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WHO COUNTS IN COUNTDOWN– Episode #50 by BRUCE MacINTOSH
This week’s issue of DC’s new year-long series, Countdown, introduces some more characters that may be unfamiliar to new readers. Fear not! THE PULSE is here to shed some light on the background on these characters, so you can hit the ground running with the series. This week, we’ll look at villains the Joker, Heat Wave, and Trickster, and heroes Madame Xanadu and Karate Kid. THE JOKER
This villain is arguably the most famous (or infamous) of all comic book super villains - or at least the most enduring. Having been around for the better part of seven decades, even your non-comics-reading parents could probably identify him by name! Since he is such an iconic character – and is sure to play a big part in Countdown – we’re going to spend some extra time detailing background and history of the mad miscreant.
The Joker – whose true name has never been confirmed – is certainly regarded as the Batman’s arch-nemesis, and since his debut in Batman #1 (1940) has probably appeared in the hero’s comics more often than any other foe. Although the master criminal’s appearance has altered a bit over the years, several aspects have been consistent: he has a clown-like appearance, green hair and pasty-white face, warped to resemble the joker on the playing card.
He has always committed crimes with a variety of “comedic” weapons, especially lethal joy buzzers, acid-spraying lapel flowers, and poison pies. His most common and pernicious gimmick is the Joker venom, a deadly poison that kills his victims while laughing uncontrollably, and leaves their faces twisted in a ghastly grin.
Although he has murdered thousands over the years he avoids the death penalty, always being found not guilty for reasons of insanity. Then he is always incarcerated in Arkham Asylum, periodically escaping to wreak havoc on Gotham City and the Batman. Despite the fact that the Joker is a ruthless and criminally insane mass murderer, the Batman sticks to his moral code and refuses to put the maniac down for good. Conversely, the Joker has spared the Batman many times, believing that to eliminate his foe would also rob him of his own raison d’être.
For his first dozen or so appearances in the 1940s, the Clown Prince of Crime was simply a violent sociopath who murdered people for his own amusement. After that, the violence was toned down and he was portrayed more as a wacky prankster criminal. Although the frequency of his appearances waned in the Sixties, the trickster characterization continued until the 1970s, when he was again depicted as an insane and vicious killer.
In 1973, Batman’s new creative team of Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams, recharged both Batman’s grim personality and the Joker’s maniacal image. The Joker returned to his roots as a homicidal maniac while matching wits with Batman. The Joker as a guileful psychopath is a characterization that has stuck ever since. In “The Joker's Five Way Revenge” (Batman #251, 1973) he was portrayed as truly insane, rather than merely a criminal prankster. Now, he would murder his own henchmen on a whim or if they annoyed him.
In the mid-1970s, the Joker was one of the first super-villains to have his own (short-lived) series of comics. Despite being the protagonist of the series, he never gave up his murderous ways, killing in seven of the nine issues.
Writers like Steve Englehart in the late 1970s and Alan Moore in the late 1980s greatly intensified the Joker's image as a cunning lunatic. Englehart conceived one of the most famous Joker stories, “The Laughing Fish”, (Detective Comics #475-476, 1978) where the Malevolent Mountebank returned to his murderous make-up by identifying in advance a victim who would then be killed at midnight, no matter what steps were taken to shield the victim or prevent the murder. (As a further demonstration of his psychopathic personality, the Joker in these stories tried to copyright fish after chemically altering them to look like him. Hence the title of the story.)
The Joker’s origin was never clearly defined until “The Killing Joke” (1988). This story followed the Crisis on Infinite Earthsreboot of the DC Universe, and is generally accepted canon for the commencement of the Clown Prince of Crime.
That story began with an (unnamed) engineer at a chemical plant quitting his job to follow his dream of being a stand-up comedian. Failing at that and desperate to support his pregnant wife, he agrees to help two criminals break into the chemical plant where he used to work. While planning the heist, police inform the man that his wife died in an accident.
