Gamemnae
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| Gamemnea | |
 If this infobox is not supposed to have an image, please add "|noimage=yes". |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | JLA #69 (September 2002) |
| Created by | Joe Kelly Doug Mahnke |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Unknown |
| Team affiliations | The Ancients |
| Notable aliases | None |
| Abilities | Powerful magic wielder |
Gamemnea is a fictional character in the DC Comics Universe, who was a powerful enemy of the Justice League.
[edit] Biography
Born over three thousand years ago, Gamemnea was an Atlantean, exiled at birth for having yellow hair; a serious sign of ill luck in Atlantean culture. Surviving her exile, Gamemnea went on to learn powerful magics, which she later used to not only raise Atlantis from the seas, but turn the entire population into air-breathers as opposed to the water-breathing race they had been for centuries. Convinced that it was her destiny to lead the people of Atlantis in conquest of the world, Gamemnea soon established herself as ruler of her people, gradually learning further spells to increase her power.
However, she learned that all her efforts would be for nothing when Aquaman and the Atlanteans of the twenty-first century were banished back to the past by Tempest's desperate attempt to save the city from an Imperiex probe during the Our Worlds at War storyline. Outraged to learn that Atlantis would become a race of water-breathers once again in the future, she seduced Aquaman and tricked him into drinking a potion that turned him into a water spirit, subsequently confining him in a pool of water in the middle of Atlantis while his people were forced to work as slave labour underwater, building foundations to keep Atlantis above the water.
Gamemnea's schemes did not end there. Having read Aquaman's mind, she knew of the Justice League that existed in the future, and also knew that they would inevitably seek to rescue their fallen comrade. Determined to defeat them, Gamemnea created her own 'League of Ancients', consisting of various people in the world who might become a threat to Atlantis in the future. This League's members included;
- Rama Khan, ruler of the nation of Jarhanpura, capable of commanding the elements of Earth and Fire
- Manitou Raven, a powerful wielder of magic
- The Anointed One, a fallen alien who was raised by a Jewish sect as a fallen angel, possessing physical strength equal to that of Superman
- The Whaler, a Northern Eurasian who can harness the power of the Aurora Borealis
- Tezumak, from a pre-Aztec Mesoamerican civilization that reached a technological peak before any other culture, he wore powerful bronze armor and had a natural knack for understanding technology
- Sela, a living weapon-woman who passed a long series of mystical trials
With this 'League of Ancients' behind her, Gamemnea fed false visions of the future to Rama Khan, causing him to believe that he had foreseen a future where Earth would be threatened by a seven-headed hydra destroyer- the remaining members of the Justice League-, and that a team would have to be assembled to defeat the threat posed by this destroyer. In an attempt to defeat the 'Hydra' before they could come to their time, Manitou and Tezumak travelled into the future to battle them, but when Batman and Plastic Man managed to immobilise Tezumak's armor and Manitou was tied up by Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth, they were forced to escape to the Atlantean Trench- the 'canyon' in the water that remained where Atlantis had been before the fight with Imperiex-, where Manitou was able to use his magic to send them back to their time.
Using the magical pathway developed by Manitou, Earth's magic users were able to send the League back into the past, where they remained hidden while trying to discover Aquaman's fate and recover from the time-travel distortion; Bruce Wayne in particular remained weak for over two days. Discovering Aquaman's water-wraith condition, the League managed to get in touch with the imprisoned Atlanteans of their time, learning what had happened from Mera, but when they emerged to confront Gamemnea, they discovered that her League of Ancients had captured the Flash and torn his legs off below the knees. Although the League initially managed to hold their own against their adversaries, the Ancients' willingness to kill gave them a significant edge, the Anointed One beating Superman to death, Rama Kahn holding back the Martian Manhunter with fire, Batman and Wonder Woman being killed by Tezumak and Sela, and Plastic Man being turned to stone, shattered, and scattered around the ground.
