History Behind DCUO: Vengence of Bane

In honor of a certain film that hit theaters a little over a month ago, I thought I'd do a sort of mini History of DCUO for it. And here... we... go...

Bane
Bane is perhaps the most iconic and successful of all modern Batman villains. I'm not even sure this could be in doubt. He first appeared in Batman: Vengence of Bane, January 1993 and was created by the inimitble early '90s team of Chuck Dixon and Grahm Nolan, with apparently some help from other Bat-scribe Dough Moench. (Side note: his name is said monk, apparently.) The character was explicitly designed to be a sort of anti-Batman, like so many other Bat Rogues like Killer Moth or Prometheus. Bane was more along the lines of the Doc Savage aspect of Batman, however, the sort of Peak Human omni-talented ubermensch.

Bane's origin is recounted in his first appearance. His father was a rebel in the ficticious South American country of Santa Prisca, which had prevoiusly appeared in Bat Chief Editor Denny O'Neil's magnificent Question series. The rebellion was short lived and unsucsessful, however. Most of the rebels were captured and imprisoned or executed. Bane's father- his identity was kept hidden in the original stories, but Batman: Gotham Knights #47, January 2004, revealed it to be King Snake, a Robin villain- skipped country instead. Under Santa Priscan law, a male heir was allowed to take his place instead. Bane's pregnant mother was arreseted and kept in the sadistic prison Peña Dura 'till they could find out if her kid would be male or not.

Bane spent his youth in the prison, his only company being his mother, who died when he was about five, and his teddy bear. However, he ended up on the wrong side of a particularly violent pedophile, who knocked him over a catwalk, knocking him into a coma. Whilst in this coma, Bane has a vision of a great Bat, symbolizing all of his fears. The bat tells him to become the Bane of everything, and that the weak exist to be subservient to the strong.

After waking up from his coma, Bane goes to the pedophile and gets revenge on him. As punishment, the warden sentences Bane to a special solitary cell that is under sea level. Every night it flooded and Bane was forced to swim to survive. He spent roughly ten years in this cell before he was released back into gen pop. Here, he establishes himself as the King of the prison.

This particular achievement gains him the notice of an experiment the prison is running on a new drug code named Venom. Bane is able to survive the experiment, which no one else had.  Shortly thereafter, Bane, with his three 60s garage rock named flunkies Trogg, Zombie and Bird in tow, kill the warden and escape from Pena Duro and leave for Gotham to confront the mysterious "Bat-Man". When there, Bane confronts the Bat-Man briefly.

This was, of course, build up to the big Batman event of  1993, Knightfall. In the opening salvos of Knightfall, Bane blows out the gates to Arkham Aslyum and Blackgate Prison (Batman #491, April 1993), releasing all of the inmates into Gotham. Batman spent several nights rounding them all up.  The villains tax him mentally- Scarecrow and Joker are among those he has to round up- and physically. This allowed Bane to easily beat the exhausted Batman, culminating in him picking up the wounded vigilante and cracking him over his knee like a stick (Batman #497, July 1993.) This paralyzes Batman, making him one of the few villains to ever actually best Batman in combat. With Batman crippled, Bane takes his place as king of the Gotham underworld.

Note something important here: He does not just beat Batman in a match of strength. Bane is smart- he allows the rest of the Bat rogues to do most of his work for him, whittling down Batman. This allows him to pretty much beat Batman with little effort on his part. Adaptations frequently miss this part.

Anywho, Batman was replaced by John Paul Valley, better known as Azrael. In Batman #500, he confronts Bane in a mechanical Bat suit that will be discussed at a later date. Azrael severs the tubes that feed Bane Venom, causing him to go into withdraw. Azrael then precedes to beat the crap out of Bane, leaving him for dead. That was pretty much the end of Bane's purpose in the Knightfall crossover.

Bane drifted to and fro after this. In 1995's Vengence of Bane II: The Redemption, he swears off of Venom, a promise that, for over a decade, was indeed kept. In 1996's Legacy crossover, he shows up as the Ubu to Ra's Al Ghul; this was not explained for several year's, until 1998's Bane of the Demon. In a bizarre story in 2002, Bane comes to believe that his mysterious father, whom he had been told was an American doctor, was none other than Thomas Wayne! This was quickly forgotten. Eventually it came out that his father was the aforementioned King Snake. He responded by killing him.

Following Infinite Crisis, Bane rediscovers his purpose. As said in May 2006's Infinite Crisis #7: "I finally know who I am. I am Bane. I break people." In Checkmate vol. 2 #8, he comes to blows with Checkmate over his rule of Santa Prisca, which he had taken over since the Crisis. He ends up confronting, and being beaten by, Tommy Jagger, the son of the Judomaster, whom Bane killed in Infinite Crisis. It was also during this time Bane encountered Hourman III and his father, the original Hourman. This is covered more later in this article.

