Earth 1 and Earth 2 are both well-protected by their heroic organizations, the Justice League and the Justice Society of America, respectively. Meanwhile, Earth 3’s superheroes are actually supervillains, so they are not as fortunate. Instead of the League, they have founded the Crime Syndicate, a super-criminal-run organization.
These supervillains are the League members’ evil doppelgängers. Because they are the opposites of well-known people, you may expect their storylines to be eerily similar but somewhat different, akin to what you would expect from a mirror dimension.
The Crime Syndicate first appeared in DC Comics in 1964. The Syndicate has developed and its plots have varied across the various continuities generated by the Crisis events and Flashpoints. That is precisely the purpose of today’s video.
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Crime Syndicate: Debut Comic Appearance
The Crime Syndicate appeared for the first time in the twenty-ninth issue of Justice League of America, created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Mike Sekowsky.
With the multiverse already set up in the DC Comics, fans got their first insight into the world of Earth 3 after getting acquainted with Earth 1’s Justice League of America and Earth 2’s Justice Society of America. In this new world, the supervillains of the Crime Syndicate rule over their world instead of protecting it from evil.
The five villains who run the Syndicate are Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick, and Power Ring. They are all criminals of the highest order and are a menace to their society – a society where most of the metahumans are the bad guys. And there’s no one strong enough to oppose them. With the lack of opposition, the Syndicate realizes that their combat skills and battle instincts are getting rusty.
At a crime scene, Ultraman comes across Kryptonite, the mineral that strengthens his abilities. The amplification gives him access to the new dimensions and Ultraman learns about the Justice League in Earth One. He relays the information to the Crime Syndicate and they decide to take on the League for a good fight and some combat practice. Naturally, Owlman is the one who comes up with a strategy and they head to Earth 1.
The members begin to loot museums, jewelry stores, banks, and the U.S. Treasury. The Justice League gets news of this and heads to fight the supercriminals. Each member of the League goes against a member of the Syndicate but due to the League’s higher experience, they manage to overwhelm the Syndicate with some wit and effort. However, Owlman’s contingency plan comes in handy and both groups are suddenly transported to Earth 3, where the Syndicate defeats the League. On realizing that each group was more powerful on their home turf, the Syndicate proposes that they fight on Earth 2 for a neutral battle, oblivious to the fact that the Justice Society of America is already aware of this and are preparing to fight the new threat.
History Of The Crime Syndicate
The Crime Syndicate was first introduced in the Silver Age. In this continuity, Earth-Three was introduced for the first time as the place where Columbus, an American, had discovered Europe and George Washington was a traitor to the American Revolution. Instead of the Watchtower, they had the Eyrie of Evil and instead of protecting the world, they wanted to rule over it. The events of their debut comic which we just discussed had taken place during this time.
After the Syndicate goes against both the Justice League and the Justice Society, they are ultimately defeated. They are then trapped in an indestructible bubble created by Green Lantern’s power ring, after which, they are placed in a limbo that exists between the parallel Earths across the multiverse. The bubble also sported warning signs in several languages that warned beings passing through the limbo from freeing the members of the Syndicate.
In the Guardian or Post-Crisis of Infinite Earths continuity, the story deviates significantly from its Silver Age counterpart. Here, the ex-wife of Maxwell Lord, Claire Montgomery, wishes to rebuild a superhero team called the Conglomerate. She hires Norman the Doorman, a metahuman who can open portals to other dimensions, to help her find heroes. This is when they find their members who are then taken to the main universe to be a part of her organization – Slipstream, Fiero, Deadeye, Elasti-Man, Frostbite, scarab, and Element Man. And this is all done with the intention of going against the Justice League International in a charity athletics competition.
During the matches against the League, the members of the New Conglomerate fight rougher than necessary instead of engaging in a friendly fight. Hal Jordan, who watches the matches on TV, recognizes the new members as the members of the villainous Qwardian Syndicate. He notifies the League about it and fights the Qwardians. Ultimately, they are taken back into a portal.
In the Modern Age continuity, we are taken to the antimatter universe of Qward, a place where Earth One is much more sinister than Earth-Three. The Crime Syndicate runs this Earth and wishes to dominate the Universe. They are synchronized with the alternate versions of themselves i.e. the League and reverse mirror their heroic habits.
Meanwhile, Ultraman, Superman, and the likes are the good guys instead of the bad guys, and together, they fight the Syndicate. Ultimately, they manage to send them back to their universe.
