Stormwatch (Wildstorm Universe)

StormWatch was originally a United Nations "crisis intervention unit" founded as a successor to the Warguard: In the early 1970s, the UN's first orbital space station, Monitor One, was caught in the wake of a mysterious comet. Most of the station's staff were killed by radiation that penetrated

Stormwatch is Earth's leading planetary defense force against alien incursions, based in their satellite headquarters Skywatch. The organization has been disbanded and reformed multiple times under different leaderships.

History

StormWatch was originally a United Nations "crisis intervention unit" founded as a successor to the Warguard: In the early 1970s, the UN's first orbital space station, Monitor One, was caught in the wake of a mysterious comet. Most of the station's staff were killed by radiation that penetrated Monitor One's shields, but a few survived and were altered by the event, changing form and gaining superhuman abilities. These survivors, including the telepath Isaiah King (formerly of Team One) and a ruthless female scientist named Dr. Nychus, became the powerful but uncontrollable Warguard, who later had to be defeated by heroes (including Team One veterans Backlash and Henry Bendix) and placed in stasis for the safety of all mankind.

Out of the ashes of the Monitor One and Warguard disasters, John Windsor founded the Seedling program: A second generation of humans granted superpowers by the comet event (Seedlings) were used as the core of a global peacekeeping force, StormWatch, operating from a giant orbital platform named SkyWatch. The force's first superpowered field unit, StormWatch Prime, comprised of Battalion (Jackson King, son of Isiah King), Flashpoint (Foster McClane), Nautika (Maya Royko) and Sunburst (Karl Hansen).

The MJ-12, a shadow council of the UN, recruited Henry Bendix as the director (or 'Weatherman') of StormWatch, based on his previous experience with extraterrestrials in Team One. The MJ-12 also enlisted the help of Miles Craven, the director of US intelligence agency International Operations (I/O) and former overseer of Team One. When Marc Slayton (Backlash) became tired of Craven's machinations, after his experiences with Team One and Team-7, Craven asked him to spy on the fledgling StormWatch program. Craven told Bendix that Slayton was a security risk, given his past associations with known extraterrestrial Lucy Blaize (a.k.a. Zannah or Zealot), and asked Bendix to take him in and keep an eye on him. When Bendix tried to recruit him, Slayton confessed that he had been asked to infiltrate StormWatch for I/O but had no intention of doing so. Bendix took him in anyway, and put him in charge of training StormWatch's field agents.

Another essential early member of Stormwatch was Christine Trelane, a 'Seedling activator' with the ability to awaken or shut down superpowers in humans affected by the comet event.

Flashpoint, Nautika and Sunburst were lost on a mission in Kuwait in 1991 (towards the end of Desert Storm) and presumed dead. They were later found to have been captured by the Deathtrap and the Mercs and were rescued from Gamorra by Battalion and new team members.

In addition to the main field team(s), Bendix created a covert superhuman team named 'StormWatch Black'. The earliest known lineup (1983) included The New Romantic (Robert Nathan), Ghetto Blaster (Roger Elliot), Deathrace (Garrett Nolan), Ebony, Ivory and The Urban Cowboy. The last StormWatch Black team comprised Jenny Sparks, Jack Hawksmoor and Swift.

A non-superpowered paramilitary support unit was also formed within StormWatch, named StormForce, a version of which still appears to be active in the US.

The original Skywatch station crashed to Earth in 1995 when the Warguard escaped from stasis, and its replacement was piloted into the sun in 1998 to destroy an infestation of xenomorphic aliens.^[1]

The aliens that invaded the second Skywatch station killed most of StormWatch's superhuman 'officers', excluding Jackson King (who had succeeded Bendix as Weatherman), Flint and the members of StormWatch Black. Due to the losses of Skywatch and half of its staff, the United Nations could no longer afford StormWatch.^[2] With StormWatch effectively shut down, StormWatch Black went underground to form a new team called the Authority, initially having a similar international mandate to StormWatch. King founded his own group, the Monarchy.

Team Achilles

 Main article: Stormwatch Team Achilles

The next incarnation of StormWatch had a considerably smaller budget, and the Skywatch station was not rebuilt. Benjamin Santini, formerly Director of Operations at I/O, became the new Weatherman (following Henry Bendix, Christine Trelane and Jackson King) and led a small team of mostly human operatives specialized in neutralizing superhuman threats, dubbed 'Team Achilles', based in the UN headquarters building in New York.

Santini's StormWatch was disbanded by the UN following a coup d'etat in which the Authority seized control of the United States. The members of Team Achilles were declared illegal combatants, and went into hiding.^[3]

Post Human Division

 Main article: Stormwatch P.H.D.

Following the Authority's temporary control of the United States and their brief disappearance, Stormwatch was re-founded by Jackson King and under the sole control of the (re-instated) United States government after the United Nations deemed Stormwatch too expensive to fund, to once again safeguard the world from superhuman coups and threats.^[4] Due to their universe that was recently changed, the Authority's new Doctor resurrected several of King's teammates who had been killed aboard Skywatch, allowing King to form a new Stormwatch Prime.^[5]

Constrained by a limited budget, Stormwatch could no longer respond to every crisis. In response, King founded a separate initiative called the 'Post-Human Division' (PHD) to train law enforcement specialists, both human and superhuman, in low-budget and practical techniques for combating superhuman threats.^[6]

World's End

 Main article: World's End Trilogy

In the wake of Armageddon, New York was destroyed by a massive influx of superhumans, and PHD was forcibly disbanded. Around the same time, Stormwatch Prime were moved into a new satellite headquarters. From this vantage, they now work to return the world to a state of normalcy. In their endeavors Stormwatch came into conflict with the reemerged Knights of Khera, a very militant faction of Kherubim who sought to conquer Earth by terraforming the planet that would wipe out all life on the surface.^[7]

Stormwatch was later among the many heroes that were summoned by the Authority and notified of the Carrier's departure for unknown space. Christine Trelane, Flint, and Deathblow left the team on the Carrier while Stormwatch and the other heroes decided to stay on their planet and waged war against the Knights of Khera, and ultimately prevailed in defeating the Kherans.^{[8][9][10][11]} Thereafter, Stormwatch and some of Earth's heroes merged with the Wildcats in order to effectively repair Earth and helping its survivors.^[12]

Paraphernalia

Equipment: Stormwatch operatives can rely on the latest technology. They are far more advanced than what we know in all manner of communications, encryption/decryption, medical facilities, surveillance, counter-surveillance, and tranports.
Transportation: Skywatch teleportation system
Weapons: Specialized weapons used by certain members (notably Battalion)

See Also

• 96 Appearances of Stormwatch (Wildstorm Universe)
• 9 Images that include Stormwatch (Wildstorm Universe)
• Organization Gallery: Stormwatch (Wildstorm Universe)

Links

• Wildstorm Resource Wiki

Footnotes