Bane's last major character development came courtesy of Gail Simone's Secret Six. In Secret Six #1, September 2008, Bane became a member of the rogue Anti-Villain group. Bane had a lot of crazy adventures I haven't read yet and during which he became good friends with Vandal Savage's daughter, became king of Skartaris, blessed Dick Grayson and rode dinosaurs, among other things. He's appeared since then, but it hasn't been too major.

Osito
The  item Osito's Band, which can drop in the lighthouse instance, bears the name of Bane's teddy bear from his childhood in Pena Duro. Granted, it's just Spanish for "Little Bear", but the reference is clear. Osito only appeared in Vengance of Bane, but did have a brief cameo in Bane's origin backup in Countdown to Final Crisis #7, from March 2007. He also was released as an accessory to the Bane figure in Mattel's DC Superheroes line around 2005. That's a pretty cool accessory! Too bad a bunch of figures were released without it.

Osito was Bane's only comfort after his mother died as a child, and he is rarely seen in Vengance of Bane prior to his revelation without him. When he gets revenge on the sadistic warden of Pena Duro by tossing him out of a helicopter as he escapes, he tosses Osito to "keep him company".

It's small allusions like this that make me love DCUO.

Venom
Venom first appeared in Legends of the Dark Knight 16-20. Of interesting note, this was intended as the first arc, but was nixed by writer/editor Denny O'Neil. People might not take too kindly too a new title starting with Batman on drugs, after all.

Venom, of course, is the chief super steroid in DC Comics, if not all of comics. In its earliest appearances, it takes the form of a pill. Many years later, in JSA Classified #17, November, 2006, this aspect was retconned to derived from Rex Tyler's Miraclo pill. This is the arc in which he comes to blows with the two surviving Hourmen.

In Vengence of Bane, Bane is chosen as a test subject by an anonymous doctor (Who may have been intended to be Hugo Strange) for his physical capabilities. All prior test subjects had died when their hearts literally exploded. The drug is, in this form, administered intravenously via a pack on Bane's back and controlled by a dial worn on his wrist. The tubes offer a spot to attack Bane.

Venom is highly addictive, and has potentialy lethal withdrawl. As per one source, Batman Beyond, this leads to a catch-22 where chronic Venom abuse can lead to a weakened nervous system that has to be kept active by more Venom. Also in Batman Beyond were smaller Nicotine patch-esque patches of Venom called Slappers, but that's neither here nor there. A lightened form was used in Superman/Batman's first arc by President Luthor.

History Of DCUO: Oan Sciencecells

Oa  & the ScienceCells
As far as comic book headquarters go, the Guardians of the Universe's planet Oa might be one of the best. It's not as iconic as the Batcave or the Fortress of Solitude, sure, but its still in the higher echelons. Besides, it's an entire planet that serves as the HQ for space police. That just sounds cool!


Oa first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 2 #1, August 1960, the first issue of Hal Jordan's solo title and fourth appearance overall. It was created by Silver Age DC mainstay Gardner Fox and Gil Kane. In its first appearance, it was first shown when the Guardians of the Universe call Hal Jordan to a meeting. Two things of note: This was their first appearance too, meaning Hal had zero idea about his bosses and two, he was sent there via what amounts to an "Astral Projection" using his power ring. I've always found that interesting, that the problem with planets millions of lightyears away was deftly dealt with fifty-two years ago. It was only later that the concept of transluminal speed was introduced and real life science was throw out the window.

As eventually told, the Maltusians, the species that eventually evolved into the dwarf race known as the Guardians of the Universe, came to the planet in the center of the universe that would be known as Oa following rogue Maltusian Krona's accidental creation of the Anti-Monitor, the Multiverse and maybe even the concept of "evil". The planet was a barren desert planet when they came and built their city there. In fact, their city is the only real feature of note on the entire planet.

The city's chief feature is the Central Power Battery, which first appeared in Green Lantern Vol.  2 #9, December 1961. The Central Battery serves as the reservoir for all of the Guardians willpower and as such, all Green Lantern rings draw their power from it. As Green Lantern Rebirth #3, February 2005, revealed, the Guardians sealed the Fear Entity Parallax into the Central Power Battery. This was the reason retconned for the Yellow Impurity. But we'll talk about that some other time.

Another important feature is the Book of Oa. The book first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 2 #188, May 1985 and was created by no less than Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It appeared in the backup story "Mogo Doesn't Socialize", as a Guardian of the Universes tells a young Lantern named Arisia a Tale of the Green Lantern Corps about one of the big (but not biggest or even bigger) Lanterns named Mogo. Following the reconstruction of Oa (More on that in a sec), the Book was restored as well. In following runs, the Book was elaborated on, especially by Geoff Johns. It was Johns who introduced the idea of a Prophecy of the Blackest Night that was excised. It was also Johns who, in the Sinestro Corps aftermath, introduced the ten new laws that would be put into the Book of Oa. To the best of my knowledge, we've yet to see the full extent of these, though we do know they included lethal force being enabled.

