title: Boston (album)

text: Delp was impressed that the band had recorded a demo tape and were still recording, and earned his position in the band after auditioning the Joe Walsh song "Rocky Mountain Way". Mother's Milk became an early version of Boston, with Goudreau on lead guitar.


title: Boston (album)

text: By 1973, the band had a six-song demo tape ready for mailing, and Scholz and his wife Cindy sent copies to every record company they could find. The songs on the demo were "More Than a Feeling", "Peace of Mind", "Rock & Roll Band", "Something About You", “San Francisco Day” (later changed and renamed "Hitch a Ride") and “Love” (later changed to "Don't Be Afraid”). The group received rejection slips from several labels - RCA, Capitol, Atlantic and Elektra among the most notable - and Epic Records rejected the tape flatly with a "very insulting letter" signed by company head Lennie Petze that opined the band "offered nothing new". The tape that received the most attention contained embryonic renditions of future songs that would appear on Boston's debut album. Financial reality encroached the dream for Delp, who departed shortly thereafter because "there just wasn't any money coming in".


title: Boston (album)

text: By 1975, Tom Scholz was finished with the club scene, concentrating exclusively on the demo tapes he recorded at home in his basement. Scholz was renting the house and spent much of his funds on recording equipment; at one point, he spent the money he had saved for a down payment on a future home on a used professional 12-track tape recorder made by Scully Recording Instruments.


title: Boston (album)

text: He called Delp to provide vocals, remarking, "If you can't really afford to join the band or if you don't want to join the band, maybe you'd just want to come down to the studio and sing on some of these tapes for me."


title: Boston (album)

text: Scholz had given the Mother's Milk demo to a Polaroid co-worker whose cousin worked at ABC Records (who had signed one of Scholz's favorite bands, the James Gang). The employee forgot to mail the tape out and it sat in his desk for months until Columbia began contacting Scholz, after which he sent the tape to ABC.


title: Boston (album)

text: Charles McKenzie, a New England representative for ABC Records, first overheard the tape in a co-worker's office. He called Paul Ahern, an independent record promoter in California, with whom he held a gentleman's agreement that if either heard anything interesting, they would inform the other.


title: Boston (album)

text: Ahern had a connection with Petze at Epic and informed him, even though Petze had passed on the original Mother's Milk demos.


title: Boston (album)

text: Epic contacted Scholz and offered a contract that first required the group to perform in a showcase for CBS representatives, as the label felt curious that the "band" was in reality a "mad genius at work in a basement".


title: Boston (album)

text: Masdea had started to lose interest in the project by this time, and Scholz called Goudreau and two other performers who had recorded on the early demos, bass player Fran Sheehan and drummer Dave Currier, to complete the lineup. In November 1975, the group performed for the executives in a Boston warehouse that doubled as Aerosmith's practice facility.


title: Boston (album)

text: Mother's Milk was signed by CBS Records one month later in a contract that required 10 albums over six years. Currier quit before he knew the band passed the audition, and Scholz recruited drummer Sib Hashian in his place.


title: Boston (album)

text: Epic had signed an agreement with NABET, the union representing electrical and broadcast engineers, which specified that any recording done outside of a Columbia-owned studio but within a 250-mile radius of one of those studios required that a paid union engineer be present.


title: Boston (album)

text: As such, the label wanted the band to travel to Los Angeles and re-record their songs with a different producer. Scholz was unhappy with being unable to be in charge, and John Boylan, a friend of a friend of Ahern, came on board the project.


title: Boston (album)

text: Boylan's duty was to "run interference for the label and keep them happy", and he made a crucial suggestion: that the band change their name to Boston.


title: Boston (album)

text: "Boston" was recorded primarily at Scholz's own Foxglove Studios in Watertown in "an elaborate end run around the CBS brain trust." Epic wanted a studio version that sounded identical to the demo tape, and Scholz decided he could not work in a production studio, having adapted to home recording for several years, stating "I work[ed] alone, and that was it."


title: Boston (album)

text: Scholz took a leave of absence from Polaroid, and was gone for several months to record the band's album. "I would wake up every day and go downstairs and start playing," he recalled. Scholz grew annoyed reproducing the parts, being forced to use the same equipment used on the demo.


title: Boston (album)

text: The basement, located in a lower-middle-class neighborhood on School Street, was described by Scholz as a "tiny little space next to the furnace in this hideous pine-paneled basement of my apartment house, and it flooded from time to time with God knows what."


title: Boston (album)

text: There was a Hammond organ and a Leslie speaker stuffed in the corner of the room alongside the drums; whenever it was time to record the organ parts, they would tear the drums down and pull out the Leslie.


title: Boston (album)

text: Boylan felt that while Scholz's guitars "sounded amazing," Scholz did not understand how to properly record acoustic instruments, and flew in engineer Paul Grupp to instruct him on microphone technique.


title: Boston (album)

text: Boylan's own hands-on involvement would center on recording the vocals and mixing, and he took the rest of the band out to the West Coast, where they recorded "Let Me Take You Home Tonight". "It was a decoy," recalled Scholz, who recorded the bulk back home in Watertown without CBS's knowledge. While Boylan arranged for Delp to have a custom-made Taylor acoustic guitar for thousands of dollars charged to the album budget, Scholz recorded such tracks as "More Than a Feeling" in his basement with a $100 Yamaha acoustic guitar.


title: Boston (album)

text: That spring, Boylan returned to Watertown to hear the tracks, on which Scholz had recut drums and other percussion and keyboard parts. He then hired a remote truck from Providence, Rhode Island to come to Watertown, where it ran a snake through the basement window of Scholz's home to transfer his tracks to a 3M-79 2-inch 24-track deck. The entire recording was completed in the basement, save for Delp's vocals, which were recorded at Capitol Studios' Studio C with Warren Dewey engineering the overdubs.


title: Boston (album)

text: All vocals were double-tracked except the lead vocal, and all the parts were done by Delp in quick succession. When Scholz arrived in Los Angeles for mixing, he felt intimidated and feared the professional engineers would view him as "a hick that worked in a basement." Instead, Scholz felt they were backwards in their approach and lacked knowledge he had obtained. "These people were so swept up in how cool they were and how important it was to have all this high-priced crap that they couldn't see the forest for the trees," he said.


title: Boston (album)

text: Boylan encountered his only real confrontation with the autocratic Scholz during the mixing stage, in which Scholz handled the guitar tracks, Boylan the drums and Dewey the vocals, with Steve Hodge assisting. Scholz pushed guitars too high in the mix, rendering vocals inaudible at times.


title: Boston (album)

text: The entire operation has been described as "one of the most complex corporate capers in the history of the music business." With the exception of "Let Me Take You Home Tonight", the album was a virtual copy of the demo tapes. The album was recorded for a cost of a few thousand dollars, a paltry amount in an industry accustomed to spending hundreds of thousands on a single recording.


title: Boston (album)

text: "Boston" is composed mainly of songs written many years prior to their appearance on the album. Scholz wrote or cowrote every song on the first album (with the exception of "Let Me Take You Home Tonight," written by Delp), played virtually all of the instruments and recorded and engineered all the tracks. The "Boston sound" combines "big, giant melodic hooks" with "massively heavy, classically-inspired guitar parts." For Scholz, the idea of beautiful vocal harmonies was inspired by The Left Banke, and the guitar-driven aspect was influenced by the Kinks, the Yardbirds and Blue Cheer. Another signature element of the "Boston sound" in terms of production involves the balance between acoustic and electric guitars. To this end, Scholz was inspired by his childhood listening of classical music, noting that the "basic concept" of setting the listener up for a change that is coming in the music had been explored for hundreds of years in classical compositions. The record also makes use of multiple-part harmonized guitar solos and baroque melodic devices known as mordents.


title: Boston (album)

text: "More Than a Feeling" is an ode to daydreaming, and contains a guitar solo reminiscent of "Telstar". The track was inspired by a love affair that Scholz had years prior while in school. "Walk Away Renée" by The Left Banke was popular at the time, and it caused Scholz to pine miserably over the girl. "More Than a Feeling" unintentionally incorporates a chord progression from that particular song following the line "I see my Mary Ann walking away." Scholz initially felt it was his best shot at a lead single, but became depressed when doubts got the best of him. Ahern, however, loved the track and was sure it would receive maximum airplay. "Peace of Mind" was penned about Scholz's Polaroid superiors, and recorded around the fall of 1974. "Foreplay," the extensive introduction to "Long Time," was actually composed many years prior in 1972. "Rock & Roll Band", a track that dated back to the band's Mother's Milk demo, was inspired by Masdea's experiences performing in various bar combos, and was written just as "pure fantasy." The album version still features Masdea's drums from the demo tape. "Smokin'", was written and recorded in 1973, and called "Shakin'". "Hitch a Ride" was originally titled "San Francisco Day", with lyrics starting in New York City and then planning to hitch a ride to "head for the other side". This was the first song Delp re-recorded after the original Mother's Milk vocalist left. To create the special effect of a bent note on the track's organ solo, Scholz slowed down one of the recording reels with his finger. "Something About You" was originally "Life Isn't Easy" and was written around 1975, and as the last demo, it was put as the second to last track.


title: Boston (album)

text: The trademark sci-fi theme of the record cover was Scholz' concept: "The idea was escape; I thought of a 'spaceship guitar.' " The original spaceship was designed in 1976 by Paula Scher and illustrated by Roger Huyssen with lettering by Gerard Huerta for Epic Records.


