| “ | This will not be the last time I call upon you-- Or others like you-- To battle the forces of evil! There are many such heroes around the world-- And I give you and them a new name-- The Global Guardians! So be ready, Guardians, when next I summon you to rescue the world from peril! | „ |
| ~ Doctor Mist |
The Global Guardians is a team of superheroes whose members hail from countries around the world. Many of its members were also active on their own, or moved to the Justice League later on.
Origin[]
The concept originated in the Super Friends Saturday morning cartoon, in which several heroes (Black Vulcan, Samurai, Apache Chief and El Dorado) were added to the Justice League to give it more ethnic diversity.
History[]
New Earth[]
The group more popularly known as the Global Guardians grew from a post-war organization called the Dome. The Dome was founded in 1957 by non-US/USSR nations as an international police organization. Originally, it oversaw the operations of superheroes of member nations. These heroes were inspired by the Justice Society and included the immortal Dr. Mist; the Knight and Squire, Percival and Cyril Sheldrake of England; Gaucho of Argentina; the Legionary of Italy; the Musketeer of France; and the Wingman from Sweden.
As the original representatives retired, Dr. Mist formed the Global Guardians to serve as a task force for the Dome. The membership of the Guardians spanned the entire world, but it was some time before the group had any contact with other American heroes.
The first recorded meeting was between a group of four Guardians (Green Flame, Icemaiden, Rising Sun, Tasmanian Devil) and the team Infinity, Inc. The Guardians met Infinity when both groups were assigned to protect the same Canadian trade conference. In Calgary, the two teams worked through their initial rivalry in time to battle and defeat the Wizard's new Injustice Unlimited.
Soon after this, the United Nations decided to fund the new Justice League International. As a result, the Dome lost its funding and the members of the Guardians were left without work. Two enterprising members—Green Flame and the second Icemaiden—set their sights on the JLI instead.
Several Guardians disappeared after the breakup, including their leader, Dr. Mist, administrator Belphegor, Seraph, and Fleur-de-Lis.
Other members of the Guardians accepted an offer by the so-called Queen Bee of Bialya. Unknown to some of these Guardians, however, the Queen Bee employed mind control tactics. As their first act under her control, former Guardian members Wild Huntsman, Rising Sun and Tuatara attacked Justice League Europe. Two members remained free of the mind-control and were in cahoots with the Queen Bee: the lovers, Jack O'Lantern (Daniel Cormac) and Owlwoman. (The Tasmanian Devil also remained free of the Queen Bee's control and eventually joined the Justice League.)
Jack O'Lantern destroyed the Dome's former Paris headquarters and framed the JLE for it. The Justice League was cleared and soon realized the connection between Bialya and the Guardians. The JLE eventually confronted the Queen Bee. Rather than fight however, they brokered a truce with the Queen Bee under very specific conditions: To prevent a possible international incident, the JLE agreed to keep silent about the true nature of Bialya's power structure, and in return, the Queen Bee would cease her attacks against the Justice League.
Later, as a seemingly magnanimous gesture the Queen Bee rebuilt the Dome in Bialya, and brainwashed some of the remaining Global Guardian into forming a new team. She even staged a battle where the two teams fought side-by-side, in order to make the Guardians look credible. To round out her control, she created an android Dr. Mist, and replaced the original Jack O'Lantern with a new lackey. (The original Jack was left to die in the Bialyan underground).
The Queen Bee's power grew quickly. She allied with Bialyan leader Sumaan Harjavti and ordered the capture of Captain Atom.
Harjavti and Jack orchestrated an assassination attempt on the JLI's administrator, Maxwell Lord, and replaced him with their operative, Rolf Heimlich. Their power also grew quickly and they planned to overthrow the Queen Bee. Several Leaguers went undercover to Bialya and revealed Heimlich as a spy. In the resulting battle, Little Mermaid was accidentally killed by Jack O'Lantern. Harjavti detonated a bomb which revealed the Queen Bee's secret complex, and killed Jack. The Guardians regained their free wills and Owl Woman escaped.
