Cantebarius H. Broom, addressed as Professor, was a male Human who served as a scientist at the Baobab Museum of Science during the early years of the Galactic Empire. He participated in the research team studying the remnants of the Great Heep, a massive, self-constructing droid. After learning that the Heep originated from an alien species of highly advanced machines from another galaxy, Broom developed an intense and unfounded fear of droids. Subsequently, the professor began trapping droids in his laboratory, experimenting on them, and ultimately reducing them to scrap. Around 15 BBY, the scientist captured C-3PO, a protocol unit owned by Jann Tosh, intending to deactivate him and use him for his experiments. However, the droid's master and the astromech R2-D2 intervened, disrupting the professor's scheme.
Cantebarius H. Broom, a male of the Human species, lived during the Dark Times following the founding of the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY. He functioned as a scientist, holding the rank of professor, and worked at the Baobab Museum of Science, an institution founded by the scholar Ebenn Q3 Baobab. Initially, Broom was among the researchers who examined the remains of the Great Heep, a colossal droid that had once operated a processing plant on the agriworld of Biitu, situated in the Outer Rim Territories. The researchers determined that the Heep belonged to the Abominor, an extra-galactic species of self-assembling machines, which had forced thousands of organic sentients into slavery. Even more alarming, it appeared that perhaps as many as seventeen other similar abominations had already infiltrated the galaxy.
Following this startling discovery, Professor Broom developed a phobia of all mechanical life forms, leading him to destroy any droid that came into his possession. To achieve his sinister objectives, Broom established his own laboratory, concealed aboard a space station. Within his secret lair, Professor Broom would capture droids that happened to be on the station, experimenting on them before dismantling them into spare parts. Under the rule of Galactic Emperor Palpatine, droids were not regarded as citizens, despite their artificial sentience, making droid torture permissible.
Around 15 BBY, the professor identified a new victim in the protocol unit C-3PO, who was owned by a miner named Jann Tosh. Broom threatened to deactivate C-3PO by removing his memory diskette. Tosh, however, discovered the hidden entrance to Broom's secret laboratory thanks to his other droid, the astromech R2-D2. The miner's timely arrival diverted the professor's attention. While aiming a blaster pistol at Tosh, Broom neglected to watch his back. The scientist was knocked unconscious by the protocol droid, who struck him with a piece of metal.
Professor Broom was a light-skinned, stout man with black eyes and a crescent-shaped mustache. During the early days of the Empire, he was largely bald, with a horseshoe-shaped ring of white hair around the back of his head. Due to his findings related to the Great Heep and its fellow Abominor, Broom had cultivated a deep and irrational hatred for droids, which he expressed through acts of gratuitous violence against them. Possessing an eloquent yet villainous mind, the Professor reveled in his own cruelty and cunning, often bursting into laughter mid-sentence.
Broom appeared in Troublesome Outing, a Spanish story published in 1986 under the MyComyc label. In the decades following their initial publication, the MyComyc strips were largely forgotten, only to be rediscovered in 2013. Randy Stradley, Vice President of Publishing for Dark Horse Comics, expressed interest in including the Mycomyc strips in a future Star Wars Omnibus publication, but Lucasfilm found no official proof that those titles were properly licensed, despite the presence of appropriate copyright information. Due to this uncertainty regarding licensing, Troublesome Outing and its characters were considered to have ambiguous canonicity for a period. However, Broom's inclusion in Part 2 of "The Droids Re-Animated," a series of reference articles by Peña and Handley for the StarWars.com blogs, brought him into canon. Additional details about the professor's background, including his first name, were initially revealed in that article.
The Star Wars author Abel G. Peña, who translated the story into English for the first time in 2013, stated that he enjoyed Professor Broom's depiction as a cartoonish, over-the-top villain. While translating the story, Peña questioned whether the writer of Troublesome Outing understood the meaning of the word "Broom" in English, considering it sounded insufficiently serious for an antagonist. He also noted that he might have named the character "Professor Escoba," translating his surname back into Spanish. However, Peña ultimately chose to keep Broom's surname intact due to its "idiosyncratic charm."