Saturday, October 5, 2013

Crime Syndicate! (as seen in Forever Evil)



HISTORY
On Earth-3, a parallel world vibrating on a slightly different plane than the world we know, history had chosen a strange, opposing path. There, it was the American Christopher Columbus who discovered Europe; colonial England that won her freedom from the United States during the Revolutionary War; and actor Abraham Lincoln who shot President John Wilkes Booth [And yet even on Earth-3, they still have a Western bias to important history. So it really isn't very different at all.]. On this strange world of contrary reality, the only super=powered beings were [still white] not heroes, but rather five super-villains who had banded together as the Crime Syndicate of America.

The membership of the Crime Syndicate included Johnny Quick, an arrogant super-speedster who received his powers in an as-yet-undisclosed manner [He was probably doused in lightning when struck by a bolt of chemicals.]; Owlman, a diabolical master planner whose highly advanced mind allowed him to momentarily dominate other minds without their knowledge; Power Ring, who had received a mystical ring of almost limitless power from a mad Buddhist monk named Volthoom; Superwoman, a renegade Amazon who possessed extraordinary super-strength and a magic lasso capable of reshaping itself at its mistress's command into almost anything; and Ultraman, the strongest of them all, who received a new super-power every time he was exposed to Kryptonite.

It was during one such exposure that Ultraman suddenly developed Ultra-vision, which enabled him to peer through the dimensional veil and discover the parallel world then called Earth-1. Fearing they were growing rusty battling the normal forces of their own world, the Crime Syndicate decided to travel to Earth-1 and take on the members of the Justice League of America (see JLA) in an effort to hone their skills. It ultimately required the combined memberships of the Justice League and Justice Society of America (see JSA) to defeat the Syndicators, who were left in a life-sustaining bubble between the dimensions, surrounded by signs in every language designed to warn of those who might attempt to free them.

Despite the warnings, members of the Crime Syndicate were freed from the bubble several times over the years, joining forces with such other criminals as Per Degaton and the Secret Society of Super-Villains (see individual listings).

Even with their awesome array of super-powers, the Syndicators were unable to save their world or themselves from a power that dissolved entire universes, and all perished during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

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