Origin
Mr. Bridwell is an old man who lives on the north side of Astro City in an old boarding house. He claims to have worked as a craftsman for 45 years in a windowless basement, and now likes to spend his time outside in the fresh air. None of this is true however. "Mr. Bridwell" is actually an Enelsian scout who has covertly been observing Earth's super-humans for his people, and is charged with alerting his people when (or if) it is time to invade.
Major Story Arc
Reconnaissance
The Enelsian known as Mr. Bridwell had spent years already observing the various super-humans of Astro City. So far, he'd done very little except for grow increasingly tired of the nonstop chattering of the various old ladies that lived in the same boarding house as him. Even though he'd long documented enough data on Earth, Bridwell was for some reason hesitant to send the order to invade back to his people.
One evening however, Bridwell's communications equipment had apparently caused a short in the boarding house's old wiring, resulting in a terrible fire. Bridwell was the only resident remaining in the building, but soon found himself being rescued by Crackerjack. Despite Crackerjack's bumbling, he managed to get Bridwell out of the burning building. As the building collapsed however, Crackerjack yelled out, "Oh no! My record collection!" This caused Bridwell and the other boarding house residents to realize that Crackerjack had actually been long-unemployed boarding house resident, Eugene Wallace. As the other residents started chattering about this development, Bridwell decided to finally make a decision. Since Crackerjack had proclaimed himself to be such an exemplary hero, he would spy on him and use him to decide whether humanity deserved to live or be enslaved by his race.
Crackerjack turned out to be an utter disappointment however. He defeated criminals - like Steel Devil - only by blind luck, he was sloppy in his work, he took credit for other heroes' achievements, and yet he still considered himself a successful hero. Despite Crackerjack being a disappointment however, Bridwell felt that the human race was much like his own had been, young and weak, but that there was potential in them nonetheless. Bridwell therefore decided to tell his people that humanity was simply too indomitable to be worth the effort of invasion, and that there would be no real profit in it. As he returned to what was left of the boarding house however, Bridwell came upon a news crew interviewing the boarding house residents about the reveal of Crackerjack's secret identity. Infuriated by the women's endless chattering about it, Bridwell finally had had enough and told his people to begin the invasion.
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