BIOGRAPHY
Jericho Drumm was born in a village near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with his twin brother Daniel. As a young teen, fate would lead Jericho to believe he was cursed for the rest of his days. While deadheading on a train passing through town, Jericho and Daniel were trying to look cool with a pair of older boys named Obed and Wilkenson. These teens accosted a homeless man on the train and threatened to throw his suitcase with all his belongings from the car. Jericho tried to stop them, so they changed tactics and tried to peer pressure the timid Daniel into doing it for them. To keep the boys from pushing Daniel any further, Jericho took the old man’s bag and threw it from the train himself.
The old man had sat placid and unmoving through the whole exchange until his bag was disposed of. At that point, he leapt to his feet and called Jericho Drumm by name, cursing him for the insult 
and the weakness he showed. He cursed Jericho till the end of his days, and everybody who ever thought to love him. The threat was intimidating enough but, by the time Jericho and Daniel got home that evening, they realized how serious it was. Their Aunt Matilda and the police were waiting for the boys, for their parents had been murdered in a grisly manner. It appears the old man had found their house and carried out his own curse with a knife. The loss of his mother and father had a deep impact on Jericho, and he would consciously or subconsciously remember the curse upon him for years to come. [Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural #2]
Jericho was presumably born before Daniel, as he was the intended successor for their people’s houngan. Their people still followed the old ways of the Loa and celebrated a local houngan or “witch-doctor” to watch over the spirits of the living and the dead in their village. Though it was considered an honor, Jericho chose not to follow the traditions of his people. Running from his curse meant denying it existed at all and distancing himself from the old ways of voodoo. He left Haiti to study abroad in America and did not return for more than twelve years. In Jericho’s absence, Daniel Drumm trained under Papa Jambo to claim the title of Brother Voodoo instead. Jericho graduated from medical school in time, becoming a physician, a psychologist and even a published author living in an old mansion on the shores of the Mississippi River in his adopted city of New Orleans, Louisiana.
However, one day, Jericho received word that Daniel had fallen ill, and he returned to Port-au-Prince for the first time in over a decade to see to his ailing twin. Daniel had been cursed by Damballah, another houngan claiming to be the living Loa given form. Daniel denounced Damballah as a false god and, while he bested Damballah physically, the zobop (“black magic” houngan) cursed Daniel with a fatal spell once he reached a safe distance. As Jericho tried to treat Daniel’s illness in the house in which they were born, Damballah and his followers surrounded the residence and chanted the rites of passage until Daniel succumbed. With his last words, Daniel urged Jericho to seek out his teacher Papa Jambo. A grieving Jericho strode out of the house to confront Damballah, but the houngan gave Jericho a humiliating beating.
The next day, Jericho brought his brother’s body out into the jungle wilderness to find Papa Jambo. Damballah’s serpent servants tried to stop him, but Doctor Drumm reached Papa Jambo’s hut. Jericho thought he would recruit Jambo to defeat Damballah, but instead Papa Jambo insisted it was time for Jericho to learn the voodoo magic of his brother. Accepting his fate, Jericho trained under Papa Jambo to claim the mantle of Brother Voodoo. Jericho proved to be the finest student Papa Jambo had had in generations and quickly mastered the arts of the Loa. As a final lesson, Papa Jambo guided him through the ritual to claim Legba’s ultimate spell, the legacy of the first Lord of the Loa. Jericho summoned the spirit of his brother Daniel and merged with it, 
becoming possessed by the spirit that he now controlled. As it began with Laurent and Alexandre, only twins could successfully carry a second soul within themselves like this. Marked by his brother’s symbol and having his hair streaked white by the exertion, Jericho Drumm now officially became Brother Voodoo, the Lord of the Loa and the Man Who Lived Twice. Because of the strain of channeling Legba’s spell, Papa Jambo then peacefully died in Jericho’s arms, content that he had ensured his successor.
Ready for a rematch, Brother Voodoo returned to Port-au-Prince to confront the false god, Damballah. The Serpent God sought to entertain the Council of Vaudou from around the globe, claiming the title of Voodoo Master of the World for his victory over Brother Voodoo. Jericho challenged Damballah’s claims and quickly disposed of his cult of followers. Brother Voodoo and Damballah fought man-to-man, though Damballah soon recoiled again from a physical fight. He summoned an army of serpents to defeat Voodoo, but Jericho now held the power to redirect the creatures himself. He also noticed Damballah relied upon the wangal amulet on his neck as a conduit for his power. Daniel’s spirit possessed a cultist as a distraction, and Damballah was soon 
relieved of his totem. Without its power, Damballah's own reptiles turned against him, and he was consumed. Damballah’s manservant Bambu revealed he only served he who wielded the sacred amulet and placed it upon Jericho’s neck. Brother Voodoo declared he had no need for a servant, but he accepted Bambu as a respected ally. [Strange Tales (1st series) #169-170]
Brother Voodoo would split his time after that between Haiti and New Orleans, with Bambu acting as his valet. Jericho Drumm remained committed to his old path as a doctor and psychologist, but also accepted the world of voodoo and acted as a consultant in all fields to which he was privy. His reputation grew and Jericho was sought out by Jerome Hayes and Eliah Ward, co-owners of a Haitian electronics plant. Their business was inexplicably attacked by Baron Samedi and an army of zombies, including Jerome’s own recently deceased cousin. They asked for Dr. Drumm’s aid, and Brother Voodoo accepted. Neither Jericho nor a United Nations pathologist could make sense of a zuvembie captured at the plant, who seemed neither alive nor dead by their medical and mystical standards.
