Leviathan is an organization founded (or acquired) by Talia al Ghul upon merging her father Ra's al Ghul's League of Assassins into it. Leviathan's liturgy is staunchly anti-capitalist, and seeks to dismantle society and impose itself as the leaders of a new way. The organization has served as a threat to Batman Incorporated.
History
Batman Incorporated
Leviathan first became known to the heroes of Earth as a terror group who kidnapped the child of a Yemeni shiekh. However, Batman suspected that something was up, and discovered that Leviathan was working with the shiekh, and was planning to attack the world with mind-controlled children and engineered metahumans.[1]
Batman immediately connected the organization to an apocalyptic vision he'd received while coming back from the dead, and positioned his Batman Incorporated organization to oppose them. After some moves, Leviathan seemed to form up behind Doctor Dedalus, a Nazi masterspy imprisoned on the Falkland Islands, with a predicted lifespan of months due to Alzheimer's. In the aftermath of Dedalus' breakout, further investigation showed that a paper-trail saw a flow of child soldiers from training camps in the central African republic of Mtamba transferred to various locations around the world, for use by Leviathan in their campaign.
Leviathan's goals seemed to include the subjugation of poor communities using drugs.
In Batman Inc's struggle against Dedalus' master plan, they struck, and hit empty locations, which were in fact pre-prepared traps by Leviathan. Recovering, they realized that Netz was a mere feint, designed to make them show their hand on the eve of the war. Via a telephone, the true leader of Leviathan, Talia al Ghul, spoke from their new headquarters opposite the cinema on Park Row. Talia stated Leviathan's goal was war with Batman's followers and the destruction of civilization.
Demon Star
Before Flashpoint, Talia took control of the League of Assassins and added its agents to her grand plan. The ultimate scheme of which began by seeding mind-control chemicals into Gotham's food supply through the "Dark Tower" fast food chain, while taking control of the Brothers Grimm Syndicate, which controlled the club on Gotham's West Side. Using a combination of agents in the school system, the police, and the civil service, Leviathan worked to control Gotham's children.
Leviathan Civil War
The DC Universe heavily changed its continuity into the DCnU following the events of Flashpoint in 2011. This was part of an effort to make storylines more accessible to newer readers, beginning with the New 52. This new timeline combines elements from the DCU, Vertigo Universe and Wildstorm Universe while drastically changing the origins and histories of characters.
In the history of Prime Earth, Leviathan and Spyral were founded by Doctor Dedalus, to form a self-reinforcing system which kept the more destructive attributes of mankind in check after the second world war. This program is what Dedalus said would be his immortality.[2]
Some time since then, Talia al Ghul took control of the organization and refitted it to her desired specifications. Breaking away from her fathers League of Shadows and scouting a great many potential recruits for her ultimate cause.[3]
Five years ago, Talia ordered her most trusted assassin to kill one of Leviathan's underbosses, who had the intention to reveal the existence of the organization to the U.S. authorities.[4] Trust inside the criminal network was shattered and when Talia died and then was resurrected, she was ousted from her position as leader of Leviathan. The organization then fractured into various factions, led by competing leaders. The impact of the civil war was so great that independent assassins such as Deathstroke deemed it necessary to step in and force a resolution to the conflict.[5]
This, in actuality, was all an elaborate ruse by it's original founder to cut out the wheat from the chaff and reorganize the whole of the organization's infrastructure and architecture. After sending in her former best hitwoman to debilitate the rest of the warring factions. Talia herself would be resurrected again via the Lazarus Pit and resumes dominance of the Leviathan Organization after Quietus and The Silencer battled it out with the other underbosses.[6] Guest would eventually be killed off and resurrected by her former handler/manipulator in the process, but she retains more than enough of her original identity to rebel against Talia while under her thrall.[7]
Leviathan Rising
Mark Shaw would equate himself into Talia's Services as an agent under her care, offering his ideas and insights towards improving and refining Leviathans approach towards betterment of the world.[8] He would eventually usurp control of the organization under a concealed guise and would offer Talia a partnership alongside him. She instead decided to kidnap Clark Kent so Superman and the entirety of the Age of Heroes would come after the new order and help take the organization down. Shaw however had already been aware of her plan and freed him from the Kryptonite girdle wrapped around his torso.[9] Firestorm and Dex-Starr later attack Leviathan soldiers after freeing him with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. Shaw later threw out Talia from his ship for trying to go against him, but Superman managed to save her even though he and the other heroes couldn't discover the new leader's identity.
