Niles Caulder - The Chief

[Hank Hall]

NILES CAULDER / THE CHIEF
Sixties :: American :: Principal at Brentwood Academy
Currently in: Gotham City

Character Background

• Niles Caulder is a man with a mysterious past: something that fuels the rumour mills at Brentwood Academy. Some say that he is an eminent scientist and engineer. Some say that in the past he worked with secret branches of the government on classified projects. Some say that his current wheelchair-bound state is the result of a run-in with dangerous metahumans. Some even say that he performed Frankenstein-style experiments for the government, transforming ordinary humans into superhumans and villains. This is mostly seen as hyperbole and conjecture however: all outward appearances are that Caulder is a gruff but respected educator, and a fairly benign human being.

Raw Material

• The Chief is confined to a wheelchair.
• Sometimes seen as a bit of a morally ambiguous, shady guy. One version of the comics has Caulder engineer a series of accidents so that he can "save" the victims and turn them into superheroes.
• Despite the suspicions about his past, Caulder seems to be somewhat trusted by the superhero community. Via "Wayne Foundation Scholarships" and other means, a number of sidekicks and children/relatives of existing heroes and vigilantes have been sent to Brentwood Academy under his care. It is unclear whether Caulder is aware of the metahuman (or even non-human) nature of these students - his enigmatic nature makes him hard to read.
• For reasons unknown, The Chief is impervious to Martian telepathy - something rarely seen outside of Kryptonians.

Plot Ideas

• School shenanigans?
• Caulder is somewhere in the Professor X / Dumbledore spectrum of headmasters: he's not necessarily going to form a secret team of juvenile supersoldiers to fight the worlds problems (though that's not exactly outside his wheelhouse), but he might be more unexpectedly tolerant - or at least willing to cover for - meta shenanigans that take place on school grounds.
• Doom Patrol stuff? In the comics, Niles Caulder is the scientist responsible for creating heroes like Robot Man, Negative Man, Elasti-Girl, etc, and at one point or another worked with a whole heap of other heroes, many of whom wound up working for/with government agencies. Maybe some of his comic book associates are working with the DEO, or ARGUS, or Checkmate, which might lead to some interesting interactions/clashes?
• Is he secretly working for Checkmate / ARGUS / someone else? (dun dun duuuun?)

Existing Relationships

• Lyta Trevor - History teacher. The daughter of Steve Trevor and Diana Prince, and resident of Themiscyra for the last few decades, though it is unclear if The Chief is aware of this.

• Wally West - Kid Flash. A recent(ish) Wayne Foundation student, and chronic do-gooder.
• Megan Morse - Miss Martian. The niece of John Jones, an ARGUS Agent. Unclear if The Chief knows she is secretly Martian.
• Connor Kent - The latest Wayne Foundation student. Secretly a clone-hybrid of Superman and Oliver Queen. SuperChav.

Current Plots

• Showing up in Connor Kent's first day of school?

Credit for the basic template goes to Dun of RPG-D