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Intergang emerged as one of two major Metropolis crime-cartels after several years of gangland disunity and fragmentation, alongside rival outfit The 100. Intergang was led by Morgan Edge, the mogul of the [[Galaxy Communications|Gal

Intergang was a nationwide criminal organization headquartered in Metropolis. Throughout one incarnation to another, Intergang was run by various crime lords and was armed with Apokoliptian weaponry and technology supplied by the evil New Gods of Apokolips. Due to being based in Metropolis, Intergang clashed several times with the city's super-hero, Superman.

History

Pre-Crisis

Intergang emerged as one of two major Metropolis crime-cartels after several years of gangland disunity and fragmentation, alongside rival outfit The 100. Intergang was led by Morgan Edge, the mogul of the Galaxy Broadcasting System, and supplied with hi-tech alien weapons, transportation and communication devices from the distant world of Apokolips. Unbeknownst to the members on the lower rungs of the hierarchy, Intergang's purpose was to front one aspect of the tyrant New God Darkseid's quest for the Anti-Life Equation, which he knew to be contained in the recesses of the human collective unconscious. Edge's role was to use the massive financial and technical resources of GBS to support and direct Intergang in the furtherance of this goal. Intergang planted a powerful explosive device inside a video camera and intended for Daily Planet cub reporter Jimmy Olsen and the Newsboy Legion to deliver it to the Mountain of Judgement with the Whiz Wagon like an unwitting Trojan horse. Clark Kent was simultaneously targeted in a hit-and-run assassination attempt when Morgan Edge felt that Clark's fervent objections to Jimmy's assignment endangered the task laid out for him. After surviving the attempted assassination, Clark caught up to the Whiz Wagon as Superman and disarmed its explosive package prior to the moment of detonation.[1][2]

Intergang then evacuated Edge out of the city when word was received that Metropolis would be annihilated by the imminent destruction of The DNA Project's nuclear power plant by the Evil Factory's Four-Armed Terror.[3] Intergang was also threatened by the coincident appearance of Orion of New Genesis. With a small group of human allies liberated from Apokolips, consisting of Dave Lincoln, Victor Lanza, Harvey Lockman and Claudia Shane, Orion visited several Intergang installations throughout Metropolis and dismantled them without mercy, attracting the attention of Sgt. Dan Turpin of the Metropolis Police Department.[4][5]

Intergang's activities did not stop there. Shortly after the Forever People announced their presence on Earth, Intergang was directed by Darkseid to kidnap Beautiful Dreamer to undergo a mental probe for the Anti-Life Equation in her subconscious. The Forever People were assisted in the battle to rescue their missing comrade by Superman.[6] Then when Morgan Edge feared that Jimmy Olsen was getting too close to the truth, he ordered boss Bruno Mannheim to murder the cub reporter, though the Guardian's timely intervention kept Jimmy from a premature end.[7][8] Intergang underboss Steel Hand assassinated expert escape artist Thaddeus Brown to welch out of a hastily-made wager from decades past, only to be perplexed and apprehended by Scott Free, an escapee from Apokolips who took up Brown's stage-gimmicks as "Mister Miracle."[9]

While exploring a restricted passageway leading from the subterranean levels of the DNA Project to the world outside, the Newsboy Legion happened across the gangster responsible for murdering Jim Harper, the original Guardian from the 1940s. The mobster was being sequestered in a secure underground bunker for his own protection, and for the protection of the organization's secrets from being dragged into the light. The Newsboys' unanticipated intrusion caused the Intergang superiors to detonate an explosive within the chamber and kill the gangster before he could be induced to "tattle."[10][11]

Next, Intergang tried to assassinate Jimmy and the Newsboy Legion after they were assigned by Morgan Edge to investigate claims of a lake monster in Scotland. Intergang's killers disguised themselves as hospitable locals to lull their targets into a false sense of security before striking, but one of the two was drowned in Loch Trevor and the other was turned over to the constabulary. This event also led indirectly to Jimmy and the Newsboys' discovery and destruction of the Evil Factory, putting a hitch into Darkseid's further plans for the human race.[12]

In an elaborate plot to murder Superman, Intergang constructed an automatic typewriter with a particular key wired to a hidden internal explosive mechanism, which was devised on Apokolips to be sufficient to destroy even "invulnerable" Kryptonians. The typewriter was bequeathed to Lois Lane by Morgan Edge and began to independently type up highly-specific obituaries for people who died in the manner described only after the "prophecy" was delivered. In actuality, the seemingly spontaneous deaths predicted were all planned Intergang hits, and the purpose of giving Lois the typewriter was to spook Lois into summoning Superman to take a look. The whole convoluted plan revolved around the eventuality that Superman would notice the only letter that the typewriter never typed automatically and hit the corresponding key out of curiosity, detonating the hidden explosive and blowing Lois and himself to smithereens. However, Superman identified the danger with his X-ray vision and removed the typewriter before any more harm could come out of it. Around the same time, Intergang's expansion into the rackets which prey upon Metropolis's poorer neighborhoods generated a conflict of interest with The 100 and made precedent for outright hostilities. A prototype of a Mother Box built by Intergang scientists and technicians, designated K.A.R.L. 1, was snatched by the 100's goons for use by that syndicate's consigliere Vince Adams to scheme the downfall of the Thorn.[13]

