Whatever Happened to the Conglomerate?

[DocQuantum]

Pt. 1

Ever heard of the Conglomerate? If you were around three years ago, you'd have heard of them. Back in late '85, the Conglomerate was hot stuff! In fact, for a while there, the Conglomerate was the most famous super-hero team around. Conglomerate Fever was an actual thing that people were coming down with. Even the vaunted JLA couldn't hold a candle to this brand-new team made for the '80s. Of course, the JLA had never been the same since all the top talent left the team, only to be replaced by a bunch of nobodies from Detroit. The Crisis cleared out that whole bunch, of course, so by late '85 the Justice League was nothing but a handful of has-been heroes.

The Conglomerate found a gap in the marketplace and exploited it for all it was worth. Those days were glorious. It was even better once the JLA started to recover. There was a real rivalry back then between the two teams that hasn't been seen before or since.

So why haven't you heard anything about the Conglomerate lately? Things just kinda died off around the Spring of '86, didn't they? Well, yes and no. The team actually lasted quite a while afterward, but by the end of 1987, it was done. The Conglomerate lost all its funding when Wall Street crashed. Black Monday was the death of the Conglomerate, but the truth was that the heart and soul of the team had died long before. The crash was just the nail in the coffin of a soulless organization that stood for nothing.

But I digress. Things weren't all that bad, to tell you the truth; they just weren't very good -- WE weren't very good. As a heroic team we were strictly second rate. As a hot commodity, we were junk bonds that were manipulated to rise quickly and fall just as fast. We made a few men rich, but a whole lot more people poor.

So if you remember the Conglomerate when we were big stuff, good for you. Your memory's better than most people's. For all the rest of you, this is how it began three years ago.

It was all Maxwell Lord's idea. The JLA was basically gone, and none of the other teams -- the Outsiders, the Teen Titans, the Global Guardians -- were ready to take its place. Sure, Captain Comet had that reformed super-villain team of his. I can't remember what their name was. The Rehab Squad? The Suicide Squad? It wasn't all that clear. Anyway, they renamed themselves the Forgotten Heroes not long after, so it doesn't matter now. Basically, the JLA was gone, while all the problems they usually faced were still around.

But Max Lord didn't see this as a problem. No, this was an opportunity. He would form his own team and do things his way. He recruited several second-tier heroes eager to make a name for themselves in a big way.

His first recruits were Guy Gardner, one of Earth's Green Lanterns, and Ted Kord, a scientist. Gardner had a chip on his shoulder a mile wide and liked to call himself the one, true Green Lantern. He was an easy sell, since he wanted to prove he was better than the original G.L., whoever he really was. Rather than use a mask, he (like John Stewart before him), wore his own name as proudly as he wore that gaudy-looking green and black jacket that was part of his costume.

Kord wasn't so easy to convince. He was just a scientist, after all. Why in the world would anyone ask HIM to be a super-hero, even if he was an old friend of his father's? Well, this was where Maxwell Lord's insider knowledge served him well.

You see, during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the worlds converged and joined as one for a period of twenty-four hours before separating once more. Our own world, which the super-heroes have always vainly called Earth-One, was briefly merged with a few other parallel universes. You might have heard of Earth-Two. You might even have heard of Earth-S, or even Earth-X. But did you know about Earth-Four? Me neither. The merge was so brief that we hardly learned anything about that strange world, except that there weren't any doubles of the typical super-heroes of our world, as far as we knew. No Superman. No Batman, no Wonder Woman, no Flash, or Green Lantern. Hell, no Ambush Bug. The most famous of the few heroes that lived there were Captain Atom, E-Man, and the Blue Beetle.

What Lord had discovered from this brief merger of worlds was that Ted Kord had a double on Earth-Four -- a very successful double who lived a double life of his own as a famous super-hero there. He was the Blue Beetle of Earth-Four, and like our own Ted Kord, he was a wealthy scientist and inventor who had applied his genius to create an amazing, scarab-shaped flying vehicle called the Bug. It was an amazing piece of engineering and an amazing super-heroic tool.

Although Lord had not personally witnessed this himself, he always had his ear to the ground, and one day he heard a very interesting story, one that others had dismissed as lunacy. During the twenty-four-hour merger of worlds, a homeless man in New York City had witnessed the Blue Beetle of Earth-Four in action. He knew who the hero was, of course -- we ALL knew about all the heroes of the world, because the timeline had been altered, so that we all believed that there was only one world, where the heroes of the last five Earths all lived together and had ALWAYS lived together.

So he wasn't surprised to see this hero in action. But a moment later he would be utterly terrified by the sight. What he saw was this: The Bug -- the hero's flying craft -- flew low over the city skyline to land in a nearby park. The homeless man was close enough to see the Blue Beetle emerge from the craft shortly after, and he wandered still closer to get a good look at this hero, whom he had always admired.

Well, you can only imagine his great confusion and ultimate terror when, upon reaching a distance of less than ten feet from the Blue Beetle, the flying craft called the Bug seemed to shimmer and shift as if made of nothing more than smoke. The hero himself shuddered and keeled over. The homeless man, whose name only Maxwell Lord knows, ran over and caught him. Up close, the Blue Beetle himself seemed to be shifting in and out of existence. But no, upon closer inspection, it was only his costume that was doing so. A moment later, both the Bug and the Blue Beetle's costume disappeared, leaving behind a very confused auburn-haired man in plain clothes and a homeless man holding him up.

The homeless man screamed in terror, and the auburn-haired man passed out. In a moment of utter confusion, the homeless man tried to recall who this man was and why he thought he knew him. He just kept saying to himself, "Beetle! Beetle! Beetle!" After the auburn-haired man failed to revive, the homeless man eventually managed to overcome his terror and start thinking for himself again. Fumbling through the man's jacket, he found his wallet and read the name on the driver's license. You guessed it -- the auburn-haired man who had briefly been the Blue Beetle was named Ted Kord. Apparently, Earth-Four DID have at least a few doubles on our world, only none of them were super-heroes.

By the time Maxwell Lord heard about it, the homeless man had used a blue marker to draw a mask over Ted Kord's face on his driver's license. With the man's story and the driver's license, Lord was able to guess that Kord was this world's double of the Earth-Four hero spotted during the Crisis, and the two had briefly been merged together as one person for a period of twenty-four hours. He had his people look further into Kord's history and discovered some very interesting tendencies that made the young scientist a good candidate to be a super-hero -- he had just never had any reason to become one. Lord provided him a reason and overcame his hesitation without too much trouble, and Ted Kord agreed to become the Beetle. All it cost Lord was a slight nosebleed.

The others came along swiftly -- the Global Guardians lost the Green Flame and Icemaiden to the Conglomerate, where they quickly changed their names to sound like a Las Vegas show -- Fire and Ice. Lord tried and failed to recruit Green Arrow, who went on to rejoin the JLA. But he was successful in recruiting another former JLAer -- Firestorm, the nuclear man. Sargon the Sorcerer and Animal Man rounded out the rest of the team.

And, like a true businessman, Maxwell Lord began a publicity campaign for his new team like nothing ever seen before or since for a super-hero team. He introduced the Conglomerate to the world during a televised press conference, and he laughed as the JLA followed suit with their own press conference. Lord was calling all the shots, and the JLA was playing right into his hands. He was on top of the world, and we all thought we were right there with him. How wrong we were.

Soon the Conglomerate had its first field mission when a terrorist threatened to destroy the United Nations Building with the bombs he had strapped to himself under his jacket. Despite never having worked together before, the fledgling new team was able to subdue this supposed suicide bomber before anyone was harmed. The media was there, of course, to film it all. And overnight, we were the most famous heroes in the world.

As we learned later on, it was all a lie. Lord himself had staged the entire fake terrorism plot. Although the false terrorist believed what he was doing was real, the truth was that he was nothing more than a lunatic with a few impressive-looking bombs strapped around his chest. There had been no danger at all. But none of that mattered, because the team had been there to soak up the media spotlight, and the JLA had missed the bus.

Then, just in time for Christmas, the Conglomerate got a new member -- General Glory, a supposed World War II-era hero who had been preserved in ice since the glory days of the 1940s, just like in the comics. But that was another lie, of course. General Glory was really Lobo, a psychotic killer who held a star-spanning reputation as a ruthless bounty hunter. Still, Lord managed to keep Lobo in check, even as his nosebleeds became more frequent. We should have guessed it at the time, but the truth was that Lord had a super-power of his own. He could talk almost anyone into doing almost anything he wished. The only giveaway that he was using his power on you was a nosebleed. If any of us had remembered Scanners, we should've remembered that film cliché. Oh, well.

General Glory became the star-spangled patriotic leader of the Conglomerate, and then the cash REALLY began raking in. We were kings of the world, and the good times would just keep on coming. Or so we thought at the time.