During the event known as Emerald Twilight, when Hal Jordan went mad with grief after the destruction of Coast City (but was actually possessed by a fear demon) and destroyed the Corps, the Central Power Battery is destroyed. When that happens, the Corps is deactivated and Oa is depopulated. The Central Power Battery is rebuilt and the planet rebuilt in the graphic novel Green Lantern Legacy: The Last Will and Testament of Hal Jordan, 2002, wherein Hal's friend and mechanic Thomas Kalmaku rebuilds it with Hal's old ring. The Corps was reconstructed later, in Green Lantern Corps Recharge, November 2005 to March 2006. The planet gained another major feature following the Sinestro Corps War, massive rings that give it the shape of a Lantern that act as a shield.

The last major part of the planet, the ScienceCells first appeared in Green Lantern Vol. 2 #195, December 1985. The issue was actually a tie-in to Crisis on Infinite Earths. The ScienceCells act as holding cells for prisoners of the Lantern Corps. They are tied to the Central Power Battery, so that if the Central Power  Battery goes out, the cells open. Just like in game.

I'm going to be frank, they do not get used very often. The biggest use they've seen recently is the Emerald Eclipse arc, Green Lantern Corps vol. 2 between issues 33 and 38, April to September 2009, which saw a prison riot. More on that in Vice's bio.

Guy Gardner

 The first of the four Green Lanterns of Space Sector 2814 we're going to cover, Guy Gardner first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 2 #59, March 1968, and was created by John Broome and Gil Kane. The character was named after Gardner Fox and fan Guy H. Lillian III. That guy had a heck of a name, didn't he? His appearance was modeled after actor Martin Miller.

His first appearance was essentially a "What If?", showing Abin Sur's second choice for Green Lantern. The choice ends up coming down to mere distance- Hal Jordan is closer in proximity to Abin Sur than Guy is. What If Guy ends up becoming Green Lantern instead, and fights valiantly till succumbing to a "Yellow Plague" on an alien planet. The issue ended with Hal meeting the real Guy and becoming good friends.

Guy was quite literally put on a bus, or more accurately hit by one, in Green Lantern vol. 2 #87, December 1971, by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams. This issue introduced a new backup Lantern, John Stewart. This crippled Guy, despite the fact that doesn't make a lick of sense for a Green Lantern. The same thing later happened to Stewart too... Anywho, Guy still appeared in GL, proposing to his girlfriend, the auspiciously named Kari Limbo. A later fight with Sinestro in issue 123, December 1979, left Guy in a coma he'd stay in until the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Late in the Crisis, Guy woke up. This was when Guy gained what would, through Justice League International, became his most well known personality: That of an insufferable jerk. I think it was supposed to be brain damage or something. Guy ended up one of Earth's 2 Green Lanterns (This was a while before the two Lanterns per sector rule; it was a special case) after Hal quit. He was brought in by rogue Guardians. That was in vol. 2 issue #195, December 1985, the same issue that introduced the ScienceCells. This issue also introduced his new, most famous costume, that with the double breasted vest.

A word of note about this. In its first appearance, no explanation is given. It's just a new costume, presumably to differentiate Guy from the other Lanterns. That in and of itself isn't too unique. A lot of Green Lanterns had been seen with differing uniforms, such as Xax. In Keith Giffen, Gerard Jones and MD Bright's Green Lantern Emerald Dawn II, issues 4 to 6, July to September 1991, we are introduced to the so called Fist of the Guardians, a group of Manhunter-esque robots wearing the iconic vests. They act as a sort of precursor to the Alpha Lanterns, arresting rogue Lantern Sinestro. It's never outright pointed out that their vest is the same as Guy's, but it's assumed that that is of some importance.

During the Crisis, Guy leads a sort of Suicide Squad lite to destroy Qward's moon, believing this would weaken the Anti-Monitor. Turns out it would actually make him stronger. Whoops! He ended up wanted by most of the universe for this. He made his return in the Legends event of 1987, still believing himself the rightful Green Lantern and holding a pretty big grudge against Hal. He ended up in the new Justice League, what we think of as Justice League International. It was this series, by Keith Giffen and JM Dematties that really put Guy on the map. It was this series that really emphasized the jerk aspect of him, as well as having him get a new girlfriend, Tora Olafson, AKA Ice, and introducing the polar opposite of jerk Guy, the so called "Nice" Guy that happens whenever he hits his head on something. Really funny stuff.

Well, then the 90s happened. For a while after Emerald Twilight, Guy had Sinestro's original ring and wore a black leather jacket. It looked pretty cool, actually. Then he found out he was actually a shape shifting alien, and it was pretty crap. Despite that, the series was actually quite good, and shed a lot of light on Guy's past. It was this series that introduced his troubled relationship with his father, for one thing. Then he pretty much disappeared into the aether. Following Green Lantern Rebirth, he went on to become a Lantern living on Oa directly as an Honor Guard and operating the cafetiere. He's had a lot of focus in Green Lantern Corps, got his own title in Emerald Warriors for a while, became a Red Lantern in a pretty cool story and was part of the Justice League International for a while pre-Flashpoint. Guy's  had it pretty good the past few years.


