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Created by Alter ego Nyeun Chun TiCole ParkerElise Kimble Team affiliations (Ti) Fatal FiveLegion of Super-Villains(Parker) Suicide Squad(Elise) Terror Titans Abilities Atomic axe can cut through anything First appearance (Ti) Adventure Comics #352, (January 1967), (Parker) Adventures of Superman #598, (January 2002) Similar Mano, Tharok, Emerald Empress, Validus, Blok | ||
The Persuader is the name of three fictional characters featured in comic books published by DC Comics.
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Publication history
The Nyeun Chun Ti version of Persuader first appeared in Adventure Comics #352 (January 1967), and was created by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan.
The Cole Parker version of Persuader first appeared in Adventures of Superman #598 (January 2002), and was created by Joe Casey and Pete Woods.
The Elise Kimble version of Persuader first appeared in Teen Titans Vol. 3 #56 and was created by Sean McKeever and Eddy Barrows.
Nyeun Chun Ti
The Persuader was one of five outlaws recruited by the Legion of Super-Heroes to help them combat the Sun-Eater in exchange for amnesty for their crimes. The villains later turned on the Legion and formed the Fatal Five, becoming one of the Legion's most notable threats. The Persuader wielded an "atomic axe" on a long shaft, resembling a halberd. This axe could reportedly cut through anything, occasionally including purely metaphoric or intangible things, such as a person's air supply, the force of gravity, or the separation between dimensions, and followed the Persuader's mental commands. The Persuader came from a heavy-gravity planet and while he possessed no superpower per se, he had enhanced strength and endurance.
He was relatively unchanged following the Legion Reboot. In the Teen Titans/Legion crossover that ended the Reboot Legion, the Persuader had used his axe to cut through Hypertime, thereby teaming Fatal Fives from various universes as the Fatal Five Hundred. He had a daughter that visited him while he was in prison.
The Persuader did not appear in the Threeboot Legion continuity.
During Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, the original Persuader (alongside the other Fatal Five members) was among the supervillains in Superboy-Prime's Legion of Super-Villains.
Cole Parker
Cole Parker was a factory worker who had lost his job in the wake of the Brainiac-13 upgrade and blamed the Daily Planet. Inspired by images of Superman fighting a holographic Fatal Five, he led a fire-axe wielding riot against the Planet (the "Cult of Persuasion") and was imprisoned.
While imprisoned, a mysterious stranger appeared and gave him an Atomic Axe to help him fulfill his need for vengeance. He escaped prison and fought Superman, but in the midst of battle a miscalculation with the Axe opened an interdimensional portal, through which the Persuader was cast. The Mxyzptlk Twins decide to rewrite history so that it was they who supplied the axe.
Parker was accidentally killed on a mission with the Suicide Squad by teen hero Osiris when Osiris flew directly through Parker's body in order to save his sister Isis.
Elise Kimble
Elise Kimble has appeared as a member of Clock King's Terror Titans. According to Terror Titans #1, Clock King has told her that she is supposedly an ancestor of the original Persuader of the 31st Century. She wears the same mask as the other Persuaders, and likewise carries an atomic axe, her weapon of choice. Her atomic axe cuts objects on a molecular level, allowing her to cleanly shear flesh, bone, steel, wood and any other object except for Ravager's energy swords.
According to Terror Titans #3, Elise's father left when she was a little girl. Growing up with a spiteful mother turned her cold, and she became a killer-for-hire while still in high school, eventually murdering her mother when she found out. She joined up with Clock King in order to find her father. Clock King locates and brings Elise's father to her, only to kill him in the midst of their reunion, so as to toughen her up. Along with the other surviving Terror Titans, Elise is defeated and turned over to the authorities after the teen metahumans held captive in the Dark Side Club are freed by Ravager and Miss Martian. While being transported by the police, the Terror Titans ultimately escape and head off to parts unknown.
Elise reappears in Teen Titans #98 as part of Superboy-Prime's Legion of Doom. While battling Ravager, Elise taunts her and claims that she must have an ulterior motive for joining the Teen Titans. Elise is ultimately defeated after being shot with an arrow by Speedy, allowing Ravager to knock her out.