There were hiccups, of course. For example, Lobo briefly snapped under the pressure of being General Glory and knocked out Guy Gardner with one punch, only for Gardner to come to and get knocked out accidentally by Ice. When he awoke a second time, his personality had altered drastically. Whereas before he had been abrasive and arrogant, now he was thoughtful and sensitive, even going so far as to interfere in the Conglomerate's battle with the Royal Flush Gang led by Amos Fortune, insisting that violence wasn't the answer. That fight was staged, too, by the way, so we weren't in much danger. It was just annoying more than anything, a distraction from the rivalry with the JLA that Lord was trying to continue. But hell, it was worth it just to see how mad General Glory got.

The Beetle tried to restore Gardner's personality by arranging for him to see Fire step out of the shower, naked. Hijinks ensued. It was like living in a super-hero frat house. We had no idea what was soon in store for us. The devil was on his way...

[DocQuantum]

Pt. 2

By the end of January, the Conglomerate as led by General Glory -- Lobo in disguise -- was at the top of its game. We were raking in money from merchandising deals, and several corporate sponsors were outbidding each other in their efforts to sponsor the most high-profile super-hero team around. Kids begged their parents to buy Conglomerate merchandise, and they ate Conglomerate Cereal while watching the brand-new Conglomerate Saturday morning cartoon series. Hell, we even made a well-publicized appearance that year at the Louisiana Superdome during the Super Bowl!

Maxwell Lord seemed able to keep Lobo in check as General Glory, although there were a few outbursts. But Lobo had joined the team willingly for his own reasons. We would soon find out what those reasons were.

On the last day of January, all hell broke loose.

You might remember January 31st, 1986, as the day that the aliens invaded. This was a large-scale invasion that would only be dwarfed during the later invasion in the summer of '87 by the same Alien Alliance behind the first one. The universe had a beef with the Earth ever since it was the focal point during the Crisis, and our little blue planet had to endure a few invasions because of it. This one was the first since the Crisis.

What you might not remember is that, on that very same day, the Justice League of America was nowhere to be found. Yes, the JLA -- made up of the world's greatest heroes -- was absent during the Earth's greatest small-c crisis since the actual Crisis! And, truth to tell, the Conglomerate wasn't anywhere to be found, either. Why? That day was also the day when we were invaded by the Devil.

No, not the literal devil, but he might as well have been.

Let me back up a bit. Since its earliest days, the JLA had an alien enemy named Despero. You might have seen the iconic photograph of this magenta-skinned alien with a third eye on his forehead and a fin spanning from earlobe to earlobe playing chess against the Flash, while the other Justice League members were frozen in place. That Despero was an intelligent plotter, a game-master who sought to best his opponents with intelligence. He was the ruler of the planet Kalanor until the JLA defeated him, and a worthy foe with telepathic powers and the cunning of a classic villain.

That wasn't the Despero who came to Earth on the 31st of January, 1986.

You see, Despero had always sought power, and while he had been imprisoned on the famous prison planet of Takron-Galtos, mocked for his intellectual forays against the JLA, he had learned about a mystical source of energy called the Flame of Pytar, whose transformative powers could make him like unto a god. Needless to say, the idea appealed to the former tyrant of Kalanor.

According to the legend, anyone who once bathed in the Flame of Pytar would be granted power beyond imagining. Despero, never one to do things in half-measures, bathed in it twice and nearly died because of it. If only he had.

Instead, he was taken back to Takron-Galtos while unconscious. But that planet was no longer a prison to him, for when Despero awoke, no one was prepared for the sheer power that he held in his body. He had absorbed the power of the Flame of Pytar and possessed incredible physical and mystical power undreamed of. Easily breaking out of prison while managing to kill as many as he could, he stormed through the galaxy on his way to Earth, cutting a swath through several planetary systems on his way and making an enemy of more than a few.

One of these was Lobo, whose pet space dolphins were killed and injured by Despero as his body hurled through space at near-light speeds, heedless of any damage he might cause. After passing through space in a zigzag pattern through a series of wormholes that brought him to many of the major space civilizations around the galaxy, he finally zeroed in on Earth's solar system.

On January 31st, the Devil made landfall ten miles south of Macon, Georgia. The impact caused a minor earthquake, and geologists speculated that a meteor or even a small asteroid might have struck, since earthquakes were unknown in the area.

Much later on, the heroes would discover that the Alien Alliance had chosen to strike at precisely that moment because they knew that Despero had the power not only to keep the entire Justice League of America occupied, but also to kill them if he was lucky. With the world's greatest super-heroes kept busy fighting one of their oldest foes, it was left to the B-list heroes to battle the Alien Alliance. That hastiness was probably what caused the Alien Alliance to be defeated so quickly as well, but I digress...

Anyway, it wasn't just the JLA that ended up fighting Despero that day. The Conglomerate also got involved. And the two rival teams would end up fighting side by side against a monster with unbelievable power.

Animal Man -- a family man named Buddy Baker who had been a Hollywood stuntman when he gained the ability to mimic the abilities of animals -- had been tired of the way Max Lord ran the Conglomerate and wanted the team to react to real-life disasters like the heroic team they were supposed to be. Without telling Max about it, he gathered all of the members of the Conglomerate and headed down to Georgia.

We had no idea what was in store for us. For all we knew, it was just a meteor. But there were rumors all that morning about sightings of alien spacecraft, and to Buddy this sounded a lot like the opening scenes of War of the Worlds. In truth, by this time the Justice League of America had already reached Georgia and was in a desperate battle against the godlike Despero.

[DocQuantum]

Pt. 3

The Devil came down to Georgia, looking for a soul to steal. That corny phrase from a country song was a lot more true than you may realize. For a being much like the Devil had indeed come to Georgia, and a soul would be stolen.

But I digress. Where were we? Oh, right.

We -- the members of the Conglomerate -- were on our way to Georgia in the Conglomerate Flyer on a mission concocted by Animal Man. None of us except him knew at the time that Maxwell Lord had no idea we'd gone out on our own, but when he learned that we'd gone AWOL, Max was furious.

For our part, we had our suspicions that we weren't on one of Max's missions. After all, there were no cameras around, and Max always liked to keep us in the spotlight around New York City. But as I said, there had been rumors of alien spacecraft in the skies all that morning, and we were all eager to take on the little green men. Instead, we were to face a hulking, magenta-skinned Despero. But of course, we didn't know this at the time.

It was when Fire suddenly told the Beetle to land at a specific set of coordinates that he really became suspicious. After Animal Man urged him to follow Fire's direction, the Beetle became angered, knowing that the team wasn't following Max's direction at all right now. Since he owed his entire super-heroic career to his father's old friend Maxwell Lord (and was rather susceptible to Max's mind-control techniques more than anyone else), Ted Kord was the most loyal member of the Conglomerate and the one most likely to engage in corporate boosterism. He was a company man through and through. It didn't matter, though. He was outvoted and out-powered and was forced to land the Flyer just outside of Macon, where Guy Gardner (who was still sickeningly sweetness and light despite all our efforts to turn him back to his bad old self) transported us the rest of the way with his power ring.

So we rendezvoused with a few members of the Justice League ten miles south of Macon, where we were swiftly recruited into that team's battle plan against Despero. Did we ask to battle Despero? No. Did we want to battle Despero? Hell, no! We could have been out gaining more glory by taking on the Alien Alliance that day. But Despero was on the menu. And so was Death.

One look at the scattered bodies of the assorted members of the JLA should've given us a clue. One look at the transformed Despero, and we should have tucked our tails between our legs and fled. This was not your daddy's Despero.

Instead of the puny intellectual villain we'd come to recognize as the meanest, cheating-est chess-player in the cosmos, we were face to face with what looked like the Devil himself. (Am I building this up too much? I just need you to know how close I was to crapping my pants that day. OK? Good.)

First of all, Despero's fin had somehow changed from his lame earlobe-to-earlobe look to a badass Mohawk-like fin that stretched from the back to the front, all spiky-like. And Despero's formerly slender, non-athletic figure had been transformed into some kind of an incredible hulk. He was massive and muscular, yet possessed frightening speed. Oh, and did I mention that he was completely invincible and impervious to harm? Just thought I'd put that out there.

So the JLA basically made us Conglomerate members their cannon-fodder against Despero. We were sent into battle with the living man-god from space while the others rescued the unconscious JLAers who had fallen during the first wave of battle. General Glory -- who you might remember was actually the feared bounty hunter named Lobo -- should have been in fierce battle against Despero, especially since he'd come to Earth and joined the Conglomerate in the first place in order to get his revenge on Despero. But Max had put mental blocks in Lobo's mind that kept him from getting too violent. As General Glory he was supposed to be a role model, after all. The Martian Manhunter would soon enough break those mental blocks, but I was too busy getting my own ass kicked to know about any of this.

Everyone out there -- even Aquaman -- was giving their all against Despero, using heat and cold and super-strength, and a whole array of every super-power under the sun. And there I was, holding a stupid little electronic device in my hand that I'd quickly devised to use against a living space god. And as I stood there, watching as Despero pummelled both Superman and Lobo, I asked myself, "What the hell am I doing here?!"

