Per Degaton

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Per Degaton

Art by George Pérez.
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance All Star Comics # 35
(June-July 1947)
Created by John Broome
Irwin Hasen
In story information
Team affiliations Injustice Society
Time Stealers
Abilities Skilled armed/unarmed combatant, semi-precognitive 'Time Vision', Genius-level intellect, Master Planner and Tactician, Time travel equipment, Intangibility, Seeming immortality

Per Degaton is a fictional character, a DC Comics supervillain who can travel through time. Per Degaton made his first appearance in All Star Comics #35 (June-July, 1947) and was created by John Broome and Irwin Hasen.

Contents

[edit] Fictional character biography

Per Degaton has been obsessed with time travel ever since he was an assistant[1] to the Time Trust, a group of scientists developing a time ray in order to go to the future and acquire an effective bombing defense for use during World War II. In 1942, the Justice Society of America is sent 500 years into the future to retrieve such a defense, and acquire a formula that produces a bomb-proof shield. Nazis attempt to steal the formula, but are foiled by the JSA.[2] In a fit of jealousy, Per Degaton sabotages the formula and leaves the Time Trust soon after.[3] Later in 1942 he is employed at Project M, another secret scientific group. During this time he meets the time traveling robot Mekanique, who enlists his aid in her war against the All-Star Squadron. In exchange for his help, Mekanique promises to give him the secrets of time travel. They fail in their attack on the All-Stars, and Mekanique’s body is destroyed, but Degaton salvages her head. He keeps her head by his side for the next five years, and they fall in love.[4]

By 1947 Degaton is assisting Professor Malachi Zee, a former member of the Time Trust. Zee is able to finish a time machine with the help of Degaton and Mekanique. Degaton plans to take the machine for himself, and shoots Zee, who unexpectedly falls into it, sending him 40 years into the future. Mekanique suggests that the two of them simply wait four decades for the machine to reappear, but this idea drives Degaton into a lunatic rage. He buries Mekanique’s head, and makes new plans for himself.[5] Per Degaton begins a short career as an evil para-military commander and joins the Injustice Society of the World. He leads an army of prison escapees in an assault on Washington D.C. but is defeated by the JSA and spends the next 30 years in prison.[6]

After his release, Degaton roams the streets as a derelict until his old ally Brain Wave finds him. Together they attack the JSA, but are unsuccessful.[7] Degaton returns to prison, but is paroled ten years later due to advanced age.[8]

Free at last, Degaton reconstructs Mekanique and the pair battle Infinity, Inc. at the site of arrival of Zee’s time machine. When it reappears it contains not only the dying Zee, but a 1947 version of Degaton himself (a 'chronal duplicate' - see below). When Degaton lunged at the machine as it had disappeared in 1947, the machine’s energies created two Degatons, one who lives a normal life and one who is carried along with the time machine. The older Degaton disintegrates instantly due to the paradoxical existence of two Degatons at one moment. Mekanique kills the younger Degaton as well as herself, fearing this Degaton would end up betraying her once more.[9] (It should be noted that originally, in the pre-Crisis continuity, the time machine still reappears in the 1980s, but only the mortally-wounded Prof. Zee is inside. He names Degaton as his killer before dying, and the aged Degaton, surrounded by the arriving JSA - and with no Mekanique to aid him - commits suicide rather than go back to prison.[10] The Infinity, Inc. story is the retcon of this story).

[edit] Chronal duplicate

Several times prior to his death in the Infinity, Inc story, the 1947 Degaton chronal duplicate tries without success to alter the course of history for his own benefit, including thwarting the course of ancient historical events like the Battle of Arbela between Greece and Persia in 331 B.C.[11] The Justice Society undoes his historical changes, and by so-doing, it is as if they had never occurred, resulting in the Degaton chronal duplicate being returned to 1947, and the memories of the events erased from all involved. Similar results are achieved by members of the-then fledgling All-Star Squadron who thwart the Degaton chronal duplicate's attempt to change the circumstances of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, which did prevent the JSA from being able to intercept the attacking Japanese forces, and also results in Danette Reilly attaining her fire-based powers and becoming the second Firebrand (this is a distinct change to the formula of having all of his actions in past times erased, though everyone involved still forgets his involvement).[12]

In addition to these 1947 "resets," another standard feature is that, prior to each new time-travel attempt, Degaton remembers all prior attempts, usually in the form of a dream that happens the night before Prof. Zee finishes the time-machine and is ready to test it (linking all of his attempts to alter time back to this one moment in a kind of Möbius strip). These memories stay with the chronal duplicate for the duration of each new attempt to change history he makes, though it is unclear if the older Degaton retains these memories also.

