DC Alterverses: Universe 13 Assemblers

DC Alterverse

Flying/hovering, left to right: Tin Man, Red Condor, Blue Jay and Rainbow.

On land, left to right: Golden Bow, Tomorrow Woman, Silver Sorceress, Behemoth, General Glory, Wandjina, Captain Speed and Katydid.

Universe-13 Assemblers

It’s based on the Champions of Angor/ Assemblers, created by Mike Friedrich and Dick Dillin for Justice League of America, vol 1 #87, 1971, as a pastiche of Marvel’s Avengers. The initial team was: Blue Jay, Silver Sorceress, Jack B. Quick (later renamed as Captain Speed) and Wandjina, based on Ant Man, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Thor, respectively. Some new members appeared in Justice League Europe #16, 1990 (Bowman, analogue to Hawkeye), by Keith Giffen, Gerard Jones and Bart Sears, and Justice League Quarterly #3, 1991 (T.A., Tin Man and an unnamed giant man, respective analogues to Wasp, Iron Man and Giant Man), by Giffen, Jones and Mike McKone.

I discarded the unnamed giant man, as two versions of Hank Pym would be redundant (Blue Jay already had this role) and added some other Marvel analogues: Captain America’s analogue General Glory (created by Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis for Justice League America #46– it’s the post-Crisis title, without the “of”); Tomorrow Woman (created by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter for JLA #5, 1997), who may or not be an intentional reference to the Vision, but their similar backstories make her fit, regardless of the authors’ original intention; Behemoth, another creation of Morrison, this time along artist Ivan Reis for The Multiversity #1; and last, but not least, two original characters who are analogues to Monica Rambeau and the Falcon: Rainbow and Red Condor.

Differently from the U-8’s Retaliators, also based on the Avengers, the Assemblers don’t have their identities tied to DC’s mainstream characters, because many of them already had their real names given in the source material (this said, they can have non-powered, ordinary civilian counterparts). The universe name derived from the number of Marvel’s mainstream Earth, 616: 6 + 1+ 6 = 13.

I opted for a different, simpler-looking method of lighting/shading (except for the gradient areas), which, ironically, can have a more laborous execution than using the Photoshop Dodge/Burn tools I use to other works (these tools are simpler to use, but have a more complex-looking result, the opposite of what happens here). This choice is a reference to the Assemblers' simpler roots, as they were created between the 1970's and the 1990's, when the comics' coloring methods had simpler results than today, due to the time's technological limitations. 

Flying/Hovering:

-Tin Man

Real name: Robert Hughes

History: Rich adventurer Robert Hughes travelled frequently around the world, accompanied by his bodyguard Gerald “Glad” Gladstone and his secretary Carolina “Salt” Stevens. In one of their adventures, their plane crashed in the island of Lian-Yu. They were captured by a local crime lord, who had robotic guards. With Glad’s and Salt’s help, he was able to capture one of the robots and turn its pieces into a powered armor, wearing it and leading an escape.

Although the armor is made of steel and other alloys, he chose the nickname Tin Man based on a song he liked, from the rock band America. Glad and Salt got promoted to Security Chief and Public Relations’ Director, respectively, one year later. 

Based on: Iron Man

Marital/ Relationship status: Married to Carolina “Salt” Stevens.

Notes: He isn’t named in DC canon, so I named him after Robert Downey Jr., who played Iron Man in MCU, and Howard Hughes, the real-life rich adventurer who served as an inspiration for Iron Man’s creation. Gerald “Glad” Gladstone is an analogue to Harold “Happy” Hogan, while Carolina “Salt” Stevens is an analogue to Virginia “Pepper” Potts.

 

-Red Condor

Real name: John “Jack” Williams

History: Engineer Jack Williams, along his friends Jay and Diane Abrams, found an alien spaceship that fell on the Arizona desert. Its two occupants died on the crash. Studying the ship’s technology, they found out that it came from the planet Thanagar. The aliens were Katar Hol, from Thanaghar, and Kari Digby, from the planet Imsk.

Jack adapted the Thanagarian Nth-metal technology into a powered armor, adopting the codename Red Condor. Differently from his friends, he didn’t include size-shifting in his power set.

Marital/ Relationship status: Dating Melissa D’Anjou/ Rainbow.

Based on: Sam Wilson/ Falcon and War Machine/James Rhodes

 

-Blue Jay

Real name: Jay Abrams

History: Scientist Jay Abrams, alongside his wife Diane and their friend Jack Williams, found an alien spaceship that fell on the Arizona desert. Its two occupants died on the crash. Studying the ship’s technology, they found out that it came from the planet Thanagar. The aliens were Katar Hol, from Thanaghar, and Kari Digby, from the planet Imsk.

