This page covers characters in the general DC Comics Universe who don't fit neatly into any series or franchise specific character sheet.
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Organizations
D.E.O. (Department of Extranormal Operations)
Sector: 2814
System: Sol
For the D.E.O. agents Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers, see Supergirl - Supporting Cast. For agent Cameron Chase, see Batwoman. Steve Trevor is also an officer of this department in most continuities, with a history in the Air Force. Subdivisions of the department include the D.M.A. (Department of Metahuman Affairs).
- Cape Busters: The D.E.O. is supposed to be a safeguard against metahuman and other super-powered threats and employs various metahumans. This has led them to serve the role of a villainous or heroic organization in different books mostly due to the perspectives of the lead characters.
- Government Agency of Fiction: The D.E.O. and the threats it was designed to deal with are fictional.
Director Bones
Robert Todd
"I am not your enemy, Michael. You may not agree with my principles, but there is a reason — a need for an organization like mine."
A reformed supervillain with invisible flesh and poisonous sweat. In his teen years, he acted as the leader of the villain team Helix, which was formed by a group of teens whose mothers had all been experimented on by Dr. Amos Love while they were in the womb and had then been kidnapped and raised by the amoral doctor. Helix turned themselves in when Bones' leg was bitten off by a supposed ally, and when he was next seen, he had turned his life around.
Penny Dreadful
A reformed supervillain who was once a member of Helix. She turned back to a life of crime for a time before being murdered, though given that she was working for Circe alongside another former Helix member who regularly aids the superhero community, her true intentions with the move remain unknown.
See Infinity, Inc.
Peter Malley
A scientist whose unethical experimentation on meta-human children is a good representation of the D.E.O. at its worst. He was transformed into Claything due to his poor containment practices during his experimentation on young Cassius "Clay" Payne.
see Batman: Clayface
D.M.A. (Department of Metahuman Affairs)
First Appearance: The Power of Shazam! #15. (1996)
Created by: Jerry Ordway · Pete Krause
Sector: 2814
System: Sol
A sub-division of the D.E.O. that is meant to act as an investigative branch and provide protection to the public during meta-human altercations, but has oft been taken over by those with more nefarious plots. For agents Etta Candy and Diana Prince, see the Wonder Woman character sheets. For agent Tom Tresser/Nemesis, see the Suicide Squad character sheet. The division was overseen by Sarge Steel, though he was replaced by Steve Trevor shortly before Flashpoint after he Steel became unable to continue his job due the sustained attack on his mind by Doctor Psycho.
Sarge Steel
Sarge is a disabled veteran who was lucky enough to be able to replace the hand and forearm he lost in Vietnam with an advanced mechanical prosthetic. After returning to the states he became a P.I. before once again becoming a Federal employee, now investigating metahuman activities.
- created by: Joe Gill · Dick Giordanofirst appearance: 1964, Sarge Steel #1species: human
see Sarge Steel
A.R.G.U.S.
Sector: 2814
System: Sol
For the head of the A.R.G.U.S. subdivision the Oddfellows Steve Trevor see his own page. For the A.R.G.U.S. project Task Force X see the Suicide Squad page. For the head of Task Force X and former A.R.G.U.S. director Amanda Waller see Suicide Squad: Support Staff. For more on A.R.G.U.S. director Sasha Bordeaux see the page for her previous agency Checkmate.
- Expy: Essentially, DC's equivalent to Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Government Agency of Fiction
- Meaningful Name: Named after the mythological beast Argus, which had a thousand eyes.
- Remember the New Guy?: Introduced with the New 52 reboot.
Cadmus
First Appearance: Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133. (1970)
Created by: Jack Kirby
Sector: 2814
System: Sol
A government research project outside of Metropolis. Their focus is cloning and the containment of otherworldly monsters.
For the version of Cadmus in the DC Animated Universe, see Justice League Cadmus
- Adventure Town:
- Applied Phlebotinum:
- Cape Busters: While the capture, neutralization and study of created creatures had always been a part of Cadmus it becomes its raison d'etre under Cannon at the behest of the US Government when previously the Project focused on its own experiments. The fact that a number of the things being held at Cadmus are not malicious nor had been endangering anyone prior to being locked up makes S.B. uncomfortable working for the Project, especially since he himself is viewed in the same light.
- Elaborate Underground Base: Cadmus is a labyrinth of miles
- Government Agency of Fiction: A fictional government agency in a fictional US city.
- Industrialized Evil: Usually the Project has mostly benign goals even if some individual's projects within it do not, but once it merges with Agenda any sense of morality gets tossed out the window.
- Modified Clone: Their original focus was the creation of modified human clones and the study of aliens and the meta gene. At some points in its history Cadmus has operated as essentially an underground city of modified clones run by a few human scientists.
- Sigil Spam: Their emblem is everywhere inside the Project.
Golden Guardian/Guardian II
James Jacob "Jim" Harper (clone)
The third Guardian was a clone of the first, who was given implanted memories of the original and therefore had a strong relationship with the now adult Newsboy Legion upon his waking but had conflicting feelings about his status as a clone, and eventually requested that he never be cloned again. He serves as one of the chief security officers of Cadmus and the implanted memories given to him were added to enough to make him more subservient and less questioning of the project than original would have ever been even though is personality is otherwise unaltered. However, when he uncovered the then current director's collusion with Sam Lane to murder Superman, he sabotaged the project on his way out the door. Pre-Crisis he went by the name Golden Guardian, but post-Crisis he was still just the Guardian.
- created by: Jack Kirby · Joe Simonfirst appearance: 1971, Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #135species: human, modified clone
- Clones Are People, Too: Despite being a clone and giving lip service to the idea he goes on a sort of journey of self discovery that cements the concept more firmly for him, especially after meeting Roy Harper and his adorable daughter Lian who are descendants of the man he was cloned from and consider him family.
- Color Character: As Golden Guardian.
- Cool Helmet: His gold helm.
- Expendable Clone: Guardian's subplot in New Krypton retcons that he is not, in fact, the first Jim Harper clone to bear the shield. Or the second. In fact, Cadmus's Guardians rarely last more than a year.
- Legacy Character: To the man he was cloned from, the original Guardian.
- LEGO Genetics: He's not technically a straight clone of Jim I, he's closer than most Cadmus clones to being a copy of the original but is still a "DNAlien"/Genomorph like Kon-El or Dubbilex with DNA from others mixed in to make him a bit sturdier than a baseline human
- Parental Substitute: He becomes the legal guardian of the original Jim's grandniece Bobby and adopts his own opposite sex-clone Gwen.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Quite possibly due to the way his memories were implanted Guardian didn't even think to question his orders to keep track of Superboy/S-13 after the kid's escape from Cadmus even though he knew the project saw him as little more than property and a liability they were likely to lock away forever or even "dismantle". When Superman tries to placate a rightly furious S-13 when the kid makes the same claims by saying there's no way that would happen Guardian seems to realize where he stands and corrects the Man of Steel, which results in Clark officially letting Cadmus know the kid is under his protection and he won't stand for them trying to drag him back again. After this Jim is seen being more critical of his orders, and more likely to ignore or go against those he disagrees with.
- Put on a Bus: Following the events of War of the Supermen, Harper abandons his role as the Guardian and takes his grandniece Jamie (pregnant with Mon-El's child) and Opposite-Sex Clone Gwen off to an unknown destination, apparently abandoning Bobby as well since her status at the time was not addressed beyond being MIA with the rest of the second iteration of the Newsboy Legion.
- Shield Bash: Uses his shield for combat.
- Tangled Family Tree: Not as bad as most examples but he has some relations through the siblings of the man he was cloned from, including Roy Harper, Jamie Harper, "Famous Bobby", and Lian Harper. They all consider him family, and he ends up as Bobby's guardian, but what they call him tends to vary. Then there are the varied other clones of the original and clones of himself, and other Cadmus DNAliens who were made using some of their DNA including an Opposite-Sex Clone Jim II becomes the Parental Substitute for.
- Throwing Your Shield Always Works: Guardian usually prefers to keep hold of his shield, so he can use it like a shield, but he's pretty proficient at using it like a thrown projectile too.
- Super-Reflexes: He has reflexes that are on par with a Kryptonian's.
- Super-Soldier: While the original was a Badass Normal the clone possesses enhanced strength and reflexes, and an accelerated healing factor. He has demonstrated the ability to hurt Superboy (who he trained in hand-to-hand combat) and Kryptonians from Kandor.
S-13/Superboy/Kon-El/Conner Kent
Kon-El/Conner Kent
Project Cadmus' most famous Modified Clone, who was never completed due to the young clones known as the Newsboy Legion freeing him after uncovering the secret project within Cadmus which created him. After his escape from Cadmus he befriended Robin (Tim Drake), Impulse (Bart Allen), and Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) and founded Young Justice with them. After the dissolution of Young Justice he went on to become a Teen Titan, and was stranded on Gemworld when the Multiverse was rearranged during Flashpoint. While on Gemworld he got married and had a kid and took up farming as a nod to his Kent roots and the time he spent in Smallville. After his old friends tracked him down he rejoined the reformed Young Justice.
Director Westfield
Paul Westfield
"Go ahead and try! Project Cadmus is bigger than you can imagine! You'll never close us down! Never!"
One of the two co-founders of Project Cadmus and the overseer of "Project 13". For the course of the comic everyone thought he was the DNA donor for the successful Superboy but it was later retconned to have been Lex Luthor, who he was known to collude with, and Superman's DNA that went into making Kon-El.
- created by: Dan Jurgens · Brett Breeding · Glenn Whitmorefirst appearance: 1991, Superman Vol 2 #58species: human
- Hero Killer: A version of Westfield killed the AU Superboy that was leading the resistance against Black Zero by shooting him in the back with a high-powered energy weapon as he teleported to the main DCU to warn of Black Zero's planned invasion of their reality. He was also willing to kill or indefinitely imprison the main universe Superboy to cover up Project 13.
- Emperor Scientist: The version from the same earth as Black Zero giddily took over the earth with his and Donovan's cloned army. Since Black Zero is what Kon-El would have been had Westfield had his way it's really quite lucky the newsboys freed him before he was completed to Westfield's specifications.
- Mad Scientist: He may seem more mellow than Donovan but he was still trying to clone Superman in secret, and while the main version got killed off early on the obviously mad versions trying to help take over multiple realities are not discernibly different from him.
- Posthumous Character: By the start of Superboy's ongoing the original Westfield had already been killed by Dabney Donovan. This does nothing to make Superboy like the corrupt man who was willing to have him killed in order to cover up a Cadmus mistake and he later faces a bunch of alternate reality versions of Westfield during the Hypertime arc.
Director Cannon
Mickey "Mic" Cannon
The new director brought in for Cadmus by the government just after Superboy (Kon-El) was convinced to move back into the project's hidden facilities. They have a low level of animosity that never gets fully put behind them due to Kon's belief that clones deserve human rights and the fact that the government basically tricked Kon into returning to a Cadmus they intended to completely alter as soon as he no longer had a place to go back to.
- created by: Karl Kesel · Tom Grummettfirst appearance: 1998, Adventures of Superman Vol 1 #562species: human
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: When Cadmus was destroyed Cannon was still their director but unlike the original Newsboy Legion or XX whose murders were shown what happened to Cannon is never discovered.
- False Flag Operation: Kon-El distrusts and is uncomfortable around him because he feels Cannon was part of, or at least the end result, of a bunch of lies designed to get Kon to return to Cadmus to help out and give up his home outside the project right before the government completely restructured Cadmus into something else and removed all the people there Kon trusted besides those who wanted freedom from the project like XX.
- Handicapped Badass: Mickey has an old war injury that causes him to need a leg brace in order to walk, but he still takes down plenty of aliens and other foes.