Grief stricken, he tries to pull out of the plan, but the criminals force him to keep his promise. Immediately upon breaking into the chemical plant, the gang is caught and the two criminals are killed trying to shoot their way out. The unnamed accomplice is confronted by the Batman, whereupon the engineer leaps over a rail and falls into a vat of chemicals. The vat – and the unnamed man – empties into a nearby reservoir, and upon emerging he sees in his reflection his ghastly appearance: green hair, bleached white skin, and crimson lips. The Joker was born as a culmination of the tragic events of the day turned him irrevocably insane.
The Harlequin of Hate has been responsible for causing tragedy many times in the Batman's life. Here are some of the lowlights:
In the above-mentioned “The Killing Joke”, the Joker also shot Commissioner Gordon’s daughter, Barbara, paralyzing her from the waist down and ending her career as Batgirl. Confined to a wheelchair, she then became Oracle, the central intelligence source for many of DC’s heroes. She now locates crimes and criminals and remotely provides information at a moment’s notice from her undisclosed location. In 1989 Detective Comicstold of "A Death in the Family", (discussed last week in WCIC?Episode #51). In that series (Batman #326 - #329) the Joker brutally murdered the second Robin (Jason Todd).
The “No Man's Land” storyline encompassed 80 of the Batman titles and 4 special issues throughout 1999. In that series the Joker kidnapped some infants and murdered Sarah Essen Gordon, Commissioner Gordon's second wife, while she tried to protect the children. He eventually surrendered to the Batman, but continued to taunt Jim Gordon, who responded by shooting the maniac in the knee.
“Emperor Joker” was another multi-title story, but this time it ran throughout the Superman titles in 2000. In this series, the Joker temporarily took Mister Mxyzptlk's reality altering powers. With astounding viciousness, the Joker tortured and killed the Batman – and brought him back to life – over and over again. The Batman’s psyche is so shattered that Superman resorted to stealing his memories so that the Caped Crusader can go on with life.
In a six-week crossover event called "The Last Laugh" (2001) and spanning two-dozen of DC’s superhero titles, the Joker believes himself to be dying and devises one final crime spree. Then imprisoned in “The Slab” (a prison for super criminals) he infects the other inmates with the biochemical Joker venom. Planning to infect the entire world, he releases the now-Jokerized super-powered inmates to cause chaos and bring in the entire superhero community to the fracas. Believing Robin eaten by Killer Croc, Nightwing beats the Joker to death. Batman was forced to revitalize the Joker because killing even a murdering maniac violates his moral code, and he didn’t want Dick Grayson to have to live with that stigma.
As mentioned in the previous installment of WCIC?, the Joker played a brief but key role in the “Hush” storyline that ran in Batmanstarting in 2002. (Issues #608 - #619) In that series, the Riddler hires the Joker to protect him, in exchange for giving the Joker the name of the crooked cop who killed his wife so long ago. Hush attacks, preventing the Joker’s revenge and forcing him to retreat. Jason Todd later returns to life and, angry at the Batman for failing to avenge his death, tries to force Batman to shoot the Joker. Naturally, the Batman refused and Jason (as the Red Hood) must retreat – allowing the Joker to live.
The Joker also played a key roll in the conclusion of Infinite Crisis, but we won’t spoil it for you. Suffice it to say, without his actions the Crisis probably wouldn’t have ended, and we wouldn’t have had One Year Later, 52, and even Countdown. (It’s certainly not necessary for your enjoyment of Countdown, but Infinite Crisis is an entertaining and important chapter in the DC Universe. Go get the trade and read it… after you finish this article.)
The Ace of Knaves has appeared twice over recent months in Batman, setting the table for this key Countdownrole. In Batman #655 (Sep, 2006), an ex-cop dressed as the Batman shoots the Joker in the face and the real Batman dumps him in a garbage can. And you still may be able to pick up a copy of Batman #663 on the stands. Not to give away the entire story, we can say that the Joker has gone through extensive facial surgery that has left him with a permanent rictus and unable to speak coherently. Although still incarcerated in Arkham Asylum, he had devised an even more lethal version of Joker venom and plans to use it.
