Dominators (DC)
The Dominators are an alien species that feature in DC Comics.
Contents |
History
Origin
The Dominators were native to a world that, similar to themselves, had no formal name. (R.E.B.E.L.S. v2 #5 2009)
Around twelve thousand years ago, the Dominators discovered that the moon of Homeworld had intelligent life evolving on its surface. After this discovery, the Domnion destroyed the planetoid and fragments of it fell every night on their Homeworld as a reminder of their sister race that they strangled in the cradle. (R.E.B.E.L.S. v2 #4 2009)
They eventually formed a star-spanning empire ruled by the Dominators. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #29 2007)
Modern
Whilst absent from the battlefield, they served the role of strategists in the invasion of Earth. (Invasion v1 #2)
The Dominators believed that the unpredictable evolutionary tendencies of Earth's metahumans posed a clear and present danger to the state of the universe. (Invasion v1 #1)
When the invasion was beginning to crumble and turning to Earth's favor, one Dominator created a 'Gene Bomb' and detonated it in Earth's atmosphere that would affect many individuals that possess the metagene, causing them to lose control of their powers and eventually fall into a coma and die. Since the point of the invasion was to harness these beings, not eradicate them, the Dominator was imprisoned by his own government, but prior to execution a group of heroes unaffected by the Gene Bomb, led by the Martian Manhunter, managed to steal data from his mind crucial to reversing the effects of the Gene Bomb and restore most metahumans back to health. Ironically, the detonation of the Gene Bomb was actually responsible for the creation of several metahumans. (Invasion v1 #3)
Dominators that were trapped and abandoned on Earth after the war attempted to launch an attack against humanity but their efforts were shut down by the Outsiders. (Outsiders v3 #44)
The Dominators served as hired muscle for a drug lord named Elijah who sold Bliss, a drug harvested from the innocence of children. The Titans were hired to rescue Christopher Bockam’s son, who’d been kidnapped by Elijah to make Bliss. Titans Jade and Tattooed Man posed as investors, and Elijah showed them his facility where he processed Bliss. The Titans made their move, and Elijah defended himself with his Dominators. Titan Arsenal found the harvesting chamber where Elijah kept the children, but also discovered that it contained a fail-safe that killed any child he tried to free. Arsenal cut the power to the harvesting pods, saving most of the children, and the Titans defeated the Dominators. Osiris lost control of his power and killed Elijah with a bolt of thunder. (Titans v2 #27)
In the war between Rann and Thanagar, the Dominion sided with the Rannians where they offered their tactical advice and their worries over the possible gain of Zeta Beam technology by the Thanagarians. They also indicated that the loss of a Coluan starship would serve as a weakness for their alliance. (Rann-Thanagar War v1 #2)
The Dominion became aware of the fact that L.E.G.I.O.N. had been usurped from Vril Dox and they deemed that anyone capable of such a feat was a threat to their own empire. However, they were initially unable to determine who was responsible and all their probes to Maltus had not returned. In addition, their fleet patrols in the Xylon Expanse that were watching for Khund patrols detected a massive subspace rift that was a powerful wormhole to another galaxy. They deemed this not to be a natural phenomena and speculation came on which of their former allies was responsible. During a meeting with the emperor, the warrior caste believed the Khund's lacking the necessary science, the act being too obvious for the Durlans, though it was too subtle for the Okaarans and the wormhole was too different from the biological warp gates made by the Gil'Dishpan. A Dominion Fleet Commander was tasked with uncovering the beings responsible for the wormhole. (R.E.B.E.L.S. Vol 2 #4 2009) The Fleet Commander of the military caste attempted to urge the emperor into sending a battle group to the Xylon Expanse to secure the region due to the wormhole anomaly. However, at this point, the Dominion homeworld was invaded by the forces of Starro who effortlessly defeated the defenders of the planet. (R.E.B.E.L.S. Vol 2 #5 2009) With the addition of the Star Conqueror, the Dominator forces were quickly overrun as their forces were incapacitated with the Starro parasites. This included the Dominion emperor who held the thermo-nuclear arsenal that prevented them from arming these weapons against the invaders. Thus, the Dominators became the second conquest of the Starro invasion after the subtle infiltration of Maltus. (R.E.B.E.L.S. v2 #6)
30th Century
Ten centuries afterwards, the failed attempted invasion of Earth had left a lasting scar on the Dominator psyche. In the years following the retreat, the Dominators became insular and withdrew. The boundaries of the empire became fixed and fortified where they became concerned in their own affairs whilst Earth became involved in their own. After a few centuries, the status quo became formalized in the Nameless Treaty. Humanity had forged this non-aggression pact though the Dominators gave their own name to it as the term non-aggression pact had no equivalent in their species language. In time, Humanity's language entered into the Dominator lexicon and began to believe the treaty protected their sovereign territory. Around twelve cycles ago, the Dominator homeworld was visited by a time-travelling Booster Gold who emerged from a rip in space-time. The time traveller moved through the planet in order to steal a tachyon disruptor rifle on live subjects and mentioned that he needed it to save fifty-two worlds. As a result, the words "Fiff-tu" were forever recorded by the Dominators from their security footage. After translating these words, the Dominators came to believe Humanity had rallied fifty-two worlds in an alliance without the Dominion being aware. This combined with the arrival of Booster Gold who being a Human had made an unauthorized arrival on the Dominator homeworld meant that the treaty was concerned broken. As a result, the Dominators once more began to make moves to combat Earth and deal with the threat of the supposed fifty-two worlds allied with them. This saw them first conducting stealthy encroachments where they struck the edges of United Planets space and taking out isolated frontier settlements. All these attacks involved the invaded worlds communications being jammed so the true nature of the attacks were never communicated back to Earth. Any captured Humans were taken for interrogation to learn the nature of the fifty-two worlds. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #29)
