Infinity, Inc.

Infinity 'Lite': The Everyman Program

Soon after declaring himself innocent of all his alleged crimes (pinning all blame on the dead body of Alexander Luthor), Lex Luthor announced that he had isolated the human metagene and would begin giving super-powers to everyday people. He called this the Everyman Program. (52 #5)

True to form, this venture disguised a sinister agenda. What Luthor failed to mention was that he could revoke the powers as easily as he could grant them. He began his master plan by secretly infecting John Henry Irons (the former Steel) with his therapy. Just as Irons found himself able to transforming his body into stainless steel, his relationship with his niece, Natasha, worsened. When Natasha discovered his new powers, she was angered. She assumed that her uncle had denied her power so he could take it for himself. Natasha headed straight to Lexcorp headquarters to apply for Everyman therapy. When Lex noticed the girl, he saw his opportunity and immediately singled her out for special treatment. (#8)

           

Natasha's rebellion was successful; she was transformed. Her uncle burst in to protest at a press conference where Luthor had assembled his own group of six young super-heroes, Natasha included. (#9) Luthor used these teens merely as pawns and public relations vehicles. They were:

• Erik Strom (Fury III), who'd developed indestructible claws
• Eliza Harmon (Trajectory), super-speed
• Hannibal Bates (Everyman), who could morph his body into any form
• Gerome McKenna (Nuklon II), had super-strength
• Jacob Colby (Skyman II), the power of flight
• and Natasha Irons as Starlight, who now wielded light

In their first mission, they did not bear special names, but successfully sprang into action against Kobra agents. (#17) When Luthor discovered that Eliza was injecting the drug called Sharp to keep her powers in check, he ejected her from the team. Natasha pled with Luthor to allow Eliza back on the team. Lex agreed, but secretly marked Eliza. The next time they appeared, they took their codenames, and a new team name: Infinity, Inc. It seems Lex had long since bought the copyright for the name from Sylvester Pemberton's estate. Luthor orchestrated a battle against the new Blockbuster in Las Vegas. He was in full control of the villain, and at a key moment, he caused Trajectory's death by revoking her powers. At Eliza's funeral, Natasha rejected her uncle's attempts to "enlighten" her. (#21)

Lex's own physiology was incompatible with the Everyman therapy, which only fueled his anger towards metahumans. But while he continued his "benevolent" work, Irons began compiling information from disgruntled Everyman customers. (#22) The Everyman program soon came under serious public scrutiny when dozens of its patients were slaughtered after entering a metahuman battle in Metropolis. (#24)

But Infinity continued their success, adding a replacement member, Matrix, who was a teleporter. They stopped Icicle and the Tigress in New York City. (#25)

One Year Later

Former Infinitors across the country experienced major physical and psychological problems following their ordeal. Among the former Infinitors, Natasha began to have horrible dreams and sought therapy; Erik Strom developed a stutter; and Jerome McKenna became a pathological narcissist, spending all day in front of a mirror. In time all of the Everyman kids began manifesting new powers. Jerome manifested an evil duplicate; Nat began turning into a gas; and Erik turned into a super-strong girl! Elsewhere, another Everyman, Dale Smith, manifested malevolent new powers and attacked his therapist and family. (Infinity, Inc. vol. 2 #1)

John Irons made it his mission to help these kids and began by seeking out the members of Infinity. In a race against time, Dale Smith's killing spree continued and he befriended another former Everyman, Sally Dwyer, who dubbed Dale Kid Empty. (#2-3) Kid Empty killed Sally before the Infinitors or Irons could save her. Then a third party also joined the chase, the Everyman Lars Bergson, who called himself Persona. (#3) Persona's goal, however, was to become a member of Infinity by killing and replacing an existing member. Persona himself had managed to drive off Kid Empty. (#5)

During the chase, the Infinitors met their future teammate, Lucia, a girl who would could inflict (and manifested) lacerations. Nat and the others saved Lucia from Kid Empty and captured him for good, but Persona slipped away. (#5)

Irons also sought some more high powered help from Lex Luthor's former bodyguards. He visited Hope Taya, now in witness protection. Hope refused to help but led Irons to her former partner, Mercy, who was supposedly still loyal to Luthor. (#2) When Steel met with Mercy, she admitted to wanting to turn over a new leaf, and accompanied him on his mission. (#4)

Things never really settled down for the Infinitors, who with Lucia and Mercy had officially decided to re-form. They decided to try to help kids like themselves, who were "erupting" across the nation. Their next mission took them to contact with a Dr. Trask of New Oaks Psychiatric Center. His patient, Frank Sparro was one of Kid Empty's victims. Sparro had created a great "influencing machine," or mind loom. (#6) Infinity restored Frank to custody. (#7)

Before their next case, Steel unveiled new costumes for the Team and suggested codenames (all of which were rejected): Vaporlock, Double Trouble, Amazing Woman, Empathy and Vanilla. In Little Bend, Montana, they encountered a strange phenomenon. Everyman Billy Molloy's powers affected his mother, who terrorized their town as the Bogeyman. (#8-10)

During all of this, the team underwent more changes. Jerome's evil twin secretly manifested his own evil duplicate. Each was intent on becoming the sole Jerome. The duplicates appeared and disappeared at will. (#8) Lucia began to grow razor sharp wings. And Mercy left the team after realizing that she couldn't control herself. (#10)

During the Bogeyman case, Infinity met Dr. Fogel, who was actually the avatar of an evil New God. (#9) Superman and Steel followed Fogel's trail. They found the dissected body of Adam McCarthy, and other Everymen, whose skulls has been opened. (#10) Fogel was abducting teens for use in the new Dark Side Clubs. These clubs pitted metahumans against one another in gladiatorial battle. When Infinity followed Dwayne Brokeback (a cyborg boy) to Fogel, the team was captured. Jerome's dark duplicate attempted to ally with Fogel, but found that after killing the original Jerome, he faded from existence. Nat, Lucia and Erik were captured by Fogel in Minnesota. (#11-12)

The Infinitors remained captives of the Dark Side Club until freed by the Teen Titans. (Terror Titans #3, 6) Since then, the team has formally disbanded, but Natasha and Erik were recruited for an elaborate covert operation. They had been contracted by Col. Tim Zanetti, Jr., the son of the hero Breach. Zanetti wanted to know if his father was still alive after the last Crisis. They found that he was not, but their investigation also led to evidence of the return of Captain Atom. Zanetti had fabricated military credentials for them, but soon Erik went mad. Natasha continued the undercover work as Jenny Blake.

Nat and Erik's paths eventually crossed with Jimmy Olsen, who was on the trail of the assassin, Jonathan Drew. When Drew learned that Erik was talking to Olsen, he killed Erik. Jimmy found him within his last moments of life, in a blazing house. Erik's last words led Jimmy to Natasha, who gave him information. (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen Special #2)

Natasha's cover remained intact and she worked as a double agent, plotting to take down General Sam Lane. (Action Comics #881) Her official assignment for Lane was to shadow Captain Atom in another magical world, watching to see if he would regain his memories. Indeed he did, and she began working with Atom to end the oppression they found in that world. (#882)

Notes

Fury II's name was originally spelled Erik "Storn" but was changed in the Infintiy, Inc. series to "Strom."

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