-
Martin Matthews
Escalus
Martin Matthews
Escalus
23
Male
Martin Frederick Matthews
Escalus (superhero name)
The League (formerly)
Escalus
American Nothing
Martin
Warlike
Mart-in
Frederick
Peaceful Ruler
Fred-er-ick
Matthews
Gift of God
Math-hews
Human
Average height, some muscle. He has a lean build and always has; even at his peak as a hero he never had much muscle mass.
Average
Dark brown with cool undertones
5'10"
Black
Brown
Usually twists, but he's done other styles too. Kept it pretty short when with the League but as an adult he's grown it out.
- Nearsighted, alternates between glasses and contacts
- Faint scarring around his lip from a fencing mishap
As a kid, Martin was reserved to the point of being shy and mostly kept to himself before his teachers paired him off with the much more outgoing Tomas Dintka for a class project. Tomas helped Martin to come out of his shell and Martin in turn helped Tomas to be a bit more grounded. Much like Rosa Ramirez , Martin is someone who has always been interested in how things work, and he spends a lot of his time reading or researching topics he finds even the slightest bit interesting. Although he isn't a big fan of crowds, he knows how to talk to them and gets generally good reactions. He's incredibly good at fencing and was even before his powers kicked in, but the upper hand they give him is a source of grief and not joy--he doesn't want to be good because of his power, he wants to be good in spite of it. This carries over into his adulthood and he chooses to drop out of the Olympic training he was in because he couldn't help but feel like it was cheating.
Martin is the most well-adjusted of the former League members by a fair margin: he's more or less emotionally well-adjusted, he doesn't have any substance abuse issues, and he isn't trying to relieve an adolescence he feels like he missed. Unsurprisingly, he's also the only one who hasn't continued to either be with the League or be a vigilante--he's okay with putting his superhero stuff behind him, due in part to the fact that his powers are very understated and have uses outside of combat. He is, however, someone who deals heavily with grief and guilt over the death of Tomas Dintka--not only were they friends, but they had a secret relationship while in the League. While there could be an argument made that Joey Puglisi was responsible for the deaths of his team, no such argument could be made for Martin and Tomas, not that that's a reassurance. Martin spends his days desperately searching for purpose, which is what brings him back to his hometown as a stage combat instructor.
Martin stands fairly still and relaxed, a contrast to Tomas Dintka's very loose and easy posture and Rosa Ramirez 's generally still posture. He rocks back on his heels when he's thinking and if he's in a situation where it's safe to do so, he'll close his eyes so he can picture his next course of action more clearly. Given his power, he has very good reflexes and high flexibility.
Fencing--even before his powers manifested themselves, Martin was good at fencing. He has a good memory and is able to pick up new skills easily. Knows high school level Spanish; he's out of practice but he could probably carry on a conversation. It's not really a "talent" in the traditional sense, but he's one of those people who can visualize stuff with scary accuracy, whether it's the best move in a fight or a long math problems.
To make as normal of a life for himself as he can after leaving the League, as well as to work through his grief about Tomas' death.
Fencing is his number one hobby, but not his only one. He enjoys sports as a whole, but finds the technical aspects way more interesting than the action. He was a Mathlete as a freshman before the League took up most of his time. Big fan of mystery novels and also nonfiction--he'll read nonfiction about topics he's barely interested in just to learn something new.
Not quite as anti-League as others, but he's definitely wary of them. He's also wary of vigilante crime fighters and has a hard time understanding why someone would essentially do League work but with even less support--privately, he thinks that most of them are adrenaline junkies or desperate people trying to reclaim their past glory, and questions their methods.
Enhanced agility--think "spider sense" but without the webs. His power has the side effect of making him almost hyper-aware of his surroundings, which leads to frequent headaches.
Martin was born around the turn of the century to Josh Mathews, a computer technician, and his wife Haniah, an immigrant from Ghana. He had a fairly good childhood with the most notable event being that he took up fencing lessons one summer and found that not only was he good at it, it was something he enjoyed. He went to the same elementary school as Tomas Dintka and the two became fast friends. They went to the same middle and high schools as well and their bond only grew stronger--as did their newly-appeared superpowers. It was Tomas who convinced Martin that the two needed to apply with the League, which had just announced its search for a new generation of heroes following the untimely demise of the infamous Millennium League when Martin was only a child. It was here that he met Rosa, Maisy, and Cameron Alexis, his new teammates.
This League, dubbed the Next Generation, was far more diverse than the first one, and Martin made local history by being the first Black member of the League in his region. His time with the League wasn't marked by the same tragedies as the Millennium League, but it still had the restrictive rules of the Millennium League in regards to being too open about anything that could get them controversy, which nipped any relationship he could have with Tomas in the bud. The two carried on a relationship in secret while to the public Tomas and Rosa were a couple. The Next Generation carried on well until Maisy Owens , codenamed Swift, was captured, drugged, and tortured into giving information to the villains, who then launched an attack. To split apart the cast, some torched Cameron Alexis' house and the others attacked the town square. Rosa, Martin, and Tomas banded together to try and fight off Fryght, the supervillain, but she hit Tomas with a one-hit kill and then disappeared, leaving everyone else in shock.
Martin left the League and went off on his own, moving states to get away from his past and make a new life for himself. He started Olympic training for his fencing but ended up dropping out of it because he thought it was unfair to have his enhanced abilities aid him. Now he makes his return to his hometown to teach stage combat, and try to find his path.