title: Boston (album)

text: "Boston" was released by Epic Records on August 23, 1976. (according to some other sources - August 25). The album broke out of Cleveland first, and the following week, it had been added at 392 stations. Had the record been unsuccessful, Scholz, then 29, planned to abandon his rock and roll dream; he still worked at Polaroid during the first few weeks of the record's success. Scholz felt pessimistic about the success until the album sold 200,000 copies. "And all of a sudden I realized I was in the music business," he told "Rolling Stone". "I got word on what the sales figures were while I was still at Polaroid full-time. It wasn't easy staying there two more weeks." Critics were kind to "Boston"; "Rolling Stone" wrote that "The group's affinity for heavy rock & roll provides a sense of dynamics that coheres magnetically with sophisticated progressive structures."


title: Boston (album)

text: The album was certified gold two months after its release, and sold another 500,000 copies within 30 days, going platinum for the first time in November 1976.


title: Boston (album)

text: By January 1977, the debut disc sold two million copies, making it one of the fastest selling debut albums in rock history. "More Than a Feeling" became a hit single on both AM Top 40 stations (with its second verse deleted for time constraints), and on FM "AOR" stations (with the second verse left intact).


title: Boston (album)

text: "I was at Polaroid when I first heard 'More Than A Feeling' on the radio," said Tom Scholz. "I was listening to somebody else's radio. The first week the album came out, it did better than I expected." Epic Records was pleased with their new acquisition—Boston and another new band, Wild Cherry, were among Epic's biggest success stories of 1976.


title: Boston (album)

text: The album was afforded several accolades, including a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist. Boston sold six million albums, including records, 8-tracks and cassettes by December 1977. For massive popularity, Boston was considered to rival established stars such as Peter Frampton, Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Wonder.


title: Boston (album)

text: By 1986, the album had been certified for over nine million sales domestically, and "Boston" went diamond in 1990. By November 2003, the album was certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of 17 million. Worldwide, the album has sold 20 million copies.


title: Boston (album)

text: The album is the second best-selling debut album of all time in the United States, after Guns N' Roses's "Appetite for Destruction", and it is the joint eighth best-selling album in US history. "Boston", along with the band's 1978 follow-up "Don't Look Back", was remastered in 2006 by Scholz.


title: Boston (album)

text: The album soared, with three singles becoming Top 40 hits. All eight of the songs on the album receive regular airplay on classic rock radio decades later. Taking a mere three weeks to earn an RIAA Gold Record Award (500,000 in unit sales) in 1976, and a Platinum Award (1,000,000 in unit sales) after three months on November 11, 1976, it was the fastest selling debut album for any American group. It has continued to sell very well, accumulating 9 million in sales by the 10th anniversary in 1986, reaching diamond in 1990, and 17× platinum by 2003.


title: Boston (album)

text: The first tour in support of the album was a short six-week promotional club tour throughout the Midwest. Boston soon found themselves on a nationwide tour that lasted 10 months. "We started playing the Agoras in Cleveland and Columbus," said Delp. "500–1000 seat clubs. The response was great, I was amazed that people were singing along with all the songs. It really impressed upon me the power of radio, the fact that wherever we went, they were just playing the record and people just came, and it was great." However, several bands that the group opened for were less than enthusiastic to meet them. At one point, they were opening for Foghat, but lost the gig when a Milwaukee disc jockey introduced Boston, not headliner Foghat, as the best rock and roll band in the world. While the band were apprehensive about opening for Black Sabbath, the experience was pleasant. "The great thing about Black Sabbath was that they didn't do soundchecks," remembered Delp. "So we were afforded all the time we wanted on stage, Ozzy Osbourne would say, 'Ahh, you wanna go up and play some songs, go ahead.' They couldn't have been nicer."


title: Boston (album)

text: Boston eventually began headlining shows in 1977, and sold out four Southern California concert halls within a one-week span. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band opened for Boston in Detroit. On their swing back to the Northeast, they sold out two nights in the Philadelphia Spectrum—and in their New York City debut, three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden. "I sold out arenas with this group in four cities from Lincoln, Nebraska to Louisville, Kentucky," said concert promoter Bob Bagaris to "Billboard". "I've never seen such universal penetration of key secondary markets by any major group. Even the biggest acts usually don't do so well in every market."


title: Boston (album)

text: "Boston" has been described as a pivot in the transition of mainstream American rock from blues-based proto-metal to power pop, "combining some of the ebullience of the rock era's early days with the precision and technology that would mark rock record productions from then on." All eight songs—most commonly the album's A-side—are in constant rotation on classic rock radio. Boston's success ushered in the next wave of "producer" rock sound. Following the album's success, its sound became imitated by several other prominent rock bands of the era. The record created a reference point for production values and studio technology that would stand for years. The album is hailed as one of the greatest in rock history, with an inclusion in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". The album was also ranked No. 43 on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "Definitive 200" list.


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: A multilayer perceptron (MLP) is a fully connected class of feedforward artificial neural network (ANN). The term MLP is used ambiguously, sometimes loosely to mean "any" feedforward ANN, sometimes strictly to refer to networks composed of multiple layers of perceptrons (with threshold activation); see . Multilayer perceptrons are sometimes colloquially referred to as "vanilla" neural networks, especially when they have a single hidden layer.


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: An MLP consists of at least three layers of nodes: an input layer, a hidden layer and an output layer. Except for the input nodes, each node is a neuron that uses a nonlinear activation function. MLP utilizes a supervised learning technique called backpropagation for training. Its multiple layers and non-linear activation distinguish MLP from a linear perceptron. It can distinguish data that is not linearly separable.


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: If a multilayer perceptron has a linear activation function in all neurons, that is, a linear function that maps the weighted inputs to the output of each neuron, then linear algebra shows that any number of layers can be reduced to a two-layer input-output model. In MLPs some neurons use a "nonlinear" activation function that was developed to model the frequency of action potentials, or firing, of biological neurons.


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: In recent developments of deep learning the rectifier linear unit (ReLU) is more frequently used as one of the possible ways to overcome the numerical problems related to the sigmoids.


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: The first is a hyperbolic tangent that ranges from -1 to 1, while the other is the logistic function, which is similar in shape but ranges from 0 to 1. Here formula_2 is the output of the formula_3th node (neuron) and formula_4 is the weighted sum of the input connections. Alternative activation functions have been proposed, including the rectifier and softplus functions. More specialized activation functions include radial basis functions (used in radial basis networks, another class of supervised neural network models).


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: The MLP consists of three or more layers (an input and an output layer with one or more "hidden layers") of nonlinearly-activating nodes. Since MLPs are fully connected, each node in one layer connects with a certain weight formula_5 to every node in the following layer.


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: Learning occurs in the perceptron by changing connection weights after each piece of data is processed, based on the amount of error in the output compared to the expected result. This is an example of supervised learning, and is carried out through backpropagation, a generalization of the least mean squares algorithm in the linear perceptron.


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: We can represent the degree of error in an output node formula_6 in the formula_7th data point (training example) by formula_8, where formula_9 is the target value and formula_10 is the value produced by the perceptron. The node weights can then be adjusted based on corrections that minimize the error in the entire output, given by


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: where formula_2 is the output of the previous neuron and formula_14 is the "learning rate", which is selected to ensure that the weights quickly converge to a response, without oscillations.


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: The derivative to be calculated depends on the induced local field formula_15, which itself varies. It is easy to prove that for an output node this derivative can be simplified to


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: where formula_17 is the derivative of the activation function described above, which itself does not vary. The analysis is more difficult for the change in weights to a hidden node, but it can be shown that the relevant derivative is


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: This depends on the change in weights of the formula_19th nodes, which represent the output layer. So to change the hidden layer weights, the output layer weights change according to the derivative of the activation function, and so this algorithm represents a backpropagation of the activation function.


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: The term "multilayer perceptron" does not refer to a single perceptron that has multiple layers. Rather, it contains many perceptrons that are organized into layers. An alternative is "multilayer perceptron network". Moreover, MLP "perceptrons" are not perceptrons in the strictest possible sense. True perceptrons are formally a special case of artificial neurons that use a threshold activation function such as the Heaviside step function. MLP perceptrons can employ arbitrary activation functions. A true perceptron performs "binary" classification, an MLP neuron is free to either perform classification or regression, depending upon its activation function.


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: The term "multilayer perceptron" later was applied without respect to nature of the nodes/layers, which can be composed of arbitrarily defined artificial neurons, and not perceptrons specifically. This interpretation avoids the loosening of the definition of "perceptron" to mean an artificial neuron in general.


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: MLPs are useful in research for their ability to solve problems stochastically, which often allows approximate solutions for extremely complex problems like fitness approximation.


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: MLPs are universal function approximators as shown by Cybenko's theorem, so they can be used to create mathematical models by regression analysis. As classification is a particular case of regression when the response variable is categorical, MLPs make good classifier algorithms.


title: Multilayer perceptron

text: MLPs were a popular machine learning solution in the 1980s, finding applications in diverse fields such as speech recognition, image recognition, and machine translation software, but thereafter faced strong competition from much simpler (and related) support vector machines. Interest in backpropagation networks returned due to the successes of deep learning.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. Its sheltered waters have played an important role in travel, trade and conflict throughout the centuries. Vikings anchored their longships in Scapa Flow more than a thousand years ago. It was the United Kingdom's chief naval base during the First and Second World Wars, but the facility was closed in 1956.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Scapa Flow has a shallow sandy bottom not deeper than and most of it is about deep; it is one of the great natural harbours and anchorages of the world, with sufficient space to hold a number of navies. The harbour has an area of and contains just under 1 billion cubic metres of water.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Since the scuttling of the German fleet after World War I, its wrecks and their marine habitats form an internationally acclaimed diving location.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Scapa Flow hosts an oil port, the Flotta Oil Terminal. In good weather, its roadstead (water of moderate conditions) allows ship-to-ship transfers of crude oil product. The world's first ship-to-ship transfer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) took place in Scapa Flow in 2007 transferring 132,000m³ of LNG. This occurred in 2007 by Excelerate Energy between the vessels Excalibur and Excelsior.


