Stormwatch

• First published 1993

After Isaiah King (also known as Despot) went insane, the United Nations and Henry Bendix (Weatherman One) decide to create the superhuman crisis team known as Stormwatch. This Image/Wildstorm Universe version of Stormwatch is a superhero organization sponsored by the United Nations and controlled by the Weatherman. The first group is known as Stormwatch Prime and its members consist of: Jackson King (Isaiah King's son) as Battalion, Flashpoint [Foster McClane], Nautika [Maya Royko], Sunburst [Karl Hansen], and Backlash [Mark Slayton]. Backlash becomes team leader, and he leads Stormwatch on a number of successful missions until all of the team except Battalion and Backlash fall to the enemy at the end of Desert Storm. From the remnants of this team, Stormwatch One is created with the lineup as follows: Battalion [Jackson King] as leader, Diva [Alessandra Fermi], Winter [Nikolas Andreyvitch Kamarov], Fuji [Toshiro Misawa], and Hellstrike [Nigel Keane]. For Stormwatch Two, Jackson King recruits Fahrenheit [Lauren Pennington], Ion [Pieter Van Tieg], Lancer [Manuel Gutierrez], Cannon [Mitchell Saunders], and Strafe [Malcolm King], his younger brother. This roster changes a number of times due to various factors, and when Henry Bendix returns to restructure Stormwatch (after the Fire From Heaven event), many of the members from the earlier teams are let go. He divides the remaining members into three teams: Stormwatch Prime: Fuji [Toshiro Misawa], Winter [Nikolas Andreyvitch Kamarov], and Hellstrike [Nigel Keane] Stormwatch Red: Flint [Victoria Santini], Rose Tattoo [Seraphine], and Fahrenheit [Lauren Pennington] Stormwatch Black: Jenny Sparks [Jennifer Sparks], Swift [Shen Li-Min], Jack Hawksmoor [John Cooper Hawksmoor] A fourth, secret StormWatch team is created by Bendix, which consists of Apollo [Andrew Pulaski], Midnighter [Lucas Trent], Amaze, Crow Jane [Rose Wild], Impetus, Lamplight [Lee Carver], and Stalker, but most die on their first mission out, leaving Apollo and Midnighter. Henry Bendix is revealed as insane and Jackson King is promoted to Weatherman. King merges Red and Prime into one group and allows Black to continue operations in private. When their base is destroyed, Stormwatch is disbanded, but the survivors go on to form new teams, the Authority and the Monarchy. Eventually a new Stormwatch team is also created: Team Achilles. Jackson King also starts the Stormwatch PHD (Post Human Division) team with resurrected members of the team which died in the Alien attack. They use tactics more than superpowers to conduct their missions. After the Flashpoint event, Stormwatch is reinvented as a secret spy organization which has existed in the shadows of the DCU since the middle ages (a modern Demon Knights), protecting the world from alien threats. Though most of the members do possess powers, they resist they label of "superhero" team. The first members of this iteration of Stormwatch are: The Engineer [Angela Spica], Jack Hawksmoor [John Cooper Hawksmoor], Jenny Quantum [Jennifer Emily Quantum], the Projectionist [Emma Rice], the Eminence of Blades [Harry Tanner], Martian Manhunter [J'onn J'onzz]. Apollo and Midnighter join this team later, and others leave, so the most current lineup consists of those two as well as the Engineer, Jack Hawksmoor, and Jenny Quantum.