Fearsome Five
10 years ago - Arthur Light escapes prison and forms the Fearsome Five, who battle the Teen Titans. Membership: 32-year-old Arthur Light, 28-year-old Simon Jones, 37-year-old Mikron O'Jeneus, 19-year-old twins Baran & Selinda Flinders
9 years ago - Simon Jones frees Mikron O'Jeneus, Baran Flinders & Selinda Flinders from prison to reform the Fearsome Five. They release Niharika Dyal from Star Labs as their newest member. They battle Superman & the Teen Titans. Membership: 29-year-old Simon Jones, 38-year-old Mikron O'Jeneus, 20-year-old twins Baran & Selinda Flinders, 19-year-old Niharika Dyal
8 years ago - Trigon banishes 30-year-old Simon Jones. The Fearsome Five fall apart. 39-year-old Mikron O'Jeneus & 20-year-old Niharika Dyal are imprisoned while 21-year old twins Baran & Selinda Flinders retreat to the Australian outback, working as low-level hijackers.
3 years ago - Doctor Sivana reforms the Fearsome Five, killing 44-year-old Mikron O'Jeneus. They steal nuclear weapons, but are stopped from using them by the Outsiders. Membership: 35-year-old Simon Jones, 26-year-old twins Baran & Selinda Flinders, 25-year-old Niharika Dyal, 68-year-old Doctor Sivana
Membership
I've actually described the basics of this team's background several times now, because most of these characters were invented here, for this team, and therefore their comic history is basically identical to the team itself. They are very narrow-focused, for-a-specific-purpose characters, but they fufill that role remarkably well, and so it became both essential and really not that hard to fold them right into our continuity, where their roles are practically pre-written.
The Fearsome Five's Comic HistoryThe Fearsome Five were a 1981 invention by Marv Wolfman and George Perez as enemies of the New Teen Titans, appearing for the first time in issue #3. The only non-original character was Dr. Light. The number of appearances of the original team within the run of that comic is actually pretty limited, but they do appear often enough to be pretty much forever associated with the Titans, as well as the Outsiders as they were the baddies in the crossover between the two series. They would go on to appear periodically in several places as decently powerful, well-designed filler baddies. Most notably, late-joiner Jinx actually became a brief member of Villainy Inc, a collection of Wonder Woman baddies.
The group went through it's most substantial redesign when they showed up in Judd Winnick's Outsiders. It takes a pretty bold hand to take a stab at redesigning work by George Perez, but Tom Raney really delivered on some fun new looks. Versions of these characters appear in both the Teen Titans and Young Justice animated series, cementing them all right into the bedrock of DC's foundation. |
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Our Fearsome Five Story I don't know how original an idea it is to take a new team of superheroes, build from scratch a new team of baddies for them to fight to fill an issue or two, and to grab a character with high name recognition but without a lot of narrative responsibility to flesh them out and give them credibility.... it probably happens pretty often.
Here's the thing though: this wasn't just any new hero team. this was the New Teen Titans; one of the most popular comics in the world at the time, and with a lineup of characters that would go on to become some of the best that DC has. So this weird little rag-tag team of baddies wound up on a HUGE stage. Are they incredibly well plotted with intricate meshing backstories? No. Are their motivations complex and compelling? No. But are they great archetypes with cool George Perez designs and work well as plug in villains in almost any context? HELL yea. |