Brian's father is a third generation American. He graduated with and engineering degree from Cal Tech, and moved to San Fransisco. Brad Xiang often hosted the children or grandchildren of his grandparents families and friends when they came to America. This was how he met Lian; she was over in the states to study business. They hit it off almost immediately and began dating. Marraige followed and Brian soon after that. An only child Brian was indulged in almost anything. A gifted athlete at a young age, Lian taught him kung fu just as her father had taught her. When Brian was 12, he asked to visit his gradparents in China, hoping to learn more martial arts from his grandfather. His parents allowed it and he spend the next six years in China with his grandparents. Brian became a phenomenally talented fighter. His grandfather sent him to various different teachers over his six year stay. He returned home and began college at UCLA. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do, so he enrolled in the liberal arts department. While at college, he met and began dating a young woman who had just come over from China whith her brother. Lin Chow wanted to be an actress. She picked up english easily and helped Brian study his cantonese. However Deng, her brother, was not happy she was dating a westerner. Even though Brian was chinese, his family had "betrayed" china by settling in the US. Deng called Brian out and attacked him. Brian was able to defeat Deng, as the hot blooded martial artist was supremely overconfident. Later that week, Brian was attacked again. This time it was a supervillain! The Green Dragon challenged Brian. Nervous at facing a supervillain, Brian fought defensively. He was barely holding his own against the ferocious attacks of the Green Dragon when Brian realized that he had fought this opponent before! It was Lin's brother Deng! Brian broke of the combat and ran. He felt he didn't have a choice; if he had lost to Deng, he might have been severely beaten or murdered; but if he defeated Deng again, he would expose the fighter and bring Lin unwanted attention from the authorities. He told Lin that he shouldn't see her anymore and went home to think things over. He emerged from his thoughts and apartment as the Mantis. He had hoped that if he could capture Deng he could council the angry young man and get him to turn away from crime, for Lin's sake. He adopted am armored costume and began fighting in the mantis style of kung fu to set Mantis apart from Brian. Brian graduated with a degree in philosophy and a minor in business. He set up a training center and began teaching Kung Fu. Over the years, Mantis used contacts in the superhero "industry" to develop special weapons and vehicles. He joined the Frontline in 1996. His battles against evil led to confrontations with three men that troubled him. Green Dragon, Dragon Master, and Mongoose. He felt each of these men were honorable spirits who had been set upon the wrong path. Of the three, Green Dragon seemed the most lost, but even he was not pure evil. Mantis has tried to rehabilitate them over the years with very limited success. His "dojo" has become neutral ground to those three and he has on a few occasion harbored one of them there while they recovered from wounds or were falsely accused for crimes. He knows that they are criminals, and he could get into trouble for this but he can't help but think that each of them could do great things for the world if they would only find the road to lawfulness. Mongoose has the least distance to go: he already considers himself something of a hero, doesn't harm innocents, and has on more than one occasion risen to battle evil when it threatened those around him. He views Mantis as a friendly rival. Since they have both developed their own styles of fighting; the Mongoose Style and Grand Mantis Style, they meet once a year at a place of Mongoose's choosing and have at it to see whose style is better. Mantis, against his better judgement, enjoys these bouts tremendously. Green Dragon is heart breaking to Mantis as his prejudices have done nothing but get worse over the years. He fears that it is only a matter of time before Deng becomes unworthy of his attempts to rehabilitate. Mantis still cares for Lin and goes out of his way to make sure that her brother's criminal career doesn't bring her pain. It is probably for this reason that Green Dragon has not revealed Mantis's identity to the underworld. It is Dragon Master that is most perplexing. Dragon Master has a destiny and Mantis is not sure he can persuade him to alter that destiny. To Dragon Master, crime is a means to the freedom of the chinese people. Mantis has been unable to even plant the seed of doubt into him. However, their relationship is cordial, even warm. Recently, Mantis has decided to drop the gadgets (save for his motorcycle) and rely solely on his martial arts skills. He has begun to develop Ch'i based powers in part to prepare for the upcoming Tournament of the Dragon. Honorable man with asperations of herodom. He enjoys being a wise cracking battler of evil but feels as much elation being a teacher. "The road to excellence is not a path to a door." "Boot to the Head." Martial Arts master with neato abiltities. Fighter, lover, trainer of warriors. Brian is a handsome, incredibly fit Chinese-American man with short black hair, green eyes (yeah, I saw Big Trouble in Little China, why?) and the build of a life-time martial artist/exercise junkie. He wears loose fitting pants and tight shirts, and looks like he stepped out of a modern adventure movie. He is "cool" with a capital K. His costume has evolved over the years and he has recently given up the "armored vigilante" look for a more traditional, kung fu movie look. He wears a black, sleeveless shirt, billowy white pants, and black toe-shoes. He wears a half mask over the top of his head, green with white eyes. An emerald green silk sash at his waist and green fingerless gloves oh his hands.