Paul Luto knew he was something of a special genius. He first realized this when he was 7 years old, whilst visiting his father in his laboratory shortly after his mother died. He corrected a formula on the chalk board that his father had been working on for several months. When the boy saw the look in his father's eyes after he'd hurried over to stop him ruining his work but saw the correction which made his theory workable, young Paul realized that he was not like other people. Observing the change in his father's behavior towards him after that incident, he had learned the power of being feared.

Unlike like your stereotypical science nerd, he was very popular in college; charismatic, athletic and attractive. His dark eyes and sharp smile mesmerized even professors when he turned on the charm, and anyone whom he felt crossed him would soon leave the school and never speak of him again. Hated and feared as much as he was adored by sycophants and hangers-on, no one dared to move against the brilliant young man with cruel intentions. Eventually, his work with chemistry & biology led to his obsession with venoms & neurotoxins. However, when a whole frat party turned into a house full of wide-eyed, drooling kids who were incapable of doing anything on their own without someone telling them what actions to perform - the effects not wearing off before someone found them and called the police - he was found out. It was because of this only failure that he was eventually kicked out of college for his experiments on his fellow students. From that he learned to trust no one, and just how apart he really was from others as he couldn't understand the fuss and bother over the brain damage some of the subjects were left with.

They were only humans after all.

Blacklisted by the college administration who moved against him swiftly and thoroughly, he was unable to find work as even the lowest lab assistant, and ended up moving back into his father's basement. There he brewed in his bitterness and resentment, growing increasingly angrier and more convinced of his superiority. Studying works such as Mein Kampf and the Manifesto of Magnus, he became convinced he was cut of even greater cloth than they, and that his destiny was absolute. He was a direct child of the Gods, not his inferior father, and that was why his mother had been taken back to the stars when Paul was ready to begin walking his path alone. He would rule mankind, as it was clearly incapable and unworthy of ruling itself.

Intuiting that his early work would be the key to his reign, he turned again to venom as the root to his experiments. Easily administered, potent in minute amounts, undetectable to security systems and outwardly harmless in appearance - it was the logical choice. He turned his hand to bio-weapon design on the side to earn the capitol for his empire, and his skill was soon discovered by governments the world over. He was running a lucrative business in death by the age of 23. From there Paul branched out into neurochemistry. However, he wasted no time experimenting on animals, and instead set up two philanthropic ventures; "The Luto Home for the Homeless" and "Gang 2 Free", which gave him a constant supply of throw-away humans whose disappearances no one would question, but would in actuality be welcome. Indeed, Paul was given several mayoral honors for cleaning up the streets and radically cutting down on gangs within the city.

It was in his work that Paul found his true love when he started delving into arachnids, specifically, scorpions. He found these solitary, watchful predators to be admirable, even akin to his own nature. He too was suspicious and ruthlessly aggressive if provoked. Indulging his affection for them, as a side project he worked on a little genetic engineering by including rhino genes to unlock the growth potential within Emperor Scorpion embryos, and soon one the size of a Shetland pony was created. A touch of brain augmentation surgery to increase its intelligence finished off the pet project.

Like a sleek and glossy tank, Mars became his faithful companion.

Finally, his venom serum was completed. Taking from the extreme specialization of certain wasp venoms and the potency of snake venoms, the delicate balance of neurotoxins acted swiftly to reprogram the human brain and make it completely malleable only to his specific voice pattern and image. He called it his Z Serum, wickedly delighted with the creation of his own living Zombies.

"There will be resistance." he mused whilst twirling a vial of his perfected venom in contemplation, staring thoughtfully into it's green glow. His fingers idly drew circles upon Mars' carapace, as the great scorpion leaned against his leg. He drummed his fingers now and then, as he turned his analytical gaze on his pet. Taking in the efficient and deadly-looking armory that crouched beside him, he smiled slowly, lips quirking irresistibly as he began to envision his own armor.

The work he'd done for the armaments trade came in useful as he revisited some of the special alloys and materials he'd created whilst working on building his now intimidating wealth. Refining those designs and formulas even further, he soon developed a mesh-like material that was as light and flexible as cloth, yet upon impact had a similar density to metal, making it virtually impenetrable. Using his beloved scorpion as further inspiration, he designed an elegant and vicious exoskeleton armor suit. Equipped with tension driven cable fibers that increased his strength, it also had several built-in weaponry systems. Amongst these, of course, was the "stinger" - equipped with a laser and the Z Serum - as well as a pair of mechanized pedipalps, all which he could use for close combat, defense, as well as subjugation of attackers.

Now in his mid 30's, he had learned to neither trust nor have any faith in people to be more than tools to perform menial tasks - completely unfit to form any kind of unified reenforcement with. He instead decided against a human armed force, and turned yet again to his lovely scorpions. Paul thoroughly prepared his hyper-intelligent scorpion troops. Their stingers loaded with Z Serum, the arachnid army was ready to launch a take-over of the world. He decided on America first, as no one would miss it much. Small scorpions were dispatched in gift boxes to his contacts in the White House and Pentagon - previous connections within the government bodies for his arms trade would be amongst his first victims. When the tracking devices attached to the scorpion's backs registered a release of venom, he launched his secondary phase-of-attack by phoning his contacts and instructing them to issue orders that would aid his takeover from within. In mere days, the military and government of the USA were his, and all without a single fatality.

In order to protect his network of contacts & business interests, he chose a new name to represent himself to the world with, so that he could take power openly at this point without losing his personal empire. It was with a wicked smirk that he instructed his zombie minions that his new name was Scorpio. Presidential orders were issued that no one could protest to place him in sole control and command, and then as his giant scorpions marched out nationwide, public announcements and endorsements were made to introduce him as the supreme commander of New Scorpia. America was history.

The populace was swiftly 'vaccinated' with variations of Z Serum to ensure complete obedience. The masses were given Scorpio's veiled instructions via advertising & broadcasting, as well as announcements played at the newly reformed work 'facilities'. Just a few weeks had passed, and he was ready to launch his new order on the rest of mankind. It was not until China fell to his rule that the world realized the full extent of his domination, and forces were actively mobilized against him. Putting his meticulously constructed armor to use, Scorpio lead his squads of Giant Scorpions - along with Mars - against the armies attempting to thwart his rise to absolute power. Soon after, they too would become... indoctrinated. Several additional cells of resistance rose in desperation, but by then it was too late. His armament contacts were world-wide in positions of power... and as his third phase-of-attack, all of them had received thoughtful little gift boxes from the charmingly devious and well-liked Paul Luto.

And that was how the ingenious and sly super-villain strode into The Zombie Zodiac and claimed his place as our Scorpio.