The "brothers" had sharply opposed personalities, rarely could come to agreement, and as such pursued separate criminal careers. William, though timid and shy in his civilian personality, was a flamboyant, confrontational jokester in his Brother Grimm guise. After debuting with a robbery of a theatre, he pursued the more lucrative pursuit of stealing from diamond merchants. In contrast, Jake was flirtatious in his civilian identity but cold and dispassionate as Brother Grimm, preferring less publicly visible crimes such as extortion. He was also less skilled with his abilities than William; while William was able to consistently defeat Spider-Woman, Jake was defeated in both his confrontations with her, and William had to free him from prison. William was later hired by Pyrotechnics to capture Spider-Woman, and succeeded.