In the Post-Infinite Crisis storyline, Alexander Luthor Jr. tries to fix the multiverse. He works alongside the Earth Two’s Superman and the Prime Earth’s Superboy Prime from the Pre Crisis era. At the same time, Power Girl gets involved with the Crime Syndicate and is the only one who can see them, so there’s this ambiguity around their presence here. And all of this happens because the Syndicate thinks that Power Girl is originally from Earth 3 and is Ultraman’s cousin. However, the multiverse is ultimately merged back as New Earth.
Following the Flashpoint, it is revealed that the multiverse still exists. The Syndicate appears again in the New 52 continuity after the Trinity War causes Pandora’s Box to open. With the opening of the Box, a portal was created, allowing the members of the Crime Syndicate to appear. It is revealed that the Pandora’s Box isn’t a mythological legend but something that exists as a result of the science in Earth 3, the birthplace of evil. Here, the Syndicate defeats the League and ravages the world.
Three other members are introduced. Grid (the evil version of Cyborg), Deathstorm (the evil version of Firestorm), and Atomica (the evil version of Atom). Atomica was a part of the Justice League but she actually worked as a spy for the Syndicate.
After the events of Dark Nights: Metal, where Batman finds a dark multiverse underneath the DC multiverse, the multiverse was reborn, and with it, so was a new Earth 3 with a Crime Syndicate similar to the one from the New 52 continuity.
The Crime Syndicate Founding Members: Backstory Explored
As the members from a world where they behave like the opposites of their heroic counterparts, the Syndicate members also happen to have origin stories that are slightly altered. To get a better understanding of it, let’s get down to how each of them came to be.
Ultraman
Kal-II hails from the dying planet of Krypton Three. His father, Jor-II, was a maniac who set events into motion that garnered the attention of the Anti-Monitor, the destroyer of Krypton. However, Jor-II was able to save his son by sending him off in a life pod. He hoped for him to be his best chance at revenge.
In the pod, Kal-II was indoctrinated with Jor-II’s malignant morals. He was brainwashed to eradicate all of his weaknesses and become the strongest. It then crash-landed in Smallville where he met the dysfunctional Kent couple and forced them to be his parents. The remaining bits of Krypton from the pod powered Kal-II into the Man of Steel of Earth 3.
After he turned seven, he killed the Kents and burnt down the farm, becoming the supercriminal that we know as Ultraman. He murdered the President of the United States and formed the infamous Crime Syndicate as he wished to take over the Earth.
The Dark Nights: Death Metal arc created a new Earth 3 where Ultraman’s origin was altered. His name was changed to Kal-El and after he crashed into Earth, he was raised by the Kents who exploited him for his powers. They made him partake in labor without compensation, forced him to be obedient, and manipulated him to become emotionally dependent on the Kents.
However, when he learned his truth about being the last Kryptonian, he realized that he had been toyed with and went his own way.
He’s endowed with the same abnormal strength as his heroic counterpart from Earth 1, with slight differences here and there. Unlike Superman, Ultraman is powered by the radiation of Krypton, which explains his invulnerability to the Kryptonite. Meanwhile, his new 52 version is vulnerable to yellow sunlight. This is why, he pushes the moon to eclipse the Sun after landing on Earth.
He has the same superhuman strength, speed, durability, and stamina as Superman. His powerful hearing, enhanced vision such as infrared, microscopic, and X-Ray vision, and powers such as heat vision and freeze breath make him the strongest there is in his world.
Ultraman has one huge weakness and it is more psychological than physical. The man is a coward, thanks to Jor II’s brainwashing that asks him to be nothing less than the strongest. That’s why, when a good guy Alexander Luthor neutralizes his powers by exposing him to the yellow sunlight, Ultraman has a massive breakdown.
Owlman
The evil version of Batman, i.e. Owlman is originally known as Thomas Wayne Jr. He had a sibling known as Bruce Wayne.
Thomas Jr. did not like how his parents managed their wealth. So one day, he decided to murder them. He tried to persuade Bruce to join him for the murder but Bruce hesitated during the main event. Thomas Jr. considered this to be a sign of his weakness and killed his only brother. Meanwhile, his butler Alfred killed Thomas and Martha Wayne and disposed off their bodies.
Despite being okay with the self-orchestrated death of his parents, Thomas Jr. was deeply saddened by the death of Bruce, the only one he truly loved. And this left a void in his heart.
Time went by and Thomas Jr. started to assert his power over Gotham City as Owlman. He threatened, blackmailed, and bribed all the important people of the city to reign supreme. He also realized that in a world of metahumans, regular humans needed to instill fear into people to rule over them.