HEAT WAVE
Heat Wave is one of the Flash’s original Rogue’s Gallery of super villains, who has been relatively underused over the years, despite his truly elemental abilities. He first appeared in Flash #140 (Nov, 1963) as a natural analog to another of the Scarlet Speedster’s criminal foes, Captain Cold.
Mick Rory was raised on a farm and had a seemingly normal childhood, until he became fascinated with fire. His obsession led him to burn down his home, incinerating his family in process. The taunts and temporary confinement in a meat locker next led him to toast the family and house of one of his schoolmates and then literally run off to join the circus. He kept his pyromania under control for years as he worked as a fire-eater, but eventually his fascination with flames got the better of him and he torched the circus.
Seeing a TV news report about Captain Cold gave Rory the direction he felt he needed. Unlike most criminals, he resorted to a life of robbing banks and battling the Flash not out of the desire for money, but as an outlet for his fascination for fire. He devised a flame-retardant costume and special laser-activated and self-replenishing flame throwing gun and hung out in the Rogues’ clubhouse until the conflicts with the abrasive Captain Cold became too much.
Feeling his motivations at odds with the rest of the Rogues, Rory reformed as a firefighting consultant, even becoming friends with police scientist Barry Allen (secret identity of The Flash until he was killed in Crisis on Infinite Earths – 1985). Eventually, he surrendered to the manipulations of another magically-powered Flash villain, Abra Kadabra, unwittingly releasing the demon Neron and sacrificing his own soul to the pits of Hell. Neron was eventually defeated and the Flash forced the demon to restore the souls to the bodies of Heat Wave and the other Rogues involved in the story.
Heat Wave briefly returned to his criminal ways, before realizing he had a problem that he needed to get under control. He studied with Zhutanian Monks, and upon returning to civilization he again turned over a new leaf. He worked for Project Cadmus for a while and then was recruited by the F.B.I. to help take down his former team of villains. He worked with other reformed Rogues like the Trickster and Pied Piper in this rather fruitless endeavor, until the Top showed up and undid the mental controls that were keeping his “fiery” impulses in check.
Heat Wave again went over to the Dark Side, and that is where he remains to this day. In the current series of Flash: Fastest Man Alive, he has been recruited by another (new) Flash villain, Inertia, to re-form the Rogues Gallery. The other Rogues, naturally, don’t trust him, since he went straight several times in the past and worked against them with the Flash and law enforcement.
MIRROR MASTER
The original Mirror Master was the Flash’s first super villain foe, when the Scarlet Speedster received his own title way back in 1959. His civilian identity was Sam Scudder, who while working in a prison workshop discovered a way to fashion a mirror that could capture and retain images. After using it to escape, he devised more mirror-based gadgets with which to commit crimes in Central City and plague his Flash-y adversary.
He was arguably the most cunning and intelligent of Flash’s Rogues Gallery, and was generally accepted as their leader. Over the years, he devised dozens of special mirrors that could do everything from capturing his foes inside them, transmuting them into glass, and hypnotizing them. He also used mirrors as a mode of transportation, as he would suddenly appear in and from any reflective surface (including water).
Like so many other heroes (including the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen) Scudder died during the Crisis on Infinite Earths saga.
Years later, another Mirror Master appeared on the scene – same costume, same mirror gadgets. This one was Evan McCulloch, a mercenary from Scotland who had attracted the attention of the F.B.I. The agency set him up with all of the reflective Rogue’s old equipment, to clean up some problems in the United States. Soon McCullough tired of his government employers and imprisoned them in a mirror dimension. Now flying solo, he found a home in Central City to commit his reflective robberies and battle the (Wally West) Flash.
