| Fatal Five | |
|---|---|
 Cover art forLegion of Super-Heroes (vol. 4) #120, featuring four of the Fatal Five withBrainiac 5 andGates, byPhil Jimenez. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Adventure Comics #352 (January 1967) |
| Created by | Jim Shooter |
| In-story information | |
| Member(s) | Founders: Emerald Empress Mano Persuader Tharok Validus Substitutes: Flare Caress Mentalla Mordecai |
TheFatal Five is asupervillain team of the 30th century in theDC Comicsuniverse.[1] They were created byJim Shooter and first appeared inAdventure Comics #352 (1967) as enemies of theLegion of Super-Heroes.[2]
The Fatal Five first appear inThe Death of Ferro Lad as a band of criminals whom the Legion recruit to help destroy the Sun-Eater threatening Earth.[3] They are offered pardons for their assistance, but reject them and band together, confident that they are powerful enough to try to conquer the worlds they had saved.[2]
A later incarnation consisted of the Emerald Empress; the Persuader; Flare, a Rimborian with the power of fire; Caress, who has a deadly acidic touch; and Mentalla, a Legion reject who is secretly working against the Five, trying to secure a spot in the Legion.
The first storyline inLegionnaires (1993) has theSW6 Legion face a Fatal Five comprising Tharok, Mano, the Persuader, a new Emerald Empress, and a monstrous being called Mordecai.
FollowingZero Hour: Crisis in Time!, which reboots the Legion's continuity, the original Fatal Five are reintroduced inLegion of Super-Heroes (vol. 4) #78 (1996), again assembled to help fight the Sun-Eater, which was later revealed to not exist. In this incarnation, the analogue of the Emerald Empress is simply called the "Empress" and is more a skilled melee combatant than a magic user.
In theTeen Titans/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover, the Persuader uses his atomic axe to recruit alternate universe variants of the Fatal Five, forming the Fatal Five-Hundred,[4] before the two teams use the Cosmic Treadmill to return them to their original universes.[5]
InThe Brave and the Bold,Epoch takes a version of the Fatal Five to the present day to assist him in gaining a powerful weapon. AfterBatman andBlue Beetle defeat him, he abandons them in the 21st century. After Batman and Tharok are accidentally fused, the group are returned to the future, where they appear to be already in the Legion's prison.
All five Fatal Five members were among the supervillains inSuperman-Prime'sLegion of Super-Villains.
InDC Rebirth, the Emerald Empress comes to the 21st century to destroySaturn Girl and forms a contemporary incarnation of the Fatal Five consisting ofMagog,Brainiac 8, Selena, andSolomon Grundy.[6]
Mano is a mutant with the ability to generate deadlyantimatter from his right hand. A native of the planet Angtu, which he destroys for his people mistreating him, Mano must wear a special suit to survive on other planets. His helmet obscures his face, making it appear as a silhouette.[2]
The Persuader originates from a high-gravity planet, and thus possesses enhanced physical abilities. Before becoming a supervillain, he was a gang enforcer and gained his name from his ability to intimidate others.[7]
The Persuader wields an atomic axe that is mentally linked to him and can allegedly cut through anything. It can even destroy metaphorical or intangible things, such as air, gravity, and the barriers between dimensions.[8]
Tharok is the leader of the Fatal Five.[9][10] He is a small-time crook whose body is vertically bisected in the explosion of a stolen nuclear device.[11] The people of his world, holding life sacred, rebuild him using robotic parts, which greatly boosts his intelligence, but leaves his evil tendencies unchecked.[2][12] Tharok is later killed in battle, but resurrected in subsequent continuity reboots.[13][14][15]
Validus is a monstrous member of the Fatal Five who possesses superhuman strength and durability and the ability to generate mental lightning bolts.[16][2] He is later revealed to beGarridan Ranzz, the son ofLightning Lad andSaturn Girl, whoDarkseid kidnapped and transformed into a monster shortly after his birth.[17] Eventually, Validus is returned to his human form, with a similar monster, Mordecai, replacing him in the Fatal Five.
In subsequent reboots of the Legion, Validus is unrelated to Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl. In the "Threeboot" continuity, he is a Winathian nature spirit known as the Lord of Lightning.[18][19]
The original Fatal Five appear inJustice League vs. the Fatal Five, with Emerald Empress voiced bySumalee Montano, Tharok byPeter Jessop, Mano byPhilip Anthony-Rodriguez, Persuader byMatthew Yang King, and Validus having no dialogue.[23][24][20][21][22] After the Emerald Empress and Validus are taken to the 21st century to be imprisoned in Oa, Tharok, Mano, and Persuader travel back in time to forceJessica Cruz to lead them to their missing teammates. While fighting theJustice League andStar Boy, the Fatal Five are buried alive by Cruz.
The original Fatal Five appear as character summons inScribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.[25]
