- Superman: "You know what they say about people who play with fire?"
Toaster Leader: "Yeah, they get burned!" - —The Toasters confronted by Superman
The Toasters are characters in the series.
They were a group of four insane arsonists who enjoyed watching things burn. Their name comes from the powerful flamethrowers they carry called "Toasters".
Biography[]
Originally a group of street punks who engaged in crimes of low importance, they were approached by Toni Taylor who gave them each a special flame thrower called a toaster. The collaboration would work this way; the Toasters would set fires to scare people in the area. This would intimidate Johnny Taylor, the owner of the Metro (the most successful nightclub in the city) and the leader of a gang by the same name, into signing over his club to her. In addition, they were hired to attack nightclubs and businesses which rivalled the Metro.
They began causing arson fires all over Metropolis until Toni asked them to help set her brother Johnny up at the Metro club.
They did just that, frightening Johnny and leaving great devastation before they left, even leaving their name in burnt letters on a wall.
Johnny was sent away and Toni became the new owner of the club, but the Toasters didn't want their fun to stop and decided to keep on causing destruction just for the sake of enjoyment.
Toni confronted them at their hideaway demanding that they return the toasters to her, but the gang leader refused to relinquish the weapons. He said that they were sick of being bossed around by her and were going to strike out on their own. Toni warned that her gang of the Metros would overpower the Toasters. The gang leader did agree that could be for now, but there were plenty of other rambunctious street punks who got their thrills out of destroying private property and they could easily recruit into their gang, and soon there would be forty Toasters, or maybe even four hundred. Toni also tried to intimidate them by saying they were too stupid to figure out the toaster flame thrower on their own. The gang leader did fully agree with that statement, but believed by some unknown method they would figure it out (presumably with enough money and manpower they could hire an intellectual to reverse engineer the "toasters", then mass produce them).
They decide to have a "barbecue" planned for the next day, starting at the wharf and working their way back to the Metro club, burning all the buildings that sat on the bank of the West River to the ground. They then tied Toni up and left her behind after telling her that they would get back to her after they had their fun, if the rats didn't get to her first.
They then began burning everything in sight as they went through the city. Superman intervened and they turned their toasters on him with little effect. Superman decided to "cool them off" by freezing them stiff with his freeze breath.
The gang leader told the Man of Steel through chattering teeth that he couldn't leave them like this. Superman replied not to worry, the Metropolis Police were on their way and would find a "nice toasty cell" for them. They were assumed to be imprisoned after this along with Toni for her involvement in creating them.