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33-923: The first version of the Squadron Sinister is formed by the Elder of the Universe known as the Grandmaster , and used as pawns to battle the champions of the time-traveling Kang the Conqueror , superhero team the Avengers . The Grandmaster creates four villains— Doctor Spectrum , Hyperion , Nighthawk , and the Whizzer —to face heroes Iron Man , Thor , Captain America and Goliath (Clint Barton). In interviews, Thomas and Jerry Bails have stated that

66-559: A black hole and pass through it into a mystical universe. Two Elders avoid the wrath of Galactus and his hunger, The Contemplater and the Obliterator. Both meet with each other being seemingly the last known surviving Elders and plot their revenge against the universe. Despite this setback, the eight Elders continue their plot against Galactus. While the five Elders within Galactus inflict a fatal case of "cosmic indigestion" upon him,

99-631: A boxing match. While he did have them use his personal gym to prepare, the Champion of the Universe had to disqualify Namor when he refused to stoop to training and Doc Samson , whom the Champion declared to not be a worthy opponent. The day of the boxing match came around as the Champion of the Universe faces off against his opponents. After disqualifying Thor , Hulk , and Wonder Man for different reasons and defeating by knockout Colossus and Sasquatch in hand-to-hand combat, he faces Benjamin Grimm of

132-495: A lifespan measured in billions of years. In their particular fields of endeavor (i.e. Grandmaster in strategy, Caregiver in medicine), they have essentially unrivaled superhuman levels of talent and expertise. Several Elders of the Universe appear in media set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe . Supervillain A supervillain or supercriminal is a variant of the villainous stock character . It

165-659: A mutually beneficial agreement regarding ownership of the Iso-Sphere prompts the Elders into holding a winner-takes-all Contest of Champions which all but the Grandmaster and Collector are eventually eliminated from. During the "No Surrender" arc, it was revealed that one Elder of the Universe originally went by the name of Grandmaster before being defeated by En Dwi Gast and banished from the Earth-616 reality. Because of

198-669: A new costume and the alias the Speed Demon . The Grandmaster reappears and reforms the Squadron Sinister: an apparently resurrected Hyperion; a new Dr. Spectrum ( Alice Nugent , a former lab assistant of Hank Pym), Nighthawk and the Speed Demon. Courtesy of a phenomenon known as the Wellspring of Power – an interdimensional source of superhuman abilities – the Grandmaster increases the team's power, and they battle

231-583: A new version of the Squadron Sinister. Courtesy of a phenomenon known as the Wellspring of Power—an interdimensional source of superhuman abilities—the Grandmaster increases the Squadron Sinister's powers and they battle the superhero team the New Thunderbolts. The Grandmaster is defeated by Baron Helmut Zemo , and the Squadron Sinister scatter and escape. Champion has an encounter with the heroine She-Hulk and aids her foe Titania by giving her

264-565: A promise to deliver Earth. The villains create a giant laser cannon in the Arctic , intending to melt the polar ice caps and cover the entirety of Earth's surface in water. The team the Defenders are alerted to the scheme by Nighthawk and defeat the villains and Nebulon, with Nighthawk reforming and joining the Defenders the following issue. After this defeat the three remaining members of

297-455: A way normal humans cannot. Other traits may include megalomania and possession of considerable resources to further their aims. Many supervillains share some typical characteristics of real-world dictators , gangsters , mad scientists , trophy hunters , corrupt businesspeople , serial killers , and terrorists , often having an aspiration of world domination . The Joker , Lex Luthor , Doctor Doom , Magneto , Brainiac , Deathstroke ,

330-531: Is pursued fanatically. While the characters are not truly cosmic entities, all have achieved some cosmic level of power and knowledge related to their particular pursuit. The first encounter with the heroes of Earth occurs when the Collector came to Earth seeking to expand his collection. Later, the Grandmaster created the supervillain team the Squadron Sinister as pawns to battle the champions of

363-430: Is sometimes found in comic books and may possess superhuman abilities. A supervillain is the antithesis of a superhero . Supervillains are often used as foils to present a daunting challenge to a superhero. In instances where the supervillain does not have superhuman, mystical, or alien powers, the supervillain may possess a genius intellect or a skill set that allows them to draft complex schemes or commit crimes in

