Fatal Five

The Fatal Five are a supervillain team that features in DC Comics.

History

Origin

The Fatal Five were five of the most notorious and wanted criminals in the 30th century. They consisted of Tharok, the Emerald Empress, the Persuader, Mano, and Validus who all made a name for themselves when they operated alone. Their crimes drew the attention of the United Planets whereupon the five began to work together as a team. The Fatal Five were sought out by members of the Legion of Super-Heroes and propositioned with the offer of helping to avert the extinguishment of Sol by a Sun-Eater device in exchange for full presidential pardons. As Mano and Validus in particular were about to face the executioner within only moments of the Legionnaires' arrival, the Legion considered the offer to be one the Five were unlikely to turn down. Indeed, the Five consented, but with the secret agenda of conserving their energies while the Legionnaires exhausted themselves neutralizing the threat, at which time they would reveal their true colors and kill the Legion. The Fatal Five went through with their scheme after Ferro Lad's sacrifice disabled the Sun-Eater, but Princess Projectra convinced Validus to turn on his comrades for treating him like their mindless lapdog. Validus's psychic lightning clashed against Persuader's Atomic Axe and caused the Fatal Five to disappear in a flash of light, seemingly annihilating them. (Adventure Comics v1 #353)

In actuality, the Fatal Five were shunted into another dimension, cut off from the physical plane of reality. After establishing total mental domination over Validus, Tharok extended his control over the rulers of the rim world Talok VIII and influenced the military reorganization of Talokite society, interfering with interstellar shipping lanes using Talok's defensive weapons systems in order to attract the attentions of the Science Police. The S.P. sent the Legion Espionage Squad in to infiltrate the citadel of Talok VIII's government, with assistance from an S.P. contact native to the planet named Tasmia Mallor, A.K.A. Shadow Lass. The Legionnaires were allowed to breach the citadel after an arduous days-long trek through the merciless Talokite desert and death-traps were sprung upon the Legionnaires. Although the Legionnaires broke free from the death-traps through willpower and cleverness, the energy output generated in so doing was fed into a machine constructed by Talok VIII's brainwashed ruling body to break the dimensional barriers, allowing the Fatal Five to return to corporeal reality, as it was Tharok's plan all along for the Legion to surmount the obstacles facing them and thereby facilitate his release. The villains then headed for Earth to occupy the U.P. capital megacity Metropolis and seize control of the central command console of the U.P.'s automated weapons systems, to enforce their control over all other U.P. worlds. One of the 3 keys needed to authorize access to the console was kept in the Legion Clubhouse, however, drawing the Fatal Five into a conflict with the LSH over the fate of the galaxy. Although the Legion did not succeed in vanquishing their Fatal Five adversaries, they did succeed in holding them off long enough for U.P. military reinforcements to be called from other nearby inhabited worlds, driving the Fatal Five on the run. In the aftermath, the Clubhouse was left in ruins, requiring the construction of a larger, more elaborate, and more heavily fortified HQ complex for the Legion to use as a base. (Adventure Comics v1 #366)

Some months after this incident had passed, the Fatal Five were planning their next act of grand larceny from an asteroid lair when the Legionnaire Karate Kid confronted them by himself, feeling suicidally reckless due to the knowledge that the Rakurga toxin in his system would kill him within hours anyway. Devoid of any true super-powers, Karate Kid's mastery of all known forms of armed and unarmed combat, masterful technique and unsurpassed agility, and hot-headed impulse to succeed at any cost won him the day, as the Fatal Five were forced on the run again and their hideout was trashed during the heat of battle. (Adventure Comics v1 #378)

During the next round of elections for the primus inter pares of the Legion, Tharok struck accompanied only by Validus, teleporting Saturn Girl and Mon-El against their will to a barren planet where he planned to kill them both, hoping to repeat the stratagem of knocking off the Legion's leadership candidates as many times as necessary until the Legion was whittled down to nothing or made too demoralized to continue operations. However, Mon-El defeated Tharok by tricking Validus into sizzling the cyborg villain, melting his cybernetic half into useless slag and nearly killing his biological half as well. (Superboy v1 #190)

