General Glory

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General Glory
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Justice League Europe # 20
(November 1990)
Created by Keith Giffen
J.M. DeMatteis
Characteristics
Alter ego Joseph Jones
Affiliations Justice League
Abilities enhanced strength, olympic athlete in other areas

General Glory is a DC Comics character who appeared in numerous DC Comics from the 1990s. He was mostly used by writers as parody of Marvel's Captain America with exaggerated "patriotic values" and a sidekick called Ernie, who was similar to Bucky. General Glory first appeared in Justice League International as a 1940's style hero placed in a modern world, resulting in cultural differences and personality issues. General Glory was consistently ridiculed in the series Lobo's Back by Simon Bisley and Alan Grant.

[edit] Character History

General Glory's origin was that he was a soldier in World War II who was granted superior abilities by Lady Liberty herself upon saying the words "Lady of Liberty, hear my plea, for the land of the brave and the home of the free!" He became a government agent, under the authority of an Agent Sharp. Sharp arranged for General Glory comic books to be published, so that people would believe he was a fictional character.

As with Captain America, General Glory disappeared in an Arctic mission. Rather than be encased in ice, however, he returned to America with little memory of his past. (He would later learn that Sharp had drugged him and given him a new identity).

Many years later, he was outbid for a General Glory comic book by Guy Gardner. He persuaded Guy to let him read the book, and read out the magic words, becoming General Glory again. Shortly after this, he was arrested for treason by Ernest E. Earnest. It eventually transpired that Sharp had framed Glory, to divert suspicion from himself. Ernie confronted him and was shot. Sharp was brought to justice by Glory and the Justice League, and General Glory became a member of the team, Maxwell Lord considering that a true Golden Age hero might be good for their image.

When surprised, Glory exclaims "Stars 'n' Stripes!", a parody of super-hero intejections such as Superman's "Great Krypton!" or Wonder Woman's "Suffering Sappho!"

General Glory's arch-nemesis shared his name (Schmidt) with Captain America's foe, the Red Skull, and was shown to once wear a costume similar to the Red Skull back in the 1940's. Contrary to the Red Skull, this character was mainly a "mad scientist" whose pathetic devices backfired and his plans to destroy Glory always failed because he is incompetent. Like the Red Skull, he was obsessed with killing his arch foe to the point that it was the goal of his life.

Guy Gardner, always disrespectful toward living legends like Batman or Superman, shows a nerdish devotion to the General, even modelling his famous bowl haircut on Ernie, while the General himself seldom does anything useful. His main role was to baby sit Guy Gardner and recount his conversations with Roosevelt to anyone who would listen. However ridiculous the character was, he was often highly diplomatic and helped ease aggressions among JLI team members.

Glory apparently died of a cardiac arrest after transforming back into Joseph Jones. Shortly before Glory's death, he saw the powers of Lady Liberty get passed to a crippled policeman named Donovan Wallace. The second General Glory has not been seen since.

[edit] Powers and abilities

General Glory was mystically endowed with enhanced strength and durability, but only in his "General Glory" persona, otherwise he was a frail 80 year old man. He has demonstrated enough strength to lift objects as heavy as tanks. He was in peak physical condition in all other aspects and a capable military tactician. He seemed impervious to the effects of old age in his superhero persona, but when he decided to go back to being an ordinary human he eventually died of old age.

He seldom utilized his abilities, instead choosing to give long winded and inane speeches. This was actually useful as it drew fire away from other Justice League members, as villains quickly wanted to kill General Glory to avoid having to endure his dissertations on morality.

The second General Glory demonstrated some different powers and weapons than the first. He had a sharp throwing star that would return to him after being released, and also had golden bird wings that enabled him to fly.