Behemoth
502 - Merlin begins exiling the magical forces of Great Britain into the Paths Beyond. This includes the Gargates of Paris, who are roosting in Scotland.
1846 - Behemoth and his clan of Gargates return to the mortal realm to lay their eggs for the next generation. While in Stone Slumber, roosting in the rooftops of Notre Dame as it is being renovated, they are cursed by an archmagus to remain in their stone forms.
56 years ago - Behemoth is awakened from his Stone Slumber when the Order of Merlin come to destroy the Grotesques of Notre Dame. He fights them off to allow his clan to escape to the Paths Beyond, trapping himself in the mortal realm. He returns to Notre Dame, protecting the city at night.
40 years ago - Behemoth is found by Dharma as he builds the Shadow Cabinet to fight coming threats in Europe.
34 years ago - Behemoth and the Shadow Cabinet confront the Queen of Fables, being pulled into her storybook dimension. She is able to defeat practically the entire team, with only Behemoth and La Sagre surviving, again trapping her in her dimension.
3 years ago - Behemoth saves Notre Dame from total destruction. He makes an accord with the leaders of France to represent their nation in the Global Guardians while his home is rebuilt.
As we build our Global Guardians team, we really wanted to include a character from France. Crimson Fox, Nightrunner... There were options, but none of them quite seems right for the team we wanted to build... Until we found a single story in an anthology JLA book that introduced a character so outlandish he just happened to fit perfectly.
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Behemoth 's Comic HistoryBehemoth has literally one appearance. it's an 11 page story in JLA Showcase 80-Page Giant from 2000 by Greg Weisman. We mention Greg quite often as the creator of the Young Justice animated series, but he is ALSO the creator of another animated series from 1994 called Gargoyles, which you already know all about because you're cool, and Gargoyles was dope as hell.
This brief little story from this anthology book introduces us to Behemoth and his fellow Gargoyles in Paris. It's obviously Weisman having fun by introducing his other creation to DC and just having fun with it, but the implications here are pretty awesome. Behemoth gets to be this big monsterous creature protecting the people of Paris... and that means he's fair game for us to adapt into our project! |
Our Behemoth StoryThere are a few reasons Behemoth is perfect for us. The first is probably the most obvious; this is just a really cool idea, and nobody can stop us from doing this.
More to the point, though, we actually need a character in this role for two reasons. The first is the Global Guardians. We like the idea that several countries are sending heroes with the specific intention of representing their country well, while the French are over here sending a terrifying monster. The second reason Behemoth is a really great addition to our project, is that he gives us a framework for a European hero team. We want to make each international team feel like a reflection of the heroic traditions of that part of the world, and Behemoth suddenly gave us a shape for the characters from Europe: they're monsters. I can absolutely see how this could feel like a weird sidetrack character to include, but frankly I love this as a direction for this part of the world to take. |
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