Serious question: does anybody actually like Major Force?
I mean, yes, I get he’s a villain, but everybody has their favorite villains. Mine is Lex Luthor. Lots of people love the Joker or Dr. Doom. And there’s always going to be one or two holdouts for the lesser lights, somebody who really loves the Gambler or the Ratcatcher or Big Wheel. That’s natural. But does anybody really love Major Force? Or even like him?
It’s not a problem with his concept, which is actually pretty clever. Since the experiment that turned Nathaniel Adam into Captain Atom also flung him twenty years into the future, the people conducting it had no idea that they hadn’t killed him – so they tried again, but this time they used a psychotic murderer on the basis that if they killed him, nobody would care. (Of course, the question of “well, what if they had succeeded” is one that is casually walked around. I have always favoured “they wanted data on the huge explosion, but needed someone expendable to trigger the huge explosion, and so…”) And then a little while after Captain Atom pops into the future, hello, it’s Major Force! Perfectly good start to a story, right? And Wade Eiling (who was never, ever interesting until he became The General, which is just so comics it is perfect) makes him a government agent, and…
…that’s when it goes downhill. Because Major Force is just kind of boring: he’s a self-interested thug with a tendency to get violent who is basically indestructible. He has never done anything interesting ever. “A ha,” you say, “but he killed Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend!” And my answer is “big deal,” because A) all of Kyle’s girlfriends die sooner or later and B) her death wasn’t about her, it was about Kyle, and Major Force could have been absolutely anybody and it wouldn’t have mattered. Similarly, he killed Guy Gardner’s mother for some reason I forget and again, nobody cares. Nobody cares about anything Major Force does, because he doesn’t have any personality worth mentioning: he just does things other people tell him to do. Why does he do these things? “Because.” Commenting on Major Force as a character is like commenting on the character of the gun that killed Batman’s parents. “Well, he has this trigger. And if you pull the trigger… people might die!”
And the worst thing is that he just keeps showing up. Every time DC wants to have the government be sorta-malevolent (which is like seven times a year now), up pops Major Force like a bad pimple. He just showed up in the godawful Captain Atom backup story in one of the Superman books that doesn’t currently have Superman in it, because the very moment that Captain Atom found out that the government was behind him being in a fantasy world – hey! Major Force! I think if you say “government” five times fast in the DC Universe, Major Force just kind of shows up. Like Candyman. Except he sucks.
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So even evil has its Ted McGinleys.
I admit that I’m not very familliar with the character, but the one time I did see him, right at the end of Kyle Rayner’s time as the star of Green Lantern, he made an impression on me. Kyle was demanding an explanation for Force’s actions, and Force was like “You know what? No. I’m not going to explain anything to you. You don’t get to know. I’m not going to be a typical, cackling super-villain and give the whole game away. This was a decision made in a boardroom somewhere made by a bunch of guys in suits, and you’re never going to learn who they are. How do you like that, kid?”
Which of course only enraged Kyle more. Which was the point.
I don’t know if this is at all consistent with the way he’s usually written, but in that one appearance, I quite liked him.
This guy reminds me of the time in the really terrible sci-fi series Weird Science (based on the much superior film) when Chet got super powers and started calling himself “Major Butt Kick”.
I think Major Force could work well if he seemed like he just didn’t mind killing people, or justified everything he did as “serving his country.”
But when it takes less than 5 seconds to know he’s an unstable guy who’ll go too far really quickly, then he’s not really a character, he’s a plot device. “Hey, we need someone to force a fight. Let’s say Major Force is involved! Done, it’s time for some lunch.”
Hell, I remember the first time I saw him was in the first Superman/Batman story arc, and all I needed was to see his face to know he was the evil guy on the team who’d overreact. How sad is it when just seeing a character tells you that he has one function in the story, and it’s just a question of when he’ll do it?
In his very first appearance, as Eiling’s pet psycho, he was kinda sorta interesting. The problem was, after that first story, there was nowhere to go with him. He only worked as a small part of the original “Captain Atom” dynamic.
Can anyone explain what the hell is going on with his left hand?
It says int he last sentence under Powers: Major Force has a “matter generated” left hand that replaces the one destroyed by an explosion.
The explosion was the one that gave him his powers in the first place.
