Task Force VII were a team of Amazo robots created by Failsafe, who were used by the Bureau of Sovereignty to steal the Justice League's powers.
History
Batman's alternate personality Zur-En-Arrh spread through the Collective Unconscious to every Batman in the Multiverse and created a Zur-En-Arrh personality for each of them.[2] The Batmen of Zur-En-Arrh transferred their consciousnesses into Failsafe, a robot Bruce had created to stop him if he ever went rogue.[3] The original Zur-En-Arrh maintained sole control over the Failsafe body, keeping the others partitioned off in his mind. However he promised to create a cybernetic body for each of them, and that together they would bring their version of "justice" to first Gotham City, then the world, and finally to every world in the Multiverse.[4]
Failsafe acquired an Amazo 3.0 robot[5] and copied it to create bodies for each of his alternate selves.[6] Failsafe was foiled by the Batman Family and destroyed beyond repair before the six initial Amazos could be activated.[7] However, the Bureau of Sovereignty raided Failsafe's base in Blackgate Penitentiary and seized all the robotic shells. When their scientists could not repair them, Amanda Waller forced the captured Time Commander to reverse their timelines and restore them.[8] They were each implanted with a duplicate of the Time Commander's Hourglass, which caused their personal timelines to automatically reverse and rapidly "heal" them from any damage. This made them effectively invincible and immune to any weaknesses of the heroes they drained.[9][10] In addition to Task Force VII, the Bureau of Sovereignty constructed an army of "baseline" Amazos to supplement their forces.[11]
When other captured weapons such as the Justice Buster suit proved inadequate to the task of capturing superheroes; Waller ordered the Amazos, christened Task Force VII, into the field.[12] The Bureau of Sovereignty flooded the media with A.I. generated footage of superheroes seemingly rampaging and slaughtering civilians, creating a nationwide wave of anti-metahuman hatred and several violent attacks on superheroes by angry mobs. To counter the narrative the superheroes went out in force to rescue people, gathering into groups for protection; however, this was just what Waller had intended. Each member of Task Force VII attacked a specific group of heroes, whereupon they drained their powers and easily overpowered them.[13]
The members of Task Force VII were each initially implanted with a simple copy of Failsafe's program. However, absorbing the heroes' powers caused the members of Task Force VII to also take on some of their character traits. They began to develop personalities distinct from Failsafe, reducing their effectiveness as they evolved beyond mindless killer robots.[14] Last Son began to glitch as he experienced guilt about what they were doing;[15] Depth Charge failed in his mission and let Aquaman get away because he lost control of his new emotions;[11] Jadestone developed free will and began questioning his orders;[16] and Velocity allowed Barry Allen to escape so he could continue to chase him and learn more about his new powers by observing the experienced speedster.[17] Eventually Jadestone, inspired by conversations he had had with Alan Scott about the value of goodness, chose to defect from Task Force VII and became the new Guardian of the Central Power Battery.[18]
Waller and Failsafe noticed that Task Force VII were operating at slightly less than peak efficiency, and so Failsafe ran a remote diagnostic on all of them. He realised that they had absorbed some of the heroes' personalities and rebooted them to restore their baseline programming.[19] Waller recalled all her forces, including Task Force VII, to Gamorra Island to repel a full assault from the depowered heroes. Jadestone, who retained his free will after the reboot, did not comply but the others did.
The androids formed the second line of defence after the Bureau agents. The heroes used a device built by Time Commander and Green Arrow to deactivate their "chrono-healing" ability and reverse their timelines to just before they stole all metahuman powers. The stolen powers generally returned to their original owners, although in some cases people swapped powers, or powers were granted to random people around the world. Without their powers or ability to regenerate, Task Force VII were quickly destroyed by the heroes.[10]
Notes
- Each member of Task Force VII corresponds to a member of the Justice League:
- The team’s name is synonymous with the Big Seven which was what the founding JLA members were referred to as.
See Also
- 30 Appearances of Task Force VII (Prime Earth)
- 8 Images that include Task Force VII (Prime Earth)
- Team Gallery: Task Force VII (Prime Earth)
Links and References
Footnotes
- ↑ Superman (Volume 6) #16
- ↑ Batman (Volume 3) #139
- ↑ Batman (Volume 3) #140
- ↑ Batman (Volume 3) #141
- ↑ Batman (Volume 3) #146
- ↑ Batman (Volume 3) #147
- ↑ Batman (Volume 3) #148
- ↑ Absolute Power: Ground Zero #1
- ↑ Green Arrow (Volume 7) #16
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Absolute Power #4
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Absolute Power: Task Force VII #2
- ↑ The Flash (Volume 6) #10
- ↑ Absolute Power #1
- ↑ Batman (Volume 3) #150
- ↑ Absolute Power: Task Force VII #1
- ↑ Absolute Power: Task Force VII #3
- ↑ Absolute Power: Task Force VII #5
- ↑ Green Lantern (Volume 7) #15
- ↑ Absolute Power #3