Later, he met Richard Grayson at a circus. Thomas Jr. considered him to have the potential to fill in the void in his heart left by Bruce’s death. To fulfill his objective, he murdered Grayson’s family and convinced him to become his right-hand man Talon. However, Talon wasn’t made aware of how his parents died until Thomas Jr. himself revealed it to him when Talon got too close to the truth. Enraged, Talon killed Owlman’s greatest enemy, the Joker, to assert his superiority over Owlman. Too bad Talon died not long after and Owlman was all alone once again.
As a part of the Crime Syndicate, he helped his fellow super-criminals dominate their world.
Following the Earth 3 reset after the Dark Nights: Death Metal arc, Thomas Jr.’s origin story gets a reboot. Here, the criminals Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed by a Gotham City resident who was never found, resulting in Thomas Jr. training diligently. However, it was revealed that Harvey Bullock killed the Waynes under orders from Boss Gordon. Gordon wanted revenge on the Waynes as the Waynes had caused Gordon’s son to die. This shattered Thomas Jr.’s idea of his parents and his goal to bring justice. He ultimately dropped Harvey Bullock from a tall building and adopted a nihilistic personality.
Following this, he built his army and instilled fear in the people. He murdered his enemies and the metahumans of Gotham City in cold blood. As a part of the Crime Syndicate, he kept the other metahumans in line.
Owlman’s abilities are similar to that of Batman – which reminds us of that Justice League live-action movie where the Flash asks Bruce about his superpowers and Bruce replies with a curt, ‘I’m rich.
Owlman boasts a genius-level intellect, insane business management skills, stellar skills in martial arts, expensive equipment, and incredible net worth.
Superwoman
The Earth 3 counterpart of Wonder Woman is an Amazonian who betrayed and deserted her fellow Amazonians from her universe’s Paradise Island to go to the outside world. Far from being compassionate like Wonder Woman, the Earth 3 Amazonian was anything but heroic. The character has also seen a fair number of changes in her origin, considering all the many reboots of the Universe.
She is more twisted in the antimatter universe of Qward where she leaves the Damnation Island after killing off every other Amazonian. She then adopts Lois Lane as her alias and begins to work as a reporter at the Daily Planet. Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the real Lois Lane is ambiguous.
In the New 52 continuity, a very strange dynamic was created between her and her potential baby daddies. She was in a toxic and dysfunctional relationship with Ultraman. At the same time, she had an affair with Owlman behind Ultraman’s back and allegedly got pregnant with his child. However, the real baby daddy was neither Ultraman nor Owlman. In fact, it was Alexander Luthor, a.k.a. good guy Lex Luthor who was one of Earth 3’s few heroes. Superwoman also posed for overtly sexual photographs to make James Olsen carry out favors for her.
Her backstory is changed once again in the Infinite Frontier arc where she has killed Diana as an alternate version of Donna Troy. And the Amazons in general aren’t super benevolent either. Instead, they like to assert and show off their power over others.
When it comes to her powers, she is almost equally matched with Wonder Woman. She has superhuman strength, stamina, and durability. She can also fly and is immortal but, her immortal was later stripped away, which is why she often sports a white streak of hair. Superwoman is able to use heat vision like Superman and Ultraman. Instead of the Lasso of Truth, she wields the Lasso of Submission with which she bent others to her will. The lasso released people off their inhibitions and could also change its form to mold itself into whatever Superwoman desired it to be.
Johnny Quick
He is Earth 3’s evil super speedster who does not get much of an introduction in the Silver Age barring his involvement with the Crime Syndicate.
In the New 52 reboot, his real name was revealed to be Jonathon Allen. He was a high-profile thief and killer who worked alongside Rhonda Pineda. After killing two cops, they found themselves cornered atop the roof of S.T.A.R. Labs in Central City when a bolt of lightning hit a satellite and electrocuted Jonathon. This gave him his abilities as a speedster. Meanwhile, Rhonda had fallen into a lab where Ray Palmer had his Atomico work set up, causing her to gain the powers of Atom.
After the Dark Nights: Death Metal arc, he was revealed to be a criminal who worked with his girlfriend. Similar to the New 52 storyline, they got cornered on the rooftop of S.T.A.R. Labs. A bolt of lightning then struck Jonathon, causing the room to break. He landed in a lab space below, surrounded by vials and containers of chemicals that had been broken because of the sudden impact. This gave him the powers of a speedster while his girlfriend when through a similar experience to become Atomica.
After becoming metahumans, he would go on crime sprees with his girlfriend. They also joined the Crime Syndicate together.
He has powers similar to the Flash such as accelerated speed, healing, superhuman stamina, durability, a connection to the Speed Force, phasing, being ability to create vortexes, and the likes.
