Persuader (comics)

The Persuader is the name of three fictional characters featured in comic books published by DC Comics. Nyeun Chun Ti first appeared in Adventure Comics #352 (January 1967), and was created by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan. Cole Parker first appeared in Adventures of Superman #598 (January 2002), and was created by Joe Casey and Pete Woods.

Fictional character biography

Nyeun Chun Ti

The first Persuader (born Nyeun Chun Ti) was created by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan and first appeared in Adventure Comics #352 (January 1967). 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.^[1] 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.^[2]

The Persuader did not appear in the Threeboot Legion continuity.

Final Crisis

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

The second Persuader (the second to appear in the comics, but in-story the "first"), first appeared in Adventures of Superman #598 (January 2002). 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.^[3]

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.^[4]

Elise Kimble

Recently in Teen Titans #56, a new Persuader named 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.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.^[7]

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.^[8] Elise is ultimately defeated after being shot with an arrow by Speedy, allowing Ravager to knock her out.^[9]

In other media

Television

• The Persuader appeared in "Far From Home", an episode of Justice League Unlimited with the other Fatal Five fighting the Legion. His first appearance in the episode, alongside Emerald Empress, referred back to their relationship in the original Legion continuity following the death of Tharok, and is also reminiscent of Marvel Comics' Enchantress and Executioner. Although the character spoke, no actor is credited.
• Persuader (alongside the other members of the Fatal Five) appears in the Legion of Super Heroes TV series voiced by David Sobolov. In "Who Am I?", Brainiac 5 had downloaded some of Persuader's mind when it came for Chameleon Boy to infiltrate Imperiex's ranks.

The Persuader as he appeared in Smallville.

• The Persuader appeared in "Legion", the 11th episode of the 8th season of the television series Smallville played by stunt performer Fraser Aitcheson, but was uncredited. Persuader is a xenophobe who's part of the future "human supremacist" movement. He steals a Legion flight ring, travels through time and attacks Clark Kent in the Kent barn, intending to kill him before he can create the legacy that will inspire Earth to welcome aliens in the future. He uses a long-handled axe, which can split atoms, to injure Clark and destroy the Phantom Zone crystal that was meant to be used in order to defeat Brainiac. Clark is ultimately saved by Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, who remove the Legion ring and send Persuader back to the future.

References