DC Teams: U–V

The (International) Ultramarines Corps

Created by Grant Morrison and Howard Dell

The heroes who would found the Ultramarines first debuted as government agents under command of the deranged General Wade Eiling (1st app. Captain Atom #1). These four: 4-D (Capt. Lea Corbin), Flow (Major Dan Stone), Pulse 8 (Capt. John Weather) and Warmaker One (Lt. Col. Scott Sawyer) eventually realized that Eiling was mad when he took over the body of the JLA's old enemy, the Shaggy Man.

• Warmaker One: No longer possesses a human body, but uses his uniform as a containment suit.
• 4-D: Can alter her body to become totally flat.
• Glob: Made up of a viscous material that can process data and interface with other systems.
• Jack O'Lantern: Jack has mystical strength and agility derived from his lantern.
• Pulse 8: Can manipulate reality with his quantum keyboard

They turned against Eiling and instead aided the JLA in defeating him. Afterwards, they formed the sovereign state of Superbia and formally became the International Ultramarine Corps (JLA #24-26). This city originally hovered above the ruins of Montevideo, Uruguay (destroyed DC One Million #1, 11.98), but is mobile. They opened Superbia to any who wished to immigrate and offered freelance heroes membership in the Ultramarines. Several heroes joined them immediately, including Jack O'Lantern III and Vixen as well as newcomers Goraiko, and the Knight II and Squire III. NOTE: Goraiko (or someone like him) was also a member of an elder group of Japanese heroes called Big Science Action. (Final Crisis #2)

Not much is yet known about this group. Goraiko is an atomic-powered android who is "piloted" by an unnamed Japanese woman. The Knight (formerly the Squire II) is Cyril Sheldrake, the son of the original Knight (Percy Sheldrake, the Earl of Wordenshire, who was also the original Squire). The original Knight was killed by his arch-enemy, Springheeled Jack. Cyril succeeded him afterward, but it's been mentioned that he too spent some time in a coma, perhaps from the same attack. Apparently, the Knight and his former allies had some sort of camaraderie with Batman; he is referred to as the "English Batman" and his helmet is modeled after Batman's cowl. The new Squire is Beryl Hutchinson, a young girl talented with all forms of communication.

Little was heard of the group after their formation, though Vixen and 4-D aided Wonder Woman against Circe (Wonder Woman #174-175). At some point, Flow has changed his name to Glob, and several former members of the Global Guardians joined on: Tasmanian Devil, Olympian, Fleur de Lis and the new Little Mermaid II and Kid Impala.

In what should have been their finest hour, however, the Ultramarines slipped up. They were victims of a plan orchestrated by Neh-Buh-Loh, the former Nebula Man who proclaimed himself the bringer of the end of the universe. Neh-Buh-Loh sent an agent called Black Death into the infant universe of Qwewq (from JLA #12) to lure away the JLA. Then he set Grodd to attack in Africa, which drew the attention of the Ultramarines. They flew Superbia to the continent and soon Pulse 8 discovered a cube bearing traces of cosmic emanations that matched those of the the Nebula Man. Pulse 8 was subsequently drawn into the cube and was overtaken by Neh-Buh-Loh.

Batman, the sole available JLA member, noticed the disturbances. With the JLA gone, he recruited the Squire to help him. They used a Boom Tube and traveled to Pluto where Qwewq was housed, on the former War World. He set the Squire about contacting the JLA and activated a set of JLA androids to battle Grodd.

But Batman was too late to stop the villains. Grodd slayed hundreds of refugees on Superbia and Neh-Buh-Loh disabled Goraiko, which produced an electromagnetic pulse that disabled Superbia. The floating city crashed to the ground. The Squire eventually succeeded in retrieving the JLA, who stopped Grodd and Neh-Buh-Loh, but were unable to capture the latter. Everyone was freed from Neh-Buh-Loh's control.

In the end, the JLA reprimanded the Ultramarines for their carelessness and challenged them to relocate to Qwewq. You see, during the battle, Neh-Buh-Loh had claimed to be the adult universe of Qwewq. The JLA hoped that perhaps the Ultramarines' positive influence would prevent this fate. (JLA Classified #1-3)

Ultimately the Ultramarines were unable to change Qwewq's nature, or to rid the universe of the Black Death's stain. Instead, they secretly sowed the seeds to Neh-Buh-Loh's ultimate destruction and returned to Earth. Later Neh-Buh-Loh was confronted by the monster, Frankenstein, who used a weapon that exploited that flaw. (Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein #4)

» FIRST APPEARANCE: JLA #24 (December 1998)

» FEATURED APPEARANCES: JLA #25, 26 • JLA: Classified #1-3. Cameos: JLA #41 • Wonder Woman v.2 #174-175

The Uncanny Amazers

» SEE: Profile

Vanguard

Created by Marv Wolfman

A team of super-powered beings which traverses the universe helping worlds who need them, the Vanguard arrived on Earth, battling and attempting to capture Superman. Before they could abduct the Man of Steel, the New Teen Titans intervened, but they quickly realized they were battling a robot. One of the Vanguard, Black Nebula, was watching over the Man of Steel, was recuperating after a battle with Brainiac.

