King Faraday

King Faraday
King Faraday on the cover of Danger Trail vol. 2, #4. Art by Paul Gulacy.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Danger Trail (1st series) #1 (July 1950)
Created by	Robert Kanigher (writer) Carmine Infantino (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	King Faraday
Team affiliations	Suicide Squad Checkmate Central Bureau of Intelligence
Notable aliases	White Queen's Bishop
Abilities	Experienced espionage agent

King Faraday is a fictional secret agent featured in DC Comics. Faraday first appeared in Danger Trail (1st series) #1 (July 1950), and was created by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino.

Fictional character biography

He was named "King" by his father as a joke, a play on the phrase "King For A Day."

An ex-soldier, he took a position as a counter-espionage agent for the U.S. government and engaged in a variety of standard spy-type capers. Some of his Danger Trail adventures were reprinted in Showcase #50 (May–June 1964) under the title "I-Spy". Faraday has since been incorporated full-bore into the DC Universe as a member of the Central Bureau of Intelligence. At one point, he was Nightshade's mentor. In fact, he had a hand in both her and Bronze Tiger being recruited into Task Force X. He has also teamed up with Batman a few times. On two of the occasions he has helped Batman in the capture of Two-Face.

Danger Trail #1, art by Carmine Infantino.

One Year Later, he is a member of Checkmate, serving as the Bishop for White Queen Amanda Waller.

New Frontier

Faraday plays a prominent role in the alternate universe series DC: The New Frontier. He leads an effort to contain and corral the large amount of super-powered entities appearing. He uses various illegal methods, such as laying a trap for Barry Allen, even though he has not committed any crimes. Despite all this, he forms a friendship with the Martian Manhunter. He is killed in the last issue of the series while defending his friend from a psychic attack.^[1]

Skills and abilities

Faraday possessed no superhuman abilities but was a trained espionage agent and an expert hand-to-hand fighter and marksman.

In other media

Television

• King Faraday appears in Justice League Unlimited, voiced by Scott Patterson. His first appearance was in the episode "Double Date", in which he was a federal agent assigned to guard Steven Mandragora, but he escaped. It was established in the 3rd season opener "I Am Legion" that he was appointed as the Justice League's official liaison with the U.S. government. In the episode "To Another Shore", he and a group of government agents wearing jet packs appear in a scene, helping Wonder Woman in a fight against members of the Secret Society. One point of interest in the scene is when he refers to his fellow agents as "goldbrickin' yahoos", a catchphrase more associated with Nick Fury, a Marvel Comics character Faraday preceded.

Film

• Actor Phil Morris voices King Faraday in the direct-to-video adaptation of Darwyn Cooke's Justice League: The New Frontier. In the film version, Faraday dies the same death a character named Johnny Cloud did in the comic version by igniting grenades as he is being devoured by a dinosaur.

External links

• DCU Guide: King Faraday chronology
• Cosmic Teams: King Faraday

References

1. ^ "DC: The New Frontier" 2003-2004