Kaizen Gamorra

Kaizen Gamorra
Kaizen Gamorra by John Tighe from Wildstorm Universe #2
Publication information
Publisher	Wildstorm Comics
First appearance	Stormwatch #40 (October, 1996)
Created by	Brandon Choi Jim Lee Warren Ellis Tom Raney
In-story information
Alter ego	Kaizen Gamorra

Kaizen Gamorra is a fictional character in the Wildstorm Universe comics. Brandon Choi and Jim Lee had referred to him many times as an important character within the Wildstorm Universe, but their Kaizen Gamorra turned out to be an imposter called John Colt and the true Kaizen Gamorra appeared for the first time in Stormwatch #40, written by Warren Ellis, with art by Tom Raney.

Older Wildstorm comics have stated that the island had been called Gamorra for centuries and that the clan Gamorra had been in control all that time. Kaizen himself once told Ivana Baiul that he inherited the throne of Gamorra from his father.

During the Establishment-series, it was stated that the damage to London hadn't been that bad, due to the Establishment's technology teleporting people into safety and projecting damage to the eyes of outsiders.

Fictional character biography

Kaizen Gamorra and his two brothers, Sum and Wai, were born on a small island off the coast of Asia, called Parousia. The three brothers were very ambitious and as children already took control over their village. By the time they were sixteen they had taken over Parousia completely and renamed it Gamorra. (See notes) When the brothers were eighteen, Gamorra became an important player in global terrorism. By the time they were twenty, Kaizen had murdered his brothers and had become the sole ruler of Gamorra. He designed a symbol for his clan to honor his two dead brothers: A circle with 3 knots, based on a leather bracelet the brothers had used to identify members of their clan.

Kaizen ruled for many years, but somewhere in the late 60s, C.I.A.-agent Miles Craven, future head of International Operations, had Kaizen and his pregnant wife kidnapped and replaced Kaizen with the insane superhuman John Colt. John Colt underwent plastic surgery to resemble Kaizen more and the population of Gamorra was told that Kaizen had been severely injured in an attack and therefore had undergone plastic surgery to restore the damage.

Under the new Kaizen Gamorra, Gamorra Island was turned into the world's leading industry on genetic engineering and cybernetics. He turned many men into Hunter-Killers, cybernetic soldiers that obeyed his commands. During the Damocles incident, John Colt was exposed and dethroned by Spartan, an android with the heroic personality and memories of John Colt and killed by Mister Majestic, who had been a friend to John Colt and had promised him before to kill him should he ever go evil. The real Kaizen Gamorra was found and reinstated as the nation's leader.

Kaizen turned out to be even worse than John Colt and ordered a terrorist attack on the British island, killing 233 innocents in a plane crash. Many more were killed when a mutating agent secreted on the plane infected a nearby town. Henry Bendix, Weatherman of Stormwatch ordered Stormwatch Red to land on Gamorra Island. Red was composed of Flint, Rose Tattoo and Fahrenheit. Rose was ordered to kill 233 Gamorrans in retaliation for the initial terrorist attack. Flint and Fahrenheit were ordered to destroy property in ways that did not kill people. Roads, empty warehouses, targets of opportunity. Stormwatch Red did what they were told but Flint and Fahrenheit did not like it. It later turned out that Henry Bendix was insane. He turned on Stormwatch itself, killing two unnamed crewmen, all of Stormwatch's prisoners and became a wanted fugitive.

Two years later, Kaizen had built himself an army; clones made of genetic material from his dead brothers and mother and endowed with superhuman powers. With Stormwatch disbanded and most other superhero teams otherwise occupied, Kaizen saw his chance for revenge. He wanted to make the mark of the Clan Gamorra, the circle with three knots on the Earth itself by destroying three major cities. Moscow was its first victim and was almost completely destroyed. London became the next target, but the new superhero group the Authority showed up and killed many of the superhumans. London only had twelve fatalities. Kaizen was forced to teleport his surviving warriors back to Gamorra and raise Gamorra's special forcefield, impenetrable to even the strongest of superhumans. Still, he was satisfied with the damage done to London and turned towards the third city: Los Angeles. This time the Authority killed all his superhumans and the Midnighter used the Authority's Carrier, a very large alien spacecraft, to destroy Gamorra's home, much of his main city and cloning facilities. Kaizen's last words were: "I only wanted to have some fun.", before the Carrier tore straight through his chambers.

Hunter-Killers

Green-skinned, cybernetically enhanced humans that obeyed John Colt's commands. Many of them were changed into Hunter-Killers without their consent. Hunter-Killers were superhumanly strong and could resist incredible damage done to them. They were cybernetically connected and exploded when killed in an attempt to take out the enemy. Most powerful among the Hunter-Killers was the Minotaur, Colt's right-hand man. Even after Colt was killed and the true Kaizen Gamorra was restored, the Minotaur retained a lot of power. Minotaur's Island remained a last bastion for Colt's Hunter-Killers against Kaizen's troops, who were not strong enough to take the island yet. (Presumably, Minotaur's Island was taken shortly after Kaizen had his army of clones created).

Gamorra Clones

Created from genetic material of Kaizen's two brothers, his mother and several superhumans, his army of clones numbered in the hundreds if not thousands and his cloning facilities could produce them at an increasingly rapid pace. The clones had superhuman strength and durability. They could fly at high speeds, matching the speed of Apollo. They could also fire energy beams from their eyes. Their costumes allowed them to be teleported back to Gamorra in case of an emergency.