Great Ten

Organization

Full Name:
Great Ten.

Purpose:
Protection of the People’s Republic of China.

Modus Operandi:
The Great Ten operate as the first line of defence against extraordinary threats to the People’s Republic of China. Overseen by a standing committee, and supervised by Vice-Premier Jiang, their operational parameters are dictated by the party.
Additional actions, such as calling in outside help, must be requested through the bureaucracy. This is a potentially lengthy process, and dangerous in urgent situations.

Extent of operations:
China and Chinese embassies and missions around the world.

Bases of Operations:
The Great Ten Complex.

Major Funding:
PRC.

Known Enemies:
Black Adam, Taiwan.

Known allies:
Checkmate, JSA.

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Membership

Number of active members:
10.

Number of reserve members:
None.

Organizational structure:
Overseen by Vice-Premier Jiang, on behalf of the Party, with the August General in Iron as team leader.

Known current members:

• Accomplished Perfect Physician.
• Celestial Archer.
• Ghost Fox Killer.
• Immortal Man-in-Darkness.
• Mother of Champions.
• Seven Deadly Brothers.
• Shaolin Robot.
• Socialist Red Guardsman.
• Thundermind.

Known former members:
Yeti, Chang Tzu.

Membership requirements:
PRC national.

Equipment

The team have access to most equipment they could need to deal with situations, and also have a few aircraft, and an aerial command centre, which can transport them wherever they wish to go in China.

They have also used hover platforms, discs of approximately 8 foot diameter, which can support a couple of non flying members when facing flying opponents. In DC Heroes RPG terms – Hover Platform [BODY 08, STR 07, Flight: 03].

Note on individual profiles

Due to the large number of (often mutually unintelligible) languages or dialect in China, we’ve tried to be specific about which the particular members of the Great Ten would have.

There are a couple of factors complicating this. First, their revealed histories are incomplete, so some we have no idea where they grew up, so some are obviously incomplete. We’re only able to assign languages for regions where they’re known to be from, or have spent a period of time.

Secondly, the regions stated may be wide enough to encompass many dialects, so some educated guesswork has been involved.

This level of detail may well be more than is needed for use, so a more generic Language (Chinese) could be used, but the extra precision is there if wanted.

History

China’s initial reaction to the appearance of superhumans was one of containment, with metahumans being executed, defecting to the west, or simply disappearing. After Mao ’s death, however, the Party came to realize they’d fallen behind in the new arms race represented by these beings of power. Thus, they began searching for those who would serve the state.

The first recruits were August Captain in Iron and the Socialist Red Guardsman. Their duties primarily involved hunting down other metahumans within China, such as the Accomplished Perfect Physician in Tibet. It would take another decade before the program became the Great Ten, with a number of the renegade metahumans being forgiven their crimes and given a role in the team.

52, part 1

The Great Ten’s first real interaction with the wider super-powered community came when China joined the coalition of nations organized by Black Adam, ruler of Khandaq. The PRC the Freedom of Power Treaty, which allied them against unauthorized super-human incursions from foreign powers.

The first incursion came when Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart followed Evilstar into Chinese territory, forcing the Great Ten to confront them. Black Adam arrived to support the Ten, but the fight was near the Russian border. As a result, Rocket Reds arrived to aid the Green Lanterns when they crossed over, resulting in a stalemate.

The Chinese government continued to take a hostile stance against illegal metahuman incursions, even after the Treaty fell apart. They went so far as to threaten launching nuclear missiles if their sovereignty was challenged.

When Black Adam finally went on the rampage following the murder of his family, he ended up captured on Oolong Island. This was a criminal scientific enclave on a Chinese protectorate, funded by Intergang. It was headed by Chang Tzu, which had been responsible for the attack on Adam.

52, part 2

When the JSA arrived to take Black Adam, the Great Ten were sent to order them from Chinese soil. But Green Lantern (Alan Scott) realized (or was covertly informed by Thundermind) that Chang Tzu was secretly a member of the Great Ten, and Beijing was behind the assassination attempt.

Black Adam escaped, and set out on a rampage which led him to Beijing. The Great Ten confronted him. They were overwhelmed, and the Yeti was killed during the fight.

A coalition of international heroes had massed at their border. They were unable to offer aid due to the Chinese government’s refusal to allow them access, mainly due to the bureaucracy’s hesitance in making a decision.

When communications between the Great Wall Complex and the party leadership was lost, August General in Iron was forced to take charge. He reluctantly asked the assembled heroes for help. Black Adam was eventually beaten, but only after Beijing had suffered serious damage.

Checkmated

Members of the Ten (Immortal Man-in-Darkness, August General in Iron, Accomplished Perfect Physician, and the Celestial Archer) were dispatched when agents of Checkmate infiltrated a secret research facility in Hebei. Checkmate was in search of a Kobra infiltrator.

The Chinese government had been preparing to wipe the entire facility and staff out rather than let the leak become known. It also had been blocking Checkmate’s continuance motion by the UN, to avoid them investigating. However, that actually incited the investigation.

After a brief skirmish between the groups, they declared a truce, and worked together to find the mole. The situation was resolved when Alan Scott (then Checkmate’s White King) arrived with the Chinese ambassador to the UN. Scott used his ring to detect the spy, and the Chinese agreed to initiate a motion for Checkmate’s continuance in return for the situation remaining secret.

Checkmate again became involved with the Great Ten when their agents, along with the Outsiders, infiltrated Oolong Island. They were to neutralize the operation, as Oolong was no longer a Chinese protectorate.

Checkmate’s Black Queen, Sasha Bordeaux, along with Nightwing and Captain Boomerang II were captured, and transferred to a North Korean experimental research hospital, where Chang Tzu was now situated.

