Major Disaster
Major Disaster is a male comic character who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Paul Booker
A team of scientists were able to build a stress-null-beam ray that was able to induce natural disasters on the planet. Crafting the identity of Major Disaster, he assembled a gang with the intention of taking over the country. This saw him hiring a team of psychologists who aided him in targeting the Green Lantern and the Flash. Part of his ploy involved leaking their secret identities to their respective love interests Iris West and Carol Ferris. Causing a string of disasters by Pineaire City, Major Disaster and his henchmen then came to rob a bank where his powers made them untouchable to the Flash and Green Lantern when the two heroes tried to stop the criminals. This allowed him to secure a foothold on both Central City and Coast City whereupon he intended to spread his operations across the entire country. (Green Lantern v2 #43)
Whilst in prison, he met a man named the Mighty Bruce who was a computer wizard that stole from huge corporations in order to give to charity. At some point, Disaster came to escape with Bruce who he recruited to be part of his supervillain team named the Injustice League. He then came to recruit other villains that included Multi-Man, Big Sir, Cluemaster and the Clock King where they came upon an abandoned Thanagarian ship that was left over from the recent alien invasion. Major Disaster intended to use its advanced alien weaponry to conquer the world and use it against the Justice League. However, Bruce was unable to operate the ship effectively and accidentally their location was discovered by a stray radio transmission was that was detected by Guy Gardner. At the time, Gardner was helping clear up the Khund warship nearby where upon overhearing their plans he decided t intercept them and damaged the Thanagarian ship causing it to crash land back on the surface. This allowed them to be arrested and taken into custody with Major Disaster planning the next scheme of the Injustice League but his compatriots wanted no part in it with them instead beating him up as they wanted no part in his plans. (Justice League International v1 #23)
After his defeat, he went to the unemployment office along with Big Sir where they two of them encountered Clock King and Cluemaster. Booker then decided to reform the Injustice League where they were to perform one last heist before retiring. This saw them bringing Bruce and Multi-Man back with their team where they staged an a break in at the Metropolitan museum. However, they broke in whilst terrorists were engaging in their own attack at the site leading to a fight between the two. The Injustice League came to defeat the terrorists who were arrested as a result with Major Disaster and his comrades being hailed as heroes. This led to them deciding to reform themselves and operate as superheroes instead. Major Disaster then approached Maxwell Lord with giving them a chance to change their ways where he decided to have them form the Justice League Antarctica. Their group was situated in Antarctica and were joined by Green Lantern G'Nort where it was believed their base would mean they were placed in a position where they could harm no one. (Justice League America Annual v1 #4)
He came to be one of many villains that answered the call of Neron when he offered them power in exchange for a piece of their souls. Major Disaster was alongside Copperhead and Killer Moth where they wanted to be taken as serious threats and not seen as jokes. The demon came to transform him and give him new powers as a result that made him a greater threat to his foes. (Underworld Unleashed v1 #1)
Suicide Squad
Afterwards, he came to make a deal with the government where he took part in their Suicide Squad program alongside his former team mates in the Injustice League. They were deployed in Iceland to deal with the threat of an organism created from experiments in cloning Metahuman DNA. The result was an organism that spawned children from its bio-mass and had taken its creator hostage. The Suicide Squad managed to enter Iceland where they proceeded to eliminate the threat. (Suicide Squad v2 #1)
Justice League