- Machine Empathy: Mic has a reputation as a mechanic for being able to repair things others cannot, and things he just shouldn't know how to repair like alien technology. He also has a habit of talking about vehicles like they're alive while feeling his way to the problem.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: He's not much of a proponent of clone rights, and gears Cadmus to locking up all the clones and engineered lifeforms they can get their hands on which irritates S.B. to no end. The more human looking and acting clones like the Harries and S.B. he does allow to have freedom of movement, and he reluctantly lets the young Newsboy Legion to be taken from the project by their "fathers" but even in these instances he wants to keep track of their movements as much as he can.
Doctor Donovan
Dabney Donovan, PhD
"Hello Guardian—long time no see! Sorry to pull you out of dreamland—but you'll rest in peace soon enough! I'm just so excited about tonight's procedure—I couldn't wait! And since you're interested in genetic research yourself I though you might enjoy observing! Don't mind the sight of blood do you? Your own I mean?"
An amoral Cadmus scientist who co-founded the project with Westfield and later killed his partner. He created the D.N.Aliens and the "Harries". Donovan eventually allied himself with Agenda instead, and Agenda in turn started to secretly work its way to controlling Cadmus.
- created by: Karl Kesel · Ty Templetonfirst appearance: 1990, Secret Origins Vol 2 #49species: human
- Cardboard Prison: While it's par the course for no-one in the DCU to know how to keep a super-villain locked up deciding to incarcerate a Mad Scientist within the project he helped found, build and populate might be the worst attempt the DCU's American government has ever made at trying to imprison one. Maybe they'd just given up hope.
- Desecrating the Dead: His experiments on the bodies of dead aliens and meta-humans, and the way he cuts off Director Westfield's ear after killing him.
- Einstein Hair: Mad scientist Donovan has appropriately wild hair.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Feels cloning is the way of the future and humans besides himself are basically worthless. The "Hyper-Tension!" arc gives a horrifying look at what he would become if allowed to experiment to his satisfaction, and it involves "cloning" deceased super-heroes into an obedient army of disturbing mix-and-match people who only vaguely resemble those they were cloned from and taking over the earth.
- Faking the Dead: He does this a lot. It's gotten to the point that Guardian just always assumes he's hiding out making dangerous creations somewhere every time he "dies", regardless of whether a body was found or not.
- Mad Scientist: Amoral creator of several different strains of "clones" created through bizarre experimental processes that make them nearly new species unto themselves.
- Psychopathic Manchild: He has a fit when he doesn't get his way, kills people for getting in his way and creates both horrifying monsters and sweet companion creatures when he can do whatever he wants. He also makes such odd things as living "balloons", floating creatures with human DNA based brains visible inside with a tentacle for the "string".
Dr. Tony Rodriguez
"Big Words" Anthony Rodriguez, PhD
A verbose Cadmus scientist who was part of the original Newsboy Legion—a group of trouble making Metropolis kids who were adopted by Officer James Harper who was secretly the Guardian—in his youth.
- species: humancreated by: Jack Kirby · Joe Simonfirst appearance: 1942, Star-Spangled Comics Vol 1 #7
- Baker Street Regular: The original Newsboy Legion were as much for the original Guardian when they were kids.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Officer Harper took a shine to a bunch of hooligans and then found out they needed a guardian, so he was able to become their Parental Substitute.
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: They didn't pick their team name out of a hat, they really did work as Newsboys when Guardian met them and as such needed to get the attention of potential customers just like any other.
- Geek Physiques: Big Words was tall and gangly as a kid, towering over the rest of the Newsboys.
- In-Series Nickname: Anthony went almost exclusively by "Big Words" as kid, and uses Tony as an adult.
- Labcoat of Science and Medicine: As an adult Tony is rarely seen without his Cadmus labcoat.
- Little Professor Dialog: "Big Words"' nickname comes from his constantly using large and obscure words in conversation since childhood.
- Lovable Nerd: Tony, Tommy and Walter are far more endearing than the other Cadmus scientists, by far the most morally upright of its directors and the only Cadmus scientists who are not outright lying and hiding things from Superboy and Superman and want to help Kon out as they can. They're just severely limited by Dr. Packard's lies and efforts to hide Superboy's true nature from them.
- Mad Scientist: When you clone your deceased adoptive father through a technique you yourself invented in order to give the new version superpowers you definitely fall into this category.
- Nerd Glasses: Tony has worn large glasses since he was a kid.
- Secret-Keeper: They figured out Harper's secret pretty quickly after he became their legal guardian but he only admitted he was Guardian on his deathbed when he gave them permission to use his cells in a cloning experiment.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: The Newsboy Legion and Dr. Johnson were among the personnel cleared out at Cadmus when the government decided to restructure the project and were among the only adults at Cadmus S.B. sort of liked. The only personnel kept on were clones like Superboy the government considered property or dangerous criminals like Donovan who was kept imprisoned as an advisor to new scientists.
- The Smart Guy: "Big Words" is such for the original Newsboy Legion, which is a feat since none of them are slouches in the brains department.
- Will They or Won't They?: Dr. Rodriguez and fellow Cadmus scientist Shino.
Director Thomas Thompkins
Thomas "Tommy" Thompkins, PhD
A Cadmus scientist who was the leader of the original Newsboy Legion—a group of trouble making Metropolis kids who were adopted by Officer James Harper who was secretly the Guardian—in his youth.
- species: humancreated by: Jack Kirby · Joe Simonfirst appearance: 1942, Star-Spangled Comics Vol 1 #7
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Pre-Crisis Tommy Jr. was his son, while Jr. was replaced with the clone Tommy II Post-Crisis.
- Baker Street Regular: The original Newsboy Legion were as much for the original Guardian when they were kids.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Officer Harper took a shine to a bunch of hooligans and then found out they needed a guardian, so he was able to become their Parental Substitute.
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: They didn't pick their team name out of a hat, they really did work as Newsboys when Guardian met them and as such needed to get the attention of potential customers just like any other.
- In-Series Nickname: Tommy, which he switched out for Tom as an adult.
- Labcoat of Science and Medicine: As an adult Tommy is often seen in his Cadmus labcoat.
- The Leader: Tommy was the leader of the Newsboy Legion when they were kids and retains a leadership postition among them as an adult, eventually becoming part of the board of directors at Cadmus.
- Lovable Nerd: Tony, Tommy and Walter are far more endearing than the other Cadmus scientists, by far the most morally upright of its directors and the only Cadmus scientists who are not outright lying and hiding things from Superboy and Superman and want to help Kon out as they can. They're just severely limited by Dr. Packard's lies and efforts to hide Superboy's true nature from them.
- Mad Scientist: When you clone your deceased adoptive father through a technique you yourself invented in order to give the new version superpowers you definitely fall into this category.
- Secret-Keeper: They figured out Harper's secret pretty quickly after he became their legal guardian but he only admitted he was Guardian on his deathbed when he gave them permission to use his cells in a cloning experiment.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: The Newsboy Legion and Dr. Johnson were among the personnel cleared out at Cadmus when the government decided to restructure the project and were among the only adults at Cadmus S.B. sort of liked. The only personnel kept on were clones like Superboy the government considered property or dangerous criminals like Donovan who was kept imprisoned as an advisor to new scientists.
Dr. Johnson
Walter Johnson, PhD
A Cadmus scientist who took part in the project to clone duplicates with "genetic memories" alongside the original Newsboy Legion. He also aided them in cloning their deceased legal guardian James Harper with a genetic memory of the original's entire life. He was on the board of Directors when the federal government decided more oversight was needed at the project and cleared out the staff.
- species: humancreated by: Jack Kirbyfirst appearance: 1971, Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen Vol 1 #135
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Pre-Crisis "Flip" was his biological son, not his biological clone.
- Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Inside Cadmus he usually wears the distinctive Cadmus labcoat with the project's simplified insignia across the back.
- Mad Scientist: While he took part in a project to clone himself a "son" alongside the original Newsboy Legion while under mind control he's the only one who seems to have altered his genetic clone as "Flip" does not resemble Johnson in temperament or interests.
- Sixth Ranger: To the Newsboy Legion (I). He only met them after they were all adults and is at least ten years younger than the others but he basically becomes a late addition to their inseparable group of friends after they start working together.
- Token Minority: Dr. Johnson spent a lot of time as the only named minority at the Project and is the only African American to have severed on the board of directors.
Jonathan Gabrielli
"Gabby" Jonathan Gabrielli, Esq.
A talkative Cadmus employee who was the part of the original Newsboy Legion in his youth. Pre-Crisis Gabby was a Cadmus scientist as an adult, Post-Crisis he's the project's lawyer and was instrumental in ensuring that clones had rights as citizens in the United States.
- species: humancreated by: Jack Kirby · Joe Simonfirst appearance: 1942, Star-Spangled Comics Vol 1 #7
- Ambiguously Christian: It's fairly unclear what religious leanings most of them have but Gabby and Scrapper are unquestionably some kind of Christian. Just what kind is left up in the air.
- Baker Street Regular: The original four were as much for the original Guardian when they were kids.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Officer Harper took a shine to a bunch of hooligans and then found out they needed a guardian, so he was able to become their Parental Substitute.
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: They didn't pick their team name out of a hat, they really did work as Newsboys when Guardian met them and as such needed to get the attention of potential customers just like any other.
- Gender-Blender Name: Jonathan's nickname "Gabby", a diminutive of his last name Gabrielli.
- The Heart: Gabby is the moral core of the original Newsboy Legion.
- In-Series Nickname: Gabby, which he switched out for John as an adult.
- Mad Scientist: Pre-Crisis. When you clone your deceased adoptive father through a technique you yourself invented in order to give the new version superpowers you definitely fall into this category. He still manages to have hints of this Post-Crisis, probably because he spends all his time in a secret government project to clone superhumans and most of his friends are definite Mad Scientists.
- Motor Mouth: He's better about it as an adult and has become a great orator but as a kid his near inability to shut up is a large part of why his friends all called him Gabby.
- Secret-Keeper: They figured out Harper's secret pretty quickly after he became their legal guardian but he only admitted he was Guardian on his deathbed when he gave them permission to use his cells in a cloning experiment.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: The Newsboy Legion and Dr. Johnson were among the personnel cleared out at Cadmus when the government decided to restructure the project and were among the only adults at Cadmus S.B. sort of liked. The only personnel kept on were clones like Superboy the government considered property or dangerous criminals like Donovan who was kept imprisoned as an advisor to new scientists.
Dr. Packard
Carl Packard, PhD
A Cadmus scientist who secretly colluded with Lex Luthor and was also the scientist who did the lions share of the work on Westfield's secret Superman cloning project. Luthor killed Packard when the scientist displeased him and it was later retconned that Packard had secretly substituted Luthor's DNA for Westfield's when creating S-13, Superboy, final result of the secret Project-S.
- species: humancreated by: Roger Stern · Jackson Guicefirst appearance: 1993, Action Comics Vol 1 #686
- Greed: Packard wasn't working with Luthor for his sunny personality, he was doing so for his money.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Luthor kills him off ensuring he gets relatively little panel time, however his work on Project S makes him incredibly important long after his death.
Dr. Patrick MacGuire
"Scrapper" Patrick MacGuire
A hot tempered Cadmus employee who was the part of the original Newsboy Legion in his youth. Pre-Crisis Patrick was a Cadmus scientist as an adult, Post-Crisis his position at the project is more unclear, though he still seems to be a doctor he's not very involved with the research and spends more time on administrative tasks when not helping patch up injured clones and employees.
