WHO COUNTS IN COUNTDOWN? Episode #29 LORD HAVOK AND THE EXTREMISTS BY BRUCE MacINTOSH This week in Countdown #29, a group of villains showed up on Earth-8 called the Extremists. It's a safe bet that many readers could use a refresher course on these characters. Lord Havok and his vicious group of baddies have their roots in an inside joke between DC's and Marvel's writers almost four decades ago. Curious? Read on, and you'll get the full story!
DID THE EDITORS KNOW ABOUT THIS? Even the greenest newcomer to comics can sense the rivalry between the "Big Two" comics companies, DC and Marvel. It's all in fun when members of the DC Nation and Marvel Zombies debate the merits of their respective preferences. But it has always been strictly business ever since Stan Lee first wrote "It's Clobberin' Time" way back in 1961 and started comics' "Space Race". (Space on the comics racks, that is.)
But while the owners and Publishers duked it out for supremacy of the spinner racks, the writers and artists were all one big happy family: In the late 60s and early 70s, artists and writers from both companies shared New York apartments, partied together, married (and divorced) each other. Until comics-related publications like Roy Thomas' Alter Ego pulled back the curtain to let fans see the wizard, (definitely no pun intended) such inter-company camaraderie stayed behind the scenes.
The only hints careful readers could detect back then were what we would now call "Easter Eggs" dropped into one company's comics about some of their creators' inside jokes with the other company's talent. One popular example was the yearly pilgrimages some of the artists and writers would take to Rutland, Vermont, for its Halloween festival - both in real life and depicted the pages of both Marvel's and DC's comics like Dr. Strange and Batman, respectively.
The most famous - and enduring - example of such inter-company collaboration occurred when Roy Thomas for Marvel, and Mike Friedrich for DC, agreed to parody the other's flagship hero team in the pages of their own super-group's comic. In The Avengers, for example, Thomas created The Squadron Sinister - a Justice League send-up - to face off against Marvel's super group. In DC's Justice League of America, Friedrich threw in "The Assemblers", clearly an Avengers pastiche.
Despite its origins as a one-off parody of DC's team book, the Squadron Sinister actually took on a life of its own. In fact, it was soon re-imagined as the crime-fighting Marvel super team, The Squadron Supreme, which was extremely popular in the 70s and 80s and even continues to the present day.
DC's version, which first appeared in Justice League of America #87 (Feb 1971) literally faded into oblivion, until it was resurrected by those wacky writers for Justice League (Issue #2, Jun 1987) Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis. This is their story of the team of nasties that evolved from that original group.
The focus of Justice League of America #87 was that Batman's mind had been taken over by a robot, bent on world domination. Bats and his robot companion seemingly beat the stuffing out of the rest of the League, but they were fakes created by Green Lantern's power ring. So while Superman deals with Batman's psychosis on Earth Flash, Green Lantern and Zatanna follow The Atom to a parallel Earth in another dimension.
This Justice League scout team found a post-apocalyptic planet inhabited, it seems, only by four super-powered beings bent on revenge against the robots who caused the destruction. Thinking the four members of the League to be associated with the robots, the four costumed counterparts attacked. This team clearly paralleled four of Marvel's Avengers from the early 1970s: Jack B. Quick was Quicksilver's counterpart, Blue Jay was supposed to be Wasp's doppelganger, Wandjina was an analog for Thor, and Silver Sorceress was the Scarlet Witch's parallel.
(One note to fans of thinly-disguised social commentary in comics: It's no secret that the young writers of the time for all of the comics companies tried to inject a bit of social conscience into the stories, occasionally using their stories as a soapbox for their left-leaning viewpoints. Of course, the most compelling topic on everyone's mind at the time was the original "quagmire" of the Vietnam war. Here, writer Mike Friedrich told of how this planet was once called "Cam-Nam-Lao" - obviously referring to this planet's theater of war, the Southeast Asian countries of Cambodia, Viet-Nam and Laos. Their planet was destroyed by "highly competitive corporations" who "eliminated each other in total atomic war...")
Since the Justice League was running out of pages, the conflict was resolved in the span of one action-packed double-page spread. Luckily, the local team was able to discern the Justice League's good motives when Zatanna rendered aid to the fallen Blue Jay. The teams called a truce and shook hands, and Green Lantern, Flash and the Atom gave Zee a big hug for saving the day.
FORMERLY KNOWN AS "THE ASSEMBLERS" While Marvel's parody team the Squadron Supreme lived an active life throughout the 70s and 80s, the Assemblers who barely stayed for a cup of coffee in 1971 did not reappear for another 16 years. Then, in the second issue of the nascent Justice League book (Jun 1987), Silver Sorceress, Wandjina and Blue Jay literally came from out of the blue to halt nuclear missile production in the Middle Eastern country of Bialya. This time, they were called the "Justifiers". Their mission was to prevent the same nuclear destruction on Earth that had previously destroyed their home world. (The contrivance of "Cam-Nam-Lao" was mercifully never again invoked.)