After gaining their freedom, the Global Guardians regrouped in Bialya under Harjavti's leadership. He sets them against the Hero Group of Lower Pluxa. Like his predecessor, Sumaan Harjavti plotted to control the Global Guardians; he imprisoned Olympian. But Dr. Mist obviously sensed that his former comrades in Bialya needed his help. He found Owl Woman and the original Jack O' Lantern and together they escaped from Bialya. Mist then recruited Rising Sun, Tasmanian Devil and Seraph to help liberate their friends. After all the Guardians were freed from Harjavti, Dr. Mist reformed the Global Guardians, and built a new headquarters in the Pacific. It seems their psychic defenses were down again when the team was controlled by Sonar.
For some unexplained reason, however, Dr. Mist was nowhere to be found during the Guardians' most tragic hour. Also at this time, the Jack O'Lantern died of natural causes and succeeded by his cousin Liam McHugh. Fain Y'onia, an old foe of Dr. Mist, attacked and killed Bushmaster and Thunderlord. Godiva, Impala and Tuatara were also critically injured. Y'onia was defeated only by the sacrifice of the Wild Huntsman, who disappeared alongside the villain. Owl Woman, Rising Sun, Seraph, Impala and Olympian emerge from the ashes to reform the Global Guardians with four new members: Centrix, Tundra, Chrysalis and Cascade.
The Guardians later again reformed led by Jet appeared in the aftermath of the Crisis wrought by Alexander Luthor. The new Global Guardians joined a trend of non-American metahuman coalitions like the Great Ten and Rocket Red Brigade. These groups proposed to mobilize themselves against foreign (mostly American) metahuman aggression. But like the Queen Bee before, these new Guardians were pawns once again and came under the mind control of Klaramarans led by the Faceless Hunter to capture a cash bounty on Green Lantern Hal Jordan; however, the plan was thwarted by the Rocket Red Brigade. Eventually, the bounty was put to the end by the Justice League of America and the Guardians were then broken of their mind control from the help of the Martian Manhunter.
Members of the Guardians were unfortunately fell under target by Prometheus, who killed Tasmanian Devil, Freedom Beast, Gloss, and Sandstorm. Tasmanian Devil was restored to life by the gorilla Malavar using a Lazarus Pit.
Prime Earth[]
The formation of the Global Guardians by Godiva, August General in Iron and Olympian of the Justice League International was foretold by 25th Century time-traveler Booster Gold, who claimed that the Guardians would succeed where the JLI had not. By 2019, the Global Guardians had been formed and since disbanded. In the wake of an international superhuman conflict, Wonder Woman called for the team to be reformed, with heroes from India, Japan, Israel, and Australia pledging their participation.
Doctor Mist took on leadership of the team, now United Nations-backed and tasked with dealing with threats before they become significant enough to warrant the attention of the Justice League, and assigned the speedster Impala to provide security for a UN-sponsored archeological excavation in collaboration with Gorilla City. When the dig uncovered an artifact that unleashed the god Nyame, Mist had the speedster recruit Vixen of the Justice League to combat him. After a defeat in Lamumba, Vixen and the Guardians pursued Nyame to Kenya, where he freed his sister goddess Yemaya by having her possess the body of Vixen. The battle was joined by Global Guardian Olympian II, and Vixen was able to free both herself and Nyame's host, ending the threat and prompting Mist to consider her as leader of the team.
The Global Guardians eventually suffered a schism due to infighting, its members splitting off into the space-based fugitives Intercorps, the continent-specific Eurocorps, and the "new" Global Guardians, a group who felt the original team to be inordinately held back by bureaucracy. Retaining their UN-sponsorship, the "official" Global Guardians included the flying Cherokee Owlwoman, Taiwanese sonic-screamer Thunderlord, Chrysalis, Seraph, and their leader, the French telepath Belphegor.During United States Bureau of Sovereignty head Amanda Waller's anti-superhero disinformation campaign, half of the Global Guardians' members fell victim to mob violence.
Global Guardians reunited
The remainder of the team were contacted by Intercorps, along with their fellow schismatics, to warn of an Amazo android dispatched by Waller to bring down and drain the powers of all four groups. The Guardians traveled via jet to aid Eurocorps against the Amazo in Berlin, and after Thunderlord seemingly downed the android, attempted to recruit the European team and to arrest the "new" Global Guardians, also on the scene. A conflict between Belphegor and her former teammate Jack O'Lantern was interrupted when the three teams were teleported by Intercorps to their orbital headquarters, where Red Star encouraged them all to join forces in their common interests. They were attacked by the recovered Amazo, driving Belphegor and Jack to put their differences aside and work together, but even this effort was insufficient to prevent their defeat and power loss at the hands of the android—dubbed "The Global Guardian" by Amanda Waller for the feat.