- species: humancreated by: Jack Kirby · Joe Simonfirst appearance: 1942, Star-Spangled Comics Vol 1 #7
- Ambiguously Christian: It's fairly unclear what religious leanings most of them have but Gabby and Scrapper are unquestionably some kind of Christian. Just what kind is left up in the air.
- Baker Street Regular: The original four were as much for the original Guardian when they were kids.
- The Big Guy: Scrapper, who is the quickest to fight of the Newsboy Legion and the best at it, and also amusingly the smallest of the five.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Officer Harper took a shine to a bunch of hooligans and then found out they needed a guardian, so he was able to become their Parental Substitute.
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: They didn't pick their team name out of a hat, they really did work as Newsboys when Guardian met them and as such needed to get the attention of potential customers just like any other.
- Fiery Redhead: The redheaded Scrapper has a tendency to get into and pick fights.
- Iconic Item: Scrapper's green hat. He no longer wears it as an adult.
- In-Series Nickname: They don't go by their nicknames as much as adults but went almost exclusively by them as kids. Anthony sometimes uses Tony as an adult, Jonathan answers to Jon, and Thomas to Tom.
- Lovable Nerd: They're far more endearing than the other Cadmus scientists, by far the most morally upright of its directors and the only Cadmus scientists who are not outright lying and hiding things from Superboy and Superman and want to help Kon out as they can. They're just severely limited by Dr. Packard's lies and efforts to hide Superboy's true nature from them.
- Mad Scientist: When you clone your deceased adoptive father through a technique you yourself invented in order to give the new version superpowers you definitely fall into this category.
- Secret-Keeper: They figured out Harper's secret pretty quickly after he became their legal guardian but he only admitted he was Guardian on his deathbed when he gave them permission to use his cells in a cloning experiment.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: They were among the personnel cleared out at Cadmus when the government decided to restructure the project and were among the only adults at Cadmus S.B. sort of liked. The only personnel kept on were clones like Superboy the government considered property or dangerous criminals like Donovan who was kept imprisoned as an advisor to new scientists.
Dr. Shino Kurosawa
Shino Kurosawa, PhD
My! Watching Superman experience pain is facinating! Wouldn't it be unfortunate if he never regained his powers?
A Cadmus geneticist whose studies focus on superpowers and how they interact with the bodies of those who posses them. She's honestly a very nice person, but she has a tendency to say things which sound calous or cruel when she's involved with experiments such as those intended to help a depowered Superman regain his powers.
- species: humancreated by: Karl Keselfirst appearance: 1991, Superman Vol 2 #54
- Never Bareheaded: Dr. Kurosawa pretty much always has two clips in her hair to keep it out of her face, and has the same set of clips in white and yellow.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: A genuis level geneticist who wears glasses.
- Will They or Won't They?: Kurosawa and fellow Cadmus scientist Dr. Rodriguez have a very slow building romance that looks like it may go nowhere due to both of their rather odd approaches to social interaction, however they do go on at least a few dates which seem to go fairly well. The state of their relationship at the time of his murder is unknown.
Dr. Roquette/Retro Rocket
Serling Roquette
A young Cadmus geneticist brought in by the government when they cleared house at the project.
- species: humancreated by: Karl Keselfirst appearance: 1998, Superboy Vol 4 #56
- Ditzy Genius: She's incredibly smart but she sometimes has trouble sorting out social clues and can make others feel uncomfortable with some of her lines of questioning and bubbly loud personality.
- Fan of the Past: Hence her punny nickname.
- Horny Scientist: She's got a crush on Guardian and Superboy, neither of whom return the sentiment.
- Iconic Item: Her pink-rimmed cats eye glasses and smiley face earrings.
- Iconic Outfit: Black leggings with oversized striped socks, tennis shoes, an oversized offwhite shirt, a long open leopard print vest, her signature glasses, the smiley face earrings, and a black hairband.
- Lovable Nerd: She's a sweetheart who treats Superboy like his own person and respects his wishes and the concept of consent unlike the previous Cadmus scientists. Though the retcon to his origin means that she was lying and hiding things from both him and Superman this angle and her intentions and reasoning is never addressed save for the fact that her lying to him about the results of testing on him is made quite clear in Convergence.
- Mad Scientist: Though it's only evident after she's part of Superboy's past and it becomes clear that she was lying to him while experimenting on him instead of being more open and truthful than previous scientists like he had thought.
- Teen Genius: One of the world's leading experts on genetics before she's even in her twenties.
- Will They or Won't They?: With Kon-El. They won’t, while he thinks she's cute he's still recovering from Tana's tragic death when he realizes she has a crush on him and never develops romantic feelings for her.
Colonel Winterbourne
Adam Winterbourne
An army colonel who was drugged and enslaved in Roam by the Project Moreau creation Sacker. After being freed alongside the rest of the slaves in Roam he volunteered to help the government clean up Cadmus.
- species: humancreated by: Karl Kesel · Tom Grummettfirst appearance: 1998, Superboy Vol 4 #52
- Colonel Badass: He fights King Shark and lives to tell the tale.
- Sergeant Rock: Winterbourne is a gruff individual who eventually ends up in charge of the new army contingent at Cadmus.
- Slave Liberation: He was one of the first to have a chance to fight off the effects of Sacker's drugs and helped convince the Roam royalty of human intelligence and just how wrong it is to enslave them.
Dubbilex
XX
Dubbilex is psychic a D.N.Alien who was sent by the project to keep an eye on Superboy when Superman made it clear he wouldn't allow the project to kidnap the Kid off the streets and keep him confined in Cadmus against his will.- created by: Jack Kirbyfirst appearance: 1971, Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #136species: D.N.Alien
- Clones Are People, Too: He is a Cadmus clone with a lot of subtle personality, lending credence to Superboy's insistence that clones are people too in the face of those who consider them disposable.
- Depending on the Artist: Are XX's horns polished and pointy or stubby craggy stumps.
- Heroes Love Dogs: Dub gets along really well with Krypto.
- Hide Your Otherness: When he goes places with Roxy she almost always insists that he make himself look human so they don't attract attention.
- Horned Humanoid: Relativly humanoid with a pair of asperous horns.
- Interspecies Romance: Starts dating a human woman while living in Hawaii, their romance was unfortunately cut short as he was planning out how to tell her he wasn't human when the US Army showed up on his doorstep to force him back to Cadmus.
- LEGO Genetics: D.N.Aliens are "clones" cobbled together from various sources.
- Master of Illusion: He can and does use his Telepathy to appear to be a normal human.
- Mind over Matter: He can telekinetically move lightweight objects.
- Mundane Fantastic: While he occasionally attracts attention when he goes out without a disguise he usually doesn't despite his grey skin, slightly odd build, creepy white eyes and horns since this is the DCU where people are well aware there are oddities living among them and for the most part are welcoming or ambivalent to them.
- Private Tutor: He is Superboy's.
- Pstandard Psychic Pstance: When trying to mentally reach someone far away or otherwise exerting his psychic abilities he sometimes puts two fingers to each temple.
- Psychic Block Defense: He helps train Superboy and the new Hawaiian Special Crimes Unit to defend against low level mental attacks as well as they can without any psychic powers.
- Psychic Link: Gene-Gnome creates a mental link between them to slowly turn Ex into his puppet.
- Psychic Radar: He notices invisible or otherwise hidden individuals due to their brain activity on several occasions.
- Talking in Your Dreams: If he mentally contacts someone in their sleep he usually appears as himself talking to them in their dream.
- Telepathy: He's a telepath.
- Universal Translator: If everyone involved agrees to allow him to join them in a mild mental link he can translate languages and meanings for those trying to talk even if he's never heard the languages involved before.
- You Are Number 6: His Cadmus designation is XX.
Lodge
Mr. Lodge
A Cadmus security officer. Lodge has a fondness for leather jackets, but unfortunately for him so do both results of Project-S that end up trying to escape from the facility and he's gotten back to his locker to find it looted on multiple occasions.
- species: humancreated by: Karl Kesel · Barbara Kesel · David Brewerfirst (full) appearance: 1995, Superboy Annual Vol 4 #2
- Hero Stole My Bike: Well, hero stole my jacket. The first time his jacket was stolen by the young Newsboy Legion who gave it to S-13 when they helped him escape from the facility. The second time it was stolen by the significantly less heroic S-01 who took it to mimic Superboy's look.
- Unlucky Extra: He exists as a character solely to be stolen from.
D.N.Aliens (that are not considered employees) & Other Captives
"Bizarre-O"
Me must show am worthy of name Superboy!
S-01
"At first... but... no more. Me glad... me... more like... Superboy... now..."
Cadmus's first attempt to clone Superman. While S-01 had all of Superman's powers his mental state was not up to his body's artificial age, and he was unfortunately created using a version of Lex-corp's failed cloning process that leads to molecular degeneration. Dr. Packard had to put him in a stasis rather than awaken him in hopes of discovering a way to offset his molecular instability.- species: bizarrocreated by: Karl Kesel · Barbara Kesel · David Brewerfirst appearance: 1995, Superboy Annual Vol 4 #2
- Alas, Poor Villain: He's not really even a villain even though he serves as the closest thing to one in his debut, and his condition means he died in the same issue he's introduced in despite Superboy's attempt to save him. (Though it's possible he survived as he was last seen surrounded by Mad Scientists who had been trying to save him and some of "Match's" later appearances don't resemble Match at all and instead seem to be a Bizarro style Superboy clone like S-01).
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": He's got an S-Shield on his outfit's chest, and he burns a reversed S on the back of the leather jacket he steals.
- Chest Insignia: He was stored wearing an earlier model of the same suit Superboy wears with an S-shield on the chest.
- Clone Degeneration: When the Newsboys Legion accidentally frees him from his stasis pod his physical condition starts to deteriorate rapidly. Since "the process [he was created with] only imitates DNA! That makes it inherently incompatible with any living tissue! He started dying the moment you created him!"
- Clone Agnst: He can't survive long outside a stasis chamber and his mind was implanted with a bunch of useless knowledge and command triggers in order to make him easy to control rather than practical things useful for him to interact with others without endangering them.
- Dumb Muscle: He's not terribly bright but he's got all of Superman's powers, even if they start to fade out as he starts to die in earnest within an hour or two of being awakened from his stasis.
- Flawed Prototype: For S-13 Superboy because of his instability and the fact that he starts to deteriorate outside of stasis. It seems Wesfield had a very different focus for the implanted knowledge for S-01 as he doesn't understand incredibly basic things like what might hurt people, has trouble putting together coherent sentences and thinks Westfield was a "great man".
- Friendly Enemy: He doesn't want to be Superboy's enemy (though he does want to be Superboy) and wants to be a hero but his difficulty understanding the situation around him and the dangers of using his powers recklessly makes Kon have to fight him.
- Hulk Speak: S-01 uses a mild version of "Bizarro speak".
- Neural Implanting: Director Westfield personally oversaw the implanting process for the S-Clone project, and poor S-01 got the short end of the stick and very little useful knowledge out of the deal.
- People Jars: His stasis pod is essentially a giant glass jar with a control panel.
- Psycho Prototype: He's not evil and he really wants to be a good guy but he attacks first asks questions maybe, and has near Superman level powers without a real understanding of right and wrong and without the mental capacity to understand how easily humans and others can be hurt.
- Superpower Lottery: He seems to have Superman's whole set, even if it the powers start fading as he dies.
- Flying Brick: Flyer with invulnerability and other powers.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: He's initially tougher than Kon, even able to brush off strong electric shocks that would destabilize or kill Superboy at the time of their meeting but his invulnerability was the first thing (besides his quickly bleached skin) to start going as his degeneration reached dangerous levels.
- Super-Senses: He has Superman's "X-Ray vision" and can see through solid rock, though this isn't always helpful as he still may not realize people are in peril even if they specifically told him they are and he can see them dangling from their fingertips from an unstable ledge, he just doesn't have the background to understand they're in danger.
