Official Name Status Identity Universe Base of Operations Organization Leader(s) Current Members | Former Members |
|---|
| Amaze, Apollo, Jack Hawksmoor, Backlash, Crow Jane, Deathblow, Diva (Alessandra Fermi), Flashpoint, Flint, Impetus, Jenny Sparks, Lamplight, Midnighter, Nautika, Rose Tattoo, Spartan, Stalker, Swift, Synergy, Undertow, Union |
Allies Place of Formation Creators
History
Stormwatch is Earth's leading planetary defense force against alien incursion, based in their satellite headquarters Skywatch. The organization has been disbanded and reformed multiple times under different leadership.
StormWatch was originally a United Nations "crisis intervention unit" founded as a successor to the Warguard: In the early 1970's, the UN's first orbital space station, Monitor One, was caught in the wake of a mysterious comet. Most of the station's staff were killed by radiation that penetrated Monitor One's shields, but a few survived and were altered by the event, changing form and gaining superhuman abilities. These survivors, including the telepath Isaiah King (formerly of Team One) and a ruthless female scientist named Dr. Nychus, became the powerful but uncontrollable Warguard, who later had to be defeated by heroes (including Team One veterans Backlash and Henry Bendix) and placed in stasis for the safety of all mankind.
Out of the ashes of the Monitor One and Warguard disasters, John Windsor founded the Seedling program: A second generation of humans granted superpowers by the comet event (Seedlings) were used as the core of a global peacekeeping force, StormWatch, operating from a giant orbital platform named SkyWatch. The force's first superpowered field unit, StormWatch Prime, comprised Battalion (Jackson King, son of Isiah King), Flashpoint (Foster McClane), Nautika (Maya Royko) and Sunburst (Karl Hansen).
The MJ-12, a shadow council of the UN, recruited Henry Bendix as the director (or 'Weatherman') of StormWatch, based on his previous experience with extraterrestrials in Team One. The MJ-12 also enlisted the help of Miles Craven, the director of US intelligence agency International Operations (I/O) and former overseer of Team One. When Marc Slayton (Backlash) tired of Craven's machinations, after his experiences with Team One and Team-7, Craven asked him to spy on the fledgling StormWatch program. Craven told Bendix that Slayton was a security risk, given his past associations with known extraterrestrial Lucy Blaize (a.k.a. Zannah or Zealot), and asked Bendix to take him in and keep an eye on him. When Bendix tried to recruit him, Slayton confessed that he had been asked to infiltrate StormWatch for I/O but had no intention of doing so. Bendix took him in anyway, and put him in charge of training StormWatch's field agents.
Another essential early member of Stormwatch was Christine Trelane, a 'Seedling activator' with the ability to awaken or shut down superpowers in humans affected by the comet event.
Flashpoint, Nautika and Sunburst were lost on a mission in Kuwait in 1991 (towards the end of Desert Storm) and presumed dead. They were later found to have been captured by the Deathtrap and the Mercs and were rescued from Gamorra by Battalion and new team members.
In addition to the main field team(s), Bendix created a covert superhuman team named 'StormWatch Black'. The earliest known lineup (1983) included The New Romantic (Robert Nathan), Ghetto Blaster (Roger Elliot), Deathrace (Garrett Nolan), Ebony, Ivory and The Urban Cowboy. The last StormWatch Black team comprised Jenny Sparks, Jack Hawksmoor and Swift.
A non-superpowered paramilitary support unit was also formed within StormWatch, named StormForce, a version of which still appears to be active in the US.
The original Skywatch station crashed to Earth in 1995 when the Warguard escaped from stasis, and its replacement was piloted into the sun in 1998 to destroy an infestation of xenomorphic aliens.
The aliens that invaded the second Skywatch station killed most of StormWatch's superhuman 'officers', excluding Jackson King (who had succeeded Bendix as Weatherman), Flint and the members StormWatch Black. With StormWatch effectively shut down, StormWatch Black went underground to form a new team called The Authority, initially having a similar international mandate to StormWatch. King founded his own group, named The Monarchy.
The next incarnation of StormWatch had a considerably smaller budget, and the Skywatch station was not rebuilt. Benjamin Santini, formerly Director of Operations at I/O, became the new Weatherman (following Henry Bendix, Christine Trelane and Jackson King) and led a small team of mostly human operatives specialized in neutralizing superhuman threats ('Team Achilles'), based in the UN headquarters building in New York.
