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General Wade Eiling
General Wade Eiling
	General Wade Eiling as depicted in Who's Who Update '88 #4 (January 1995).; Art by Pat Broderick.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Captain Atom #1 (March 1987)
Created by	Cary Bates ; Pat Broderick
In-story information
Alter ego	Wade Eiling
Team affiliations	Suicide Squad; The Society; Injustice Gang; United States Army
Notable aliases	The General; Shaggy Man
Abilities	Superhuman strength, stamina, durability, speed, and sense of smell; Regeneration; Military expertise;

General Wade Eiling, sometimes known as The General, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is a prominent military general who contributed to Nathaniel Adam's transformation into Captain Atom and later becomes a supervillain after transferring his brain into Shaggy Man's body.

Eiling appears in The Flash, portrayed by Clancy Brown, and Justice League Unlimited, voiced by J. K. Simmons. In the latter series, he is a member of Project Cadmus who later transforms into a monstrous form reminiscent of Shaggy Man using a World War II-era super-serum.

Publication history

Wade Eiling first appeared in Captain Atom #1 (March 1987) and was created by Cary Bates and Pat Broderick.^[1]

Fictional character biography

Wade Eiling is a military tactician who blackmails the accused Nathaniel Adam into participating in the atomic experiment that turns Nathaniel into the nuclear being Captain Atom, and causes Adam to disappear for 18 years.^[1]

During Adam's disappearance, Eiling marries Adam's wife and raises his two children.^[1] Following Adam's return, Eiling manipulates him into serving the military.

Eiling is later diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, recovers the body of the first Shaggy Man, and transfers his brain into it to save himself. Eiling battles the Justice League before they transport him to the asteroid 433 Eros.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Eiling is later rescued and joins Lex Luthor's Injustice Gang. He attempts to destroy the Earth before Orion and his dog Sturmer stop him.^[5]

Having somehow escaped, he has since appeared in the JSA comics fighting Hal Jordan. In Infinite Crisis, General joins Alexander Luthor Jr.'s Secret Society of Super-Villains.^[1]^[6]^[7]

Eiling later joins the Suicide Squad. After he betrays the team to their intended target, Rick Flag detonates a bomb implanted in his head. His head regenerates, but he is rendered amnesiac.^[8]

The General continues to serve in the Squad through the "Salvation Run" storyline, during which he is exiled to another planet.^[9]

Eiling is reintroduced in The New 52 continuity reboot, where he uses Captain Atom as a weapon.^[10]^[11] He also appears in the series The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men, where he opposes the eponymous hero.^[12]

Powers and abilities

General Wade Eiling specializes in military warfare.^[13] As the General, Eiling possesses immense physical strength and is functionally immortal.^[14] He can regenerate his body rapidly and does not require food, water, or sleep to survive.^[4]

Other versions

The General appears in JLA/Avengers #4 as a brainwashed minion of Krona.^[15]

In other media

Television

General Wade Eiling appears in Justice League Unlimited, voiced by J. K. Simmons.^[16]^[17] This version is an Air Force General and member of Project Cadmus who regards metahumans as a threat to humanity. Following Cadmus' disbandment, he is relegated to a "pencil pusher". Upon learning that his former superior Amanda Waller no longer considers the Justice League a threat, Eiling injects himself with Captain Nazi's super-soldier serum and transforms into a monster.^[18] He battles the Justice League before being convinced to surrender, but vows to return if the League becomes a threat.
General Wade Eiling appears in Young Justice, voiced by Jeff Bennett.^[16]
General Wade Eiling appears in The Flash, portrayed by Clancy Brown.^[17]^[19] This version is a U.S. Army major general who worked with S.T.A.R. Labs five years prior to the series to develop a means of creating psychic interrogators until Harrison Wells learned he was abusing the program's test subject Grodd and broke ties with him.

Video games

General Wade Eiling as the General appears in the Nintendo DS version of Justice League Heroes.

Miscellaneous

General Wade Eiling as the General appears in issue #5 of the Justice League Unlimited spin-off comic book.
General Wade Eiling appears in the Young Justice tie-in comic.

Reception and analysis

The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide found that in the character of General Wade Eiling the comic had created "an appalling specimen of military pigheadedness who can justify every iniquitous piece of behaviour under the blanket of national security".^[20] The Supervillain Book summed up Eiling's character as an "immoral soldier".^[21]

According to George A. Gonzalez, the Justice League Unlimited incarnation of Eiling represents the negative side of "aggressive military policies of the 2000s" by the US government, like "wanton violence" and "fixation on 'power' (i.e. military force)". Through his deliberate transformation into "a huge, hideous, grayish monster with superpowers", Eiling "embodies the ugliness of militarism".^[18] Eiling also serves as an example of the development of comics over the decades: While in the 1940s and 50s comic heroes were "unabashed patriots", in the figure of General Eiling from the 2000s they fight against a representative of a misunderstood patriotism that values the reputation of the nation-state higher than the lives of any number of civilians.^[18]

Markus Engelns gives a different characterization of Eiling based on the World War III comic arcs, in a later stage in the character's development: Eiling no longer has his function as a general, and has lost any discernable motive beyond fighting, which emphasizes his dangerous nature even more.^[22]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Jimenez, Phil (2008), "General, The", in Dougall, Alastair (ed.), The DC Comics Encyclopedia, New York: Dorling Kindersley, p. 135, ISBN 978-0-7566-4119-1, OCLC 213309017
^ Lloyd, John (May 2020). Exploring the Dynamics of Relationships and Emotional Processes of Comic Book Characters for Potential Implications in Family Therapy: A Content Analysis Approach (PhD). p. 81. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
^ JLA #24 (December 1998)
^ ^a ^b JLA #26 (February 1999)
^ JLA Vol. 6: World War III (collects JLA #34-41, 2000, ISBN 1-56389-618-4). DC Comics.
^ Infinite Crisis #3 (February 2006)
^ Infinite Crisis #7 (June 2006)
^ Suicide Squad (vol. 3) #8 (June 2008)
^ Salvation Run #1 (January 2008)
^ Captain Atom (vol. 3) #3 (January 2012)
^ Captain Atom (vol. 3) #4 (February 2012)
^ The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men #15 (February 2013)
^ JLA #24 (December 1998)
^ JLA #39 (March 2000)
^ JLA/Avengers #4 (February 2004)
^ ^a ^b "Wade Eiling Voices (DC Universe)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved May 19, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
^ ^a ^b Ng, Philiana (August 8, 2014). "The Flash Recruits Sleepy Hollow Actor as DC Heavy Hitter (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 8, 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c Gonzalez, George A (2016). "Justice League Unlimited and the Politics of Globalization" (PDF). Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction. 45 (123): 5–13.
^ Egan, James (2016). "The Flash 2014". 1000 Facts About TV Shows Vol. 1. Lulu Publishing Services. ISBN 9781326660536.
^ Plowright, Frank, ed. (2003). The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide. Slings & Arrows. p. 108. ISBN 978-0954458904.
^ Misiroglu, Gina Renée; Eury, Michael, eds. (2006). The Supervillain Book: The Evil Side of Comics and Hollywood. Visible Ink Press. ISBN 978-1578591787.
^ Engelns, Markus (2009-09-07). "Der Dritte Weltkrieg als Reifeprüfung" (PDF). Medien Observationen. Retrieved 2020-12-14.