Zarm

Zarm is a supervillain from the Turner Broadcasting cartoon series "Captain Planet and the Planeteers" and "The New Adventures of Captain Planet".

Fictional biography

Prior to his first appearance in the series' first season episode "The Conqueror", he was a spirit of the Earth alongside Gaia and Captain Planet. At an uncertain time, he departed in search of other worlds to be their patron. However, he caused the civilization of at least one other planet to destroy themselves in nuclear holocaust. Later, he returned to Earth, and presented himself to the Planeteers as a visitor from a more advanced civilization. Under this pretence, he tempts the Planeteers with the ‘power of the iron fist,’ gauntlets that have the same powers as their rings, but work on a much grander scale – raising islands, causing hurricanes, etc. Ma-Ti refuses, choosing not to spurn Gaia’s gift in favor of great power, and this leads to Zarm’s exposure and defeat.

He returns subsequently, usually acting on schemes to engineer supremacist contests among individuals, communities, and the world. Most prominently, in the second-season “Summit to Save Earth,” he unites the other Eco-Villains under his leadership and conspires to sabotage the Earth Summit. Many of his schemes are also motivated by spite against Gaia and he endeavors to destroy her and the Planeteers.

Zarm is, in a manner of speaking, a war god (coincidentally, his name is a near-anagram of "Mars", the war god, and is one letter off and phonetically similar to "harm"). As he says himself, he lives by a creed of “might makes right.” He generally effects a martial appearance, with cape and emblazoned garb, though he often disguises himself to deceive humanity, either by changing his own form or possessing another’s. As a natural spirit, it appears that he embodies the principles of competition and natural selection, but without Gaia’s countering benevolence, he takes it to the extreme of fascism and Social Darwinism. He also seems to prefer industry and artifice to nature. Unlike Gaia and Captain Planet, his power is channeled through human beings and their machines, especially weapons. He sets people against each other, presenting them with a threat or a prize (power or riches) and then watches them fight for it. If the Planeteers did not foil these schemes, he would presumably continue to do so on increasing scales until only the ‘strongest’ were left and worthy of his patronage, or all of humankind was extinct.

Where most Captain Planet villains are devious businessmen or mad scientists, Zarm best fits the villain archetype of “Dark Lord” reminiscent of Emperor Palpatine or Voldemort. Unlike Eco-Villains Looten Plunder, Sly Sludge, Hoggish Greedly, Dr. Blight, Verminous Skumm, and Duke Nukem who are concerned with profits and self-gratification, Zarm is concerned with raw power over human beings and fundamental forces. Indeed, it is his ability to deal in the self-serving nature of people like Plunder and Greedly that bring them under his rule in “Summit to Save Earth.”

From his first appearance, he is seen making use of a spacecraft as his transportation. The vessel is small, and externally a plain faceted sphere. The interior is of a classically science-fiction design, containing consoles and screens. Tellingly, it also seems to contain a quantity of the same crystalline substance that dominates Gaia's home of Hope Island.

He is also one of the Eco-Villains (the other being Verminous Skumm) who does not have a regular sidekick. But his powers of manipulation (possibly coupled with psychic domination or possession) mean that he can readily get as many lackeys as his plots might require. Furthermore, sidekicks like Ooze, Rigger, MAL and Leadsuit often serve prominently as comic relief. Zarm and Skumm seem to dwell in a level of pure villainy that leaves no room for humour.

Zarm was voiced in his earliest appearances by rock star/environmental activist Sting. Later, he was voiced by David Warner in Season Three and by Malcolm McDowell in "The New Adventures of Captain Planet."

ee also

* List of Captain Planet episodes

External links

* [http://www.turner.com/planet/zarm.html Zarm webpage]