Fatal Five

Fatal Five
Cover art for Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 4) #120, featuring four of the Fatal Five with Brainiac 5 and Gates, by Phil Jimenez.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Adventure Comics #352 (January 1967)
Created by	Jim Shooter
In-story information
Member(s)	Founders: Emerald Empress Mano Persuader Tharok Validus Substitutes: Flare Caress Mentalla Mordecai

The Fatal Five is a supervillain team of the 30th century in the DC Comics universe.^[1] They were created by Jim Shooter and first appeared in Adventure Comics #352 (1967) as enemies of the Legion of Super-Heroes.^[2]

Fictional team history

The Fatal Five first appeared in The Death of Ferro Lad story arc, as a band of super-criminals whom the Legion recruited to help destroy the Sun-Eater threatening Earth, consisting of the Emerald Empress, Mano, the Persuader, and Validus, and led by Tharok.^[3] Afterwards, they are offered pardons for their assistance, but reject them and banded together, confident that they are powerful enough to try to conquer the worlds they had saved.^[2]

A later incarnation consisted of the Emerald Empress; the Persuader; Flare, a Rimborian with the power of fire; Caress, who had a deadly acidic touch; and Mentalla, a Legion reject who was secretly working against the Five, trying to secure a spot in the Legion.

The first storyline in Legionnaires (1993) had the SW6 Legion face a Fatal Five comprising Tharok, Mano, the Persuader, a new Emerald Empress and a monstrous being called Mordecai.

Zero Hour

Following the Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! Legion reboot, the original Fatal Five was reintroduced in Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 4) #78 (1996), again assembled to help fight the Sun-Eater, which was later revealed to not exist. Notably, in this incarnation, the analogue of the Emerald Empress is simply called the "Empress" and is more a skilled melee combatant than a magic user.

In the Teen Titans/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover, the Persuader used his "atomic axe" to bring Fatal Five teams from other dimensions, forming the Fatal Five-Hundred^[4] before the two teams use the Cosmic Treadmill to return the alternate Fatal Fives to their original universes.^[5]

One Year Later

In The Brave and the Bold, Epoch takes a version of the Fatal Five to the present day to assist him in gaining a powerful weapon. After Batman and the Blue Beetle defeat him, he abandons them in the 21st century. After Batman and Tharok were accidentally merged into one being, the group was returned to the future, where they appear to be already in the Legion's prison.

Final Crisis

All five Fatal Five members were among the supervillains in Superman-Prime's Legion of Super-Villains.

DC Rebirth

In DC Rebirth, the Emerald Empress comes to the 21st century to destroy Saturn Girl, only to also fight Supergirl. To combat Supergirl after failing to take her down on her own, she forms the 21st century version of the Fatal Five consisting of Magog, Brainiac 8, and the sorceress Selena. In addition, Selena strengthens the Fatal Five by creating a mindless clone of Solomon Grundy. The Fatal Five then begin their attack on Supergirl. After breaking Indigo, Supergirl thwarts the Emerald Empress' plot where she fades away to the future, causing the people of National City to think that Supergirl killed her.^[6]

Members

Emerald Empress

Mano

Mano is a mutant born with the power to disintegrate anything that he touches by generating antimatter from his right hand. A native of the polluted world Angtu, which he destroyed for his people mistreating him, Mano must wear an environment suit because he cannot breathe the atmosphere of most other planets. The suit's helmet obscures his face so that it appears as a silhouette.

Considered one of the worst murderers in the galaxy, Mano was recruited by the Legion themselves to help defeat the Sun-Eater, after which he continued his criminal career, mainly as a member of the Fatal Five.^[2]

Persuader (Nyeun Chun Ti)

The Persuader came from a heavy-gravity planet, and as such has enhanced physical abilities. Before becoming a supervillain, he was a gang enforcer who gained his name from his ability to thoroughly intimidate his victims.^[7]

The Persuader wields an "atomic axe" on a long shaft, resembling a halberd. It is mentally linked to him and can allegedly cut through anything, occasionally including purely metaphoric or intangible things, such as air, the force of gravity, or the separation between dimensions.^[8]

Tharok

Tharok is the leader of the Fatal Five.^[9][10]

Tharok is a small-time crook, who tries to impress his bosses by stealing a small nuclear device. It detonates unexpectedly when the local police fire on him, vertically bisecting his body.^[11] The people of his world, holding life sacred, rebuild him using robotic parts, which greatly boosts his intelligence, but leaves his evil tendencies unchecked. He can also control Validus, the mindless monster member of the Fatal Five.^[2]

One of the Fatal Five's main attempts to defeat the Legion is masterminded by the Dark Man, the being who organized several teenage refugees from the planet Dryad into the League of Super-Assassins.^[12] During this time, it is revealed that the Dark Man is a clone of Tharok, grown from tissue removed from his body during his cyborg reconstruction. When the scheme to destroy the Legion fails, both Tharok and the Dark Man are seemingly destroyed,^[13] and the Fatal Five eventually disband.^[14]

Post-Zero Hour

Following the Zero Hour Legion reboot, Tharok is introduced in Legionnaires #34 (February 1996). In this version he stole a powerful solvent rather than a nuclear device and when the police shot at him, the container was punctured. The solvent severed every molecular bond on the left-hand side of his body. A brilliant surgeon rebuilt him as a cyborg and an ungrateful Tharok then killed him. Tharok later upgrades his robot half, giving it more built-in weaponry.

