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Battalion, real name Jackson King, is a longstanding member and leader of various incarnations of Stormwatch.

Pre-Stormwatch

Jackson King was the son of Isaiah King, a former member of Team One. Isaiah King was exposed to the radiation of a special comet that passed close to Earth. Many who were exposed to this comet became superhuman and were known as "Comet Enhanciles" or "Seedlings". Isaiah and his team were on a satellite the moment the comet passed and therefore were closer to it and became stronger than any other comet-enhanciles. Isaiah's children, Jackson and Malcolm inherited his powers. The process slowly drove Isaiah and his team mad though and he took the name Despot with his team becoming the WarGuard. They were captured and Jackson spent most of his adult life trying to prove he was not like his father.

Stormwatch

Jackson became part of the U.N. superhuman crisis team, Stormwatch Prime, operating from Skywatch, an orbital base and overseen by the Weatherman Henry Bendix. Jackson, under the codename Battalion, was one of the first recruits together with Nautika, Sunburst, and Flashpoint, all Comet-enhanciles like himself. They were trained by Backlash. Battalion and Backlash were the only ones to escape a failed mission during the Gulf War, thinking the others had died (in fact they had been captured). Battalion then gathered Stormwatch One to replace Stormwatch Prime.

Jackson became romantically involved with Stormwatch-member, Christine Trelane, codenamed Synergy. Trelane had the very rare ability to activate the usually dormant powers of comet-enhanciles and increase the powers of superhumans. She was therefore of great value to Stormwatch. Another Stormwatch-member was Malcolm King, Jackson's younger brother who often had arguments with his older brother. Because of her value and the limited use of her power on a battlefield, Christine soon replaced Bendix as the Weatherman of Stormwatch. The cybernetic implants in her head, that were required as a Weatherman, did put a bit of a strain on her relationship with Jackson.

During one of Stormwatch's missions, Jackson King was thought to be killed by the WildC.A.T.S.-member Maul. In fact Maul was an impostor, sent to start a conflict between Stormwatch and the WildC.A.T.s. Jackson, who had earlier been given a glimpse into the near future, had gone into hiding, where he trained himself in more skilled uses of his powers so he could face his father. He returned when Despot and his WarGuard escaped and defeated most of the Stormwatch team. Using his newly-honed skills, Jackson saved his team.

After Despot's defeat, Henry Bendix returned as Weatherman and Christine was restored to normal. Bendix reorganized Stormwatch into different teams and Jackson was demoted from being the team's leader to trainer. Jackson didn't like this new position, but Bendix argued that Jackson's romantic involvement with Trelane would be a liability in the field. Shortly afterwards, Bendix went insane and King took his place as Weatherman. He kept this position until a few months later when a group of Aliens infiltrated Skywatch and killed most of Stormwatch. Stormwatch member Winter flew Skywatch into the Sun, destroying the base and killing the Aliens. Only Jackson, Trelane and Flint survived.

The Monarchy

The members of Stormwatch Black, a secret group of Stormwatch operatives, not based on Skywatch, went on to form The Authority. King and Trelane operated as the U.N. liaisons for the Authority for a while, but Jackson strongly disagreed with the Authority's methods and thought that he was treated like an errand boy. Jackson was contacted by the Weaver, powerful creatures who oversee the Bleed. They gave Trelane and him information on a danger that was threatening them all. To stop this danger Jackson and Trelane put together their own group, the Monarchy.[1]

Stormwatch: PHD

Following the reboot of the Wildstorm Universe, Jackson and Christine's history with the Monarchy were erased. Instead, Jackson himself became the director of Stormwatch and its sister organization: PHD (Post Human Division). He received the idea of to restart Stormwatch Prime after fending off a superhuman attack by old foes during his wedding to Christine Trelane. He sold the President of the United States on the idea of funding the organization as a new superhuman crisis response team answering only to the U.S. as a countermeasure against eventualities such as the Authority attempting another government overthrow. Jackson and his wife were approached by The Doctor, Habib Bin Hassan, who offered to bringing back Winter. The Doctor was able to bring back Winter but also Fahrenheit, Fuji and Hellstrike who were somehow 'linked to Winter's soul on a quantum level.' Jackson was glad to see his old friends back, but was troubled over that someone with a higher power than The Doctor was responsible for resurrecting them (it was reveal later that it was future version of Jackson King).[2][3]