They say things slow down in your last moments alive. Well, I can verify that it's true. I didn't see my life flash before my eyes or anything, but I can sure tell you I had my regrets about the course my life had taken to get me to that point. All I wanted, for the life of me, was to be back in my lab at that moment, flirting with my assistant Tracey.

If I'd had any sense, I would have turned tail and ran for the hills when the blinded Lobo suddenly struck out against Despero but instead accidentally hit Superman, sending the Man of Steel right past my ear at subsonic speeds. That should have warned me that I was in a very dangerous place.

What did I do instead? My stupid desire to be a hero, to do the right thing and help defeat this space villain, propelled me forward when there was an opening. I should've known better. God, I should've known better. There was no way I could've won.

So while Despero was focused on Firestorm, I snuck up behind him and tried to drop my little gadget onto him, which would deliver a powerful electric shock and knock him out -- in theory.

Instead, before I even knew what had happened, Despero's hand was suddenly grasping my neck, and I couldn't breathe. All I could hear was him saying something about me being an insect.

And that was how I died -- at the hands of an alien powerhouse who had no idea who I was save that I was costumed like a bug. I was just a Beetle to be squashed underfoot, like nothing.

It didn't matter that I had a Ph.D. It didn't matter that I'd spent all my life until that point learning as much as I could about everything. It didn't matter that I'd turned a dinky little laboratory that my dad handed over to me as an afterthought into a successful firm that I was sure would rival STAR Labs in only a few short years. It didn't matter that I'd never had a chance to be in love -- to really be in love.

I was dead. And that was all there was to it.

Oh, what about Despero, you ask? Well, sorry, but I was a little too preoccupied getting killed to pay much attention. But suffice it to say that Despero's mind was tricked into thinking he'd won the battle and was placed into a dreamworld where he became the lord and master of the universe, Guy was back to his old self, Lobo left Earth, Max was confronted about his double-dealings, and the Conglomerate was dissolved.

And that was the end of the story for the Conglomerate. Only it wasn't. Like a bad penny, the Conglomerate always turned back up. And the team -- without me, natch -- was headed for the greatest comeback since Lazarus...

[DocQuantum]

Pt. 4

If the last part of my little history of the Conglomerate seemed a bit Beetle-focused, there was a reason for that. I was the Beetle, and I was a bit preoccupied by my being killed by Despero, the devil from space who had come to Earth to destroy the Justice League and ended up taking only one casualty while on this planet: me.

So I wasn't exactly around to see what happened from the time that Despero snapped my neck like a twig to around a week later, when my funeral was held.

You know how Huckleberry Finn was able to be present at his own funeral? It's really not as fun as it sounds. All I remember was feeling so confused as my surroundings slowly began to fade into view, like wisps of smoke somehow coalescing into solid matter.

I had no idea who I was at some points, but memories slowly began to return as I saw all these familiar faces. My father Thomas Kord was there, although I couldn't remember his name or what his relationship to me was just yet. Hell, I couldn't remember me just yet, either. But I somehow knew he was important to me. He was someone who brought out great emotion in me. I knew I really disliked... no, I hated that man!

And with that hatred came a few memories, of how my mother Andrea had died when I was a boy, and I was left to be raised by my father. Or, rather, I was left to be raised in boarding schools and nannies and tutors, each of whom constantly reminded me of how fortunate I was to be the son of the great Thomas Kord, capitalist extraordinaire. I constantly sought that man's approval in everything I did, but just as constantly he held me at arm's length, holding his lack of approval over my head.

It was no wonder that I became such a lapdog of Maxwell Lord's -- in Lord I saw my father, except Max actually thought I was useful. It was just too bad Max was kind of a bastard.

Next to my father sat my uncle Jarvis, the black sheep of the family. It was funny, though: while Thomas was the businessman, Jarvis was the scientist. I suppose I took after Jarvis more than my father -- could that have been why my father never approved of me? Because I was too much like his hated brother, the so-called mad scientist? Anyway, Jarvis always seemed to get a bad rap. I never knew exactly what bad blood there was between him and my father, but he was never anything but decent toward me.

I looked around, and other, more recent familiar faces appeared. There were my fellow Conglomerate members, whom I'm sure could have become actual friends had I been given more time and not have been such a toady for Max Lord. There was Superman and other members of the Justice League of America, those costumed kooks who sent me out to die. Lousy bastards.

Sorry. I'm not bitter. I'm really not. I just didn't want to die that way. I always pictured dying at a very old age on a little Pacific island, like Bora Bora or Kooey Kooey Kooey, surrounded by beautiful, scantily clad hula girls. But I digress yet again.

It was only halfway through his speech that I noticed my father had stood up from his seat and was addressing the assembled mourners. I was shocked. He actually looked somewhat saddened by my death. Who knew? I still couldn't hear anything, though, so I don't exactly know what he said. But it was somehow reassuring to know that a small part of him seemed to care about me, after all. I only wish I'd have come to that realization while I was still alive.

Things became a bit more hazy after that, so I couldn't tell you what happened, but I do know that somehow, in some way, I had been loved on Earth. And I would be missed. For a little while, at least.

Oh, and as for what happened after the funeral? I got my wish to be buried at sea. The members of the Conglomerate, who had officially broken up -- and, in fact, had except for Firestorm each also turned down offers of membership in the Justice League -- got together again along with my dad to do the honors.

I was dropped, coffin and all, into the deepest waters of the Pacific Ocean from the Conglomerate Flyer, which I helped design. Not bad for a B-list hero. And as for my body? It was delivered by a blue whale on Aquaman's orders to a little island named Kooey Kooey Kooey. I'd finally made it to my island paradise.

If only I'd been able to stay. But things have a way of getting complicated when the supernatural is involved...

[DocQuantum]

Pt. 5

When I was alive, I was a skeptic. In fact, I liked to think of myself as "Ted Kord, the skeptic's skeptic." Tales of ghosts and goblins never really did much for me. I mean, who could believe that stuff? As far as I was concerned, it didn't even make for good entertainment. It just required too much of a suspension of disbelief for me to enjoy it.

So you can imagine my shock when I realized a part of me -- my soul, if you will -- still lived on after my death. OK, so the supernatural did exist in some form or another. All I knew was that it meant I could finally have my rest, free of the burdens that I had when I was alive. I could hang out all day, every day, on Kooey Kooey Kooey Island and stare to my heart's content at all the beautiful native girls there. And if I ever got bored, I could always fly anywhere else in the world. Hell, I could even explore the universe, since I was no longer bound corporeally. Possibly even other so-called dimensions were now open to my non-physical being.

What I didn't realize at the time, however, is that being a ghost comes with its own set of rules, which you only find out about after you die. These rules are also arbitrary, and they're slightly different for everyone.

In my case, I was condemned to haunt my old team wherever they went. I was to be the ghost of the Conglomerate. And so, even as I prepared to settle into my non-life on Kooey Kooey Kooey, I found myself suddenly drawn away to someplace I'd never been before: The Bunker in Detroit.

I'd heard of the Bunker, of course. It had been the headquarters of the JLA when that team had fallen on hard times and had been based in Detroit. Well, my own father ended up leasing the Bunker from its owner, Heywood Industries, so that the Conglomerate could continue on as a super-hero team independent of Maxwell Lord. In fact, my father had even bought outright the rights to the Conglomerate's name and branding, as well as everything associated with it, such as the Conglomerate Flyer. It seems Max didn't want to have anything to do with the team any longer, and Thomas Kord did all this to honor his fallen son.

Yeah, and I've seen pink elephants fly.

The truth was much more insidious, of course. It always is. But I'll be getting to that later on.

For now, I found myself haunting the Bunker. I was stuck in Detroit, which was probably the last city I'd ever want to visit. In life I'd managed to avoid ever having to go there, but it seemed that in death I was condemned to live the rest of my non-life there. Them's the breaks, I suppose.

Time passed quickly for me over the next two months. Things happened. Four days after my funeral, Earth was invaded again, not by the Alien Alliance this time, but by a joint invasion force of Martians and Atlanteans. Yes, it was really as bizarre as that sounds. While the Conglomerate was still too wrapped up in its own business after the funeral to really help out much, the truth was that they weren't really needed, anyway. The JLA was back to its full force, so they were able to stop this invasion almost singlehandedly.

Those two months were a time of dormancy for the Conglomerate. Without Maxwell Lord setting up staged battles with super-villains each week, there wasn't much for the team to do, especially based out of Detroit. After all, you can't spend all your time fighting the Cadre, even if all its members were still in jail. They also lost another member when Sargon the Sorcerer abruptly left with John Constantine to fight a warlock in India, leaving behind only a note to explain his absence. And so the Conglomerate was down to only four members: Guy Gardner, Animal Man, Fire, and Ice.

But elsewhere things were happening that would affect the future course of my team.

