Zebulon McCandless (Wildstorm Universe)

## Zebulon McCandless

Gallery

Zebulon McCandless was an American general and a very pious Christian during World War Two.

## History

He was also an associate of the 1940's superhero team, the Paladins who contributed their efforts in the war. When a Daemonite flying saucer crash landed in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, McCandless oversaw the capture of the spaceship and its remaining crew, and from the initial discovery of the crash allows a facility built around the spacecraft. Zebulon soon learned from the remaining Daemonite scientist, Slyxx, of the spaceship's teleportation, virtual reality and suspended animation technology. An impossible idea occurred to McCandless: he began drafting a plan to capture Earth's generation of heroes and train them to fight off the End of Days.

The American military proceeded with McCandless's plan to capture the Paladins by having them first sent to observe the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and then unwittingly teleporting them to the facility built around the Daemonite saucer, known later on as N.O.T.B. #1. Zebulon and his program, code name the "Number of The Beast," had the Paladins and their enemies, who were similarly captured, placed in suspended animation, and so almost sixty years, the Paladins protected "the City" (the name of the simulation) from the portents of Christian eschatology. During this time, McCandless collaborated with Miles Craven and Henry Bendix to form a cabal within the U.S. Government, concerned with monitoring and responding to the planet's growing number of costumed post-humans.

By 2008, Zebulon has been in retirement. Unknown to him as of yet, the N.O.T.B. #1 bunker was inadvertently compromised when the remains of The High was regenerated anew due to the alien technology of the facility, and broke free of the imprisoned heroes and villains. Ironically, Zebulon's fear and expectation of the Apocalypse was all his undoing when the Reapers, a series of clones of The High created by the American military that were tasked in destroying the escaped prisoners, caused the "End of Times" by exploding themselves over the Earth and creating a fallout over the planet. Following after the catastrophe, Zebulon took refuge in a fallout shelter in Flaming Gorge Reservoir, Wyoming, where he was ultimately tracked down by Paladins Engine Joe, Mago, and Tumbleweed. Engine Joe then stated to Zebulon that he and others involved in the Number of the Beast program will be held accountable for the world's current condition.

## Notes

* Zebulon was first mentioned in *Wildstorm: Revelations* #5 prior to his appearance in *Number of the Beast*.

## Trivia

* During the 1940's Zebulon had a very strained association with Dr. Jacob Krigstein and his "works", in which he labeled them as abominations.

* Due to his zealous beliefs, McCandless is obviously judged by his contemporaries to be very deluded (and if not crazy), especially with his Christian belief of the Apocalypse. Furthermore, he possessed a problem towards black magics namely with Paladin member Mago.

## Related

* Appearances of Zebulon McCandless (Wildstorm Universe)
* 1 Images featuring Zebulon McCandless (Wildstorm Universe)
* Quotations by or about Zebulon McCandless (Wildstorm Universe)
* Character Gallery: Zebulon McCandless (Wildstorm Universe)

### Footnotes

1. ↑ *Wildstorm: Revelations* #6
2. ↑ *Number of the Beast* #8
3. ↑ *Number of the Beast* #2