Lyssa Drak, the Book of Parallax and the stuff she summons in that fight with her
Catchy title, eh?

Anywho, Lyssa Drak first in Green Lantern vol. 4 # 18, May 2007, in a "Tales of the Sinestro Corps" backup written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons. Unlike other Sinestro Corpsmen, Lyssa Drak has never gotten a proper origin story. In her first appearance,  and subsequent "Tales of the Sinestro Corps" backups, she assists Amon Sur in his Fear Lodge training, wherein a Sinestro Corpsman is stuck inside a sort of shell that acts as a sensory deprivation tank. Inside, the Corpsman will have to master their fears as they hallucinate. Prior to sticking Sur in the tank, she reads him tales from the Book of Parallax of the origins of other Corpsman.

A brief tangent since it's impossible to discuss Drak without mentioning the Book.of Parallax since her primary role in the Corps is the Keeper of the Book. She's even bound to it via chains. The Book, which first appeared in Green Lantern Vol. 4 #18 as well, was created as an opposite to the Book of Oa and contains the histories of Sinestro Corpsman. It details how they use fear and other tidbits about them. Not much of its history is revealed and, in fact, following the Sinestro Corps War the Book itself goes missing. Later, Drak's ring leads her to what she assumes to be the Book of Parallax and turns out to be something I'll be covering next.

Drak is from Talok IV. This is actually a refernce to the Legion of Super-Heroes comics, where Shadow Lass, a visually similar character, is from Talok VIII. Mikaal Thomas, one of the plethora of Starmen, is from Talok III and Lyrissa Mallor, founding member of LEGION, is also from Talok VIII. This explains why she looks so similar to Shadow Lass, though that serves mainly as a mythology gag than anything else.

Drak's past is mostly unexplored. We don't know how she came to be in the Sinestro Corps. She's said to be the "Story Witch", though aside from her almost pathological obsession with her books, we don't know what that really entails. She's mostly a cipher character who exists to serve as living exposition, like in the Tales of the Sinestro Corps backups. It works well for her. During the Blackest Night, she was trapped in the Book of the Black, as seen in the Untold Tales of the Blackest Night oneshot, October 2010. She was let out by Krona shortly before the War of the Green Lanterns and ended up captured by the Guardians of the Universe. Most recently, in Green Lantern vol. 5 #6, March 2012, she's been seen held up in a ScienceCell, awaiting execution for knowing too much.

Her two phases before you actually fight her invole constructs of two Sinestro Corpsman, Kretch and Karu-Sil. Kretch is a demonic entity who destroys entire worlds by flame, as Drak explains in the fight. He hasn't appeared much at all, being confined to crowd shots and a bio in the Sinestro Corps War Secret Files and Origins, June 2008. The constructs resemble him.

The three beasts she summons are the Fathers Three, three beasts who raised Karu-Sil. Karu-Sil first appeaered in Green Lantern vol. 5 #19, June 2007. As a young girl on Graxos III, a brutal planet ruled by tooth and claw, her parents were killed by raiders. The young girl was raised by carniviours beasts as one of their own. She went as far as to cut her lips off to resemble them more. Years later, as an adult, a Green Lantern inadvertently rescued her by killing the beasts she now thought of as her "Fathers Three".

She responded by attacking him. He, in turn, responded by having her instituionalized. She responded again by brutally ripping three space psychologists apart before the Sinestro Corps ring chose her. As a Sinestro Corpswoman, she chose to recreate her Fathers Three and have them dance around her like a Maypole. That's actually where her name comes from- her design was created by Ethan Van Sciver years before her introduction, as a hopeful Ghost Rider villain called Carousel.

During the Untold Tales of Blackest Night, October 2010, her Fathers Three became Black Lanterns, forcing her to kill them. It was a pretty good vignette for a character htat had little to no depth prior to htat. As a whole, that was a pretty good one shot in general, actually.

A bit about the other books
One of the various things that several of the Lantern Corps seem to share are their respective books, similar to the Book of Oa and the Book of Parallax mentioned before. The Book of the Black first appeared in Green Lantern Corps vol. 2 #33. The tome was (apparently; its rather confusing, honestly) written by a corrupted Guardian called Scar. Scar had been "killed" by the Anti-Monitor during the Sinestro Corps War, and had formed  a connection to Nekron, Lord of the Unliving and big bad of the Blackest Night.

Within the Book of the Black were dozens of prophecies that made up the Origins and Omens backups that ran in all DC titles in March 2010, teasing upcoming stories. Following the Blackest Night, the tome was discovered by Lyssa Drak, who was trapped inside it. She was let out by Krona, as mentioned above. It played a brief role in the War of the Green Lanterns, trapping the chief Lanterns of the various corps, allowing their rings to come into the possession of the Earth GLs. Kyle Raynor was able to free them, amusingly enough, by literally drawing them being freed.

