Holocaust (DC Comics)

Holocaust
Holocaust as depicted in Milestone Forever #1.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Blood Syndicate #1 (April 1993)
Created by	Dwayne McDuffie (writer) Ivan Velez Jr. (writer) Denys Cowan (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Leonard Smalls
Team affiliations	Blood Syndicate Star Chamber
Notable aliases	Pyre
Abilities	Pyrokinesis, superhuman strength, durability, stamina, and agility.

Holocaust is a fictional character in the Milestone and DC Comics universes. Created as part of the Blood Syndicate for Milestone Media, the character has since gone on to become a gangster and supervillain.

Holocaust made his first appearance in Blood Syndicate #1. After leaving the team several issues later, the character became a recurring antagonist throughout the book's 35 issue run from 1993 to 1996. The character also appeared in several other Milestone titles such as Static #4, Icon, and the My Name is Holocaust mini-series.

Milestone media discontinued its comic book line in the late 1990s but continued on as an entertainment company which is still in existence, creating new properties for screen and comics as well as managing DC Comics use of their various properties including the award-winning Static Shock animated series created with Warner Animation. In 2008 DC and Milestone unveiled an experiment to fold the two comic book universes into one following author Grant Morrison's Final Crisis series. Contrary to common fan perception, this deal was more akin to a licensing agreement than an acquisition of Milestone's properties by DC Comics. Moreover, the deal was contingent upon the strict provision that Milestone would continue to have editorial oversight over their trademarked properties.

As a provisional part of DC's mainstream continuity, Holocaust made his first reappearance in August 2009 as the main villain in issue #24 of The Brave and the Bold, written by Matt Wayne and with art from Howard Porter. Following this, the character appeared as the antagonist in both Milestone Forever (a two issue mini-series published in April and May 2010) and as the main antagonist in a four issue storyline in Teen Titans #79-82 (published from March–June 2010).

Leonard Smalls was a small-time gangbanger from the city of Dakota, and the bastard child of the city's mayor. He killed his father at a young age, and engaged in criminal behavior for most of his life. During an event later dubbed "the Big Bang", most of the city's gangs showed up for a massive confrontation at Paris Island, only to be attacked by members of the Dakota police department. The majority of the men and women present at Paris Island were exposed to experimental tear gas designed by Edwin Alva, which killed most of those present and granted superhuman abilities upon the survivors.