title: Scapa Flow

text: The Viking expeditions to Orkney are recorded in detail in the 11th century "Orkneyinga sagas" and later texts such as the "Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar".


title: Scapa Flow

text: According to the latter, King Haakon IV of Norway anchored his fleet, including the flagship "Kroussden" that could carry nearly 300 men, on 5 August 1263 at St Margaret's Hope, where he saw an eclipse of the sun before he sailed south to the Battle of Largs.


title: Scapa Flow

text: En route back to Norway Haakon anchored some of his fleet in Scapa Flow for the winter, but he died that December while staying at the Bishop's Palace in Kirkwall. In the 15th century towards the end of Norse rule in Orkney, the islands were run by the "jarls" from large manor farms, some of which were at Burray, Burwick, Paplay, Hoy, and Cairston (near Stromness) to guard the entrances to the Flow.


title: Scapa Flow

text: In 1650 during the wars of the Three Kingdoms, the Royalist general James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, moored his ship, the "Herderinnan", in Scapa Flow, in preparation for his attempt to raise a rebellion in Scotland. The enterprise ended in failure and rout at the Battle of Carbisdale.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Historically, the main British naval bases were near the English Channel to counter the continental naval powers: the Dutch Republic, France, and Spain.


title: Scapa Flow

text: In 1904, in response to the build-up of the German "Kaiserliche Marine"'s High Seas Fleet, Britain decided that a northern base was needed to control the entrances to the North Sea, as part of a revised policy of 'distant' rather than 'close' blockade. First Rosyth in Fife was considered, then Invergordon at Cromarty Firth. Delayed construction left these largely unfortified by the outbreak of the First World War. Scapa Flow had been used many times for British exercises in the years before the war and when the time came for the fleet to move to a northern station, it was chosen for the main base of the British Grand Fleet—unfortified.


title: Scapa Flow

text: John Rushworth Jellicoe, admiral of the Grand Fleet, was perpetually nervous about the possibility of submarine or destroyer attacks on Scapa Flow. Whilst the fleet spent almost the first year of the war patrolling the west coast of the British Isles, their base at Scapa was defensively reinforced, beginning with over sixty blockships sunk in the many entrance channels between the southern islands to enable the use of submarine nets and booms. These blocked approaches were backed by minefields, artillery, and concrete barriers.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Two attempts to enter the harbour were made by German U-boats during the war and neither was successful:


title: Scapa Flow

text: After the Battle of Jutland, the German High Seas Fleet rarely ventured out of its bases at Wilhelmshaven and Kiel and in the last two years of the war the British fleet was considered to have such a commanding superiority of the seas that some components moved south to the first-class dockyard at Rosyth.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Following the German defeat, 74 ships of the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet were interned in Gutter Sound at Scapa Flow pending a decision on their future in the peace Treaty of Versailles.


title: Scapa Flow

text: On 21 June 1919, after seven months of waiting, German Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter made the decision to scuttle the fleet because the negotiation period for the treaty had lapsed with no word of a settlement. He was not kept informed that there had been a last-minute extension to finalise the details.


title: Scapa Flow

text: After waiting for the bulk of the British fleet to leave on exercises, he gave the order to scuttle the ships to prevent their falling into British hands. The Royal Navy made desperate efforts to board the ships to prevent the sinkings, but the German crews had spent the idle months preparing for the order, welding bulkhead doors open, laying charges in vulnerable parts of the ships, and quietly dropping important keys and tools overboard so valves could not be shut.


title: Scapa Flow

text: The Royal Navy managed to beach the battleship , the light cruisers "Emden", "Nürnberg", and "Frankfurt" and 18 destroyers whereas 53 ships, the vast bulk of the High Seas Fleet, were sunk. Nine German sailors died on some of these ships when British forces opened fire as they attempted to scuttle the ships, reputedly the last casualties of the war.


title: Scapa Flow

text: At least seven of the scuttled German ships and a number of sunken British ships can today be visited by divers.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Although many of the larger ships turned turtle and came to rest upside down or on their sides in relatively deep water (25–45 m), some—including the battlecruiser —were left with parts of their superstructure or upturned bows still protruding from the water or just below the surface.


title: Scapa Flow

text: These ships posed a severe hazard to navigation, and small boats, trawlers and drifters, moving around the Flow regularly became snagged on them with the rise and fall of the tides. The Admiralty initially declared that there would be no attempt at salvage, that the sunken hulks would remain where they were, to 'rest and rust.' In the first few years after the war, there was abundant scrap metal as a result of the huge quantities of leftover tanks, artillery and ordnance. By the early 1920s, the situation had changed.


title: Scapa Flow

text: In 1922, the Admiralty invited tenders from interested parties for the salvage of the sunken ships, although at the time few believed that it would be possible to raise the deeper wrecks. The contract went to a wealthy engineer and scrap metal merchant, Ernest Cox, who created a new company, a division of Cox & Danks Ltd, for the venture, and so began what is often called the greatest maritime salvage operation of all time.


title: Scapa Flow

text: During the next eight years, Cox and his workforce of divers, engineers, and labourers engaged in the complex task of raising the sunken fleet. First the relatively small destroyers were winched to the surface using pontoons and floating docks to be sold for scrap to help finance the operation, then the bigger battleships and battlecruisers were lifted, by sealing the multiple holes in the wrecks, and welding to the hulls long steel tubes which protruded above the water, for use as airlocks. In this fashion the submerged hulls were made into air-tight chambers and raised with compressed air, still inverted, back to the surface.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Cox endured bad luck and frequent fierce storms which often ruined his work, swamping and re-sinking ships which had just been raised. At one stage, during the General Strike of 1926, the salvage operation was about to grind to a halt due to a lack of coal to feed the many boilers for the water pumps and generators. Cox ordered that the abundant fuel bunkers of the sunken (but only partly submerged) battlecruiser be broken into to extract the coal with mechanical grabs, allowing work to continue.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Although he ultimately lost money on the contract, Cox kept going, employing new technology and methods as conditions dictated. By 1939, Cox and Metal Industries Ltd. (the company that he had sold out to in 1932) had successfully raised 45 of the 52 scuttled ships. The last, the massive , was raised from a record depth of 45 metres just before work was suspended with the start of the Second World War, before being towed to Rosyth where it was broken up in 1946.


title: Scapa Flow

text: A Morse key recovered from the battleship "Grosser Kurfürst" during the salvage is displayed at a Fife museum.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Primarily because of its great distance from German airfields, Scapa Flow was again selected as the main British naval base during the Second World War.


title: Scapa Flow

text: The strong defences built during the First World War had fallen into disrepair. Defence against air attack was inadequate and blockships sunk to stop U-boats from penetrating had largely collapsed. While there were anti-submarine nets in place over the three main entrances, they were made only of single-stranded looped wire; there was also a severe lack of the patrolling destroyers and other anti-submarine craft that had previously been available. Efforts began belatedly to repair peacetime neglect, but were not completed in time to prevent a successful penetration by enemy forces.


title: Scapa Flow

text: On 14 October 1939, under the command of Günther Prien, penetrated Scapa Flow and sank the First World War-era battleship anchored in Scapa Bay. After firing its first torpedo salvo, the submarine turned to make its escape; but, upon realising that there was no immediate threat from surface vessels, it returned for another attack. The second torpedo salvo blew a hole in the "Royal Oak", which flooded and quickly capsized. Of the 1,400-man crew, 833 were lost. The wreck is now a protected war grave. John Gunther in December 1939 called the attack "the single most extraordinary feat of the war so far".


title: Scapa Flow

text: Three days after the submarine attack, four Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 bombers of "Kampfgeschwader" 1/30 led by group commander Hauptmann Fritz Doench raided Scapa Flow on 17 October in one of the first bombing attacks on Britain during the war. The attack badly damaged an old base ship, the decommissioned battleship , which was then beached at Ore Bay by a tug. One man died and 25 were injured. One of the bombers was shot down by No 1 gun of 226 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery on Hoy. Three of the crew died, while the radio operator Fritz Ambrosius was badly burned but managed to parachute down.


title: Scapa Flow

text: New blockships were sunk, booms and mines were placed over the main entrances, coast defence and anti-aircraft batteries were installed at crucial points, and Winston Churchill ordered the construction of a series of causeways to block the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow; they were built by Italian prisoners of war held in Orkney, who also built the Italian Chapel. These "Churchill Barriers" now provide road access from Mainland to Burray and South Ronaldsay, but block maritime traffic. An air base, RAF Grimsetter (which later became HMS "Robin"), was built and commissioned in 1940.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Scapa Flow is one of the transfer and processing points for North Sea oil. An underwater pipeline with a diameter of and a length of transports oil from the Piper oilfield to the Flotta oil terminal. The Claymore and Tartan oil fields also feed into this line.


title: Scapa Flow

text: The Scapa Flow Visitor Centre is at Lyness on Hoy (from "Háey" meaning high island) the second largest of Orkney. Morning to evening ferries run from Houton on the Mainland.


title: Scapa Flow

text: It occupies a converted naval fuel pumping station and storage tank and next to it is a round stone-built battery emplacement and artillery gun as well as other decommissioned arsenal. It features a large model of the island, Scapa Flow and of the German warships.


title: Scapa Flow

text: The wreckage of the remaining seven ships of the German fleet (and some other sites such as the blockships) has become increasingly popular as a venue for recreational scuba divers, and is regularly listed in dive magazines and internet forums among the top dive sites in the UK, Europe, and even the world. Although other locations, for example the Pacific regions, offer warmer water and better visibility, there are very few other sites which can offer such an abundance of large, historic wrecks lying in close proximity and shallow, relatively benign diving conditions. As of 2010, at least twelve "live aboard" boats—mostly converted trawlers with bunk rooms in their former holds—take recreational divers out to the main sites, primarily from the main harbour at Stromness. Diving provides a substantial amount of trade and income for the local economy.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Divers must first obtain a permit from the Island Harbour Authorities, which is available through diving shops and centres. The wrecks are mostly located at depths of 35 to 50 metres. Divers are permitted to enter the wrecks, but not to retrieve artefacts located within 100 metres of any wreck. However, time and tide has washed broken pieces of ships' pottery and glass bottles into shallow waters and onto beaches. The underwater visibility, which can vary between 2 and 20 metres, is not sufficient to view all the length of most wrecks at once; however, current technology is now allowing 3D images of them to be seen.