Recent developments were reflected in Morgan Edge's executive policy towards Superman's portrayal by Galaxy-owned media enterprises. Whereas before Edge was bitterly hateful and critical of Superman to the extent of blatant unfairness and ensured that Clark Kent parroted these sentiments as morning anchorman for WGBS-TV[14][15], new policy was to promote and praise Superman to the extent that his activities focused primarily on attacking the 100 and undermining their rival operations. In spite of that, Intergang still made frequent attempts to eliminate Superman, such as when Intergang operatives kidnapped social crusader Dave Stevens, the first African-American to be employed by the Daily Planet as a journalist, in order to frame the usual targets of Stevens's invective, the 100, and lure Superman into a death trap prepared by Desaad in the Happyland amusement park after-hours.[16]

Eventually, it was revealed that "Morgan Edge" was in fact a clone engineered by Simyan and Mokkari of the Evil Factory, physically and psychologically identical to his genetic template at every level except for his subliminal programming to obey Darkseid unquestioningly. In a final test of loyalty, Darkseid gave the clone a direct order to take the real Morgan Edge out back and put a bullet at the base of his skull, but because of the psychological tensions from the thought of murdering "himself," the clone instead knocked his progenitor unconscious and kept him prisoner, yet alive, in a cell behind a one-way mirror in his penthouse suite apartment, reasoning that Darkseid would never have reason to know of his covert insubordination. Then came the day that Edge escaped by sliding his food tray vertically into the aperture for its delivery, preventing the automatic slide-door from closing on it until he was through. The clone desperately tried every method available to retrieve Edge, using both the resources of Intergang and manipulation of Superman and Lois Lane.[17]

Eventually, Edge took refuge with Yango, the leader of the Outsiders Biker Gang[18], and used him to contact Jimmy Olsen, who in turn headed for the Galaxy building to drag the truth out into the open. In a final attempt to eliminate his counterpart before the events could spiral out of control and alert Darkseid of his original failure, the evil Morgan Edge flooded the building with Intergang killers, all of whom were ultimately neutralized by Superman. However, the clone's efforts came too little and too late; Darkseid appeared in Edge's office and transported him into the same room as the original Morgan Edge through the Omega Effect, making sure that one of his own hitmen shot and killed him on accident in the way of following his very orders.[19]

In the wake of the Morgan Edge clone's death, Intergang came under the leadership of a new top man, Joe Danton, and escalated its rivalry with the 100 into an endless cycle of bloody reprisals. Danton killed a lower-level grunt for preparing to defect to the 100, dressed him to resemble Jimmy Olsen, and tossed him through the window of the Daily Planet building to send a message. Superman and Jimmy confronted Danton about the implied threat, but only minutes later, Danton was killed in a car-bomb explosion.[20]

At a later time, Intergang fell under the leadership of Max Danner, and attempted to field sky-borne troops which were easily nabbed by Superman. They then sent a robot assassin to Clark Kent's apartment in revenge for a series of exposés against them, which nearly killed Clark at the time due to a bizarre effect which caused him to lose his super-powers unless if clothed in nothing but his Superman costume.[21]

Intergang then hijacked the Olympus Telescope and turned it into a plasma cannon drawing upon the energy of distant orange-type stars, before firing it against Metropolis. Superman quenched the plasma-flame by creating a low-pressure zone in his flight trail that drew metric tons of sand from the Metropolis beach into its path. Intergang's true ambition was not to incinerate the city, but to cause Superman to absorb an excess of orange-sun energy, whereupon he would detonate into a ball of plasma and take out half of Metropolis if he used his powers in the next few days. Luckily, Superman had resolved that interfering with the plasma-cannon plot would be his last action as Superman for a full week, during which he resolved to live fully as Clark to rediscover himself. This did not stop Clark from intervening in Intergang's business though. Even as a powerless reporter, Clark used an anti-gravity gimmick from Professor Pepperwinkle to break into Intergang's rolling office and put Danner and his flunkies on terms which made it easy for Clark (used to flight and weightless environments) to knock them out.[22]

The following week, Clark resolved to switch to being a full-time Superman, allowing his Clark Kent identity to go missing without explanation, in order to complete his soul-searching project. Although Superman cleared Intergang hoods off of the streets with greater efficacy than before, an unfortunate consequence was that Clark, as the District Attorney's star witness against Max Danner, failed to appear during his trial to testify. Though Clark's unexplained absence increased the likelihood of Danner being acquitted, Intergang took no chances and sent a hitman to Clark's apartment to "off" him. Unbeknownst to the hitman, his entry coincided with that of Clark's mysterious neighbor Mister Xavier, who reacted to the disturbance by disintegrating him on the spot.[23]

