Rainsaw was a member of the Star Chamber during the Shadow War.
History
The greatest mystery is how Rainsaw's body was transformed into a living blizzard of razor sharp metal "snowflakes" that he can mentally manipulate at will. Whatever the case, Rainsaw's unique abilities made him one of the Cabinet's most valuable operatives, especially on Search and Destroy (SAND) missions.[1] While killing opponents was sometimes unavoidable in the Cabinet's line of work, Rainsaw took a sadistic glee in dispatching enemies that truly unnerved his teammates, especially Blitzen.[1] Though largely an outcast among the Cabinet, Rainsaw did find kindred spirits of sorts in the brutish Slag and the snobbish Ash.[2]
In recent times, the ambitious operative Headmaster felt that beings as powerful as the Shadow Cabinet should rule humanity rather than protect it. His views were shared by several other operatives including Rainsaw.[1] These dissidents would eventually become the faction known as the Star Chamber, which promptly split off from the Cabinet. This schism would begin the covert metahuman conflict known as the Shadow War.[3]
Since the Shadow Cabinet would oppose their goal of world domination, the Star Chamber needed to quickly bolster their ranks. The key to doing so was the Dakota City, which saw a major increase in metahumans due to the "Big Bang" event.[3] The Shadow Cabinet's leader Dharma had extensive files on Dakota's metahumans, information which the Chamber secretly copied before leaving the group.[3] Thus, the Shadow War quickly escalated as Shadow Cabinet and the Star Chamber vied to get Dakota's superheroes and supervillains to join their side.
Another vital part of the Star Chamber's plans was acquiring Quantum Juice or "Q Juice", an unpredictable, often dangerous mutagen responsible for the Big Bang.[1] Headmaster also wanted to kidnap Q Juice's creator Dr. Nathan Flack for his scientific knowledge, but the Chamber had so far failed to locate Flack.[1]
In the meantime, Headmaster assigned different members of the Star Chamber for the metahuman recruitment effort in Dakota. He picked Rainsaw to recruit David Kim, a medical researcher who had recently been transformed into an immortal or "xombi."[4] Rainsaw found David in downtown Dakota just as he was entering the pocket dimension within the Shadow Cabinet operative Twilight.[4] Because of Rainsaw's sudden arrival, Twilight accidentally shut the portal to the pocket dimension, amputating David's arm. Though David's limb soon grew back, he was understandably in no mood to deal with Rainsaw. Feigning concern, Rainsaw apologized for the mishap and explained that he did not want David to join the wrong side in the Shadow War. Rainsaw then used his metallic form to portray Dharma's role in the creation of Q Juice while lying that the Cabinet would use it to destroy mankind.[4] Twilight was disgusted by Rainsaw's deception, which he encouraged David to ignore. Rainsaw then tried to recruit Twilight, who flatly refused to join the Star Chamber. To get under Twilight's skin, Rainsaw mocked his loyalty to Dharma as well as his inability to persuade David to join the Cabinet.[4]
Furious, Twilight unleashed a menagerie of bizarre creatures from his pocket dimension to deal with Rainsaw.[4] Unfortunately, the creatures soon began attacking everyone present, including police and other innocent bystanders who had been drawn to the area by Rainsaw and Twilight's debate. Rainsaw and David Kim teamed up to stop the creatures while Twilight looked on in horror over the carnage he had caused.[4]
During the battle, one of Twilight's creatures, the Refractionary, created a dazzling illusion that left David disoriented.[4] Having regained his composure, Twilight took advantage of this by ordering the Refractionary to push David into his pocket dimension.[4] Rainsaw saw this attempted kidnapping and in his blizzard form flew to aid David, who began fighting off his assailant. Seeing the approaching Rainsaw, the Refractionary magically disguised himself as David and vice versa. As a result, Rainsaw realized too late that he was using his dispersed form to eviscerate David Kim, not the Refractionary.[4]
Twilight gloated over Rainsaw killing the man he was to recruit.[4] Insensed, Rainsaw spitefully slew the invisible canine Snapping Jaws, one of Twilight's creatures who had survived the battle. This argument was ended by David Kim, whose body had mostly healed from his severe injuries.[4] David decided to participate in the Shadow War since he feared leaving the world's survival to the likes of Rainsaw and Twilight. Offended by Twilight's strong arm tactics during the battle, David instead joined the Star Chamber to the delight of Rainsaw.[4]
Buoyed by this success, Rainsaw then joined Ash and Slag to recruit the street gang, the Blood Syndicate.[2] Headmaster was especially interested in recruiting the gangmembers Fade and Flashback due to their time manipulation abilities.[2] If the Syndicate declined the Chamber's offer, Rainsaw, Ash and Slag were ordered to eliminate the gang to prevent any of them from joining the Shadow Cabinet.[2] Naturally, Rainsaw and his cohorts concealed this aspect of their mission from the newer Chamber members like David Kim, who would object.
