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in: Issues Rated M, Comics Published by WildStorm Productions, Jim Lee/Executive Editor,
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Stormwatch: Team Achilles Vol 1 8

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"The Winter War": Jukko Hämäläinen visits a desolate Finland and places flowers on the graves of his deceased friends during the anniversary of Finland's Second Winter War. Jukko returns to New York City via Project Entry and attends a fireman's bar. He also invited [[Midnighter (Wildstorm Unive


Quote1What are grits?Quote2: Jukko Hämäläinen
Quote1Grits? Grits are $1.50Quote2: Midnighter
Quote1Yes, but what are they?Quote2: Jukko Hämäläinen
Quote1Oh, what are they? Grits are a dollar fifty.Quote2: Midnighter

Stormwatch: Team Achilles #8 is an issue of the series Stormwatch: Team Achilles (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 2003. It was published on February 12, 2003.

Synopsis for "The Winter War"

Jukko Hämäläinen visits a desolate Finland and places flowers on the graves of his deceased friends during the anniversary of Finland's Second Winter War. Jukko returns to New York City via Project Entry and attends a fireman's bar. He also invited Midnighter, who is out of costume, to make him understand why he is opposed to dangerous superhumans. Although Midnighter is angry about his physical encounter with Jukko in Chechnya, he forgives him after he saved him and his teammates from the Russian Army. Once he recovered, Midnighter looked through the Pentagon's records to know about Jukko and what happened in Finalnd, in which they do not have the full story. In exchange for Jukko to tell his story, Midnighter reveals to him why the Authority were unable to prevent the deaths of eight million people in which they were dealing with a war started by a parallel universe. Jukko then tells his story.

Since Finland's victory in the Winter War with the Soviet Union, the country had been terrified of the growing might of its communist adversary when Russia developed its first atomic bomb and the subsequent failures of the uprisings in Hungary and Prague in the Eastern Bloc. But inspired by superheroes from the west such as the High and Jenny Sparks, the Finnish government began funding and creating its own superhuman program to protect their country. Among the people who volunteered for the program were Jukko's comrades from the Osasto Karhu ("Bear Force"), which includes his fiancée, his brother Lemminkäinen, and his best friend. Only Jukko refused to join. But by the time Finland established its superhuman army, it was all for naught when the Soviet Union collapsed. With a war that would never come, Finland's superheroes were without purpose and drifted aimlessly. Jukko's brother Lemminkäinen, however, had other ideas.

Lemminkäinen was a very powerful superhuman, who could affect minds and matter by sheer willpower. He became a politician, and his superhuman empathy made him hugely popular - his speeches resonated with the entire country, and his extreme right-wing opinions triggered a sea change in Finnish politics. His warped ideology evolved, and he soon became convinced that it was necessary to uplift his entire people to a superhuman level. A formidable psionic field called the "Masking Wall" was erected by a Finn named Pekka Viljo, Jukko's best friend. From outside everything seemed as if it were normal. But within months, Finland's government, a thrall to Hämäläinen's super-willpower, was committing horrors similar to that of the Third Reich. The whole population was herded into superhuman enhancement centers. Millions died, unable to survive the transformation into superhumans.

Hämäläinen was obsessed with making Jukko into a superhuman as well, making him to see the glory that would be his. Jukko, gifted with an incredible willpower, resisted all attempts to make him a superhuman for eight months, forcing his body to reject everything that was tried to enhance him. But after so much time, for a moment Jukko briefly lost his concentration and was turned into a superhuman against his will. Given with the current powers to inflict the feeling of pains to others, Jukko inflicted all his sufferings to Lemminkäinen to show him what his madness had wrought. The feedback incinerated Lemminkäinen. But unknown to Jukko, Lemminkäinen had a mental link to almost every surviving Finn in the country, which they were all killed from being shared with Jukko's pain.

This event left Jukko deeply guilt-ridden in which he spent living in a cabin deep in the woods of an empty country until he permanently left Finland today. After Lemminkäinen's death, the few Finn survivors (some of them superhuman) revealed the world what had happened in their country and decided that they would leave Finland's Masking Wall up and turn their country into an international safe haven for refugees all over the world, as long as they were willing to learn the Finnish language and weren't superhumans. This meant the surviving superhuman Finns themselves would leave, but keep a watchful eye on Finland, and crush anybody trying anything suspicious against their superhuman-free haven.

After finishing his story, Jukko and Midnighter establish themselves as sort-of friends.

Appearing in "The Winter War"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Lemminkäinen Hämäläinen (Dies in flashback)
  • Joseph Stalin (Flashback only)

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:


Vehicles:



Notes

  • The time of Lemminkäinen Hämäläinen's death and the incident in Finland coincide with the Authority's war with Sliding Albion during the "Shiftship" story arc (The Authority #5-8).



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