Infinity, Inc.

Supercbbox| title = Infinity Inc.
comic_color = background:#8080ff


caption = "Infinity Inc" #1 cover depicting the original Infinitors. Art by Mike Machlan.
schedule = Monthly
format = Ongoing series
publisher = DC Comics
date = March 1984 - June 1988
issues = 53
main_char_team = Infinity, Inc.
past_current_color=background:#ff9275
writers = Roy Thomas
penciller = various
inkers =
colorists =
creators = Roy Thomas
Jerry Ordway
Mike Machlan

Infinity Inc. is a team of comic book superheroes in the DC Comics universe, mostly composed of the children and heirs of the Justice Society of America, making them the Society's analogue to the Teen Titans, which is composed of sidekicks of Justice League members. Created by Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway and Mike Machlan, they first appeared in "All-Star Squadron" #25 (September 1983). It is also the name of the comic book starring the group, which ran from issue #1 (March 1984) through #53 (June 1988).

Publication history

The group was organized by Sylvester Pemberton, the original Star-Spangled Kid in "Infinity Inc." (vol. 1) #1 when a number of JSA proteges were denied admission to the JSA. They instead formed their own group. Members of Infinity, Inc. were known as Infinitors.

Roy Thomas and his wife Dann wrote the series throughout its run. Artists on the series included Jerry Ordway, Don Newton, Todd McFarlane, Vince Argondezzi and Michael Bair.

The series ended with the death of the Star-Spangled Kid (by then known as Skyman), and presumably the group disbanded shortly thereafter. Several members have gone on to supporting roles in other comics series. Fury filled a pivotal role in "The Sandman" and is the mother of Daniel. Hourman, Nuklon (as Atom Smasher), Silver Scarab (as Dr. Fate) and Power Girl eventually joined the 21st Century incarnation of the JSA.

Originally, the series took place on the parallel world of Earth-Two, but in 1986 it was merged with the rest of DC continuity following "Crisis on Infinite Earths". From then on, they shared their spot as Los Angeles' superteam with "The Outsiders", and were involved in a crossover with "The New Teen Titans".

"Infinity, Inc." (vol. 1, 1984-1988)

Formation

Hector Hall, Lyta Trevor, Norda Cantrell and Albert Rothstein decided to adopt identities of their own and apply for membership in the Justice Society of America. The four of them adopt the codenames of Silver Scarab, Fury, Northwind and Nuklon respectively. They are turned down but not willing to give up the four apply again with Jennie-Lynn Hayden and Todd Rice, both Alan Scott's children. Feeling pity on the youngsters Star-Spangled Kid decided to leave the JSA in order to create a new group, in which they were also joined by Power Girl, The Huntress and Brainwave, Jr., calling themselves Infinity, Inc. ["Infinity Inc." (vol. 1) #1]

The team first faces the Justice Society of America, turned evil by the Stream of Ruthlessness, thanks to the Ultra-Humanite. They are able to defeat the JSA and the Ultra-Humanite and the team saves the world. ["Infinity Inc." (vol. 1) #2-11"] In a press conference (to garner media attention for the new team) the team publicly divulge their secret identities, revealing those of their parents in the process, and Hector also announces his engagement to Lyta. The Star-Spangled Kid is able to form a partnership with the city of Los Angeles to commission his team as for-hire protectors, and uses his purchased studio property to revitalize its movie productions. ["Infinity Inc." (vol. 1) #12]

"Helix"

The villains known as Helix kidnap Fury in an attempt to extort money. The members of Helix are all products of in vitro genetic manipulation by the mad scientist Doctor Love. The original members are Arak the Wind-walker, Baby Boom, Kritter, Mister Bones, Penny Dreadful and Tao Jones. Although they are defeated by the Infinitors, Helix manages to escape. ["Infinity Inc" (vol. 1) #16-18]

Later, the second Wildcat (Yolanda Montez) learns that she is in fact a cousin of Helix's new member, Carcharo, and that they are both products of the same genetic experiments as Helix. The two teams battle to a stalemate and Mister Bones is arrested while the others escaped. ["Infinity Inc." (vol. 1) #25-29]

"Crisis on Infinite Earths"