Post-Infinite Crisis

In the aftermath of the Infinite Crisis miniseries, most of the Legion's original continuity has been restored. Tharok (alongside the other Fatal Five members) was among the supervillains who partook in Superboy-Prime and the Legion of Super-Villains' assault on the Legion.^[15]

Powers and abilities

In the pre-Infinite Crisis continuity, the entire left-hand side of Tharok's body is mechanical. It possesses great strength and durability and the arm can be configured into various weapon forms. It also has a cybernetic brain that is connected to Tharok's own, giving him genius-level intelligence. In the current continuity, Tharok's upper body is wholly humanoid, while below his waist, he has a robotic carriage on wheels.

Validus

In the latter half of the 30th century, an entity known as the Sun-Eater threatened to consume Earth's Sun, thus destroying the Solar System.^[16] Desperate to stop the Sun-Eater's efforts, Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes recruited the aid of the Fatal Five. They discovered that Validus was among their ranks, but did not know of his past. The Fatal Five reluctantly agreed to help the Legion and the Sun-Eater's efforts were averted. Validus remained a loyal member of the Fatal Five, always ready to do Tharok's bidding.^[2] During one memorable altercation with the Legion, Validus killed Lyle Norg, the original Invisible Kid.

It was later revealed that Validus is the son of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, who was kidnapped at birth by Darkseid, transformed into a monster, and transported back in time, with the idea that either the parent or the child would kill the other.^[17]

Years later, Darkseid manipulated Validus against Lightning Lad, placing him in a situation where the Legionnaire would be forced to kill him to save the life of his other son, Graym. Thanks to Saturn Girl's efforts, the plot was averted and both parents discovered that Validus was their child. Soon after, Validus was returned to his normal form, and was renamed Garridan.

During the "Five Years Later" era chronicled in Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 4), it is revealed that Darkseid's tampering with Garridan's body created a virus dubbed "the Validus Plague", which only affected natives of Winath and Titan (the home worlds of Garridan's parents). As a result, Garridan was forced to wear a containment suit, with a similar enigmatic behemoth dubbed Mordecai replacing him in the Fatal Five.

After the events of the Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! miniseries, the Legion's continuity was rebooted and Validus' origin was changed considerably, giving him no explicit connection to Lightning Lad or Saturn Girl. In the "Threeboot" continuity, Validus is a nature spirit worshiped on Winath, and also known as the Lord of Lightning. Mekt Ranzz was a member of a cult that worshipped him.

Validus appears on the cover of Justice League of America (vol. 2) #13 as a member of the latest incarnation of the Injustice League.

Alongside the other Fatal Five members, Validus was among the villains in Superboy-Prime's Legion of Super-Villains.^[18] Garridan Ranzz (along with his twin brother Graym) was depicted as a young child living with Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad.^[19] Thus, it appears that Validus and Garridan are not the same being in current continuity; or that this Validus is from a different moment in time.

Powers and abilities

The classic Validus possessed tremendous superhuman strength, enabling him to easily overpower even the Silver Age Superboy; in fact, on one occasion, it took the combined strength of Kryptonian-level heroes Superboy, Mon-El and Ultra Boy just to knock him down and on another, Superboy estimated that Validus possessed 12 times his strength. Validus was shown to be strong enough to tear an entire planet apart with his bare hands. In addition, Validus could fire energy bolts from his brain that were powerful enough to incapacitate a Kryptonian or Daxamite with a single hit. He was extremely resistant to all forms of harm and sometimes seemed not even to notice super-powered attacks against him by members of the Legion. He was able to fend off even the Sun-Eater to rescue Princess Projectra (showing that he was not innately evil). He was also capable of flight through space and was immune to telepathy. His first appearance did define some limitations to his power: he could be held in a cell with thick inertron walls and it was believed that he could be executed with a bombardment of anti-energy.

Other versions

A version of the Fatal Five appeared in Tangent Comics, composed of the Tangent Comics versions of Ice, the Shadow Thief, Kid Psycho, Deathstroke and Count Viper. They next appear in a flashback in the Tangent: Superman's Reign miniseries (2008), in which they are shown to have slaughtered the second Atom. This version of the Fatal Five exist on Earth-97 of the old Multiverse, which has been reborn as Earth-9 of the new Multiverse.

In other media

Television

• The original Fatal Five appear in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Far From Home", with Cara Kesh / Emerald Empress voiced by Joanne Whalley, Tharok by Tomas Arana, Persuader by an uncredited Kin Shriner, and Mano and Validus having no dialogue.^[20][21][22]
• The original Fatal Five appear in Legion of Super Heroes, with Sarya / Emerald Empress voiced by Jennifer Hale in the first season and Tara Strong in the second, Tharok by David Lodge, Persuader by David Sobolov, and Mano and Validus having no dialogue.^[20][22][21] This version of the group is co-led by the Emerald Empress and Tharok. In the second season, Imperiex frees the Fatal Five from prison, taking Validus and Persuader under his wing, while Emerald Empress is depowered and abandoned after Matter-Eater Lad destroys the Emerald Eye of Ekron.

Film

The original Fatal Five appear in Justice League vs. the Fatal Five, with Emerald Empress voiced by Sumalee Montano, Tharok by Peter Jessop, Mano by Philip Anthony-Rodriguez, Persuader by Matthew Yang King, and Validus having no dialogue.^{[23][24][20][21][22]} After the Emerald Empress and Validus are taken to the 21st century to be imprisoned in Oa, Tharok, Mano, and Persuader travel back in time to force Jessica Cruz to lead them to their missing teammates. While fighting the Justice League and Star Boy, the Fatal Five are buried alive by Cruz.

Video games

The original Fatal Five appear as character summons in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.^[25]

Miscellaneous

• Happy Meal figurines of the Fatal Five were released as a tie-in to the Legion of Super Heroes animated series.^[26]
• The Fatal Five appear in Legion of Super Heroes in the 31st Century.^[27]

See also

• "The Death of Ferro Lad"

References

External links

• Tharok at the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe