The Special Executive
Selected Special Executive members - [l-r] Cobweb, Wardog, Fascination, Zeitgeist; [front] Legion. Art byAlan Davis.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Doctor Who Monthly #51 (April 1981)
Created by	Alan Moore (writer) David Lloyd (artist)
In-story information
Type of business	Mercenaries

TheSpecial Executive is afictional group of time-traveling mercenaries appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. The characters were decpicted incomic strips published byMarvel UK. The initial incarnation was created byAlan Moore andDavid Lloyd forDoctor Who Monthly;Alan Davis later expanded the line-up when they appeared inCaptain Britain.^[1]

Alan Moore has said that members of the Special Executive, including Wardog, originate from a massive, unpublished, unfinishedspace opera script that he began in 1977. Moore shelved the project afterSteve Moore offered guidance in selling shorter stories in the British comics industry.^[2] In 1981, the Special Executive debuted inDoctor Who Monthly. Moore would later bring them into the Marvel Universe during his work onCaptain Britain for Marvel UK.^[3]

The group first appeared in a short strip called "The 4-D War" inDoctor Who Monthly #51 (April 1981), published by theUK arm ofMarvel Comics. The story was a follow-up to a strip called "Star Death" that Moore and Lloyd had produced forDoctor Who Monthly #47. They were created byAlan Moore andDavid Lloyd, and the initial line-up consisted of Wardog and Viridian the Brainfeeler - who was almost immediately killed. Moore planned a sequel strip, "Black Sun Rising", withSteve Dillon. However, Dillon's schedule meant that he was only able to contribute character designs for new additions Cobweb, Zeitgeist and Millennium, and when the story appeared inDoctor Who Monthly #57 the art was again by Lloyd. Millennium was again killed off very soon after being introduced.^[4] Moore would refuse to allow the characters to be used in futureDoctor Who strips due to what he perceived to be poor treatment of his good friendSteve Moore (no relation).^[5]

In 1983, Moore incorporated them into theCaptain Britain strip running in Marvel UK'sThe Daredevils, with artist Alan Davis.^[2] Moore and Davis devised additional members, including Legion, Fascination, Oxo and Lady Burning Fish, and the characters played a supporting role in the "Jaspers' Warp" storyline.^[1] The trilogy ofDoctor Who Monthly strips were also reprinted inThe Daredevils. In keeping with those stories, several of the characters were killed during the story.^[4] Following the conclusion of the storyline, Moore would leave Marvel UK on unhappy terms, and as a result he blocked any future use of the Special Executive. The team was subsequently reorganised into the similarTechnet,^[6] which featured a mixture of the characters created by Davis (with some renamed and given different abilities) and new co-creations withJamie Delano.^[7] Due to both being time-travelling bounty hunters the overlap in membership was used as a plot point, with their exploits being out-of-sequence for both the reader and the main protagonists of the Captain Britain and Excalibur stories.^[1]

Centuries before the Technet was founded, there was the Special Executive, another group of time-traveling bounty hunters. Due to time travel though the Special Executive returned in time and tried to disband the Technet. The Special Executive at this time was led by an unnamed humanoid and members included Cobweb, Zeitgeist, Legion and several unnamed members. Despite the warnings of Cobweb that his plans would fail, the leader hoped to kill the Technet's leaderGatecrasher and recruit the powerful Fascination 300 years before she would join the Special Executive. The plan failed, and the Special Executive retreated.^[8]

At least a century later, the Special Executive's leader had died, and several members had been replaced. The new leader was named Wardog and they now worked for theGallifreyans against the Order of the Black Sun. A member called Viridian the Brainfeeler was killed by the Order and Wardog lost his arm.^[9] Ten years later another member - Millennium - was mind-controlled by the Order against her team and Wardog was forced to kill her.^[10]Later, the Special Executive had recruited several members to its line-up, including Lady Burning Fish and Oxo, and went toEarth-616 in the late 20th century to recruit the Technet, now known as theN-Men. Cobweb told the N-Men that Earth was about to be destroyed and Wardog offered the N-men a place on the team. The N-men accepted and left with the team.^[11]

