Brother Blood (Sebastian Blood mantle)

Within DC Comics continuity the Brother Blood mantle is a longstanding, hereditary/transferable cult leadership role that traces back centuries. According to the fictional backstory, a medieval priest in the nation of Zandia (identified as a Sebastian) killed another priest to seize what he believed to be Jesus Christ's prayer shawl; possession of that relic granted him reduced aging and near-invulnerability but also brought a curse that he would be slain by his son before his hundredth birthday. Over generations multiple individuals have assumed the Brother Blood title through violent and ritualized succession tied to lineage and possession of sacred objects.

Depictions vary across incarnations; sources do not give a single consistent portrait. Earlier incarnations (e.g., the original Brother Blood in The New Teen Titans) present as an adult male cult leader whose powers include slowed aging and nigh-invulnerability tied to a shawl relic. Other versions have appeared as a teenage Brother Blood and, in DC Rebirth, as a female incarnation called Mother Blood (Sonya Tarinka). The mantle is associated with the trappings of leadership of the Church/Cult of Blood rather than a fixed costume across all versions.

Across storylines the Brother Blood mantle confers or is associated with supernatural resilience (greatly reduced aging; nigh-invulnerability tied to the shawl), superhuman physical strength, and, in some incarnations, mind-control or psychic influence. The shawl is explicitly credited with immunity to Raven's soul-self in one storyline. Brother Blood figures are expert manipulators who organize and exploit fanatical followers and media influence; individual holders of the mantle have attempted necromantic acts (resurrecting long-dead Titans), attempts to appropriate other superhuman powers (targeting Raven; attempting to use Beast Boy's connection to the Red), and alliances with demonic/cosmic forces (worship of Trigon; taint by Neron in some arcs). Different storylines attribute different specific capacities to different incumbents rather than to a single unchanging individual.