Stormwatch (Wildstorm Universe)

Gallery

Official Name

StormWatch

Status

Status

Active

Organization Identity

Public

Universe

Earth-50, New Earth

Base Of Operations

Skywatch III, formerly Skywatch II, a UN sponsored orbital station in Earth's low orbit. New York's UN building for liaison personnel.

Organization

Organization Leader(s)

Jackson King, formerly Backlash, Jenny Sparks, Winter, Diva

Current Members

Martian Manhunter, Deathblow, Diva (Isabella Fermi) Fahrenheit, Flint, Jackson King, Winter, Fuji, Hellstrike, Synergy

Former Members

Diva, Rose Tattoo, Jack Hawksmoor, Swift, Jenny Sparks, Midnighter, Apollo, Backlash, Flashpoint, Nautika, Spartan, Crow Jane, Stalker, Impetus, Amaze, Lamplight

Allies

Backlash, Department PSI, Stormwatch Prime, Stormwatch P.H.D., UN, Unit Aleph (Israeli SPBs), and any country in trouble calling for their help.

Enemies

I.O., the MERCs, the WarGuard, Al Fathal, the High. There has been many occasions where they clashed with other superheroes teams trespassing on sovereign land (like the WildC.A.T.s).

Origin

Origin

StormWatch was first created to be the UN's arm to deal with super powered threats menacing any country's sovereignty. As a side assignment, they also deal with situations the locals cannot handle by themselves (like a nuclear reactor close to critical mass). They can also be called in to enforce UN's decrees. It was later discovered that the UN's security council follows a hidden agenda - not oriented toward the welfare of the world but more toward maintaining the global geopolitical status quo (namely, the third world depending on the rich states, and particularly the USA). This secret agenda has on occasion coloured StormWatch missions.

Place of Formation

United Nation Building

Creators

Brandon Choi, Jim Lee

First appearance

StormWatch #1
(March, 1993)

History

StormWatch was originally a United Nations (UN) "crisis intervention unit" founded as a successor to the Warguard: In the early 1970s, the UN's first orbital space station, Monitor One, was caught in the wake of a mysterious comet. Most of the station's staff were killed by radiation that penetrated Monitor One's shields, but a few survived and were altered by the event, changing form and gaining superhuman abilities. These survivors, including the telepath Isaiah King (formerly of Team One) and a ruthless female scientist named Dr. Nychus, became the powerful but uncontrollable Warguard, who later had to be defeated by heroes (including Team One veterans Backlash and Henry Bendix) and placed in stasis for the safety of all mankind.

Out of the ashes of the Monitor One and Warguard disasters, John Windsor founded the Seedling program: A second generation of humans granted superpowers by the comet event (Seedlings) were used as the core of a global peacekeeping force, StormWatch, operating from a giant orbital platform named SkyWatch. The force's first superpowered field unit, StormWatch Prime, comprised Battalion (Jackson King, son of Isiah King), Flashpoint (Foster McClane), Nautika (Maya Royko) and Sunburst (Karl Hansen).

The MJ-12, a shadow council of the UN, recruited Henry Bendix as the director (or 'Weatherman') of StormWatch, based on his previous experience with extraterrestrials in Team One. The MJ-12 also enlisted the help of Miles Craven, the director of US intelligence agency International Operations (I/O) and former overseer of Team One. When Marc Slayton (Backlash) tired of Craven's machinations, after his experiences with Team One and Team 7, Craven asked him to spy on the fledgling StormWatch program. Craven told Bendix that Slayton was a security risk, given his past associations with known extraterrestrial Lucy Blaize (a.k.a. Zannah or Zealot), and asked Bendix to take him in and keep an eye on him. When Bendix tried to recruit him, Slayton confessed that he had been asked to infiltrate StormWatch for I/O but had no intention of doing so. Bendix took him in anyway, and put him in charge of training StormWatch's field agents.

Another essential early member of Stormwatch was Christine Trelane, a 'Seedling activator' with the ability to awaken or shut down superpowers in humans affected by the comet event.

Flashpoint, Nautika and Sunburst were lost on a mission in Kuwait in 1991 (towards the end of Desert Storm) and presumed dead. They were later found to have been captured by the Deathtrap and the Mercs and were rescued from Gamorra by Battalion and new team members.

