| Brother Lars was one of the monks at the Sanctuary, an ashram in the countryside outside of Star City. The Sanctuary has several fairly famous pupils Oliver Queen, Sandra Hawke, Connor Hawke, Onyx, etc. Whilst he was very good with the monks' martial arts regimen, Lars did not adhere to the peaceful philosophy of inner contemplation and seemed chiefly interested in power both the one the martial training gave him, and the rumours about the master of the ashram having two magical items, the Wisdom Key and the Book of Ages, that could grant great power. Over the years, Lars won a legion of followers in the monastery. He poisoned the master Abbott so that he could replace him and take the Book of Ages for himself. The Abbott sent Onyx in search of Green Arrow hoping he could save the monastery. Together Green Arrow and Onyx defeated the renegade monks, but couldn't prevent Lars opening the book. When he opened the book, which would have been his triumph, turned out to be his curse as Lars was disintegrated leaving only a skeleton still holding the book. |
| Even after his death, the renegade monks remained faithful to him, using the knowledge of the alchemical Book of Ages, to reverse the spell that killed Lars and even built a suit of armour, for Lars to live. The monks explained to him that they could restore his human form if he had the Wisdom Key, whose owner was Onyx. Lars, now called Barricade, started hunting Onyx, in order to obtain the key. |
