Fatal Five
2995 - The Legion attempts to stop a rogue Sun-Eater. When Tharok presents a plan to do so with no loss of life, Rokk Krinn agrees to release him and allow him to create a team of other Legion enemies including Sarya, Nyeun Chun Ti. They stop the Sun-eater, but are able to escape, becoming the Fatal Five. Membership: 37-year-old Tharok, 25-year-old Sarya, 39-year-old Nyeun Chun Ti, 27-year-old Mano & 7-year-old Validus
2997 - The Fatal Five attempt to assault Legion headquarters, but they are defeated by Val Armorr single-handedly & imprisoned. Membership: 39-year-old Tharok, 27-year-old Sarya, 41-year-old Nyeun Chun Ti, 29-year-old Mano & 9-year-old Validus.
3003 - Tharok engineers the escape of the Fatal Five with the help of Sarya, who begin rebuilding their criminal empire. Membership: 45-year-old Tharok, 33-year-old Sarya, 47-year-old Nyeun Chun Ti, 35-year-old Mano & 15-year-old Validus.
3006 - The Fatal Five wage all-out war with the reunited Legion, and are eventually defeated. Membership: 48-year-old Tharok, 36-year-old Sarya, 50-year-old Nyeun Chun Ti, 38-year-old Mano & 18-year-old Validus.
Members
The world of the Legion of Superheroes has perhaps born the brunt of DC's penchant for continuity shenanigans more than any other part of it's history, so when you add to that the tendancy to completely rethink villains with most of their appearances, it actually becomes almost impossible to nail down any sense of the Fatal Five having any consistent story at all. Still, they are suprisingly prolifict concepts in DC, appearing in modern times (somehow) almost with the same regularity they appear in the 30th century.
The real fun here is that each of these five characters represents a pretty solid villain in their own right, so we're going to expand on them all just a little bit, and in doing so will get a nice spectrum of treats to throw up against our team of future teen heroes.
The real fun here is that each of these five characters represents a pretty solid villain in their own right, so we're going to expand on them all just a little bit, and in doing so will get a nice spectrum of treats to throw up against our team of future teen heroes.
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The Fatal Five's Comic HistoryThe Fatal Five debuted in issue # 352 of Adventure Comics in 1967. The issue begins with the Legion being briefed on the five most dangerous criminals in the galaxy, each of them getting a full origin page. Then with their membership thinned because of various ongoing missions, the Legion discover the coming of a Sun-Eater (a concept that had actually been introduced back in issue #302, but was now depicted as a huge destructive cloud rather than a creature that grabs and eats suns.) Desperate for help, the Legion try to recruit other heroes but are unsuccessful, so they turn to the criminals from their briefing. They all agree to help, although their bad-guy antics as they make a plan are pretty entertaining. With the Sun-Eater defeated (at the cost of Ferro-Lad's life), the criminals betray the heroes, banding together as the Fatal Five.
All five of these characters have gone on to recur all over DC's history, with a wide variety of revamped origins, and the team itself has had other members join them periodically, but this remains the original, and I would argue, more accurate and powerful version of the Legion's best villains. |
Our Fatal Five StoryAll of these characters, particularly Persuader and Emerald Emperess, have been drafted from the ranks of 30th Century baddies to appear in the modern day, but that's exactly the sort of thing out timeline is meant to keep from happening. There are literally dozens of takes of the stories of these characters, but their original story actually did a great job of laying out exactly what is interesting about each of them, so we're just going to be building our take on these characters from there.
We're also not getting lost in the weeds on exactly how their interactions with the Legion play out. They are a perpetual, ongoing threat that regularly challenges the heroes right up until they stage a final climactic battle, bringing their considerable power to bear in an attempt to wipe the Legion out once and for all, and are finally all put into prison at the same time. Later, when the Legion has disbanded, they can escape again and begin rebuilding their criminal empire. We're not reinventing the wheel here, but these aren't characters the NEED to be reinvented. We've done a little work to expand on the backstories and powers of each of them, but as for the team itself, It can simply be the collective of intergalactic most wanted that it was orignally built to be. |
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