title: Scapa Flow

text: The three sister battleships of the : , and formed the main component of the 3rd Battleship Squadron which took part in fierce fighting at the Battle of Jutland far off the coast of Jutland, Denmark (31 May to 1 June 1916) and their upturned hulls are around 25 m deep. Never raised, they have been salvaged incrementally: armour plate blasted away and non-ferrous metals removed. They form highly rated dive sites chiefly due to their depth.


title: Scapa Flow

text: The light cruisers , , and have modest fighting tops, lie side-on with around 16–20 metres of water above, are more accessible for divers and save for the shallowest, "Karlsruhe", are less salvaged (stripped of valuable materials) than the battleships.


title: Scapa Flow

text: Additional sites of interest include the destroyer , which was raised and used by Cox as a working boat during his salvage operations, particularly on , then later abandoned; the Churchill blockships, such as the "Tabarka", the "Gobernador Bories", and the "Doyle" in Burra Sound; the U-boat ; and the trawler "James Barrie". Also, some large items from many of the ship hulls that "were" raised (such as the main gun turrets, which fell away from the ships as they capsized) were never salvaged, and still rest on the seabed in close proximity to the impact craters gouged by the scuttled ships.


title: Scapa Flow

text: The wrecks of the battleships and (the latter of which exploded at anchor during the First World War) are war graves designated as Controlled Sites under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986—only divers of the British armed forces may visit these wrecks.


title: Scapa Flow

text: According to legend, a curse was placed on Scapa long ago by a witch. She buried a thimble in the sand at Nether Scapa, and until it was found no more whales would be caught in the area.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on superhero films and other series starring various titular superheroes produced by DC Films, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, and based on characters that appear in American comic books published by DC Comics. Despite numerous film series in the past on characters such as Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern, none of those film series were connected. The DCEU debuted in 2013 with "Man of Steel", centered on Superman, and has grown to include other characters such as Batman, Wonder Woman, and several others included in this list. The shared universe, much like the original DC Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters, and may cross over with separate timelines from other DC-licensed film series in the future in order to create a "multiverse".


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: The DCEU centers mostly on superhero characters, including the members of what would become the Justice League, but also features antiheroes such as Floyd Lawton / Deadshot, Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn, Chris Smith / Peacemaker, and Teth-Adam / Black Adam. While the franchise was originally set to mimic the Marvel Cinematic Universe's format of interconnected solo films along with occasional team-up films, the mixed reception and commercial failure of the theatrical cut of "Justice League" led to Warner Bros. and DC Films re-evaluating their formula and focusing on developing films around individual characters.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Clark Kent (portrayed by Henry Cavill), born Kal-El, is a Kryptonian refugee sent to Earth by his parents Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van prior to the planet's destruction and is raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent in Smallville, Kansas. As the sun's radiation enhances his cells, Clark develops superhuman abilities, but struggles with his identity when Jonathan reveals his otherworldly origins. After Jonathan's death, Clark travels the world trying to find himself and eventually discovers his true identity after finding a Kryptonian scout ship. He eventually embraces his powers after learning from his biological father's hologram, gaining the military codename Superman as he uses his powers to protect the Earth's citizens. Superman eventually comes to odds with Batman before finding commonality and inspires Batman and other vigilantes and metahumans to band together and protect the world from greater threats.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Cavill is the first non-American actor to portray Superman in film. In addition, Zack Snyder has aimed to give Superman a more realistic arc in his DCEU films as opposed to in the past and not be a "one-dimensional Boy Scout".


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Bruce Wayne (portrayed by Ben Affleck) is the multibillionaire CEO of Wayne Enterprises, but secretly moonlights as the feared vigilante Batman in an effort to battle crime in Gotham City, taking inspiration from his parents' deaths and his fear of bats to crack down on criminal activity. He has been active as Batman for 20 years prior to Clark Kent's emergence as Superman, becoming jaded and disillusioned over time, especially after the murder of his protégé Dick Grayson. Bruce antagonizes Superman after personally witnessing the Battle of Metropolis, in which the ruckus caused by the Kryptonians destroys a considerable part of the city, including the destruction of Wayne Tower and the deaths of a large portion of Wayne's workforce in Metropolis. He is determined to kill the Man of Steel until finding commonality with him and later becomes inspired by Superman's selflessness and sacrifice, later recruiting other metahumans around the globe to form the Justice League and embarking on a path to redemption after years of moral ambiguity.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: The DCEU iteration of Batman is notably older and more battle-weary than previous cinematic portrayals. Affleck's Batman is described as the "angriest we'd ever seen" by "Screen Rant", and was inspired by Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" comic storlyline.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Diana of Themyscira (portrayed by Gal Gadot), commonly known by her civilian name Diana Prince, is an immortal Amazon warrior from the hidden island of Themyscira who is the daughter of Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons and the Greek God, Zeus, the king of the Olympians. Upon venturing to the world of Men after Steve Trevor crash-lands on Themyscira and warns of a global conflict threatening the world, Diana begins protecting mankind as Wonder Woman, secretly living amongst humanity while ending conflicts for nearly 100 years and gradually learning more about the world after living a sheltered life on Themyscira. Diana is inspired by Steve's bravery and learns to find the goodness in mankind, despite evil existing in the world. She is brought back to the forefront after an extraterrestrial threat emerges, with Bruce Wayne recruiting her and other metahumans to fight against the forces of Apokolips.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Despite being part of DC Comics' main "trinity" of superhero characters alongside Superman and Batman, Wonder Woman did not debut on the silver screen until her appearance in "Batman v Superman" in 2016. Gadot was originally offered the role of Faora in "Man of Steel", but turned it down due to pregnancy at the time. This paved the way for her casting as Wonder Woman, with Zack Snyder saying she had the "magical quality" that made her perfect for the role.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Arthur Curry (portrayed by Jason Momoa) is a brooding metahuman with aquatic superpowers, later gaining the moniker Aquaman. The son of a human lighthouse keeper and Atlanna, queen of Atlantis, Curry is portrayed as a reluctant hero. Dealing with his dual identity, he chooses to hide among humanity despite helping in small doses. After being sought out by Batman to join the Justice League and stop Steppenwolf, Arthur is later called by his old mentor Nuidis Vulko and Mera to claim his rightful spot as King of Atlantis, regaining confidence in himself.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Aquaman was heavily redesigned in the DCEU, sporting tattoos and a gruff demeanor as opposed to his comics counterpart who is often ridiculed due to his campy depiction in previous adaptations of the source material. Critics have described this iteration of the character as an extension of the "larger than life actor who portrays him, Jason Momoa".