First, a woman named Catherine Cobert had come up with the idea of an international version of the JLA called Justice League International. Already she had begun recruiting super-heroes from around the globe, beginning with the Crimson Fox of France, Doctor Light of Japan, Mister Miracle in America, and a Russian who was part of the Rocket Red Project initiated by the Soviet government and assisted greatly by the Green Lantern Corps member Kilowog. Even after the JLA turned her down flat, she still intended to go forward with the idea and had taken steps to secure the trademark for the Justice League and all variations thereof. She would create Justice League International with or without the JLA's help.

Second, more recently Maxwell Lord had begun recruiting his own shadowy group of new and former heroes for his own purposes, reshaping them into a team inspired by a vision he had in a dream. The Conglomerate would encounter his dream team someday, but not just yet.

At the end of March, the Conglomerate finally saw action once again when a new super-villain team calling itself the Injustice League attacked the Bunker. Led by Major Disaster, the team also consisted of the Clock King, Cluemaster, Multi-Man, and Bork. Prior to attacking the Conglomerate, the Injustice League had also encountered a dimwitted Green Lantern called G'nort Esplanade G'neesmacher and had convinced him that they were a team of heroes, while the Conglomerate were a team of villains.

The fight was a short one, since a new hero called Booster Gold showed up to help out the Conglomerate, and Guy Gardner managed to set G'nort straight about the Injustice League's criminal intentions. The Injustice League made a clean getaway, leaving the Conglomerate with a lot of questions. If only they had been asking the right ones.

Why had this Booster Gold showed up at the exact moment that the Injustice League attacked the team? How had the Injustice League managed to escape so easily after being beaten? Who was this unknown Green Lantern called G'nort?

But the strangest thing about it all was that Booster Gold insisted that he was supposed to become best friends with the Blue Beetle. Yes, you heard right: the Blue Beetle, not the Beetle. According to his story, Booster Gold was from a future era where he had learned from history that he was supposed to become a founding member of Justice League International, a team that the Conglomerate should have been, and his best friend would have been the Blue Beetle.

Understandably, Animal Man found all of this highly suspicious, even if Fire and Ice didn't. Guy had his own problems with Booster, but it had more to do with jealousy over a potential rival for his leadership than anything else.

Still, the Conglomerate was down to only four members, and they needed new members with strong powers if they were ever going to make a comeback. Despite all their reservations about him, Booster Gold was a shoo-in for membership. And so the Conglomerate was up to five members.

None of the above is new information. You've probably read all about it before. But the Conglomerate's story didn't end there. Things were happening behind the scenes that would propel the Conglomerate into the spotlight once more, and the team was about to have a visitor that would change the game forever.

[DocQuantum]

To Be Continued!

[kaiserleomon]

I really didn't know all these facts narrated in the story by the ghost of the Beetle / Ted Kord of Earth-1 about the Conglomerate who could even imagine that a team of superheroes brought together for the purpose of serving as meta-human pop stars of the media would achieve the feat of becoming even more popular and celebrated as heroes than the Justice League of America taking advantage of the period in which it disbanded and left the world left to their own luck and no super team found itself with enough capacity to take its place left by JLA ?

If I may say so, I found it curious that none of the DC Universe of the Earth-1's uniformed vigilante investigators like Batman, Nightwing, Black Canary, Green Arrow, etc. even suspected for a moment that The Conglomerate's nomination as a super team was all the work of Maxwell Lord's machinations using his power to influence wills and make everyone always agree with his arguments? Is it kind of weird that no one even noticed or suspected this fact? Another thing I didn't understand: how did Lobo show up frozen and thinking he was General Glory? It's kind of surreal to imagine him acting like a politically correct and morally upstanding Gary Cooper even though they say it was due to Maxwell Lord's mental conditioning that made him "agree" to act like that!

And Green Lantern Guy Gardner was knocked out twice, once by Lobo / General Glory and the second by Ice? Sorry but then lost all the fun because the cool thing was that he was knocked out with a single punch by Batman! Anyone else takes all the comedy out of this act! And Gardner waking up out of memory like a pacifist and not going back to normal even during the fight against Despero takes half the fun out of any beating he might have taken during the match because the cool thing would be to see "macho" Guy Gardner get screwed ! 

So basically the Conglomerate was a bunch of "superhero actors and actresses" who never actually faced real deadly threats and who battled "carefully staged dangers" and never had to face death until such time as they fought Despero along with the JLA and were used as highly disposable "cannon fodders" by JLA in combat against the divinely empowered by Py'tar Flame ? I can't conceive of a team with the greatest and most powerful heroes in the world acting so cruelly with another group of less powerful superheroes ! Worst of all is that the "Invasion" of the Alien Alliance was taking place at the same time as the combat against Despero was taking place and neither of the two main groups of heroes in the world in the case the JLA and the Conglomerate were there to confront the threat leaving all the work for the other heroes of the world to face alone !

I was really saddened by the death of Beetle at the hands of Despero and the villain still shooting him the final insult of calling him "Insect!" ! In the end to defeat Despero the heroes trapped him in an eternal dream state in which the villain saw himself as the victorious of the fight having crushed all heroes and conquered the entire Universe Lobo regained the memory of when he was the "Main Man" and left Earth Guy Gardner regained his memory albeit belatedly and Maxwell Lord was confronted about his double-dealings, and the Conglomerate was dissolved ! I found it curious when the ghost of Ted Kord of the Earth-1 narrates his funeral ceremony and says that he "Hated his Father Thomas Kord!" it is really very sad that he carried this grudge to the beyond and that no miraculous resurrection took place in his case. He had his coffin thrown overboard and was sent by whale across the sea at the behest of Aquaman to KoeyKoeyKoey Island it was pretty cute and the face of someone like Ted Kord if it wasn't for the fact that for him it still hadn't actually been "an end" !

Ted Kord became the "Ghost of the Conglomerate" destined to haunt the team in which he served for all your "not life" and he now saw himself witnessing the attempt of his father Thomas Kord who had become the owner of the Conglomerate's trade mark to remake the team this time as a true supergroup to honor the memory of his son being that Ted Kord saw that it was obvious that it was nothing like that and that there was more than appearances showed while a woman named Catherine Cobert had come up with the idea of an international version of the JLA called Justice League International. Already she had begun recruiting superheroes from around the globe, beginning with the Crimson Fox of France, Doctor Light of Japan, Mister Miracle in America, and a Russian who was part of the Rocket Red Project initiated by the Soviet government and assisted greatly by the Green Lantern Corps member Kilowog. Even after the JLA turned her down flat, she still intended to go forward with the idea and had taken steps to secure the trademark for the Justice League and all variations thereof.

She would create Justice League International with or without the JLA's help ! I'm very curious to know what happened that led to the end of the Conglomerate as a team and if by any chance this could mean that you guys from the DC 5 Earths forum will really make a fanfiction with JLI as I suggested?

And that maybe there is still a chance for the Conglomerate to come back with heroes like, say:

Maxi-Man (Henry Hayes thanks to Meta Genetic Bomb of the Dominators, Henry Hayes became a being composed of pure, solid ionic energy, gaining superhuman powers such capable of rivaling even those of Superman Maxi-Man's strength level is in excess of the 100-ton range. He held his own against several powerhouses of the DC Universe, like Superman, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman. It is said that his strength is equal to that of Superman and Martian Manhunter. Once, Henry Hayes was capable of almost defeating Mongul [although as it was revealed the cosmic warlord was actually containing and holding back his full strength just to test Maxi-Man, and he really didn't want to waste his time wasting his power on a terrestrial]. He also overpowered a team of some of the most powerful the Conglomerate alone, went toe-to-toe against Superman [beating until Superman despite it being revealed that Kal-El was not deploying his full strength at the time of the fight], easily defeated Superboy, and almost KO'd Kalibak with one punch. Maxi-Man's skin and tissue have been rated a 9 on the Mohs scale of Hardness [normal human tissue equals a 1 and diamond equals 10]. His body is almost invulnerable to all types of damage [high or low temperatures, high-caliber bullets, blunt force]. He can tolerate blows from the beings like of Superman, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman and other powerhouses and still keep fighting. He took a beating from Darkseid and continued to fight, survived blows from General Zod , Ursa and Non , and was able to even with a lot of effort even almost be able to bear a full-on punch from Órion suffering minimal damage yet as revealed he could not survive a one-on-one fight with The Dog of War of Apokolips. His skin is pretty much immune to cutting weapons when he is in his ionic form, he managed to survive to one direct blow from Steppenwolf 's Electro-Axe suffering minimal damage although it was said by the Martian Manhunter that he only survived by very little. Henry Hayes also has massive durability against energy attacks, as he tanked blasts from one of the earlier versions of Amazo without any damage. Since Henry Hayes gained his ionic form, he has almost unlimited stamina and no longer requires food, water, or air to survive. Maxi-Man also doesn't age. Henry Hayes's agility was enhanced to superhuman levels because of his Ionic Energy. He also has almost instantaneous reflexes, as he was able to tag a moving Vixen and beat up Deathstroke before he could make a move. He learned to fly at high speeds using his own ionic propulsion [it is said he can fly at Earth's escape speed about 40,320 km/h]. In addition to these powers, Henry Hayes also showed the ability to project powerful blasts of Ionic Energy from his hands and eyes, which had very destructive capabilities. He can also use his strength to jump remarkably high, allowing him to travel vast distances. However, he stopped doing this when he gained the ability to fly.)