Rainsaw, Ash, and Slag met with the Blood Syndicate at their abandoned factory headquarters. With Ash serving as spokeswoman, the Chamber tried to appeal to the gang's desire for respect, power and honor to win their support. Syndicate leader Wise Son realized the gang was being deceived and rejected the Star Chamber's offer dumping a glass of champagne on Ash's head.[2] After such disrespect, Rainsaw, Ash and Slag shed all pretenses and declared death on the Syndicate. However, before the Chamber members could attack, they were interrupted by the sudden arrival of a team of Shadow Cabinet operatives led by Sideshow.[2] The Cabinet and Chamber members then engaged in a fierce debate that further angered the Syndicate, who decided to expel both groups from their territory. This resulted in a massive three-way battle between the Star Chamber, Shadow Cabinet and Blood Syndicate.[2]
As the battle escalated, Syndicate member DMZ knocked out Ash in retaliation for her injuring his teammate, Brickhouse. Witnessing this caused Slag to fly into a rage, and he began to unleash his full pyrokinetic powers in the battle even though he was endangering Rainsaw and Ash as well.[2] Then, all the combatants suddenly noticed a massive tsunami bearing down on them. (This tsunami was secretly created by the watery metahuman Aquamaria, who felt kinship with the Blood Syndicate and now decided to aid them.)[2] The Syndicate quickly took cover while the Shadow Cabinet teleported to safety.[2] The Star Chamber was not so lucky and was swept away when the tsunami hit. Miraculously, Rainsaw, Ash, and Slag survived and retreated to their headquarters to lick their wounds.[2]
The other Star Chamber teams were successful in their mission so the team now focused on acquiring a supply of Q Juice. The only known stockpile of Q Juice belonged to the malevolent conspiracy S.Y.S.T.E.M., who stored it in a vault hidden in an American casino. Headmaster convinced the new Chamber recruits that stealing the Q Juice from SYSTEM was necessary lest it fall into the hands of the "evil" Shadow Cabinet.
The Chamber teleported via Funyl's powers into the casino, breached the vault's outer door, and quickly overcame the squad of armored SYSTEMatics protecting the vault.[1] However, the Chamber met new opposition as the Shadow Cabinet teleported in, leading to a fierce battle. During the fight, Blitzen managed to secure the Q Juice stockpile before Slag could get it.[1] With the Q Juice in enemy hands, the Chamber teleported back to headquarters.[1]
Headmaster had planned for this possibility and implemented a new strategy. Since the Star Chamber could not steal Q Juice, they would make their own by using the superconducting supercollider in Luoyang, China to process certain radioactive materials into the mutagen.[1] These materials were available in three fusion reactors on Earth. Headmaster split the Chamber into three teams each one assigned raid to a fusion reactor.[1] These simultaneous strikes would increase the odds that at least one team would be successful.[1]
Rainsaw was part of the strike team that raided the Einstein Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel.[1] The Shadow Cabinet was waiting for the Chamber, but despite their best efforts Funyl located and then teleported the radioactive material. Victorious in their mission, Rainsaw and his comrades teleported back to the Star Chamber's headquarters.[1]
With the necessary material in hand, the Star Chamber teleported to the Luoyang supercollider, leading to the final showdown with the Shadow Cabinet.[1] However, this battle was just a diversion so that Slag, Ash and Funyl could reach the collider control room, process the radioactive material into Q Juice, and load it into already prepared missile that they launched.[1] The missile's loud roar as it was launched startled both the Cabinet and the rest of the Chamber, thus bringing the fight to a halt.[1]
Headmaster then revealed to all present that in minutes the Q juice-bearing missile would reach geosynchronous orbit.[1] The missile was rigged to be detonated by a remote in Headmaster's hand, thus releasing its payload into Earth's atmosphere and killing countless millions. The missile was Star Chamber's trump card in case any superhero tried to thwart the group's true goal of world domination.
However, Headmaster's gloating was short-lived when his remote was suddenly snatched by an invisible observer: Dr. Nathan Flack, who now called himself Dr. Nemo.[1] Nemo gained his cloaking power by exposure to Q juice, and he now wanted to similarly "bless" humanity by repeating his experiment on a global scale.[1] After observing the Shadow War for days, Flack realized the Star Chamber's scheme for world conquest was the perfect way to accomplish his dream.[1] He then detonated the missile to the horror of those assembled.
