Clifford Zmeck was the second test subject of the Captain Atom Project, becoming Major Force. Unlike the first, Zmeck belonged in jail, and the project only made him a bigger psychopath. He is a deeply sadistic force often working for clandestine government projects.
History
Origin
Sgt. Clifford Zmeck was a certified psychopath, court-martialed by the United States Air Force in 1969 and convicted of murder and rape. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but Project Atom gave him a chance to be pardoned.[2] Experiments had been performed the previous year by subjecting an alien metal to a nuclear blast with a test subject encapsulated by the metal. Nathaniel Adam was the first volunteer, and he was apparently killed by the blast, so Zmeck was given a triple layer of the alien metal to protect him before being subjected to a nuclear blast. The "Major Force Project" was deemed a failure after Zmeck was apparently killed in the blast. In truth, the force of the explosion had catapulted him into the quantum field and shot him decades forward in time. Zmeck re-entered the time-stream and found that the alien metal was now fused to his body, giving him superhuman powers. General Wade Eiling (current head of Project Atom) recruited Zmeck as a new operative. Zmeck was spirited to an Air Force base where scientists implanted remote-control devices under his skin that could keep him in line by releasing a nerve gas or exploding on command. Technicians laser-etched his alloy coating into a "costume," and he was given the code name Major Force. Major Force has been working as a government sanctioned superhero, but has proven to be dangerously reckless with his powers and brought him into conflict with his predecessor Captain Atom (Nathaniel Adam). Nevertheless, he distinguished himself in service during the invasion of Earth by the Dominators.
Crime and Punishment
Ultimately, Major Force's unbalanced and sadistic tendencies clashed into the superhero community, in which he was responsible for the murder of Alexandra "Alex" DeWitt, the girlfriend of the then newest Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, and stuffed her remains in a refrigerator so that Rayner could find her.[3] Rayner almost killed Major Force, but was stopped by forces of the Special Crimes Unit who then took Zmeck into custody.[4] In another escapade with the corrupt governmental organization of Quorum, he was sent to coerce the recently alien empowered Warrior into their service.[5] Force would later find himself heavily outmatched in their initial skirmish however, soon coming under fire from newest Lantern Rayner a little bit after.
Making a hasty retreat while covering his escape with a crisis for to occupy the heroes.[6] He's eventually hunted down by the duo and Gardner deals him a fatal blow after the manic metahuman damaged his comatose brother's medical care device, killing him before Mace Gardner succumbed.[7] Force's body would later be exhumed from a Quorum facility by Killer Frost at the behest of the Legion of Doom, having been somehow revitalized by the supercriminal and new legion initiate Houngan. Having his body puppeteered by the villainous voodooist to act as the teams muscle when they came to blows with the heroes.[8] When he ended up fully resuscitated, Zmeck eventually wound up back in service to the same renegade ministry who initially brought him into their service. Having been augmented using scraping of Guy's alien hybrid DNA, the Major would announce his return by killing a war buddy of his, Arisia Rrab, a former Green Lantern at the time and friend of former Green Lantern Guy Gardner.[9] Force was confronted by a vengeful but significantly weakened Guy Gardner in New York City and apparently killed him in a lengthy if one-sided battle. Ripping out his heart with his counterfeited Vuldarian powers.
What the psychotic didn't expect was Gardner's body resupplying replacement organs and healing him, restoring him to life and full power. With the tables now turned, Gardner managed to kill Zmeck by blowing a hole in his chest again before making him swallow a forced implosion device.[10] In reality, Force was made of energy and not matter, therefor he cannot die and was effectively immortal. Being seen again a short time after his revival terrorizing Downtown Metropolis, having gained a significant power boost caused by ripples in the Q-Field which also lead to his revival. He would battle the entire JLA with the new edition of Resurrection Man to a standstill, until he was dissipated into his composite particles by Shelley's new gift.[11]
Public Enemies
Force was later tasked as a part of a Government Task Force led by Captain Atom in addition to Green Lantern John Stewart, Power Girl of the JSA, Starfire of the Teen Titans, Japanese superhero Katana and retired superhero Black Lightning. He was saddled with Captain Atom by then President Lex Luthor in order to bring in Superman when a Kryptonite asteroid was headed for Earth.[12] Superman, aided by Batman, escaped them in Washington but met up with them again in Tokyo. Power Girl and Katana had been double agents working with Superman and Batman the whole time. When Captain Atom and his squad pursued them to Japan, Power Girl struck out at him. Force reacted by indiscriminately killing dozens of people. Katana chopped his hands off, releasing the atomic energy he harbored. Batman convinced Captain Atom to absorb the energy leaking from Force, which threatened to decimate the city. Captain Atom absorbed all the energy and disappeared, moving several years into the future in a quantum leap.[13]