Following the reboot, it was seen in Green Lantern vol. 5 #5, February 2012, when Sinestro tracked down Lyssa Drak, who had gone rogue. Within the pages, he saw prophecies of the Guardians replacing the Green Lantern Corps and other story teases for as of yet upcoming stories.

None of the other books have been seen as of yte, though the Book of Rage was mentioned by Drak in Green Lantern vol. 5 #6 whilst begging to be allowed to a Book. She says it contains "tales of revenge so sweet!" Note this came after the Fight for the Light DLC that introduced the Book investigations.

Qwardian Weaponeers, Thunderers and General Fabrikant
These here boys were arguably the chief villains early in Hal Jordan's run as Green Lantern. They've faded, but once in a while they bubble back up to the service. Qward and the Weaponeers first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 2 #2, October 1960. I'm not entirely sure on the Thunderers first appearance, as I can't really find a source, but Fabrikant first appeared in issue 125 of GL vol. 2, February 1980.


In order to talk about these guys, it's necessary to first explain exactly what Qward is. Long story short, it's a planet, sort of analogous to Earth or maybe Oa, in the Anti-Matter Universe. It's been ruled over by the Anti-Monitor before, as well as Sinestro and Qwardians in general. It was originally ruled over by the Anti-Monitor, as explained during Crisis on Infinite Earths, who created the original Thunderers.

Thunderers are the warriors of Qward, storm troopers equipped with a "Qwa-Bolt", a lightning shaped weapon capable of firing energy bolts. Eventually, the Anti-Monitor fell into a sort of coma following a confrontation with his postive matter counterpart, the Monitor. This lead to the formation of the Weaponeers of Qward.

The Weaponeers are essentially smiths. In fact, they were the ones who smithed Sinestro's first yellow ring. They were also the ruling class on Qward. They came to blows with the Green Lanterns numerous times throughout history, gaining an interest in making their own rings. Their big chance came when rogue Lantern Sinestro was exiled to the Anti-Matter world. They took this opprutunity and smithed a ring for him, using the Yellow energy of Fear.

I'm going to be honest with you. There is a lot of history with the Weaponeers I've never heard of, nor care much for. If you'd like to learn more about the Weaponeers beyond the basics, consult their page on the GL wiki. It's quite in depth!

Fabrikant is another of those Prince Ulgo or Neo Magnetism allusions. A character so hopelessly obscure I'm outright shocked he's in the game. He's had a single appearance over the years,  Green Lantern Vol. 2 #128, May 1980. He was a Qwardian general and was really short, even for his race. He was able to pose as a Earth youth named Fabian in order to get close to Hal Jordan and attempt to destroy him. It didn't work, of course. He's never been seen again, and that's pretty much all there is to him. Seriously obscure.

Vice

Vice is a Red Lantern. As such, he doesn't have much in the way of an actual history. He first appeared in Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns, December 2008. Don't let the prefix fool you; it wasn't important at all for Final Crisis and seemed like an afterthought to tie the two in. Which is fine, as both stories were perfectly fine. Vice was created by Geoff Johns and artist Shane Davis.

Vice lived in Space Sector 0013, hence the epic tier Sector 13 shoulders. His species used their multiple head spikes to decapitate their prey- one spike went into the jaw, the other went through the top of the head. Then he pulled. His mate was murdered by Arkillo of the Sinestro Corps. The rage he felt was great enough to induct him into the then new Red Lantern Corps. Vice was just another Red Lantern for the Rage of the Red Lantern story, one of the numerous literally mindless monsters that made up the Red Lantern Corps.

Following the defeat on Ysmault, home of the Red Lanterns, Vice was captured by the Green Lantern Corps and held in the ScienceCells. During the Emerald Eclipse story that ran in Green Lantern Corps vol. 2 between issues 33 and 38, April to September 2009, Vice escaped the ScienceCells after the Central Power Battery was damaged by rogue Guardian of the Universe Scar. This is why he's in the ScienceCells alert- the overall alert is likely based on the Emerald Eclipse story.

Vice was able to subdue Voz, much to the cheer of the imprisoned Sinestro Corpsman. Their cheers turned to horror, though, when the mindless beast turned and began attacking them. The riot was eventually quelled, though many prisoners were exectued by the Alpha Lanterns. When the Blackest Night happened in the next storyarc, Guy and Kyle let Vice out, since destroying the Black Lanterns required multiple Lantern colors. As soon as he's released, though, a rogue Alpha Lanterns kills him, making the whole idea  a bit of a shaggy dog story. His ring chose Guy Gardner as a replacement, the first of two times Guy has wielded the red ring.


Evil Star & the Starlings
Evil Star may just be the most obscure character in DCUO as a boss that isn't Prince Ulgo. In fact, I'm really not sure at all why he's in the game.  He first appeared Green Lantern Vol 2 #37, June 1967.