Among the weapons deployed against Earth was a technovirus that turned all the artificial intelligences against Humanity. A group of Metahumans that was sent by the United Planets covertly were sent to investigate and it was only overwhelming numbers allowed a victory. Afterwards, they decided to gain a tactical advantage over Human Metahumans by utilizing their DNA to create super-soldiers to fight Earth. This proposal was brought before the Emperor's court where it was initially seen as heresy before accepted before the Emperor accepted where millions of shock-troopers were bred to combat the threat of Metahumans. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #29 2007) Ultimately, the Dominators were defeated on their homeworld but their xenoclone super-soldiers were dispersed across the galaxy thus spreading the genetic code beyond anyones control that would guarantee galactic conquest in the future. As a result, the Legion of Super-Heroes were faced with a problem namely when they withdrew from the Dominators homeworld that the Dominion would eventually rebuild. It was expected it would take months for the planetary ecoservices to be restored. Thus, it was decided to deploy a doomsday weapon to destroy the Dominator homeworld that was met with some opposition. This weapon needed to be deployed in the world's core by Mon-El which seemingly destroying it though in actuality the doomsday device was a Phantom Zone Projector that sent the Daxamite along with Dominators into the Phantom Zone where they were to be trapped indefinitely. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #30)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. The Dominators
Superman encountered a Dominator armada heading towards Earth and defeated that invasion force. (Superman v5 #1)
Overview
Dominators believed in the purity of their gene pool and the concept was genetically altering their physiology was considered heresy. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #29 2007)
All Dominators were identical to one another with the only difference being circular markings on their foreheads that indicated the individuals level within their social hierarchy. (Invasion v1 #2) Individual Dominators had no proper name and instead their identity was strictly defined through their caste as well as function. (R.E.B.E.L.S. Vol 2 #5 2009) Entire castes in their society were known to be dedicated to torture research. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #28 2007) Governing bodies within the Dominator empire included the leadership caste that included caste leaders. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #29 2007) Those charged with diplomatic negotiations with other races were known as caste speakers. (Rann-Thanagar War v1 #2)
Certain speciality research included that of Combat Technologists though some lines of study meant that these researchers became outcasts amongst their peers. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #29 2007) Amongst the leadership titles included that of an Overlord. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #28 2007) The highest authority within the empire including meetings at the Emperor's court. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #29 2007)
Young Dominators were taught at Inforiums that was overseen by the Council of Pedagogues who oversaw a strict curriculum that enforced the idea of their species dominance. Any deviation that indicated the Dominators were capable of being killed by other weaker species was considered heresy that saw squads of fact-checkers eliminate the guilty instructor. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #29 2007) Their civilization was noted for residing in sciencities. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #30 2007)
The society in the Dominion was seen as brutal and savage in some respects as they were known to test weaponry in live firing exercises against living beings. Furthermore, those Dominators that were seen as failures had their cortexes data-mined before they were terminated. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #29 2007) Changes in their military doctrine led to increased importance placed on their rigid caste system. (R.E.B.E.L.S. v2 #6) Dominator folklore held that the Science Caste was responsible for burying the Old Gods in the Xylon Expanse. (R.E.B.E.L.S. v2 #4)
Dominators were considered superb scientists and were second only to the Coluans in being the most brilliant minds in existence that allowed them to find means to escape imprisonment. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #30) With respect to the Weaponers of Qward and the Warlords of Okaara, the Dominators produced weapons that were second to none. The issue with them was not the quality of their ordinance but of their command and control. (R.E.B.E.L.S. v2 #6) These included transphasic weapons that turned solid beings into liquids with horrific results and bio-bullets that fired synthetic 'predagens' which killed anything within minutes whereupon they turned into mist. (R.E.B.E.L.S. v2 #6) One weapon available in their arsenal included a technovirus that was able to turn planetary artificial intelligences against their creators. (Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #29 2007)
Members
- Gunther :
- Xylon :
- The Dominator : a low caste male scientist who discovered the same meteor that empowered Captain Comet and posited to use it to evolve the Dominator race. After the ruling council refused, he exposed himself and become a powerful psionic being calling himself the Dominator who sought to conquer Earth but was defeated by the Green Lantern black ops Corpse. (Green Lantern Corps: The Dark Side of Green)
- Chleyns-Wann :
- Wuuthlan :
Notes
- The Dominators were created by Jim Shooter where they made their first appearance in Adventure Comics v1 #361 (October, 1967).