He tortured them for research, with the August General in Iron in attendance for a short time. It’s unclear what he was doing there since it appeared Chang Tzu was no longer associated with the Ten. They were soon freed by their team mates. But the incident caused friction between the Black Queen and August General in Iron when he was assigned to Checkmate as the Black King’s Bishop.

Jungle Warfare

In 2010, Chinese facilities in Brazil came under terrorist attack, along with American pharmaceutical facilities in the area. August General in Iron, Shaolin Robot, Green Fox Killer & the Seven Deadly Brothers were dispatched to investigate.

They were in China’s embassy in Manaus when it was damaged during a fight between the Shield and the Nazi robots responsible for the attacks. The robots had fled before they could respond, but the Ten wasted no time in attacking the Shield for the assault on Chinese land.

After a brief battle, Shield managed to override the Shaolin Robot’s programming. He got the robot to turn on his comrades, and used the distraction to flee. The Ten caught up to him as he was attacking the craft the Nazi robots used for transporting the animated dead they’d taken.

The Ten joined the Shield in fighting the primary threat. But when the fight was done, August General in Iron warned the Shield to stay out of their way as they followed the remaining robot to its base.

However, the Shield had already reprogrammed the robot to lead them astray. By the time they tracked down Baron Gestapo’s base, it had already been destroyed, leaving neither side able to seize his technology.

Return of the Gods, part 1

While suppressing a protest in Lhasa, members of the Great Ten were confronted by the apparent return of eight of the Chinese Gods:

• Yu Huang the Jade Emperor (King of the Gods).
• Kuan Ti (God of War).
• Gong Gong (God of Floods).
• Lei Zi (Goddess of Lightning).
• Feng Po (God of Wind).
• Chu Jung (God of Fire).
• Lei Kung (God of Thunder).
• Chu Jiang (God of the Dead).

The Ten called in reinforcements, but the fight wasn’t going their way. Then the Gods disappeared, the Celestial Archer going with them. That was just before the Ten’s administrator, Vice-Premier Jiang, was prepared to order a nuclear strike.

The gods soon reappeared in cities across China, spreading word of their return, despite the Party blocking all internet access and telephones. They were opposed by the Great Ten, with Thundermind battling Kuan Ti in Beijing, Ghost Fox Killer facing Chu Jiang in Hong Kong, and Immortal Man-in-Darkness fighting Feng Po in Shanghai.

Managing to kill Feng Po, they discovering the “Gods” had the same Durlan technology as a number of the Ten.

The Celestial Archer, realizing the “Gods” were fake sent a message to the Ten that the Gods were travelling to Hong Kong. Ghost Fox Killer’s underworld contacts informed her that members of Taiwanese triads had been seen meeting with the ’Gods’ in Hong Kong.

Return of the Gods, part 2

Accomplished Perfect Physician and Seven Deadly Brothers investigated the hotel where the gangsters were staying, supported by Ghost Fox Killer’s gangsters. But she and the August General in Iron were ambushed en route by Chu Jiang, who was able to kill Ghost Fox Killer’s ghost army.

August General in Iron and Ghost Fox Killer managed to kill Chu Jiang, but were immediately confronted by the remaining “Gods”. They had to hold them back until reinforcements arrived in the form of the Shaolin Robot, who managed to decapitate the Jade Emperor. The remaining “Gods” fled at this.

Learning that a Taiwanese government official, Ma Saihung, had been meeting with the Taiwanese triads in the Hong Kong hotel, Accomplished Perfect Physician and Seven Deadly Brothers were ordered to apprehend him as a priority. They did so, and held him for Thundermind to question.

From Ma Saihung they learned that he was part of a renegade faction of the ROC. It had acquired the Durlan technology used on some of the Ten, and some of the designs of the Shaolin Robot. They’d used these both to create the false Gods, and to build an army of robots deep within the Gobi desert, from where they’d been sent to march on Beijing.

Return of the Gods, part 3

Mother of Champions had already been dispatched to the Gobi, to see the Socialist Red Guardsman. Due to signs already pointing at the Gobi, and his unresponsiveness to communiqués, the Guardsman had come under suspicion of complicity in the affair. But Mother of Champions didn’t believe the accusations, and insisted on going to find the truth.

Receiving word of the robot army, but with enough time to prepare, they travelled to the edge of the Gobi. They picked a spot the robot army would have to pass through on their path to Beijing. A few days later Mother of Champions gave birth to another brood, with enough time for their father to train them before the robots arrived.

With the “Gods” now doubting their own identities, the Celestial Archer offered to take them to the Moon Maiden, to get answers from the real Gods. Journeying to the Moon, and on to the abode of the Gods, they met their true namesakes, and accepted the truth.

Returning to Earth, they were in time to join the Great Ten and Mother of Champions’ latest batch, in meeting the robot army’s march.

Marvel Universe History

The Great Ten could easily replace the People’s Defence Force (formerly China Force) in the Marvel Universe. Socialist Red Guardsman is a suitable counterpart for the Radioactive Man, and the Seven Deadly Brothers being similar enough to the Collective Man’s old power set.

The Durlan technology which empowers a few of the Ten would have been Skrull  technology from a craft that crashed during one of their earlier visits. This meant that the Immortal Man-in-Darkness and Socialist Red Guardsman were both compromised during the recent Invasion. The Skrulls took partial control of their technology, threatening a radioactive incident.

The August General in Iron was immune due to the combination of treatments he’d received. Thus, he was able to take out his situation’s frustrations on the invaders. So while the initial defence stumbled a bit, they were eventually able to drive off the invaders.

By Gareth Lewis.

Source of Character: DC Comics.

Helper(s): Darci, Peter Piispanen, Sébastien Andrivet, Black Sun.

Writeup completed on the 7^th of August, 2010.