- Super-Speed: He's faster than Superboy.
- Super-Strength: Capable of bending iron beams or lifting several people and the chunk of floor their clinging to.
failed Superman clones
S-02, S-03, S-04, S-05, S-06, S-07, S-08, S-09, S-10, S-11, S-12
Westfield and Packard's other failed attempts to clone Superman who came after S-01 and before S-13, Kon-El.
- species: mixed modified human, kryptonian and bizarro clones (D.N.Aliens)created by: Karl Kesel · Barbara Kesel · David Brewerfirst appearance: 1995, Superboy Annual Vol 4 #2
- Artificial Human: All of them are clones created to replace Superman in the event of his death, though none were considered successful.
- Body Horror: For several of them it's rather obvious that the reason they "failed" was that their bodies would not have survived, like the shriveled S-03 or the one with patches of hair and skin missing.
- Flawed Prototype: They're all "failed" Superman clones that came before Kon-El. Considering how Westfield reacted to Kon and considered him a mistake that needed to be erased or at least locked up somewhere in Cadmus it is unknown just how they each "failed", it could be as simple not wanting to follow the immoral Westfield without question.
- Heroic Build: The one closest to completion, either S-11 or S-07, has a well muscled bodybuilder's build.
- My Brain Is Big: S-02's cranium is bulbous and tall, the skin on his head also looks like it was starting to bubble when he was placed in stasis.
- Neural Implanting: Westfield had designed the neural implanting through which Kon learned everything he knew upon escaping his Uterine Replicator in time for use on S-01 so the rest of them presumably also had knowledge implanted.
- People Jars: They're all in glass stasis tubes, though at least one of them who seems to be iether the S-07 or S-12 is missing and another (S-11 or S-07) was killed when his pod/tube was impaled by debris in the assault on Cadmus by the underworlders who thought Cadmus had intentionally released the clone plague on them.
- Posthumous Character: While most of them are being held in stasis S-07's pod was crushed and he himself impaled during the Underworlder's attacks on Cadmus during the Clone Plague. By the time anyone other than Westfield and Packard learns of the twelve even existing he's already died, though it looks like he did make a failed attempt to escape his pod before expiring.
- Token Minority: One of them, either S-10 or S-08, is black. He's also the one grown closest to completion out of those fully shown, looking like an young adult rather than a teen around 14-16.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: They never appear again after their introduction despite Kon-El's interest in them and their right to live and the fact that he eventually moves back to Cadmus where they're all presumably stored in stasis pods.
Newsboy Legion (II)
"Big Words" Anthony Rodriguez, "Gabby" Jonathan Gabrielli II, Walter "Flip" Johnson Jr, "Scrapper" Patrick MacGuire II, Tommy Thompkins Jr., Roberta "Famous Bobby" Harper
You boys snuck out of the project, past a platoon of the country's best trained soldiers, eluding the most advanced security systems in the world, with the whiz wagon and the Loch Trevor Monster... again!
—Guardian II
The second iteration of the Newsboy Legion these cloned kids freed Superboy from the laboratory and helped him secretly escape Cadmus. They're also the ones who gave him his original leather jacket.
- species: D.N.Alien type human clones/humancreated by: Jack Kirby · Al Plastino · Karl Kesel · Kieron Dwyerfirst appearance: 1988, Adventures of Superman Vol 1 #449
- Artifact Title: Unlike their predecessors the members of this group didn't (initially) actually work as newsboys, instead they spent most of their childhoods locked up at Cadmus. After Jon was able to get them citizenship and set things up for them to live slightly more normal lives based out of a brownstone in Metropolis instead of hidden in Cadmus a nice journalist named Clark Kent stopped by and told them about some paper routes nearby that needed covering.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Their antics can even wear out Superman, which is what happens when you've got a group of kids capable of escaping from one of the most secure facilities in the world while stealing classified experimental aircraft and bringing along giant monsters at least twice a day. They've also picked fights with Apokolips agents all on their own before their minders had a chance to realize they'd escaped again.
- Child Prodigy: Big Words and Tommy. Helped along by being raised in Cadmus where they're surrounded by new cutting edge science, and that their gifted scientist predecessors are helping to raise them.
- Clones Are People, Too: All of them but Bobby are clones and they're all mischievous kids who, while similar to their genetic progenitors, have their own personalities, dreams and desires. Notably, while their predecessors fit almost perfectly into the mold of a Five-Man Band (they are all male and therefore do not have anybody qualifying as The Smurfette), the cloned version of gen II does not, despite having a girl on the team. They are also given the rights of US citizens due to John's work, being among the first clones to be acknowledged as such. This comes in handy later when it means the new director of Cadmus can't treat the boys as government property.
- Color-Coded Characters: Scrapper is mustard yellow & green, Flip is purple, Big Words is grey, Tommy is red, Gabby is blue, and Bobby is indigo. Indicated by them all having their shirts usually these colors, and their jackets always these colors, except for Big Words who always wears a white shirt with a grey suit or a blue suit with a grey tie.
- Fish out of Water: The boys have memories of growing up during WWII, except Flip who has memories of growing up in the late '50s. They are not actually from this time and this gives them a huge disconnect from other kids their apparent ages.
- Generation Xerox: Well the boys are all clones of their "fathers", who were given genetic approximations of their predecessor's memories up to their artificial age of "birth" and they also formed an adventure group that is looked after by the current Guardian like their genetic donors. They do start showing differences from their predecessors rather quickly as noted above.
- Iconic Outfit: Scrapper's oversized turtleneck sweater paired with a green newsboy hat, Tommy's red breasted letterman's jacket with jeans, and Big Word's suit and tie with large round glasses.
- In-Series Nickname: All of them go by nicknames, and the boys are all using the same nicknames that the men they were cloned from used as kids.
- Legacy Character: They're the second iteration of the Newsboy Legion and most of them were cloned from members of the first.
- Neural Implanting: While being artificially aged past infancy the boys were given implanted memories from their genetic donors that approximated the memories they'd have had at the age the boys were "born" at. This resulted in them having similar vocabularies and interests to those the men they were cloned from had in childhood and means they tend to use outdated lingo.
- Raised in a Lab: Grown in Cadmus to a point past toddlerhood and then raised by the men they were cloned from in Cadmus.
- Secret Project Refugee Family: The boys were all secretly cloned by Cadmus and see each other as family.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Sadly addressed in universe when Jimmy Olsen tracks down Guardian after the fall of Cadmus and the murders of the original Newsboy Legion. When Jimmy asks where the kids are Guardian, whose even spent time trying to unravel everyting he could about the secrets at Cadmus can only say, "They could be alive and well and somewhere not here. They could be pieces in test tubes the military study every Christmas. I don't know." Given that James is lying about other clones and Cadmus projects in the same speech to protect them and he was the missing Bobby's legal guardian it's possible he's lying about the newsboys too, but this plot thread was left hanging.
"Big Words" Anthony Rodriguez II
"That certainly was a pyrotechnical paradigm of Newton's axiom Scrapper."
The clone of Cadmus scientist and former Newsboy Legion member Dr. Anthony Rodriguez.
- species: D.N.Alien type human clonecreated by: Jack Kirby · Al Plastino · Karl Kesel · Kieron Dwyerfirst appearance: 1988, Adventures of Superman Vol 1 #449
- Little Professor Dialog: "Big Words"' nickname comes from him constantly using large and obscure words in conversation.
- Mad Scientist: He's showing definite early signs, such as his utter glee at getting to steal and modify some guns from Apokolips.
- Number Two: When someone needs to step up in place of Tommy it's Big Words, and he and Tommy usually come up with the group's plans together while the others give their input.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: He's the only one of the Newsboys to wear glasses and is the most book smart of the Newsboys, and usually one of the more practical of their number as well.
"Flip" Walter Johnson Jr.
"He's not bad, as sea monsters go. I even taught him to sit up..."
The clone of Cadmus scientist Dr. Walter Johnson. Out of the D.N.Alien "children" created by the scientists while they were under mind control Flip shows the biggest signs of being altered as he has little outside gender, hair color and skin tone in common with Dr. Johnson.
- species: D.N.Alien type human clonecreated by: Jack Kirby · Al Plastino · Karl Kesel · Kieron Dwyerfirst appearance: 1988, Adventures of Superman Vol 1 #449
- Ambiguously Human: Depsite being a "clone" of Dr. Johnson he seems very different from his "father", in ways the other clones created by the same project are not different from their genetic donors. He's capable of swiming in incredible depths without any side effects from the pressure and seems to be able to communicate to some degree with the sea monster Trevor, which he has managed to tame. Both of these qualities imply Atlantean DNA was thrown into the mix when creating him but he is never claimed to be anything other than a quickly aged clone like the rest of his group.
- Dressed in Layers: He's usually got on a wetsuit under his clothes.
- Fluffy Tamer: Flip has tamed and trained the giant sea monster Trevor.
- The Lancer: Especially before they were retconned into clones the excitable Flip was lancer to the more mellow Tommy, and often in situations where Tommy's judgment is compromised Flip tones it down just enough to be of help in situations where he normally wouldn't bother. He's also the one to work the most on his own while Tommy pretty much does nothing without the group backing him up.
- Rummage Sale Reject: Flip is almost always wearing full scuba gear along with his normal clothes. No one really comments on it as those who know him know it's a big part of how the Newsboys keep escaping Cadmus.
- Super Swimming Skills: Flip can keep up with sea monsters and is an unnaturally good swimmer. It's never outright stated but he's implied to be fully human and not posses any Atlantean DNA to explain his abilities.
- Token Minority: Flip is the only black kid in the group.
"Gabby" Jonathan Gabrielli II
"We'd be helpin' the Guardian—How could our number ones get mad at us?"
The clone of Cadmus lawyer and former Newsboy Legion member Jonathan Gabrielli.
- species: D.N.Alien type human clonecreated by: Jack Kirby · Al Plastino · Karl Kesel · Kieron Dwyerfirst appearance: 1988, Adventures of Superman Vol 1 #449
- Ambiguously Christian: Inherited the trait from his Christian original. What denomination or even if they're Protestant or Catholic or Orthodox is left ambiguous.
- The Heart: His motivation leans more toward helping people than adventure like most of the others. Tommy, usually, has similar motivation but is too grounded and logical when he's not riled up to fit. Tommy is also a bit of an adrenaline junkie like the others, even if he hides it better.
- Motor Mouth: Gabby got that name for reasons beyond it being a diminutive of his last name. He easily drives villains and heroes nuts with his yammering and is the group's main source of gossip since he's actually quite capable of being quiet if he wants to overhear something.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Gabby was friends with a huge furniture-eating pink monster named Angry Charlie, but the other kids didn't believe Charlie (who helped Guardian and the boys, but always out of sight) was real. Charlie revealed himself when he had to help against Boss Moxie and the forces of Apokolips.
"Scrapper" Patrick MacGuire II
" "
The clone of Cadmus teacher and former Newsboy Legion member Patrick MacGuire.
- species: D.N.Alien type human clonecreated by: Jack Kirby · Al Plastino · Karl Kesel · Kieron Dwyerfirst appearance: 1988, Adventures of Superman Vol 1 #449
- The Big Guy: Despite being on the small side he's definitely this. He splits the role with Bobby after she joins.
- Fighting Irish: It's unclear if Scrapper Sr. was born to Irish immigrants or Scottish ones, and it's entirely possible he didn't even learn as much before they died, but he fits the stereotype perfectly.
- Fiery Redhead: Redhead with a quick temper, and a loud opinionated personality.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It really doesn't take much to set him off.
