The Golden

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Powers and Abilities

The Golden each have:

• Superhuman strength and resistance to damage.
• Unnaturally acute hearing.
• The power of flight.
• The ability to project beams of heat from their eyes.

History

Alex, Stuart and Will were the sole survivors of a plane crash in the Himalayas. They were recovered by a race of intelligent, yeti-like creatures. These creatures took them before the Great Metavac, the being they worshiped as a god. Metavac was a portion of the Spartan android that survived at the end of time.

He had foreseen that a time traveller would try to usurp his place as to creator of the next universe for his own nefarious ends. Therefore, he decided to create agents to oppose this enemy. Metavac imbued the kids with powers, and they returned to the world. Then they were recruited into the secret British government-sponsored super-team, the Establishment.

The Golden took part in fighting the Daemonite invasion at Hobb’s Bay, and the subsequent battle over London. These resulted in the Establishment’s existence becoming known to the public.

Flesh into gold

They soon met the returning astronauts from a mission to Venus in the 1950s. But these turned out to be artificial recreations of the astronauts, created by the organic nanite Venusians. These then burst open into a constantly growing swarm, adapting all matter they came across.

Mr. Pharmacist managed to destroy the Venusians. The Establishment then used their technology to saturation bomb Venus with a biological agent designed to eradicate the Venusians. This wiped them all out, or so they believed. A few of those on Earth had actually been acquired by Dr. Orwell.

Soon thereafter the Golden’s memories were unlocked. They remembered Metavac’s identity, and the mission he had empowered them for. They also realised that its time was close.

The Establishment were asked by the Russian government for help battling an outbreak of zombies. They discovered that Russian scientists had travelled to Dead Space, and creatures from there had begun travelling to Earth. They managed to close the portal.

On a road to Nowhere

When they returned to Nowhere, they were met by Mother, its creator. He warned them that his brother, Dr. Orwell, was travelling to the end of the universe to replace Metavac.

The Establishment accompanied him. But when they reached the end of the universe, they discovered that Dr. Orwell had been replaced in his own scheme by the Venusians. These proceeded to try and destroy Metavac.

While unable to defeat them alone, the Golden bought time for Charlie Arrows to contact Metavac, and protect it from the Venusians.

The end after the end after the end

For years, we assumed that The Golden presumably died at the end of the universe. However, Alex and one of the boys reappeared in 2009 (The Authority #9).

The Wildstorm Earth had gone through a near-apocalypse. But the two remaining Golden were still working for what was left of the Establishment. Working with techs and their handler Hawthorne at Rendleshaw, they destroyed a bubble of anomalous time created by renegade agent Meantime.

This allowed Authority operatives Midnighter, Engineer and Swift to kill Meantime before he’d damage the universe.

The Golden also helped defend Unlondon from the Clan Gamorra forces.

Personality

The three members of the Golden are fairly emotionless and unearthly. They act as ordered without apparent concern for themselves, and follow the mission of the Great Metavac without hesitation.

They appear to have some level of unspoken communication between themselves.

DC Universe History

Since the Establishment has operated as a secret organisation for the first 400 years of their existence, they could be inserted fairly easily. If also integrating other histories, the Establishment could have been called the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen earlier in its existence.

By Gareth Lewis.

Source of Character: The Establishment (Wildstorm Comics).