DC Comics Races and Organizations
Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 03:44PM So you're reading DC Comics and you don't get the occasional reference to things such as the D.M.A. and Checkmate. And although you've heard about a hero called Green Lantern, you didn't realize there was a whole Green Lantern Corps. Well, look no further. This list should help you out quite a bit.
NOTE: This list is constantly being updated and is still under construction.
The 100 - Originally called the 10, the 100 is an organized group of criminals that operate in Metropolis who primarily focus on drug-trafficking and racketeering. The 100 later spread their operations into several other states and in later years was called the 1000 by some. But the 100 is how most people know them.
Alpha Lanterns - The internal affairs division of the Green Lantern Corps (see entry further below). The Alpha Lanterns are
a small group of GLs who were selected to police the Corps members, ensuring that none abuse their power. They are also brought in for special cases.
Alpha Lanterns are Green Lantern soldiers who have been transformed into cyborgs, their bodies and minds fused with parts from robot Manhunters, the original soldiers of the Guardians of the Universe, thus ensuring that they are guided by cold, objective logic (see entries further below). Likewise, their power rings and batteries are fused to their bodies.
C.B.I. - The Central Bureau of Intelligence. This originally appeared as an apparent parallel to the FBI except that it dealt with super-humans and people of unique abilities. Sarge Steel used to be in charge. The man named King Faraday was its most visible agent and the martial artists Richard Dragon and Bronze Tiger both performed operations for the C.B.I. The organization hasn't been seen for years and Sarge Steel is now in charge of the D.M.A., a division of the D.E.O. It's possible that with the founding of the D.E.O., the C.B.I. became redundant and was disbanded.
Checkmate - Originally, Checkmate was a covert operations organization that acted under the eyes of the American government, sometimes performing illegal operations to protect U.S. interests. The multi-millionaire Maxwell Lord eventually became Checkmate's "Black King" and his illegal and corrupt agendas helped lead to the group's downfall. Months later, Checkmate was rebooted as a U.N. mandated organization, meant to keep the peace between various nations and to help out when superhuman battles could lead to international incidents.
The group is overseen by a council of four individuals, two "queens" and two "kings." The white king and queen oversee the public operations whereas the black king and queen are in charge of covert operations and intelligence gathering. All ranks in Checkmate are assigned akin to chess pieces. Each King is assigned a personal assistant/bodyguard who is referred to as their "knight", the lowest-ranking soldiers are "pawns", etc.
The Endless - Older than gods, the Endless are abstract beings who embody certain universal concepts. Each of the Endless is exactly what his or her name implies. There are seven of them: Death, Destiny, Dream, Destruction, the twins Desire and Despair, and the youngest Delirium (who was once called Delight). When an Endless "dies", he or she is soon replaced by another aspect of itself, the same entity but operating from another point of view and experience.
D.E.O. - The Department of Extra-normal Operations is a civilian organization, as opposed to S.H.A.D.E. which is military. A public branch of the American federal government, the DEO monitors the activities of super-heroes and villains and occasionally works openly with established heroes in sting operations and arrests. Their main objective is to be prepared for any threats to the public that a super-hero is unaware of, can't handle or may come from a so-called hero himself. The D.E.O. is run by Director Bones (formerly the villain Mr. Bones) and its most famous agent is Cameron Chase. A small military branch of the D.E.O., called in cases where heavy fire-power is needed, is called Knightwatch.
D.M.A. - The Department of Metahuman Affairs is a field operations division of the D.E.O. (see entry above) run by Sarge Steel. Wonder Woman works for the D.M.A. in her secret identity of Diana Prince, along with the hero Thomas Tresser AKA Nemesis.
D.N.Aliens - Dr. Dabney Donovan worked for the agency Project Cadmus (see entry below), dedicated to research into genetics, alien biology and human cloning. Donovan did not believe in ethical or legal boundaries an so he conducted in several experiments where he grew human beings that he mutated just to see how far he could go with them. Each of these artificially grown beings was unique since Donovan was altering their DNA at random and they were all deformed or strange-looking in some way. They were dubbed "D.N.Aliens" by Donovan, whose experiments were halted as soon as the rest of the Project discovered what he was doing. The most famous D.N.Alien is the horned telepath called Dubbillex.
Green Lantern Corps - Formed by the Guardians of the Universe (see entry further below), the GL Corps are an intergalactic volunteer police force. Each GL is armed with a green power ring. The GL Corps patrols the 3600 sectors of the known universe (as designated by the Guardians of the Universe). Once, it was a single GL to each sector but following the group's recent reformation they now have at least two Lanterns per sector. The Lanterns take their name from the power batteries which are needed to recharge their rings, green batteries shaped like lanterns. The major requirement of a Green Lantern is that he or she be "honest and without fear." For more information, check out the history essay on Green Lantern.
Two sub-divisions of the Corps are the Honor Guard and the Alpha Lanterns (see entry above), who serve as an internal affairs division.
Guardians of the Universe - One of the oldest living races of the universe, these blue-skinned humanoids of the planet Maltus mastered incredible levels of technology and mental energies before the human race had even been born. A Maltusian scientist named Krona performed a forbidden experiment which led to entropy being unleashed throughout the cosmos, killing billions and also, it's said, creating parallel realities which weakened the fabric of the DC Universe. To make up for his crime, the Maltusians designated themselves as Guardians of the Universe and later created such groups as the Manhunters and the Green Lantern Corps to help them promote order in the cosmos. Some Guardians later went off to take a more proactive stance, renaming themselves Controllers (see entry above). The females later left as well, renaming themselves the Zamarons.