This story continued to lay the foundation for the new Justice League's mission as a U.N. sanctioned (and funded) force, since the team was immediately dispatched to the other side of the world to keep the peace. It also provided an expositional opportunity for Wandjina, as he described what happened to the people of their planet following the nuclear devastation. This included describing the fate of the fourth member of their team, Captain Speed: The speedster who was originally labeled "Jack B. Quick" ironically died a lingering death of radiation poisoning, like so many of the "survivors" of the Assemblers' planet's atomic holocaust.
The super-peaceniks were pretty gullible, as Bialya's used-car salesman dictator quickly persuades the trio to clean up the country's "more aggressive neighbors" starting with the U.S.S.R. In Justice League #3 (Jul 1987), a Soviet nuclear plant is shut down too quickly and starts to melt down. The weather god Wandjina sacrifices himself to save the Assemblers, Justice League, Rocket Reds, and heck the entire planet! That issue closed with the prescient question to Batman by Black Canary, "So you don't think we've seen the last of that trio ?"
No, it certainly wasn't the last we'd see of that group. Wandjina was tragically deformed from his radiation exposure, and apparently easily subjected to brainwashing. Queen Bee (II) - the new leader of Bialya - mind-controlled him into performing evil deeds, until the Justice League (newly christened, "International") was called in and Captain Atom was forced to kill Wandjina. Meanwhile, Silver Sorceress and Blue Jay were still in Soviet custody, until the enchantress set the little bird free and teleported herself back to her home planet. (Now it was called "Angor".)
What did all that have to do with Lord Havok and the Extremists, you say? I was just about to tell you.
EVIL TO THE EXTREME You see, when Silver Sorceress teleported back to her own, desolate world, she (re-) encountered old nemeses, the Extremists. (Justice League Europe #15 19, Jun Oct 1990) This is not your typical, humorous Giffen and DeMatteis story. Writer Gerard Jones pitches in with an epic tale of the Yang to the Justifiers' Yin: The astonishingly malevolent Extremists. As a prime example, the first act we see as readers was the members of the Extremists taking turns torturing the final surviving human on their planet to death... out of boredom.
True to the Assemblers/Justifiers' origin two decades earlier, the Extremists were also not-so-subtle send-ups of Marvel super-villains: Dreamslayer was the trans-dimensional mind-controller, who was unquestionably the twin of Marvel's dread Dormammu; Lord Havok was the evil genius encased in powerful armor, a lΰ Dr. Doom; Gorgon, with the unlimited stretchable tentacles was certainly a Doctor Octopus analog; Doctor Diehard possessed super-magnetic abilities similar to Magneto; and the feral Tracer could sniff out anyone from seemingly any distance, similar to his Marvel parallel Sabretooth.
Getting back to the Silver Sorceress, who had just transported herself out of Soviet custody and back onto her home planet, Angor: Unfortunately, when she returned assuming herself alone on the planet Tracer sensed her from miles away, and the Extremists immediately captured her. Originally only hoping for one more playmate after the expiration of their final victim, the evil group is thrilled to learn upon probing her mind that there is a trans-dimensional world called Earth, with unlimited potential quarry.
The Extremists transported to Earth specifically Moscow licking their chops over the world rife with human victims and nuclear weapons. Justice League Europe engaged the team and they battled to a standstill until the most powerful of the evil group Dreamslayer, shut down the minds of the League members.
Next Doctor Diehard used his incredible magnetic powers to dislodge every nuclear weapon on Earth and send it in orbit. With this Sword of Damacles literally hanging over the heads of the people of Earth, the United Nations acquiesced to the Extremists' demands to cede all governmental power to the group. No military or superhero interference would be broached, lest Diehard release his control over the missiles.
However, Blue Jay revealed to the JLE the evil group's prior track record: It would only be a matter of time before the Extremists grew tired of exercising self-control, and the people of the Earth would suffer gravely. Therefore, Metamorpho and the group defied U.N. orders and engaged the Extremists in battle. Dreamslayer was again too powerful for the combined might of the Justice League, and transported them en masse to the desolate planet Angor.
Justice League Europe #18 (Sep 1990) was the oddest issue of the saga, as the team encountered a themepark whose mascot was a rat and which was created by inventor Mitch Wacky. Wacky was presumed dead along with the rest of the planet's population, but the amusement park's automated robots continued (toy) soldiering on, maintaining the grounds and each other for an audience of none.
Just like the rumors of a real-life Earth animator and amusement park creator, this planet's cartoon icon had placed himself in suspended animation to be released in the future when a cure had been found to his deadly illness. (The flu, as it turned out.) All the activity at the park opened his cryogenic tube, and Mitch emerged to the stunned amazement of the Justice League and the delight of his automatons.