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Barry Allen (portrayed by Ezra Miller) is a college student and a metahuman with the ability to move at supersonic speeds, along with time-traveling abilities. As his father Henry was wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and Barry's mother Nora, Barry seeks to prove his father's innocence while occasionally engaging in vigilantism with his superpowers. Batman discovers Barry upon recruiting metahumans to join the Justice League upon the forces of Apokolips arriving on Earth.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Victor Stone (portrayed by Ray Fisher) is a former college football player who suffers devastating injuries in a car accident that also kills his mother, Elinore. Rebuilt into a cyborg by his estranged father, Silas, Victor seeks to rediscover himself while being recruited by Wonder Woman and Batman to join the Justice League, discovering his true potential after being reborn as Cyborg.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Cyborg's character development in the theatrical cut of "Justice League" was controversially cut down and minimalized by the studio and replacement director Joss Whedon, despite the character being described as the "heart of the movie" in Zack Snyder's original version, which has since been released as "Zack Snyder's Justice League". Fisher's performance in the latter version of the film has received critical acclaim. Prior to landing the role, Fisher was a little-known theater actor.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Billy Batson (portrayed by Asher Angel) is a mischievous and troubled teenager from Philadelphia in the foster-care system. Having been abandoned at a carnival at a young age by his single mother, Marilyn, Billy has gained a reputation as a "problem child", repeatedly escaping from foster homes and hijacking police cruisers to locate his mother. After being apprehended again, Billy is placed into the home of the Vazquez family, which also has other adoptees such as Freddy Freeman and Mary Bromfield. Upon returning from school on the subway, he is contacted by the dying wizard Shazam, who bestows his powers to Billy after deeming him worthy as his champion.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Gaining the ability to transform into an adult superhero (portrayed by Zachary Levi) upon calling the name "Shazam", Billy creates a YouTube channel with Freddy to display his superpowers and continues to act mischievously until friction occurs with his foster siblings and Doctor Sivana emerges, being envious of Billy's powers and wanting them himself after being denied by Shazam earlier. Billy realizes the importance of using his powers for good, battling Sivana and the Seven Deadly Sins with little success at first. After he learns why his mother abandoned him, Billy accepts his foster family as his true family, sharing his superpowers with his siblings and creating the Shazam Family, which allows them all to defeat Sivana and imprison the Seven Deadly Enemies and fully staff Shazam's temple.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Dr. Harleen Quinzel (portrayed by Margot Robbie) first appears in "Suicide Squad" as an up-and-coming psychiatrist who works with the Joker, falling madly in love with him and being swayed to insanity and a life of crime by the "Clown Prince" of crime. Picking up the moniker Harley Quinn, she and Joker terrorize Gotham City until she is apprehended by Batman. She is later recruited by Amanda Waller along with Deadshot and other criminals into Task Force X, also known as the Suicide Squad, before Joker breaks her out. "Birds of Prey" explores Harley's misadventures and personal development after she breaks up with Joker, while "The Suicide Squad" sees her re-incarcerated and sent on another mission with a later roster of the Suicide Squad.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Harley's character arc in the films sees her go from being defined by her abusive relationship with Joker to becoming more independent and willing to help society, despite her malevolent tendencies and chaotic, unpredictable personality. Robbie stated that it took three hours to prepare her hair, makeup and costume for the role and "at least 45 minutes" to take it off.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Floyd Lawton (portrayed by Will Smith) is introduced as the main protagonist of "Suicide Squad" as the "most wanted hitman in the world", Deadshot. Trained to kill with precision using a wide variety of weapons, including even a potato cannon, Deadshot maintains a professional persona as long as he is paid, holding a moral code to never kill women or children, and has a tough, sarcastic personality. However, he is also torn between his career as a mercenary and his compassion for others, also having a strained relationship with his ex-wife and the mother of his daughter, Zoe. Lawton is apprehended by Batman while shopping with Zoe, and is blackmailed by Amanda Waller into joining the Suicide Squad during his incarceration. He strikes up a friendship with fellow squad members Harley Quinn and Chato Santana / El Diablo, and despite the squad not getting along at first, its members appear to have a high respect for Deadshot, something that even Rick Flag points out. After Deadshot helps take down Enchantress, Waller rewards Lawton with ten years taken off his sentence and visitation hours with his daughter.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: The DCEU version of Deadshot is African-American as opposed to Caucasian in the comics. In addition, David Ayer's original version of "Suicide Squad" had him become romantically involved with Harley Quinn. Smith signed on to reprise the role in a multi-film deal, but did not appear in the sequel film "The Suicide Squad" due to scheduling conflicts, with Idris Elba's Bloodsport being given a prominent role in that film in Smith's absence, though the window remains open for Deadshot to return in the future.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Robert DuBois (portrayed by Idris Elba), codenamed Bloodsport, is a mercenary with a biometric set of weaponry and armor. After being convicted of shooting and hospitalizing Superman with a kryptonite bullet, DuBois is coerced by Amanda Waller into joining the Suicide Squad, and is sent with Christopher Smith / Peacemaker, King Shark, Cleo Cazo / Ratcatcher 2, and Abner Krill / Polka-Dot Man to destroy a Nazi-era research facility having to do with Project Starfish on the island nation of Corto Maltese. Dubois and his fellow teammates successfully infiltrate the island, connect with pro-democracy insurgents planning to retake the island, and rescue Rick Flag and Harley Quinn, who were sent to the island with an earlier squad.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: As characterized in "The Suicide Squad", this iteration of Bloodsport has a daughter named Tyla and often butts heads with Peacemaker while developing an emotional bond with Cleo, despite his fear of rats. He has a battle-hardened, no-nonsense attitude but is compassionate for those he cares for. Dubois saves Cleo from Peacemaker as he kills Flag and attempts to kill her for attempting to leak a U.S. government secret related to Project Starfish. He takes leadership of the remaining squad members after Flag's death and after Starro escapes following the facility's destruction, Bloodsport defies Waller's orders to leave the island, inspiring the other squad members to defeat Starro and save the island from total destruction. Following the team's victory, he blackmails Waller into setting them free by threatening to release the government secrets.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Going off the theme of the film's main characters representing different eras in film, director James Gunn described Bloodsport as an unsentimental portrayal of a 1960s action hero like Steve McQueen, without the "moral repercussions" of those characters. Elba was reportedly originally cast to replace Will Smith as Deadshot, but the character was changed to Bloodsport to allow Smith to reprise his role in the future; Gunn did not change the story that he had written for Elba, and just chose Bloodsport because he liked the character in the comics. The character's comic book ability to manifest weapons is adapted in the film as different gadgets and transforming weaponry that come from his costume. Bloodsport's ability to send Superman to the ICU was referenced from the character's first comics appearance in 1987, arguably making him more formidable in the films' universe.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Christopher Smith (portrayed by John Cena), also known as Peacemaker, is a ruthless, jingoistic mercenary recruited into a later roster for the Suicide Squad. Described by "The Suicide Squad" director James Gunn as the "biggest douchebag in the universe," Smith claims in the film that he loves peace so much, that "[he doesn't] care how many men, women, and children [he has to] kill to get it".


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Working with Bloodsport, Ratcatcher 2, King Shark, and Polka-Dot Man, Peacemaker sets out with his teammates to take out the fort housing Project Starfish, and despite butting heads with Bloodsport and Rick Flag, helps the team get to the fort. After Flag and Ratcatcher 2 discover the U.S. government's involvement with Project Starfish, Peacemaker reveals his secret orders to ensure those details stay confidential to prevent an international incident. He reluctantly kills Flag after a struggle for refusing to destroy a hard drive with the evidence, and later attempts to kill Ratcatcher 2 when she also refuses to hand over the drive, but is thwarted by Bloodsport, who shoots him in the neck. Peacemaker is later revealed to have survived and watched over by Amanda Waller's subordinates for Project Butterfly as he recovers in a comatose state.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Cena reprises the role in the 2022 series "Peacemaker" as member of Clemson Murn's team of A.R.G.U.S. agents to prevent an invasion by parasitic Butterfly aliens, exploring Peacemaker's relationship with his white supremist father and how Flag's death affected him. Cena was told by Gunn not to read any comics on the character and to act like a "bro-y, douchey Captain America."


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Teth-Adam (portrayed by Dwayne Johnson) is a former slave originally from ancient Kahndaq 5,000 years in the past. After living under an tyrannical king who oppressed all the inhabitants of the country, Adam becomes endowed with the powers of the Council of Wizards as his son Hurut, who was directly given those powers by the Council, transfers them to him to save his life, at the cost of his own. Adam becomes consumed with rage at his son's death, using his powers to avenge Hurut and destroy the king and his men by any means possible, but due to his uncontrollable anger and the resulting mass destruction, Adam is imprisoned for millennia by the Council until he is set free in the present day. Seeing Kahndaq under oppression again by foreign interests, he resolves to free his nation by any means necessary, adapting the more modern moniker Black Adam, but also coming to odds with Amanda Waller, A.R.G.U.S., and the Justice Society, who are aware of his past rampage.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: The character first appeared in "Shazam!" as a holographic image, with Johnson's facial likeness used, before making his on-screen debut in "Black Adam". Johnson has stated his intentions for Black Adam to fight Shazam, Superman, and other Justice League members in future DCEU films.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: General Dru-Zod (portrayed by Michael Shannon) is the supreme military commander of Krypton who attempts a coup and is imprisoned along with his forces in the Phantom Zone prior to the planet's destruction. He and Jor-El both agree that their world is doomed, but have different methodologies in trying to save their race, leading to their fall-out. After the planet's destruction, Zod and his followers are released from their imprisonment but left to float among the remains of Krypton until they repurpose their prison ship, the "Black Zero".


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: When Jor-El's son Kal-El, now going by the name Clark Kent and later dubbed "Superman", activates a scout ship on Earth, Zod's forces detect a distress signal sent by the ship and demand that Earth's citizens hand Kal over. After Clark discovers that Zod intends to terraform the Earth into a new Krypton, killing all its inhabitants in the process, Clark sides with the people of Earth and helps the U.S. military take down Zod's forces, sending all of them except Zod himself back to the Phantom Zone after a destructive battle. An enraged Zod, having lost his purpose for life after losing his troops and means to create a new Krypton, uses his newly gained superhuman abilities, similar to Clark's, to engage in brutal hand-to-hand combat across the city of Metropolis, resulting in more human casualties until Clark kills him by snapping his neck.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Zod's corpse appears in "Batman v Superman" after Lex Luthor gains access to Kryptonian artifacts left over from the battle of Metropolis, with Luthor taking advantage of Zod's fingerprints to access the scout ship. Zod's body itself is used by Luthor to create a Kryptonian deformity (portrayed by Robin Atkin Downes) to combat Superman, which Luthor calls Superman's "Doomsday". The creature is stronger than the Man of Steel and impervious to nuclear weapons, but Superman and Batman realize its vulnerability to kryptonite, with Superman sacrificing himself to kill the monster with a kryptonite spear crafted by Batman.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Zack Snyder later confirmed that the broken moon visible during Jor-El's journey to the Citadel in "Man of Steel" was in fact destroyed by the "real" Doomsday created by Krypton, an easter egg for a later appearance, thus confirming that the real Doomsday is alive and out in the universe despite the slaying of the iteration created in "Batman v Superman" from Zod's corpse.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Sub-commander Faora-Ul (portrayed by Antje Traue) is Zod's second-in-command. Like Zod, she is sentenced with him and his followers into the Phantom Zone after their coup is foiled. Faora is portrayed as a highly skilled but sadistic warrior with a disdain for her enemies and overconfidence in her dogmatic beliefs, though she is highly patriotic to her home world of Krypton, expressing great sorrow when she sees its ruins upon being freed from the Phantom Zone.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Faora lands on Earth to take Kal-El as her prisoner when Zod's forces land on Earth, though she also demands Lois Lane accompany them. She and another Kryptonian grunt fight Superman back on the surface when he escapes their ship, with Superman narrowly defeating her when he breaks open her helmet, exposing her to the Earth's atmospherics and temporarily weakening her. Though she expresses no emotion when dispatching several soldiers from the U.S. Army, she gains some respect for Colonel Hardy when he stands up to her, deeming him a worthy opponent. Faora is sent to take down Hardy's transport aircraft when it and other fighter jets attack the "Black Zero", ambushing the craft when it nears the mother ship. However, Hardy crashes the plane into the "Black Zero" as she nears the cockpit, causing an explosion that sends Faora and the rest of Zod's troops back to the Phantom Zone for good.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: In preparation for the role of Faora, Traue underwent an intense four-month training and dieting program. Gal Gadot, who would later be cast as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman starting in "Batman v Superman", revealed that she had previously been offered the role of Faora, but turned it down due to pregnancy.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Alexander "Lex" Luthor Jr. (portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg) is the multi-billionaire CEO of LexCorp. While he displays a welcoming but frantic "tech bro" persona in public, he is in actuality a scheming, diabolical figure who despises Superman and is obsessed with killing him. Luthor manipulates several events in "Batman v Superman", including the scuffle in Nairomi and the eventual bombing of the U.S. Capitol, to tarnish Superman's public image. He also finds methods to pit Superman and Batman against each other, taking advantage of Batman's rage and subsequent questionable acts to get Superman enraged at the former, and manipulates members of the U.S. Senate to get access to the Kryptonian scout ship left over from the battle of Metropolis. He eventually entices Superman and Batman to fight each other to the death after kidnapping Martha Kent, but Superman and Lois Lane convince Batman to join forces with them against Luthor before Batman is able to kill Superman. With this plan foiled, Luthor unleashes a Kryptonian deformity that he had created from Zod's body and the scout ship, resulting in Superman giving his own life to kill it. Luthor is then arrested and sent to Arkham Asylum, but gloats at Superman's death, which results in the forces of Apokolips arriving to Earth. He later manages to escape from Arkham and contacts Deathstroke at the end of "Justice League" and its director's cut.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: This iteration of Lex Luthor is noticeably different than in the comics, as well as Gene Hackman's portrayal of the character in the 1978–87 Superman film series. He is also characterized as a misotheist, hating God and other god-like beings such as Superman as he perceives the gods failed to protect him from abuse received from his father. Eisenberg made an effort to differentiate his take on the character from that of Hackman and Kevin Spacey, and also states that his character views Superman as a genuine threat to humanity rather than simply someone to destroy. Some critics have drawn similarities between Eisenberg's performance as Luthor and his portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in "The Social Network".