Members

• Emerald Empress :
• Tharok :
• Mano : 30th Century criminal and mass-murderer who wields a destructive power in his right hand. He is a member of the Fatal Five born on the planet Angtu. The polluted air of his world caused him to be born with a mutated hand. Mano with a touch of a glowing disc on his right hand, can completely annhilate any object. Ostracized by his society, and with his parents dead, Mano destroys his home planet and its inhabitants. Launching a career as an assassin, he is apprehended and sentenced to "have his deadly hand amputated by rocket guillotine," an action which, in the void of space, guarantees death to the criminal. However, Mano is saved by Ferro Lad who is acting on behave of the United Planets and Legion of Super-Heroes to recruit super-powerful beings to battle the world-destroying Sun-Eater.
• Persuader : the highest paid killer and strongarm gangland enforcer in the galaxy who wielded an atomic axe which, by nuclear emissions that could slice through anything, including energy" and which he can control remotely. Possessed of incredible strength, The Persuader joins the Fatal Five in their quest to destroy Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th Century.
• Validus :

Notes

• The Fatal Five were created by Jim Shooter where they made their first appearance in Adventure Comics v1 #352 (January, 1967).
• In Justice League 3000 v1 (2014), an alternate version of the year 3000 was shown with a similar group of villains known as the Five. Its members consisted of Terry Magnus, Locus, Coeval, Kali, and the Convert.

In other media

Television

• In Justice League Unlimited, the Fatal Five appeared as antagonists in the animated television series set in the DC Animated Universe where they first appeared in the episode "Far From Home". They were a group composed of five of the most dangerous criminals of the 30th - 31th century. On one occasion, The Fatal Five used psionic mind control technology to force the majority of the Legion of Super-Heroes to launch an assault on the capital world of the United Planets. The assault was thwarted by Legionnaire Brainiac 5, who had managed to elude capture and was aided by 21st Century heroes Supergirl, Green Arrow, and John Stewart.
• In Legion of Super Heroes, the Fatal Five made multiple appearances as antagonists in the setting of the animated television series. This version of the group was co-led by the Emerald Empress and Tharok. They were also collectively powerful and could be a deadly match or superior to even a small group of Legion of Superheroes. It took nearly every member to defeat the Fatal Five and imprison them. They quickly escaped Takron-Galtos and tried to get revenge at a time when the amount of Legionnaires present at their headquarters were small. After the Legionnaires were unable to recall enough members, they turned to the past and recruited Superman for help but the Fatal Five were defeated. They later returned to try to assassinate President Wazzo, of the United Planets, during the 343rd Intergalactic Games of Olympus 12. Cloaked as various unassuming figures, they would have succeeded if Superman and Phantom Girl didn't happen to be spectators. The Five were returned to Takron-Galtos but were offered freedom in exchange for helping the Legion destroy an active Sun-Eater. As expected, the Five planned on double crossing and destroying the Legion. Shrinking Violet secretly sabotaged the Emerald Empress' Eye of Ekron and a force shield was used to capture them. In the second season, Imperiex frees the Fatal Five from prison, taking Validus and Persuader under his wing, while Emerald Empress is depowered and abandoned after Matter-Eater Lad destroys the Emerald Eye of Ekron.

Films

• In Justice League vs. the Fatal Five, the Fatal Five appeared as antagonists in the 2019 animated film. After the Emerald Empress and Validus are taken to the 21st century to be imprisoned in Oa, Tharok, Mano, and Persuader travel back in time to force Jessica Cruz to lead them to their missing teammates. While fighting the Justice League and Star Boy, the Fatal Five were buried alive by Cruz.

Appearances

• Adventure Comics v1: (1967)
• Legion of Super-Heroes v1:

External Links

• DC Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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