The team first appeared in Blood Syndicate #1 (April 1993), and was created by Dwayne McDuffie, Ivan Velez Jr. and Denys Cowan.

In fact, they were the surviving remnants of multiple street gangs (thus the name, a combination of "Paris Island Bloods" and "Force Syndicate"), who had gained superpowers in the so-called Big Bang, and decided to use them for a greater purpose.

However, their constant in-fighting, the unsustainability of their methods, and their lack of a central vision (particularly after the death of their first leader) led to the Syndicate's eventual disintegration.

The "Big Bang" refers to an incident in which gang members from all over Dakota met in one, huge battle.

Unknown to them, or even to the police involved, the tear gas used to disperse them was laced with a mutative agent called "quantum juice".

Many gang members and police officers died, while others transformed according to their state of mind or what they were close to when the gas hit them.

A police officer gained the power to emit golden energy blasts and joined the Shadow Cabinet as Oro.

The Dakota Chronicle, the city's most popular newspaper sent reporter, Roberta "Rob" Chaplik, to score an interview with the Syndicate.

[1] Holocaust challenged Tech Nine for leadership of the gang, and by the rules they'd set down, they had trial by combat to choose which of them would be the leader.

Tech Nine took a horrible beating, but thanks to Holocaust's arrogance and his own power of unlimited gunfire/telekinetic control over his guns, he won the fight.

Boogieman was a big help in fighting the armored security guards protecting the place, and Brickhouse remembered being experimented on in that very lab.

The gang went back to their home (an abandoned factory on the land where the Big Bang took place) to celebrate with food and beer.

As Wise Son sought to fill Tech's shoes, the team faced multiple threats and disasters.

Wing felt that he had to get revenge at all costs, and murdered his own wife in a supernatural ritual and summoned the Demon Fox.

In the process, the Fox revealed their deepest secrets; the various revelations hurt worse than the significant physical damage from the fight.

The Syndicate had to fight alongside the heroes they knew (Static, Icon, Rocket, Hardware) and with Superman, Superboy and Steel from the DC universe.

Eventually they all manipulated Rift into reversing the damage he caused and to go into hibernation, where he couldn't alter reality any further.

This widened the growing rift in the team and prompted Third and Brick to take their remaining money and leave the gang to start a life together.

She traveled to her home realm, Kwen Lun, the Wondrous Lands, in a desperate attempt to gain at least one more buffer life.

Upon returning home, Kwai met with her old friend, the Monkey King, and the two pleaded to her father, the Jade Emperor for another life.

In the Kingdom of Ti Yu (Hell), Kwai was offered marriage to the Dog God to save her existence, but decides she couldn't marry him and went to meet the Grey Lady.

There she learned that her entire existence as Kwai was nothing more than entertainment for the gods of the Wondrous Lands in the form of a never-ending battle against the Demon Fox.

Wise Son was responsible for stopping it, as chronicled in the Milestone crossover event Long Hot Summer.

A few days later, while recounting the events of the past ordeal to Rob Chaplik, Dogg appeared before Wise Son and told him that "the Syndicate isn't over; it's just stopped for a while is all".

Following the death of Darkseid (as chronicled in Final Crisis), the space-time continuum was torn asunder, threatening the existence of both the Dakotaverse and the mainstream DC universe.

The being known as Dharma was able to use energies that he harnessed from Rift (upon that being's defeat in Worlds Collide) to merge the two universes, creating an entirely new continuity.

[4] In the revised continuity, Holocaust has been defeated in battle by Static (now a member of the Teen Titans) and the similarly powered Black Lightning (of the Justice League of America).