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Anatoli Knyazev (portrayed by Callan Mulvey) is a Russian mercenary, terrorist, and smuggler working on behalf of Lex Luthor. He first appears working with General Amajagh in "Batman v Superman", opening Jimmy Olsen's camera to find out he is a spy with the CIA. This leads to Lois Lane being held hostage until Superman arrives to rescue her. Knyazev and his men then betray Amajagh's soldiers and cross them, burning their bodies to give the illusion that Superman killed them, leading to his public fallout. Bruce Wayne tracks down Knyazev at an underground fight while trying to track down kryptonite, cloning his phone while conversing with him. Bruce discovers Knyazev's affiliation with Luthor and is able to continue tracking the kryptonite. Meanwhile, Knyazev arranges for Cesar Santos to be murdered in prison, then also assassinates Kahina Ziri when she rats out Luthor to Senator Finch. Knyazev is later responsible for kidnapping Martha Kent and is poised to kill her, but Batman, who comes to an understanding with Superman, arrives at Knyazev's compound and extracts Martha alive while killing Knyazev by shooting his flamethrower tank. Knyazev does not appear as KGBeast and is only a hired gun in the film.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: The Enchantress is a witch that possesses archeologist June Moone (portrayed by Cara Delevingne) when Moone encounters a totem pole containing the witch. The witch only possesses June when she speaks the name. Amanda Waller selects her for the Task Force X program, but she ends up going rogue upon secretly stealing her heart from Waller and frees her brother, Incubus (portrayed by Alain Chanoine), who then possesses an unnamed man. With him, Enchantress attempts to use her magic to build a superweapon to conquer the world, but Task Force X is assembled to defeat her. During the confrontation, the Enchantress tries to sway over Task Force X by granting them what they most desire. While Harley Quinn wants to reunite with the Joker following his apparent death, El Diablo sees through the illusion and breaks free, sacrificing himself to destroy Incubus. With a bomb placed there by Killer Croc, the machine she intended to use to enslave the Earth is destroyed. Rick Flag then crushes the Enchantress' heart, killing her and freeing June, with whom he had a relationship with.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: "Suicide Squad" director David Ayer revealed that Enchantress was originally the supporting villain in the film and was under the control of Steppenwolf via a Mother Box, but that this plot element was removed during pre-production. Steppenwolf was then replaced by Incubus as the secondary villain with Enchantress being made the primary antagonist. Ayer also revealed that his director's cut of the film, which has yet to be released, shows more of June Moone's relationship with Rick Flag, in addition to Enchantress seizing control over Katana and turning her against the squad.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Ares (portrayed by David Thewlis) is the Olympian God of War and the last surviving member of the Old Gods by the events of "Wonder Woman". Despite originally aiding the forces of Earth against the first invasion from Apokolips as seen in both versions of "Justice League", Ares turns on his fellow gods and goddesses as he comes to resent humanity, causing mankind to wage war among itself and killing his brothers and sisters until Zeus drives him off Mount Olympus and uses the last of his life force to hide the Amazons on Themyscira and create the "Godkiller". After hiding for millennia and continuing to corrupt mankind upon regaining his strength, Ares resurfaces using the guise of British politician Sir Patrick Morgan and gives off a welcoming, pacifistic demeanor as part of the British Imperial War Cabinet while secretly manipulating the Central Powers, leading to World War I.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: As Sir Morgan, Ares provides some secret aid to Diana and Steve Trevor's team as they venture to the front lines of the war in an attempt to destroy the gas being concocted by General Ludendorff and Dr. Maru, despite the War Cabinet vehemently disapproving. After Diana kills Ludendorff, whom she mistakenly believes is Ares, Morgan reveals himself and attempts to sway her to help him in destroying humanity, also revealing her true parentage as her paternal half-brother and her nature as the "Godkiller" (as only a god could kill another god). Diana fights off the temptation, seeing the good in mankind, and overpowers Ares after Steve's death, killing the God of War by redirecting his lightning at him with her Bracelets of Submission.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: In "Justice League" and its director's cut, stuntman Nick McKinless physically played the role, with Thewlis's face digitally superimposed over his.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: A highly-fictionalized version of the real-life German general who fought in World War I, Erich Ludendorff (portrayed by Danny Huston) is a pragmatic, iron-fisted tactician who leads the Imperial German Army during the waning days of the war, enlisting Dr. Maru to create a deadlier, hydrogen-based variant of mustard gas in an attempt to turn the tide of battle. Ludendorff is portrayed as ruthless and unforgiving, willing to kill combatants and civilians on both sides of the war to achieve his goals, including fellow German generals negotiating to surrender. Diana believes he is Ares at first after hearing Steve Trevor's account of the war. She attempts to assassinate him at a gala he hosts until Steve stops her to avoid blowing their cover. When Ludendorff deploys his mustard gas on an innocent village during a demonstration at the gala, Diana confronts him again as he prepares to attack London with a larger dose, getting her vengeance on him. However, the war does not end when Diana kills him, leaving her confused and disillusioned until Sir Patrick Morgan reveals himself as the God of War.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Huston described his version of Ludendorff as a "pragmatist, realist, patriotic, fighting for his country", further explaining, "he lost his son on the German front lines and was just quite tortured, diabolical, stubborn and believes that what he's doing is for the betterment of mankind." On his character, Huston said "Ludendorff is a believer that war is a natural habitat for humans" and also states that "somebody like Ludendorff would probably think that the idea that love conquers all is quite a naive concept.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Dr. Isabel Maru (portrayed by Elena Anaya) is a Spanish chemist enlisted by General Ludendorff to create a deadlier, hydrogen-based variant of mustard gas, also managing to create strength-boosting elixirs for him. Maru's vicious nature earns her the nickname Doctor Poison by the Allied forces and Ludendorff's "witch" by the Germans. She wears a ceramic mask that hides her disfigured cheek. While infiltrating the Central Powers, Steve Trevor sees first-hand the lethality of Maru's experiments and steals a notebook with her formulas, smuggling it to the British War Council after fleeing and encountering Diana and the Amazons. Steve later tries to seduce Maru at Ludendorff's gala to get more of her secrets, but his attempt is foiled when Maru sees him notice Diana also infiltrating the event. Ares later tempts Diana to kill Maru after the German base is destroyed, but Diana spares her and allows her to flee out of mercy, instead focusing on defeating Ares.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: The Isabel Maru incarnation of Doctor Poison is also the character's first live-action appearance, though the "Wonder Woman" film places Doctor Poison and other Wonder Woman characters as originating in World War I as opposed to World War II.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Steppenwolf (portrayed by Ciarán Hinds) is a New God general from the planet Apokolips and the uncle of Darkseid. First debuting in the Ultimate Edition of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" as Lex Luthor views holograms in the Kryptonian scout ship, Steppenwolf appears in both versions of "Justice League" as the main antagonist, leading an army of parademons and seeks to invade the Earth and destroy all life on the planet. In both versions of the latter film, Steppenwolf seeks the three Mother Boxes to carry out the Earth's destruction with the newly-formed Justice League proving no match for him and his forces at first, but they are able to defeat him with help from a resurrected Superman.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Due to extensive retoolings of the film by Warner Bros., numerous differences exist in Steppenwolf's characterization and arc in the theatrical cut and the director's cut. Steppenwolf's design and motivations in the theatrical cut were highly criticized as ridiculous and over-simplified, while the director's cut gives him a more imposing and sinister demeanor and appearance, also having him speak less and letting his actions speak for themselves. The theatrical cut has him in place of Darkseid during the first invasion of Earth by the forces of Apokolips, while the director's cut gives further backstory to the character as he had unsuccessfully attempted to betray Darkseid and is now trying to gain his nephew's favor back by destroying 150,000 worlds, including finishing the attempted destruction of Earth, and discovers the presence of the Anti-Life Equation. In addition, his demise was changed; the theatrical cut has Steppenwolf give in to fear after Superman and Wonder Woman destroy his axe, retreating while presumably being consumed by his own parademons, while in the "Snyder Cut", he is overpowered by Superman, stabbed by Aquaman, and beheaded by Wonder Woman, with his head and body rolling to Apokolips via boom tube to land at Darkseid's feet.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Hinds described his character as "old, tired" and trying to find a way to escape his role of servitude under Darkseid. He had sought advice from fellow actor Liam Neeson for the role. Hinds was reportedly unhappy with the final theatrical cut of the film, which trimmed down the backstory and characterization of Steppenwolf. The character's original design was restored in the director's cut of the film.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Darkseid (portrayed by Ray Porter), originally known as Uxas, is a New God who is the tyrannical ruler of Apokolips and the master of Steppenwolf and DeSaad. While he is merely mentioned in the theatrical version of "Justice League", the character makes his first on-screen appearance in the director's cut, with his scenes being restored. The "Snyder Cut" portrays Darkseid, then named Uxas, leading the invasion of Earth prior to his rise to power. As Uxas prepares to use the Anti-Life Equation and the three Mother Boxes to conquer the Earth, a coalition of warriors, which includes mankind, Atlanteans, Amazons, Old Gods, and a Green Lantern, counterattack, forcing his retreat after grievously injuring him and separating the boxes. While he recovers and takes over the throne of Apokolips over the course of millennia, the location of the equation is lost and the Mother Boxes are hidden by the Amazons, Atlanteans, and humans.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: After Steppenwolf is alerted to the presence of the boxes and equation on Earth, he informs Darkseid, who entices his disgraced uncle and lieutenant to seize both so he can use the equation to take over the multiverse. Darkseid opens a portal to Earth when the Mother Boxes are nearly synchronized, only to see Barry Allen undo the Unity by entering the Speed Force. This allows the Justice League to separate the boxes and kill Steppenwolf, throwing his body back through the portal to Darkseid's feet. An enraged Darkseid then tells Desaad to "ready the armada" and use the "old ways" to reclaim the Anti-Life Equation, with the Mother Boxes no longer able to be used to conquer planets.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Porter played Darkseid through the use of motion capture and "went through a few different vocal gymnastics trying to figure out the voice". Porter was unfamiliar with the Darkseid character upon being cast, but Zack Snyder and screenwriter Chris Terrio helped guide him with their knowledge of the comic book lore.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: King Orm Marius (portrayed by Patrick Wilson) is the second son of Queen Atlanna and maternal half-brother of Arthur Curry. Orm seeks to become the Ocean Master by uniting the Seven Kingdoms of the Atlanteans and despises the surface world for polluting the seas, aiming to eradicate humanity in revenge. He also hates Arthur for his mixed heritage and illegitimate birth, blaming him for their mother's banishment, and like General Zod, has a dogmatic and idealized view of his people while being mostly ruthless to those he perceives as enemies. Having taken the throne of Atlantis by the events of "Zack Snyder's Justice League" and "Aquaman", Orm is described as stubborn by Nuidis Vulko and Mera, opting to devote all resources to wage war with the surface world instead of guarding the Atlantean Mother Box, indirectly leading to its seizure by Steppenwolf.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: After hiring Jesse and David Kane to hijack a submarine and stage a fake attack on Atlantis, Arthur foils the attack and sinks the submarine. Orm later confronts Arthur when he sneaks into Atlantis with Mera and Vulko, offering him the chance to leave forever, but Arthur engages in a duel with him. Orm nearly kills Arthur until Mera intervenes and narrowly escapes with the latter. Following this, he gives David the Black Manta equipment to hunt down Arthur and convinces four kingdoms to join his regime through brute force and deception, but is ultimately defeated and dethroned by Arthur when he finds Atlan's Trident. Arthur spares Orm despite the latter enticing his brother to finish him off, but once Atlanna emerges alive, Orm accepts his punishment and is arrested, beginning to consider reconciling with Arthur.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Wilson previously portrayed Dan Freiberg/Nite Owl II in the 2009 film "Watchmen" and voiced the President of the United States in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice", making "Aquaman" his third DC Comics film appearance. Orm's role in the sequel "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" will be portrayed as more sympathetic, as DC Films president Walter Hamada described the film as a "buddy comedy" between Arthur and Orm.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: David Kane (portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a pirate and mercenary working alongside his father, Jesse. The two lead a strike force contracted by King Orm to hijack a Russian "Akula"-class submarine, which is foiled by Aquaman sometime after the Justice League defeats Steppenwolf. Arthur dispatches the pirates and inadvertently traps Jesse in the submarine when Jesse and David attempt to kill him, leaving Jesse to drown despite David's pleas. A vengeful David escapes the submarine and is later given advanced Atlantean armor and command of a strike force of Atlantean soldiers by King Orm after Arthur and Mera escape Atlantis. David rechristens himself Black Manta after modifying the armor and attacks Arthur and Mera with his strike force in Sicily, though the two fend off the attack. After heated one-on-one combat, Arthur damages David's armor and sends him careening off a cliff into the sea. David is later found and rescued by Stephen Shin, and makes a deal with Shin to tell him more about Atlantis in exchange for helping him track down Aquaman.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: In the DCEU's continuity, the title "Black Manta" was first conferred on Kane's grandfather as a nickname when he was working as a frogman for the U.S. Navy during World War II; Kane's grandfather turns to piracy when he was not recognized for his accomplishments due to his African-American heritage and passes his illicit trade to his son and grandson. Mateen is set to reprise his role as David Kane / Black Manta in "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom".


