Checkmate (DC)

Checkmate v2 #18.

Checkmate is an organization that features in DC Comics.

History

Origin

Checkmate

The government intelligence community had invested much in the creation of Checkmate with Harry Stein reorganising the Agency over the course of two months. (Checkmate v1 #1)

Sarge Steel came to reactivate Checkmate in order to find the comatose body of the assassin Deathstroke. Phil Kramer was promoted to King and Kalia Campbell to Queen whilst Harry Stein was put on a indefinite leave of absence after his son was shot. (Deathstroke the Terminator v1 #17)

Checkmate Knights invaded the lair of supervillain Cheshire, but most were killed by her operatives and a revived Deathstroke. Two surviving Checkmate agents were about to defeat Deathstroke, only to be subdued by Speedy Roy Harper who revealed to be helping Cheshire as a double agent in both Checkmate and the Brotherhood of Evil. A Russian equivalent to Checkmate intervened when Deathstroke, Cheshire, Speedy, and others tried to steal a group of nuclear warheads in Russia. It was revealed that Harper called in Checkmate and that he was working on their side all along. Ultimately, Deathstroke was also revealed to be working for the CIA, and joined up with the American and Russian joint operation that invaded Cheshire's base, defeating Cheshire before she could destroy the country of Qurac with the warheads.

For months, the Martian Manhunter had infiltrated the remnants of Checkmate and undermined their efforts. He later came to convince the President of the United States to disband the organization. (52 v1 #24) However, within days, Checkmate was reconstituted as a United Nation's agency where under UN Security Council Resolution 1696 it was reorganised as the U.N.'s Chartered Metahuman Monitoring Force. (52 v1 #25)

Members of the League of Assassins were among the many threats that struck at the Castle alongside the Mawzir. Carl Draper defeated these dangers by using a Boom Tube by creating a loop that trapped the targets within it. (Checkmate v2 #17)

Afterwards, Khalid-isr was brought before the United Nation's Security Council to answer for the unauthorized activities. This led to them revoking their charter and no longer under their authority. As a result, the Castle was seized whilst agents were being recalled and all operations were aborted. (Justice League: Generation Lost v1 #17) After the Blackest Night, Maxwell Lord returned from the dead and uses his mental abilities to erase all memories of his existence from everyone on the planet, save for several former members of the Justice League International. (Brightest Day v1 #0) Checkmate lost their U.N. sanctions due to the machinations of Maxwell Lord using the Justice League International which allowed him to take control of the organization. (Justice League: Generation Lost v1 #22) Following this point, Lord discredited Fire by forcing everyone at Checkmate to believe that she has failed a psychological evaluation and has begun to show signs of mental instability. Fire is subsequently dismissed from Checkmate by Taleb Beni Khalid. (Justice League: Generation Lost v1 #2) The members of the new Justice League International eventually infiltrate Checkmate headquarters by disguising themselves in stolen Rocket Red suits, but the mission goes awry and they are forced to flee before they can capture Lord. (Justice League: Generation Lost v1 #9) Max eventually tells Blue Beetle that one of the major goals of his plot was to have the Justice League International discredit Checkmate by making them look incompetent, causing the United Nations to pull their funding and fire Khalid and most of the other senior Checkmate higher-ups, leaving Max the opportunity to regain control of the organization. (Justice League: Generation Lost v1 #19) Lord remained in charge of the organization when he released a video onto the internet where he blames the rogue superhero Magog for an accident in Chicago that resulted in the deaths of a thousand civilians, and vows to use Checkmate's resources to keep an eye on similar superheroes and prevent future metahuman catastrophes. (Justice League: Generation Lost v1 #24)

Post-Flashpoint

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of history was created with a different series of events. Checkmate

