| General Wade Eiling | |
|---|---|
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Captain Atom #1 (March 1987) |
| Created by | Cary Bates Pat Broderick |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Wade Eiling |
| Team affiliations | Suicide Squad The Society Injustice Gang United States Army |
| Notable aliases | The General Shaggy Man |
| Abilities |
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General Wade Eiling, sometimes known asThe General, is a fictional character appearing inAmerican comic books published byDC Comics. He is a prominent military general who contributed to Nathaniel Adam's transformation intoCaptain Atom and later becomes a supervillain after transferring his brain intoShaggy Man's body.
Eiling appears inThe Flash, portrayed byClancy Brown, andJustice League Unlimited, voiced byJ. K. Simmons. In the latter series, he is a member ofProject Cadmus who later transforms into a monstrous form reminiscent of Shaggy Man using aWorld War II-era super-serum.
Wade Eiling first appeared inCaptain Atom #1 (March 1987) and was created byCary Bates andPat Broderick.[1]
Wade Eiling is a military tactician who blackmails the accused Nathaniel Adam into participating in the atomic experiment that turns Nathaniel into the nuclear beingCaptain Atom, and causes him to disappear for 18 years.[1] This is considered a failure by Eiling and Heinrich Megala, the project's main scientist. They would attempt the experiment again, which ends up creatingMajor Force.
During the 18 years in which Adam is gone, Eiling marries Adam's wife and acts as father to his two children.[1] Eiling also manipulates Captain Atom into serving the military. His first attempts, a chance for Adam to view his children in exchange for retrieving a lost submarine, falls apart and embarrasses Eiling in front of his superiors. His continuing conflicts with the title character were a major focus of the 1980sCaptain Atom series. Eiling would also form an intensely adversarial relationship with Megala.
InJLA #24 after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, Eiling sends a military team to salvage the indestructible body of the firstShaggy Man from thePacific Ocean.[2] From his base of operations, the Threshold, Eiling orchestrates a military assault on the JLA. Spearheading the offensive is a new superhero team called theUltramarine Corps.[1][3] Recruited and genetically enhanced by Eiling's lab team, The Ultramarines already exhibit signs of terminal illness.[3] Meanwhile,Batman,Huntress, andPlastic Man track Eiling to Threshold and discover Eiling's dead body. In addition, they also find that he transferred his consciousness into the indestructible body of the shaved Shaggy Man and became known as theGeneral.[4]
The JLA battle the military and the Ultramarine Corps untilJLA #26 (February 1999). General's forces consider mutiny as doubts against attacking the League come to a head. Superman, whose super-senses have diagnosed the Ultramarine's disease, persuades the Ultramarine Corps that General has used and betrayed them. The Corps members, who volunteered for service in good faith, switch sides and assist theJustice League in attacking Threshold.[5] The team forces the General onto a bulk-matter teleport platform, transporting him to the asteroid433 Eros.[1]
The General stays on the asteroid for several months untilQueen Bee recruits him intoLex Luthor'sInjustice Gang. General battles against the Justice League inside thePhantom Zone as part of a coordinated attack, intending to releaseweapons of mass destruction on Earth.Orion's war dog Sturmer sacrifices himself by tackling the General through a ship's airlock, trapping him in the Phantom Zone.[6]
During theInfinite Crisis storyline, General is one of the hundreds of villains recruited intoAlexander Luthor Jr.'sSecret Society of Super-Villains.[1][7] He is a participant in the Battle of Metropolis, the unsuccessful first step of the Society's war on the heroes.[8]
Eiling later joins theSuicide Squad. After Eiling betrays the team to their intended target,Rick Flag detonates a bomb implanted in his head. His head regenerates, but he is rendered amnesiac.[9] Eiling continues to serve as a Squad member through the "Salvation Run" storyline, where he is exiled to a distant, Earth-like planet without a trial.[10]
In September 2011, DC Comics engaged in a line-wide revision of its superhero comics, including their stories and characters' fictional histories, known asThe New 52. In the new stories, the character of Captain Atom has a new origin with General Wade Eiling first appearing in a radiation suit while flanking Captain Atom.[11] Eiling tells Captain Atom to fall in line as he is a super-weapon that will keep America on the top.[12] Eiling also appears in the seriesThe Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men, where he opposes theeponymous hero.[13]
General Wade Eiling specializes in military warfare.[2] As the General, Eiling possesses immense physical strength and is functionally immortal.[6] He can regenerate his body rapidly and does not require food, water, or sleep to survive.[5]
The General appears inJLA/Avengers #4 as a brainwashed minion ofKrona.[14]
General Wade Eiling as the General appears in theNintendo DS version ofJustice League Heroes.
The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide found that in the character of General Wade Eiling the comic had created "an appalling specimen of military pigheadedness who can justify every iniquitous piece of behaviour under the blanket of national security".[19]The Supervillain Book summed up Eiling's character as an "immoral soldier".[20]
According to George A. Gonzalez, theJustice League Unlimited incarnation of Eiling represents the negative side of "aggressive military policies of the 2000s" by the US government, like "wanton violence" and "fixation on 'power' (i.e. military force)". Through his deliberate transformation into "a huge, hideous, grayish monster with superpowers", Eiling "embodies the ugliness of militarism".[17] Eiling also serves as an example of the development of comics over the decades: While in the 1940s and 50s comic heroes were "unabashed patriots", in the figure of General Eiling from the 2000s they fight against a representative of a misunderstood patriotism that values the reputation of the nation-state higher than the lives of any number of civilians.[17]
Markus Engelns gives a different characterization of Eiling based on theWorld War III storyline, in a later stage in the character's development: Eiling no longer has his function as a general and has lost any discernable motive beyond fighting, which emphasizes his dangerous nature even more.[21]
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