The Titans joined the Vanguard and found Black Nebula dead and the Man of Steel gone. Brainiac had attacked, killed the Vanguard member, and kidnapped Superman. The combined might of the Titans and the Vanguard proved enough to overcome Brainiac; they rescued Superman and Brainiac's energy was scattered across the cosmos. The Titans and Superman returned to Earth and the Vanguard continued its travels.

The members of the Vanguard are: Anti-Matterman, a living power battery with infinite power from the anti-matter universe, Qward; Scanner, whose mental powers reach across the vast abyss of space; White Dwarf, who has the powers of directed gravity, density, and the ability to absorb explosions; Solaar, who can utilize the heat and energy of the solar winds; and Black Nebula, with the power to create darkness. In addition, the Vanguard has a bond with a creature of living metal known as Drone, which acts as their spaceship and their shield while also possessing incredible healing powers.

» FIRST APPEARANCE:    New Teen Titans v.2 Annual #1 (1985)

Villainy, Inc.

This group, comprised of Wonder Woman's nemeses, first menaced her in the 1940s. Eight of her worst enemies were gathered by Eviless of Saturn (who first appeared, unnamed, in Wonder Woman #10). Eviless was being shipped off to the Amazons' Transformation Island but broke free and stole the magic lasso and freed all of Wonder Woman's foes from the corrective "Venus Girdles" they'd been fitted with. Seven of them joined Eviless to form Villainy Incorporated:

• The Cheetah became Wonder Woman's arch-foe. She was débutante Priscilla Rich, who met the Amazon at a charity performance. Priscilla was jealous of the attention Wonder Woman garnered. She was mentally unbalanced and hallucinated that she saw a cheetah-woman in the mirror. She took a cheetah rug and made a costume, then framed Wonder Woman for stealing the proceeds. This "idle" girl gave Diana a wild, anarchic chase and escaped. She wiggled her way into a delegation to Paradise Island and stole Queen Hippolyte's magic girdle. In the end, she was bound by the magic lasso and confessed she had a dual personality. She asked Wonder Woman to help her tame the Cheetah's influence on her psyche. (Wonder Woman #6)
• Giganta began as an ape in a zoo. One day a girl wandered into Giganta's cage and Wonder Woman moved to save her. Police wanted to put down the ape, but Professor Zool of Holliday College had a different idea. He'd been experimenting with technology to alter the evolutionary station of things. The process worked and Giganta became a tall, beautiful woman. Giganta tussled with Wonder Woman and the machine was destroyed, but Zool had a backup. When he activated the second machine, elderly Zool was transformed into a vigorous young man and Giganta gained human-level intelligence — but her wicked tendencies remained. (Wonder Woman v.1 #9) She made a cameo in Sensation Comics #36 (1944).
• Queen Clea was a relentless warrior from the lost continent of Atlantis, which had sunken below the ocean. Her city, Venturia, raided another, Aurania, and captured its queen, Eeras. Eeras escaped and secured help from Steve Trevor. Wonder Woman followed Trevor's plane to Atlantis and conspired with Eeras to defeat Clea. Clea turned her attentions to the surface world with the help of her daughter Ptra, but they were defeated by the ever timely intervention of Etta Candy and taken to the Amazons' Transformation Island. Eeras' daughter, Octavia sought out Wonder Woman to be her mentor and she helped Diana squash Clea's second coup attempt. (Wonder Woman #8)
• Zara (ostensibly an Arab woman) was High Priestess of the Cult of the Crimson Flame. When Diana Prince and Steve Trevor began investigating the Cult, Prince was captured but it was Wonder Woman whom Zara received. At the Cult's temple, Zara admitted that her flames weren't magic, and that she was out for revenge on men because her father had sold her into slavery. (Comic Cavalcade #5)

• The Snow Man first terrorized Fair Weather Mountain with her blue freeze ray. Really the Snow Man was school teacher Byrna Brilyant, a nervous woman. For some reason, Brilyant created iron robot snow men and concocted a special freezing chemical. Once Wonder Woman got her lasso around the Snow Man, she learned that it wasn't a man at all, but Brilyant, who didn't explain why she'd dressed as a man. (Sensation Comics #59)
• Doctor Poison was the Princess Maru, a skilled chemist who worked for the Germans. She kidnapped Captain Trevor and unleashed a chemical called Reverso that would compel soldiers to do the opposite of their orders. Wonder Woman got Trevor to safety then defrocked the Doctor. (Sensation Comics #2)
• Hypnota "the great Oriental hypnotist" spoke with a phony French accent. This stage hypnotist was a woman dressed as a man. Somehow (perhaps from a gunshot to the head) she developed a powerful blue hypnotic ray and used it to enslave people and sell them to the Saturnian people. Hypnota's twin sister, Serva, was her assistant and her undoing. Serva recovered her memory once enveloped by the magic lasso, and she helped Wonder Woman unravel the web of deception. (Wonder Woman #11)

