Crucible:Answer
The Answer
[edit] | |
| Real Name | Casey Loomis |
|---|---|
| Identity | Secret |
| Affiliation | Former leader of Rock n' Roll |
| Base of Operations | Pacific City |
| Status | Active |
| First Appearance | HERO HIGH #1 (as Computron); SCARLET #6 (as the Answer) |
| Creator | Ed Messina |
“There’s always a solution. People just don’t like the math.”
— The Answer
The Answer is the modern identity of Casey Loomis, a criminal inventor, strategist, and freelance technologist whose genius-level intellect made him one of the most dangerous scientific minds to emerge from Pacific City. Originally operating as the teenage supervillain Computron, Loomis rose to notoriety as the founder of Rock n' Roll, a gang of adolescent supervillains who battled the city’s young heroes during the Bronze Age.
Though older and far more controlled today, Casey Loomis never truly abandoned villainy.
He simply made it professional.
Nathaniel Nova High School
[edit]Casey Loomis attended Nathaniel Nova High School, where he quickly established himself as the most gifted science student of his generation. Brilliant, awkward, and socially isolated, Loomis spent much of his adolescence enduring relentless bullying and humiliation from classmates who viewed him as strange, arrogant, or both.
The experience shaped him profoundly.
Unlike many young geniuses who retreated inward, Casey became increasingly fascinated with power — specifically the ability of intelligence and technology to dominate people physically stronger, wealthier, or more socially accepted than himself.
He idolized criminal masterminds such as Sargon, seeing them not as villains but as proof that intellect ultimately outweighed popularity, morality, or brute force.
By high school, Loomis had already decided he would not spend his life being ignored.
Computron
[edit]Adopting the identity of Computron, Loomis assembled a team of teenage outcasts, troublemakers, and emerging supervillains under the name Rock n' Roll.
Part youth gang, part supervillain collective, Rock n' Roll became a recurring menace to the Supernova Squadron, engaging in robberies, sabotage, revenge plots, and increasingly elaborate criminal schemes throughout Pacific City.
Even as a teenager, Loomis demonstrated extraordinary organizational and strategic ability. Unlike impulsive young villains driven purely by ego, Casey planned carefully, studied opponents obsessively, and designed technology specifically to counter local heroes.
For a time, Rock n' Roll genuinely threatened to become a major criminal force.
Eventually, however, the group was defeated and its members imprisoned.
For most of them, prison ended the dream.
For Casey Loomis, it became graduate school.
Reinvention
[edit]After serving his sentence, Loomis emerged older, calmer, and vastly more dangerous.
Rather than chasing theatrical conquest directly, he reinvented himself as The Answer, a freelance criminal technologist and problem-solver who sold inventions, strategic planning, advanced systems, and technical expertise to clients across the superhuman underworld.
The name reflected both ego and philosophy.
To Casey, every problem has a solution.
Most people are simply too stupid to see it.
As The Answer, Loomis became less a conventional supervillain and more a high-end criminal consultant operating at the intersection of science, espionage, organized crime, and advanced weapons development.
Heroes often discovered his involvement only after realizing someone else’s operations had suddenly become far more sophisticated.
Scarlet
[edit]One of the few emotional constants in Casey’s life has been his lingering fixation on Scarlet, dating back to their high-school years.
Though rarely discussed openly, Loomis deduced Scarlet’s secret identity years ago and has deliberately kept the knowledge hidden despite numerous opportunities to exploit it.
The reasons remain complicated.
Some observers interpret it as lingering affection.
Others believe Casey simply enjoys possessing information no one else realizes he has.
Possibly both.
Skills
[edit]The Answer is one of the most brilliant criminal inventors and planners of the modern era.
His expertise includes:
- Robotics
- Computer science
- Weapons engineering
- Tactical planning
- Force-field technology
- Surveillance systems
- Cybernetics
- Criminal logistics
Casey’s greatest strength may be adaptability. He rarely relies on a single invention or strategy, instead tailoring solutions specifically to the weaknesses of individual opponents and situations.
He thinks in contingencies.
Technology
[edit]The Answer commands an enormous arsenal of advanced technology accumulated through years of criminal operations and invention.
His systems include:
- Energy weapons
- Portable force fields
- Surveillance networks
- Combat robotics
- Advanced computing systems
- Defensive technologies
- Holographic systems
Most famous among his creations is the AUTON series of robotic bodyguards.
AUTON
[edit]Since his teenage years as Computron, Loomis has maintained successive generations of heavily armed robotic assistants known as AUTON units.
The current model, AUTON-5, represents the most sophisticated version yet and serves as both bodyguard and mobile tactical platform.
Capabilities include:
- Advanced combat programming
- Integrated heavy weaponry
- Defensive shielding
- Tactical processing systems
- Autonomous battlefield support
Unlike many villain sidekicks, AUTON units are extensions of Casey’s intellect rather than independent personalities.
Though some heroes suspect he talks to them more than strictly necessary.
Personality
[edit]The Answer is intelligent, sarcastic, emotionally guarded, and deeply arrogant, though his arrogance is often justified. Casey genuinely believes intellect determines worth, and much of his worldview stems from years spent watching less capable people succeed socially while dismissing him personally.
Unlike nihilistic destroyers or psychotic killers, Loomis is fundamentally rational.
Mostly.
He enjoys proving himself smarter than everyone around him and often treats conflicts as intellectual exercises rather than emotional battles. At the same time, traces of the insecure teenager beneath the confidence still emerge occasionally, especially in matters involving Scarlet or his former classmates.
For all his brilliance, Casey Loomis never entirely escaped high school.
He just learned how to weaponize it.
Legacy
[edit]The Answer became one of the defining criminal technologists of the modern era, blending teenage supervillainy, Bronze Age science fiction, robotics, and long-buried resentment into a complex recurring antagonist.
Because Casey Loomis spent his youth searching for revenge.
Then realized intelligence could be sold for far more than satisfaction.