Masters of Disaster (comics)
The Masters of Disaster are a team of fictional supervillains appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. They are presented as a group of mercenaries who prefer to work for money. They are shown as meta-humans with superhuman abilities. Each group member controls a superhuman ability related in some way to a force of nature: earth, wind, fire, and water.
The Masters of Disaster appeared in the second season of the live-action television series Black Lightning.
Fictional history
The Masters are portrayed as enemies of Batman's Outsiders, Infinity Inc., and the Justice Society. Their powers are based on the elemental forces of nature.One of the Outsiders' earliest defeats is neutralized with the emergence of Looker. Looker defeats the Masters and frees the others.
The Masters are hired by Maxwell Tremaine to kidnap Sapphire Stagg. The Outsiders thwart this plot.
They assist Baron Bedlam and his Soviet-backed invasion of the country of Markovia which results in many soldiers dying during the invasion. The Outsiders attack an enemy camp and encounter the Masters. Learning from a previous encounter, the team defeats the Outsiders.
Windfall develops sympathetic feelings for the Outsiders and works behind the scenes to keep them alive. Windfall's defection leads to the Masters capturing and cloning her.
The Masters send Windfall's clone to infiltrate the team. Batman uncovers the ruse. The Windfall clone is then killed during battle while the real Windfall sides with the Outsiders.
New Wave, Shakedown, Coldsnap, and Heatstroke are inmates at a prison nicknamed the Slab. When Geo-Force is wrongfully arrested the Masters are inspired to plan a jailbreak. The Masters of Disaster and Geo-Force successfully escape from the Slab.
Windfall's sister, New Wave, does not like this, and when Shakedown wants the team to work in peace, New Wave kills Shakedown, causing Windfall to leave the team.
The Masters later gain Dust Devil and Mudslide as members, when they go to steal something and end up fighting the Outsiders. The Outsiders disagree on tactics, the Masters get away.
In 2011, "The New 52" rebooted the DC Universe. During the "Forever Evil" storyline, Coldsnap and Shakedown are transferred to another prison with Deadshot. Heatstroke and New Wave later attack the prison transport in order to free them, only to be intercepted by jet-pack wearing S.W.A.T. officers.
Coldsnap and Heatstroke later appear as members of the Suicide Squad when it comes to them assisting Katana in fighting the Kobra organization.
Members
- New Wave – Rebecca "Becky" Jones is the group leader. She can become living water. She is the older sister of Windfall and is possibly insane.
- Shakedown – He is almost invulnerable and can generate powerful vibratory blasts. He tries to keep peace in the group.
- Coldsnap – Darryl is able to generate extreme cold. He is in love with Heatstroke, but cannot touch her due to his powers. He joined the group to get money needed to cure his condition.
- Heatstroke – Joanne is able to generate extreme heat. She is in love with Coldsnap. Joanne also joined the group in order to get money needed to cure her condition.
- Windfall – Wendy Jones has air manipulation abilities. She has sympathetic feelings for Halo, which causes tension. She later leaves the Masters to join the Outsiders. She resurfaces as a member of Strike Force Kobra and later appears as a member of the Suicide Squad where she is killed by Chemo during a mission.
- Dust Devil – Not much is known about Dust Devil. She can fly and has air manipulation abilities.
- Mudslide – Not much is known about Mudslide. He can cause earthquakes and can liquefy objects by heating them with his hands.
Other media
- The Masters of Disaster appear in DC Nation Shorts: Thunder and Lightning episode "Lightning Under the Weather."
- The Masters of Disaster appear in Black Lightning with New Wave portrayed by Brooke Ence, Shakedown portrayed by Hosea Chanchez, Heatstroke portrayed by Esteban Cueto, and Coldsnap portrayed by Derrick Lewis. While New Wave and Coldsnap retain their comic book identities, Shakedown's name is Marcus Bishop and Heatstroke is a man named Joe. After Tobias Whale has his resident techie Todd Green crack the codes in an A.S.A. briefcase, they find that the organization was developing metahumans for "Project Masters of Disaster". Later in the season, it is revealed that the project involved turning violent inmates into a metahuman attack squad before they were put into stasis pods for twenty-five years. The pods were then taken by Tobias so that he could utilize them for his purposes. The first member to appear is Shakedown in the episode "Book of Secrets: Chapter Three: Pillar of Fire" when Tobias awakens him to assist him in building a metahuman army by helping his hired mercenary Giselle Cutter steal more pods. In the episode "The Book of the Apocalypse: Chapter One: The Alpha," Tobias, Dr. Helga Jace, and Cutter release Heatstroke, Coldsnap, and New Wave from their pods. After Cutter severely wounds Shakedown for disobeying Tobias, he states that they will start their metahuman arms race by promoting Heatstroke's attack on the Dark Web. Heatstroke goes on the attack where he sets fire to different places and burns Councilman Kwame Parker after he refused to cooperate with Tobias. Black Lightning and Thunder fight Heatstroke until Tobias reluctantly takes Jace's advice to have Heatstroke retreat. Cutter later informs Tobias of an attack by former minion Lala, causing the Masters of Disaster to retreat to the rendezvous. In the episode "The Book of the Apocalypse: Chapter Two: The Omega," Coldsnap freezes a generator at the Freeland Power Plant while the 100 incite riots. While Peter Gambi and Lightning work to thaw the generator, Black Lightning and Thunder fight the Masters of Disaster. Heatstroke is shot by Lala while the others are defeated by Black Lightning and Thunder.
- *Windfall appears as Wendy Hernandez, portrayed by Madison Bailey, in the second season episode "The Book of Consequences: Chapter Two: Black Jesus Blues." This version of the character is one of the teenage metahumans created by Green Light 30 years ago and kept in pods by the ASA. After being accidentally freed from her pod, she escapes and wanders Freeland in a delirious state. She is eventually shocked out of her delirium by Black Lightning and elects to return to her pod voluntarily. Though she does not take on the identity of Windfall, the character retains her aerokinetic abilities and wears a pink-and-blue outfit reminiscent of her comic counterpart's costume.
- Windfall first appears in the "Young Justice episode "Leverage," voiced by Zehra Fazal. She appears as a teenage resident at the Metahuman Youth Center. Windfall is also Australian in this version as opposed to being an American like in the comics.