Major Disaster

Revision as of 08:23, 11 July 2020

Major Disaster is a male comic character who features in DC Comics.

Biography

Origin

Major Disaster in Green Lantern v2 #43.

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)

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)

Post-Flashpoint

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

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

Booker was said to do a play-by-play through of Victoria's Secret catalogue. (JLA v1 #78)

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)

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)
• JLA v1: (2002)
• Justice League Elite v1:
• Harley Quinn v3:

External Links

• DC Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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