We learned that once visitors stopped coming to the park, the automatons began constructing their own androids to mimic the former world's conflicts. To everyone's surprise, that meant that the original, living Extremists had also perished in the nuclear holocaust that destroyed their planet. These were actually duplicates of the formerly-living Extremists, but just as powerful and dangerous.
Since Mitch Wacky's presence was enough to calm the robots of Wackyland who had attacked the League, they figured the same would work on the android Extremists who were holding Earth hostage. The Sorceress returned the group to Earth, where Mitch could do his thing on the robot Extremists. It worked on all of the villains except Dreamslayer, who it turns out was the real thing! He had survived Angor's nuclear disaster and entertained himself by hanging out with artificial replacements of his fallen teammates.
At the conclusion of this epic, Dreamslayer threw a psychic blast at the JLE with the design of obliterating them. However, Crimson Fox absorbed the blast and threw it back onto Dreamslayer. No, wait: It wasn't Fox after all it was the Silver Sorceress in disguise to surprise the evil mindmaster. Dreamslayer was vaporized, and the robot Extremists were placed in Madame Clouseau's Wax Museum in Paris. Silver Sorceress and Blue Jay were inducted into the team, and served in most of the missions for several years after that.
The team's U.N. liason Maxwell Lord was shot by Bialyan terrorists in Justice League America #53 (Aug 1991), but suddenly awoke from his coma in Justice League Europe #32 (Nov 1991). It was Dreamslayer who had taken control of Max's body, and the sorcerer went to the island of KooeyKooeyKooey to force Mitch Wacky to rebuild the robot Extremists. Wacky was able only to cobble together enough parts to reconstruct Lord Havok, so Lord/Dreamslayer killed him in frustration. He and the new Lord Havok then set out to exact revenge on Silver Sorceress. (Justice League Europe #33, Dec 1991).
Dreamslayer then possessed all the bodies of the inhabitants of KooeyKooeyKooey and threatened the Justice League to make them commit mass suicide, if they didn't battle each other in their former headquarters located in Happy Harbor. The dying Silver Sorceress challenged Dreamslayer to a psychic battle, and exacted her final revenge by trapping him within her mind when she died taking him with her. She was laid to rest on the island, and Max Lord's mind was restored to his body in the hospital.
We later learned that Dreamslayer was actually freed from the Sorceress when she died, and fled to his original dimension. There he recruited a team of New Extremists to go up against the Justice League. The new roster included Death Angel, Gunshot, Brute II, Meanstreak and Cloudburst. (Justice League America #78 79, Early Late Aug 1993.)
That group was rather easily defeated, but the New Extremists returned later as part of a larger group called the Cadre. The Cadre was a sub-story in the "Judgment Day" epic that ran through three of the Justice League titles in June and July, 1994. Specifically, Shatterfist and his pals took part in a quick battle in Part 1 of the six-issue story (Justice League America #89, Jun 1994). Overmaster brought together this team to keep the Justice League busy while the clock ticked away on his plans to exterminate all human life and hence the metagene that he blamed for all ills plaguing the Universe.
In the final Extremist appearance in the various Justice League series of the early-90s, Max Lord merged with Kilg%re in Justice League America #100 (May 1995). (Kilg%re was the electro-mechano-organic life form who required electrical energy to survive. The character was originally a Wally West-Flash villain.) Max called himself Lord Havok II, and seized control of the crime organization Arcana.
And finally, Extremists robots returned in the Peter David-written Supergirl series, Issues #15 and #16 (Nov - Dec 1997). They were animated from the wax museum by the entity called Twilight to battle Supergirl, and were again easily defeated.
The Extremists were truly "extreme" and downright vicious when they first appeared in Justice League Europe back in 1990. So they've been veritable pantywaists since then, and no real threat in their last half-dozen appearances. But you can tell from the pages of Countdown #29, and especially the cover of the new 8-issue maxiseries Lord Havok and the Extremists, that these creeps have returned to their true malevolent form. They'll be tearing up Earth-8, for sure but can the rest of the Multiverse be far behind?
NEXT WEEK INWHO COUNTS IN COUNTDOWN? I know I promised a bio for Triplicate Girl/Duo Damsel/Triad/Una this week, but I had to move fast on the Extremists before they came and went in Countdown and their maxi-series commenced. So - barring any new big surprises by DC, rejoin Una in her quest with Karate Kid. But no promises: Since we are talking about Triplicate Girl, I reserve the right to change my mind up to three times!
Posts: 21381 | From: PA | Registered: Aug 2002
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After reading the "Extremist Vector" in JLE, Cap/Monarch's dialogue with Lord Havok just didn't settle right with me...
-------------------- Answer Man's Pal "You're NOT getting a signal watch!" - Bob Rozakis My Space! Posts: 47 | From: St. Petersburg, FL | Registered: Oct 2004
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Cool article! I'd read somewhere that the original Assmblers were designed by Neal Adams. I wonder if someone out there still has that original sketch?
Posts: 662 | Registered: Jan 2002
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