Monarchy (comic book)
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The Monarchy was a comic series written by Doselle Young with art by John McCrea. It was published by Wildstorm comics. The Monarchy lasted 12 issues and had an intro-issue in The Authority #21.
The series focused on Stormwatch-members Jackson King and Christine Trelane (formerly known as Battalion and Synergy) gathering a team of superheroes for the extra-dimensional Weavers.
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[edit] Story
During a party with the Authority, where King is increasingly annoyed with his former team-members and their methods, the Weavers contact King and inform him that the universe as they know it is threatened by Chimaera. To combat Chimaera, King and Trelane have to gather a group of unique individuals. King and Trelane accept. They leave their jobs with the U.N. as liaisons to the Authority, get married and disappear. The U.N. order special agent Morro to investigate their disappearance.
Over the next few months they gather many resources all over the world, they resurrect the superhero Union, free the chaos-artist Condition Red from his imprisonment and enlist Professor Q. They then enlist Jon Farmer, who had been a member of a previous, alternate version of the Monarchy called the Throne. Farmer had been living as a priest for years, but King and Trelane convince him to join them. Their next few missions are to obtain some essential weapons: a Kheran Dream Engine and an unrevealed weapon in exchange for the spirit of Hitler, who had been possessing a politician. Their next recruit is Addie Vochs, a Century Baby whose powers had been repressed by the Fever Man, evil creatures of pure thought. Vochs is rejuvenated and receives her powers.
King then decides to investigate the former home of Henry Bendix, genius and his former superior. He finds information on creating a powerful being by binding an ancient Native American god to the soul of a human. King follows the instructions, tying the spirit of Los Angeles to a failed superhero, Bram Dusk, but the resulting creature turns on him and kills him. In the end Dusk manages to take control and becomes the Metropolitan.
Chimaera meanwhile isn't sitting still and notices the threat of the Monarchy, while the Monarchy find out what exactly Chimaera is: Due to the Authority's frequent travels through the Bleed, their characteristics and aggression had been imprinted on many worlds and they went on to conquer other worlds, forming Chimaera, an ever-expanding empire of evil Authority's lead by the Higher Power, a reptilian version of the Authority. Chimaera attacks the Throne, the base of the Monarchy. The Monarchy manages to escape thanks to the sacrifice of Jon Farmer.
Trelane leads her people towards a sanatorium where Malcolm King, Jackson's younger brother is staying. Agent Morro is questioning Malcolm, but finds a Malcolm having the Kheran Dream Engine and being a part of the Monarchy. Morro suddenly starts to remember a hidden program Jackson King put in his mind: he's King's backup and has King's plans telepathically planted inside his mind. Christine arrives and greets Malcolm, while Addie Vochs calms Morro. The Monarchy regroups and opens their attack on Chimaera following the plans Jackson left in Morro's head.
Elsewhere Henry Bendix, somehow still alive and now allied with the Weavers, finds the head of Jackson King and resurrects him as an imaginary being. Now King is a being of pure willpower. He contacts the essence of Farmer and shapes it into a sword. He also reveals the secret weapon they received in return for the spirit of Hitler: it is Fenris, the mythological wolf of Norse myth. King, Bendix and Fenris attack Chimaera as well.
Together they defeat the troops of Chimaera and Trelane leads Malcolm and Addie Vochs to combine their powers, curing Chimaera's corrupted center. Trelane recruits a young boy, Matt, with the power to create superhumans for the new Monarchy, starting their expansion of the team and takes them to their new Throne, a mobile world.
Jackson King appears in the Authority: Human on the Inside, which took place after the events of the Monarchy series, and appears to alive in human form and not the being of pure imagination that he was at the end of the Monarchy series. Both Jackson King and Christine Trelane have returned to their former statues at Stormwatch in the new series Stormwatch: PHD (Post Human Devision). There has been no mention of the Monarchy members nor have they displayed the vast amount of power the two characters wielded at the end of the Monarchy series. It’s believed that the Monarchy series happened in an alternate reality, which would free up King and Trelane to return to Stormwatch and the Wildstorm Universe unaltered.
[edit] Criticism
During its publication, the Monarchy received a great amount of negative reviews, with many feeling that its storyline was at best overwritten and at worst incomprehensible. Others expressed dislike of Doselle Young's writing, claiming it was a poor imitation of Warren Ellis', lacking subtlety and grace. Unlike Wildstorm's other titles like the Authority or Planetary, both of which had focused story arcs, the Monarchy felt incoherent and lacking direction. Others became disgruntled with the changes in direction with long-term characterization. Henry Bendix, one of the principal villains of Stormwatch, was revealed to be a benevolent hero. Union generated perhaps even more dispute, with some saying that his characterization was too far removed from the original and others (asserting that the character was never very original or sophisticated to begin with) saying his resurrection was entirely unwarranted. These criticisms, when combined with the Monarchy's low sales, may have been what led to the series' cancellation.
[edit] Members
- Jackson King: telekinetic and telepath. Former leader of Stormwatch as Battalion, Jackson became the U.N. liaison to the Authority after Stormwatch disbanded. He grew more and more displeased with the Authority and accepted the Weaver's assignment. He now leads the Monarchy.