- Lilliputians: Not Scrapper himself but the project made an entire army of mouse sized Patrick MacGuire clones with far more disciplined behavior and one of them takes it upon himself to keep an eye on the kid, sticking with him through many adventures.
"Tommy" Thomas Thompkins Jr.
"Then what are we waiting for Newsboy Legion? Let's go!"
The clone of Cadmus scientist and former Newsboy Legion member Dr. Thomas Thompkins. He shows distinct differences in personality to his "father" at the same age, possibly because despite their shared memories to a certain point Tommy II has far less responsibility and has had access to better teaching at a younger age. He's much more likely to get distracted by something "cool" or an interesting scientific quandary than the original Tommy has ever been.
- species: D.N.Alien type human clonecreated by: Jack Kirby · Al Plastino · Karl Kesel · Kieron Dwyerfirst appearance: 1988, Adventures of Superman Vol 1 #449
- The Leader: Inasmuch as the group has a leader Tommy is it. Mostly because he's usually better than the group as a whole at seeing when they're going too far and need to rein it in.
- Morality Pet: Tommy becomes such for the Fury Gilotina just by talking to her about simple things like food and games, despite her idea of games always including a lot more death than he's comfortable with. When he gets badly injured by the other Furies and she realizes she doesn't want him to die despite his being a "lowlie" she switches sides to protect him and declares all the kids under her protection. She's still incredibly dangerous though, with a poor understanding of right and wrong.
"Famous Bobby" Roberta Harper
"So what happens now? We free to go? Am I, like, under arrest or what?"
The orphaned granddaughter of Jim's sister Mary. When Mary fell ill the state took Bobby to an orphanage, that was secretly being run by Granny Goodness to funnel children to the killing fields of Apocolipse. Despite the death of the original Jim being public knowledge Jonathan Sr. is able to get Jim II legal recognition as Bobby's family so that he can become her legal guardian.
- species: humancreated by: Karl Kesel · Kieron Dwyerfirst appearance: 1994, Guardians Of Metropolis #1
- Action Girl: Prior to meeting the rest of the group she made multiple attempts to escape the Orphanage of Fear she'd been stuck at and caught the attention of Granny Goodness who thought she might make a decent future Fury after she'd been broken. Later she and Scrapper fight for the title of which member of the group is the best fighter. As in a literal physical fight. They get interrupted by the science police.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Bobby's fairly chipper in spite of her skeptical nature and she's always up for a fight.
- Gender-Blender Name: When overhearing about her being at the B.O. Goodley Orphanage and decided the Newsboys needed to save her and bring her to meet her uncle Scrapper thought she was Jim's nephew instead of his niece and was severely disappointed when they met in the cages beneath the orphanage. He got over it.
- I Just Want to Be Special: She wants to be famous in order to get out of Suicide Slum, it's why Scrapper dubbed her "Famous" Bobby.Jim: You want to be a comedian when you grow up?
Bobby: Or a rock star. Or an actress. Or a lawyer. Anything famous, anything so I don't spend my whole life in Suicide Slum. - Only Known by Their Nickname: "Famous Bobby". Her real name is only said once when Jon tells her and Jim that Jim is officially her legal guardian.
- Raised by Grandparents: She was raised by her grandmother Mary before until Mary's death at which point she was taken in by her great-uncle's clone.
- Tangled Family Tree: Her legal guardian is her great-uncle's clone, her best friends are the clones of the kids adopted by her original great-uncle and her adopted sister is the Opposite-Sex Clone of her great-uncle.
- Tomboy: You won't catch Bobby with her hair down or in a skirt or dress, and she's very much One of the Boys.
- Tomboyish Name: "Bobby".
- Valley Girl: She's far too prickly and tomboyish to actually count but she, like, uses like a lot more than is proper.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Bobby's legal guardian and closest living relative is Jim Harper (II) who cares for her deeply and is grateful for the chance to become her parental figure, so her disappearance alongside the other Newsboys is very odd. She's not seen when Jim goes to meet Roy and Lian, despite it being a family meeting, and he acts like they're the first members of his family he's really talked to. What happens to her when he travels off with Jamie is unknown.
Gwen Harper
Gwendoline Harper
The young opposite sex clone of Jim Harper II/Golden Guardian. Gwen is adopted by the clone she was cloned from, making her Bobby's legal sister but biologically Gwen is cloned from the clone of Bobby's great-uncle so they're already family. Good luck figuring out how to fit her on the family tree, though Gwen and Jim II prefer to just refer to their genetic templates as their fathers, or daddy in Gwen's case, which simplifies things.
She was last seen leaving Metropolis with her father and her ... cousin/niece Jamie Harper.
- species: D.N.Aliencreated by: James Robinson · Jesús Merinofirst appearance: 2008, Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen Vol 2 #1
- Artificial Human: Gwen is a human "DNAlien" style clone.
- Daddy's Girl: Gwen gets along with and looks up to Jim much more easily than her big sister Bobby. It helps that she didn't go through the same hardships as Bobby did before being taken in by Jim and has a similar taste in movies and music.
- Opposite-Sex Clone: The young female clone of the (male) clone of the original Jim Harper.
- Tangled Family Tree: Just see the above paragraph's attempt to describe her biological relation to her sister. Gwen and her main genetic template are also not the only DNAliens running about with a large percentage of Jim Harper's DNA, and Jim I had three siblings who've all got grandchildren living in the modern day, one of whom is Gwen's sister Bobby.
Angry Charlie
Charlie
Pre-Crisis, a DNAlien created by Cadmus' evil duplicate the Evil Factory with material stolen from Project Cadmus who came back to Cadmus with the second iteration of the Newsboy Legion. Post-Crisis an escaped Cadmus DNAlien who allies himself with Gabby and tries to keep an eye on the Newsboy Legion while avoiding capture by the scientists.
In all realities Charlie is a lot less angry than his name implies when he's not being locked up and treated like an animal and he has a soft spot for kids and a strange diet. He normally lives in the walls at Project Cadmus and does his best to stay out of sight.
- species: D.N.Aliencreated by: Jack Kirbyfirst appearance: 1972, Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen Vol 1 #145
- Artificial Human: He may not look it but as a DNAlien Charlie's got at least some human DNA in his make up. What else may have gone into making the odd pink creature is unknown.
- Escaped from the Lab: In a strange twist Charlie didn't really leave. He escaped from his creators and refuses to put of with being caged or collared but he generally just hangs out in the walls at Cadmus. He does occasionally wander into Metropolis which can cause a bit of an uproar because he's large, scary looking and likes to hang out with children, but he always ends up back at Cadmus.
- Extreme Omnivore: Charlie appreciates all kinds of food. His favorite is varnished wood, but he'll eat stone and weaker metals too. The boys and Bobby sometimes steal wooden furniture to sneak to him.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Charlie's only got four digits on each hand.
- Friend to All Children: Charlie will gladly risk his life and freedom to protect the Newsboy Legion, and even when he's in Metropolis has risked his freedom to protect random kids.
- Glowing Eyes: Charlie's eyes are glowing yellow disks.
- It Can Think: Most adults view Charlie as a dumb animal, but he has demonstrated a thorough grasp of complex English even if he can't vocalize the language. He's also memorized secret passages, hidden tunnels, and duct systems all throughout Project Cadmus and into Metropolis. He still ends up called a "pet" of the Newsboy Legion by most adults.
- Non-Indicative Name: The "Angry" part of his name doesn't fit with his usual attitude, nor does it help to convince adults of his non-malicious nature.
- Non-Malicious Monster: (Pre-Crisis) Charlie was just a rather destructive monster who decided to protect the Newsboy Legion. (Post-Crisis) At first even the Newsboy Legion thought Charlie was just a really cool monster, that liked to hand out with them. They quickly started realizing he's much smarter than he first appears.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: The other boys originally thought Charlie was something Gabby had made up, and were quite surprised when Charlie revealed himself to save the boys from Granny Goodness.
- Recognizable by Sound: Guardian can generally tell if the Newsboy Legion are about by listening for their "pet" Angry Charlie's signature GROIK vocalization. The Newsboy Legion also listens for Charlie's signature sound in case he wants to show them something, which is handy since Charlie prefers not to put himself out in the open if he can avoid it.
- Signature Sound Effect: GROIK is the only vocalization outside of growls available to Angry Charlie.
- Super-Strength: Charlie can, and has, picked up and thrown cars.
- What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Few adults seem to be able to see past Charlie's creepy exterior, and irritating habit of eating furniture, which means he gets treated as a dumb dangerous animal. He gets stuck in shock collars and locked in cages even though he's demonstrated a clear understanding of complex spoken English, there have been hints he can read and he's clever enough to avoid Cadmus security personnel for years while protecting the kids in the project.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Clone rights are a thing in the DCU and clones, including DNAliens, created on American soil are supposed to be considered American citizens. The government does not extend this right to Charlie as it does not consider him intelligent or human because of the way he looks and his inability to talk. It doesn't help that most DNAliens incapable of speech really are little more than animals.
Misa
The dangerously rebellious daughter of Jude, the leader of the Hairies, and his mate Lucy Diamond Sky. She is the only significant D.N.Alien known to have been the result of natural procreation rather than a cloning experiment and her interactions with Cadmus and her parents are violent affairs. She is unpredictable and not truly evil, though the only person she seems fond of is Jimmy Olsen and even he knows better than to trust her.
- species: D.N.Alien (type: Hairie)created by: Dan Jurgens · Ron Frenzfirst appearance: 1996, Superman Vol 2 #115
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Jude and Lucy Diamond Sky are not impressed with their daughter's antics and violence as they are rather dedicated to a peaceful lifestyle despite helping develop some rather dangerous technology for Cadmus.
- Evil Genius: She's more amoral and self centered than evil, but she's still a genius inventor who uses her inventions to inflict pain on others and get her way without regard to the human cost. She starts slowly learning a bit of empathy for humans after hanging out with Jimmy Olsen for the fun she associates with his Weirdness Magnet status, but she's still dangerous and does not necessarily help people in ways they'd like to be aided.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Misa is a pretty doe eyed blonde gal with a wicked mind.
- Green and Mean: She wears green outfits paired with green lipstick and she is a frequently inventively cruel individual who spends most of her appearances as some variety of villain.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: She started out an amoral trickster rather than villainous, then started becoming more compassionate after hanging out with Jimmy, then showed up on a villain team with the Superman Revenge Squad, then teamed up with Superman to save the Hairies despite having made it clear she despises their methods and refusal to get their hands dirty.
- Hypno Trinket: Her harmonizer is a Mind-Control Device that needs to be worn by her victim in order to allow her to turn them into her puppet.
- It's All About Me: In her earliest appearances her parent's hands off and doting parenting style has obviously not turned out well and she has no empathy for others while always wanting her way regardless of how that will affect anyone else.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: When she shows up as part of the Revenge Squad she wears a floor length dress to fight Superman. Given her fighting style is mostly trickery and keeping out of reach it doesn't impede her at all.
- Lady of Black Magic: She is a dangerous woman who presents herself as a sorceress and seduces Jimmy Olsen. Her magic tricks are powered by tech rather than magical skill however.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: Like all the Hairies Misa has elements of a pop-culture version of Hippies, though unlike the rest (excluding the outsiders) she has no problem with using violence and outright murder to get her way.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: She doesn't fight with her fists but loves a brawl anyway, and unlike most of the peace loving Hairies never wears sleeves.
- Thrill Seeker: Her primary motivation is (usually) having fun, which leads to her going out of her way to hang out with DC's biggest Weirdness Magnet and joining the Superman Revenge Squad for fun rather than due to having a grudge against Supes. The only time she is really motivated by anything else was when she teamed up with Superman to save her parents and the other Hairies from another dimension.