Checkmate was an international organization run by Maxwell Lord that works with all of the world's governments but only answerable to its mysterious founder. (OMAC v4 #5) They were described as a Global Peace Agency, albeit with questionable methods. Sarge Steel is put in charge of the investigation when Cadmus project Brother Eye goes rogue and creates OMAC. (OMAC v4 #2) They sent a team of agents led by Steel after the monster, but he defeated them and escaped. (OMAC v4 #3)

Seeking aid against Spyral, Dick Grayson approached Maxwell Lord and Checkmate in seeking their aid against the shadow intelligence agency. (Grayson v1 #17)

At some point, their former agent, Mark Shaw, went rogue and joined the terrorist organization Leviathan. The first step of his plan was to attack the facilities of Checkmate, A.R.G.U.S., D.E.O., and Spyral. (Event Leviathan v1 #1) The plan was that without its covert intelligence organizations, the world would become more amenable to his plans. However, a roster of intelligence experts and detectives assembled to manage the surviving resources in the fight against Leviathan, operating under the name, Checkmate. (Checkmate v3 #1)

Overview

It was later turned into a U.N. agency and re-organised as its Chartered Metahuman Monitoring Force. (52 v1 #25)

One position in the organization was that of Castellan that was the call sign for the head of physical security of the Castle and the one in ensuring enemies did not penetrate its walls. (Checkmate v2 #17) The organization was divided into a hierarchy with terms used from chess pieces. At headquarters were the Bishops who operated as Chiefs within the organization. Knights were field operatives that consisted of trained agents sent into the field. Rooks were field directors who planned and executed missions. Meanwhile, Pawns were clean-up support personnel in the field who provided everything from transportation to the delivery of supplies as well as supported a Knight in the completion of their mission. (Checkmate v1 #1)

The organisation recruited the best people they could find from government agencies and police forces. They were then put through a training program where they had to best an obstacle course after which they were allowed into the field. (Checkmate v1 #1) In the field, agents were supposed to rely first and foremost on their training and abilities. (Action Comics v1 #598) Regulations stated that operatives were supposed to maintain silence during operations so as to not offer any means of identification to outsiders. (Checkmate v1 #1)

Agents were known to wear a suit that included a knights visor that masked their identity. Their armour had a blade that could extend from above the arm. A common equipment available to operatives was a lance that was an extendable baton. (Action Comics v1 #598)

At the Castle, they maintained the Intelhub that was a database containing nearly every secret on the planet. (Checkmate v2 #17)

One operation conducted by the agency was capturing enemy targets whereupon a failsafe protocol was implanted in their minds through hypnosis and gentle biochemical persuasion. The target was then released back into their terrorist networks and through a command word could be activated to reveal anything they had learnt. This made these individuals perfect intelligence sources with the code words leaving the target in a fugue state and them reporting everything to the Checkmate operatives. (JSA vs. Kobra v1 #1)

For a time, one tool used by the agency was a drug called Apocritic that was derived from the DNA of Starro the Star Conqueror. Once ingested, it allowed operatives to maintain telepathic contact with one another. These agents felt pain in unison and had unified thoughts but it was believed the alien infection influenced the host bodies. (Checkmate v2 #25)

Code Zoo was a facility maintained by Checkmate was a repository for artificial intelligences that were captured by organization. Within the Zoo, the A.I.s were either trapped as complete self-aware constructs or as captured fragments of code. It was safe from network links and thus theoretically making it impossible to hack. (Checkmate v2 #17)

Members

• Harry Stein :
• Maxwell Lord :
• Michal Holt :
• Amanda Waller :
• King Faraday :
• John Dalesko :
• Veronica Lopez :
• Phil Kramer :
• Kalia Campbell :
• David Said :
• Black Thorn :
• Sasha Bordeaux :
• Jessica Midnight :
• Maxwell Lord :

Notes

• Checkmate was created by Paul Kupperberg and Steve Erwin where it made its first appearance in Action Comics v1 #598 (March, 1988).

