Parliament of Limbs

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The Parliament of Limbs on the left vs the Rot in Animal Man v2 #12.

The Red is a concept that features in DC Comics.

Contents

History

Origin

The Red in Animal Man v2 #2.

Long ago, the power of the Morphogenetic Field was tapped into by a group of ancient humans who came to be known as the Animal Masters who used it to create animals on the Earth. Each generation was taught by their predecessors who held the same position. This was until billions of years ago when a dark opposite of this creative power emerged in the universe. It was known by many names including Despoiler, Expunger, Anti-Creator, Annihilator and even as Anti-Creator but it was ultimately came to be known as the Antagon. For millions of years, the Animal Masters waged a war against this corruptive force that sought to extinguish all of existence. Ultimately, the Animal Masters managed to defeat their foe who they intended to expel from the universe but the Antagon sensed its loss and went into a cocoon to survive with it intending to emerge in the future to continue its goal. (Animal Man v1 #49) The Yellow Aliens claimed that they had taken the form of Ananse the Spider God and brought the Tantu Totem to mankind. Two thousand years later, they returned and brought the helmet and elixir of the Beast. After that, they brought the spirit masks that allowed the wielder to manifest the powers of an animal. All these gifts were done so by the Yellow Aliens to allow mankind to be in touch with the Template. (Animal Man v1 #12)

Post-Flashpoint

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Long ago, there were six kingdoms formed from life that governed the natural and unnatural world with these including the Green, Red, Rot, Grey. Divided and the Metal. (Swamp Thing: Futures End v1 #1) It was said that they were created long ago during the dawn of humanity when the Lords of Order conducted a ritual that convened and infused the natural forces of the world who gathered to form the Parliaments of Life. (Justice League Dark v2 #20)

Since ancient times, there had been many Avatars of the Red that served as protectors of the life web with some not even being humans. Among these were a particular three who were noted champions that joined the Red to become Totems in the Parliament of Limbs. However, these three were not satisfied with this fate and became seduced by another force that promised them new power and corrupted their thoughts. They abandoned the Red for this place of death and decay where they joined forces with the Rot with them being reborn as the Hunters Three that served as its cannibalistic agents. The Hunters Three had long sought to lay claim to a living Avatar and bring about the demise of the Red and life itself. (Animal Man v2 #4)

By the modern day, the Parliament had determined that the last Avatar of the Red was the young Maxine Baker. However, she was too young to take on this duty and thus the Totems decided to find an alternative that could serve as her guardian until she was of age. To that end, they decided to make her father the Avatar with them deciding to select Buddy Baker for that role. To achieve that goal, they decided to orchestrate a story that his mind could comprehend and sought to use an alien abduction scenario. They created agents that appeared as the Yellow Aliens who claimed were extra-terrestrial beings that gave him his powers. This led to him becoming Animal Man as he was tasked with these powers so that his daughter could be trained for the coming war for life itself. (Animal Man v2 #3)

A four year old Maxine Baker's power grew stronger in time causing her to animate dead animals and transform peoples limbs into animal parts when angry. Unknown to Buddy Baker, she was also visiting the Parliament of Limbs in her dreams. As a result, her father began to worry that she was growing out of control and decided to visit the place she mentioned in her dreams. The delved through the Red where Maxine eased her father in the journey as the appeared before the Parliament of Limbs. They explained to Buddy Baker the role of the Avatar of the Red and that Maxine was fated for her role as a champion against the coming war. It was then that the Red was invaded by two members of the Hunters Three. (Animal Man v2 #3) Animal Man fought them but were overwhelmed with him only being saved by Maxine when she unleashed her power thus driving the two agents of the Rot away. (Animal Man v2 #4) Whilst on the run from the Rot, Buddy Baker stayed behind to fight the undead creatures to allow his family to escape where his body was killed but his soul ended up in the Red. By this point, island pockets of Rot began to manifest within the Red where its agents were seeking to battle this infestation into their realm. (Animal Man v2 #9) He helped battle the Rotlings with the aid of the warrior class of the Red who escorted him to the Parliament of Limbs who decided to create him a new body as one of the Hunters Three possessed his old one. (Animal Man v2 #10) Baker was reborn in the physical world with a new body with greater ties to the Red as he sought to save his son Cliff Baker from the Hunter Three member that possessed his former body. (Animal Man v2 #11)

After the Omega Titans crisis, the Source Wall was damaged leading to the Blood Cult under Mother attempting to take control of the Red for their own goals which they intended to do so through the imaginary world of Unearth. In response, the Parliament manifested itself briefly through Beast Boy on the Titans to request their aid to stop the plot. (Titans v3 #31)

The chaos that occurred disrupted the balance among the Parliaments of Life who began to war with one another for control over the natural world. This resulted in the Justice League Dark looking to convene the guardians of the different kingdoms in order to enact the ritual in an attempt to bring balance to the world once again. (Justice League Dark v2 #20)

Afterwards, the Parliament of Limbs looked to conduct the ritual combat to recharge the Red and decide who would be the dominant race on Earth. Thus, exemplars were chosen with the shark god Chondrakha having his son King Shark briefly released from Amanda Waller's service in the Suicide Squad with the intention of secretly participating in the tournament. (Suicide Squad: King Shark v1 #2) King Shark defended his station as exemplar of the sea from Orca and was sent to fight in the Wild Games. (Suicide Squad: King Shark v1 #3)

Overview

The warrior class in Animal Man v2 #10.

