to sabotage Bruce's elevator, leaving him at the risk of death. However, they were unable to take Bruce's identity as Batman into account, and he escaped. Nostomos merely predicted that something bad would happen to Bruce, not that he would necessarily die. Still, his "prediction" almost backfired, which could have exposed the whole charade to the brotherhood. However, Bruce had "seen the light" and intended to join the club. During their meeting at Ethan's home, Ethan's daughter Lisa burst in, protesting the idea and vowing to begin her own investigation. Shortly thereafter, Nostromos urged the Elite to transfer all the money they could to the super fund, claiming the "Great Fall" was at hand.
Nostromos then beckoned Ethan to withdraw the money and convert it to gold bullions. Though Ethan initially rejected, upon seeing Lisa held hostage (captured during her investigation), he quickly succumbed. However, Batman had already set up his own theatrics, and attempted to lure Lucas and Nostromos away. As Lucas battled the Dark Knight, Nostromos sent his planetary model machine haywire, placing Lisa in grave danger. Though he attempted to escape, Nostromos was stopped by Batman, who rescued Lisa shortly thereafter. Fowler and Lucas were then arrested, and the money was returned to the Elite.
- This article uses material from the Nostromos article at the DCAU Wiki and is licensed under the CC BY-SA License.