- Christine Trelane: Formerly the Stormwatch-member Synergy, Christine possesses the rare and valuable power of Activation, allowing her to turn ordinary humans into superhumans. She is married to Jackson King and her extraordinary intelligence and organisation skills make her as much the leader of the Monarchy as Jackson is.
- Jon Farmer: Formerly the youngest member of the Throne, a pre-cursor to the Monarchy until it was destroyed by Abraham Dusk, the living quantum virus. The Throne's Jackson King threw Farmer into the Bleed before detonating their base, leaving Farmer as the sole survivor. Farmer arrives on Earth in 1967 and as a brief career as superhero, becomes a priest. He also worked as a barman on the Authority's party. Farmer has the ability to manipulate a rainbow-coloured energy that he can use for various effects. He also is capable of flight under his own power.
- Union: Ohmen, an alien from the planet Agea, became Union, a veteran superhero in the Wildstorm universe. He served with Stormwatch as a reserve member and had a long career as a solo hero. During the party on Authority's Carrier, Union committed suicide. Jackson took his Justice Stone and resurrected Union, now as a dark and brooding man, focused more on punishing the guilty than saving the innocent. Union's powers are the result of the Justice Stone implanted in his chest. It allows him to generate objects made from energy (like his fighting staff), gives him superhuman strength and durability and flight.
- Condition Red: Caleb was a trickster, imprisoned and tortured by his enemy Doctor Osiris for sleeping with his daughters. King and Trelane freed him and in return he joins the Monarchy. Condition Red reveals little about himself, acting glib towards everybody. He has special weaponry, capable of removing spirits from a person's body as well as more conventional weaponry. He also possesses a special device, looking like a vial of smoke, that allows him to teleport.
- Professor Q: Nicknamed the Calculator Goddess, she has superhuman intelligence and seems to enjoy herself the most when she is fighting. She can generate machinery as quickly as she can invent them and was able to invent and generate a singularity generator in picoseconds. She seems to develop some romantic interest in Malcolm King.
- Vox Populi: Addie Vochs, a Century Baby born 1 year later than the others. Addie's powers were locked away for most of her life and when Trelane and Professor Q visit her she is an old woman. Trelane rejuvenates her and awakens her powers and Addie Vochs becomes Vox Populi, capable of using her voice for various effects ranging from destructive songs to calming tunes.
- The Metropolitan: Bram Dusk, a human version of the quantum virus Abraham Dusk received superhuman powers when he was hit by lightning. As the Last Angel he was a superhero with superhuman speed and agility, but he was a failure, both as hero and in his private life. King decided to give him a chance at more power and bound his soul to Chichinika, the snake god of Los Angeles. The resulting creature killed King, but with the help of Farmer and Condition Red, Bram managed to take control and became the Metropolitan. As the Metropolitan, he seems to adapt to whatever is thrown at him, constantly changing his abilities to remain unpredictable.
- Malcolm King: Brother to Jackson King and the former Stormwatch-member Strafe, Malcolm was put into a sanatorium when his brother's telepathy put him into a coma. When Agent Morro tries to find out more about Jackson King, Malcolm reveals that he has merged with the Kheran Dream Engine and is part of the Monarchy. Christine Trelane appears and calls Malcolm Bellerophon, which may be his codename or just a joke from Christine as Malcolm is destined to slay Chimaera.
- Fenris: The secret weapon of the Monarchy is the mythological wolf from Norse Myth who will swallow the sun at Ragnarok. Traded for the spirit of Hitler with some mysterious entities, the Monarchy receive Fenris as a little wolf, but a few months later when they reveal this secret weapon, it already has grown to the size of a large building. Fenris doesn't seem to be more intelligent than a regular wolf and obeys King's commands. He seems to be little more than a living weapon of mass destruction.
- Matt: Gifted with the ability to give superhuman powers to regular humans as well as possessing enormous destructive powers himself, Matt was saved by Jon Farmer when his powers made him release an enormous explosion of energy. He is the first recruit of the Monarchy after they defeated Chimaera.
[edit] Allies
- The Weavers: Souls of dead humans that have been given the task to safeguard the multiverse. They often appear as spiders or half spider/half humans. They give information to the humans they work with, but don't seem to act themselves in any way.
- Henry Bendix: an alternate universe version of the former Stormwatch Weatherman, he secretly replaced his WSU counterpart shortly after the reorganization of Stormwatch. His actions eventually lead his teammates to assume that he was insane, which in turn led him to eventually being killed by Jenny Sparks, Bendix reveals that this was just a plot to turn into an imaginary being, made out of pure willpower. As an imaginary being, he has nicknamed himself Happy Hank Bendix and acts like a completely different man. Bendix is a genius and uses weapons of his own design to help the Weavers in their task.
- Agent Morro: An FBI agent tasked with finding King and Trelane, Morro turns out to be a vital part of King's plan.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Series
The Monarchy #1-12 (February, 2001 - March, 2002)
[edit] Significant Stories
The Authority #21 (December, 2000)
[edit] Collections
The Monarchy: Bullets Over Babylon (tpb collects The Authority #21 and The Monarchy #1-4, December, 2001, Titan ISBN 1-84023-390-7; DC ISBN 1-56389-859-4)
