Major Force
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| Major Force | |
 Cover to Crisis Aftermath: The Battle for Blüdhaven #5 (2006). Art by Daniel Acuña |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Captain Atom vol. 3, #12 (February 1988) |
| Created by | Cary Bates and Greg Weisman (writers) Pat Broderick (arist) |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Clifford Zmeck |
| Team affiliations | Injustice League S.H.A.D.E. The Quorum |
| Abilities | Superhuman strength, speed, stamina and invulnerability rivalling Superman's. Can project and control darkforce energy, immortality |
Major Force (Clifford Zmeck) is a fictional character, a supervillain in the DC Comics universe. He first appeared in Captain Atom vol. 3, #12 (February 1988).
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[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Early life
Major Force is a product of the same U.S. Federal project which created Captain Atom during the Vietnam War. The government, in a projected headed by Wade Eiling and the scientist Megala, was experimenting with the effects of atomic energy on an alien metal they had taken from a crashed spaceship to determine its full protective abilities; such as protecting a human being from a nuclear blast. After the disappearance of Nathaniel Adam and the perceived failure of the Captain Atom Project, the government restarted the project with a new subject, Clifford Zmeck and increased the amount of metal used (Captain Atom #36 (Dec. 89). While in the USAF, Zmeck had been jailed in a high security prison for a rape crime and sentenced to life in prison. He was offered a pardon in exchange for participation in the high-risk governmental experiment. The results were the same as with the Captain Atom Project and Zmeck disappeared into the Quantum Field, emerging one year after the return of Nathaniel Adam. This time, the government was ready and implanted microexplosives under the metal while it was still malleable, in order to control Zmeck in case he went rogue. Introduced as an ally, then successor to Captain Atom, Force's brutality betrayed his government-concocted role of superhero and brought him in frequent conflict with Atom. Eventually, he became a hired gun for General Wade Eiling's purposes.
[edit] Crime and punishment
In Green Lantern vol. 3, #54 (August 1994), Major Force killed Alexandra "Alex" DeWitt, girlfriend of the then, newest Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, and stuffed her remains in a refrigerator so that Kyle could find her. Rayner almost killed Major Force, but was stopped by forces of the Special Crimes Unit. Alex's demise inspired writer Gail Simone to create the website Women in Refrigerators, which in turn coined the term of the same name.
In Guy Gardner: Warrior #43 (June, 1996), Force killed Arisia, a former Green Lantern and dear friend of Guy Gardner. The issue was scripted by Beau Smith and drawn by Brad Gorby. Force was apparently confronted in Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Honshū, Japan. Guy Gardner seemingly kills him in revenge. In reality, Force is made of energy and not matter. He cannot die and has effectively gained immortality.
In Superman/Batman #3 and #4 (December 2003 and January 2004), Force is part of a Government Task Force led by Captain Atom, in addition to Green Lantern John Stewart, Power Girl of the JSA, Starfire of the Teen Titans, Japanese superhero Katana and retired superhero Black Lightning. He is saddled with Captain Atom by President Lex Luthor in order to bring in Superman when a Kryptonite asteroid was headed for Earth. Superman and Batman escape them in Washington but met up with them again in Tokyo. Power Girl and Katana reveal they are double agents working with Superman and Batman the whole time. When Captain Atom and his squad pursue them to Japan, Power Girl strikes at the Major. When he returns fire, Katana chops his hands off, releasing the atomic energy he harbored. Batman convinces Captain Atom to absorb the energy leaking from Force, which threatened to decimate the city. Captain Atom absorbed all the energy and disappeared, moving several years into the future in a quantum leap.
In Green Lantern vol. 3, #180 (October, 2004), Force apparently decapitated Maura Rayner, mother of Kyle Rayner, and stuffed her severed head in an oven. He later said it was just a mannequin. Kyle snapped, decapitated Force (whose head was still talking), sealed it in a bubble of Green Lantern energy and sent it into outer space.
[edit] "One Year Later"
Major Force reappeared in the new Battle for Blüdhaven book, a title set a year after the events of Infinite Crisis, as the field leader of project S.H.A.D.E. In issue #5, he rips the right arm off a government hero named Major Victory, and beats him to death with it. However, Captain Atom was revived by the Atomic Knights in issue #6 (as Monarch), and Force's rampage was quickly brought to an end when Atom drains him of his energy, leaving nothing but a husk. Force's corpse was last seen falling into the chaos left by Atom's energy expenditure.
His image appears in the series Ion as a representation of Kyle Rayner's fear.
For some reason, he has popped up on the cover of Justice League of America (vol. 2) #13 as a member of the latest Injustice League.
[edit] Powers and abilities
- Major Force is coated with the same alien alloy that covers Captain Atom. As a result, he also can access the Quantum Field and use its energies for a variety of powers. However, his abilities stemmed from a different spectrum of field granting him different powers from Atom, aside from the superhuman strength and durability. This was theorized to be a result of the Major Force Project using double the amount of alien alloy and detonating a different type of bomb.
- When he debuted, Major Force seemed to control matter much in the way Captain Atom controls energy. Therefore, he could project blasts of dark matter from his hands. He could manipulate this matter into various shapes and quantities. He used this ability to create a hand to replace one that was blown off by explosives implanted under his skin. He did not possess the ability to fly, but rather leapt great distances or traveled on ramps made of dark matter.
[edit] Other versions
- Major Force had a counterpart on the antimatter universe's Earth named Q-Ranger, a member of the Justice Underground.