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396-551: The Fantastic Four . Eventually realizing that the outmatched Grimm would never submit under any circumstances, the Champion concedes the match and offers Grimm his respect. A group of eleven Elders later join forces and meet on Ego the Living Planet (who is also regarded as an Elder) in an effort to kill the cosmic entity Galactus , which would cause the concepts Eternity and Death to become unbalanced and end

429-582: The Green Goblin , Loki , the Reverse-Flash , Black Manta , Ultron , Thanos , and Darkseid are some notable male comic book supervillains that have been adapted in film and television. Some notable female supervillains are Catwoman , Harley Quinn , Poison Ivy , Mystique , Hela , Viper , and the Cheetah . Just like superheroes, supervillains are sometimes members of groups, such as

462-827: The Injustice League , the Sinister Six , the Legion of Doom , the Brotherhood of Mutants , the Suicide Squad , and the Masters of Evil . In the documentary A Study in Sherlock , writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss said they regarded Professor James Moriarty as a supervillain because he possesses genius-level intelligence and powers of observation and deduction, setting him above ordinary people to

495-743: The Kree Empire, but is seemingly destroyed by the peace-loving alien Cotati . The five Elders that were previously consumed by Galactus (Champion, Collector, Gardener, Grandmaster, and Runner) are targeted by the Titan Thanos because they possess the Infinity Gems . Thanos humiliates each in turn (the Gardener is murdered) and captures the Gems. The Elder the Runner has an encounter with

528-709: The Astronomer, the Trader and the Possessor and his Runestaff are apparently disintegrated. The ship carrying Galactus is then thrown into the black hole and passes through to the mystical realm where the In-Betweeners's creators, Master Order and Lord Chaos , force the five Elders within Galactus to exit his body, restoring the world-devourer. During the subsequent battle between Galactus and the In-Betweener,

561-699: The Collector. The Grandmaster usurps control of Death's realm, and after a battle between the Avengers and the Grandmaster's champions—the Legion of the Unliving —is tricked by the Avengers. An angered Death then prevents the Elders from ever entering her realm, which effectively makes them immortal and is the Grandmaster's true goal. The Elder known as the Champion of the Universe has a brief encounter with many of Earth's strongest heroes and challenged them to

594-405: The In-Betweener attempts to kill Galactus, but discovers that he cannot do so. When he announces his intention to hurl Galactus into the black hole instead, the three Elders, who wanted to rescue their brother Elders from within Galactus, threaten him with the other five Infinity Gems to stop him. The In-Betweener responds by summoning Death and forcing her to negate them despite her vow. As a result,

627-645: The Multiverse being rebuilt, this Elder of the Universe returned where he took the name of Challenger and assembled his version of the Black Order to go up against Grandmaster and his Lethal Legion . The " Empyre " storyline introduced an Elder of the Universe called the Profiteer. Each Elder of the Universe possesses a fraction of what is referred to as the Power Primordial , remnants of

660-680: The New Thunderbolts. Thunderbolts team leader Baron Zemo defeats the Grandmaster and, in the ensuing chaos, the Squadron Sinister escape. An alternate version appears in the Secret Wars storyline, battling for control of zones of Battleworld . The team is systematically destroyed from within by a rogue member. Elder of the Universe The Elders of the Universe are a group of supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . The Collector

693-547: The Power Gem, currently in his possession. The Astronomer, Champion, Grandmaster, Judicator, and Runner traveled to the planet Godthab Omega, and witnessed the arrival of the Annihilation Wave . After Battleworld is destroyed at the conclusion of " Secret Wars ," the Elders examine the planet's remains, and find them to be teeming with Power Primordial in the form of an "Iso-Sphere". Their inability to come to

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726-574: The Squadron Sinister are teleported off-world by Nebulon, eventually returning with an energy-draining weapon. The villains plan to threaten Earth again, but are defeated once more by the Defenders and the Avenger Yellowjacket . During another brief encounter with several members of the Avengers - who seek a way to separate Doctor Spectrum's Power Prism from fellow Avenger the Wasp - the villains are revealed to have disbanded. Two members of

759-794: The Squadron make isolated appearances. Hyperion appears in the title Thor , battling the hero once again, and features in Marvel Two-in-One in an encounter with the Thing . Hyperion also travels to the Earth-712 universe and, after impersonating the Squadron Supreme's Hyperion for a time, dies in a heated battle with his counterpart. The title The Amazing Spider-Man showcases the Whizzer's return, where he returns to crime with