Force would later return and again bedeviled Kyle Rayner by apparently decapitating Kyle's mother Maura Rayner and stuffed her severed head in an oven. He engaged Rayner in a lengthy battle and was almost successful in taking away Rayner's ring after Force attempted to persuade him to give it up. Arrogantly, Force then revealed that the head in the oven was just a mannequin and Maura Rayner was still alive. This caused Kyle to regain control of his ring and decapitated Force. Although Force was alive, Kyle had his head sealed in a bubble of Green Lantern energy and sent it hurling into outer space.[14][15]
One Year Later
Main article: Battle for Blüdhaven
Force reappeared a year after the events of Infinite Crisis as the field leader of Project S.H.A.D.E. while being charged into dealing with any metahuman who illegally entered Blüdhaven. This brought him and his team into a conflict with the Teen Titans, Monolith, Firebrand, and the Atomic Knights. Eventually, Force came into a fight with Hal Jordan and was then told by his comrade Major Victory to stand down; however, Force refused and responded by ripping off Major Victory's right arm, and beating him to death with it.[16]
His revolting action caused Force's subordinates and some of the S.H.A.D.E. agents to refuse to stand by him. Eventually, Major Force was brought into conflict with a revived Captain Atom, and Force's rampage was quickly brought to an end when Captain Atom drained him of his energy, leaving his body to fall into the chaos left by the destruction of Blüdhaven at Atom's hand.[17]
Major Force is seen alive again soon after his last scuffle with Atom, he was seen again in the service of S.H.A.D.E. affiliated super soldiers getting ready to battle Uncle Sam and his Freedom Fighters under orders of a impostor as acting head of the presidency.[18] During the fight he manages to keep pace with a flying Miss America, nearly catching up to her during the battle. Only to be quickly subdued by Joan's transmogrification of plant matter, taking him out of the fight.[19]
Project 7734
Some time later, Major Force found himself working for General Samuel Lane, under Project 7734. Force was tasked into bringing a rogue Captain Atom into custody following the latter of regaining his memories and acting independent from Project 7734's ally Mirabai of Sorcerers' World. A battle between him and Captain Atom ensued, in which Force then transported themselves to Metropolis where the forces of Project 7734's were awaiting for Atom's capture. However, Force and the soldiers were subdued by Mon-El and allowing Captain Atom to escape after delivering a blow to Major Force.[20][21]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Dilustel Armor: Major Force's metallic shell, or "skin", is composed of a portion of the alien being known as Silver Shield, and is called Dilustel. Pieces of the aliens metal body were used in the Major Force Project, Project Captain Atom and similar projects thereafter. Unlike the Captain however, Force's body lays coated with the metal yet he's unable to either partially or totally layer himself in it. Therefore, he cannot revert to a human appearance. Force's symbiosis with the metal is such that even partially armored he is able to access the Quantum Field.
- Quantum Field Manipulation: Major Force's metal skin is tied into the Quantum Field, which enables him to absorb and manipulate theoretically infinite amounts of energy, the amount of which he can use is, of course, limited by his will power. Major Force can fire and control energy of any form. However, his abilities stemmed from a different spectrum of field granting him different powers from Atom, aside from the superhuman strength and Invulnerability. This was theorized to be a result of the Major Force Project using double the amount of alien alloy and detonating a different blast yield of the bomb. He commonly manipulates his energy to generate matter into various shapes and forms like sliding ramps, entombing enemies or manipulating his own armor skin but the most common form is a simple dark matter blast. Over the years, Major Force has become an expert at his energy manipulation; being fire from any point on his body even manipulating it in such ways as Force field Bubbles to simple bomb blasts, although he usually uses his hands for ease of aiming. He can fire in multiple directions at once or from every point of his body.[22] Several times he has "detonated", releasing a massive amount of energy at once, destroying objects within a certain radius.
- Superhuman Strength: Major Force's quantum link gave him incredible superstrength. Being capable of lifting in excess of 100 tons with minimal effort. Force's strength is such that he could devastate a city while singlehandedly challenging the entire Justice League, coupling an extra addition featuring Resurrection Man.[11] As well as putt Superman all the way from Metropolis America several hundred miles across three city states to a little league baseball field in Covington; Ohio.[23]
- Superhuman Speed: After reviving himself from his energy being drained by Adam back in Bludhaven. Major Force showcased newfound quantum powered superhuman speed. Making him fast enough to keep up with Miss America while fighting the Freedom Fighters in front of the White House lawn.[19]
- Superhuman Reflexes [19]
- Superhuman Agility [19]
- Metamorphosis: After the criminal organization called Quorum incorporated some of Guy Gardner's alien DNA into his biometalic physiology,[9] Major Force can now morph his body into a host of different shapes in order to form weaponry with which he energizes with his quantum powers.[10]
- Organic-Metal Constructs: Force could create and generate his own weapon forms using his Dilustel metal as a base mold to shift them from.[9]
- Adaptation
- Energy Projection [22]
- Matter Absorption: Similar to how Adam can generate as well as absorb energy into himself, Major Force can theoretically absorb Dark Matter or other forms of matter into himself to grow more powerful.[24]
- Self-Sustenance: Natural life support allowing him to live, thrive and even speak in the vacuum of space.