StormWatch was disbanded by the UN following a coup d'etat in which The Authority seized control of the United States. The members of Team Achilles were declared illegal combatants, and went into hiding.
Jackson King later re-founded StormWatch under the sole control of the (re-instated) US government, as a safeguard against future superhuman coups. The Authority's new Doctor resurrected several of King's team-mates who had been killed aboard Skywatch, allowing King to form a new Stormwatch Prime. King also founded a separate initiative named 'Post-Human Division' (PHD) to train law enforcement specialists, both human and superhuman, in low-budget and practical techniques for combating superhuman threats.
But by the wake of the World's End incident, New York was destroyed by a massive influx of superhumans, and PHD was forcibly disbanded. Around the same time, Stormwatch Prime were moved into a new satellite headquarters. From this vantage, they now work to return the world to a state of normalcy. In their endeavors StormWatch came into conflict with the reemerged Knights of Khera, a very militant faction of Kherubim who sought to conquer Earth by terraforming the planet and effectively wiping out its population. StormWatch was later among the many heroes that were summoned by The Authority and notified of the Carrier's departure for unknown space. Christine Trelane, Flint, and Deathblow left the team on the Carrier, as StormWatch and the other heroes who decided to stay on their planet and waged war on the Knights of Khera, and ultimately prevailed in defeating the Knights. Thereafter, StormWatch and some of Earth's heroes merged with the Wildcats in order to immensely repair the Earth and helping its survivors.
Origin
The Original StormWatch
After Despot went insane, Henry Bendix and the U.N decided to form a super-human crisis unit. The U.N spent three years finding members and building their base, the Skywatch. The original members were Jackson King, Flashpoint and Nautika. The members were trained by the super hero Backlash. Bendix took on the leader role of Weatherman and soon the hero Sunburst joined.
Creation
The Wildstorm version of Stormwatch was created by Jim Lee and first debuted in Stormwatch #1 in 1993. The DCU version of Stormwatch was created by Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda, and debuted in a new volume also called Stormwatch, part of The New 52 event.
Team Evolution
Wildstorm Universe
Stormwatch One
On an early mission, all the members aside from King were seemingly killed when the villain Deathtrap and his Mercs hit the team in a sneak attack. The heroes Diva, Winter, Fuji and Hellstrike would become the new members as Stormwatch One.
Stormwatch Two
StormWatch Two
King then recruited Fahrenheit, Ion, Lancer, Cannon and Strafe as Stormwatch Two. However, over the course of Stormwatch's existence the roster changed due to various reasons (death, imprisonment etc).
Stormwatch Prime, Red, and Black
StormWatch Prime, Red, and Black
Bendix would often switch leadership of the team between King and Synergy. However this changed after the Fire From Heaven event. It prompted Henry to redesign the team, and after firing many of the members in Stormwatch One and Two, he reformed the remaining heroes into three three manned units. Stormwatch Prime: ( Fuji, Winter, Hellstrike), Red: (Flint, Rose Tattoo, Fahrenheit), and Black: (Jenny Sparks, Swift , Jack Hawksmoor). He even conditioned a team only he was aware of, including members Apollo, Midnighter, Amaze, Crow Jan, Impetus, Lamplight, and Stalker; The majority of that team died on their first assignment, excepting only Apollo and Midnighter. This would prove to be one of the many actions revealing Bendix's growing insanity. He even ordered Stormwatch Red to kill 233 Gamorrans as pay back for the deaths of 233 people caused by Kaizen Gamorra.
After the High and his group first appeared, it became apparent Henry had now become a villain. He ordered Rose Tattoo to assassinate two members and later sent an acid bomb payload to kill all the members in their base. This left only the High, who was killed after flying into the Storm Door. Jenny Sparks forced him out of the group and Jackson King was promoted to Weatherman. Red and Prime were merged into one unit and Black remained operating in secret.
StormWatch: Team Achilles
Stormwatch was later disbanded following the destruction of their base, but the surviving members would go on to form two new teams the Authority and the Monarchy. A new Stormwatch team was soon formed called Team Achilles.
Stormwatch P.H.D ( Post Human Division)
Jackson King would also build Stormwatch PHD ( Post Human Division) with the resurrected members of Stormwatch that perished in the Alien attack. They work mainly out of the U.S with limited funding and have mainly rely on tactics rather than superpowers.