The Degaton chronal duplicate remains a foe of the Justice Society, continually trying to alter history to his will. During one of the annual pre-Crisis meetings between the JLA of Earth-One and the JSA of Earth-Two in 1982, the Degaton chronal duplicate almost succeeds in blackmailing Earth-Two's surrender after stealing nuclear warheads (with the help of Earth-Three's Crime Syndicate of America) from the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 on Earth-Prime and bringing them back in time to Earth-Two's 1942; he is beaten by the combined forces of these heroes with some help from members of the wartime All-Star Squadron. With his changes undone, he is again returned to 1947 with no memory of the events, while everyone else involved likewise lose their memories of events, and are returned to their proper times/worlds[13] (it should be noted that the term 'chronal duplicate' is a descriptive term being used here to help differentiate and reconcile the actions of a youthful Degaton from 1947 manipulating historical events while an older Degaton lives out his life from 1947-onward, aging normally up to the Infinity, Inc. story - this term was used only in the context of that story. Also, as a result of the character's time-jumps, chronological order for his activities is difficult to determine with absolute certainty since at any time it could be revealed that one, or more, additional attempts were made from the same starting point in 1947. It can be assumed, however, that as long as a youthful Degaton is time-traveling in a story, it will have to be the 'chronal duplicate' prior to his appearance with his older-self in the Infinity, Inc. story since neither survive that encounter, and to-date, there have been no time-travel stories with a definitively post-1947 Degaton. He has no personal realization that he is a duplicate, nor do his opponents who, if anything, simply view him as just the 1947-version).

Degaton (the chronal duplicate), frustrated for not being able to harm the JSA chronologically in their last encounter, uses his time-traveling abilities to "watch life hurting [his enemies]." Sequentially confronting all the current JSA members (as of 2004), he tells them that he saw them die, and reveals some hints on their final moments. For example, he provides the revelation of the gruesome punishment that Atom Smasher will suffer at the hands of the Spectre, the breaking down of the relation between Stargirl and Captain Marvel, and it is only due to the intervention of Daniel Hall that the Degaton chronol-duplicate doesn't tell Hector Hall details of his eventual passing.[14]

Now equipped with a time disc, the Degaton chronal duplicate has the ability to live "between seconds", apparently ageless in an intangible state, from which he can only be forced with the concentrated tachyons found in the hourglass of Hourman.

After sending his genetically enhanced agents from the future (the "Red Morgue") to kill all relatives of Stargirl, he causes the JSA's temporary 1950s dissolution to become permanent, and disgraces all the masked crime-fighters as traitors, thus erasing from history all subsequent superheroes. The Degaton chronal duplicate is eventually stopped by the early-2000's JSA, and beaten to a bloody pulp by Atom Smasher (whose hands were soaked with the concentrated tachyons of the hourglass). The timeline is restored so that the duplicate's changes never occurred. However (in a major break from the established story-formula), the Degaton chornal duplicate retreats into the time-stream with his memories intact rather than being forced back to 1947 with his memories wiped, renewing his commitment to watching his enemies' deaths across time.[15]

The Degaton chronal duplicate's comments reveal he is one of the few people aware of the Crisis on Infinite Earths and the former multiverse that once existed.

The Per Degaton chronal duplicate appears during the massive Battle of Metropolis in Infinite Crisis #7; his role and motives go unexplained since he only appears among numerous characters on one splash page.

The Per Degaton chronal duplicate returns in Booster Gold #5, as part of a team with the Ultra-Humanite and Despero, who with Supernova, and Black Beetle, have formed, "The Time Stealers", a supervillian group that appears to be manipulating the timestream to their advantage.

[edit] Powers and abilities

The Per Degaton chronal duplicate possesses a limited "time vision," allowing him to know what will happen in the near future. He is out of phase with normal time, which renders him intangible. Hourman's tachyon-filled hourglass has been shown to blur his time vision and allow anyone possessing it to hit Degaton. He is also aware of changes to the timestream and have made mention of remembering events from before Crisis on Infinite Earths.

It is unclear whether these are innate abilities the Degaton chronol-duplicate acquired or if they are the result of his time disc.

[edit] Equipment

The Per Degaton chronal duplicate travels on a "time disc," a machine that allows him to travel through time as well as having fail-safes to return time to normal should his plans fail. It is capable of flight and he has mentioned a camera in it. The Degaton chronal duplicate also uses small time discs which can be thrown. Upon contact with a person, it speeds up metabolism. The speed varies; Hourman was sped up an hour until his powers ran out whereas the Atom was sped up to the point where his atomic physiology could explode.

[edit] References

  1. ^ All-Star Squadron #2 (1981)
  2. ^ All-Star Comics #10 (1942)
  3. ^ All-Star Squadron #2 (1981)
  4. ^ Young All-StarsAnnual #1 (1988)
  5. ^ Young All-StarsAnnual #1 (1988)
  6. ^ All-Star Comics #35 (1947)
  7. ^ All-Star Comics #58-59 (1976)
  8. ^ America vs. The Justice Society #4 (1985)
  9. ^ Infinity, Inc. Annual #2 (1988)
  10. ^ America vs. The Justice Society #4 (1985)
  11. ^ All-Star Comics #35 (1947)
  12. ^ Justice League of America vol. 1 #193, All-Star Squadron #1-3 (1981)
  13. ^ Justice League of America vol. 1 #207-209, All-Star Squadron #14-15 (1982)
  14. ^ JSA #59 (2004)
  15. ^ JSA #66-72 (2005)


[edit] External links

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