- Villain Teleportation: One of her most common tricks is short range teleportation, and she is frequently a villain.
Bette Noir
- species: D.N.Aliencreated by: John Ostrander · Tom Mandrakefirst appearance: 1999, Martian Manhunter Vol 2 #3
The Outsiders
An offshoot of the Hairies who rebelled against Cadmus and formed a biker gang in the restricted access areas between Metropolis and the Project. Their most prominent and longest lasting members eventually moved into Metropolis proper and opened a garage in Suicide Slum. Not to be confused with The Outsiders."Michael", Guardian-01
Following Flashpoint, a Cadmus clone Guardian named Michael made a brief appearance in Superboy (New 52)
- Mysterious Past: Michael is indicated not to be his true name, as a matter of fact Guardian-01 seems closer to his real name as he is presumably a Cadmus clone and the first of a set.
The Citadel
Warning. Vega System off limits to Lanterns. Turn around. Failure to comply is a court-martial offense. Warning. Turn around.
First Appearance: DC Comics Presents #26. (1980)
Created by: Marv Wolfman & Roger Slifer
Sector: 2828
System: Vega
The most successful of several unscrupulous groups to take advantage of the Lanterns agreement to leave the Vega System to its own devices due to their agreements with Larfleeze and the Psions. The Citadel's cruel practices has formed the core of several characters' tragic backstories including Starfire and the Omega Men.
- All for Nothing: They are finally defeated by a group formed by the peoples they'd oppressed, but while it leaves their power and communications fractured, the Citadel lives on, and the places now ruled by the victors are no better off than they were under the Citadel.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Standard Citadel response for the death of any Citadel troopers is that retribution is taken out on the population at a rate of a hundred to one. That is, one hundred oppressed civilians are killed for any one of their troops.
- The Empire: They brutally rule Changralyn, Okaara, Branx, Karna and other life-bearing planets in the Vega System, and their expansionist policies mean they were always adding more.
- Full-Circle Revolution: The success of the revolution against them does little to change the lives of those oppressed by them.
- Unobtainium: Stellarium
- Vestigial Empire: After the Citadel is defeated by the Omega Men, there are still fractured remnants of it in operation.
Species
Other significant DC species include Atlanteans, Amazons (in continuities where they're not humans), Kryptonians, Martians, and Thanagarians. Other extraterrestrial and extradimensional species not on this page include the New Gods, Qwardians, Psions and Maltusians. Changralynians
First Appearance:
Created by: Marv Wolfman & Joe Staton
Homeworld: Changralyn
Sector: 2828
System: Vega
One of the many peoples whose planet has been conquered by the Citadel.
For Charis-Nar aka "Broot", the Changralynian member of the Omega Men, see the related page.
- Crapsaccharine World: They're from the Vega system, so being from some form of Crapsack World is standard, they just want to maintain their veneer as a Perfect Pacifist People at the same time.
- Named After Their Planet: The Changralynians from Changralyn.
- Perfect Pacifist People: Deconstructed.
- Slave Race: They have chosen to become slaves to the Citadel out of their disgust with the idea of fighting back.
- Super-Strength
- Would Hurt a Child: Would knowingly send a tithe of their children every year to spend their horrific short lives as abused slaves, with the flimsy excuse of having been told the kids would be receiving an education and treated well despite knowing they've been lied to.
Daxamites
First Appearance: Superboy #89. (1961)
Created by: Robert Bernstein & George Papp
Homeworld: Daxam
Sector: 1760 (or 2813 depending on continuity)
The xenophobic people of the planet Daxam, which was long ago colonized by Krypton in it's expansionist phase and whose inhabitants are the descendants of Kryptonians who intermarried with the natives of Daxam.
For more on the Daxamite known as Mon-El see Valor. For more on the Daxamite Green Lantern Sodam Yat see GL - Green Lantern Corps. For the Daxamite Wonder Woman ally see Wonder Woman: Allies.
- Absolute Xenophobe: Daxamites are horrifically and murderously xenophobic as a culture.
- Aliens Are Bastards: Let's just say that they are not nice towards anyone who doesn't share their culture.
- Cultural Cringe: The Daxamites tend to consider the Kryptonians to be inferior to them.
- Cultural Posturing: They insist that they were responsible for certain Kryptonian achievements.
- Eye Beams: Just like their Kryptonian counterparts, Daxamies can shoot laser beams out of their eyes.
- Flying Brick: What any Daxamite becomes under a yellow sun. This is usually a very bad thing.
- Human Aliens: Rather like the Kryptonians they're descended from the Daxamites are visually indistinguishable from humans.
- Interspecies Romance: They are the result of intermarrying between the natives of Daxam and the Kryptonian colonists, and even in continuities where Kryptonian physiology is considered too alien to allow for viable offspring with humans Daxamites could have kids with regular old humans as Lar Gand and Jamie Harper discovered.
- Kryptonite Factor: A much more theoretically common example than the original, as they are weakened by exposure to lead.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Daxamite Sodom Yat opined that getting conquered and enslaved by the sadistic second Mongul was exactly what they deserved. After he gave them superpowers, Krona removed them by yanking Sodom out of their sun, sending many of them to their deaths.
- Modern Mayincatec Empire: Basically, the Daxamites are Aztecs and Mayans IN SPACE!.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: The Daxamies won't hesitate to kill their rivals.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Not every Daxamite is a fanatic alien-hating racist. During Green Lanterns: Emerald Warriors, Sodom is rescued by an underground of nice ones who oppose his father and their xenophobic ways.
- Named After Their Planet: The Daxamites share their name with their home planet, Daxam.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Similar to the Kryptonians, the Daxamites cannot be harmed by regular weapons and can only be hurt or killed by superhumans of extraordinary power.
- Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Unlike the Kryptonians, the Daxamites don't believe in any god whatsoever.
- Smug Snake: Most are rather overconfident in their abilities.
- Space Romans: The Daxamites have long been established as being "Space Mexicans". The natives of the planet Daxam had a distinctly Mesoamerican racial appearance and culture. They were colonized by the mostly European-looking Kryptonians, with whom they subsequently interbred and established a distinct culture, including things such as buildings resembling step pyramids. When the Kryptonian's intergalactic empire collapsed, the Daxamites became independent. They now exhibit some attributes of being Space Amish. While they have and use advanced technology, they are very isolationist to the point of xenophobia and have strong cultural taboos against certain technologies, such as anything related to space travel.
- Superpower Lottery: Like their Kryptonian cousins, the Daxamites have Eye Beams, Super-Speed, Super-Strength and X-Ray Vision. Not to mention that they are an entire race of Flying Bricks that can be weakened by exposure to lead.
Dominators
First Appearance: Adventure Comics #361. (1967)
Created by: Jim Shooter
Base of Operation: The Dominion
Sector: n/a
The Dominators, collectively known as the Dominion, are an alien race from the outer cosmos of the universe. They are highly technologically advanced and live in a rigid hierarchical society, in which one's caste is determined by the size of a red circle on one's forehead. They are master geneticists who can manipulate the meta-gene to enhance members of their own caste. The Dominion acted as the planners and leaders of the Alien Alliance which introduced many extraterrestrials to humans for the first time, and which left the earth with far more superpowered humans than had been there previously, due to their weapons activating meta-genes on a large scale.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: While this trait is not entirely ubiquitous their stereotype for betrayal among other races familiar with them is well earned.
- Cultural Posturing: They think themselves quite above the other civilizations they interact with. The name they've given themselves rather gives it away.
- Defector from Decadence: Any Dominator who has taken on a name either of their own choosing (Sakritt) or adopted a name given to them by others has left the Dominion behind and is openly rebelling against their people's policies.
- Evilutionary Biologist
- Facial Markings: Their circular forehead marks which denote which caste they're in. Sakritt modified hers to look like it has little horns, and has left the Dominion and their caste system behind.
- Fantastic Caste System: To their disadvantage. The scientist who invented the gene bomb was only told to study the meta gene because of his caste status. His subsequent torture for going outside what his caste was permitted to do was what allowed the heroes to convince him to make a cure.
- Fantastic Nuke: Their Gene Bomb.
- Geek Physique: Dominators are a race of Scientists and Doctors with a gangly skinny physique.
- Good Lips, Evil Jaws: The Dominators are not nice and have a bunch of long sharp pointy teeth constantly exposed since they have no lips to cover them with.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: A people that's chosen "The Dominators" as their name is not likely to consider anyone else their equals, and they don't.
- No Need for Names: Dominators do not use names though rebellious members, such as Sakritt, may adopt names as part of their rebellion against the Dominion.
- The Noseless: There's really no room for a nose on their faces, given how high up their long teeth reach.
- Planet of Hats: A race of Mad Doctors.
- Proud Scholar Race: A rare negative example, genetic studies is the bread and butter of their race and they're mostly amoral Mad Scientists and Mad Doctors with even those who end up rejecting Dominion dogma and revolting against it not able to make it past Anti-Hero status.
- Scary Dogmatic Aliens
- Space Nomads: They wander the edges of known space when they're not busy antagonising other planets, in other words when the Lantern Corps is at full strength and not distracted with something else.
- Sufficiently Advanced Alien: They can create new intelligent species on a whim, and seed planets with lifeforms derived from but unique from others.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Lower castes are not treated well and can be discarded by the higher ones for minor infractions.
Durlans
First Appearance: Action Comics #283. (1961)
Created by: Robert Bernstein & Curt Swan
Homeworld: Durla
Sector: 700
Insular shapeshifting aliens from the planet Durla whose abilities, culture and health have been permanently altered by the planetwide nuclear "Six-Minute War" which caused the surviving Durlans to break up into opposed factions which favor different options for trying to restore their former glory or revel in their new normal. Their first contact with earth was as one of the allied extraterrestrial groups taking part in the Alien Alliance, where their ability to mimic the forms of others was utilized to infiltrate many government organizations. Eventually, far in the future, the Shadow Council acquiesced to joining the United Planets but still prefers isolationist policies.
For Legion of Super-Heroes member Reep Daggle see here. For the Mode Locked Durlan "R.J. Brande" see here. For the Wonder Woman ally Nol Lapp see here.
- Absolute Xenophobe: The Durlans didn't start out this way, and several of the factions which survived the Six-Minute War don't feel this way, but the most prominent faction quickly starts developing very xenophobic policies which festers into something cruel and stunting to their civilization's growth by the time of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
- After the End: Durla is a mass of ruins left over from the much more technologically and architecturally advanced civilizations which bombed each other out of existence during the Six-Minute War. As a matter of fact almost all architecture on the planet is the left overs from the dead civilizations.
- Aliens Are Bastards: The most prominent of the Durlan factions, and the one which ultimately gains control of the entire planet by the time of the Legion of Super-Heroes, brutally punishes those who attempt to leave the planet, befriend outsiders or maintain a unique individuality and forces twins to fight to the death.
- Ditto Aliens: The most prominent and ultimately longest lasting faction of Durlans are opposed to maintaining individual appearances or even individual names and identities.
- Divide and Conquer: One of their tactics when invading other planets is to use their shapeshifting abilities to infiltrate teams and organizations and then watch the fallout as those teams tear themselves apart looking for the infiltrators.
- Forever War: Their "civil" war which is really just the extended after effects of the "Six-Minute War" goes on for well over a thousand years.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: By the time of the Legion of Super-Heroes Durlans despise outsiders and of worlders so much that fraternizing with any is a death sentence, so the children of any such unions need to avoid Durla in order to survive.
- Multicultural Alien Planet: In the present Durla is populated by many different factions with different ideas on how they should move forward as a race. In the future there is only one official dogma on Durla and those which oppose it are faced with violence and death.
- Named After Their Planet: Durlans from Durla.