The evil women captured Diana with her own lasso and concocted a paralyzing gas to take out the rest of the Amazons. However, some of the Amazons' freed prisoners found that they had truly been reformed. They organized a rebellion and liberated Wonder Woman. Four of the villainesses escaped and Wonder Woman's friends, the Holliday Girls, helped round them up. (Wonder Woman, v.1 #28)

Post-Crisis

In post-Crisis continuity, the group was retooled with Hippolyta was Wonder Woman and the villains were assembled by Queen Clea, not Eviless. This Atlantean monarch of the city Venturia enlisted the others as part of her effort to defeat her rival city, Aurania. They were repeatedly foiled by Hippolyta. (Wonder Woman: Our Worlds at War #1) Hippolyta's daughter Diana once traveled back in time and happened upon them in battle. Clea was defeated by Diana (who disguised herself as Miss America so her mother could not recognize her) and Clea's own daughter, Ptra. (Wonder Woman v.2 #184-185) NOTES: The post-Crisis Golden Age group appeared in Wonder Woman: Our Worlds at War, and Hypnota was changed to "Hypnotic Woman" and lost the beard and mustache. Eviless and the Snow Man made no post-Crisis appearances. In post-Crisis continuity, Giganta did not debut until the modern era.

Clea resurfaced many years later with a host of other villains, allied with King Kull against the Justice League and Justice Society. She and her subjects fought alongside Blockbuster, but were easily defeated. (Justice League of America #135)

When all of Atlantis was removed from the Earth (JLA: Our Worlds at War #1), Clea again set out to conquer a land to rule. She assembled a new Villainy, Inc. —  Trinity, Jinx, Cyborgirl, and Giganta —  and descended upon the other-dimensional Skartaris. She used Cyborgirl to take control of the entire dimension. (Wonder Woman v.2 #179-181) Clea's entire plan, however, was commandeered by Trinity. (#182) Trinity was in fact revealed to be a virus, engineered by the founders of Skartaris. When the "Trinity Virus" was reintroduced into Skartaris' governing computer system, the whole land began to regress and "devolve" to its origins. Wonder Woman managed to stop the process from becoming permanent, but still, some of Skartaris' inhabitants (including Clea) were lost in the de-evolution. (#183)

After the second great Crisis, Donna Troy became Wonder Woman and Clea briefly returned, allied with Osira and Doctor Poison. (Wonder Woman v.3 #2)

» FIRST APPEARANCE:
Golden Age: Wonder Woman v.1 #28 (Apr. 1948).
Post-Crisis: Wonder Woman: Our Worlds at War #1 (2001)

» FEATURED APPEARANCES:

• Wonder Woman v.1 #28 (Apr. 1948)
• Wonder Woman, v.2 #179–185 (2002)
• Wonder Woman Secret Files #3 (May 2002)
• Wonder Woman: Our Worlds at War #1 (2001)

But Back to Giganta…

For a long time, Giganta was an obscure fan favorite, mostly due to her time as a member of the Legion of Doom on the 1979 television series "Challenge of the Super Friends." So what's the rest of her story?

In the 1966, writer Robert Kanigher penned a weird revival of the Golden Age Wonder Woman, more in line with William Moulton Marston's original style. He retold the origin of Giganta nearly the same. This time, Doctor Psycho goaded Professor Zool into transforming the gorilla into a woman (now blond not redhead). (Wonder Woman v.1 #163, 168) Kanigher tended to ignore the mainline DC continuity, so it's unclear whether this retcon was truly an Earth-Two wartime tale, or the first appearance of the Earth-One Giganta.

After that, Giganta appeared only in Super Friends #30 (Mar. 1980).

Post-Crisis, Giganta was ignored until John Byrne took the reigns of Wonder Woman in 1995. Byrne reintroduced Giganta as a lab gorilla. (Wonder Woman v.2 #126–127) This gorilla belonged to Doctor Doris Zuel, who attempted to transfer her own mind into Wonder Woman's dying body. Instead, Zuel and Diana both apparently died. But Zuel's mind was transferred into the gorilla's body. Zuel escaped to a circus, where she kidnapped and transferred her mind into a circus strong woman named Olga. Somehow, in this body, Zuel possessed the ability to grow to gargantuan heights. (Wonder Woman v.3 #1) She appeared once more (#175) and then joined the modern Villainy, Inc. (#179-181) NOTE: Wonder Woman: Our Worlds at War (2001) contains an "untold tale" of Villainy, Inc. which does not include Giganta.

Thanks to Dave Stepp and his Golden Age Villain Fact File.