Halo Corporation

The Halo Corporation is a fictional company appearing in Wildstorm comics. It first appeared in "WildC.A.T.S." volume 1 #1 (August, 1992) and was created by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee and played an important role in "Wildcats" volume 2 and 3.

History

The Halo Corporation was founded by Jacob Marlowe. In 1990, Jacob Marlowe was a homeless man, amnesiac and often drunk, living on the streets of New York City. On August 8th, 1990, Jacob was attacked by several criminals, but rescued by Void, who told Jacob that he was in fact the Kherubim Lord Emp. With the help of Void and a silent business partner, Miles Tsabo, Jacob created the Halo Corporation and became a multi-billionaire within 2 years. For Marlowe the Halo Corporation was first and foremost a way to finance the WildC.A.T.s, a group of superhumans (most of them descendants of Kherubim like himself) who battle the Kherubim's enemy, the Daemonites. Jacob would often accompany the WildC.A.T.s on their missions; during one of these missions, most WildC.A.T.s were presumed killed. Savant and Mister Majestic, two Kherubim and friends of the WildC.A.T.s, took over Halo and rebuild the WildC.A.T.s.

When the original WildC.A.T.s returned, Marlowe let Savant's team know that he no longer was interested in the WildC.A.T.s, Halo, or anything else; recent discoveries about his own planet Khera and their actions in and after the war against the Daemonites broke his spirit and Jacob left Halo in the hands of Savant and her team. Savant and Majestic left shortly afterwards and Void went to visit Marlowe. She erased his memories and Marlowe returned to the Halo Corporation and the WildC.A.T.s.

Shortly afterwards, Miles Tsabo returned to Halo. He had been willing to let Jacob run Halo, but due to Jacob's recent disappearance and mysterious actions, the Halo Corporation was near bankruptcy. Tsabo lost his confidence in Jacob and started his own investigation in Jacob's actions. He found out that Jacob was an Extraterrestrial and decided to use this secret to blackmail Jacob into giving him full control over the Halo Corporation. ("WildC.A.T.s" vol 1, #1-50)

Several months later, Jacob had somehow regained full control over the Halo Corporation, but the WildC.A.T.s disbanded after Zealot apparently died. Jacob removed himself from human society to follow his destiny as a Kherubim High Lord. This destiny ended in his physical death and spiritual ascension.

Jacob Marlowe left the Halo Corporation to Spartan, who took the name Jack Marlowe and posed as a relative of Jacob. Former WildC.A.T.s Grifter and Void joined Jack, who had decided that he could do more good for the world using the Halo Corporation than as a superhero. The Halo Corporation moved from New York City to Los Angeles and Jack, with the help of Noir, a french illegal armsdealer, used Void's ability to teleport to tap into the energy of another dimension. Noir betrayed Halo and tried to kill Marlowe and the others, but was defeated. Noir's plans to use the energy of the other dimension to create ever-lasting batteries was used by Jack Marlowe. ("Wildcats" vol. 2, #1-28)

Jack started to expand the Halo Corporation. He bought a small accounting firm, where Sam Garfield and Edward Dolby worked. While Garfield hated Marlowe and felt betrayed by his father, the owner, Dolby was fascinated by Marlowe's plans for the future and quickly became Jack's most trusted employee. Halo bought a large multimedia corporation and Marlowe asked Dolby to look into interesting internet providers to buy. When it was discovered that the Halo batteries could also be used as a fuel-cell for cars, Halo started to produce cars which no longer required any fuel. All of Halo's products were relatively cheap and were built to last, making Halo suddenly one of the largest and most successful corporations in the world. Marlowe also started to support other superhero initiatives: Halo made payments to the Monarchy and was one of the funders of the Seminary, a school for superheroes ("Wildcats" 3.0 #1-24).

WildCats vol. 4

The HALO Corporation is still one of the most successful companies in the world, valued at $3 trillion. Its corporate assets seemingly include a Carrier, and an orbiting base of operations to rival the former SkyWatch orbiting space station. Now, rather than the infinite batteries, HALO appears to be responsible for the invention of the 3-D telephone, and the Spartan personal superhero/bodyguard.

Employees

Current (known) employees

* Hadrian, current owner and chief executive officer.
* Priscilla Kitaen, recently-recruited WildC.A.T.s-member.
* Cole Cash, recently-recruited WildC.A.T.s-member.
* Reno Bryce, recently-recruited WildC.A.T.s-member. Currently on a covert mission in Kaizen Gamorra's camp.

Former employees

* Max Cash, , former WildC.A.T.s-member, deceased.
* Jules, personal assistant to Jacob Marlowe. Current status unknown.
* Mister Majestic, former WildC.A.T.s-member.
* Maxine Manchester, former WildC.A.T.s-member.
* Jacob Marlowe, founder and first chief executive officer, deceased.
* Savant, former WildC.A.T.s-member.
* Noir, armsdealer and scientific genius, killed after betraying the Halo Corporation.
* Andrew Stansfield, personal assistant to Jacob Marlowe, betrayed the Halo Corporation because of a personal debt to Sterling, an enemy of all aliens on Earth.
* Doctor Jeremy Stone alias Maul, former WildC.A.T.s-member, currently freelance scientist with some ties to Halo.
* Miles Tsabo/Milos Tsabo, partner of Jacob Marlowe, second chief executive officer. Current status unknown.
* Void, former WildC.A.T.s-member, deceased.
* Edwin Dolby, former accountant, current executive manager.
* Sam Garfield, accountant, former partner of Dolby.
* Devan Lawless, computer programmer, one of the main characters of Divine Right