- Planet of Hats: Not so much in the modern age, but their fractured civilizations and factions have coalesced into a single harsh unpleasant xenophobic society by the time of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
- Shapeshifter Default Form: Their natural default form is relatively humanoid, though orange with large pointed ears and antennae and no hair, but following the Six-Minute War the majority of the surviving Durlans lost their default and spend most of their time as shifting writhing masses of tentacles in various shades.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Though as always they're under threat of being mode-locked in their current forms and the forms of those whose families came out the worst from Durla's "Six-Minute War" are more unstable.
Gil'Dan/Gil'Dishpan
First Appearance: Adventure Comics #293. (1962)
Created by: Jerry Siegel · Curt Swan
Homeworld: Hykraius
System: O-749
Originally foes of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes the Gil'Dan's first contact with humans has been retconned to their involvement in the Alien Alliance.
- Berserk Button: Gil'Dishpan is their most widely known name due to one of their own failing to correctly express their names for themselves to other species. Being reminded of this reason they're not known by the more appropriate Gil'Dan infuriates members of the higher caste.
- Brain Monster: The Gil'Dan look like misshapen brain-tubeworm things in tentacle covered bubbles.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Gil'Dan look like tumors floating in tentacle covered bubbles and can attack with acid, have limited control over water and telepathy.
- Eyeless Face: For a given value of face, regardless they do not have anything that looks like an eye to a human.
- Fantastic Caste System: The Gil'Dan with the most brain looking inner body are of a higher caste than those with a more tube-worm like body.
- Hollywood Acid: They can spray opponents with acid.
- Mind over Matter: Gil'Dan can telekinetically move things with their prominent minds.
- Multicultural Alien Planet
- Starfish Aliens: They are an aquatic species that looks like floating tentacle covered bubbles with brain-tubeworm things inside, communicate via telepathy and can spit acid.
- Telepathy: They communicate by telepathy, and the less pleasant members of their race also use it to Mind Rape opponents.
Karnans
First Appearance: Green Lantern Vol 2 #141 (1981)
Created by: Marv Wolfman · Roger Slifer
Homeworld: Karna
Sector: 2828
System: Vega
Karnans is the name of the cat-like people from the planet Karna. Those who go as Gordanians are the primary slavers of the Citadel and their continent allied with the expansionist empire early on, while the rest of the people on the planet were unwillingly subjugated by the Citadel. The Gordanians have also taken advantage of the Lanterns agreement not to interfere with the Vega system to develop one of the most massive slave trading organizations in the universe.
For Taghurrhu, the Karnan member of the Omega Men, see the related page.
- Absurdly Sharp Claws: Their natural weapons are the sharp claws on their hands and feet, which they can use to dismember human sized opponents.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The Gordanians.
- Barbarian Tribe: Without a common enemy most Karnans end up in tribal warfare against other factions very quickly. The only exception is the Gordanians whose entire continent was already allied together into a single group before the Citadel arrived and their alliance was not hampered when the Citadel fell.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Non-Gordanian Karnans are very rarely seen with shoes on.
- BFG: Gordanian Ion Destructors, a large riffle-like weapon they are using by the 58th century.
- Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: Some artists depict Karnan women with hair only atop their heads and ten fingers and toes like humans, though others depict them with just shorter fur everywhere but atop their heads and six fingers and toes like the males. The males also tend to have their pointy ears located about where humans do while females have their more cat-like ears positioned higher on their heads.
- Boom Stick: The Gordianians most iconic weapon (outside of their Warpers) are their staff-like Photon Blasters.
- Casual Interstellar Travel: Gordanian Interstellar Warships, including the Psion developed Class-9 Bloodstars and the smaller Star-Gliders, are equipped with Star-Slide FTL. Their Slave Ships are also capable of interstellar travel but have a more limited range.
- Cat Folk: Karnans look rather like humanoid cats due to their slit pupils, cat-like ears, tails, fur, claws and mouths, though Karnans from the continent Gordane are generally hairless and due to the scaled appearance of their skin look more like Lizard Folk than cats.
- Cat Girl: The women are usually depicted much closer to humans in appearance, making them look like attractive ladies with cat ears and a cat smile.
- Crapsack World: They've been subjugated and enslaved by the Citadel with races from other planets now making up most of the population of Karna, and without the common foe of the Citadel to join the non Gordanians together they quickly descend back into tribal warfare against each other.
- Henchmen Race: Not the Karnans as a whole, but the Gordanians serve as the Citadel's most recognizable and despised henchmen alongside the Branx, and have also spent a lot of time allied with and serving the Psions and the Warlords of Okaara. Even centuries after the Citadel's fall the Gordanians continue to serve as henchmen and cruel slave traders.
- Multicultural Alien Planet
- Named After Their Planet: The Karnans are named for Karna, though the Gordanians are never referred to as such and are named after their continent/former country Gordane.
- Occupiers Out of Our Country: The non Gordanian Karnans do not like the Citadel and want their influence gone from Karna, they don't have a country though as the Gordanians were the only group that organized while the rest are fractured into tribes.
- Proud Merchant Race: Not the Karnans as a whole, but the Gordanians. Unfortunately the merchandise in question is slaves.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The Gordanians are from Karna, but due to their alliance with the Citadel, their galactic scale slave trading operation and the handy fact that Karnans from the Gordane continent look more scaled than furred means that the rest of the planet can disown them.
- Weaponized Teleportation: Gordanian Warpers are Epic Flails which create localized warp holes into space which pull opponents through and leave them floating somewhere in space.
Khunds
First Appearance: Adventure Comics #346. (1966)
Created by: Jim Shooter
Homeworld: Khundia
Sector: 422
The Khunds are a war mongering race who continuously seek to conquer inhabited planets and have built a sizable empire spiraling out from their home planet. By the days of the Legion of Super-Heroes Earth is one of their prime targets, partially due to their failures in capturing the planet in the past but in the present timeline even when allied with numerous others they present no real threat to earth and usually operate closer to home expanding their empire.
For Kho Kharhi see here under "Other Green Lanterns". For Ectreba, a khund Space Pirate turned Privateer Captain see here under "Other".
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Khunds come in pink, yellow and grey, with each skintone relating to longevity and the "reds" having the longest average lifespans at an average of 95 years and they have been recorded as making it all the way to 140 years.
- Eagle Squadron: While there is a definite and large segment of Khunds who are very patriotic and loyal to the Empire plenty volunteer to work for other groups, as they have a cultural and genetic predisposition to want to fight.
- The Empire: The violently expansionist Khundian Empire.
- Fantastic Naming Convention: Khunds rarely take a "surname" but when they do use one it's generally just their father's bare name.
- Galactic Superpower: Their Empire is on a galactic scale and their military is their pride and joy.
- Genghis Gambit: Their entire Empire is built around one to keep them fighting outsiders instead of embroiled in civil war and the khunds are both aware and proud of this tradition.
- Glory Seeker: While most grow out of this to an extent with time young khunds spend most of their time seeking battles to win and opponents to conqueror which they then brag about.
- Hand Cannon: The khunds are a very stocky broad people who use large stocky weapons.
- Heavyworlder: Khunds hail from a high gravity world, which explains their toughness and strength.
- Hired Guns: Khunds not currently working for the empire will act as mercenaries, and the nearby Sangtee Empire (run by the kreel) employs Khunds as enforcers.
- The Horde: At the start of their alliance prior to the formation of the Khundian Empire they had a somewhat difficult time getting along, even centuries later they require a Genghis Gambit to keep from fighting each other.
- Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Khunds are fully capable of respecting scientists, they just have a much more difficult time accepting khund scientists than they do scientists of other races.
- Lady of War: The standard khund woman is a dedicated proud warrior.
- Law of Alien Names: Khunds prefer names with harsh k and c sounds like Ectreba, Klo, Galmark and Kharlak.
- Named After Their Planet: Khunds are from the planet Khundia.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Doomsday tearing through their home planet decades ago is the entire reason the Khunds were able to stop their constant civil war and band together, leading to the formation of the Khundian Empire.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Predating even the Klingons, who are very similar to the khunds culturally,
- Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Postboot and since, khunds resemble very burly humans with pointy ears, no hair on the sides of their heads and mauve, yellow, or gray skin.
- Space Pirates: Piracy is a common career choice for khunds, and even those who serve the empire often come across as pirates.
- Spikes of Villainy: Spiked accessories and armor are very popular with young adult khunds.
- War Is Glorious: It's lucky their culture is designed around this, given that their natural inclination to war and fighting makes it impossible for them to stop for any significant period of time regardless of intentions.
Kreel
First Appearance: Wonder Woman Vol 2 #67. (1992)
Created by: William Messner-Loebs & Paris Cullins
Homeworld: unknown
Sector: unknown (somewhere between earth and the Khundian Empire)
The kreel are the aliens who built and run the brutal Sangtee Empire. Their militaristic, misogynistic, slave trading Empire is a revisit to the many similar extraterrestrials Wonder Woman and the Amazons fought during the Golden and Silver ages of comics.
For the Sangtee Emperor who was ruling during the 1990s on earth see Wonder Woman: Villains.
- Alien Hair: Their "hair" is flat and segmented in colors ranging from blue to red, though some have white "hair", and their facial "hair" very much looks like short flat barbels in their purple skin tone.
- Animal Mecha: Sangtee Empire space fighters look quite a bit like mechanical fish, creating a Space Is an Ocean asthetic duing Space Battles with them.
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: The kreel used to be gender benders as a race, capable of changing their physical sex in their later lives, but the church of the Sangtee Empire started working on making women utterly despised and socially unacceptable to the point that they are killed, enslaved or hidden away until they're able to present themselves as male and the race has relied on cloning to reproduce. Unfortunately for the raging misogynists their natural ability to change sex later in life means that cloning a man might result in a girl.
- Born into Slavery: The kreel exclude themselves from their empire's wanton slavery practices but their Empire practices chattel slavery.
- Corrupt Church: The church of the Sangtee Empire has manipulated the populace in order to strengthen their role in the empire and is the reason for the institutionalized misogyny among the kreel. There are kreel who do not agree with the Church but they take no action against it until the slave revolt led by Wonder Woman gives them an opening to.
- The Empire: The Sangtee Empire is a galactic empire built on chattel slavery and genocide.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Their Emperors are not refereed to by names but by their title as Emperor.
- Evil Chancellor: Bruct, who gets elevated into position of D'Tasloo Parva (sort of like Chief Advisor, but more integrated as a liaison between the emperor and the military and church) after Wonder Woman captured A'iir, tried to kill the emperor at the first sign that things might go south, clearly stating that it's because she's a woman and he despises her. He apparently missed that bit where she just made it clear traitors will not be suffered to live even if they're betraying one of her enemies to her benefit.
- Fantastic Honorifics: P'Q'Rort is a title that is roughly analogous to governor.
- Fantastic Rank System: While some positions in the Sangtee Empire's military correlate to positions in human militaries there are others, such as the D'Tasloo Parva, which do not.
- Feudal Future: The kreel are a Galactic Empire ruled by the nobility.
- Galactic Superpower: They have several star systems under their rule as the Sangtee Empire.
- Gender Bender: The kreel are naturally gender benders, able to transition late in their lives, which is part of how they would naturally procreate as it was common for entire generations to be born one sex so some would have to change in order for there to be any children. This has been suppressed for centuries with reproduction now enabled by cloning.
- Graffiti of the Resistance: The rebellion at large adopts Wondy's layered =W=s as their symbol, which leads to some kreel tagging buildings in the capitol with it in protest of the Empire's deadly misogyny and slavery practices.
- Green Skinned Space Hunk: Kreel are largely human in appearance outside of their purple skin, pointy ears and not-quite hair and some of their men are conventionally attractive by human standards and dress far less conservatively than their women who do their best to remain very covered up and pass as men.