Not long ago, most of the remaining Guardians died but their race has been reborn recently (and once again is composed of females as well as males). These new Guardians act as mentors to the Green Lanterns and also make sure to preserve the safety of their universe from other realities. The most famous Guardian is the one called Ganthet, who gave the Green Lantern Kyle Rayner his power ring and recently left his brother Guardians, believing that emotions such as hope are the true way to universal harmony.
H.I.V.E. - A terrorist organization known as the Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination. H.I.V.E. intends to bring down Earth's major governments and take over in the power vacuum. In recruiting soldiers, they not only focus on people proficient in deadly fighting ability or military skill but also people who have high talents in science. As a result, H.I.V.E. has produced many dangerous weapons and has been very effective in combating by super-human heroes, such as their most frequent foes the Teen Titans.
Originally H.I.V.E. was led by a woman called the Mistress. For a time, H.I.V.E. was so weakened that it disbanded, but years later it reformed under the leadership of Adeline Kane, ex-wife of the assassin Deathstroke. This troops of this second incarnation of H.I.V.E. all wore uniforms inspired by the appearance of bees. After serious defeats, this version of H.I.V.E. fell apart and the group was later re-organized by the alien villain Queen Zazzala, known on Earth as Queen Bee. This latest incarnation acted as foot-soldiers for the Society (also known as the Secret Society of Super-Villains).
In all its incarnations, H.I.V.E. has made a habit of hiring outside assassins and mercenaries for specific missions, such as Deathstoke or the group of villains known as Tartarus, led by the immortal criminal Vandal Savage.
Homo Magi - In the universe of DC Comics, ancient man lived alongside a race of humans who could weild magic, the homo magi who flourished in Atlantis, Earth's focal point of magical energies. When the nation of Atlantis was about to sink, the homo magi scattered across the world and intermixed with mainstream humanity. Any human being born today with innate magical talent is a descendant of at least one member of the homo magi.
Knightwatch -A military arm of the D.E.O. (see above entry).
Manhunters - In reality, "manhunter" is an old slang word meaning detective or bounty hunter. In the DCU, the police force of Mars was known as the Martian Manhunters. The Guardians of the Universe (see entry above) were impressed by the Martian Manhunters and later created their own robotic Manhunters to patrol the universe. But the robots rebelled, believing all sentient life had to be conquered or destroyed in order to maintain order and they wiped out almost an entire sector of space (Sector 666) before they were stopped.
The surviving robot Manhunters scattered to different worlds, including Earth, and founded cults of followers. The masked Earth heroes Dan Richards, Paul Kirk and Mark Shaw were all members of the Manhunter cult, believing it to be an ancient sect of crime-fighters. Eventually, the truth came about about the Manhunters and their cult on Earth was disbanded. Recently, the robot Manhunters have allied themselves with the Sinestro Corps (see entry below).
Kate Spencer, the current hero called Manhunter, has no relation to this cult or the robots. The alien J'onn J'onzz still is known on Earth as the "Martian Manhunter" because he was part of the Martian police force.
Meta-human - In the DC Comics Universe, this term refers to someone who is born with a "meta-gene", which allows them to receive superhuman abilities from outside factors (radiation, freak accident, genetic experimentation, etc.). This is different from a mutant, who is born with their powers. Barry Allen (the Flash) was bathed in a mixture of electrified chemicals. Had he been a normal human, he may have been injured or killed. But he had a meta-gene and this outside stimulus activated it, allowing him to gain super-speed instead. He may have developed different powers if the outside stimulus had been different in nature.
It's said that originally the Earth of the DC Universe would have birthed a race of super-humans but then a tribe of White Martians experimented on primitive man, ensuring that most of the race would be powerless and only a few would posses the genetic potential to develop superior abilities.
Project Cadmus - A genetic research facility focusing mainly on cloning. The top scientists were mostly composed of former members of the Golden Age group known as the Newsboy Legion. Cadmus cloned a new body for Jim Harper (the first vigilante called Guardian), created Kon-El AKA Superboy and its rogue scientist Dabney Donovan created the D.N.Aliens.
S.H.A.D.E. - The Super-Human Advanced Defense Executive. This is a government organization created after the US Patriot Act. While other government groups such as the D.E.O. focus on domestic meta-human threats and act more as a response team, S.H.A.D.E. seems to operate both in and outside of the U.S. and often makes premptive strikes against percieved superhuman and/or supernatural menaces. The artificial life form known as the Frankenstein monster (also called the "Spawn of Frankenstein" or just plain "Frankenstein") is an operative of S.H.A.D.E. For a time, S.H.A.D.E. also acted through the group the Freedom Fighters.
Sinestro Corps - Created by the rogue Green Lantern Corps (see entry above) member named Sinestro, the Sinestro Corps is made up of people from various worlds who wish to dominate the universe and also intend to destroy the Green Lantern Corps. Each member is armed with a ring with capabilities nearly identical to the power rings of the Green Lanterns, except that their rings are fueled by fear rather than willpower. As such, each member is recruited specifically for their ability to "instill great fear" in others.
Since Sinestro Corp rings are fueled by fear, they draw power from the yellow portion of the emotional spectrum (which represents fear). Since this color is not the center of the spectrum, the rings influence the personalities of the wielders, increasing their need to instill fear (see Emotional Spectrum above). Since less experienced Green Lanterns have trouble using their powers directly against anything colored yellow, Sinestro Corps members are quite dangerous for rookie GLs.
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