Crossing the Thanagarian tech on Nth-metal wings with the Imskian size-shifting abilities, Jay created a pair of wings that appeared whenever he shrinks (he wears a special suit that allows him to shrink). In his short size, he can fly very fast and emit a supersonic scream, thanks to a special speaker built in his mask’s beak.

Marital/ Relationship status: Married to Diane Abrams/ Katydid

Based on: Yellowjacket/ Hank Pym

 

-Rainbow

Real name: Melissa D’Anjou

History: Melissa is another scientist from Delta Labs and a friend of David Dibble. She was part of the team who saved the life of the superheroine Power Prism (Kimyio Hoshi), from the group known as Excellent Ensemble. She analyzed the prism, while the others performed a surgery on Kimyio. During the analysis, she was hit by a rainbow-colored beam from the prism. She seemed OK and unaffected, so he concluded the analysis and the info helped to save Kimiyo.

Later on, she discovered that the beam gave her light-based superpowers. A grateful Power Prism designed a costume for Melissa.

Marital/ Relationship status: Dating Jack Williams/ Red Condor.

Based on: Captain Marvel/ Photon/ Spectrum/ Monica Rambeau.

Note: Her codename Rainbow, besides being a reference to Spectrum and her light-based powers, also has a phonetic similarity with the source material’s surname “Rambeau”. 

 

On land:

-Golden Bow

Real name: Cynthia “Cindy” Burton

History: Cindy, an orphan, was adopted by Olympic archer Malcolm Merlyn. He taught her archery skills, hoping she’d follow his steps.

After Malcolm died in the crossfire of a gang war, Cindy became the vigilante Golden Bow. After almost two years operating solo, she was recruited by General Glory to join the Assemblers. 

Marital/ Relationship status: In a relationship with General Glory

Based on: Hawkeye

-Tomorrow Woman

Real name: Clara Kendall

History: Tomorrow Woman is originally from Universe-0, being a gynoid created by the evil scientists Professor Ivo and T. O. Morrow to infiltrate the Justice League. During her time in the JL, the team met the five Assemblers that went to U-0 for a misson (check General Glory’s entry for details). After some cooperation, the League and the Assemblers became friends.

Tomorrow Woman (or TW, for short), who was already questioning her mission because she was beginning to enjoy her missions with the League, decided to really change sides after she and Silver Sorceress fell in love with each other. Morrow considered her free will an evidence of his ability to create a really complex artificial intelligence. 

Ivo tried to force her original programming to be executed anyway (to Morrow’s horrified surprise), remotely activating an EMP generator inside her. When she noticed what was going to happen, she flew upwards in high speed before the detonation. Sensing what was going to happen, the Sorceress used her powers to protect her lover. It apparently failed when TW disappeared in an explosion, but, after the Assemblers retuned to U-13, they met her alive and well: Silver Sorceress’ powers actually worked, changing the EMP mechanism into a transdimensional portal generator , which led to U-13 because TW’s sensors registered that universe’s vibrational signature in the Sorceress’ energy.

Deciding to stay in U-13, Tomorrow Woman adopted the civilian identity of Clara Kendall, a subtle reference/ homage to a friend from U-0, Clark Kent a.k.a. Superman. Some months after, she married Silver Sorceress.    

Marital/ Relationship status: Married to Silver Sorceress.

Based on: The Vision, although it may not have been the original intention. Regardless of it, she shares some similarities with him: both were created by villains and programmed to infiltrate a superhero team, but ended up liking the team, overcoming their programming and becoming true heroes. Bonus points for the sharing the green-and-yellow color scheme.  

 

-Silver Sorceress

Real name:  Laura Cynthia Neilsen

History: She’s the daughter of Hans Lekter, also known as Doctor Diehard. She was given for adoption as a baby. When she was a teenager, she discovered she had magic powers and went to Alexander Zavior’s Institute to learn how to control those powers. There, when she underwent a genetic test so that the resident scientists could learn more about her powers, it was discovered a genetic similarity with another metahuman: Harold Christos a.k.a. Captain Speed. She learned that he’s her twin brother.

Marital/ Relationship status: Married to Tomorrow Woman

Based on: Scarlet Witch

Notes: She is one of the few characters to get a radical redesign. This is because, despite being named Silver Sorceress, her canon costume was actually gold and brown. The only silver element she had was her hair, which was usually covered by a weird headgear. Then, I decided to give her a costume more in tune with her codename. Her relationship with Tomorrow Woman mirrors Scarlet Witch’s romance with Vision.

 

-Behemoth

Real name: David Dibble

History: David was a scientist who was trying to create a way to enhance human strength, as a project to the secret research center known as Delta Labs (U-13 analogue to Project Cadmus). He used a crystal known as Blue Flame Talisman as a power source of an experimental machine he created for his project and decided to test it on himself to impress his love interest, a scientist known as Laura Fields.    