Praxis (Jason Praxis a psychic entity with immense mental powers  beyond super powers related to the senses like telepathy , psychic perception , psychic / psionic sense , sixth sense , telepathic bursts , psychic explosion , psionic detection , psychic scanning , detection , individual detection , information detection , telegnosis , visual empathy , emotion detection , extra sensory perception , extra sensory perception / extrasensory instincts , extrasensory awareness , metaphysical senses , preternatural perception , clairvoyance , clairaudience , clairsentience , claircognizance , clairempathy , clairgustance , clairomancy , clairtelepathy , precognition , postcognition , retrocognition , psychometry , mediumship , hyper awareness , power perception , psychic sense of danger , superhuman sense of smell , superhuman sense of tact , superhuman sense of vision , clear sight , visualization , superhuman sense of audition , superhuman sense of taste , mental radar sense , mental sonar sense , infrared vision , ultra violet vision , vision of Kirlian aura , vision of 360º , astral vision , essence reading , soul reading , spatial perception , immunity to illusions , immunity to sense altering powers among a wide range of psionic powers that make Praxis a super powerful meta-human mentalist)

Reverb (Armando Ramone owns sound powers far superior to those of Vibe)

Templar (Colin Brandywine a telekinetic able to use his telekinesis among other ways, to increase his strength and generate a protective forcefield around his body . He is also a powerful telekinetic who can move, lift, and manipulate very large objects with his thoughts . He also possesses immense , tactile telekinesis , psychic forcefield generation , telekinetic combat , telekinetic flight / levitation , telekinetic pressure [limited to touch] , telekinetically enhanced physical condition , telekinetic agility , telekinetic speed , telekinetic force , telekinetic regeneration , telekinetic resistance , sensory focus , psycho-teleportation , pyrokinesis , chronokinesis and quantakinesis powers of a psionic nature that he has when he employs his telekinesis he manifests a aura of psychic flames similar to Jean Grey "Phoenix Effect" of the Universe Marvel)

Echo (Terri Eckhart has the ability to redirect energy or force at her assailants)

Gypsy (Cynthia Reynolds has the meta-human ability of illusion casting, she is a powerful meta-human illusionist who has the ability to cast illusion perfects, she has a domain such illusions conjuring that can virtually transform the "unreal in real" conjuring illusions as mythological beasts, alien beasts, whole armies they can damage as real things but if this "damage" is "not physical but yes psychic damage" caused by illusory constructs conjured by Gypsy hitting the victim directly in the centers of their psyche. She can conjure up amazingly complex and detailed illusions to the smallest detail she are able to completely elude all the same sense of superhuman owners of hyper-acute senses, telepaths and even other mystical magic users. The Doctor Occult went on to say that Gypsy is probably the most powerful illusionist born in this generation of the Earth and that even he has no such a domain the power to cast images illusory of Gypsy. She can disappear making she completely invisible to every human sense or super sensory detection device, she can conjure up many mirror images of herself want to be able to tackle all at once a single target or multiple different targets, she can conjure up in your hands or any illusory creature that is conjuring up any weapon she can imagine that cause the victim the equivalent psychic damage to the physical owner of the real weapons cast by Gypsy cause. Her skills have only restriction to be a power of psychic nature only be effective against living beings [although the concept and the definition of what would be "living" is very subtle in this case ... the Zombies can be affected by the illusions of Gypsy as well as artificial intelligence and even cosmic entities]. Her control over this power also allows she to adapt to environmental changes resulting from the act of destroying the area where she casts her illusions, without betraying the illusion or her need to focus on further new feature given the environment since this is destroyed or altered by some external power. She also can isolate herself within the area of illusion so that no matter what those who are affected do no harm to reach or indeed any artifice that use to counter and dispel your illusions as shock waves and telepathic attacks may come to affect she. Gypsy also learned how to use her power to cast images illusory to project frightening illusions directly into the mind of the victim without the need to cast them externally. The Victim experiences the illusion directly inside your mind as if he were confronting directly with all allies around the same illusion can be so daunting so that virtually destroys the psyche of the victim reducing it to a catatonic vegetable. Only the most absolutely railway wills and impossible to bend by any means proved strong enough to withstand the psychic illusions conjured by Gypsy illusions and yet still not without suffering consequences or mental harm of psychic nature. This skill can only affect other living things [although we must again point out that the definition of what would be "living" depends exclusively on the kind of mental illusion cast by Gypsy], and she can use this skill to great effect in combat situations . She has been stated that Gypsy powers reached their last stage of development, and now she can use her powers of illusionist meta-human to affect hundreds of thousands of people at once. She was also revealed that Gypsy has precognitive abilities. She also seemed to be able to design their illusions in the astral plane simulating an astral body, in an illusory immaterial manifestation of his persona. Gypsy has shown the ability to project an illusion about herself in order to appear as another person, that person can be of any size, gender, age, ethnicity or even other races, it does not matter Gypsy can duplicated it with a level of perfection such that the eyes of others who see the illusion it looks, smells, speaks and knows exactly the same as those emulated by the illusion would know. She has shown a regenerative ability - but it is unknown if this is real or illusory regeneration. She also has demonstrated the mystical power of levitation can fly 40 meters per second. She also has telepathic and empathic abilities. In addition to its powers, Gypsy is an expert in hand-to-hand stealth combat. As she usually revolves around her opponent unleashing her punches she developed a natural ability to move so swiftly and gracefully as a female ninja trained without being exposed at any time to a devastating counterattack the opponent against she. She is also a superb acrobat, able to jump high, run fast, swim, and run unexpectedly quick martial tactics with relative ease. Gypsy also has a strong and unexpected aptitude in electronics and computers, and became skilled in the use of bladed weapons and in the use of firearms)

Vapor (Carole Donahue can transmute her body either as a whole or just parts of it into a cloud of gaseous vapor she can take the form of any type of gaseous element such as sleeping gas , anesthetic gas , mustard gas , explosive gas, flammable gas , freezing gas among numerous types of gaseous configurations. She has the power to generate immense amounts of gas and project them from her hands, which could be knock-out gas or a corrosive acidic cloud. A kiss from her can fatally poison a person if she wants to. In the gaseous state she is capable of flying and floating in the air, passing through solid objects as long as there are holes in them through which its gaseous form is able to slide through and she is intangible as most attacks pass through she without causing damage.)

Nucleon (Steven Rothstein is the equivalent counterpart to Earth-1 of the Earth-2 superhero Nuklon / Albert Rothstein member of the Infinity Inc. In his case, the only resemblance to his counterpart in another Earth from the Multiverse is his heroic codename which is similar but at the same time different to underscore the fact that Nucleon and Nuklon are two completely different superheroes and two different versions of the same meta-human. The two are equivalent to each other from different Universes as was the case with The Beetle / Ted Kord of Earth-1 counterpart to Blue Beetle of Earth-4 . Nucleon was born with the normal level of human strength .Gaining great strength and quantum powers comparable to those of Captain Atom of Earth-4 thanks to experiments with meta-gene driven by the aliens Controllers that gave him his powers Steven Rothstein joined the team funded by Maxwell Lord when he gathered the super team of heroes known as The Conglomerate ; codenamed Nucleon. After Maxwell Lord dissolve The Conglomerate, Steven was one of the few who survived. Instead, its meta-gene was activated, giving he very similar quantum powers with Captain Nathaniel Adam of Earth-4. He permanently adopted the name Nucleon and returned to The Conglomerate; created by Michelle Carter.Steven began at this time to suffer with a dual personality problem with your I divided into a heroic and responsible personality and a malignant villanic personality. Her alternate personality began to intimidate its unique personality. Its evil twin decided he wanted to become a dominant personality. He believed that if he killed Steven he would be the one that would be left free to do what he wanted, but when he tried to kill Steven he was held with great effort by the other members of The Conglomerate. Steven was then handed over to Batman care analyzing the case of split personality of Steven found that the evil twin of Nucleon was actually the result of a process of brainwashing and memory implants which Steven had been previously submitted by the aliens Controllers. With the help of Zatanna Zatara he penetrated Steven mind with the purpose of eradicating the memory implant created by the aliens Controllers that generated the evil twin of Steven Rothstein however they found that from the time that had created it had grown to the point of be A lively personality able to impose itself and take control of Nucleon. Steven Rothstein and his double dueled within your psyche for control of the physical form of Nucleon. The evil twin was shown too strong as to be able to withstand the mystical attacks of Zatanna but Batman was able to show the evil twin to kill Steven Rothstein was his own death because Steven was the core of his identity from which it had been created and it reflects malevolent and ID if he killed his share of good it would also result in their own destruction as a "shadow" can not exist without a "light" that generates. The evil twin laughed put those words when he tried to take control of the body strengthened Steven will to be imposed and denied him the ability to go out and take control. Stunned by the sudden force of benevolent personality soon painfully the evil twin discovered the truth in the words of Batman and found he could not actually exist on their own and it disappeared from existence finally leaving Steven Rothstein in total control of your body free of his evil personality. Since then Nucleon remains in The Conglomerate as a valuable member.



