Warden

John Warden used to believe in the criminal justice system and was proud to be a part of it. He developed the cutting-edge technology used by prisons like Blackstone and Lockdown to hold super-powered criminals and other threats to society. Nobody was better at designing prisons, but the problem didn’t lie in the technology or the system—it was the people behind it. John believed if the bureaucrats and the bleeding hearts would only let him do his job, there wouldn’t be any prison escapes. But they continued to hobble him with regulations, rules, and concerns about the “rights” of the prisoner. Didn’t they give up those rights when they broken the law and became criminals?
Warden became obsessed with creating the perfect prison, not for rehabilitation or even fair treatment, but solely for containment and punishment of prisoners. He was dismissed following an investigation into his experimental and unethical technologies. It wasn’t long thereafter that he realized where the real dangers to society lay—in the bureaucrats and so-called heroes who kept people like him from maintaining order. Warden donned a mask and used his devices to capture and imprison Mayor O'Connor, district attorney Durgan, and several Freedom City judges before the Raven tracked him down and put a stop to his “new system of justice.” Warden found himself, for the first time, on the other side of the bars.
Within days, he was free, of course, for what prison could really hold him, the master jailer? He clashed with the Raven, and even took a commission from SHADOW to imprison the entire Freedom League (which he succeeded in doing briefly, until they were freed by Ray Gardener, Jr., Captain Thunder's son). He sold work through The Foundry to clients in need of various sorts of traps (deadly and otherwise) while continuing to plot his revenge against the system that wronged him.
Warden remained difficult to keep incarcerated, and efforts to have him declared mentally unfit and given therapy and treatment instead were frustrated by both the system and Warden’s own defiant nature. As his list of crimes and convictions grew longer, Warden’s grip on reality loosened. He was a “lifer” now, in or out of prison. Jail was his home and there was no going back. Warden realized the entire world was nothing but an extended prison, but no one else saw it.
Almost no one, that is. Warden became increasingly interested in the occult and notions of “the prison of the world” and devoted his time spent not dodging the law in research. He learned a great deal about the mystic arts in a relatively short amount of time—being a quick study—and hit upon what he felt was the secret behind all of his intuition.
Warden magically crafted a temporary “key” to allow him access to the legendary Dimension of Doors, a nexus between realities, his “escape” from the prison of the world. He knew of the Door Wardens who protected that place, but he had dealt with and avoided prison guards before. Clues pieced together from ancient texts led him to an unused and barred portal within the maze of doors, and his mastery of locks and bindings helped him to open it for the first time in who knows how long. Beyond it was a vast maze containing untold secrets and power.
Warden claimed what he refers to as the “Dungeon Dimension” for himself, forging a permanent key to connect to it. It has given him a whole new edge: a headquarters outside of space and time as Earth knows it, where he can not only escape and store his arsenal and any ill-gotten gains, but also imprison those he chooses in ever more fiendish and cunning ways, a prison from which there is no escape since, as Warden learned, the entire world is the prison, and he is its absolute master.
Warden spent some time becoming familiar with his new “domain” and crossed swords with The Gatekeeper, chosen guardian of the Dimension of Doors. Now he is ready to return to his mission to create order. His order.

Physical Description

Apparel & Accessories

Warden wields a hyperdimensional “key” linking him to the Dungeon Dimension and allowing him to shift between it and other dimensional planes. He can do the same to anyone else by touching them, transporting them into his domain. By manipulating the dimensional interface, Warden can shift out of Earth’s dimension in one place and back in another to teleport across great distances. The Key’s dimensional link allows Warden to understand and make himself understood in any form of language, a sometimes useful side effect.
Warden is an inventive genius for various sorts of traps and restraining devices, and uses them to overcome and entrap even superhuman targets. Warden’s typical devices include spheres of “memory metal” that expand into cages or constricting bands. He’s also been known to use glue-guns, stun grenades, gas weapons, strobes, and a plethora of other devices, now sometimes enchanted or augmented with magic and alchemy in addition to technology. His costume is armored and his hood has sensors and sophisticated electronics, allowing him to monitor and control his various traps. He routinely carries a taser, tonfa baton, and several smoke grenades.
The Dungeon Dimension is a vast labyrinth of stone-lined corridors, tunnels, and chambers, littered with various traps and cellblocks of Warden’s creation.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

Warden is a control freak of epic proportions who has gone over the edge. Three things drive him: the need for order and control, the challenge of creating the perfect trap to hold any target, and a desire for revenge against those who wronged him.
He considers “the system” corrupt and soft. The real criminals are the people in charge and the “heroes” backing them. Warden wants to bring them down, to make them suffer as he as suffered. Once they’re out of the way, he’ll be able to institute “law and order” the way he envisions it.
Warden doesn’t consider himself a criminal; he’s a rebel against a corrupt system that’s afraid of him. The truth is Warden is a sadist who enjoys the challenge of creating his traps and the power of having others at his mercy. His descent into the arcane arts has only exacerbated his personality disorders, which are now edging into megalomania, with Warden the “lord and master” of his own dimensional domain.
Warden’s schemes generally involve choosing a target or targets and arranging to trap and imprison them. He may do so for hire (although it’s not really about the money) and may hire others to do some of the dirty work for him. He’s also known to steal to support his goals, made that much easier by his newfound powers.