In other media
Television
- In the animated Legion of Super-Heroes, the Dominators make a brief cameo initially before fully appearing in the second season of the show. Initially, its shown that in the 30th century that invasion simulation's were practiced by the Legion from the information on the Dominion in their databases. Afterwards, their activity increases with Imperiex forming an alliance with them where they provided weapons of conquest for him. Among these included the development of the doomsday Takion Cannon that drew power from a strange cloud of cosmic energy. They also developed the super missiles for use against the homeworld of Chameleon Boy. On both occasions, the Dominators were defeated but were upgraded to resist the superpowers of the Legion. When Imperiex was killed by Brainiac 5, the Dominion submitted to the corrupted Coluan's commands.
- In the Arrowverse, the Dominators appeared in the shared continuity setting.
- In The Flash, the Dominators first appeared in the 2014 live-action television series third season in the episode "Invasion!". On Earth-38, it was revealed by Supergirl that her version of Krypton had been visited by the Dominators who did cruel experiments on the native people. On Earth-1, they were an alien race that had previously come to Earth in the 1950s where they killed hundreds of soldiers at their landing site before departing. The D.O.D. began to refer to this race as the Dominators and hid their existence from the public about the encounter. By the modern day, four Dominator ships began to approach Earth with a scout ship landing at Central City. The Flash encountered the Dominators that dispersed into the city to enact their plans to conquer Earth. To combat them,
- In Arrow, the Dominators continued in the live-action television series fifth season cross-over episode "Invasion!". Their abduction of several of the vigilantes led to an experiment where they were placed in s shared hallucination in order to study them.
- In Legends of Tomorrow, the Dominators continued in the live-action television series second season cross-over episode "Invasion!". It was revealed that the reason they had come to Earth was their fear of Metahumans as they had seen other worlds with Metahumans. Thus, they scouted planets and sought to stop the threat of Metahumans from emerging to affect their world. During the 1950s, their scouting force had come to examine mankind when one of their number was attacked by the time-travelling Legends who sought to find clues of the modern day Dominator invasion. One Dominator was captured but the Legends were later apprehended by members of the United States government. The Dominator was freed by the Legends to save him from torture with the individual returning to his people. Afterwards, the Dominators made a pact with members of the United States government where they were to ensure that Metahumans did not rise to be a threat. However, it was Barry Allen's alteration of the timeline creating Flashpoint and then later changing history which could the pact to be broken. Thus, the Dominators had arrived on Earth wanting the Flash given to them otherwise they intended to detonate a Meta-Bomb to kill off the planet's Metahuman population. The various heroes worked together in fighting the Dominators with their Meta-Bomb destroyed leading to the aliens retreating from the planet. A Dominator Queen's child was lost in time and landed on Earth in 1988 where the offspring was found by a young Ray Palmer who looked after it when government agents pursued the child. Child Dominators were said to be even capable of telepathic controlling other beings. The Queens were said to be fiercely protective of their young and could mentally project images into the minds of others and could exude a web-like substance to cocoon people.
- In Supergirl, the Dominators appeared in the live-action series that was set on an alternate Earth that was connected to the Arrowverse. They were first seen in the episode "Supergirl Lives" where one of their umber was part of the slaver operation on the planet Maaldoria.
Film
- In Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, the Dominators made an appearance in the animated film when Hal Jordan tells Arisia the legend of the First Lantern though were unnamed in the story. This story was stated to be within the first chapter in the Book of Oa that spoke of the time after the universe was formed when their was an initial period of peace that was followed by a time of chaos. At this time, the Dominators were shown where they had a non-speaking role with their fleets appeared throughout the cosmos to raze worlds from orbit whilst their ground troops massacred the peaceful inhabitants. Upon witnessing these acts, the Guardians of the Universe decided to act in order to save creation where they harnessed willpower itself within the light spectrum thus making the first Power Ring. Four such rings were created with the Guardians dispatching them to select the first four Green Lanterns who were dispatched as the Oan's warriors against the Dominators. The Dominator fleet immediately attacked the Green Lanterns who were initially overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies fighting them. However, the former scribe managed to harness the full potential of his Power Ring and thus became secured in legend as the First Lantern. Tapping into willpower, he managed to defeat the Dominator fleet thus bringing about a time of peace and order which paved them way for the Green Lantern Corps.
Appearances
- Adventure Comics v1: (1967)
- Invasion! v1:
- Legion of Super-Heroes v4: (1992)
- Outsiders v3:
- Rann-Thanagar War v1:
- Superman v5:
External Link
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