Post-Flashpoint: Earth-0
Stormwatch
The Stormwatch Team
Following the reality altering events of Flashpoint, Stormwatch is now a shadowy spy organization that has existed in the DCU since the middle ages, being the modern day incarnation of the Demon Knights. Run by the mysterious "Shadow Lords", Stormwatch primarily protects the world from major alien threats. The organization firmly rejects the idea that they are a "superhero" team, preferring to exist in secret, but most members of the organization possess extraordinary abilities. Current members of Stormwatch as of the first issue included The Engineer, Jack Hawksmoor and Jenny Quantum, as well as new character Adam One, the Projectionist and the Eminence of Blades, and former Justice League member Martian Manhunter. Later, Apollo and Midnighter join, and several of the others leave, making the current lineup The Engineer, Jack Hawksmoor, Jenny Quantum, Apollo and Midnighter.
Major Story Arcs
Post-Flashpoint: Earth-0
The Dark Side
In the first issue, a group from Stormwatch attempts to recruit Apollo. The team, however, was interrupted by Midnighter, who attacked the present Stormwatch members and stated that he had been observing Apollo for some time, and wanted to be partners. He told Apollo he could give him what he really wanted, instead of offering him a job on a 'Superhero Team'. Martian Manhunter revealed that he was faking his unconsciousness and that the team could use both of them on their roster, because they weren't a team of 'Superheroes'.
Meanwhile, Harry Tanner was on the surface of the moon and was investigating what had happened. He then discovered that the moon had been taken a hold of by an alien creature known as the Scourge of Worlds. The Scourge claimed that it wanted to save the world by testing it. Tanner allowed the creature to go into his mind, pretending that he would help the creature save the world, but during this time he actually dove into the creature's mind as well and rewired it to make it vulnerable to the Engineer, who was now on the surface of the moon, investigating Harry's disappearance. Harry gets the better of the Scourge, but not before the Scourge sent pieces of the moon flying towards Earth. Apollo is dispatched and destroys most of them, but one gets past and is revealed to be a monster. The team proceeds to fight the monster and even though most of the team was absorbed, Midnighter, Apollo and the Projectionist saved them. Then half of the team ventured into a lost city to find an ancient alchemy power stone, which was powered by Jenny Quantum and used to change the monster into glass.
Back on the Eye, the team discovers a member of the Shadow Lords threatening to kill Adam One, citing his negligence and incompetence as the reason. Once Adam has been... disposed of, the Shadow Lord chooses a new leader for the team, making the surprising choice of the Projectionist. However, Harry ends up taking her hostage during a bid to take over Stormwatch, during which he very nearly destroys the Eye. The rest of the members end up electing the Engineer leader.
Alternate Versions
Jim Starlin' Stormwatch
Because of the meddling of alien forces know as the Kollective, which killed Adam One at the moment of his birth, the story of the Stormwatch team was rewrited. Now under the leadership of Storm Control, some members changed (as Apollo and Midnighter, and Jenny Quantum became Jenny Soul) and its new formation included Force and Hellstrike and alien members as Forecaster, Lobo and the Weird. They mostly had to deal with alien forces, being the most relevant Extremax. However it would be Extremax along with Jenny Soul the ones who defeatd the Kollective and restablished the original timeline, bringing back the (DC's New52) original Stormwatch team.
Futures End Stormwatch
In Futures End, a possible future for earth 0, born from the coming of earth 2 survivors to the Prime earth universe, five years in the future, Stormwatch still operates but far from the earth. Its membership includes Nina Mazursky and Hawkman. They would be hit by an alien threat (revealed as a multiversal Brainiac) and only newer recruits Frankenstein, Amethyst, Black Adam and Atom would survive.
Paraphernalia
Equipment: Stormwatch operatives can rely on the latest technology. They are far more advanced than what we know in all manner of communications, encryption/decryption, medical facilities, surveillance, counter-surveillance, and tranports.
Transportation: Skywatch teleportation system
Weapons: Specialized weapons used by certain members (notably Battalion)
Notes
- No special notes.
Trivia
- No trivia.
See Also
- 10 Appearances of Stormwatch (Wildstorm Universe)
- Images that include Stormwatch (Wildstorm Universe)
- Organization Gallery: Stormwatch (Wildstorm Universe)
Links and References
- None.
Footnotes
ReferencesEdit