Powers & Abilities


- Quantum Field Manipulation - Nucleon is a channel that is connected directly to the quantum field, an empty boundless of all matter and all the energy that allows him to absorb, generate and manipulate endless amounts of energy and matter. The amount that he can use is limited by your willpower, scientific knowledge, and imagination. The Quantum Field gave him various uses, and many of which are unknown. Although he is able to use it with unlimited potential, it most commonly uses it to its physical superhuman abilities, and his ability to manipulate energy and matter. The Quantum Field also gives him several immunities and / or resistance against telepathy and molecular manipulation.


- Invulnerability -Nucleon can generate around your body a quantum energy force field able to protect him from most attacks and makes he invulnerable and any other matter in touch with your body like your uniform or people he touch. This " Quantum Aura " makes your skin invulnerable and able to withstand heavy doses of damage and physical punishment can allow he to survive even a nuclear blast making your body virtually indestructible, highly resistant to varying degrees of energy damage, heat, lasers, missiles, warheads, the interior of a black hole, etc .In certain situations, the Quantum Aura of your skin can be violated, especially by X-Ionised weapons or weapons that are made to cut / pierce any surface [such as the mystical swords of Wonder Woman for example or weapons made of Nth metal Thanagarian]. Against the physical strength, he is shown to be able to withstand the punishment of some of the strongest beings in the Universe [Wonder Woman, Superman , General Zod , Ursa , Non , Martian Manhunter , Bizarro , Parasite , Metallo etc.] without having to Quantum Aura of your skin broken. His invulnerability extends to be immune to certain spells and magical attacks.


- Superhuman endurance - The energies of the Quantum field that Quantum Aura of skin of Nucleon support he. When surrounded by Quantum Aura of your skin, he has no need of food, sleep, or oxygen. It can survive in space and does not need to breathe. His strength is increased to superhuman levels, and he can perform strenuous activity for a long and indefinite period.


- Chronokinesis - Nucleon has shown time-traveling capabilities without quantum jumping and can travel ahead in time using concentration. The process is exhausting and the period he can interact in the future appears to be limited to a few minutes before he returns to the present.


- Energy Projection and Manipulation - He is capable of emitting bursts of quantum energy from any part of your body at the same time, but usually prefer to use your hands for easy aiming. He is able to control the magnitude and wavelength of their energy blasts at will. He can stun opponents with his outbursts on the lowest setting. But in the highest, he is shown to be able to blow up planes [ranging from fighting large spacecraft aircraft such as the Ark of Kobra] settings, tanks, stagger powerful superpowered beings, incinerate a human being until their bones or vaporizes them completely, set off atomic explosions, and the list goes on. At one point, the strength of high-powered explosions began earthquakes [while Nucleon was fighting with another superbeing in the basement]. With the quantum field, it is able to generate and manipulate forces along the Unified Field [fundamental forces]. Similarly, he learned to access low energy magnetic force, manipulate gravitational forces and electromagnetism [generating pure light of your body, and electromagnetism manipulated to cancel the radius of powers with a single burst of energy]. The Quantum Field also gives your Quantum explosions with the effect of intense heat, and he has shown to be able to melt dense metallic substances and heat things up with what he likes to call "Quantum heat." At one point, he applied his handling of energy to handle the electrical impulses in the brain of an opponent in order to put them to sleep. Nucleon is also capable of generating energy shields around each other, and others. She has been able to transmute the strength of a stellar burst of energy, too.


- Superhuman strength - The limits of physical strength of Nucleon are unknown, but based on his performances, he is far superior to class 100 and is well within Captain Atom of Earth-4 strength class, though not exactly like him . To date, he has been able to physically fight and / or cause damage to beings as Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, General Zod , Ursa , Non , Parasite, Superman [brainwashed at the time], Superwoman and so on. He is said that he is strong enough to move mountains.


- Superhuman Reflexes -Nucleon is able to think, move and react at superhuman speeds, significantly higher than humans. Batman revealed that Nucleon has been able to move faster than he could think of during his experimental test powers. He showed to react fast enough to stop bullets with his hand, and move fast enough to intercept shots after he has left the sniper rifle. He has also displayed a certain level of superhuman speed during his battle with Superwoman. Recently, Nucleon had a long talk with Flash, which took place within 3 milliseconds.


- Energy Absorption - Extreme energy absorption which is the second most powerful in the DC Universe. With proper control, concentration and regulation of its energy absorption rate, he is able to absorb endless amounts of energy to make a quantum leap through time. There is almost no form of energy that Nucleon is unable to absorb. He absorbed a nuclear bomb. However, often he has happened when he had to absorb large amounts of energy that he unwittingly makes quantum leaps through time and space.


- Techno-Interface - He has also shown the ability to telepathically interface with binary code computer networks.


- Matter Manipulation - He showed ability to manipulate the cohesive force to create "protomatter". At the time, he showed ability to transmute solid objects, similar to Firestorm, having transmuted the arrow Green Arrow in butterflies and a gun in a spaceship toy. He used his ability to affect matter on an atomic scale. Depending on the situation, it appears as though this ability is used by instinct or some level of concentration. He was able to turn two fighter jets in feathers.




- Flight - Ability to fly at supersonic speeds [speeds the escape velocity of the Earth or larger] in an atmosphere and at sub-light speeds [more than half the speed of light] in interstellar space and to travel interstellar distances. However, the Nucleon claims he can overcome the speed of light, if he wants.


- Enhance abilities - Because the quantum field is based on his willpower, he has the ability to improve their superhuman abilities. So far, he has shown may increase his physical strength, the magnitude of their energy blasts, its flight speed, your senses [mostly hearing], and resistance [during a battle in which it was weak].


- Military Experience - has military training of Naval US Mariners Corps of USA in covert operations, military weaponry [mostly firearms], strategy and hand-to-hand combat [possibly based on MAC training]. Steven Rothstein also has strong survival instincts derived from of their military education and training.He has a massively muscular body due to the heavy exercises he did as a member of the US Mariners Corps.)


Goldstar (Michelle Carter the twin sister of Michael Jon Carter the Booster Gold and she is the Leader of the Conglomerate she has an exo suit that gives her powers similar to her twin brother Booster Gold her exo suit grants super strength, speed, endurance, in addition to a force field that can protect from attacks by beings like Superman, can project energy blasts, a display that serves as a communicator, cybernetic connection to the internet, microprocessor, database, besides having thermal and x-ray vision, the ring of Legion of Super-Heroes incorporated to the uniform allows flight)

Miss Quick (Bebeck former member of Red Trinity team of Russian super speedsters she currently thanks to Meta Genetic Bomb of the Dominators developed much higher super speed becoming comparable to Earth-2 Jesse Quick / Jesse Chambers she can run or fly at super speed comparable to Jesse Quick from Earth-2 which means she is in fact an incredibly fast super speedster capable of matching Flash Barry Allen in speed having assumed the new codename of Miss Quick and joined the Conglomerate).

It would be really cool if there were new Conglomerate adventures with the team I've mentioned or maybe other completely new superheroes from DC Comics' list of forgotten superheroes who could have a chance to shine and demonstrate their worth as a group of heroes. Well I'm very curious to know how the story of the Conglomerate narrated by the ghost of The Beetle / Ted Kord will be solved and if by chance there is a possibility of his resurrect? I look forward to the continuation of the story.

[kaiserleomon]

Hi ! First of all I must say that I am simply loving this summary about what happened to the Conglomerate narrated by the ghost of Ted Kord from Earth-1 ! I find this story very touching by the way the late The Beetle narrates his situation sometimes sadly, sometimes bitterly, sometimes with a certain sarcasm and disappointment for the way things have turned out and for everything he's lost and the way things might have turned out if he'd made different decisions. I'd really like to know if there isn't a way to resurrect the poor ghost of Earth-1 equivalent of Ted Kord and of him coming back to life, triumphantly, in order to save his former teammates of The Conglomerate? In the same way, I would like to ask you who are all the members of the group The Conglomerate because I never remembered to ask them which superheroes and superheroines were the members of the Conglomerate and if by chance there is a possibility to bring this team back in totally new stories here on the DC 5 Earths forum ? I would also like to ask you what you thought of the suggestions I gave you above for the members of the group The Conglomerate and ask what would you change which other forgotten superhero characters that have passed into the public domain would you add to the list of members of The Conglomerate?

[starskyhutch76]

If I were going to resurrect this version of Ted Kord, I would say there was something unusual about Kooey Kooey Island. Maybe it has the ability to bring people back like the island of Krakoa in the X-Men books.

