Most Z-List characters are given their ranking among the comic book community because of their lack of appearances or failure to do anything important. In the DC universe, if you stand among these lower-class criminals you only have two career choices: let men in spandex beat you up forever or join a band of convicts in undercover suicide missions. This week's Z-Lister is an obscure villain known as Slipknot. Cue any song from the band "Slipknot". Actually, don't.
Christopher Weiss first appeared in "Fury of Firestorm #28" in 1984. After working for a chemical plant, Weiss created a special chemical to render his ropes indestructible. He mastered the art of rope fighting and became the criminal Slipknot to assure a higher salary from armed robbery. Weiss was inducted into The 2000 Committee, an organization of criminals who's goal was to take over the world by the year 2000. Clearly that didn't work out. While with the Committee, Weiss was given assassin training and tasked with killing the superhero Firestorm. He failed, as any man wielding ropes against a literal fire-elemental would. Weiss was taken into police custody, but later selected by Amanda Waller to join her convict spy team, The Suicide Squad. On his first mission to destroy a group of robots in a swamp, he foolishly ran away from the fight and Waller used an arm-planted bomb to blow Weiss' right arm off. Sometime after these events, Weiss converted to the cultist religion Kobra and went from being falsely accused for murder, almost executed by killer AI programs, to being back in U.S. custody. All while hissing when he talked. Kobra commanded it. He later appeared as an enemy to Mark Richards, the second Tattooed Man. Richards almost destroyed Weiss' new cybernetic arm, so in retaliation Slipknot killed The Tattooed Man's son. Touchy, much? When the villainous Deathstroke formed his own version of The Titans, he asked Tattooed Man to join the team and in return Deathstroke would give Tattooed Man the chance to kill Slipknot. A chance he took in poetic fashion as he killed Slipknot by beheading him with a wire. That-loyal readers-is what we in the industry call "hardcore".
In case you didn't recognize the stiff all the way on the left side of the "Suicide Squad" movie cast photo, the guy with the ropes is in fact Slipknot. Will his arm get blown off? Will he join a cult of snakes? Will he die an ironic death? Maybe, no, and yeah, probably. But what's important to take away from all this is that finally an incredibly obscure villain may walk across the silver screen. A guy like Slipknot seems extremely ridiculous given his skill set, but once in a while we see these walking gimmicks become more and more savage because of their mocking abuse. So the next time you tease someone for being really good at threading needles or stacking cups, be careful! You might be hurting their feelings, or you might be creating a super-villain. Thanks for reading!
P.S. If you haven't heard the word, your gracious host just appeared on another DistractionsMedia podcast! Check it out! http://thenerdstitute.podbean.com/e/tbt-17-the-worstest-things-movies/
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