Eventually, Clark did appear for Danner's trial just as the D.A.'s case was about to be scuttled by the judge, but he left the scene as abruptly as he arrived when a telepathic signal from Xavier struck to lure him to the Rocky Mountains as Superman, making it probable that the state's case against Danner was either dropped or postponed.[24] One way or the other, Intergang's influence and reach were reduced, and its territory was aggressively seized by the SKULL organization.[25] Contemporary with these events, Darkseid covertly supported the creation of the original Secret Society of Super-Villains and intended them to succeed for him on Earth where Intergang had failed.[26]

A formerly Intergang-affiliated crime boss, Samuel Simeon, was saved from a SKULL assassination attempt by Superman and was later busted by the Man of Steel while trying to recruit manpower for a new mob in a suburb outside of Metropolis.[25][27] An Intergang cell led by lady crime-boss Carolyn Dole created a psychic warfare device known as a Mentropy Machine, which they planned to use against Superman to destroy his mind. In response, Superman and Mister Miracle orchestrated a farcical competition out in the Nevada Desert, all as part of a ruse to draw Dole and her henchmen out in the open, capture them, and destroy their machine.[28]

Post-Crisis

Morgan Edge was the leader of Intergang, until he suffered a heart attack due to stress. While he believed he was working for Darkseid, his Apokoliptian contact was actually Desaad, whose only aim in supplying him with weaponry was to cause suffering. While he was in hospital his legitimate businesses were taken over by his father, Vincent Edge, and Intergang was taken over by Bruno Mannheim, who trained on Apokolips with Granny Goodness (a later retcon would say that Mannheim was the original leader of Intergang, dealing knowingly with Desaad. How Edge took over is unrevealed.).

Eventually, Intergang was brought down by Daily Planet reporters Clark Kent and Cat Grant. Mannheim was arrested, but managed to escape. He attempted to disappear through a Boom Tube, but it collapsed when he was halfway through. [29]

Some time later, Mannheim's father, Boss Moxie, a gangster who had been in prison since the 1940's, after being captured by the Newsboy Legion, was released and led Intergang. Discovering that the Newsboys were, seemingly, the same age as when he first fought them, he determined to find out how such a thing could be. Meeting renegade Project Cadmus geneticist Dabney Donovan, he arranged for himself and his former gang members from the 1940's to be cloned into youthful bodies with superpowers. Using Vincent Edge to arrange a meeting between Metropolis' gang-leaders, he killed them all, and declared himself the new head of Intergang. The new Intergang spent much of their time tracking down Jimmy Olsen, whom Moxie believed knew Superman's secret identity.

Following a short-lived attempt by Morgan Edge to regain control, Lex Luthor gained control of Intergang, retaining Moxie as a figurehead.[30] Moxie and his lieutenants were later captured by Superman. When last seen, Intergang was run by a criminal cyberneticist named Frank Sixty.

Post-Infinite Crisis

 Main article: 52

After roughly two months since the Infinite Crisis, Boss Moxie was slain during the Crisis at the hands of the insane Superboy-Prime, and as a result Intergang's leadership was returned to Bruno Manheim. Under Manheim, Intergang expanded its operations into other nations such as Oolong Island (where Bruno transferred kidnapped "mad scientists"), Chang Tzu's Science Squad), Bialya, Yemen, included operating a mining company called Ridge Ferrick in regions such as Australia, and reorganized along quasi-religious lines devoted to the "Religion of Crime", complete with a "holy" text known as the Crime Bible.

Manheim intended to have Intergang exalt the power of crime as the dominant order in the 21st century and attempted to take over America. He planned to turn Gotham City into an Apokoliptian fire-pit which involved the sacrifice of Batwoman, but was stopped by the second Question and Nightwing.[31]

Gotham Underground

As a consequence of most of Earth's supervillains being exiled by the U.S. government, Intergang tried to take control of the Gotham City underworld, becoming involved in a gang war with Tobias Whale and the Penguin. Ultimately it was successful, and placed Johnny Stitches in command of Gotham as the capo di tutti capi.

With their newfound power, Intergang used the Iceberg Lounge to spend some of their spare time.[32] Once the meta-human villains of Gotham returned to the city, they attacked the Iceberg Lounge with the intention of eliminating Intergang and remove them from the power and after this, Intergang's HQ was attacked by Vigilante.[33]

Paraphernalia

Equipment: * Crime Bible

Weapons: Various Apokoliptian weaponry supplied by Darkseid and DeSaad of Apokolips,such:

New Earth

  • Energy Truncheons: A energy weapon similar to the Mega-Rod.
  • Purge: A Killer robot capable to adapt to any situation and environment.
  • Apokoliptian Bio-Armor: A bio-armor that enhances Bruno Mannheim's strength near Superman's levels.

Earth-One

  • Robot-Guns: Killer robots with automatic weapons.
  • Neutron Gun: A weapon that shoots energy capable of weakening and severely injuring Superman.


See Also

Links

Footnotes

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