Alternate Versions

• In Batman Beyond Unlimited v1 #3 (2012), an alternate version of Checkmate appeared in the DC Animated Universe reality designated as Earth 12 in the Multiverse·
• In Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Infinite Crisis v1 #1 (2019), an alternate version of Checkmate was shown to inhabit a world in the Dark Multiverse. On this Earth, Ted Kord killed Maxwell Lord where he came to use the A.I. to help him stop threats to the world. With Checkmate under his control, Kord proactively eliminated a number of threats to the planet but they were devastated when the true villainous masterminds were revealed to be Alexander Luthor, Jr. and Superboy Prime. Afterwards, Kord was convinced by Brother Eye that the greater threat to the world was its superpowered population and merged with the A.I. as it began assimilating the Earth's populace.

In other media

Television

• In Smallville, Checkmate appeared in the setting of the live-action television series where it was seen in the episode "Absolute Justice". It makes added appearances in season 9 where Amanda Waller is shown to be a high ranking agent designated White Queen. Checkmate was responsible for the persecution of the Justice Society of America at some point with these chain of events leading to it being disbanded. By the time of the show, Waller was responsible for recruiting Icicle in attacking the JSA members though unknown to the villain this was with the intention of reforming them in order to prepare them for the "coming Apokolips". Amanda Waller was later responsible for manipulating Lois Lane into revealing the JSA in a positive form and makes Tess Mercer one of her agents. She attempted to forcibly recruit Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter and 'the Blur' by threatening the Watchtower in response to the 'alien invasion' from Kandor. However, Green Arrow manages to cause a powercut which allows 'the Blur' to save the Watchtower whereupon he escapes whilst the Martian Manhunter erases their identities from Waller's mind. In the episode "Charade", a wealthy business man by the name of Maxwell Lord was introduced who holds the rank of Black King in Checkmate. Maxwell Lord, the Black King of Checkmate, set his sights on discovering the identity of The Blur and using that information to get to the rest of the metahumans on the planet. He helped one of The Blur's enemies, Ray Sacks out of jail in order to help him find people with any information on The Blur. They collected people who had caught glimpses of The Blur and Lord used his mind reading abilities to force the images out of their minds and project them onto a monitor. Lord offered Sacks a Black Knight position in Checkmate for his services. After nearly completing the image and kidnapping Lois Lane, who held the last piece, The Blur himself showed up. He destroyed the monitor the moment it completed his image in anger after Lord tried to rip his image out of Lois' mind. Lord escaped but was found by a man who threw him into a limo where he met with the mysterious Red Queen face to face. Checkmate recruited Stuart Campbell, a former hacker under Tess Mercer's employ, into their ranks and with his help, they successfully hacked Watchtower of all of the information on the aliens on Earth. Stuart, wanting revenge on Tess for shooting him, disobeyed Waller to not search for Tess and did so anyway. Meanwhile, Waller used the information they had taken from Watchtower to track down half of the aliens, the ones who did not have their powers. She took their leader, Faora, while intending to kill the rest. The remaining aliens were saved by The Blur while Waller tried to press Faora for information. The aliens' true leader, Zod, attacked Waller and threw her into a windshield, hoping to kill her, when The Blur arrived, hitting Zod away and saving Waller's life. Stuart returned to "The Castle" after being unable to track down Tess where he found Waller. Waller explained that the war had begun now that Zod had destroyed many of their bases and that they needed to contact the United Nations immediately on the situation. However, Zod was also at "The Castle" and had slaughtered many Checkmate operatives. Waller and Agent Campbell made a run for it as Zod unleashed a blast of heat vision, burning the entire castle to a cinder. Agent Waller's and Agent Campbell's fates remain unknown.

Video games

• In DC Universe Online, Checkmate made a minor appearance in the backstory of the MMORPG video game.

Appearances

• Action Comics v1: (1988)
• Checkmate v1:
• Deathstroke the Terminator v1:
• Checkmate v2:
• Justice League: Generation Lost v1 #22: (2010)

External Link

• DC Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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