This Mirror Master was another Rogue who – like Heat Wave – was tricked by Abra Kadabra into giving up their souls in return for becoming “the most infamous villains of their age” in the Underworld Unleashedseries (1995). Luckily for the Rogues, the Flash was able to trick the demon Neron into returning the souls. But unlike the temporarily-reformed Heat Wave, soon Mirror Master returned to a life of crime, a little darker and more ruthless than before.
He was approached by the new and improved Rogues Gallery to join their team several years ago, and the group made life miserable for the Wally West Flash until the speedster’s disappearance during the Infinite Crisis (2005) saga. He is currently a key recruit in Inertia’s plans to create a new elite super villain team. MADAME XANADU
We can find Madame Xanadu’s origins all the way back in Arthurian legend, as she was the sorceress Nimue (the Lady in the Lake) who trapped Merlin in an enchanted cave until he was eventually freed. Merlin then stripped the magical powers from his former protégé, until she eventually decided to become an advisor to those with magical problems.
She gained immortality by beating Death in a card game and for many years has acted as a fortune teller in Greenwich Village while periodically assisting DC’s supernatural heroes in several recent Crises of cosmic proportions. Although she is prevented from directly interfering in supernatural events or herself defeating mystical forces of evil, if one of her clients prevails over an evil entity, she can contain that force in a jar in her parlour to prevent further trouble.
During the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985), DC’s most powerful supernatural character, the Spectre, was destroyed by the Anti-Monitor. Madame Xanadu was able to perform a magical ritual that resurrected him, and subsequently served as the Spectre’s spiritual advisor while he remained bound to his original host, Jim Corrigan. Although she initially tired to manipulate Corrigan to use the Spectre’s powers for her own purposes, she later became his protector against the being’s cosmic destruction.
In the two decades following Crisis, Xanadu helped the Suicide Squad deal with unstable member Enchantress, and was Timothy Hunter’s guiding force in one of his earliest adventures in Books of Magic. Although she prefers to work alone, she has been nominally associated with the Sentinels of Magic, a group of mystics who first appeared in the Day of Judgment series (1999), which included other DC magical mainstays, such as Zatanna, Phantom Stranger and Doctor Fate.
In the Infinite Crisis tie in, Day of Vengeance, we learned that the Spectre had blinded Xanadu in order to prevent her from helping the other magical DC heroes. She has regrown her eyes many times, only to have them burned out again due to the Spectre’s superior powers. However, her dwelling serves as a haven for the mystical characters gathering to defeat the Spectre and restore the Rock of Eternity. She later assisted some of the members of Shadowpact to recover from blindness inflicted at the hands of The Congregation, in the Shadowpact series (2006).
Although she played a part in the mystical events that led to the Infinite Crisis series (2005), she remains blinded. Although her own magical powers were long ago largely disabled, she has a keen sensitivity to magical activity and supernatural events. Along with watching over the malevolent forces trapped in the jars in her parlour, her main contribution has been to use tarot cards to divine the future of characters key to these mystical events.
KARATE KID
Karate Kid was inducted into the Legion of Super-Heroes way back in 1966. His given name is Val Armorr, and although his costume has gone through multiple changes in the last 40 years, his origin and powers have remained remarkably consistent. He is a master of every form of martial arts and various forms of hand weaponry. (However, firearms have always been a no-no.) In his origin story (Adventure Comics#346, 1966) he demolished a steel beam a single blow and managed even to keep Superboy off balance with "Super Karate".
Val was orphaned from his father, a 30th Century crime lord and martial arts master called the Black Dragon, and his mother who was a heroic secret agent killed for trying to hide the Dragon’s son. Val was raised by Japan's biggest hero (of the 30th Century) Sensei Toshiaki White Crane, who trained him in all manner of the martial arts. The young apprentice became the youngest warrior ever to earn the title Samurai, and eventually left to explore the galaxy in search of new forms of combat to master.
When he later returned to Earth, he learned that the Legion of Super-Heroes was recruiting new members to battle the invading Khund armada. In spite of his lack of super powers, the skilled warrior was immediately inducted into the Legion, and was a regular participant in the team’s adventures for many years.