Fortunately, the Cabinet's ally Hardware had secretly flown off to intercept the Star Chamber's missile as Headmaster explained its purpose.[1] Hardware boarded the missile and then escaped with its Q Juice payload just seconds before the missile exploded.[1] Thus, the world was saved from Flack's genocidal plans.
The Star Chamber promptly surrendered while the new recruits joined the Cabinet except for the fiery crimelord Holocaust, who fled the scene and returned to Dakota.[1] After securing the new Q Juice, the Shadow Cabinet left the rest of the Chamber to be picked up by the authorities. Rainsaw and his teammates soon found themselves in maximum security prison with lengthy sentences.[1]
Rainsaw would still be incarcerated if not for an unexpected turn of events. During the infamous Utopia Park Riots, several Shadow Cabinet members disobeyed Dharma's explicit orders to not get involved in order to save endangered civilians and police.[5] Dharma considered this mutiny proof that his Cabinet operatives had too much free will and thus were less effective in his eyes.[6] So, he declared that operatives could no longer leave the Cabinet's headquarters, the Shadowspire, except for missions.[6] Deeming Dharma insane, operatives Donner, Blitzen and Iota fled the Shadowspire to form their own public superhero team, Heroes.[6] Perhaps anticipating such a rebellion, Dharma had earlier arranged for the release of the Star Chamber, who having no where else to go decided to rejoin the Cabinet.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Unique Physiology: Rainsaw's entire body is composed of millions of razor sharp, irregularly shaped metal fragments or "snowflakes."[4] His brain has attained subliminal awareness of all these snowflakes. Through conscious effort, he can affect the degree of molecular cohesion between the metal snowflakes and cause locomotion of discrete volumes down to individual flakes. [4] Rainsaw's bizarre physiology grants him a numbers of superhuman powers:
- Superhuman Durability: Rainsaw is highly resistant to injury since his body is composed of metal snowflakes that are more durable that comparable flesh and bone.
- Shape-Shifting: He is able to alter the shape of his body into any continuous shape he can imagine. Rainsaw often uses his shapeshifting ability to transform his hands into bladed weapons like buzzsaws.[4] He can also use his power in non-lethal ways such as when he changed his body into a living relief to re-enact the creation of Quantum Juice.[4]
- Density Control: Rainsaw can disperse his body's flakes and then reform them at will. His most deadly tactic is to cause the metal snowflakes to in his dispersed form to whirl about at nearly hurricane speeds (approximately 74 mph).[4] Thus, Rainsaw is effectively transformed into blizzard of razor sharp metal. At maximum speed, momentum of Rainsaw's metal snowflakes combined with their sheer sharpness and toughness enable them to easily slice through armor plating.[1] Even beings who are invulnerable to such attacks like Donner can still have their movements severely impeded by the sheer momentum of Rainsaw's dispersed form slamming into them.[1]
- Flight: Rainsaw is also capable of flight in his dispersed form.[4] He merely has to will the metal snowflakes composing his body to travel in whatever direction he choses. Apart from swift transportation, Rainsaw can use his flying ability offensively by engaging in kamikaze-style attacks against opponents,who are often flayed alive in the process.[4]
Abilities
- Intimidation: Rainsaw's sadism and ruthlessness combined with his deadly superhuman powers make him a frightening opponent in battle.[1]
Trivia
- Rainsaw is sometimes spelled Rain Saw.
- Normally, in flight, Rainsaw's body resembles a silvery stream of metal traveling through the air.[4] However, he can cause the front end of his dispersed form to resemble a more humanoid form [1] or even an enormous ghoulish face for frightening effect.[2]
- Rainsaw's mind continues to function in astral form even when the metal snowflakes that composed his brain are widely scattered.[4]
Related
- 4 Appearances of Rainsaw (Dakotaverse)
- 4 Images featuring Rainsaw (Dakotaverse)
- Quotations by or about Rainsaw (Dakotaverse)
- Character Gallery: Rainsaw (Dakotaverse)
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 Shadow Cabinet #0
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 Blood Syndicate #10
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Hardware #11
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 Xombi #0
- ↑ Shadow Cabinet #16
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Shadow Cabinet #17
  This character is or was a member of the Shadow Cabinet, a centuries-old secret order of superheroes dedicated to protecting humanity at all costs. |