Maybe he comes back somehow different?

[kaiserleomon]

Apr 12, 2022 6:57:28 GMT starskyhutch76 said:

If I were going to resurrect this version of Ted Kord, I would say there was something unusual about Kooey Kooey Island. Maybe it has the ability to bring people back like the island of Krakoa in the X-Men books.

Maybe he comes back somehow different?

Interesting idea is to use some kind of supernatural power possessed by the Living Island of KoeyKoeyKoey to resurrect the Beetle / Ted Kord of the Earth-1 in much the same way as the Island of Krakoa resurrects mutants who died both of natural causes and in deadly battles this would be something really unusual and a creative way to bring back the Beetle. On the other hand maybe the solution could be for him to be resurrected by a mystical counterpart to the scarab amulet of the Earth-1 homologue of the superhero Blue Beetle / Dan Garrett which on Earth-1 would be a mystical artifact created by the Scarab God Khepera would have mystical powers immense as yet unrevealed whereas instead of being a living symbiote entity and through his mystical powers he would bring The Beetle back to life. But I would like to ask who are all the members of the group The Conglomerate? You never said who are the members of this team and I would like to know which are the superheroes and superheroines that would compose The Conglomerate? Is there a possibility for the team to come back in new stories? And what did you think of the suggestions I gave to the members who could be part of the Conglomerate team above?

[starskyhutch76]

Using the island makes sense story-wise because that's where Aquaman sent him. If he was incubating, that could explain the passage of time plus keep death from becoming as meaningless as it has in the X-Men books.

 currently, the e1 scarab is in the hands of a hero who is also called Scarab.

I don't think we've introduced Reverb here, but we have Vibe's sister who is now Vibra.

Luthor couldb't have created a metagene project like the one he did in the post-crisis DCU because he is an outlaw and there is no Lexcorp.

I'm not sure, but I think Gypsy is still trapped on Earth-2.

[kaiserleomon]

Apr 12, 2022 20:06:21 GMT starskyhutch76 said:

Using the island makes sense story-wise because that's where Aquaman sent him. If he was incubating, that could explain the passage of time plus keep death from becoming as meaningless as it has in the X-Men books.

 currently, the e1 scarab is in the hands of a hero who is also called Scarab.

I don't think we've introduced Reverb here, but we have Vibe's sister who is now Vibra.

Luthor couldb't have created a metagene project like the one he did in the post-crisis DCU because he is an outlaw and there is no Lexcorp.

I'm not sure, but I think Gypsy is still trapped on Earth-2.

I understand. I only made the suggestion of the Mystic Scarab because it is a fascinating magic item from the Goldem Age of Superheroes terribly underrated in recent times by DC Comics that has basically been transformed into a benevolent version of the Venom Symbiote from Marvel Comics which has gained several offspring like Black Beetle, Green Beetle etc which have appeared in DC Comics television series and cartoons and I thought it might be interesting to put it to a different use but let it be the idea of ​​using the Living Island of KoeyKoeyKoey to resurrect the late The Beetle is more interesting and can bring a whole new importance to that place. And about the members who were part of the Conglomerate's team, which members were they? What are your names? Were they characters of JLI? And why not resurrect poor Vibe? I always thought his death was unfair and thought that DC did it simply because they hated the poor guy?Oh what a pity about Lex Luthor not being a multimillionaire industrialist with a vast financial empire and not having a Lexcorp he could use in the event that he experimented with metagenes to create weapons in the form of metahumans against the Justice League and against Superman and being a wanted outlaw recognized by all as a villain this takes away good justification for creating metahumans both heroes and villains for the Earth-1. So you can't create a female heiress for her on Earth-1 that takes her name and legacy? Could she be a gypsy sorceress? Gypsy sorceresses are those who use magic empirically, without studies or grimoires, the gypsy sorceress has magic in her blood that runs in her veins and is what drives the strength of her ancestry. Together with their spiritual protector (gypsy or gypsy) weave natural witchcraft, weave the magic of the elements of nature, they have no labels, there are no molds or initiations, Gypsy Witches are born witches (they are not Wiccans, they are not shamanists, they are not created stereotypes by people who call themselves blood gypsies or not), because their spiritual mentor is the one who leads and awakens within them the magic of being together with the principle and ancestral connection of the web of life, beating their hearts with the womb of the earth ( where life, death and rebirth take place) carry within themselves the power of the verb that brings healing, with the litany that makes them come to their presence and with the curse they free them from all evil.

[kaiserleomon]

Nucleon (Steven Rothstein is the equivalent counterpart to Earth-1 of the Earth-2 superhero Nuklon / Albert Rothstein member of the Infinity Inc. In his case, the only resemblance to his counterpart in another Earth from the Multiverse is his heroic codename which is similar but at the same time different to underscore the fact that Nucleon and Nuklon are two completely different superheroes and two different versions of the same meta-human. The two are equivalent to each other from different Universes as was the case with The Beetle / Ted Kord of Earth-1 counterpart to Blue Beetle of Earth-4 . Nucleon was born with the normal level of human strength .Gaining great strength and quantum powers comparable to those of Captain Atom of Earth-4 thanks to experiments with meta-gene driven by the aliens Controllers that gave him his powers Steven Rothstein joined the team funded by Maxwell Lord when he gathered the super team of heroes known as The Conglomerate ; codenamed Nucleon. After Maxwell Lord dissolve The Conglomerate, Steven was one of the few who survived. Instead, its meta-gene was activated, giving he very similar quantum powers with Captain Nathaniel Adam of Earth-4. He permanently adopted the name Nucleon and returned to The Conglomerate; created by Michelle Carter.Steven began at this time to suffer with a dual personality problem with your I divided into a heroic and responsible personality and a malignant villanic personality. Her alternate personality began to intimidate its unique personality. Its evil twin decided he wanted to become a dominant personality. He believed that if he killed Steven he would be the one that would be left free to do what he wanted, but when he tried to kill Steven he was held with great effort by the other members of The Conglomerate. Steven was then handed over to Batman care analyzing the case of split personality of Steven found that the evil twin of Nucleon was actually the result of a process of brainwashing and memory implants which Steven had been previously submitted by the aliens Controllers. With the help of Zatanna Zatara he penetrated Steven mind with the purpose of eradicating the memory implant created by the aliens Controllers that generated the evil twin of Steven Rothstein however they found that from the time that had created it had grown to the point of be A lively personality able to impose itself and take control of Nucleon. Steven Rothstein and his double dueled within your psyche for control of the physical form of Nucleon. The evil twin was shown too strong as to be able to withstand the mystical attacks of Zatanna but Batman was able to show the evil twin to kill Steven Rothstein was his own death because Steven was the core of his identity from which it had been created and it reflects malevolent and ID if he killed his share of good it would also result in their own destruction as a "shadow" can not exist without a "light" that generates. The evil twin laughed put those words when he tried to take control of the body strengthened Steven will to be imposed and denied him the ability to go out and take control. Stunned by the sudden force of benevolent personality soon painfully the evil twin discovered the truth in the words of Batman and found he could not actually exist on their own and it disappeared from existence finally leaving Steven Rothstein in total control of your body free of his evil personality. Since then Nucleon remains in The Conglomerate as a valuable member.



Powers & Abilities



- Quantum Field Manipulation - Nucleon is a channel that is connected directly to the quantum field, an empty boundless of all matter and all the energy that allows him to absorb, generate and manipulate endless amounts of energy and matter. The amount that he can use is limited by your willpower, scientific knowledge, and imagination. The Quantum Field gave him various uses, and many of which are unknown. Although he is able to use it with unlimited potential, it most commonly uses it to its physical superhuman abilities, and his ability to manipulate energy and matter. The Quantum Field also gives him several immunities and / or resistance against telepathy and molecular manipulation.



- Invulnerability -Nucleon can generate around your body a quantum energy force field able to protect him from most attacks and makes he invulnerable and any other matter in touch with your body like your uniform or people he touch. This " Quantum Aura " makes your skin invulnerable and able to withstand heavy doses of damage and physical punishment can allow he to survive even a nuclear blast making your body virtually indestructible, highly resistant to varying degrees of energy damage, heat, lasers, missiles, warheads, the interior of a black hole, etc .In certain situations, the Quantum Aura of your skin can be violated, especially by X-Ionised weapons or weapons that are made to cut / pierce any surface [such as the mystical swords of Wonder Woman for example or weapons made of Nth metal Thanagarian]. Against the physical strength, he is shown to be able to withstand the punishment of some of the strongest beings in the Universe [Wonder Woman, Superman , General Zod , Ursa , Non , Martian Manhunter , Bizarro , Parasite , Metallo etc.] without having to Quantum Aura of your skin broken. His invulnerability extends to be immune to certain spells and magical attacks.