The Special Executive was hired to captureCaptain Britain so that he could testify onSaturnyne's behalf in a cosmic trial. Saturnyne was accused of causing the chaos on thealternate world Earth-239, which was caused by a version ofMad Jim Jaspers. The world was destroyed, including all evidence of Saturnyne's innocence. Captain Britain was enraged by the trial and found it a farce; he fought theCaptain Britain Corps and the Special Executive, feeling responsible for him, helped the hero out. Together they freed Saturnyne and returned to Earth-616, home of Captain Britain. The team stayed with Captain Britain in Braddock Manor, but Zeitgeist disagreed with Wardog on this course of action; Wardog felt obligated to help Captain Britain, whose world was menaced by another Mad Jim Jaspers. However Zeitgeist felt that they were mercenaries and had no obligation to anybody. Shortly after, theFury attacked the manor, as the Wardog led his group to attack the creature. Oxo and a future incarnation of Legion died in the battle, and Wardog himself was badly injured. In the end, it was Zeitgeist who blinded the Fury long enough for the group to retaliate against it, but the Fury escaped. With his team in ruins, Wardog apologised to Captain Britain and the Special Executive left Earth.^[12]

Alan Moore wrote the Special Executive group similar to a superhero team. In a 1982 interview, Moore cited John Byrne's 1970s work onUncanny X-Men as an inspiration.^[13][14][15] During a discussion with X-Men author Chris Claremont about the role of an artist in comics writing, Moore partly attributed the scope of the team to artist Alan Davis. Before Moore began writing forCaptain Britain, Davis had already done scripts and continued to have plotting input. Moore said they expanded the team to improve the artwork.^[16]

[Alan Davis] liked the idea of bringing in the Special Executive and adding about six more members to them, and he liked the idea of having lots of characters around because it gave him new characters to design, new characters to draw.

• Wardog: the second leader of the Special Executive. A humanoid with a doglike appearance, Wardog is dashing, honourable, a brilliant strategist and a capable fighter. He has a cybernetic arm has been was torn off at least twice.
• Viridian the Brainfeeler: the team's telepath, killed by the Order of the Black Sun.
• Millennium: had control over time and could age others quickly. However, she was mind-controlled by the Order of the Black Sun and killed by Wardog.
• Cobweb: the team's precognitive, who is used to a non-linear perception of time. She doesn't always warn her teammates of dangers - on some occasions this is because she feels that her visions of the future can't be changed but at other times it's due to perceived personal slights - some of which are, paradoxically, only caused by her not warning the team in the first place.
• Zeitgeist: exists outside of time and space, making him intangible and undetectable to most opponents. When he passes through living beings while intangible, he can cause them great pain. He can also reform his body when damaged. He is a strict professional who doesn't believe in unpaid heroics.
• Fascination: she has the ability to fly, has superhuman strength and can cause distortions in her opponent's mind, effectively stunning them. Fascination can also teleport and track people over large distances. Despite her considerable power is not very intelligent, is unable to speak, and functions mostly on instinct. She feeds on emotions of the people around her - the stronger the emotion, the more nutritious it is for her. Another of Fascination's race named Scatterbrain was a member of the Technet.
• Legion:, brother of the Technet's Thug. While his brother only has superhuman strength and durability, Legion also had the ability to create copies of himself, summoned from his own future. Legion was doomed to die when the Fury killed one of his future incarnations in battle.
• Oxo: an insect-like creature was killed by The Fury.
• Lady Burning Fish: a small, amorphous being on a floating platform. She talked in the form of poems and could generate energy blasts.

• A creature who looks exactly like the Technet's accountant Numbers is with the first Special Executive, but he is never named
• Another creature seen with the Special Executive looks exactly like Technet member Ringtoss, but is also unnamed

• Doctor Who writer and Alan Moore scholarLance Parkin wrote an unofficial^[17] text story called "Executive Action" (published in charityanthologyWalking in Eternity) that explored the Special Executive's relationship with theTime Lords of Gallifrey.^[18][19]

• Fictional mercenaries
• Marvel Comics organizations
• Fictional mercenaries in comics
• Doctor Who comic strip characters
• Marvel UK teams
• Doctor Who organisations
• Characters created by Alan Moore

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