Damage (DC Comics)

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Damage
Justice Society of America #6 (2007), art by Alex Ross.
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceDamage #1 (April 1994)
Created byTom Joyner, PhD
Bill Marimon
In-story information
Alter egoGrant Albert Emerson
Ethan "Elvis" Avery Junior
SpeciesMetahuman
Team affiliationsTeen Titans
Freedom Fighters
Justice Society of America
Black Lantern Corps
Justice League Task Force
Justice League
AbilitiesEnhanced strength, durability, speed, reflexes, power discharge, and explosions

Damage is the name of two fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics.

The Grant Emerson version of Damage first appeared in a

Zero Hour crisis. He is the son of the original Atom, Al Pratt. He has been a member of the Titans, the Freedom Fighters, and the Justice Society of America.[1]

The Ethan Avery Jr. version of Damage appeared later in Damage (vol. 2) #1.[2]

Publication history

The Grant Emerson version of Damage first appeared in Damage #1 and was created by

Tom Joyner PhD and Bill Marimon.[3]

The Ethan Avery Jr. version of Damage first appeared in Damage (vol. 2) #1 and was created by

Tony S. Daniel. Critics have observed a similarity between the new Damage and Marvel Comics' Hulk.[2]

Fictional character biography

Grant Emerson

Parallax; thanks to Damage's powers, the new universe evolved along natural lines, guided by nature rather than the will of Parallax.[5]

Grant Emerson as Damage; art by Tom McWeeney and Bill Marimo.

A superhero/supervillain battle, involving

Arsenal
(formerly Speedy, Green Arrow's sidekick). Around this time, Damage deals emotionally with the murder, at the hands of a supervillain, of a schoolmate he cares for. After a while, Damage leaves the Titans to find his origins.

He learns that

Atom
and his wife Mary. Grant is forced to go underground after leaving the Titans, since he violated his parole by doing so.

When the original five Titans reformed the group,

Roy Harper (Arsenal's real name), Grant takes a leave of absence and seeks peace and healing on the Navajo reservation where Roy was raised as a child until he became the ward of Green Arrow
.

He helps the current

Atom Smasher, the godson of his father, the original Atom. It was thought that Grant had a brother, Walter, who was recently killed by Walter's superhero daughter, Manhunter, a.k.a. Kate Spencer. However, Walter is actually the son of Iron Munro and Phantom Lady
— an odd parallel to Damage's paternity search, as at one stage it appeared that Grant might be the couple's child.

Several members of the modern Freedom Fighters team are killed by the Injustice Society in Infinite Crisis #1. Damage is one of the survivors, though his face is later revealed[7] to have been severely scarred by Zoom.[8]

Damage appears in the relaunched Justice Society of America released in December 2006.[9] He wears a full mask and a costume similar to that of his father and Atom Smasher, featuring a biohazard symbol. He also has a significantly gruffer and more cynical attitude, partly because, as the villain Rebel insinuates, Damage was left badly scarred, but alive, by Zoom. Zoom later encounters the Justice Society, claiming to have maimed, but not killed, the boy intentionally, to give him a defining tragedy, and the fight leads to Georgia. Damage leaps into the state, despite his ban from entering, catches up with Zoom, and holds him hostage. Liberty Belle calms Damage down, but Zoom escapes and hurls debris at his face with the intent to kill him. Liberty Belle speeds in, saves Damage, and knocks out Zoom. When the police are ready to arrest Damage for violating his ban, the Justice Society stands up for him and he is released, but it is not yet known if this action has caused the ban to be dropped.[10] Damage remained on the team, essentially in Atom Smasher's place (Jakeem Thunder's Thunderbolt has even called him "Atom Smasher Two" jokingly).

