Intergang
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Intergang is a fictional organized crime organization in Superman comics. It was created by Jack Kirby and first appeared in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #133 (October 1970).
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[edit] History
Intergang was run by a gangster named Bruno "Ugly" Mannheim, as revealed in Jimmy Olsen #139. He was, however, getting orders and weaponry from Darkseid, who was using Intergang to help track down the Anti-Life Equation.
Intergang also worked with Morgan Edge, the head of the Galaxy Broadcasting System television network (which had recently purchased the Daily Planet and had Clark Kent transferred to its Metropolis affiliate WGBS-TV as its anchorman). It was later revealed that this was not the real Morgan Edge, but a clone from the "Evil Factory". The real Edge was soon free to resume his role as Galaxy's president.
[edit] Post Crisis
In the post-Crisis DC Universe, Edge was the leader of Intergang, until he suffered a heart attack due to stress. While he believed he was working for Darkseid, his Apokoliptian contact was actually Desaad, whose only aim in supplying him with weaponry was to cause suffering. While he was in hospital his legitimate businesses were taken over by his father, Vincent Edge, and Intergang was taken over by Ugly Mannheim, who trained on Apokolips with Granny Goodness (a later retcon would say that Mannheim was the original leader of Intergang, dealing knowingly with Desaad. How Edge took over is unrevealed.)
Eventually, Intergang was brought down by Clark Kent and Cat Grant, Mannheim was arrested, but managed to escape. He attempted to disappear through a "Boom Tube" (a New Gods transporter), but it collapsed when he was halfway through.
Some time later, Mannheim's father, Boss Moxie, a gangster who had been in prison since the 1940s, after being captured by the Newsboy Legion, was released. Discovering that the Newsboys were, seemingly, the same age as when he first fought them, he determined to find out how such a thing could be. Meeting rengade Project Cadmus geneticist Dabney Donovan, he arranged for himself and his former gang members from the 1940s to be cloned into youthful bodies with superpowers. Using Vincent Edge to arrange a meeting between Metropolis' gang-leaders, he killed them all, and declared himself the new head of Intergang. The new Intergang spent much of their time tracking down Jimmy Olsen, whom Moxie believed knew Superman's secret identity.
Following a short-lived attempt by Morgan Edge to regain control, Lex Luthor gained control of Intergang, retaining Moxie as a figurehead. Moxie and his lieutenants were later captured by Superman. When last seen, Intergang was run by a criminal cyberneticist named Frank Sixty.
[edit] Current Status
There has been some suggestion that Boss Moxie was slain during the miniseries Infinite Crisis. The suggestion come from a sequence during The Battle for Metropolis, during which Superboy-Prime snaps an unidentified villains neck, killing him. A poster on the Newsarama Website message boards suggested this villain was Moxie. It is, in fact, Major Disaster.
In week 9 of the ongoing 2006 monthly series, 52, the Question tells Renee Montoya that Intergang is preparing for an invasion of Gotham City. Two weeks later, the pair finally have a confrontation with the two operatives of Intergang in Gotham, Whisper A'Daire and Kyle Abbot, known in the public eye as the manager of HSC International Banking, an holding connected to Intergang itself, and her bodyguard. In the weeks that follow, the further investigations of Montoya and the Question reveal Intergang to have expanded into nations such as Kahndaq and Yemen, reorganized along quasi-religious lines, complete with a "holy" text known as the Book of Crime, which treats Cain as a heroic, if not semi-divine, figure. It has even been revealed that the original text is bound by the stone with which Cain slew Abel. In issue #25, Bruno Mannheim was revealed as the current head of Intergang, whom is also behind the kidnapping of many of the world's "mad scientists", in a grand plan to take over America by the end of the year. He shows himself now acting like a cult leader, exalting the power of crime as the dominant order in the 21st century, and now becoming a cannibal, eating anyone he kills who refuses to join Intergang.
In Superman #654, "Ugly" Mannheim returns as a giant wielding alien technology, claiming that someone other than Darkseid is behind Intergang's current activities.
[edit] Other DCU Criminal Organizations
- See also: List of criminal organizations in comics
[edit] Other Media
[edit] Lois & Clark
Intergang appeared in several episodes of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Some names were changed, Vincent and Morgan Edge became Bill Church, Sr., and Bill Church, Jr., Galaxy Broadcasting became Multiworld Communications, etc. The Churches were played by Peter Boyle and Bruce Campbell respecively. By the end of the series, both Churches were in prison and Intergang was being run by Bill, Sr.'s young wife, Mindy (Jessica Collins), who appeared to be an airhead, but was actually a ruthless mastermind.
[edit] Smallville
Morgan Edge has appeared as a Metropolis gang boss in Smallville, initially played by Rutger Hauer, and later by Patrick Bergin.
[edit] Superman: The Animated Series
In Superman: The Animated Series, Intergang was run by Bruno Mannheim, voiced by Bruce Weitz.
Manheim was often the target of the Toyman, a villain who used incredible--and lethal--toys to get revenge on him for framing the Toyman's father for embezzlement.
He was later killed when helping Darkseid.
In a later episode, Intergang was reorganized under the leadership of Granny Goodness.
[edit] Justice League
In Justice League, Morgan Edge was portrayed as living on an island with his own personal army and then is killed by Killer Frost as the Secret Society (Gorilla Grodd, Parasite, Sinestro, Giganta, The Shade and Frost) freed Clayface, who was being held by Edge.
[edit] Justice League Unlimited
Intergang received a brief mention in the Justice League Unlimited episode "This Little Piggy." During a stakeout, an impatient Wonder Woman asked Batman what the criminal organization would want with the Rosetta Stone. Batman replied with the remark, "Intergang moves in mysterious ways."
| Superman | |
|---|---|
| Creators: | Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster |
| Characters: | Superman (Clark Kent) • Lois Lane • Jimmy Olsen • Perry White • Jor-El • Ma Kent • Pa Kent • Lana Lang • Steel • Supergirl • Superboy (Kon-El) • Krypto |
| Villains: | Lex Luthor • Bizarro • Brainiac • Cyborg Superman • Darkseid • Doomsday • Eradicator • General Zod • Metallo • Mongul • Mr. Mxyzptlk • Parasite • Toyman • Ultra-Humanite • Intergang • Phantom Zone villains |
| Locations: |
Daily Planet • Fortress of Solitude • Krypton • Metropolis • Smallville |
| Storylines: | Relationship of Clark Kent and Lois Lane • Alternate versions of Superman • Publications • Superman in popular culture |
| Miscellanea: | Kryptonite • Powers • Symbol |