While searching the local cemeteries for clues, Brother Voodoo was assaulted by Baron Samedi and his zuvembie hordes. Jericho was captured, but he learned Samedi was a charlatan who used technology, not voodoo, in the service of Advanced Idea Mechanics. A brain-drain device 
developed by Baron Samedi mechanically eliminated the minds of victims to turn them into slaves. He tried using it on Brother Voodoo, but Jericho’s animal servants sabotaged the equipment. Not only was Brother Voodoo freed, but the zuvembie regained their senses as well. As Jericho led the freed men from the A.I.M. base, Baron Samedi and his technicians perished in the destructive collapse of the hideout. [Strange Tales (1st series) #171]
[Note: Names have power in voodoo, and so Brother Voodoo’s earliest enemies were named Damballah and Baron Samedi after the Vodu gods to evoke fear and respect from their victims. Many Loa do possess living hosts, and so the houngan Damballah’s claim to be the mortal incarnation of the god Damballah was a strong possibility in their faith. As a complication, the Vodu god Dam-Ayido Wede appropriated the name Damballah for himself, stolen from a spawn of Set the Elder God. Both the morally neutral Vodu Damballah and the truly evil Serpent God Damballah may answer houngan’s prayers, leading to confusion at times.]
One evening, Jericho spotted a young woman thrashing in the Mississippi and leapt into the river to rescue her. Once she revived at his mansion, Jericho learned she was Loralee Tate, a nurse 
and daughter of the New Orleans PD chief of detectives. Earlier that day, she received a threatening package which contained a black rooster and a note claiming she was marked by the dark lord. On her way home, she was attacked by the dark lord’s cultists and driven off the road by a malevolent and intentional fog. As Brother Voodoo digested her story, the cultists found Loralee’s trail and attacked the mansion. Jericho held his ground against the cultists, but the same fog rolled in and put him to sleep, leading to Loralee’s capture.
Brother Voodoo soon awakened to the sight of Samuel Tate and Detective Pete Hawkins responding to check on Loralee. Tate explained that three other young women had been threatened and then killed by the black rooster in recent weeks. Jericho sought out Mama Limbo, a blind servant of the Loa who used her gifts to read the bones and see beyond sight. Mama saw peril ahead for Brother Voodoo but directed his quest towards the house on Headtaker’s Hill known as the Castle of the Forsaken. On the Hill, Jericho met the new master of the house, 
Desmond Drew. Through hypnosis, Brother Voodoo confirmed to his satisfaction that Drew knew nothing of Loralee and the black rooster killings. On his way out, however, Jericho was again confronted by the Fiend in the Fog and the dark lord’s cultists. After a brief skirmish, Brother Voodoo came to suspect the true nature of the macabre fog and allowed himself to be captured. At the dark lord’s temple, he finally met the perpetrator of the dark lord’s wishes, the voodoo priest known as the Black Talon. [Strange Tales (1st series) #172-173]
Bound to an inverted cross, Brother Voodoo was forced to watch as Black Talon and the cultists prepared to sacrifice Loralee to the dark lord. Jericho used Daniel’s spirit to compel a dagger-wielding cultist to free his bonds, and he attempted to escape with the unconscious Loralee. Once her body was safely hidden, Brother Voodoo turned to re-engage with the Black Talon. He challenged the evil houngan and managed to overpower him physically, only to be struck down from behind. When he awoke, Jericho saw that Mama Limbo was behind the “cult of the dark lord.” He realized that there was no true Loa involved in the cult, merely Mama’s hypnotic powers of voodoo that created the Fiend in the Fog and compelled her cultists. Mama Limbo hoped to sacrifice young and nubile ingénue to regain her own vitality. Jericho fought to free himself from 
the hypnotic paralysis Mama imposed and the damaged cross fell from the ceiling to crush the spirit woman. Freed from her spell, the cultists turned on the Black Talon, revealed as Mama’s son Desmond Drew. (Because of their earlier session, Jericho believed Desmond was merely another spellbound pawn of his mother, but the mob engulfed him too quickly for Drew to be saved.) Brother Voodoo escaped the unstable temple with Loralee Tate and returned her to the care of her grateful father. [Tales of the Zombie #6]