Monday, August 31, 2015

Super villain Monday: continuity, time travel and woo hoo time changed, plus the Fatal 5


So...I've been avoiding this subject pretty hard.  I have not wanted to approach the Legion of Super Heroes, the 31st century, or anything that might lead me into a conversation that involved Clark Kent the Superboy.
I am not a fan of the Superboy, the original I mean.  Cloned Superboys grown in laboratories do not play hell and havoc with continuities or time streams.  They don't mess with the future or inspire teams of teen heroes who have much too much admiration for Lad, Lass, Boy, Girl, and Kid at the end of their hero code names.

There have been many reboots and many conceptions of the LSH, always a little cheesy, accept for the 5years later arc, there should have been more of that.

But this is super villain Monday and we should be talking about bad guys.  The Legion has never been strong on their own villains.  They have had to borrow and lend to earlier centuries and fight their evil counterparts is the Legion of Super Villains.
But the coolest team of villains ever to rise up in the future and really challenge the heroes has been the extra villainous 
Fatal Five
Originally a gang of super-criminals assembled by the Legion of Super-Heroes to help them destroy the Sun-Eaterthreatening Earth, the Emerald EmpressManoThe Persuader, and Validus, led by Tharok, subsequently clashed with the Legion many times.

Emerald Empress aka Sarya was born and raised on Venegar. As a young women, she became obsessed with attaining power, influence, wealth, and immortality. Through a stroke of luck, Sarya stumbled into a cave that held the Emerald Eye of Ekron. The Eye was attracted by her strong emotions and the two formed a bond with each other. As Emerald Empress, she conquered her planet and several in its solar system. After installing a dictatorship, she was quickly met with rebellion. Empress fled Venegar and spent years as a pirate. Empress was soon resigned to her original goals, and formed the Fatal Five to conquer the United Planets.

Tharok-While on the run on Zadron, a petty thief was caught in the explosion of a nuclear device he stole when the Science Police tried to shoot him. Half his body was instantly vaporized. He was rushed into emergency surgery and attached to a robotic half. Tharok was gifted with heightened intelligence through his robotic side. Tharok escaped his prison and went on a crime spree. He later joined the Fatal Five, a collective of the worst criminals according to the Science Police. The criminals were however brought to justice through the combined efforts of the Legion of Superheroes.

Validus was a gigantic and almost mindless creature who acted as a member of the Fatal Five, and fought against the Legion of Superheroes. He followed the Emerald Empress' every command.

The Persuader aka Nyeun Chun Ti is a member of the Fatal Five and a mortal enemy of the Legion of Superheroes. His Atomic Axe can cut through anything, even Superman's flesh. Nyuen Chun Ti grew up to believe that the most important thing was to be able to prove his self-worth. As a result, he got into many fights as a child. As an adult, he was genetically modified to be able to work on heavy gravity mining colonies. As a result, his physical attributes were increased. This only elevated his ideology. Shortly after, he went to Minerstown on the Asteroid Archipelago for work. Ti soon confronted the foreman, Wolf Bebach and killed him. Ti took his Atomic Axe, the Persuader for his own as a trophy. He then decided to take the Axe's name and became an assassin for hire. Over the years, Persuader formed a psychic link with the axe and the two couldn't be separated for long. After 10 years of killing, the Persuader joined the Fatal Five, a group of the Science Police's most wanted criminals.


Mano was born on Angtu, a world so polluted that inhabitants are required to wear special oxygen helmets to survive. When a woman was pregnant, her helmet was cracked and she inhaled some of the pollutants in the air. She gave birth to a dark-skinned child who could breathe freely on Angtu and could disintegrate anything with a mere touch. Mano became an outcast because of his uniqueness and he grew more and more resentful. This repressed anger manifested as psychopathic urges. Mano began murdering people. When the Science Police failed to arrest him, Mano destroyed Angtu and started a career as an assassin for hire. He later joined the Fatal Five, a collective of the worst criminals according to the Science Police. The criminals were however brought to justice through the combined efforts of the Legion of Superheroes.

Separately these guys were trouble but together they were evil incarnate.
The only trouble was the consistency.  Reboot after a Reboot had changed the origin of the characters.  In some incarnations Validus is an ancient lightning God, in others he is the son of Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad crossed with som Darkseid interference.

Sometimes the Emerald Empress is. Serial killer who uses green gem Stoney type knives, and is called the Emerald Empress before she is in possession of the Emerald Eye.

These facts, coupled with a tendency to change the future over and over again is makes Legion continuity hard to deal with.  You would think that by now a comic set 1 thousand years in the future would not b an issue, but somehow...
It's the guest stars, anytime a present day character visits the future it becomes a fixed point in continuity, not just for the character but fo the whole fictional 31st century, and every time there is a reboot, that fixed point needs to be rectified.
Time travel sucks

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