Damage's face is later healed by the reborn Gog.[11] This is enough to restore his former cheerful and outgoing personality, pushing him to attempt making contact with Sonia Sato, the new Judomaster. Since neither of them can understand the language spoken by the other (Grant does not know Japanese, while Judomaster cannot speak or understand more than a few words of English), their relationship is difficult, but the ongoing attraction is there (later it is implied that they are "together" in some romantic way).[12] When the JSA learns that Gog transformed a group of people who would harm others into trees and intends to keep overkill from punishing the wicked, they are divided on the subject. Grant and Judomaster, among others, side with Gog, and keep the rest of the JSA from trying to stop him.[13]

Damage is then sent back to America to preach the will of Gog to the masses, showing a fanatical devotion to the Old God and a strong streak of vanity about his improved looks, to the point where he concludes that even Cyclone and

Magog, he rejoins Gog, but there he is asked to kneel and show him his devotion (and expecting the rest of his followers to do the same). When some question this request, Gog becomes angry, even going as far as to threaten them.[14]

The rest of the JSA arrive, having learned from Sandman that Gog is rooting himself into Earth, and if he remains for one more day, Earth will die if he ever leaves; this leaves them with the one option of killing Gog and separating his head from Earth, which is the only way to save the planet. The other Society members following Gog attempt to protect him, until they see him attempt to attack a Society member. All of the followers take up the fight, and Gog punishes them all by taking away his blessings as he threatened, including Damage's restored face, leaving him inconsolable.[15] In retaliation, Damage unleashes a full-power blast against Gog, with little effect. Eventually, Gog is destroyed and the split in the Society is healed. After Gog's defeat, Damage, pained over losing his face again, attempts to push away Judomaster, only for her to kiss him, showing him that it does not matter what he looks like; she is attracted to him, not his face.[16]

During the "

Mera, and herself into the fully transformed Damage's ring.[18] While the other Black Lanterns continue their assault on the JSA headquarters,[19] Damage claims that he has retained his original personality and mind and is not influenced by Nekron and his Corps. While he does supposedly sacrifice himself in order to destroy the other Black Lanterns (Mister Terrific says that Damage's explosions do not necessarily harm him and that he was probably still "alive") his sacrifice also allows Lois Lane from Earth-2 to reanimate her deceased husband, with Mister Terrific saying that he knew they had found a way to outsmart them, implying Damage was in fact just another ruse of the Black Lanterns.[20]

Following the Blackest Night, a funeral for Damage is held, attended by the JSA and with

Sand's prophetic dreams, had recorded his last will for Judomaster, wishing her a better life, and revealing he had planned, in the attempt of giving her a happier life, to get cosmetic surgery on his scarred face. Spurred by his will, Sonia Sato decides to fund anonymously several relief funds for the victims of collateral damage caused by Grant's powers, thus giving him closure and a legacy.[21]

In the "Watchmen" sequel "Doomsday Clock", Damage appeared with the Justice Society of America when Doctor Manhattan undoes the experiment that erased the Justice Society of America and the Legion of Super-Heroes.[22]

During the "Dark Nights: Death Metal" storyline, Damage was with the Justice Society when the good guys and bad guys were preparing for the final battle against Perpetua and the Darkest Knight.[23]

In "

Dan the Dyna-Mite. At one point, Dan the Dyna-Mite made a comment towards Damage about him wanting to take the name of TNT at some point in his life.[24] Mister Terrific mentions that Damage and Dan the Dyna-Mite are officially partnered up.[25]

Ethan Avery

DC introduced a new version of Damage as part of its The New Age of DC Heroes promotion in the form of US army recruit Ethan "Elvis" Avery Jr. He was turned into "a living weapon of mass destruction" through the Damage Project who, on a daily basis, becomes a hulking monster for one hour at a time. After breaking free from his confinement following a mission against the Modoran Separatist Army, Damage went on a rampage in Atlanta, Georgia before going into hiding.[26]

After waking up in a homeless shelter, Avery saw the news about Damage and went outside to calm himself down. His position was tracked down by Task Force XL (a variation of the Suicide Squad consisting of Akando, Deadshot, Giganta, Harley Quinn, Parasite, and Solomon Grundy) where they have orders to capture him. When Ethan tries to talk them out of attacking, Parasite was the first to attack where he starts to absorb his lifeforce until he collapses from absorbing too much energy. Ethan suddenly transforms into Damage and attacks Task Force XL. After easily defeating Task Force XL, Damage was confronted by Wonder Woman who advises Task Force XL to step aside and let her deal with Damage.[27]