World's End

After Armageddon, Jackson continues Stormwatch's role in saving what is left of Earth. Under his rule, his friends and allies, and including his wife, were very concerned of how Jackson led given that some of his decisions bordered on the amoral. This was due to former Wildcats member turned villain Tao, who controls King and Mister Majestic. Evidently, Jackson fully intended on replacing the Authority, who were stranded in UnLondon, with Stormwatch as the new protectors of Earth and as well modeling his team members after the Authority's. Jackson and Stormwatch later faced a direct threat from the very militant Knights of Khera, who had been carefully spying on Earth's heroes and now sought to conquer the planet. Jackson relocated Stormwatch to The High's Rocky Mountain base after using Skywatch to partially damage the Knight's spaceship, the Red Blade.[4] After Stormwatch was notified of the chance to leave Earth on the repaired Carrier, Jackson decided to stay on Earth to stop the Knights of Khera from terraforming the planet. However, Christine Trelane decided to leave Earth. Following the Carrier's departure, King and his allies fought the Knights and its armies in UnLondon.[5] During the conflict, King had an argument with the Wildcats and his teammates over relinquishing his command to Spartan, in which he eventually relented.[6]

After the Knights' defeat, Jackson was gathered along with many of Earth's heroes on a repaired Skywatch, under the still leadership of Spartan. When Spartan opened a priority in seeking Earth's new Doctor following Habib Bin Hassan's madness and apparent death, Jackson volunteered in having only himself to search for the new Doctor. However, Winter questioned Jackson's ability to be on his own since he was previously manipulated by Tao. So Spartan had Ladytron accompany King given she was a cyborg that can't be mentally control, much to Jackson's great reluctance.[7]

Powers

  • Telepathy: He also has telepathic power that became far stronger when he became leader of the Monarchy. His powers include the ability to read minds and project thoughts.
  • Telekinesis: When he was a member of Stormwatch Prime and Stormwatch One, he could only lift small objects and relied on his special costume to increase his powers. When he became part of the Monarchy, he apparently no longer needed a special costume to use his powers.
    • Energy Projection: Battalion can fire bursts of raw energy in the form of mental blasts.[8] He could also feed his powers into his guns to increase their destructive force, but this was usually a desperation move; their destructive force was uncontrollable.
    • Force Field: Battalion can form protective mental and physical shields. Even without his armor his shields were strong enough to take sustained fire from an energy weapon without collapsing.[10]
      • Superhuman Durability: Battalion can project around his body an invisible force field capable of absorbing great damage that would otherwise be lethal. With his personal force field activated he can survive blows from opponents with vast superhuman strength[8] and energy blasts.[11]
    • Flight: Battalion can use his telekinetic abilities to lift himself from the ground and soar through the air.[12]
    • Tactile Telekinesis: King can direct his psionic force inward in order to strengthen his body for hand to hand combat. Even without his armor he was able to augment his strength to the point where he could easily knock out armored humans with a single blow.[13] He later became able to increase strength and resilience enough to battle it out with the likes of Kherubim Lords; having been able to match the physical might of Lord Sebaeos in pitched battle with relative ease.

Abilities

Equipment

  • Battalion Armor: (Formerly)

Weapons

  • Psi Gun: (Formerly)


  • At early points in his career, Battalion needed a specialized power-enhancer suit to increase his powers to combat levels. As his powers grew so did the technology in his suit until he became so powerful it was unnecessary.

Related

Footnotes

  1. The events depicted in the Monarchy are no longer considered to be official continuity. It has either been erased by the WorldStorm event, takes place in a parallel dimension, or is the result of a hallucination after the Doctor spiked Jackson's drink at one of the Authority's parties.
  2. Stormwatch: Post Human Division #5
  3. Stormwatch: Post Human Division: Armageddon #1
  4. Stormwatch: Post Human Division #24
  5. The Authority #18
  6. Wildcats: World's End #19
  7. Wildcats: World's End #22
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 StormWatch #0
  9. The Authority: Prime #4
  10. StormWatch #2
  11. StormWatch #1
  12. StormWatch #7
  13. StormWatch #14


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