However, in the antimatter universe, there’s a particular drug called the Speed Juice that he requires to access his powers. It was apparently made using the blood of his predecessor. Meanwhile, his character is the evil version of Wally West’s. Johnny Quick also suffers from his terrible addiction to the juice.
Power Ring
In the Pre-Crisis era, Power Ring had been given the ring by a monk known as Volthoom. However, he really gets more exposure as a more fleshed-out character in the New 52 continuity.
Unlike Hal Jordan who refuses to bow down to fear, Harold Jordan from Earth 3 is an extremely cowardly man. He wields the Ring of Volthoom, a ring that feeds off his fear to give him his powers.
Before he had gotten the ring, he worked as a janitor in a private firm in Coast City known as Ferris Aircraft. One day, a competitor business hired Jordan as a spy to get information about Ferris Aircraft. However, while spying, Harold was caught by Carl Ferris, the father of his company’s C.E.O, Carol Ferris. The single moment caused Harold to go into fear so terrible that the Ring of Volthoom powered up beyond comprehension and incinerated Carl and then flew Harold to where its current holder was.
There, he met a dying Abin Sur, who was also weak-willed, unlike his Earth-One counterpart. Sur offered his ring to Harold Jordan. The ring finally flew into Harold’s finger and he became the Power Ring. Abin eventually died, mainly because the ring had terrible physical effects on him.
As a powerful being with the power ring, Harold became a crime lord, later joining the Crime Syndicate.
After the multiverse got rebooted following Dark Nights: Death Metal, the Earth 3 Green Lanterns were changed to being called the Emerald Knights – an interplanetary police force like the Green Lantern Corps. They were the sworn enemies of the Starros of their universe.
Here, John Stewart is a police officer who takes a hefty loan from a loan shark to afford an expensive surgery for his daughter, Liza. He manages to pay off the debt but the loan shark still tries to control John. He would even commit terrible crimes right in front of his eyes.
One day, he beat up the guy’s son when a power ring appeared in front of him and offered him to be one of the Emerald Knights. John accepted the offer to protect himself and Liza, and to enforce what he considered to be justice. With his new superpowers, he killed corrupt officials and criminals alike in Coast City.
His powers are also similar to that of the Green Lantern such as constructing energy, flight, and projection. Interestingly, his weakness of cowardice is also the reason why gets stronger, since the ring feeds off fear for power.
Mind-Blowing Story Of The Crime Syndicate In Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths (2010)
The 2010 animated movie Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths brought the Crime Syndicate against the Justice League once again.
On Earth 3, the Crime Syndicate rules with an iron fist. They have thousands of criminals working under them and occasionally, demonstrate their powers over the innocent to assert their dominance. Due to their domineering strength, there is no one to oppose them, except a certain Mr. Alexander Luthor and the Jester.
With a minimal threat to their existence, the Crime Syndicate builds the Quantum Eigenstate Device or the Q.E.D. to blackmail the governments into letting them rule. However, the device’s detonator, the Quantum Trigger, gets stolen by Luthor and the Jester. Jester dies in the process and Luthor escapes to Earth 1 using a device that allows interdimensional travels.
Luthor is captured by the Earth 1 cops as they believe him to be the evil Lex Luthor. However, when Superman arrives and uses his X-Ray vision, it is revealed that this Luthor is from a parallel universe. He is then taken to the Watchtower where he explains the situation to the Justice League, prompting them to travel to Earth 3. However, Batman stays back.
The League began to conduct raids on Earth 3, making the Syndicate less of a threat, and ultimately, they capture Ultraman. Meanwhile, Owlman is done developing the Q.E.D., the only device that will let the Syndicate neutralize the threats of the nuclear warheads and prevent them from having to bribe the top officials of the world with billions of dollars.
Owlman decides to use the weapon to destroy Earth-Prime, the place every other universe originated from, as he wishes to instigate a chain reaction that will erase the multiverse altogether. He sends some of his allies to procure the Quantum Trigger from Earth 1that Luthor had stolen. However, Batman follows them back to Owlman.
When the League gets news of the events, they battle the Syndicate while Owlman is defeated by Batman on Prime Earth.
Batman returns to the Earth run by the Syndicate where they finally get Ultraman, Superwoman, and Power Ring arrested by the President and the Marines.
If you’re interested in knowing more about them, you’re going to have to read the comics and watch the movie. Considering how exciting the concept of the Crime Syndicate is, it is possible that DC will expand on its sinister counterparts and dive into it deeper than ever before.
And with that, today’s video comes to an end. What did you think of the Crime Syndicate? Did you enjoy this video? If yes, then don’t forget to like and comment on this video. Till then, goodbye. And have a nice one!