Fictional team history
The Fearsome Five were founded by the criminal Doctor Light, who recruited members through an ad he placed in the Underworld Star, a criminal underground newsletter. Psimon is influenced by Trigon, the demon, who gave him his powers, and usurps Light's role as leader. The two continued to struggle over leadership for some time.[3]
After Psimon was banished by Trigon to another dimension for failing to destroy the Earth, the other members of the Five attacked the Titans at their newly unveiled headquarters, Titans Tower, in The New Teen Titans #7 (May 1981). The Five attempted to use Silas Stone (the father of the superhero Teen Titan Cyborg) and the Titans' dimensional transmitter to retrieve the still-living Psimon, but were again defeated. Psimon later allied himself with the immortal dimensional traveler known as the Monitor during the 1985 comic event known as Crisis on Infinite Earths. Feeling betrayed, the rest of the Five turned on Psimon and apparently murdered him.
In The New Teen Titans #37 (December 1983) and Batman and the Outsiders #5 (December 1983), the Five turned on Light, expelling him from the group and attempting to kill him. Light escaped, and Psimon again became leader, though the Five were again defeated, this time by the Titans, Batman, and the Outsiders. The Five later invaded S.T.A.R. Labs in Tales of the Teen Titans #56–58 (August–October 1985), freeing Jinx and Neutron, who had been imprisoned there, and taking them into their ranks, but were defeated again by the Titans, and unsuccessfully fought Superman in The Adventures of Superman #430 (July 1987), this time with new members Charger and Deuce.
The team disbanded shortly after Deuce and Charger's first missions with the Five, with Mammoth and Shimmer deciding to renounce their life of crime and finding peace in a Tibetan monastery. Psimon returned from outer space, very much alive, and systematically sought revenge on his former teammates, Gizmo, Crocodile-Boy, Mammoth, and Shimmer. Mammoth barely survived after Psimon rammed a spear through his head; Shimmer was turned into glass and then shattered by the telepath, and seemingly perished. Psimon shrank Gizmo to subatomic size, though the diminutive tinkerer eventually found a way to return to normal; he was later incarcerated, along with Mammoth, Crocodile-Boy, and Jinx, at the metahuman prison on Alcatraz. Psimon himself was incarcerated at another such prison called the Slab, but later escaped when it was destroyed in Outsiders, vol. 3, #6 (January 2004).
Soon after, in a storyline in Outsiders, vol. 3, #13–15 (August–October 2004), frequent Captain Marvel archenemy Doctor Sivana gathered Psimon, freed Mammoth, Gizmo, and Jinx from prison, and was able to successfully restore Shimmer's shattered form, returning her to life. He put the team to work in a scheme to short sell Lexcorp stock by having them steal its accounts from its corporate building in Metropolis, and then drive down the stock by killing all the people in the building and destroying two other Lexcorp properties. At the latter of the two, a microchip factory of Lexcorp's subsidiary, Kellacor, the Five were confronted by the Outsiders. After escaping, the criminally unsophisticated Five urged Sivana to take Lexcorp's nuclear missile facility near Joshua Tree, California. When Sivana refused, Psimon asserted that they would take it anyway; in response, Sivana killed Gizmo with a laser blast to the head, and severed relations with the remaining four, warning them that he would kill them if they ever crossed his path again. Sivana used the money he made from the scheme to purchase a tropical island off the coast of Thailand to use as his lair. The Five were defeated in their plan to take the facility and fire a nuclear missile at Canada. Mammoth was returned to the metahuman prison on Alcatraz Island, but the other three remained at large.
Sivana sarcastically suggested after killing Gizmo that the team rename themselves to the Fearsome Four. The Fearsome Five next turned up in Villains United #5 (November 2005), working for the Secret Society of Super Villains. This time around, they were led by Psimon, with three other members on the roster: Mammoth, Shimmer, and Jinx.[3]
Doctor Light, Dr. Sivana, Psimon, Neutron, Mammoth, Shimmer, and Jinx are next seen on the prison planet Salvation in the 2007–2008 Salvation Run limited series. In #2, Psimon is interrupted by the Joker, who apparently murders him by breaking the dome which houses his brain and repeatedly smashing it with a rock. In the final issue of the series, Neutron is used by Lex Luthor as a power source for a teleportation device, and is seemingly killed when it self-destructs.
A new Fearsome Five surfaced following the Final Crisis, formed by the Calculator. The members shown so far are Mammoth, Crocodile-Boy, Shimmer, Jinx, and new members Nano and Rumble.[4] Nano and Rumble were two inmates of Alcatraz that Shimmer recruited to the team, Nano having been put into jail after battling Cyborg.
The New 52
In The New 52 reboot of DC's continuity, the Forever Evil storyline introduces the Fearsome Five (consisting of Gizmo, Jinx, Mammoth, Psimon, and Shimmer) when they are recruited by the Crime Syndicate of America to join the Secret Society of Super Villains.[5]
In Justice League, vol. 2, #29, The Fearsome Five were sent among Doctor Psycho and Hector Hammond to fight against Cyborg and the Metal Men. They were easily defeated by the Metal Men because the Metal Men are not vulnerable to mental attacks.