- Superhuman endurance - The energies of the Quantum field that Quantum Aura of skin of Nucleon support he. When surrounded by Quantum Aura of your skin, he has no need of food, sleep, or oxygen. It can survive in space and does not need to breathe. His strength is increased to superhuman levels, and he can perform strenuous activity for a long and indefinite period.


- Chronokinesis - Nucleon has shown time-traveling capabilities without quantum jumping and can travel ahead in time using concentration. The process is exhausting and the period he can interact in the future appears to be limited to a few minutes before he returns to the present.


- Energy Projection and Manipulation - He is capable of emitting bursts of quantum energy from any part of your body at the same time, but usually prefer to use your hands for easy aiming. He is able to control the magnitude and wavelength of their energy blasts at will. He can stun opponents with his outbursts on the lowest setting. But in the highest, he is shown to be able to blow up planes [ranging from fighting large spacecraft aircraft such as the Ark of Kobra] settings, tanks, stagger powerful superpowered beings, incinerate a human being until their bones or vaporizes them completely, set off atomic explosions, and the list goes on. At one point, the strength of high-powered explosions began earthquakes [while Nucleon was fighting with another superbeing in the basement]. With the quantum field, it is able to generate and manipulate forces along the Unified Field [fundamental forces]. Similarly, he learned to access low energy magnetic force, manipulate gravitational forces and electromagnetism [generating pure light of your body, and electromagnetism manipulated to cancel the radius of powers with a single burst of energy]. The Quantum Field also gives your Quantum explosions with the effect of intense heat, and he has shown to be able to melt dense metallic substances and heat things up with what he likes to call "Quantum heat." At one point, he applied his handling of energy to handle the electrical impulses in the brain of an opponent in order to put them to sleep. Nucleon is also capable of generating energy shields around each other, and others. She has been able to transmute the strength of a stellar burst of energy, too.



- Superhuman strength - The limits of physical strength of Nucleon are unknown, but based on his performances, he is far superior to class 100 and is well within Captain Atom of Earth-4 strength class, though not exactly like him . To date, he has been able to physically fight and / or cause damage to beings as Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, General Zod , Ursa , Non , Parasite, Superman [brainwashed at the time], Superwoman and so on. He is said that he is strong enough to move mountains.



- Superhuman Reflexes - Nucleon is able to think, move and react at superhuman speeds, significantly higher than humans. Batman revealed that Nucleon has been able to move faster than he could think of during his experimental test powers. He showed to react fast enough to stop bullets with his hand, and move fast enough to intercept shots after he has left the sniper rifle. He has also displayed a certain level of superhuman speed during his battle with Superwoman. Recently, Nucleon had a long talk with Flash, which took place within 3 milliseconds.



- Energy Absorption - Extreme energy absorption which is the second most powerful in the DC Universe. With proper control, concentration and regulation of its energy absorption rate, he is able to absorb endless amounts of energy to make a quantum leap through time. There is almost no form of energy that Nucleon is unable to absorb. He absorbed a nuclear bomb. However, often he has happened when he had to absorb large amounts of energy that he unwittingly makes quantum leaps through time and space.



- Techno-Interface - He has also shown the ability to telepathically interface with binary code computer networks.



- Matter Manipulation - He showed ability to manipulate the cohesive force to create "protomatter". At the time, he showed ability to transmute solid objects, similar to Firestorm, having transmuted the arrow Green Arrow in butterflies and a gun in a spaceship toy. He used his ability to affect matter on an atomic scale. Depending on the situation, it appears as though this ability is used by instinct or some level of concentration. He was able to turn two fighter jets in feathers.




- Flight - Ability to fly at supersonic speeds [speeds the escape velocity of the Earth or larger] in an atmosphere and at sub-light speeds [more than half the speed of light] in interstellar space and to travel interstellar distances. However, the Nucleon claims he can overcome the speed of light, if he wants.



- Enhance abilities - Because the quantum field is based on his willpower, he has the ability to improve their superhuman abilities. So far, he has shown may increase his physical strength, the magnitude of their energy blasts, its flight speed, your senses [mostly hearing], and resistance [during a battle in which it was weak].



- Military Experience - has military training of Naval US Mariners Corps of USA in covert operations, military weaponry [mostly firearms], strategy and hand-to-hand combat [possibly based on MAC training]. Steven Rothstein also has strong survival instincts derived from of their military education and training.He has a massively muscular body due to the heavy exercises he did as a member of the US Mariners Corps.)

[starskyhutch76]

Apr 12, 2022 21:07:26 GMT kaiserleomon said:

Apr 12, 2022 20:06:21 GMT starskyhutch76 said:

Using the island makes sense story-wise because that's where Aquaman sent him. If he was incubating, that could explain the passage of time plus keep death from becoming as meaningless as it has in the X-Men books.

 currently, the e1 scarab is in the hands of a hero who is also called Scarab.

I don't think we've introduced Reverb here, but we have Vibe's sister who is now Vibra.

Luthor couldb't have created a metagene project like the one he did in the post-crisis DCU because he is an outlaw and there is no Lexcorp.

I'm not sure, but I think Gypsy is still trapped on Earth-2.

I understand. I only made the suggestion of the Mystic Scarab because it is a fascinating magic item from the Goldem Age of Superheroes terribly underrated in recent times by DC Comics that has basically been transformed into a benevolent version of the Venom Symbiote from Marvel Comics which has gained several offspring like Black Beetle, Green Beetle etc which have appeared in DC Comics television series and cartoons and I thought it might be interesting to put it to a different use but let it be the idea of ​​using the Living Island of KoeyKoeyKoey to resurrect the late The Beetle is more interesting and can bring a whole new importance to that place. And about the members who were part of the Conglomerate's team, which members were they? What are your names? Were they characters of JLI? And why not resurrect poor Vibe? I always thought his death was unfair and thought that DC did it simply because they hated the poor guy?Oh what a pity about Lex Luthor not being a multimillionaire industrialist with a vast financial empire and not having a Lexcorp he could use in the event that he experimented with metagenes to create weapons in the form of metahumans against the Justice League and against Superman and being a wanted outlaw recognized by all as a villain this takes away good justification for creating metahumans both heroes and villains for the Earth-1. So you can't create a female heiress for her on Earth-1 that takes her name and legacy? Could she be a gypsy sorceress? Gypsy sorceresses are those who use magic empirically, without studies or grimoires, the gypsy sorceress has magic in her blood that runs in her veins and is what drives the strength of her ancestry. Together with their spiritual protector (gypsy or gypsy) weave natural witchcraft, weave the magic of the elements of nature, they have no labels, there are no molds or initiations, Gypsy Witches are born witches (they are not Wiccans, they are not shamanists, they are not created stereotypes by people who call themselves blood gypsies or not), because their spiritual mentor is the one who leads and awakens within them the magic of being together with the principle and ancestral connection of the web of life, beating their hearts with the womb of the earth ( where life, death and rebirth take place) carry within themselves the power of the verb that brings healing, with the litany that makes them come to their presence and with the curse they free them from all evil.

One of our post writers, Martin Maenza, had the sister that was introduced during the Detroit Era Justice League's time become a legacy hero for Vibe. Her costume is even a version of his first suit.

Lex Luthor is a multi-millionaire because he's a genius inventor, but not the industrialist he is post-crisis. Since our continuity is basically the pre-crisis DCU, he is still a super villain outlaw. Most of his wealth is in secret accounts under dozens of fake names.

Vixen found her way back to Earth-1 thanks to a blast from Cthulhu during a Suicide Squad story, so it's possible Gypsy might eventually come back in her own way. (if another writer hasn't brought her back and I've just forgotten) If it's a gypsy sorceress you waant, you could bring Silver Sorceress over from Angor. She is basically the Scarlette Witch, so she might be Romani in origin and a real gypsy. Gypsy was a suburban white girl who just dressed like a gypsy as part of her schtick. (couldn't get away with that today)

[kaiserleomon]

It's all right ! I understand so we could include Vibe's sister superheroine Vibra as a member of a possible new incarnation of the supergroup the Conglomerate in fanfictions . It would be really cool to bring her into a new future incarnation of the group The Conglomerate as a member in place of Vibe as her being heiress of the heroic legacy of Francisco "Cisco" Ramon. I understand that you want to stay faithful to the original canon of the DC Universe and that's why you kept Lex Luthor as a criminal genius mastermind outlaw with a brilliant but demonically dangerous intellect willing to do anything to prove that he is superior to Superman and all superheroes of Earth's and accomplish their malevolent goals. I'm glad you're thinking of bringing Gypsy back I really hope she can return from Earth-2 back to Earth-1. The poor girl undoubtedly deserves a much better treatment in the stories than the one she received in the comics of DC and to have her due value as a superheroine recognized . Silver Sorceress I plan on using as a mystic of JLI and a member of Justice League Europe but it would be nice for someone to make a gypsy sorceress superheroine here for the DC 5 Earths forum. What did you think of the revision I did on the character Nucleon? By chance, now it would be possible to use him as a member of the Conglomerate? And the others members of the Conglomerate? Which are they ? What are your names? What heroes make up this team?