- Energy Absorption: He has proven avid at energy absorption but not on the level of Captain Atom, using a dark variant of quantum energy to suck away solar radiation from superman.[25]
- Energy Construct Creation: Making use of his dark quantum energies, Clifford can encapsulate objects to move them about in a telekinetic fashion or create energy shielding to deflect incoming attacks.[6][20]
- Flight: Force eventually discovered the ability to fly under his own power a while before and after his first demise,[26][27] employing it sometime after coming out of a zombified state predating his complete resurrection.[28] A little bit before undergoing genetic tailoring by Quorum,[6] he was able to learn unassisted aviation under his own power without the aid of robotic manipulation. Being able to keep up with Atom in a contest of flight speed.[20]
- Dark Matter Generation: Major Force can also create matter in the same manner he creates energy. Zmeck seemed to control matter much in the way Captain Atom controls energy. Therefore he could project blasts of dark matter from his hands and manipulate this matter into various shapes and quantities. He used this ability to create a hand to replace one that was blown off by explosives implanted under his skin.
- Dark Matter Manipulation Force can not only conjure said matter but manipulate it down to the subatomic level, able to reshape whatever material he generates as well as physically convert whatever he effects into Dark Matter as well. Having morphed one of Atom's quantum blasts into Dark Matter to lock his hands together the minuet said force struck him dead on.[29]
- Immortality: His connection to the quantum force has made him immortal. No matter how many times he's mortally incapacitated he will always reintegrate thanks to his connection to the quantum field. In his own words, Force cannot and will not die.
- Invulnerability: The Dilustel armor provides almost complete invulnerability from physical blows as well as energy projections.
- Regeneration: Given time, Major Force could recover from almost any injury, even the dispersal of his molecules.
- Resurrection: Force has the power to revive himself whenever he dies. Returning to life between intervals at a time but physically reincorporates himself fully and completely in every known instance of it.
- Resurrection Empowerment With each return from the quantum field after death, Major Force regularly comes back stronger than ever.[11] Wielding new facilities to his powers that he couldn't access beforehand.[19] Sometimes even gaining whole new powers tied to his connection with the Quantum Field he'd not showcased before.[20]
Abilities
- Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic): He's a decent hand to hand combat in a fight, as former military he's trained.
- Military Protocol
Weaknesses
- Stupidity: Major Force is not very intelligent.
- Vulnerability to Extreme Temperatures: Due to his inability to properly absorb energy, Major forces dilustel body can be melted by high intensity temperature changes and then freeze him in place once cooled.
- Dilustel Rupturing: If Major Force's armored skin is breached by sufficient blunt trauma, he runs the risk of nuclear detonation.[13]
- Involuntary Quantum Jumping: Whenever Major Force ended up dying or otherwise incapacitated, he'd end up trapped in the Quantum field until he fully regenerated.
Related
- 88 Appearances of Clifford Zmeck (New Earth)
- 16 Images featuring Clifford Zmeck (New Earth)
- 3 Quotations by or about Clifford Zmeck (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Clifford Zmeck (New Earth)
Footnotes
- ↑ Generations Shattered #1
- ↑ Captain Atom (Volume 2) #12
- ↑ Green Lantern (Volume 3) #54
- ↑ Green Lantern (Volume 3) #55
- ↑ Guy Gardner: Warrior #27
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Guy Gardner: Warrior #28
- ↑ Green Lantern (Volume 3) #60
- ↑ Extreme Justice #17-Extreme Justice Vol 1 18
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Guy Gardner: Warrior #43
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Guy Gardner: Warrior #44
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Resurrection Man #20
- ↑ Superman/Batman #3
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Superman/Batman #4
- ↑ Green Lantern (Volume 3) #180
- ↑ Green Lantern (Volume 3) #181
- ↑ Battle for Blüdhaven #5
- ↑ Battle for Blüdhaven #6
- ↑ Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #7
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #8
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Action Comics #883
- ↑ Action Comics #884
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Extreme Justice #18
- ↑ Superman (Volume 2) #185
- ↑ Captain Atom (Volume 2) #35
- ↑ Superman (Volume 2) #185
- ↑ Captain Atom Annual (Volume 2) #2
- ↑ Justice League Europe Annual #1
- ↑ Extreme Justice #17
- ↑ Captain Atom Annual (Volume 2) #1
Legion of Doom member |
Injustice League member |
Justice League Villain This character is or was primarily an enemy of the Justice League, in any of its various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Justice League Villains." |
Green Lantern Villain(s) This character is or was primarily an enemy of the Green Lantern of Earth, or the Green Lantern Corps as a whole. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Green Lantern Villains." |