The Elite
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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
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[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
In their first appearance, in Action Comics #775, they defeated a giant mutant gorilla in Tripoli but caused 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. 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 was not 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 civilization 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 people of Earth were united. Not only did this save the world, but it also started the talks for a Planetary Peace treaty.
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:
- Justice League Elite Volume 1 (collects: Action Comics #775, JLA #100, JLA Secret Files 2004, and Justice League Elite #1-4, tpb, 208 pages, 2005, Titan ISBN 1-84576-191-X DC ISBN 1-4012-0481-3)
- Action Comics #775 was also reprinted in: Superman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told (192 pages, Titan, 2006 ISBN 1-84576-399-8 DC, 2004 ISBN 1-4012-0339-6)
[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
- The Authority, a Wildstorm team of elitist heroes who believed that their need to do right, and their superhuman powers gave them the authority to ignore international laws and national sovereignty.
- Thunderbolts, a Marvel team who pretended to be heroes whilst actually being villains before attempting to become actual heroes.