I’ve always liked the name, but even though I’m pretty sure I own the Captain Atom comics he first appeared in, I have no recollection of the character at all. Possibly because I repressed the memory of that awful, awful costume.
Next time he shows up, they should give him a cadre of henchmen and call them “The MFers”.
He worked well in the original Captain Atom storyline, never since he was reincsrnated as generic government heavy.
I never realized he was a Captain Atom villain. I guess that makes too much sense. In other news, I’m dim.
Why is an unstable psycho still working for the government? Aren’t there a hundred other world powers out there who’d offer the same rewards and much freer rein?
I would actually put him much lower, but the origin is kind of clever, so I see where you’re coming from on that.
Major Force is one of my Top Ten Worst Comics Characters. Every time he shows up, it just triggers this intensely irritated reaction in me. It’s not quite rational – maybe it’s his legendarily awful costume; maybe it’s that he’s the writers’ official Tool of Misogyny (in addition to Alex DeWitt and Gardner’s mother, I do believe he was the one that killed Arisia back in the day); maybe it’s that he’s a standard of stupid comic book anti-authority cynicism. Whenever you get a book where the U.S. Government is involved in Nefarious Things with Shadowy Figures (Battle For Bludhaven being a great example), there he is. Post-Katrina/Afghanistan/Iraq/Bush, that means Major Force’s stock is at an all-time high. He’s like a Wildstorm character on vacation in a much more interesting world.
I can’t stand him… especially since they seem to have established some sort of “Major Force can not die ever for reals” precedent, where no matter what happens to him, he keeps coming back.
Blow him up? Back in a few months.
Decapitate him and send his head flying across the universe? Back in a few months.
Suck him dry of all his energy? Back in a few months.
Enough is enough.
Whenever you get a book where the U.S. Government is involved in Nefarious Things with Shadowy Figures
Spider Jerusalem vs. Major Force?
“Why is an unstable psycho still working for the government? ”
Well, the US sent John Bolton to represent us at the UN. It happens.
Remember he popped up in Aztek by Millar and Morrison…?
I guess his inclusion was symptomatic of the general depressiveness of DCU at that time. Most of Aztek concerned the contrast between the potential of comics and grim ‘n’ gritty.
Dave Littler: I had a problem with that speech at the end of Kyle’s run in GL where he talks about the guys who “really” run the country because the guy who was officially running the US in the DCU at that time? Lex Luthor.
You telling me he couldn’t and wouldn’t wipe out a few shadowy conspiracies?
Can we also point out how goddamn ugly his costume is?
[i]he killed Guy Gardner’s mother for some reason I forget [/i]
Actually, it was GG’s mother’s neighbour, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the reason was to piss off the One True Green Lantern.
Uber Geek: Why would killing Guy Gardner’s mother’s neighbor piss off Alan Scott?
Jason: You telling me Luthor wouldn’t take over those conspiracies and be the man behind himself?
And oddly enough, while he’s in the backup in Action, he’s in the main story in Superman this week
Evil Midnight Lurker:
Are you telling me that the man who really runs the U.S. Government… is the President?
You don’t know how big this government is, Marge. It goes all the way to the President!
I hate this guy. Ugly outfit, one dimensional douchebag who will not go away. He’s like the drunk redneck uncle at the wedding.
He’s in that class of villain with the Cyborg and Supermanboy Prime. Not villains you love to hate, but villains that you genuinely hate and want to see permanently killed off. And yet, somehow, there’s always one creator (Dan Jurgens for the Cyborg, Geoff Johns for SMbP) who loves them and keeps bringing them back no matter how determinedly other writers kill them off.
Major Force should have died in “Battle for Bludhaven”, if not sooner.
I’m not going to be a typical, cackling super-villain and give the whole game away.
The problem with Major Force is that he generally doesn’t believe in doing typical super-villain things, like being interesting or having any reason you should care about him.
solid snake: “Can anyone explain what the hell is going on with his left hand?”
oldstevo: “It says int he last sentence under Powers: Major Force has a “matter generated” left hand that replaces the one destroyed by an explosion.
“The explosion was the one that gave him his powers in the first place.”
Eiling blew off his hand in his first appearance.