Evil Star, real name unknown, was a scientist on the far away planet of Aoran and was scared of death. So he decided to draw generic cosmic energy from the stars into a device called the "Starbrand". The device acts sort of like a Green Lantern Ring and allows him to make constructs, but it twists his mind towards evil and prematurely ages his fellow Aorans. They decided that, hey, it's a pretty bad thing that he's doing, so they try and stop him. What does Evil Star do? Kill 'em all.

His Starbrand can also create miniature versions of himself he calls "Starlings". Originally, he could only create five. They were indestructible, hence why they do not take damage in DCUO. However, during the 1996 Underworld Unleashed event, Evil Star sold his soul to the demon Neron for the ability to create a limitless amount of Starlings, though they are no longer invulnerable. The Starlings he creates are extensions of himself. If he's knocked out, they go bye-bye.

After he was defeated in his first appearance, he was actually sent to a rehabilitation center by the Guardians. A "brain wave nullfier" was used on him in an attempt to reverse the damage the Star Brand had done, but all that did was stimulate his subconscious, recreating the Starlings.  He fled to Earth, thinking the Starlings were out to get him for some reason. While he was on Earth, fought a Darkstar for some reason or another. Then the aforemtentioned soul selling took place.

Honestly, that's about it. He was briefly seen in Green Lantern as the person who was in charge of the Kroletearns, the Gremlin-esque creatures who took Black Hand apart and put him back together. It was also mentioned he was attacking a Blue Lantern's homeworld. But that's it. That's pretty much every appearance he's ever had.

Seriously, why is he in the alert?

Alpha Lanterns
All told, the Alpha Lanterns are relatively recent additions to the Lantern mythos, first appearing Green Lantern Vol. 4 #27, March 2008. They were created by Grant Morrison in preparation for his Final Crisis story, but weren't actually originally written by him. That fell to Geoff Johns, who's been chief architect for Green Lantern since 2004.

The Alpha Lanterns are former Lanterns who have been combined with Manhunter technology to create what amounts to an internal affairs bureau for the Green Lanterns. Devoid of emotion, they are supposed to be able to police a recent addition to the Corps. That being lethal force was enabled against Sinestro Corpsman. Six Green Lanterns were selected to become Alpha Lanterns, though John Stewart declined.

The Alpha Lanterns first saw duty arresting Lantern Laira, who had murdered Amon Sur following his surrender in the Sinestro Corps War. The next time the Lanterns saw major duty was in Final Crisis, the story for which they were originally created for. In issue 1, May 2008, Hal Jordan is framed for the murder of the New God Orion and his aressted by the Alpha Lanterns.  In issue 3 it became clear that Alpha Lantern Boodikka was host to the Evil God Granny Goodness. She captured Batman, which lead directly into the death of Batman story.

Following this, they've been seen here and there. They were in Blackest Night and they had their own story arc, "Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns", where they were controlled by the Cyborg Superman. I've not read those, however. That's pretty much their entire history.

Krona
All right, Krona's DCUO fight is primarily  based on a recent story, 2011's War of the Green Lanterns. Because of this, I'll keep the information about his past short because of this.

Krona first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 2 #40, October 1965. He was a scientist on Maltusa, the planet the Guardians of the Universe were originally from. In fact, he's the reason they became the Guardians in the first place. Krona, in his hubris, decided to build a time television to view the creation of the universe. This proved disastrous, as he saw the Hand of God (Later retconned to be the hand of the Spectre). This somehow caused the Multiverse to be created. This also created the Anti-Matter Universe where Qward is, as well as the Anti-Monitor and the monitor. I'm going to be honest, this makes no sense to me. The Guardians chose not to execute Krona, but instead to transform him into pure energy and cast his consciousness across the universe.

He returned on a number of ocassions, including the introduction of Nekron, Lord of the Unliving. He was even the big bad in JLA/Avengers, from 2004. Despite his vairous appearances over the years, Krona's greatest contribution remained the story about the view screen.

However, across several years in Geoff Johns' Green Lantern run, more was added to Krona's history that is relevant to DCUO in ways that his other appearances. It was first established that he had acted as Jailer for the Emotional Entities, with Parallax kept in a box in his lab and the only map to Ophidian, the Orange Entity, in his possession. Krona became convinced that emotion was key to controlling emotion, as opposed to his other Malthusians, who were becoming increasingly stoic. It was during this time that he harnessed the emerald energy of Will for the first time, creating a power gauntlet and back mounted power battery to use it with. It was these that were the basis for the Green Lantern Rings the Guardians would eventually create. Following his exile, the Guardians kept the Gauntlet and battery under lock and key in what they called the Foundry. It was guarded by a special Green Lantern named Shedd. The Gauntlet first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 5 #63, March 2011, and saw extensive use during the War of the Green Lanterns.

The Guardians didn't take kindly to his behind-their-backs actions. They sent the Manhunters after him, but, as we see in the alert, he reprogrammed them in order to show the flaws of an unfeeling police force. He had them kill most sentient life in Space Sector 666, sparking the feud that would culimate in the existence of the Red Lanterns. Note that he was still a Maltsian during this, not the small Guardians. This is why he looks the way he does in the alert. This is also shown in #63.