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (portrayed by Mark Strong) is a research scientist working for Sivana Industries, but is often talked down by his family members. Sivana is summmoned as a child by the wizard Shazam who is seeking a successor, but rejected as he is easily tempted by the Seven Deadly Sins. Seeking revenge, Sivana devotes his years researching how to get back to the Rock of Eternity and upon finally doing so, takes they Eye of Sin, freeing the Sins, and incapacitates Shazam. Dr. Sivana becomes empowered with the Sins, killing the Sivana Industries board of directors, including his father and brother, for not allowing him onto the board and constantly demeaning him. He finds Billy Batson, who had been named Shazam's champion, demanding his powers. Billy battles Sivana after he kidnaps his foster siblings and is nearly blackmailed into granting Sivana his powers, but instead shares his powers with his siblings, allowing them to defeat Sivana after separating him from the Sins.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: The Seven Deadly Sins, Pride, Envy, Greed, Wrath, Sloth, Gluttony and Lust, are portrayed as seven demons initially imprisoned as statues at the Rock of Eternity. As established in "Shazam!", Black Adam freed them thousands of years ago but caused extensive damage and death, causing the wizard Shazam, the last surviving Wizard on the Rock, to imprison all of them. When Dr. Sivana frees the sins by taking the Eye of Sin, they use his body as a host and grant him magical powers, which he uses to kill his family and wreak havoc. However, once they are drawn out of his body, he is left powerless. Billy Batson and his foster siblings use this to defeat Sivana and the Sins, recapturing the Sins into their statues on the Rock.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: The Seven Deadly Sins are CGI characters, portrayed via motion capture by unnamed stunt doubles and voiced by Steve Blum, Darin De Paul, and Fred Tatasciore.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Roman Sionis / Black Mask (portrayed by Ewan McGregor) is a ruthless and wealthy Gotham City crime lord who owns the "Black Mask Club". Sionis rules over Gotham's criminal empire with an iron fist. He becomes an enemy of Harley Quinn, Cassandra Cain, and the Birds of Prey.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Not much is known about Roman's early life, except that he came from the wealthy Sionis family, whose name is plastered on "about half the schools and hospitals in Gotham." While Roman himself claimed that he wasn't born into privilege and had to work for everything he has, the fact that he was cut off by his family due to excessive spending and poor business sense says that Roman is likely not the most unbiased narrator of his own life. At least 15 years before the events of "Birds of Prey", he meets with Victor Zsasz and funds crime boss Stefano Galante's rise to power, which results in the murder of the entire Bertinelli line (sans Helena Bertinelli, who managed to escape). Since then, Roman has been building a criminal empire for himself in Gotham's East End, unifying crime families and keeping those under his sway out of jail.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Said to be an absolute narcissist and a homicidal psychopath, Sionis is also highly ambitious, power-hungry, sadistic, and emotionally unstable. He is also highly misogynistic and seems to see women mainly as objects for his use and amusement. He revels in violence, and can easily lose his temper when things do not go his way. However, he appears to care for both his right-hand man and best friend Victor Zsasz as well as his new driver bodyguard, Dinah Lance, who he appears to have some level of attraction towards. Still, he is ultimately a remorseless and chaotically malevolent psychopath, showing signs of unspeakable depravity.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: After a fierce battle between his thugs and the Birds of Prey during his pursuit of the Bertinelli diamond, things came ahead at the Founders Pier, wherein a final confrontation, Black Mask meets his match. As Quinn fights him, Cassandra Cain plants a grenade on his person. Quinn then throws him off the pier as the grenade explodes and kills him, thus ending Roman's Empire and rule over Gotham City.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Mr. Zsasz (portrayed by Chris Messina) is the right hand man of Roman Sionis. He also has tally marks carved onto his body for each person he's killed over the years. As part of his duties, he participated in the slaughter of almost the entire Bertinelli crime family to consolidate the power of Black Mask's criminal organization in Gotham City. Though the assault was successful, it would ultimately prove Zsasz's undoing, as one member of the family, the young daughter Helena, escaped. A grown-up Helena tracks down and kills Zsasz as he threatens to kill Dinah Lance before Harley Quinn.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Max Lord (portrayed by Pedro Pascal) is a struggling yet charismatic oil businessman and television personality. He is the owner of Black Gold Oil located in Washington D.C., and hopes to gain possession of an ancient powerful relic which has the power to grant wishes known as the "Dream Stone". He also has a young son named Alistair Lord.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Born "Maxwell Lorenzano", Max Lord grew up in a poor household with a violent father. Induced by his father's aggressive behavior he develops as an anxious child and prone to bed-wetting. At school, Max was frequently the subject of taunts and bullying for his comparative poverty to the other students who made fun of his tatty clothes, worn-out shoes, and small amount of food for lunch.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Due to a lack of money, he was not able to attend college after finishing school. These experiences imbued Max with a deep motivation to achieve financial success in life. He started his own business, Black Gold Cooperative, initially as a one-man operation and changed his surname name from "Lorenzano" to "Lord". Gradually, Max convinced financiers, most prominently Simon Stagg to invest in his company which tasked itself with oil exploration in areas that other companies had ignored.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Max finally attains control of the Dreamstone after deceiving Barbara Miverva, wishing to "become the stone". As a result, he gains the stone's powers and starts granting wishes to people around the globe, but starts to physically deteriorate. Wonder Woman later confronts him, showing the pain he inflicts on his son by being distant from him, and convinces him to renounce his wish, after which he reconciles with Alistair.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Critics have compared Pascal's interpretation of Max Lord in "Wonder Woman 1984" to Donald Trump during the 1980s. However, Gal Gadot, who co-produced the film, stated that any similarities to Trump were coincidental. Conversely, director Patty Jenkins commented that Lord's character is modeled on Bernie Madoff and Trump.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Barbara Ann Minerva (portrayed by Kristen Wiig) is Diana Prince's co-worker at the Smithsonian Institution, growing envious of Diana and constantly being belittled by her boss. Diana and Barbara help the FBI find the Dreamstone, and Barbara wishes to become like Diana, and later further wishing to be an "Apex Predator", inadvertently gaining cheetah-like body-&-superpowers. She uses her newfound powers to fight Wonder Woman and collude with Max Lord, but Wonder Woman later defeats her after restoring her powers to full strength and finding Asteria's Golden Eagle armour.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Mayor General Mateo Suárez (portrayed by Joaquín Cosío) is the head of the Corto Maltese armed forces, taking over the mantle of president/dictator after Harley Quinn assassinates the Corto Maltese leader Silvio Luna in "The Suicide Squad". He had previously played a major part of Luna's rise to power, but after the latter's death, Suárez dismisses Luna as a "romantic" and tightens his grip on the island nation. He orders a lockdown of the island in an attempt to eradicate the Suicide Squad, also ordering Harley tortured to coerce information on her teammates out of her. When the Squad is located at the Jötunheim prison complex, Suárez leads the charge to neutralize them and reclaim control of Project Starfish, but he is among the many victims of Starro as the alien controls him with one of its spores. Suárez dies along with Starro's other victims and Starro itself, as the alien's victims are linked with its life force.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Gaius Grieves (portrayed by Peter Capaldi) is a mad scientist from Corto Maltese who had been overseeing Project Starfish for 30 years. He would later join the new regime led by General Presidente Silvio Luna and Mayor General Mateo Suarez since he is the only person capable of controlling Starro, as the new regime aims to weaponize the alien against major superpowers such as Russia, the U.S., and China.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: 30 years before the events of "The Suicide Squad", Grieves had been hired to oversee Project Starfish after the Corto Maltese government agreed to bring Project Starfish over to the island from an American space station. Task Force X captures him so they could infiltrate Jötunheim, where Starro is being kept and prisoners are used as test subjects. Grieves later reveals to Cleo Cazo and Rick Flag that the squad had been sent to Corto Maltese to destroy any evidence of the U.S. government's involvement with the project. After explosives planted by the squad prematurely go off, the building begins to collapse, freeing Starro, who grabs Grieves and tears him apart.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Starro the Conqueror is a starfish-like alien creature that grows bigger with every being it gains control of. The alien is discovered by NASA astronauts 30 years prior to the events of "The Suicide Squad", then captured and experimented on at Jötunheim. In the present, Amanda Waller sends the Suicide Squad to destroy Jötunheim before Starro can be weaponized by the Luna/Suárez regime and America's role in the experiments are exposed. Starro escapes, thanks to the bombs going off prematurely, then enslaves many of Corto Maltese's citizens, including Suárez, and goes on a rampage. Though Waller orders the squad to leave the island, they decide to fight Starro to protect the island's inhabitants. The now-colossal alien is taken down by a combined effort from Bloodsport, Harley, King Shark, Polka-Dot Man, and Ratcatcher 2, the latter of whom summons the island's rats to chew Starro to death. In his final moments, Starro (through Suárez) laments he never wanted to hurt anyone initially and was content floating in space, only turning vengeful in response to the torture he was put through.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Auggie Smith / White Dragon (portrayed by Robert Patrick) is the leader of the Aryan Empire, an infamous white supremacist organization, and the abusive father of Christopher Smith / Peacemaker. A notorious supervillain, Auggie owns armor capable of flight and firing energy blasts which he designed himself. Auggie raised both Christopher and his brother Keith to become assassins, as well as forcing them to fight each other during cock fights. During one such fight, Peacemaker inadvertently caused Keith to have a fatal seizure. This incident resulted in Auggie developing a deep hatred for Chris, which was further ruled by his bisexuality and rejection of Auggie's racist ideals. Though Auggie remained deeply emotionally abusive of his son even when he reached adulthood, he still aided him in his vigilantism by providing him with equipment.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: After being framed for Chris's murder of Annie Sturphausen by John Economos, Auggie is arrested and imprisoned in a county jail. After Auggie threatens to expose Project Butterfly as revenge, Vigilante is dispatched into the prison to assassinate him. Auggie survives and becomes convinced his son is trying to kill him. Auggie is released by Detective Sophie Song, and immediately amasses his followers and dons his armor to kill Chris. Tracking his son down using a GPS tracking program installed in his helmets, he leads the Aryan Empire to attack Peacemaker, Economos, and Vigilante. However, Economos kills Auggie's followers, while Vigilante severely damages his armor, leaving Auggie helpless. Peacemaker angrily beats Auggie and shoots him in the head when he mocks him once more.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Detective Sophie Song (portrayed by Annie Chang) is a police officer who investigates incidents related to Chris Smith / Peacemaker's misadventures. Though she is one of the few morally upright people in Evergreen, her actions pit her against those of Peacemaker and A.R.G.U.S. and she becomes determined to apprehend him after she sees evidence of his involvement in several deaths related to Project Butterfly. Song's insistence on capturing Peacemaker ultimately becomes her undoing as a police chase results in the Butterfly leader, Eek Stack Ik Ik or "Goff", escaping from Peacemaker's captivity and possessing her body. Butterfly-Song then causes the entire police force to be assumed by the Butterflies, and they assume a plot for world domination. The Butterflies are confronted by Peacemaker and his allies, who are tasked with destroying them to protect humanity. During the confrontation, "Goff", through Song, reveals the Butterflies' intention to survive as a species through their actions to manipulate mankind and invites Peacemaker to join them, but he angrily kills Song's body and destroys the Butterflies' "cow", though sparing "Goff".