- He-Man Woman Hater: The Sangtee Empire's hat, though there's some variance in just how much individual kreel adhere to it. Bruct and most of the P'Q'Rort (governors) despise women and can't quite stand to knowingly be in the same room as one without trying to kill her.
- Horse of a Different Color: Sangtee nobles sometimes ride some kind of lizard/dinosaur-like mount.
- Knockout Gas: The Sangtee Empire pumps knockout gas into disabled ships in found during their patrols before boarding and stealing them and enslaving any outsiders on board.
- Never Bareheaded: While there are kreel that disagree with Sangtee Empire policy they all are quite serious about their headgear and the only time any of them are seen without one is if the Emperor orders them to remove it or they are currently in enemy hands and unconscious.
- No Woman's Land: The Sangtee Empire is a bad place to be a woman. If you're kreel you're hidden throughout your childhood and young adult life until you've been fully trained to hide your femininity and act as a man, if you're not kreel you are sent to hellish slave planets and worked to death.
- One-Gender Race: The kreel at first appear to be all male, and are claimed to change genders once every millennia at which point children are born. The reality is that they've been repressing and hiding their females due to state religious propaganda that has ensured that the ruling class at least believes women are weak and inherently inferior, and they've substituted cloning for natural procreation.
- Opposite-Sex Clone: Kreel reproductive biology means that attempting to clone a man may result in a female infant.
- Pointy Ears: Kreel have ears that are sort of similar to a human's, with the back edge more rounded and flattened with notches coming up to a point at the top.
- Praetorian Guard: The Sangtee Emperor has a pair of personal guards who usually stand at their shoulder, dressed in a unique uniform with a helmet that hides most of their faces.
- Punctuation Shaker: Common in kreel names and titles, including the semi decent D'Tasloo Parva named A'iir.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Their eyes are red and their culture is a dangerous and brutal one to encounter even if not all kreel agree with the Empire's policies.
- Religion of Evil: The Sangtee Empire's state religion which promotes the hatred of and disgust with women.
- Salvage Pirates: Amusingly it's not the space pirates who engage in this but the empire. In Wondy's first encounter with them Diana and Natasha's careening makeshift spacecraft is uncontrollable and they're basically just sending calls for help into the void while watching their food and breathable air run out when the empire answers their distress call to impound their vehicle, steal everything including the clothes off their backs and enslave them.
- Shock Collar: The Sangtee Empire's slave collars can deliver a painful potentially fatal shock over extended periods.
- Single-Biome Planet: "Hope's End" is an apparent desert planet that's used as a deadly prison planet, though Natasha notes that they've only seen a fraction of the place and it's possible it's not all desert. Part of its hellish nature is that the atmosphere has a much lower oxygen level than is comfortable for humans.
- Slave Liberation: By the time Wonder Woman heads back to earth the Emperor has outlawed chattel slavery and is working on integrating former slaves into the empire as subjects. There is every indication that slavery as punishment is still legal however, they're just not going to enslave people just for stumbling into their empire, for being born to slaves, or for being non-kreel who speak out against the empire's policies.
- Space Fighter: The Sangtee Empire have standardized fighters, seen escorting the slave ships. The revolutionaries' fleet is largely comprised of small space vessels but not all of them are proper fighters, as their policy is to try hacking empire ship's navigational sensors from afar before boarding to force surrender.
- Space Pirates: The core members of the revolution are outright called pirates and have a pirate aesthetic, and become Space Privateers after the revolution attains it's goal and the Empire integrates them into it's government. None of them are actually kreel however (they're made up of a Daxamite, Dominator, Velosian, some khunds and a bunch ladies of unknown origin) they just end up employed by kreel.
- Straw Misogynist: The entire Sangtee Empire.
- A Taste of the Lash: Electrified whips are the Sangtee Empire's go to intimidation weapons on a smaller scale against slaves and those who are going to end up as slaves for resisting the Empire's advance. For added intimidation many of their slave drivers are khunds, meaning they're massive muscular men.
- Uterine Replicator: All kreel are clones born" from tubes as natural births are outlawed by extension of the outlawing of women as a population control measure.
- We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: The kreel are big on using slaves for mining and pulling carts despite their impressive technological feats.
The Reach
Reach General | Reach Negotiator
Reach Soldiers | Reach Worker
Reach Soldiers | Reach Worker
First Appearance: Blue Beetle Vol 7 #12. (2007)
Created by: John Rogers & Rafael Albuquerque
Base of Operations: Reachworld
Sector: 2
For more on the Reach Negotiator who fought Jamie Reyes see Blue Beetle.
- Adaptive Armor: Their scarabs create armor capable of taking on Green Lanterns, slipping between dimensions, healing their hosts, and destroying planets though usually at the cost of the host's individuality and free will.
- Artifact of Doom: Scarabs whose programing has not been subverted like the blue one sent to earth.
- Clingy Costume: Scarab armors cannot really be removed without digging the scarab out of the host, they can retract but they're still actually there.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Negotiators are teal, Generals are grey, Solders are blue, and Workers are Green. Young Justice substitutes much less intimidating Ambassadors for the Negotiators and adds in magenta Scientists, though the scientist role goes to the Negotiators in the comics.
- The Empire: Their empire is large enough that it's extended past the borders of their home sector.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Most members of the Reach are only referred to by their caste, with the exception being generals like Dawur.
- Expressive Mask: They're never actually seen outside of their powered armor, save for when Jamie "borrows" some clothes from guards while escaping from them.
- Facial Markings: The black marks where their eyebrows would be appear to mimic markings on their actual faces and help get their expressions across clearly.
- Fantastic Caste System: The Reach operate on a tweaked Hive Caste System; The ruling caste (a position which can be earned), the tall thin teal negotiators, bulky generals, spindly blue soldiers, and small green workers.
- Galactic Superpower: The largest, and most subtle, one in the DCU with a long history of hostility with the Green Lantern Corps.
- Instant Armor: The scarabs can wrap their host in armor instantaneously.
- The Noseless: No caste has noses or anything which resembles them.
- Proud Merchant Race: How the Reach present themselves to new planets. The truth is rather more complicated.
- Ragnarök Proofing: The Reach play the long game and their tech is built accordingly, installations and items are designed to last at the very least a few hundred years without maintenance.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: The Scarabs, which were created to be one of the most versatile - and deadly - weapons in the universe, and in The DCU that's saying something. They have enough firepower to threaten cities, and one of the higher-level weapons has potential theological implications... also, real Green Lanterns don't like being around them, with responses varying from "headache" to "homicidal urges." The GL Corps and the Reach have some history...
- The Symbiote: The scarabs.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Their way of preventing the GL Corps from realizing they've broken their treaty is to conquer new worlds by convincing the locals to submit to them in ways that can't be detected without Reach tech.
- You Have Failed Me: Failure is met with death.
Saturnians
Cha'rissa & J'emm
First Appearance: Jemm, Son of Saturn #1. (1984)
Created by: Greg Potter · Gene Colan
Homeworld: Saturn
Sector: 2814
System: Sol
Descendants of Martian colonist clones on Saturn's moons. Saturnians are generally split into Red Saturnians and White Saturnians and the two groups spent centuries in a bitter war with one another, though individuals on both sides made attempts for peace. The political marriage of the White Princess and Red Prince finally brought their long war to an end.
The Saturnians of the earlier Earth-Two continuity were unrelated and looked far more human though they also lived on Saturn's moons had telepathic abilities. They mostly appeared in Wonder Woman (1942).
For their superhero prince and princess J'emm and Cha'rissa see Martian Manhunter.
- Flight: Like the Martians they are related to Saturnians can use their telekinesis to enable themselves to fly, though their powers are not as strong as those of a true Martian.
- Forever War: Their civil war lasted centuries.
- Mind over Matter: Saturnians posses telekinesis.
- Shapeshifter Default Form: Their default forms are bright red, or stark white humanoids with solid pink or red eyes and protruding brows. Reds are usually bald (though not always) and whites usually have stiff hair in a variety of colors.
- Superpower Lottery: Saturnains have pretty much all of the many powers of a Martian, just weaker.
- Super-Strength: Saturnians are far stronger than any human, and at least one of them has demonstrated enough strength to go toe to toe with Martian Manhunter and Superman.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: An entire race of shapeshifters, though their shapshifting is more limited than that of Martians.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Fire is debilitating for them even though they can tank a gunshot or getting decked by Superman..
Tamaranians
First Appearance: DC Comics Presents #26. (1980)
Created by: Marv Wolfman & George Pérez
Homeworld: Okaara (formerly), Tamaran
Sector: 2828
System: Vega
For their superhero princess Koriand'r see Starfire. For their villainess princess Komand'r/Blackfire see Teen Titans: Enemies.
- Abusive Precursors: The Psions have been experimenting on Tamaranians since before they'd actually evolved into Tamaranians, this has led to some Tamaranians gaining superpowers due to experimentation but is more often just a horrific way to die.
- Aliens Never Invented Democracy: They're still ruled by a royal family.
- Cat Girl: They, like their oppressed Vega system neighbors the Karnans, are descended from a species that resembles earth felines.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Tamaran was ultimately destroyed.
- Fantasy Counterpart Religion: Many Tamaranians worship X'hal, though not all consider her a goddess. X'hal in turn was once a proto-Tamaranian on the planet Okaara who was subjected to experiments by the Psions who had her repeatedly raped by Branx warriors in an attempt to create a new race, after they turned her into a being of pure energy she destroyed the Psions present for what they had put her through.
- Flying Brick: Nowhere near Superman levels but they do have the flight, Super-Strength and durability.
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: Orange skinned people who otherwise looks like tall humans and wear very little in the way of clothing.
- Hot-Blooded: Tamaranians are rightly renowned for their passion and intense emotions.
- Medieval Stasis: In a sense. One Green Lantern: Rebirth storyline states Tamarans have been around for over ten billion years, and the only major difference they've undergone in that time is some cultural shifts, and a haircut.
- Mental Fusion: Physical contact allows Tamaranians a limited mental connection which works in both directions when used among Tamaranians.
- Multicultural Alien Planet: There are several kingdoms with slight cultural differences on Tamaran.
- Named After Their Planet: Inverted. Tamaranians are not originally from Tamaran and named the planet after being relocated there.
- Occupiers Out of Our Country: The Tamaranians despise the Citadel and the Gordanians.
- Oh, My Gods!: Tamaranians will occasionally swear by X'hal, though some consider her more a historical figure than a goddess.
- The Power of the Sun: They absorb sunlight in order to fuel their Flying Brick powers.
- Proud Warrior Race: An interesting case which takes from the traditional DC depiction of the Amazons, they're naturally great fighters but prefer peace to war and use their martial arts for fun without deadly intent with their more war like past left far behind them.
- Punctuation Shaker: Common in Tamaranian names in the country Starfire originates from, for example King Myand'r, Queen Luand'r, Princess Koriand'r, Princess Komand'r, Prince Ryand'r, Lantern Alisand'r, General Ph'yzzon and Oleand'r not so common in the "Southern States" where Prince Karras is from.
- Shipless Faster-Than-Light Travel: The more powerful Tamaranians can fly interstellar distances in a short time if they absorb enough sunlight.
- Single-Biome Planet: Tamaran is a jungle planet, though occasionally artists will depict arid locals as well.
- Stripperiffic: Tamaranians are not big on modesty and while most of them wear some clothing they are a clothing optional culture where all the clothes show off a fair amount of skin.
- Touch Telepathy: This is how Starfire can learn languages by kissing those who know them (though kissing isn't necessary physical contact is).
- Translator Microbes: Can use Touch Telepathy to learn languages by touching or kissing people.