The team also involve themselves with the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, which ultimately result in three new superheroes; Yolanda Montez as Wildcat, Rick Tyler as Hourman and Beth Chapel as Dr. Midnight; and all three join Infinity, Inc. ["Infinity Inc." (vol .1) #31] The Crisis has severe changes for three characters (detailed below). Another result of the Crisis has to do with Infinity, Inc.'s parents and mentors the Justice Society, who are written out of the DCU proper by editorial decision, and the Society are exiled into a dimension where they constantly fight against the tide of Ragnarok. ["The Last Days of the Justice Society" one-shot]

"The Silver Scarab saga"

Even with all of his friends at Infinity, Inc. Hector Hall leaves the group after a fall-out with Lyta, following shortly after the team learns that the Justice Society is seemingly gone. The other Infinitors (as some fans called the team members) go around notifying the wives and other related characters of the Society, of the Society's disappearance. ["Infinity Inc." (vol. 1) #30] A certain Professor James Rock has also contacted Hector, but the real James Rock is supposed to be long dead. Travelling to Hall Mansion, Northwind means to confront Hector, only to find him already under Hath-Set's manipulations (Hath-Set has been reincarnated as a female Dr. Hastor and used the alias of Prof. James Rock). ["Infinity Inc." (vol. 1) #37]

Hector went on to kidnap Fury, and he and Hath-Set uncover the Eye of Ra, a powerful and ancient weapon. Northwind returns and leads Infinity, Inc. into a final confrontation with the Silver Scarab at Hall Mansion, which, when burned down, reveals a topless pyramid inside. While Northwind confronts the Silver Scarab in a duel, Nuklon saves Fury.

The Eye of Ra denies the Silver Scarab control and flies away. The Silver Scarab is not pure enough in the eyes of Seketh the Egyptian God of Death, for the pureness of Hector's heart still lives on in his unborn child with Lyta. Therefore he is not fully cleansed of his goodness and The Silver Scarab is thrown away by the Eye's power, the armor of Nth Metal an empty shell. Northwind is able to close the Eye of Ra, while Hath-Set escapes. Infinity, Inc. mourn the loss of Hector, and Northwind and Fury leave the team after his funeral. ["Infinity Inc." (vol. 1) #42-44]

"Death in the Family"

During the wedding of Hector and Lyta Trevor-Hall, Harlequin (Marcie Cooper) used deception to have Bones and Skyman meet at Solomon Grundy's room.

She then deceives Solomon Grundy into grabbing Bones' arm and using him to kill Skyman with his cyanide touch. Upset, Bones leaves and Infinity, Inc. finds him with Helix. Dr. Love had gained control of Helix and orders them to kill Bones. Helix turns on Love, killing him instead. Helix then leaves in disgust, telling Bones he is no longer one of them. The Infinitors, though, granted Bones full membership in the team. Afterwards, the Infinitors decide to continue on in Skyman's memory, but apparently decided to disband some time after anyway. ["Infinity Inc." (vol. 1) #51-53]

"New Earth-2"

A post Infinite Crisis version of the original Infinity, Inc. appeared in "Justice Society of America Annual" 1 in 2008. They are called Justice Society Infinity.

"JSA": "Black Reign"

The closest that Infinity Inc. has come to reforming is when Brainwave (under Mr. Mind's thrall), Atom Smasher and Northwind, along with Nemesis and Eclipso (who at the time was being controlled by the cousin of Wildcat II), were Black Adam's army in Khandaq. Black Adam mentioned in an internal monologue that he had also thought of recruiting Power Girl for the group, further strengthening the Infinity Inc. ties. ["JSA" #56-58, "Hawkman" (vol. 4) #23-25]

"52"

In the aftermath of "Infinite Crisis", Lex Luthor, clearing his name, resurfaced as a legitimate businessman offering a metagene-based therapy, called the Everyman Project to regular people which enabled them to develop superpowers. The therapy spawned six perfect specimens, to whom Luthor gave the identities purchased from the Pemberton Estate. Calling his new dream-team "Infinity Inc.", he created Starlight (Natasha Irons, the team's leader), a new Nuklon, a male Fury, a new Skyman, the shapeshifting Everyman and the rebellious speedster Trajectory. ["52": Week 21]

Unbeknownst to the team, Luthor is able to "shut off" any of the team's powers at any time as he does to Trajectory, causing her death.