Members[]
Founding members[]
- Seraph (Chaim Lavon): An Israeli Jewish teacher who was granted biblical powers. He wears the ring of Solomon, which gives him wisdom and allows him to teleport, and the mantle of Elijah, which protects him from harm. His staff can change size, manipulate water, and transform into a snake.
- Bushmaster (Bernal Rojas): A Venezuelan herpetologist who invented gadgets that mimic the abilities of reptiles. He is later killed by Fain Y'onia.
- Olympian (Aristides Demetrios): A hefty Greek punk who wears the Golden Fleece, which grants him the powers and abilities of the 50 men and women who sailed on the Argo to find the Golden Fleece.
- Jack O'Lantern (Daniel Cormac): A poor Irish farmer who was granted a magic lantern by an Irish fairy. He later dies of natural causes. The Jack O'Lantern mantle is later assumed by Marvin Nirosa, an agent of Queen Bee, and Daniel Cormac's cousin Liam McHugh.
- Impala (M'Bulaze): A South African Zulu warrior who possesses superhuman speed. He later loses his powers to Fain Y'onia and is killed by Roulette. His successor, Kid Impala, joined the Ultramarine Corps.
- The Little Mermaid (Ulla Paske): A teenaged Danish Atlantean-human hybrid who can transform into a mermaid-like form.
- Doctor Mist (Nommo): An ancient African sorcerer who served as the leader of the Global Guardians. He is later killed by Mordru.
- Tasmanian Devil (Hugh Dawkins): An Australian former engineer and drama coach who can transform into a humanoid Tasmanian devil. He is openly gay and in a relationship with Starman (Mikaal Tomas).
- Rising Sun (Izumi Yasunari): A Japanese solar physicist who can control solar energy.
- Owlwoman (Wenonah Littlebird): A Cherokee member of the Global Guardians who possesses owl-like abilities.
- Thunderlord (Liang Xih-k'ai): A Taiwanese Buddhist monk with a powerful sonic voice.
- Tuatara (Jeremy Wakefield): A hero themed after his namesake who can see the future via his third eye.
- Godiva (Dorcas Leigh): An English socialite with powerful prehensile hair.
- Wild Huntsman (Albrecht von Mannheim): A German warrior who wields various magical weapons and is assisted by a horse (Orkan) and a hound (Donnerschlag).
- Green Fury (Beatriz da Costa): A Brazilian member of the Global Guardians who can generate mystical green fire. She later joins the Justice League under the name Fire.
- Glacier (Sigrid Nansen): A Norwegian member of the Global Guardians who can generate ice. They were formerly known as Icemaiden.
The Club of Heroes[]
- The first Knight of England was followed by his son, the second Knight.
- The second Squire of England was followed by his daughter, the third Squire.
- The Gaucho of Argentina inspired the Argentinian hero team Super Malon.
- The Musketeer of France.
- The Wingman of Sweden.
- The Legionary of Italy.
- Man-Of-Bats of Sioux Nation
- Little Raven of Sioux Nation
- The Ranger of Australia
Later members[]
- Cascade (Sujatmi Sunowaparti): An Indonesian member of the Global Guardians who can manipulate and transform into water.
- Gloss (Xiang Po): A Chinese member of the Global Guardians who can draw energy from ley lines.
- Chrysalis: A butterfly-like android created in France.
- Fleur-de-Lis (Noelle Avril): A former spy who does not have any superpowers, but is skilled in espionage and marksmanship.
- Icemaiden (Tora Olafsdotter): A Norwegian member of the Global Guardians who can generate ice. She later joins the Justice League as Ice.
- Tundra: A Russian member of the Global Guardians who can generate ice.
Pre-Flashpoint[]
- Crimson Fox of France
- Jet of Jamaica
- Manticore of Greece.
- Sandstorm of Syria (possibly deceased)
Gallery[]
.webp "Global Guardians (Prime Earth).webp (162 KB)")