The experiment was sabotaged by a jealous coworker, who overloaded the machinery. As a result, David was transformed into a giant blue man having a toddler’s proportions, being very angry and unable to talk. With Laura’s help, he was able to revert back. With some adjustments, he managed to retain some degree of intelligence (still low, but better than the mindless, beastlike state from the first transformation) and the ability to talk (simple sentences in third person) in further transformations. It’s been theorized that Behemoth’s toddler proportions result from Dibble’s subconscious regression when he noticed the experiment was overloaded, as a defense mechanism.

Marital/ Relationship status: Married to Laura Fields.

Based on: Hulk

Notes: I “borrowed” him from Grant Morrison’s canon version of Earth-8, in which he was part of the Retaliators. I placed him here because he one of the few characters who got an original name in the source material, then not fitting to have a mainstream-DC counterpart as the rest of my version of the Retaliators. As it seems to be the case in Morrison’s version, his name David is a reference to the TV series The Incredible Hulk (1977–1982), in which Hulk’s alter ego was named David instead of Bruce. Following that reference, his love interest Laura Fields is named after the two wives the series’ protagonist had: Laura Banner and Carolyn Fields.  

 

-General Glory

Real name:  Joseph Jones

History: Joe Jones gained his powers from the entity known as Lady Liberty. He had a sidekick known as Ernie, who supposedly died in a battle against the Nazi villain Crimson Cranium. He went on a seemingly suicide mission in the 1950’s and was believed dead as a result of the explosion of a villain’s machinery.

The machinery, however, was a time machine prototype. The explosion destroyed the prototype, but also catapulted Joe forward to 2005. He joined the already existing Assemblers (which consisted in only four: Silver Sorceress, Captain Speed, Blue Jay and Wandjina).

When he discovered Ernie was alive in Universe-0, he led the Assemblers’ founders in a mission to find and rescue him. Not wanting to leave U-13 unassisted, he recruited other heroes.   

Ernie, now a transwoman known as Ernestina, returned with the group to U-13, operating under the codename Summer Warrior.  

Marital/ Relationship status: In a relationship with Golden Bow

Based on: Captain America

Notes: The role of Earth-8’s analogue to Captain America, in canon, was given to Americommando. I decided to discard him and use General Glory instead, mostly because I knew more about the latter than about the former.  His shield is based on the logo of Marvel’s organization S.H.I.E.L.D., usually associated to Captain America.

 

-Wandjina

Real name: Leonard Grant

History: Leonard is an Australian man who had rejected his Aboriginal ancestry in his teen years, until his maternal grandfather gave him a gift, few days before he died of old age. The gift was a mystical axe.

When he lifted the axe, he was transported to a mystical realm when he met the elemental spirit known as Wandjina, who imbued him with knowledge about his ancestry and the Aboriginal culture. Leonard decided to honor his roots and Wandjina granted him power over the elements, also suggesting that Leonard should use the entity’s name as his codename.

Based on: Thor

Marital/ Relationship status: Single, dating men on occasion.

Note: His real name comes from his version from Countdown: Lord Havok and the Extremists, a spin-off of Countdown to Final Crisis, from 2007 (in his original appearance, “Wandjina” was his only name). His homosexuality also comes from there.

 

-Captain Speed

Real name: Harold Christos

History: He is the son of Hans Lekter, also known as Doctor Diehard. He was given for adoption as a baby. When he was a teenager, he discovered he had superspeed and went to Alexander Zavior’s Institute to learn how to control his speed.

There, when he underwent a genetic test so that the resident scientists could learn more about his powers, it was discovered a genetic similarity with another metahuman: Laura Neilsen, a.k.a. Silver Sorceress. He learned that she’s his twin sister.

Marital/ Relationship status: Divorced from Dinah Lance/ Starling, from the Excellent Ensemble (long story).

Based on: Quicksilver

Notes: He and his sister have their hair color swapped in comparison to their Marvel’s inspirations: his hair is brownish red, like Scarlet Witch’s, while her color is silver like Quicksilver’s. This dates from their canon appearances in DC’s books, I’m just following it.

 

-Katydid

Real name: Diane Abrams

History: Scientist Diane Abrams, along with her husband Jay and their friend Jack Williams, found an alien spaceship that fell on the Arizona desert. Its two occupants died on the crash. Studying the ship’s technology, they found out that it came from the planet Thanagar. The aliens were Katar Hol, from Thanaghar, and Kari Digby, from the planet Imsk.

She combined the Thanagarian tech on Nth-metal wings with the Imskian size-shifting abilities and created a suit that allowed her to shrink. By rubbing her wings together, she can produce a very strident sound. The spikes in her gloves and boots are sharp and can be thrown at enemies.

Marital/ Relationship status: Married to Jay Abrams/ Blue Jay.

Based on: Wasp