Edwin Alva
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Real Identity: Edwin Alva Senior
Affiliation(s): Alva Industries
Appearances (SS): Aftershock, The New Kid, Junior, Trouble Squared, No Man's An Island, Where Rubber Meets the Road, and Kidnapped
Skills: Leadership, Business, and Technology
Voiced By: Kerrigan Mahan
Edwin Alva is a billionaire industrialist and founder of the company, Alva Industries. His name bears an interesting similarity to Thomas Alva Edison, an important inventor who used other inventors' labors to further himself. Alva practices a strategy of recruiting top scientists with the promise of funding their invention in exchange for perfecting one of his company's projects. Once the project is complete, Alva often terminates the scientist's employment. Based in Dakota City, Alva is considered one of the richest people in the world and lives on Dakota Hills Boulevard with his son, Edwin Alva Junior. At one time, he believed his son would one day take over the company but as the years passed he had nothing but contempt for Junior and buried himself in work. He is also equally corrupt and engages in various illegal activities such as weapons smuggling. The Mayor of Dakota appears to be privy to this but Alva's various financial philanthropy is too important for the city and she covers up any implications.
While attending a Grand Jury hearing, all charges on Alva were dropped. Some of Alva's contributions include funding the Vanmoor Institute and donating to the Freeman Community Center. When Alva's Quantum Vapor was set off in the Big Bang, the confiscated remains were never traced to him. Concerned with the Mayor as a liability, Alva ordered his assistant York to erase all record of the mutagen formula and shipping records from the hard drives. He arrived at company headquarters to witness Static flee the scene. Alva became interested in Static and chose him as a test subject for his bioresearch team to study. He assigned Specs & Trapper, from Vanmoor, to create a device to capture Static alive. Static proved more resourceful and lured the Alva Machine straight to Alva's home. In another public relations event, Alva attended a black tie affair at the Freeman Community Center to commemorate a new addition he funded, the Edwin Alva Gymnasium.
The sudden appearance of a metahuman named Omnifarious and his attacks on Alva Industries infuriated Alva, but more so when Static revealed the new vigilante was his son. Alva attempted to call off his security team but it took Static's intervention with an electromagnetic pulse. Junior overexposed himself to Quantum Vapor and was transformed into a stone statue. Alva then seemingly abandoned his campaign to capture Static and focused his company on curing Junior. He even recruited Specs & Trapper to work on the project. However, the duo went rogue and tried to capture Static, only to damage the machines that would restore Alva's son. Frustrated, Specs & Trapper kidnapped Junior and held him for ransom. After running into a dead end, Alva enlisted Static's help. In exchange for saving his son, Alva gave a $10 million endowment to the Freeman Community Center.
However, Alva's team concluded that Junior could only be saved by an energy transfusion from several Bang Babies. He arranged for Rubberband Man, Talon, Gear, HotStreak, and Static to be the donors. Each were kidnapped, subjected to a power dampener, and taken to an island facility. Static and HotStreak escaped their transport and freed the others. When the duo willingly transferred their energy and restored Junior, Alva allowed the Bang Babies to leave and even let HotStreak keep a company hovercraft. He formally ended his feud with Static, as well. A short time later, Alva recruited Static, Gear, and Rubberband Man to help stop Specs & Trapper, again, after they stole from Alva. After supplying the trio with the shutdown procedure, Alva publicly offered a $1 million reward for the return of the device while his company's research satellites scanned for anomalous electromagnetic energy signatures given off by it.
With the crisis averted, Alva continued with dismantling company projects dedicated to Static including one Dr. Robert's, an extensive supercomputer network to find out Static's secret identity. When Roberts realized he wasn't going to fund her Project Omni, she refused to be transferred and Alva fired her. When Static began to attack certain labs and transports, Alva realized Roberts was using him somehow but had to evacuate when she threatened to blow up Alva Industries.