He eventually fell for the pulchritudinous Princess Projectra and sought her hand in marriage. Being royalty and all, it wasn’t as simple as a trip to the Justice of the Peace, so Val was required to prove himself worthy by spending a year in the past: 1976. If he could survive in that primitive society, then he deserved to wed the upper-crust illusionist.
Karate Kid did survive his year in the savage Seventies (and his short-lived solo comic series, designed to capitalize on the Kung Fu craze at the time) and return to the 30th Century. He married Princess Projectra, and the couple became one of the earliest Legion couples to marry. Sine the Legion did not allow married members, the couple were required to resign. Later (1984) Val sacrificed himself to save his wife and her planet Orando. His sacrifice remains canon, in spite of the many changes caused by 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Inspired by Val Armorr’s sacrifice, Myg of Lythyl took up the mantle of Karate Kid and joined the Legion (1991). Unfortunately, he became a fugitive when framed for crimes he did not commit. (This is not, however, the version of Karate Kid who is appearing in Countdown.)
The Legion of Super Heroes was again rebooted in 2004, and Karate Kid appears in that current series. This version of Val Armorr is also a master of martial arts.
Spoiler Warning! If you haven’t read Issues #7 and #8 of Justice League of America, skip to the end, (“Next Week…”) You’ve been warned!
Speaking of the Justice League of America… Fast forward a quarter-century from Val Armorr’s sacrifice and last appearance. The current Justice League of America comic is where next we see the martial arts master. In the most recent issues the villain Trident is revealed to be Val Armorr. This skilled fighter subdues Black Lightning and nearly bests Batman with his superior fighting skills. (According to the Fortress of Solitude computer files Batman was accessing, Karate Kid is listed as a Class 15 fighter while Batman is “merely” a Class 12.)
Karate Kid and Starman (who has been portrayed in the new Justice Society of America as a dotty hero of unknown origin)are apparently two of seven Legionnaires currently in the present. Interestingly, his costume and physical features are noticeably different from the Karate Kid in the current Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes comic. This Countdown and Justice League of America Karate Kid resembles much more closely the Val Armorr from the 1970s. Hmmm…
NEXT WEEK IN WHO COUNTS IN COUNTDOWN?
We’ll be taking a very close look at Mary Marvel, and some of the other characters who are appearing in Issue #49. Tell me you don’t want to know exactly what do those ads mean when they say, “Seduction of the Innocent”?
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"So, how many Karate Kids have there been? Pre-Crisis, Post-Crisis, Post Zero Hour, Post Re-boot...?"
Well, in addition to the current "Supergirl and the LSH" team (which is sort of pre-Infinite Crisis re-boot), I think the Karate Kid that is appearing in JLA/JSA/Countdown is from one of the 52 new Earths created in the *post*-Infinite Crisis/52 re-boot.
Arrgggghhh - I've got a headache!
(I can still remember as a kid - when I heard there was a movie called Karate Kid - I was excited that they were making a film version of the Legion of Super Heroes! Boy, was I disappointed.)
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In the Infinite Crisis tie in, Day of Vengeance, we learned that the Spectre had blinded Xanadu in order to prevent her from helping the other magical DC heroes. She has regrown her eyes many times, only to have them burned out again due to the Spectre’s superior powers. However, her dwelling serves as a haven for the mystical characters gathering to defeat the Spectre and restore the Rock of Eternity. She later assisted some of the members of Shadowpact to recover from blindness inflicted at the hands of The Congregation, in the Shadowpact series (2006).
Karate Kid was inducted into the Legion of Super-Heroes way back in 1966. His given name is Val Armorr, and although his costume has gone through multiple changes in the last 40 years, his origin and powers have remained remarkably consistent. He is a master of every form of martial arts and various forms of hand weaponry. (However, firearms have always been a no-no.) In his origin story (Adventure Comics #346, 1966) he demolished a steel beam a single blow and managed even to keep Superboy off balance with "Super Karate".
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