In the present day, he returned and began to steal the emotional entities. Wrapped in "Malthusian Evolutionary Bandages" to jump start his evolution into a Guardian, he eventually started a War between Green Lanterns by placing Parallax back into the Central Power Battery and causing Lanterns to go berserk. In the end, Hal actually manages to override his ring's safety settings and kill Krona, leading to his dismissal from the Corps.

It's a good story, check it out.

History Behind DCUO: Oolong Island Alert, part 1

Oolong Island
Once upon a time, in America, I mean, the Silver Age, comic books were not very politically correct. Like, at all. Among the worst offenders was perhaps the most inexplicable foe Wonder Woman ever locked hopefully metaphorical horns with: Egg Fu. We'll get too him in a bit.

Following Infinite Crisis, DC ran a fifty two issue maxi series called 52. I know, creative, right? Rather than having a central plot, the entire series was set up like a year in the life of various DC heroes, in real time. One ongoing plot at the beginning was that someone was kidnapping mad scientists. Over the years, DC has had a respectful number of mad scientists. Unlike other comppanies, such as Marvel, DC usually plays their mad scientists completely 100% straight. Folks like Thomas Oscar Morrow, Thaddeus Bodog Sivana and Anthony Ivo are firmly in the Cave Johnson School of Throwing Science At the Wall, ethics be damned.

Anywho, Will Magnus (Who I'll cover in more depth later)became the face of this story. For his first few appearances, he met with his former mentor and villainous friend Thomas Oscar Morrow (Whom we'll be covering in another update, along his windy creation.) to discuss life, the Universe and mad scientist kidnappings. Ultimately, Morrow ended up being kidnapped. Magnus ended up kidnapped himself a few issues later, in 52 Week 22. The following week Magnus arrived on the as of yet unnamed Oolong Island, which was introduced as, "..what you get when the world's maddest scientists are given an unlimited budget and encouraged to let their imaginations run wild on the finest mind expanding narcotics available to man!" Two weeks later, in week 25, we get the true purpose of Oolong: Create the Four Horseman of Apokalypse. More on them in a bit. Suffice to say, it was eventually revealed that Oolong was part of a conspiracy involving the Religion of Crime, headed by Intergang, to bring the Evil Gods of Apokalypse to Earth.

Oolong ended up being attacked by Black Adam following the destruction of first the Four Horsemen, then the nation of Bialya. Through the careful leadership of Ira Quimby, the Science Squad overcome the Black Marvel.

Following 52, Oolong Island is officially disconnected from the People's Republic of China and becomes its own independent nation inhabited by mad scientists. Veronica Cale (First appearance Wonder Woman v2 #196, November 2003) somehow becomes its president. Cale was created by Greg Rucka as an attempt at making a rule 63 Lex Luthor for Wonder woman's rogues gallery, and ended up being mostly ignored till 52, wherein she was one of the Science Squad's members and the only penitent one. She was a major part of the 52 Aftermath: Four Horseman miniseries, and ultimately was able to contain the Horsemen she had helped create using a special, Apokalyptian containment unit. And just as the collectible says, she did indeed eat it. That happened in 52A:FH #6, March 2008.

The independent nation appeared in both Four Horsemen and Keith Giffen's Doom Patrol. Interestingly, both were written by Keith Giffen, whom had done the layouts for 52. I guess Keith took a liking to it. In the latter, the island is home to its own resident superhero team: The Doom Patrol! I really the Doom Patrol a whole lot.Lots happened in that series, but none directly pertinent.

Oolong in DCUO is seemingly modeled after its Doom Patrol era, with the Science Squad still having free range with their experimentation and with Cale as its president. Frankly, this is pretty interesting. 52 is obviously the most important story with Oolong, as neither Four Horseman nor Giffen's Doom Patrol were especially well selling. Trust me, I know. Doom Patrol was at one point DC's lowest selling comic in the DCU- made me proud to be a reader of it.

Egg Fu
We also got the mastermind behind Oolong: Chang Tzu, originally called Chiang Tzu, better known as Egg Fu. Egg Fu has a bit of a... unique history. Whilst many DC characters were given reboots following Crisis on Infinite Earths, few are as dramatic as Egg Fu. And with good reason- Egg Fu was pretty darn racist when he first appeared.

In his original incarnation, he appeared in Wonder Woman Volume 1 #157, cover date October 1967 and was created by notable crazy man Robert "Bob" Khanigar, known for his somber war stories and crazygonuts superhero comics, and Ross Andru. This issue was a few years after China turned Red, when Vietnam was still grinding men and the Russian Bear was still menacingly casting its shadow across Europe. So he's definitely in the spirit of the times, albeit filtered through Khanigar Kraziness.

