The Elite

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For other use of the term within comics, see Elite (comics).
The Elite


The original line up from Action Comics #775. They are: Menagerie I (foreground), Hat, Manchester Black and Coldcast (background, left to right)
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance March 2001
Created by Joe Kelly (writer)
Doug Mahnke (artist)
Roster
Coldcast
Hat
Manchester Black
Menagerie I
Menagerie II
Vera Black

The Elite were a team of super-powered anti-heroes in the DC Comics universe taking their early influences from The Authority. They made their appearance in What's so funny about Truth, Justice & the American Way? in Action Comics #775 in March 2001. The story was written by Joe Kelly, pencilled by Doug Mahnke and Lee Bermejo, inked by Tom Nguyen

Contents

[edit] Team Members

  • Manchester Black, the team's first leader, currently dead.
  • Vera Black, his sister and the second leader of The Elite
  • Coldcast, capable of manipulating electromagnetism
  • Menagerie I, joined with an alien weapon crèche, lobotomized and placed in a coma.
  • Menagerie II, joined with an alien weapon crèche which drove her insane, now in a metahuman prison facility.
  • Hat, armed with a magic hat
  • Bunny, a bacterial colony that became a floating fortress before The Elite brought her to their universe to use as a base of operations. It is the equivalent to The Carrier. On the rare glimpse inside it appears to contain many wonders including Excalibur and the skeleton of Pegasus.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In their first appearance, in Action Comics #775, they defeated a giant mutant gorilla in Tripoli but cause a lot of collateral damage. Superman attempts to negotiate with them and show them the error of their ways. After this proves ineffective he agrees to fight them on Io, where The Elite have already defeated God's Seed (presumably referencing The Authority's killing of God). When it appears they have beaten Superman he manages to exploit the weaknesses in their powers to defeat them, apparently lobotomising Black and killing the others. However, this turns out to be just a ploy to show them the futility of their approach.

After a stint with the Suicide Squad, Manchester Black was betrayed by President Lex Luthor and so reformed The Elite (Action Comics #795). However Menagerie I revealed to Superman that the group weren't in control of their own actions and Black crippled her.

After Manchester Black's apparent death, his sister Vera returned in JLA #100, leading The Elite against the JLA (this time with Menagerie II) in what turns out to be an attempt to fool Gaea, the spirit of the planet. The Hat, being an earth elemental, had spotted the fact that the planet was going to rise up and strike civilisation down because her "children" were not united which had given them time to devise a plan. The imminent apocalypse was confirmed by Manitou Raven's intuition and Major Disaster's channelling of the planet itself. In a Watchmen-like twist they concocted a bogus threat to unite the world's governments and fool Gaea into believing the pople of Earth were united. Not only did this save the world but started the talks for a Planetary Peace treaty.

Spoilers end here.

This final appearance helped cement the links with the Justice League the result of which was Vera Black, Menagerie II and Coldcast joining the newly formed Justice League Elite.

[edit] Publication

They have appeared in Action Comics #775 and #795 as well as JLA #100. All but Action Comics #795 have been reprinted in the trade paperback:

[edit] Trivia

  • What's so funny about Truth, Justice & the American Way? was voted number 1 in Wizard Magazine's Top Ten Comics of the Decade.

[edit] See also

  • Thunderbolts, a Marvel team who pretended to be heroes whilst actually being villains before attempting to become actual heroes.

[edit] External links

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