Paul Booker (Prime Earth)

Paul Booker, also known as Major Disaster, is an enemy of the Justice League and the father of Penny Booker.

History

Though Major Disaster was an established member of Green Lantern Hal Jordan's rogues' gallery,^[1] he at one time had turned to heroism as a member of the Justice League of America.^[2]

On the orders of Vandal Savage, Major Disaster attacked a nuclear power plant outside New York City with the Atomic Skull, generating a hurricane for cover and an earthquake to expose the plant's power rods. When Superman and Wonder Woman responded, he attacked the latter hero with giant hailstones and a ruptured gas line, and struck the pair with lightning as he and his partner fled, only to be intercepted by the golden hero Wonderstar.^[3] They were incarcerated at Salvation Tech Emergency Evaluation Laboratories' superhuman prison in Virginia, from which they were taken by Savage's forces,^[4] and were delivered into the custody of Angelo Bend, his mutinous son. Bend fitted the Major and a number of his fellow villains with implants forcing them to follow his orders, and set them against the intruding Superman, Wonder Woman, and Parasite.^[5] Booker was defeated with the other villains by Wonder Woman, however, and was taken out of Bend's hands and into the coils of her Lasso of Truth.^[6] The Major faced Wonder Woman once again, and while his disasters brought down the bank in which they fought, crushing bystander Vanessa Kapatelis' legs, he was handily defeated by the hero once again.^[7]

Major Disaster was one of many villains recruited by the artificial intelligence "Genie" to kill the Justice League in Denver, Colorado.^[8] Though he possessed a force field which the Flash was unable to penetrate, the hero instead pinned the Major beneath his fellow villain Giganta. He eventually freed himself and attempted to bury the surrounding area with an earthquake, but was thwarted by the League's Green Lanterns, who stabilized the ground, and taken into custody.^[9] He was lured out to the Coney Island boardwalk by a message he believed to be from Green Lantern Guy Gardner, demanding a confrontation. In reality, it was from his estranged daughter Penny, who, hoping to impress her father, had taken up the name "Minor Disaster" and attempted to humiliate costumed celebrity Harley Quinn. To his disgust, however, her efforts had only made Quinn more popular, and he encouraged her to either quit or kill Quinn, for the sake of preserving his reputation. After Minor Disaster created a whirlpool that nearly destroyed Coney Island—albeit by accident, unbeknownst to him—the Major reached out to her to voice his approval. When he remained unavailable, however, his daughter severed her ties to his legacy.^[10] Major Disaster was one of several foes of Hal Jordan recreated as clockwork robots by Hector Hammond as part of a trap for Jordan on Athmoora.^[1] The Major later enhanced his powers and besieged Los Angeles with an artificial tornado, but was distracted by the Green Lantern and easily defeated by the Flash.^[11]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

• Unique Physiology
  • Disaster Manipulation: Major Disaster's main ability is to manipulate probabilities to cause disasters around him. He can manipulate the weather, cause seismic events and rupture gas lines.^[3]
    • Weather Manipulation: Major Disaster can control the weather and create hurricanes and other phenomena.^[3]
    • Electrokinesis: Major Disaster can conjure storms to strike his enemies with lighting. His lighting is strong enough to hurt the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman.^[3]
    • Cryokinesis: Major Disaster can hail large chunks of ice from the sky.^[3]
    • Geokinesis: Major Disaster can create earthquakes.^[3]
  • Force Field^[9]
  • Superhuman Strength
  • Superhuman Durability: Major Disaster is more durable than a common human and can take multiple blows from Wonder Woman before going down.^[12]
    

Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Disaster Dial (Formerly): At one point in his career, Booker used a dial-shaped device to trigger disasters,^[13] though this ability eventually became internal.^[4]
• Power Boots^[3]
  • Flight^[3]

Notes

• Major Disaster was created by Gardner Fox and Gil Kane, first appearing in Green Lantern (Volume 2) #43. However, in the Prime Earth continuity, Major Disaster first appeared as part of the New 52 DC Universe in Superman/Wonder Woman #13 by Peter Tomasi and Doug Mahnke.

Related

• 14 Appearances of Paul Booker (Prime Earth)
• 2 Images featuring Paul Booker (Prime Earth)
• 1 Quotations by or about Paul Booker (Prime Earth)
• Character Gallery: Paul Booker (Prime Earth)

Footnotes

Green Lantern Villain(s) This character is or was primarily an enemy of the Green Lantern of Earth, or the Green Lantern Corps as a whole. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Green Lantern Villains."

Justice League member This character has been a member of the Justice League of America, or the Justice League in any of its various incarnations, sworn by a duty to act as guardians of America and the world by using their skills and/or superpowers to protect Earth from the clutches of both interstellar and domestic threats. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Justice League of America members" category.

Justice League Villain This character is or was primarily an enemy of the Justice League, in any of its various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Justice League Villains."

Superman Villain(s) This character has been primarily an enemy of Superman in any of his various incarnations, or members of the Superman Family. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Superman Villains category."

Wonder Woman Villain(s) This character is or was primarily an enemy of Wonder Woman and the Amazons in any of her various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Wonder Woman Villains category."