The Fatal Five first appear in The Death of Ferro Lad as a band of super-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 in Legionnaires (1993) has the SW6 Legion face a Fatal Five comprising Tharok, Mano, the Persuader, a new Emerald Empress, and a monstrous being called Mordecai.
Zero Hour
Following the Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!, which reboots the Legion's continuity, the original Fatal Five are reintroduced in Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 4) #78 (1996), again assembled to help fight the Sun-Eater, which was later revealed to not exist. Notably, 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 the Teen 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]
One Year Later
In The Brave and the Bold, Epoch takes a version of the Fatal Five to the present day to assist him in gaining a powerful weapon. After Batman and Blue 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.
Mano is a mutant with the ability to generate deadly antimatter 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 metaphoric or intangible things, such as air, gravity, and the barriers between dimensions.[8]
Tharok
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 with the Legion of Super-Heroes, and the Fatal Five disband. However, Tharok is resurrected in subsequent reboots of the Legion's continuity.[13][14][15]
Validus
Validus is a monstrous members 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 be Garridan Ranzz, the son of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, who Darkseid kidnapped and transformed into a monster shortly after his birth.[17] Eventually, Validus is returned to his human form, with a similar enigmatic 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 who is also known as the Lord of Lightning.[18][19]
The original Fatal Five appear in Legion of Super Heroes, with Sarya / Emerald Empress voiced by Jennifer Hale in the first season and Tara Strong in the second, Tharok by David Lodge, Persuader by David Sobolov, and Mano and Validus having no dialogue.[20][21][22] This version of the group is co-led by the Emerald Empress and Tharok. In the second season, Imperiex frees the Fatal Five from prison, taking in Validus and Persuader, while Emerald Empress is depowered and abandoned after Matter-Eater Lad destroys the Emerald Eye of Ekron.
^"The Fight for the Championship of the Universe!" Adventure Comics #366 (March 1968)
^Greenberger, Robert; Pasko, Martin (2010). The Essential Superman Encyclopedia. Del Rey. pp. 307–308. ISBN978-0-345-50108-0.
^Wells, John (2014). American Comic Book Chronicles: 1965-1969. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 173. ISBN978-1605490557.
^Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 308. ISBN978-1-4654-5357-0.
^Greenberger, Robert; Pasko, Martin (2010). The Essential Superman Encyclopedia. Del Rey. p. 437. ISBN978-0-345-50108-0.
^Greenberger, Robert; Pasko, Martin (2010). The Essential Superman Encyclopedia. Del Rey. pp. 457–458. ISBN978-0-345-50108-0.
^Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Manning, Matthew K.; McAvennie, Michael; Wallace, Daniel (2019). DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle. DK Publishing. p. 154. ISBN978-1-4654-8578-6.
^ abc"Emerald Empress Voices (Legion of Super-Heroes)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved April 21, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
^ abc"Persuader Voices (Legion of Super-Heroes)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved April 21, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
^ abc"Tharok Voices (Legion of Super-Heroes)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved April 21, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
