| Fatal Five | |
|---|---|
Cover art for Legion of Super-Heroes #120, featuring four of the Fatal Five with Brainiac 5 and Gates. Art by Phil Jimenez. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Adventure Comics #352 (January, 1967) |
| Created by | Jim Shooter |
| In-story information | |
| Member(s) | Founders: Emerald Empress Mano The Persuader Tharok Validus Substitutes: Flare Caress Mentalla Mordecai |
The Fatal Five are fictional characters, a supervillain team of the 30th century in the DC Comics universe. They were created by Jim Shooter and first appeared in Adventure Comics #352 (1967) as enemies of the Legion of Super-Heroes.[1]
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Originally a gang of super-criminals assembled by the Legion of Super-Heroes to help them destroy the Sun-Eater threatening Earth, the Emerald Empress, Mano, The Persuader, and Validus, led by Tharok, subsequently clashed with the Legion many times.[1]
A later incarnation consisted of the Emerald Empress, Persuader, Flare, a Rimborian with the power of fire, Caress, who had a deadly acidic touch and Mentalla, a Legion reject who was secretly working against the Five trying to secure a spot in the Legion.
The first storyline in Legionnaires (1993) had the SW6 Legion face a Fatal Five comprising Tharok, Mano, the Persuader, a new Emerald Empress and a monstrous being called Mordecai.
Following the Zero Hour Legion reboot, the original Fatal Five was reintroduced in Legion of Superheroes #78 (1996), again assembled to help fight the Sun-Eater (although it was later revealed that the Sun-Eater didn't exist). Notably, in this incarnation, the analogue of Emerald Empress is simply called "Empress" and is more a skilled melee combatant than a magic user, since this continuity's Emerald Eye is a sentient being with a will unto itself and a role in other developing storylines.
In the Teen Titans/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover, Persuader used his "atomic axe" to bring Fatal Five teams from other dimensions, forming the Fatal Five-Hundred[2] before the two teams are able to use the Cosmic Treadmill to banish the alternate Fatal Fives back to their original universes.[3]
The Fatal Five has not been seen in the "Threeboot" Legion setting, but in The Brave and the Bold a version of the team was taken to the present day by the Lord of Time, to assist him in gaining a powerful weapon. When his plans were foiled by Batman and Blue Beetle he abandoned them in the 21st century. After Batman and Tharok were accidentally merged into one being, the group was returned to the future where they appear to be already in the Legion's prison.
All five Fatal Five members were among the supervillains in Superman-Prime's Legion of Super-Villains.
A version of the Fatal Five appeared in Tangent Comics, where the team is composed of the Tangent Comics Versions of Ice, Shadow Thief, Kid Psycho, Deathstroke and Count Viper. And next appear in a flashback in Tangent: Superman's Reign series (2008), in which they are shown to have slaughtered the second Atom. This version of the Fatal Five exist on Earth-97 of the Old Multiverse, which has been reborn as Earth-9 of the New Multiverse.