However, Green Lantern's willingness to risk his life for the people of Atlantis- turning aside to save innocent Atlanteans from falling rubble-, combined with him 'testing' Batman with his mystical hatchet that couldn't pierce the skin of a good man, drove Manitou Raven to realise that the League were genuinely good people. Talking briefly with Kyle, Manitou took Kyle's heart as a willing sacrifice to preserve the souls of his friends, and later confronted Gamemnea with his revelations at the pool containing Aquaman. Mocking Aquaman's unwillingness to turn Atlantis into a conquering empire, Gamemnea revealed the next stage of her plan to Manitou; using quagmire magic, she would absorb the rest of the Ancients into her body, gaining their powers and becoming even stronger. Although she absorbed the rest of the Ancients, Manitou was able to escape her attack, using the spirits of the League to erect a spell of containment around Atlantis, preventing Gamemnea from escaping the city… until, paradoxically, he broke the spell to return to his time during his initial return from the future.
With her resurrection in the modern day after the League had departed, Gamemnea instantly began to drain the water from the Earth, resolved to force its inhabitants to bow to her or die from mass dehydration. Despite the best efforts of the new League- created by a program devised by Batman in the event that the original League ever failed, this team consisted of Nightwing, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkgirl, Faith, Major Disaster, Firestorm, and Jason Blood-, Gamemnea appeared unbeatable, her new quagmire status allowing her to absorb Tempest, Zatanna, and Major Disaster as she taunted Nightwing's attempts to stand up to her, the team's only 'victory' against her being a phyrric one when Blood allowed himself to be absorbed by Gamemnea in order to free Zatanna.
Fortunately, with the aid of Manitou- who had sealed himself in a cave while he waited for his chance to stop Gamemnea once and for all-, the League came up with a new plan; since the quagmire could only absorb the living, Manitou resurrected the original League members as living corpses, allowing them to keep Gamemnea occupied while he sent Nightwing, Hawkgirl, Zatanna and Firestorm back to the past to sink Atlantis and disrupt the soulbond Gamemnae had formed with the island to enhance her magic. Working with Manitou's past self, Zatanna and Firestorm created a channel between Aquaman's pool and the ocean; although Aquaman was still a water wraith, he was now connected to the entire ocean. As he confronted Gamemnea, the League members evacuated the Atlanteans back to the future through a portal- accompanied by the past version of Manitou Raven and his wife Dawn before Aquaman submerged the city once again, Gamemnea's magic to make the past Atlanteans air-breathers ending with her defeat.
Back in the present, the League were resurrected by Gamemnea- in their current undead state, the only way to 'kill' them was to resurrect them and kill them properly-, Blood subsequently escaping her control when Martian Manhunter prompted him to transform into Etrigan (Tempest and Major Disaster were freed thanks to the Atom shrinking down and entering her body on the tip of an arrow, as her magic was ineffective on anything smaller than a theoretical particle). Outraged at her failure, Gamemnae began to draw Earth's water back, intending to restore the water instantaneously and force Earth out of orbit. With the use of an extended Lasso of Truth (Coupled with Kyle's resurrection thanks to the sacrifice of the future Manitou), Superman, Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter were able to pull Earth back into its proper orbit, the Flash absorbing the resulting kinetic energy at the North Pole to prevent any damage being done to Earth due to the stress. As the future Manitou sacrificed himself to stop Gamemnae's assault in the present, the destruction of Atlantis in the past ended Gamemnae's attempt to conquer Earth, leaving Atlantis submerged once again and her dead.
With the restoration of the Atlanteans to the present, Gamemnea was defeated and Earth's water was restored, although the aftermath of her defeat resulted in significant changes for the entire League. Plastic Man temporarily retired after spending three thousand years spread across the seabed, J'onn resigned from the League to try and find some cure for his weakness to flame, and Aquaman was exiled from the oceans due to his actions in the past. However, her actions also saw the introduction of Manitou Raven to the present day, with the powerful magic-wielder going on to become a valued and trusted member of the Justice League and the Justice League Elite prior to his death.