It was also known as the Parliament of the Red. (Titans v3 #31) The Red was also referred to as a morphogenetic field or as the life web that connected all living things together. (Animal Man v2 #2) It connected all fauna together with all animal life being linked to it. (Animal Man v1 #12) The Morphogenetic Field of a planet was the entelechy that guides and shapes the form of living things. As such, it contained the future evolutionary potential of a species with it taking energy for it to be reached as it was located at a higher resonance. (JLA v1 #41) It was claimed that there was no death within the Red but only life with it being home to a collective mind able to share memories of past events. (Animal Man v2 #4) The Red was connected to its fellow kingdoms of the Green and the Rot with all being deemed essential to life. (Animal Man v1 #12)

Time was said to operate differently within the Red. (Animal Man v2 #9) The Red reflected each Avatar with their imagination shaping it. (Animal Man v2 #10)

Locations within the Red included the:

  • Bone Orchard : said to be the underlands of the Red. (Animal Man v2 #9)
  • Sea of Blood : a veritable sea composed of blood that lay on the way to the Totems. (Animal Man v2 #9)
  • Flesh Desert : a location that stood in the way to the Totems. (Animal Man v2 #9)
  • Kingdom of the Red : a heart shaped structure that was where the Totems resided in the Red and served as the castle for the Avatar of the Red. (Animal Man v2 #10)
  • Well of Evolution : (Suicide Squad: King Shark v1 #2)

An area connected to the Red was the dimension called the Wild Realms. (Suicide Squad: King Shark v1 #2)

It consisted of Animal Men of old who had become part of the Parliament. Each of them were the Totems who were all former Avatars of the Red. (Animal Man v2 #3) The could channel their voices within the physical world through those with ties to the Red with blood emerging from their bodies that formed a web-like structure around the person before it dissipated once their task was complete. (Titans v3 #31) A group present within the Red were beings known as the Royal Tailors who had such fine control that they could remake bodies and improve on flesh. They could give additional powers to agents of the Red to improve their durability. (Animal Man v2 #11) A warrior class existed within the Red that consisted of winged dog headed humanoids that were armed to defend it as a immune response. (Animal Man v2 #10) Lesser servants of the Red did not have a great deal of power within the Red which meant that they could not instantly transport themselves across it in the way the Avatars could do so. (Animal Man v2 #9)

Avatars were able to control the Red and thus had the power to reshaping flesh that bent to their will. (Animal Man v2 #4) Morphogenetic grafts were capable of being added onto a person allowing them to take on the essence of the Beast Avatars from the Template. (Animal Man v1 #12)

Every 10,000 years, the elemental force of animal life that was the Red had to be cleansed and recharged. This saw each member of the Parliament of Limbs grooming an exemplar to enter the Well of Evolution. As a result, their material essence was added into the Red thus ensuring their species domination of the planet for the next millennia or more. This took the form of a tournament called the Wild Games held within the Wild Realms where might was considered right as the exemplars competed with one another in a fight to the death for the right of survival. (Suicide Squad: King Shark v1 #2) The Wild Games were said to be an extremely important event that was guided by millennia of tradition and rules. This included fighting being prohibited outside of the ring. (Suicide Squad: King Shark v1 #3)

Users

  • Ignatius : a Totem that was formerly an Avatar who was a cat that was named Socks by his owner before he joined the Red and took the name Ignatius. He descended back into the form of a cat to look after Maxine Baker and guide her in her role as the Avatar of the Red. (Animal Man v2 #4)
  • Shepherd : a male satyr like being within the Red who helped those lost. (Animal Man v2 #9)
  • Anansa : a female creature of the Red, Anansa the Spider Queen was a spider entity that that spun web of cocoons. (Animal Man v1 #81)
  • Buddy Baker :
  • Maxine Baker :
  • Dominic Mndawe : an African hero known as Freedom Beast who could merge two flesh based beings after seeing them through the Red. (Justice League of America v5 #11)

Notes

  • The morphogenetic field was created by Grant Morrison and Chaz Truog where it made its first appearance in Animal Man v1 #10 (April, 1989) though Animal Man's ability to tap into it was shown from Animal Man v1 #1 (September, 1988).
  • Its identity as the Red or Lifeweb was given by Jamie and Steve Pugh where it was first referenced in Animal Man v1 #52 (October, 1992).
  • The Parliament of Limbs was created by Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman where it made its first appearance in Animal Man v2 #3 (January, 2012).

Alternate Versions

  • In Swamp Thing v5 #13 (2012), a potential future was shown whereby Anton Arcane tricked Swamp Thing and Animal Man into the Rot where they became trapped for a year when only a span of hours had passed for them whereupon they were returned to Earth. During their absence on Earth, Arcane sought to bring about Rotworld whereby the Rot had spread and taken over the planet with many of the worlds heroes and villains falling under their control. The Green and the Red had in this time been driven to small isolated pockets that nearly faced complete destruction. Swamp Thing and Animal Man managed to avert this future with the aid of the Parliament of Decay thus preventing this future from coming to pass.
  • In Earth-2 (2012), the Red was shown to exist in this alternate Earth in the Multiverse with it representing the power of animal savagery. They joined with the other elemental forces to prepare for a coming disaster facing the Earth by selecting a champion avatar to represent them for the battle. Initially, Alejandro Montez was chosen but his cousin Yolanda Montez could not bear to see him go through the pain of the transformation and volunteered instead. She was transformed into the Great Beast and kept at the Tower of Fate until a time the war had arrived where she was to join with the other elemental forces to defend the planet.

Appearances

  • Animal Man:
  • Animal Man:
  • Swamp Thing: Futures End v1:
  • Titans v3:
  • Justice League Dark v2:
  • Suicide Squad: King Shark v1: (2021)

External Links

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