When Major Force first reappeared in the present, his metal form was molten. Since the same thing had happened to Cap’n Atom, the Army knew what to expect with this guy. They found the still-gooshy Major and implanted a bunch of devices into his metal skin. When he hardened up, they were stuck there. The doodads included a camera, a microphone, and a two-way radio for keeping an eye on him, and, since the dude was nuts, some weapons: knockout gas pellets in his collarbone and explosive charges in a few happy places.
When MF and CA first went at it, for reasons I don’t recall, Eiling demanded MF back off and come home. He didn’t, so Eiling had the techs detonate the explosive in his left wrist.
(Yeah, that’s right, I became that guy.)
He doesn’t do so much for me now, but when I was 15, it was a big deal whenever he showed up because of the people he killed. You always had a feeling something really bad could happen when he popped up which I didn’t get for most villains.
And of course, he’s the guy who taught Kyle the brainless mantra “If you kill him, you’ll become just like him.” Now that the rings have lethal force, I wanna see him run into Kyle again, though.
He’s part of the reason Captain Atom isn’t more popular-he’s tied to schmucks like him.
He was very ahead of his time when it comes to pairing orange and fuschia together, though. Fashion thanks you, Major Force!
Meh.
He has a role and he does it. He’s Evil Government Guy. If they kill him off they’ll have to invent a new one just as one-dimensional or, even worse, turn an existing hero into Evil Goverment Guy.
So better to just keep him around for any Evil Government stories we need told.
@Sofa King
Major Force is a shitty character but he isn’t the reason for a lack of interest in Captain Atom. *Captain Atom* is the reason for a lack of interest in Captain Atom. Because (even though I’m going to piss of a lot of Captain Atom fans for saying this) Captain Atom is just a “good” version of Major Force. And that makes him an incredibly boring version of “Lawful Good”, as Major Force is an incredibly boring version of “Lawful Evil”.
That being said, if *he’d* been the villain chosen to kill Sue Dibny (heat powers, possible size-changing abilities due his status as an energy being, misogynist sociopath who “does what he’s told”), “Identity Crisis” would have made more sense. Having him act as (she was gone long enough, she could have joined the military and earned a commission) Major Loring’s hired thug would have made a *little bit* of sense, instead of using Doctor Light (a character who was {prior to IC} so gay that I knew that there was something weird about him when I read those NTT comics during their first run) as a squick-inducing joke-nightmare. Hell, they could have made her an “imbedded reporter” and added some sort of depth to MF’s character by having him call her “Sweet Jeannie” or something.
“never realized he was a Captain Atom villain. I guess that makes too much sense. In other news, I’m dim.”
Don’t feel bad, Bill. Until about a month ago, I thought Major Force was Captain Atom.
In my defense, it’s not a hard mistake to make with Captain Atom’s costume changes and being a government stooge and going evil and whatnot.
OH! I forgot that I wanted to ask a question, too.
MGK, why such a high score for Major Force?
Usually when you give crummy characters a decent rating, you say something in the text about how the character can be used well. But you said Major Force was only good for one thing, and there are better characters for it.
[…] Major Force, as I previously pointed out, sucks because when you see him in a comic, you know exactly what he’s going to do. When you see Count Vertigo in a comic, he’s one of the few DC villains whose actions are never guaranteed (Lex Luthor and Captain Cold are the other two big ones in this regard for DC); maybe he’s working for Amanda Waller on the side this time around and only pretending to be working for the Society, or maybe he’s taking a commission for the Society proper, or maybe this is all something to do with Checkmate. He never has a hate on for a superhero, because what’s the point of that? He’s a professional, and not just because being a professional is cool, but because it’s vital for his survival and his personal mission. […]
I wouldn’t mind the guy if he was someone who was a bit less of a baby-killing sociopath. He claims to not be a cackling villain, but the fact that he broke every bone in an innocent girl’s body, stuffed her in a fridge, then left a note for her boyfriend telling him to open it… I REALLY doubt the government told him to do that.
If he was a “because” villain, you could probably find something in him being totally and singlemindedly committed to the letter of his task, and not being a particularly bad guy – just a totally uncaring one. The hero could be all like “Stop this insanity, Major Force!” Then he turns to the hero, says “No.” then goes back to doing whatever he’s doing.
But Force doesn’t do that, because he’s an unimaginative brute who murders bystanders for no good reason.
He’s a bothersome cocktail of being both incredibly dull and incredibly unpleasant.