He came to feel that he was given a second chance by Superman and ended up destroying his old supervillain suit. Booker was then offered a place in the Justice League as part of Batman' emergency contingency to recruit a new team if the previous members were lost. Batman believed that he sensed potential in Booker who joined his new team mates at the Justice League Watchtower as they set about protecting Earth from mysterious mystically related disasters. (JLA v1 #69) After assembling, the team were led into the field by Nightwing where they looked to stop a natural disaster that was afflicting Tokyo. Working alongside the Atom, Major Disaster had to use his powers to mitigate the damage caused by the natural disaster before it destroyed the city. After saving the city, Major Disaster attended a press conference alongside Ray Palmer and Oliver Queen where they talked about their status as the Justice League's replacements. Afterwards, he joined the team at the Watchtower where they discovered that the mystical force causing the natural disasters was draining the world's oceans that were being redirected to the former site of Atlantis. (JLA v1 #71) The team later went to the site where they were confronted with a powerful mage called Gamemnae who was responsible for the mystical threat to the world. Seemingly captured, Major Disaster was present to rain down meteors on her if she broke loose but he was captured and absorbed by the villain's flesh spell allowing her to use his powers. (JLA v1 #73)
Afterwards, the Justice League gathered when they received a distress signal from the planet Kylaq that was being invaded by the Peacemakers. The superhero team came to be divided on whether to intervene or not as half their membership believed their jurisdiction was only Earth whilst others believed they had a duty to help others. Major Disaster believed that if heroes hunted down criminals than there would be much less crime in the universe with him favouring intervening in the conflict. Ultimately, the Justice League split in two with those favouring intervention travelling to Kylaq with the others remaining behind to protect Earth. The team to Kylaq consisted of Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern John Stewart, Faith, Manitou Raven, and Major Disaster. He was with John Stewart in order to deal with a Peacemaker war machine that was quickly dismantled by Faith. After the fight, he was with the League when they met with the Kylaq leaders where Booker was admiring Wonder Woman as she gave a speech to the heads of government. (JLA v1 #78)
Feeling responsible for the incident, Booker came to blame himself for the actions at Haven and believed that he was responsible for the public disgrace of the Justice League. During this time, he spent time with Faith and wanted to comfort her as she felt she was responsible for the disaster. She then revealed that she had a means of rectifying the problem which was going back to her former handler Manson who headed a black-ops group called the Clockwatchers. During this time, Faith revealed the true nature behind her powers and nature to Major Disaster with this shocking Booker. He then said that he would accompany her in joining the Clockwatchers again as he felt it was penance for his actions where the two arrived at the rendezvous point. Manson was displeased at Faith having company as he only wanted her to return to him with Booker making a case for him accompanying her. (JLA v1 #81) Despite his offer, Manson refused and grew increasingly violent the longer the conversation continued as he wanted to depart with his former experiment. It was then that Faith understood that Manson was responsible for the entire Haven incident as he had used the 'Mouth' to make the Justice League members present at the disaster to individually believe they were responsible for the incident. This was to drive Faith back to Manson so that she would re-join his black-ops group but he only wanted her alone. Thus, the presence of Major Disaster threw his plans and a furious Faith threatened to kill Manson. However, he made a deal where he would reveal the location of Green Lantern and the people of Haven in exchange for him to leave unharmed. He did warn the two though that a chain of events were not set in motion that would could not be altered with the only safe place being by the Clockwatchers whereupon he departed. With the information gathered from him, Faith and Major Disaster returned to the Justice League who cleared their names as well as rescued the people of Haven. (JLA v1 #82)
Whilst at a bar, Booker hooked up with a woman with the pair sleeping together where in his drunken state he called her 'Faith' several times. The next day, she was ready to leave when she was shocked at armed men outside Paul's place though all the attackers had seemingly put their guns to their own heads as they were being attacked telepathically by an unknown assailant who showed terrible horrors in their heads. He later reported this to the Justice League but did not into detail on who the armed men were beyond being ex-associates. The League during the meeting believed that a powerful telepath was operating on Earth and engaged in manipulating the minds of various people around the world. (JLA v1 #84)