Trajectory has since been replaced by Matrix, a pin-up model who has displayed superhuman strength and invisibility, similar to the original Matrix. ["52": Week 25]

A new member, a new version of Jade with plant-based powers, debuted with the team on Thanksgiving Day. This led to the team being attacked by an angry Obsidian, the brother of the original Jade, who had recently died. Alan Scott intervenes and breaks up the fight. Infinity, Inc. then claims that the older heroes will soon be replaced. ["52": Week 29]

This version of Infinity Inc. makes frequent appearances in the local media, acting both as a commercial stunt for the "Everyman Project", [ [http://www.dccomics.com/sites/52/?action=headlines&i=6762 Lola's Lair: Starlight has 'Star Quality'] ] and as a control system against rogue metahumans spawned from the Project itself. [ [http://www.dccomics.com/sites/52/?action=headlines&i=6890 "Everyman" Subject Turns to Crime] ]

Natasha begins to collect evidence against Luthor and the Everyman Project for John Henry Irons and enlists Skyman to help her. Skyman is later killed by Everyman, who then assumes his identity, and reveals Natasha's duplicity to Luthor. ["52": Week 39] Luthor captures Natasha as bait to lure out Steel and reveals that he has used the exo-gene therapy on himself and now possesses the same powers as Superman. Recruiting the Teen Titans, John Henry storms LexCorp to rescue Natasha.

The Titans take on Nuklon and others while Irons faces Everyman and Luthor. Luthor severely injures Irons and impales him with his own hammer before Natasha is able to destroy Lex's exo-gene with an electromagnetic pulse from Steel's hammer. Afterwards, the remaining members of Infinity, Inc., along with Luthor's bodyguard Mercy, are taken into custody while Natasha and John Henry reunite. ["52": Week 40]

In "52" Week 50, day six, Nuklon, Jade, Matrix and Fury are seen among the heroes during World War III. Alan Scott asks them to help in the final push against Black Adam, only for them to refuse and flee the battlefield.

"Infinity Inc." (vol. 2, 2007 - 2008)

Supercbbox|
title=Infinity Inc. (vol. 2)


caption=Cover of "Infinity Inc." vol. 2, #1 (Nov, 2007). Art by Max Fiumara.
schedule=Monthly
format=Ongoing series
publisher=DC Comics
date=November 2007 - October 2008
issues=12
main_char_team=Steel
Vaporlock
Double Trouble
Amazing Woman
Vanilla
Empathy
writers=Peter Milligan
artists=Max Fiumara
pencillers=
inkers=
colorists=
creative_team_month=
creative_team_year=
creators =

Dan DiDio revealed at a DC Nation panel in Los Angeles that a new Infinity, Inc. ongoing series will debut in September 2007 with John Henry Irons as the main character. The book will be written by Peter Milligan with art by Max Fiumara. [cite web
title = DC NATION PANEL FROM WW:LA
publisher = Newsarama
url = http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=105423
date = 2007-03-16
accessdate = 2007-03-18]

The first issues focuses on Natasha Irons (formerly Starlight), Erik Storn (formerly Fury), and Gerome McKenna (formerly Nuklon), a year after the end of the Everyman Project. Natasha is living with her uncle John Henry Irons and is in psychotherapy along with Erik, who refers to it as "our national religion" and Gerome. Another longterm patient, teenager Dale Smith, attacks his therapist and realizes his powers as a psychic vampire. Smith takes the name "Kid Empty". Apparently, a side effect of the exogene therapy is that once the exogene itself is suppressed, the energies unleashed by the therapy remains, re-enabling the metagene in a different fashion. As a result, Natasha finds herself turning to a mist-like substance, McKenna gains the ability to duplicate himself, and Storn gains a powerhouse, overconfident, female alter-ego. The group gain new members in Mercy Graves and Lucia, an Everyman subject who can psychically inflict pain on others. In #8, the team gain official costumes and codenames, and go on their first mission.

In issue #10, Mercy admidts she is not ready to be on a team, and leaves. Issue #11 begins a two issue arc that ties into the Dark Side Club.

