Thursday, April 9, 2015

The Age of Agamemno

We don't know what aliens really look like, you know. Maybe they're little grey men, maybe they're tall and green men, or maybe-just maybe-they're yellow men with silver cone-heads! What? They can't all look like Xenomorphs! Anyway, here's Agamemno, this week's Z-Lister.


Agamemno first appeared in "Silver Age #1" in 2000, claiming to be the child of the first sentient being in the universe and conceived shortly after The Big Bang. Eons later, Agamemno's father was killed by newborn cosmic entities, sealing Agamemno in an eternal rage. Seeking godly power, Agamemno manipulated The Injustice Gang into stealing three sacred items from The Justice League: a shard of Kryptonite, the Central Power Battery of The Green Lantern Corps, and a Thanagarian mind-control device called The Absorbascon. To get these items, Agamemno used his powers to swap the bodies of the Injustice Gang with the members of The Justice League: Lex Luthor took Superman's body, Chronos became The Atom, Aquaman's body was taken by Black Manta, Catwoman gained control over Black Canary, Dr. Light got The Martian Manhunter's body, The Flash lost his body to Mr. Element, Felix Faust controlled Green Arrow's body, and The Penguin was given control of Batman. That's a scary thought. The plan succeeded and Agamemno's allies were given omnipresent powers. The Justice League knew The Injustice Gang's newfound knowledge about their powers and weaknesses would only make the coming battle harder, so they used a device called The H Dial to transform themselves into seven new heroes. That way their abilities would be unknown to the villains. It took The Justice League, The Green Lantern Corps, and The Wingmen of Thanagar to defeat Agamemno and The Injustice Gang. After being locked up on Oa, it was believed he was destroyed by the space creature, Parallax. As told in "JLA: Tower of Babel" Batman's secret plans to defeat the Justice League were conceived in case the JLA were to be possessed like this ever again.
It's strange that one the JLA's most powerful foes was only used once as a threat, but his existence proves important to Batman's relationship to the Justice League. I mean this is the villain who convinced the JLA were dangerous and only increased Batman's paranoia. I'd love to this character again, the whole body-swapping motif is something DC Comics hasn't often used. Let's see Agamemno put Jimmy Olson into Superman's body, or put Harley Quinn into Alfred Pennyworth's body. Oh, make Superman switch bodies with Superboy! Wait, Superboy is Superman's clone. Maybe that's a stupid idea. Hmm, put me in Green Arrow's body! Then I'll like "Arrow" a lot more. Thanks for reading!

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