There were three more-or-less distinct Egg Fus in the Silver Age. The aforementoined Egg Fu, who appeared completely inexplicably in the aforementioned #157. During the issue, the astoundingly wrong headed racial caricature actually managed to kill Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor by first turning Steve into a human bomb then blowing him and Wondy up with a missile. Then Wondy's mother resurrected them with an atomic structure reassembly beam. You know, like the Amazons had back then. The following issue Wondy defeated Egg Fu.

Egg Fu returned a few issues later in #166, cover date November 1966. This one was pretty much the same and was called Egg Fu the Fifth. Nothing much to note here, moving on...

The third-ish Egg Fu appeared in Metal Men #20, cover date June/July 1966. I guess that means he techincally came before the Fifth. Anywho, this one was a silly Dr. No ripoff called Dr. Yes. It's actually somewhat interesting that the Metal Men came to blows with an Egg Fu, considering their role in 52, where...

Egg Fu returned! After a mythology gag in John Byrne's Wonder woman run, Egg Fu returned in 52 week 25, Will Magnus meets the mysterious benefactor of Oolong Island, Chung Tzu. His old name is referenced at one point as one of his "nine thousand and nine unmentionable names" and is something he's a tad touchy about- the guard who alledgedly referred to him as Egg Fu is disintegrated. As the story moves on, we find out that A: Egg Fu is actually an Apokalyptian machine, similar to the easter egg from John Byrne's run and B: Is working for China, who is somehow involved in the whole Apokalyps situation.

Egg Fu's downfall ultimately comes from Will Magnus, who had been secretely recreating the Metal Men. In 52 week 49, Magnus takes a particle wave beam gun- the same one that is part of the Science Squad Experiments collection- Will Magnus destroys Egg Fu, leaving behind a yolk in the spider chair.

Little is actually explained about Egg Fu, truth be told. We know he's an Apokalyptian "flesh machine" and is capable of regenerating himself from a yolk left behind when he was destroyed. Following 52, he shows up in a Checkmate and Outsiders crossover still on Oolong Island, but isn't seen in Doom Patrol.

All told, it tickles me to no end to see that friggin' Egg Fu is in DCUO! Kudos to the development team.

Will Magnus and the Metal Men (But mostly Magnus)
Will Magnus and the Metal Men occupy that strange place as perpetual guest stars, destined to never hold a book long but show up every once in a while in other books. People like 'em. Just not enough to buy their book. Speaking of, buy Duncan Rouleu's Metal Men mini. It's great.

The Men were created as last minute filler by none other than Bob Khanigar and Ross Andru in Showcase #37, cover date March-April 1962. As introduced, the team were roobts made of elements and brought to life by "Responsometer" technology. Originally, they were wholesale robots. This has wavered once, in a four issue Metal Men miniseries that started in October 1993. In said mini, they were various people associated with Magnus who were killed and had their conscience transferred in a lab accident. I believe this is probably where player characters becoming Metal Men in the Oolong Island alert comes from.

Throughout the sixites, the Metal Men were destroyed and rebuilt in each story- it was sort of a gimmick of theirs. In fact, they were destroyed at the end of their first story, which wasn't intended to have followups! As sales fell throughout the decade, the writers tried something rather drastic. They had Doc Magnus go crazy, to be blunt. He was kidnapped and brainwashed by some foreign dictator. He ended up making a Plutonium Man, similar in concept to his Metal Men but malevolent. This story was referenced in 52. Rather than have the original explanation, Magnus was retconned to suffer from Bipolar Disorder, and was medicated for it. I'll explain it as I explained it to a friend of mine: When he's off his meds, he does science. Off his meds, he has no regard for ethics and makes science for the sake of science. The results are often things like the Plutonium Man. This has some basis pre-Crisis as well- in Metal Men v1 45, 1976, he was told to take medication to help with his shattered psyche. This ought to more than explain Magnus in the tech wing- "This is one of my bad days. Maybe I can finally get some work done."

The Plutonium Man wasn't the last time there were evil Metal Men, either. While most were Metal Men like Aluminum or Sodum, from Metal Men #3, there were emtotionless copies of the actual Metal Men in 52 Week 22. There is pretty good basis for the Metal Men enemies in Oolong Island, as they were made by evil scientists and were used to kidnap Magnus, as alluded to earlier in this article.

While we are talking about Magnus, I should explain something else related to him, but not especially to Oolong Island...

Veridium
Veridium appears as an adjetive on a handful of items in DCUO. This is one of the many fictional items in the DCU, although it did get some bizarre exposure in the Dragon Age: Origins videogame. Veridium first appeared in Metal Men v2 #4, from January 1994. In said issue, Doc Magnus is killed and transfers his conscience to a blank Metal Man robot made of an alien metal. Veridium has the special property of being able to store and channel heat and energy. I'm not sure the element has been used especially much since this, although Magnus' brother David became another Veridium in Metal Men v3 8.

As you can probably tell, Magnus didn't stay Veridium. In 52 week 22, it was retconned that that, along with the human origin for the Metal Men, had been a hallucination of Magnus', brought on by severe depression.