Desaad, under the false identity of "Doctor Bud Fogel", secretly manipulates McKenna (now using the codename of "Double Trouble") by nurturing a third personality created from McKenna's base and repressed instincts, and promising it the opportunity to take full control.

When the splintered McKenna personality is able to wrest control over the main body (as shown when McKenna's main personality is trasported in Desaad's labs, while his duplicate attempts to force himself on Lucia), the Infinitors try to stop him.

However, the plan is revealed to be a trap. The duplicate fatally wounds McKenna in the hopes of possessing his body, but disappears with McKenna's weakening. The other subjects are trapped in a machine designed to take away the powers of the remaining Everymen without activating their metagene. Desaad admits he was forced to this course of action because the Everymen, even after turning into metahumans, are undetectable from Darkseid minions, and they could be a wild card during the planned Final Crisis.

As a side effect of the machine, the Infinitors vanish. Steel, who arrives too late, swears he will resume his search for Natasha.

Membership

"Infinity Inc."

Founding members

La Garro and Sandy the Golden Boy

In promotional material for the new "Infinity Inc." series appearing in "All-Star Squadron" #28, a Catwoman-like figure, riding what is referred to as a cat-cycle, appears alongside the Infinity, Inc. group. A caption refers to her as "La Garro"( which is incorrect Spanish for "the claw".Correct spelling should be " La Garra") She, however, never appears in any of the team's adventures, or its comics under this name. She was further developed into the future Infinitor, the second Wildcat (Yolanda Montez).

Sandy Hawkins aka Sandy the Golden Boy, sidekick to the Sandman (Wesley Dodds), is also referred to as a member, but does not end up being a member of the team. Roy Thomas briefly toyed with the idea of giving the character super-powers based on Sandy's time as a sand-monster but this was dropped because Thomas and others felt he could have ended up as the DC equivalent to Marvel's Sandman. This had the potential to further confuse a situation that had been a minor irritant between DC and Marvel from time to time. It was ultimately decided that with the cast as large as it had become Sandy was one of the characters that could be dropped.Fact|date=July 2007

"Crisis on Infinite Earths"

After the events of the Crisis, the Golden Age Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman no longer existed. This affected three Infinitors directly:

*Fury remained in Infinity Inc., but was retconned into being the birth daughter of 'the Golden Age Fury' (a character created for the purpose of the retcon) and being raised by the 1940s heroine Miss America.
*The Huntress was killed in "Crisis on Infinite Earths" #12 and was retconned out of existence. Post-Crisis, a new Huntress appeared with no direct connection to the Batman. Her new origin was considered too different for her to have been an Infinitor, and she is no longer considered to have been a member.
*Power Girl's origin was retconned so that she was now the granddaughter of the Atlantean mage Arion and was sent into the future. She is still considered to have been an Infinitor, and revelations have shown that her initial origin as a Kryptonian from the alternate reality of Earth-Two and the cousin of the Earth-Two Superman is correct. ["JSA: Classified" #1-4]

Later members

Allies

*Pat Dugan, formerly the hero Stripesy, acted as team's mechanic. ["Infinity Inc" (vol. 1) #28]
*Solomon Grundy, acted as Jade's protector. ["Infinity Inc" (vol. 1) #36]

"52"

Notes

References

*comicbookdb|type=title|id=2128|title="Infinity Inc." (1984)
*comicbookdb|type=title|id=15162|title="Infinity Inc." (2007)

External links

* [http://members.aol.com/noonieng/infinity.html Unofficial Infinity Inc. website]
* [http://www.mykey3000.com/cosmicteams/jsa/2.1_members.html#infinity Cosmic Teams; Infinity Inc. members]
* [http://www.mykey3000.com/cosmicteams/jsa/_chron/jsachron7.html JSA Chronology: Infinity Inc.]
* [http://darkmark6.tripod.com/infinity_inc__index.html Earth Two Index: Infinity Inc.]
* [http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=infinityinc DCU Guide: Infinity Inc.]
* [http://www.comicsbulletin.com/reviews/118919927533964.htm Review of "Luthor's Monsters" #1] and [http://www.comicsbulletin.com/reviews/119160672823106.htm #2] , Comics Bulletin