Obscure DC Characters: Z

Zekefreak

Profile by <swingwithscooter>

In SWING WITH SCOOTER #2, a monster named Zekefreak is introduced. At the end of the story, the author asks for reader response to see if Zekefreak should appear again.

Did he ever appear again?

Zero-Man

There's a reason why you didn't remember Zero-Man ...

Described in detail by creator Len Wein in AMAZING HEROES #39 (Jan. 15, 1984), ZERO-MAN would have involved an alternate 25th century in which a totalitarian group called the Final Order controlled America, erasing all records of the underground force that opposed them and dubbing them Zero-Men. Recognizing the importance of a pivotal assassination in 1984, the Zero-Men believed that the prevention of the murder would change history for the better and decided to send a volunteer back in time.

The candidate was Jonathan Dare, son of the time machine's creator. Strapped into a uniform that included special goggles and wrist bands, Dare plunged into the past as the Final Order assassinated his father and girl friend. On his heels was an agent named Finitus, who was unable to stop Dare from preventing the assassination. After unsuccessfully attempting to return to the future, Dare realized that he had succeeded in his mission and history had been changed. Finitus, in turn, vowed to make further changes to route history back toward the Final Order.

The series was still in limbo two years later when the AMAZING HEROES PREVIEW SPECIAL #3 (Summer, 1986) revealed that pencilled pages for the entire first issue existed but that "DC's promotion department" had "never heard of this one." (The penciller in question was presumably Paris Cullins, cited in AMAZING HEROES #50). In 1991, Mark Waid tipped his hat to the character in his crossover with the similarly-themed "Armageddon 2001" in FLASH ANNUAL #4, with this brief reference: "Elongated Man's kid turned out okay. Zeroman's boy even inherited his powers."

Did Zero-Man survive ZERO HOUR? Only time will tell.