Booker later came to join the covert black-ops team the Justice League Elite where they operated secretly to proactively remote threats in the world. Officially, it was claimed that he broke ties with the Justice League of America when they became weary of his criminal past. (Justice League Elite v1 #1)
He was present at the Battle of Metropolis where in the chaos he was quickly killed by Superboy-Prime. (Infinite Crisis v1 #7)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
Major Disaster and the Atomic Skull were both hired for a job to keep Superman and Wonder Woman busy. This saw Booker create a tornado to hide their activities as they struck at an industrial plant to draw out the two heroes. Eventually, the heroes arrived and battled the two villains but they managed to get the upper hand over them. Major Disaster conjured a storm that struck the two superheroes with lightning where he and Atomic Skull looked to escape. However, they were attacked then by a new superhero called himself Wonderstar who assisted Superman and Wonder Woman in the apprehension of the two criminals. (Superman/Wonder Woman v1 #13) The two supervillains were then taken into custody by the authorities. (Superman/Wonder Woman v1 #14)
He received a message seemingly from Guy Gardner who challenged him to a fight at Coney Island. Upon arriving at the scene, he learnt that it was a fake made by his daughter Minor Disaster. (Harley Quinn v3 #54)
Overview
Personality and attributes
According to one account, files listed Major Disaster's name as being Bennett Brodsky. (Justice League America Annual v1 #4)
Since childhood, he believed that he was meant for great things where he thought he would be a leader of men and shape major world events. (Justice League International v1 #23)
It was noted that he had failed in Political Science. (Justice League International v1 #23)
Booker was said to do a play-by-play through of Victoria's Secret catalogue. (JLA v1 #78)
His father was noted for being a dentist with Booker believing that perhaps he should have followed his footsteps and gone to dental school. (Justice League America Annual v1 #4)
Whilst working with Faith on the Justice League, Book was shown as being smitten with his team mate. (JLA v1 #78) This led to him being attracted to her though he never admitted his feelings. In one case, he slept with a woman from a bar and whilst drunk he called her name out as 'Faith'. (JLA v1 #84)
He had a pink-haired teenage daughter who went by the name of Penny with her wanting to be closer to her dad though he neglected her affections. (Harley Quinn v3 #53) She came to operate under the name of Minor Disaster and had created her own Disaster Dial. (Harley Quinn v3 #52) She was desperate to gain her fathers approval and wanted to follow in his footsteps by becoming a supervillain. However, he refused to acknowledge her as a villain and stated that he would not team up with her as she was a nobody. He was later impressed though when she created a natural disaster but controlled it to save a city. (Harley Quinn v3 #54)
Booker claimed that he had not paid taxes in the span of ten years. (JLA v1 #80)
Powers and abilities
He had the ability to create natural disasters with this initially being the result of a stress-null-beam ray that had the side effect of affecting the Green Lanterns Power Ring and the Flash's superspeed. (Green Lantern v2 #43)
Booker could even cause meteors to stand ready overhead and at his command could rain down on a target. (JLA v1 #73)
He came to learn to use his powers to stop natural disasters with this act requiring a lot of effort on his part. (JLA v1 #71)
Paul could trigger more minor scale disasters such as flat tires, dropped axles and running out of fuel. (JLA v1 #80)
Due to his powers, he had the strongest ties to the Earth itself and its spirit. However, being a human, he was unable to process the voice of the planet when she tried to speak through him. (JLA v1 #100)
Notes
- Major Disaster was created by Gardner Fox and Gil Kane where he made his first appearance in Green Lantern v2 #43 (March, 1966).
In other media
Television
- In Justice League Unlimited, Major Disaster appeared in the animated television series set in the DC Animated Universe. He was shown as being a member of Gorilla Grodd's Secret Society.
- In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Major Disaster appeared in the setting of the animated television series in the episode "Hail the Tornado Tyrant" where he was voiced by actor James Arnold Taylor.
Appearances
- Green Lantern v2: (1966)
- Justice League International v1:
- Justice League America Annual v1:
- JLA v1: (2002)
- Justice League Elite v1:
- Superwoman/Wonder Woman v1:
- Harley Quinn v3:
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