792-792: The Squadron was based on the DC Comics superhero team the Justice League of America , evoking the DC characters Green Lantern , Superman , Batman and the Flash respectively. The limited series Squadron Supreme , written by Mark Gruenwald , explains that the Grandmaster based the Squadron Sinister on the already existing Squadron Supreme of the Earth-712 universe. The similarities also caused confusion in Marvel's production department, as

825-433: The covers of The Avengers #85 (February 1971) and #141 (November 1975) "cover-blurbed" appearances by the Squadron Sinister, when in fact it was the Squadron Supreme that appeared in both issues. The Avengers eventually defeat the Squadron, and the Grandmaster abandoned them as a result. The Squadron reappear in the title The Defenders , reunited by the alien Nebulon . The villains receive greater power in exchange for

858-646: The hero Quasar during which the time being Eon describes the Runner as one of "the thousand or so Elders I'm aware of." Quasar also later confronts the Obliterator, the Possessor, and previously unknown Elders the Explorer, the Judicator and the Caregiver. It is also revealed that the Contemplator killed by Reptyl was in fact a Skrull , and not the true Contemplator. The Grandmaster reappears and creates

891-834: The point where only he can pose a credible threat to Sherlock Holmes . Fu Manchu is an archetypal evil criminal genius and mad scientist created by English author Sax Rohmer in 1913. The Fu Manchu moustache became integral to stereotypical cinematic and television depictions of Chinese villains. Between 1965 and 1969 Christopher Lee played Fu Manchu five times in film, and in 1973 the character first appeared in Marvel Comics . The James Bond arch-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld (whose scenes often show him sitting on an armchair stroking his cat, his face unseen) has influenced supervillain tropes in popular cinema, including parodies like Dr. Claw and M.A.D. Cat from

924-852: The primordial energies of the Big Bang that still permeate the universe. The Power Primordial can be used to produce a wide range of effects, including augmentation of physical attributes (strength, durability, speed), molecular restructuring, creation of force fields, teleportation and numerous other abilities. Some Elders have incorporated this power into their singular obsessions and developed its potential in themselves (i.e. Champion, Runner) while others have to varying degrees mixed that power with tools or resources their obsessions afforded them (i.e. Contemplator, Grandmaster, Obliterator) or even largely ignored it as irrelevant or detrimental to their pursuits (i.e. Gardener, Collector). Each Elder has developed skills related to their particular field of interest over

957-561: The quintet are eventually persuaded to help Galactus defeat his foe. Moments later, the five Elders use their Infinity Gems to instantaneously travel very far away from Galactus and his vengeance. Another Elder, the Contemplator, allies with the space pirate Captain Reptyl against the Silver Surfer, but is betrayed and apparently killed. The Contemplator is revealed to have survived—as a disembodied head—and goes on to attempt to rule

990-604: The three Elders in the mystical realm conspire with the cosmic entity the In-Betweener to restore him in exchange for him returning them to their home reality and his promise to kill Galactus. Using the Silver Surfer, Mister Fantastic , and the Invisible Woman (whom Galactus had sent in search of the Infinity Gems), the In-Betweener is restored, and he brings the Elders back to their own reality. Once there,

1023-487: The time-traveling Kang the Conqueror , the superhero team the Avengers . Although thwarted, the Grandmaster and his fellow Elders take an interest in Earth, and the Collector has two separate encounters with the Avengers, the second ending with his murder by the entity Korvac . The Grandmaster also tricks the entity Death into playing a contest—again involving many of Earth's heroes—that he deliberately loses to resurrect

Squadron Sinister - Misplaced Pages Continue

1056-479: The universe. The Elders believe since they are now immortal they would be the only beings to survive and would be supreme beings in the new universe. The plan, however, is thwarted by Galactus' Heralds the Silver Surfer and Nova . Galactus captures and consumes five of the Elders (Champion, Collector, Gardener, Grandmaster and Runner), but three other Elders ( Astronomer , Possessor and Trader) are sucked into

1089-611: Was the first Elder to appear, and featured in The Avengers #28 (May 1966), but the idea that he was a member of a group known as the Elders was not introduced until The Avengers #174 (Aug. 1978). The Elders of the Universe are the last survivors of otherwise extinct races. Each discovered that they had potentially infinite lifespans, dependent on maintaining the will to continue living. They are thus known for their personal obsessions (such as collecting, contests of strategy or strength, and various fields of study), each of which

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