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Crime Syndicate

The Crime Syndicate also known as the Crime Syndicate of America, Crime Syndicate of Amerika, and the Crime Society is a fictional supervillain team of DC Comics. It is one of the DC's parallel universe where the evil counterparts of Justice League who they often fight.

The team first appeared in the Justice League of America #29 in the August of 1964. It was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky.

History[]

Pre-Crisis[]

Earth Three[]

The original Crime Syndicate hails from the partially reversed Earth Three. On this world, much of history was reversed with Christopher Columbus having discovered Europe, America having been an empire that Britain revolted against for revolution, and John Wilkes Booth having been a president assassinated by actor Abraham Lincoln. In this world, super-heroes did not naturally occur as they did in most DC worlds but rather super-villains did in the form of the Crime Syndicate.

In this world, the Crime Syndicate conquered the world with relative ease and then traverses to Earth One (the mainstream Silver Age reality) to fight their heroic counterparts in the Justice League.

Post-Crisis[]

Qward[]

Antimatter Universe[]

Earth 3[]

Members[]

Founding Members[]

  • Owlman: The Crime Syndicate's Batman analogue, Owlman is a man of vast intelligence and skill who uses advanced weapons and gadgetry modelled off of owls to enact his evil will. He is often given the name of Thomas Wayne Jr. and in publication-history, his alias is taken from Dick Grayson's brief heroic outing as Owlman when he was artificially aged to adulthood.
  • Ultraman: The villainous analogue of Superman, Ultraman is a villain with all of Superman's powers albeit he is often shown to have them enhanced by kryptonite. His alter egos are often depicted as being Kal-Il (a play of Superman's kryptonian birth-name), Lt. Clark Kent (Superman's human name). Sometimes he is depicted as being a Kryptonian saved from extinction and sometimes he is simply a human astronaut who received powers from aliens he encountered. He likely gets his name from Superman's original nemesis the Ultra-Humanite but there is a seemingly unrelated golden-age hero who shares the name of Ultraman.
  • Superwoman: Superwoman is the Crime Syndicate's analogue of Wonder Woman. She is consistently shown to be that reality's Lois Lane or Lois Lane-Kent and is an Amazon warrior. She is often married to Ultraman but cheats on him with Owlman. She gets both her alias and name from Lois Lane taking up the identity of Superwoman when she comes to inherit superpowers (or at least believes she does).
  • Johnny Quick: The Crime Syndicate's Flash counterpart, Johnny Quick is a speedster who is often given the name of Jonathan Allen. He shares his name with a golden age speedster hero named Jonathan Chambers.
  • Power Ring: The Crime Syndicate's Green Lantern (specifically, the Hal Jordan incarnation of he character), unlike the mainstream Green Lantern ring which is powered by willpower, Power Ring's Ring of Volthoom  is a parasitic being which feeds off of cowardice. Following the death of the ring's alien host Abin Sur, the ring chose to infect a cowardly janitor named Hal Jordan and turn him into the villainous Power Ring. When the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 invaded Prime Earth, Power Ring was murdered by Sinestro and the ring chose to infect a young woman named Jessica Cruz who had previously been traumatized after watching her friends massacred by mobsters. The Ring intended to feed off of Jessica's fear as it did with Hal to make her a villain succumbing to weakness, but Jessica used the ring and her fear to overcome them both and become the Earth's newest heroic Green Lantern.

Later Additions[]

  • Sea King:
  • Deathstorm:
  • Grid:
  • Atomica:
  • Scarab:
  • Slipstream:
  • White Cat:
  • Deadeye:

Appearances in Other Media[]

  • Super Friends: In the Super Friends cartoon we are presented with the Super Enemies, an alternate reality team of criminals which includes a Superman so infamous that cops are equipped with kryptonite guns, a Batman in a red suit, and a Robin with red eyes and a pencil moustache.
  • DCAU: In the Justice League animated series, an adaptation of the Crime Syndicate is adapted in the form of the Justice Lords. Here rather than being an inherently evil counterpart to the Justice League, they are instead a version of the Justice League which fell from grace into darkness. In their reality, Lex Luthor became president and used his newfound power to kill the Flash. Following the Flash's death, Superman murdered Luthor and decided the US government could not be trusted and as-such, that the Justice League should rule the world themselves to keep it safe. Under the rule of the Justice Lords, the world found itself in a ruthless dictatorship where in Gotham in particular, criminals were brainwashed and lobotomized into submission in Arkham Asylum. Eventually the Justice Lords come into conflict with their counterparts in the Justice League.
  • Batman: The Brave and the Bold: In this series we are given the Injustice Syndicate, a team of evil analogues to DC heroes which are lead by Owlman. To fight them, Batman has to team up with that universe's Joker, The Red Hood who leads his team of heroic analogues to DC villains, namely: Sting-Ray (Black Manta), General Grodd (Gorilla Grodd), Yellow-Lantern (Sinestro), Professor Magnus (Doctor Polaris), Time-Keeper (Clock King), the Mind (Brain) Hanglider Man (Kite-Man) and Grave Digger (Gentleman Ghost).
  • Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths: The Crime Syndicate is the main-antagonist team of this film where Justice League leader Alexander Luthor reaches out through realities to ask the Justice League for assistance in eliminating them. This leads to Owlman attempting to destroy the multiverse in an act of nihilism.
  • Lego DC Supervillains: The Crime Syndicate serves as the main-antagonists of this video-game where they sneak onto Earth under the moniker of the Justice Syndicate, presenting themselves as a team of heroes. However they warp away the Justice League leaving the super-villains of the DC universe to band together in-order to stop the Crime Syndicate as it upholds a heroic public status.
  • DC Universe Online:
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