Shaw then proceeded to take out all the other shadow organizations such as D.E.O., A.R.G.U.S., Checkmate, and Spyral. While many assumed he had killed the agents of the organizations, in actuality many had been brainwashed or persuaded into joining while Leviathan had also appropriated their technology. They also nearly assassinated Sam Lane and Amanda Waller after they refused to join but their actions caused a team of detectives and Lois to go after him.[10]
After Superman confronted them in Cuba while tracking Waller, he was detained by an odd space-time based energy matrix attack. Lois organized another team to go after him.[11] Leviathan meanwhile had Superman transported to their location in Chicago and tried to convince him to join him, revealing how Spyral had developed technology to take his son Jon down and promised to fix the "broken world". Shaw then revealed that he took out the spy organizations to end all secrecy and revealed his true identity to him. He also promises to end all secrecy by exposing all secrets of the world's governments.[12]
The detectives and Talia however track down Mark with the help of the source signal of Kate Spencer's Manhunter staff. Talia's presence also made some of her former followers unsure at standing by Shaw's side. Leviathan members escaped but their plans of revealing every secret was foiled as Batgirl, who had pretended to join their organization, had stolen their hard drive containing them.[13] They had however suceeded in killing Sam, as Zatanna was forced to teleport him when they tried to bomb him.
Before Shaw could make his next move however, Lois exposed his identity with the help of Clark, causing him to rethink his plans. Shaw then agreed to start a destructive campaign against the superheroes after his followers demanded it.
Leviathan Dawn
Leviathan later pretended to ally with Legion of Doom in battling Superman and the Justice League. Shaw stated to Lex Luthor that Lois only revealed his identity because he wanted her to while also showing him their headquarters, a floating island filled with lodgings for Leviathan members. During the fight with League however, they would betray the Legion since Shaw thought that people like Lex were the reason the world was broken. Shaw teleported the Legion away to a far off place instead of attacking the League.[14]
After the fight in Metropolis, Shaw berated his people for Amanda Waller getting her hands on their technology and punished Dr. Netz for being behind it. The organization then proceeded to buy out Markovia and Shaw appealed to everyone live to help them fix the world.[15]
Checkmate
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Dissolution
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Paraphernalia
Equipment: Levianthan's scientists have created or stolen a lot of chemical and technological wonders, such as Man-Bat Serum, the Nanode, Kryptonese linguistic coding as well as malware which is able to take control of government satellites. often having employed this technology to enhance their assassins/operatives. One of them is a energy-based bomb that pushes back against any force with a greater magnitude while also speeding up time around it. Another can teleport personnel or locations to any chosen location.
Transportation: A ship that can be used to carry a large amount of personnel and acts as a headquarter.
See Also
- 81 Appearances of Leviathan Organization
- 9 Images that include Leviathan Organization
- Organization Gallery: Leviathan Organization
Recommended Reading
Links
- None.
Footnotes
- ↑ Batman: The Return #1
- ↑ Grayson #14
- ↑ The Silencer #13
- ↑ The Silencer #4
- ↑ The Silencer #5
- ↑ The Silencer #6-The Silencer #10
- ↑ The Silencer #13
- ↑ Checkmate (Volume 3) #1
- ↑ Superman: Leviathan Rising Special #1
- ↑ Event Leviathan #1
- ↑ Event Leviathan #4
- ↑ Event Leviathan #5
- ↑ Event Leviathan #6
- ↑ Action Comics #1019-1021
- ↑ Leviathan Dawn #1
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