In addition to the main field team(s), Bendix created a covert superhuman team named 'StormWatch Black'. The earliest known lineup (1983) included The New Romantic (Robert Nathan), Ghetto Blaster (Roger Elliot), Deathrace (Garrett Nolan), Ebony, Ivory and The Urban Cowboy. The last StormWatch Black team comprised Jenny Sparks, Jack Hawksmoor and Swift.

A non-superpowered paramilitary support unit was also formed within StormWatch, named StormForce, a version of which still appears to be active in the US.

The original Skywatch station crashed to Earth in 1995 when the Warguard escaped from stasis, and its replacement was piloted into the sun in 1998 to destroy an infestation of xenomorphic aliens.

The aliens that invaded the second Skywatch station killed most of StormWatch's superhuman 'officers', excluding Jackson King (who had suceeded Bendix as Weatherman), Flint and the members StormWatch Black. With StormWatch effectively shut down, StormWatch Black went underground to form a new team called The Authority, initially having a similar international mandate to StormWatch. King founded his own group, named The Monarchy.

The next incarnation of StormWatch had a considerably smaller budget, and the Skywatch station was not rebuilt. Benjamin Santini, formerly Director of Operations at I/O, became the new Weatherman (following Henry Bendix, Christine Trelane and Jackson King) and led a small team of mostly human operatives specialized in neutralizing superhuman threats ('Team Achilles'), based in the UN headquarters building in New York.

StormWatch was disbanded by the UN following a coup d'etat in which The Authority seized control of the United States. The members of Team Achilles were declared illegal combatants, and went into hiding.

Jackson King later re-founded StormWatch under the sole control of the (re-instated) US government, as a safeguard against future superhuman coups. The Authority's new Doctor resurrected several of King's team-mates who had been killed aboard Skywatch, allowing King to form a new Stormwatch Prime. King also founded a separate initiative named 'Post-Human Division' (PHD) to train law enforcement specialists, both human and superhuman, in low-budget and practical techniques for combating superhuman threats.

In the wake of the World's End incident, New York was destroyed by a massive influx of superhumans, and PHD was forcibly disbanded. Around the same time, Stormwatch Prime were moved into a new satellite headquarters. From this vantage, they now work to return the world to a state of normalcy. In their endeavors StormWatch came into conflict with the reemerged Knights of Khera, a very militant faction of Kherubim who sought to conquer Earth through terraformation. StormWatch was among the many heroes that were summoned by the Authority and notified of the Carrier's leaving. Christine Trelane, Flint, and Deathblow left the team on the Carrier, as StormWatch and the other heroes who decided to stay on their planet wage war on the Knights of Khera and ultimately prevailed in defeating the Knights. Thereafter, StormWatch and some of Earth's heroes merged with the Wildcats in order to immensely repair the Earth and helping its survivors.

DCnU

The DC Universe heavily changed its continuity into the DCnU following the events of Flashpoint in 2011. This was part of an effort to make storylines more accessible to newer readers, beginning with the New 52. This new timeline combines elements from the DCU, Vertigo Universe and Wildstorm Universe while drastically changing the origins and histories of characters.

After Pandora melded the WildStorm and DCU into one reality, a very different version of StormWatch appeared. This new StormWatch is a covert organization run by an equally secretive group known as the Shadow Cabinet. StormWatch has been tasked with both dispatching major extraterrestrial and paranormal threats as well as keeping the surprisingly high frequency of these events a secret from the mass populace. StormWatch has existed in some form or another since the Middle Ages.

Paraphernalia

Equipment: Stormwatch operatives can rely on the latest technology. They are far more advanced than what we know in all manner of communications, encryption/decryption, medical facilities, surveillance, counter-surveillance, and tranports.
Transportation: Skywatch teleportation system
Weapons: Specialized weapons used by certain members (notably Battalion)

Notes

• No special notes.

Trivia

• No trivia.

See Also

• Appearances of Stormwatch (Wildstorm Universe)
• Organization Gallery: Stormwatch (Wildstorm Universe)
  
• Catalogued images featuring Stormwatch (Wildstorm Universe)

Links and References

• None.