Elementary and middle school, and then a mix of high school classes and League tutoring. He took a mix of online and in-person college courses as well.
October 11th
Josh and Haniah Mathews
Art image credit to the makowka character maker ii Picrew by makowka, I highly recommend it!
The first foil he ever had--it's too small to use since he started so young, but it's sentimental.
Tomas Dintka
Rosa Ramirez
Tomas Dintka (past...deceased?)
Sharks. He almost chose a shark-based moniker before Tomas Dintka convinced him to do the Romeo and Juliet ones instead.
His swords, even though they aren't always the most effective.
Former League hero, current fencing instructor.
Liberal
Agnostic
Navy blue
Sandwiches. What type? Anything that's easy to eat on the go (the actual answer is turkey).
Tomas Dintka: Tomas and Martin were friends from a young age and were just about inseparable from middle school onwards. They complimented each other well--Tomas helped Martin to be more outgoing and Martin helped Tomas to be a bit more grounded. They were the sort of friends who go through all of their milestones together--it's hard for Martin to think of a childhood memory without Tomas in it. They even discovered their superpowers at around the same time, which led to them both enrolling with the League, their names chosen from Romeo and Juliet, the play they had been reading for English at the time. They fought side by side as heroes and as they aged, their feelings grew from platonic to romantic and they began a secret relationship, just as Venus and Folly had in the League before them. In a sharp contrast to that League, however, only one hero from this team died--and it was Tomas. There was nothing Martin could have done, even with his enhanced reflexes, the attack was too quick to prevent. Nevertheless, he can't help but feel like he was somehow responsible. The weird, uncanny state of Tomas' body didn't help matters--it was greyish and pallid, as if it had been drained of all color and life. A part of him sometimes wonders if Tomas is really dead or just somehow trapped, but he doesn't have time to investigate something like that, especially not when he just knows it'll lead to a dead end or a confirmation of Tomas really being dead.
Rosa Ramirez : Outside of Tomas, Rosa was Martin's closest friend in the League. She was similar enough to him that they had things in common but not so much that he felt like she was too much like him to enjoy spending time with. As Rosa was Tomas' League-assigned publicity girlfriend, there was a bit of animosity between them, but not enough to cause permanent strain to their relationship. What does strain their relationship, however, is Rosa's insistence that Tomas isn't really dead and that she can find a way to bring him back, a premise that Martin finds delusional. As Rosa threw herself into her pursuits, Martin could no longer stomach spending time with her, not with Tomas' presence (or lack thereof) hanging between them.
Maisy Owens : Maisy and Martin got along pretty well since Maisy's personality is pretty similar to Tomas'. As teens, if Martin wasn't spending time with Tomas or Rosa, he was with Maisy. As an adult, he can't help but feel like Maisy's vigilante work is an attempt she's making to recapture the adrenaline high of being a hero.
Cameron Alexis Le : Martin and Cameron Alexis weren't especially close as teens, but they got along well. As adults, however, their relationship is more strained: Cam, who lost her family to those the League was combating, thinks Martin is a coward for quitting hero work. Martin thinks that Cameron Alexis is using "vigilante work" as an excuse to let out pent-up emotions in an unhealthy way, and can't see why someone who lose so much due to hero work keeps going back to it.
Dallas Smith : Dally is one of the kids that Martin coaches in stage combat, and Martin is the first person besides Dally to be aware of Dally's powers. He takes Dally aside and introduces himself as someone who also has powers and offers to take him under his wing, which Dally accepts. Dally, however, is less than thrilled when it turns out that Martin's training features a lot of breathing exercises and learning to control your powers--he wants to go out and fight crime.
Joey Puglisi : Joey and Martin didn't know each other until Martin's return home, but they have a deep mutual respect--Martin was always a fan of Venus as a teen since both had the "useless" powers in their group. They have a shared bond in the sense that they both were in relationships with other League members that had to be kept under heavy wraps, and they also blame themselves for their partner's death. Joey is curious to see where Martin's path will lead and suspects that he'll inevitably end up coming back to crime fighting; Martin thinks that Joey is going to get himself killed and does not see the appeal of fighting crime with even less in the way of protection and although he appreciates the efforts, he also worries this freelance stuff does more harm than good.
Safiya Alinsky : Safie and Martin aren't too close, but they both work in the crew part of the show. Through Dally, Martin learns of Safie's powers and takes her on as an apprentice as well, unaware that Safie is also learning from Rosa. Safie takes to Martin's brand of teaching much better than Dally did.
Mabel Brell: Mabel and Martin knew each other when Martin was a teen but they weren't really friends since Mabel was so much older. Now that they're both adults they're closer and discuss their less-than-great feelings on the League together, as well as just generally chatting--Mabel's the sort of person who gets along with everyone, and Martin is someone who keeps a lot of his feelings bottled tight and runs himself ragged mentally sorting through them.
Ira Welles-Tyler: When Martin says he has issues with vigilante crime fighting, he's speaking mostly about Ira and the way that he tends to leave the most bodies behind in the most suspicious ways. Part of his distaste for Ira is the fact that, as a second-gen Leaguer, he's heard their biased stories about the Sparhawk and how he's an unhinged killer, and so he's a bit surprised when he meets Ira and he's just...a guy. He's less surprised but still disappointed to learn that the League wasn't being especially honest about Ira's methods: yes, he kills people, but he also investigates them thoroughly beforehand and with a few exceptions, he always waits to be certain that a person is guilty before he kills them. Martin still wishes that Ira would do a better job cleaning it up, though.