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Ishmael Gregor (portrayed by Marwan Kenzari) is the leader of the Kahndaq faction of Intergang, an international criminal organization. He poses as an associate of archaeologist Adrianna Tomaz, who seeks to find the crown of Sabbac and hide it from malevolent individuals, not knowing that Gregor is after the crown himself as the last descendant of the oppressive King Ahk-Ton, the creator of the crown. Gregor, like his ancestor, seeks the crown so he can harness its power and become the all-powerful ruler of Kahndaq. He kidnaps Adrianna's son Amon to coerce her into giving him the crown and get Teth-Adam's attention, manipulating Adam into killing him so he can be reborn with the crown's power as Sabbac. Kent Nelson / Doctor Fate realizes he and the Justice Society were wrong about Adam after seeing Sabbac's rampage, so Fate releases the apprehended Adam so he can defeat and kill Sabbac, which he does by ripping Sabbac in half, restoring order to Kahndaq and potentially the world.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Jor-El (portrayed by Russell Crowe) and Lara Lor-Van (portrayed by Ayelet Zurer) are Kal-El/Clark Kent's biological parents from Krypton. Jor-El is the planet's chief scientist while Lara is part of the planet's Thinker Guild. Both were genetically engineered from Kryptonian technology like the rest of the planet's population and assigned roles in society including their occupation and marriage, but decide to conceive a child from natural means, resulting in Kal-El's birth.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: After trying in vain to persuade the Kryptonian High Council to evacuate the doomed planet, Jor-El steals the Codex containing genetic information for future Kryptonians and infuses it with his son before he and Lara send Kal-El to Earth in a spacecraft, fending off a coup by General Zod long enough for their son's ship to escape. Zod executes Jor-El before he and his followers are captured and sentenced to the Phantom Zone, while Lara survives until the planet's implosion from over-mining its core.


title: Characters of the DC Extended Universe

text: Jor-El and Lara leave their son with a holographic computer program embedded in the ship's key, which simulates Jor-El's knowledge and personality. Clark uses the key to activate a dormant Kryptonian scout ship, after which his father's uploaded Artificial Intelligence teaches him the history of Krypton and explains why he and Lara sent Kal to Earth. When Zod and his followers escape the Phantom Zone, locate Clark, and begin to invade the Earth, Clark gives the key to Lois while onboard Zod's ship, uploading Jor-El's program into the mainframe, allowing the program to aid Clark and Lois in escaping and informing them on how to defeat Zod's forces. Zod encounters Jor-El's AI when stealing the scout ship, wiping the program off the ship after some banter. The key with Jor-El's AI is ultimately destroyed when Emil Hamilton uses it to activate Kal-El's spacecraft and crash with Zod's mothership, sending the Kryptonians except for Superman and Zod back to the Phantom Zone.