Wonder Woman fights Damage and uses her magic lasso on him where she learned that Damage is actually a man. Upon breaking free, Damage threw Wonder Woman into a tree and collapsed a building to get away when his time limit is up. Wonder Woman later informs the Justice League about her fight with Damage. Batman promises to continue to investigate the origin of Damage. The next morning, Ethan is at a coffee shop where he sees the news about Damage. Ethan decides to leave the city.[28]

Powers and abilities

The Grant Emerson version of Damage can generate a power charge that enhances his strength, durability, speed, and reflexes to superhuman levels. If he does not use the energy in the aforementioned manner he is forced to expend it in a discharge, most notably the time he started another

Parallax
's energy into something that he could then process). The aged Damage in Young Justice: Sins of Youth had the ability to fly. While the current Damage cannot harness this ability yet, he can "leap" by firing his energy at the ground, sometimes traveling great distances, as shown most recently in Justice Society of America #8. At one point in his ongoing series, it is implied that he potentially possesses all of the powers of the heroes whose DNA he shares. Towards the end of his ongoing series, a middle-aged man in unusual clothes is shown several times quietly observing Grant. Although the series was canceled before this plotline could be addressed, it is strongly implied that this man was a future version of Grant and he is shown possessing powers, including flight, which the current version of Damage does not.

The Ethan Avery version of Damage can become a hulking monster for one hour at a time. In this form, he has super-strength enough to leap great distances and rival the strengths of Solomon Grundy and Wonder Woman. Damage has enhanced durability where he is resistant to blades, bullets, rockets, and falling from several hundred feet from the air. Besides his power limitation, a side effect of his abilities is that Ethan developed a dual personality where his Damage side fights to trigger Ethan's transformation.

References

  1. ^
    OCLC 213309017
  2. ^ a b Grossberg, Josh (15 March 2018). "DC Unveils first look at Damage #3". Syfy. Archived from the original on 19 January 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  3. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0
    .
  4. ^ Damage, no. 1-2 ((April–May 1994). DC Comics.
  5. Zero Hour: Crisis in Time
    , no. 0 ((September 1994)). DC Comics.
  6. ^ Titans, no. 1 (March 1999). DC Comics.
  7. ^ Justice Society of America vol. 3 #4. DC Comics.
  8. ^ Infinite Crisis #1. DC Comics.
  9. ISBN 978-1-4654-8578-6
    .
  10. ^ Justice Society of America vol. 3 #8. DC Comics.
  11. ^ Justice Society of America vol. 3 #16. DC Comics.
  12. ^ Justice Society of America vol. 3 #18. DC Comics.
  13. ^ Justice Society of America vol. 3 #19. DC Comics.
  14. ^ Justice Society of America: The Kingdom one-Shot (2008). DC Comics.
  15. ^ Justice Society of America vol. 3 #21. DC Comics.
  16. ^ Justice Society of America vol. 3 #22. DC Comics.
  17. ^ Blackest Night #4. DC Comics.
  18. ^ Blackest Night #5. DC Comics.
  19. ^ Blackest Night: JSA #1. DC Comics.
  20. ^ Blackest Night: JSA #2. DC Comics.
  21. ^ JSA All-Stars #7. DC Comics.
  22. ^ Doomsday Clock #12. DC Comics.
  23. ^ Dark Nights: Death Metal #5. DC Comics.
  24. ^ Justice Society of America Vol. 4 #6. DC Comics.
  25. ^ Justice Society of America Vol. 4 #9. DC Comics.
  26. ^ Damage vol. 2 #1. DC Comics.
  27. ^ Damage vol. 2 #2. DC Comics.
  28. ^ Damage vol. 2 #3. DC Comics.

External links

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