Crime Syndicate of America

The Crime Syndicate or Crime Syndicate of America (CSA, with America sometimes spelled Amerika) is a team of supervillains featured in DC Comics. The team is composed of evil parallel-universe counterparts of the Justice League, first appearing in Justice League of America #29 in August 1964 with members Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick, and Power Ring, counterparts to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Green Lantern respectively.

The Crime Syndicate has undergone several revisions in its publication history. Its members were originally portrayed as being from Earth-3, then an antimatter Earth in the JLA: Earth 2 graphic novel. Following The New 52 reboot, the team reverted back to an Earth-3 origin, where they appear in Justice League Volume 2 as the main focus of the crossover storyline Forever Evil. An analogous team, the Crime Society, a villainous version of the Justice Society, appeared in 52, later featuring in Countdown to Final Crisis.

As detailed in Justice League of America #29 (August 1964), the Crime Syndicate of America originally lived on Earth-Three, a world where history was "reversed" from the real world (e.g., Christopher Columbus discovered Europe, British colonists declared their independence from America, and President John Wilkes Booth was assassinated by actor Abraham Lincoln). It initially had no superheroes, only the supervillains of the Crime Syndicate, though this changed with the later introduction of the heroic Lex Luthor who used his vast intelligence for good.

In their first appearance, the Crime Syndicate, bored with the ease with which they are able to commit crimes on their Earth with no one to challenge them, discover the existence of Earth-One and Earth-Two after Ultraman is exposed to kryptonite and gains the ability to see into other universes. Intrigued by the existence of superheroes, they cross the dimensional void and attack the Justice League (JLA) and JSA. The villains are at first defeated but when they said the word "Volthoom", they sent themselves into Earth-Three thanks to a fail-safe created by Power Ring. The CSA capture the JSA by transporting them to Earth-Three and imprisoning them, intending to fight the JLA on Earth-2 to prove their superiority. However, the JLA defeat the CSA by tricking the members into unleashing more power than they could control. Following this, the JLA imprison the CSA in Limbo, where time has no meaning. The villains make several attempts to escape their prison, but are continually foiled.

Earth-Three and the original Crime Syndicate are among the universes destroyed by an antimatter wave during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event. The original Earth-Three Syndicate make several post-Crisis appearances, when Ultraman and Power Ring appeared in the Animal Man series, and then again in Infinite Crisis, when Earth-Three is temporarily recreated. The Crime Syndicate also appears in the Convergence storyline, where Earth-Three is among the universes and time periods captured by Brainiac.

A post-Crisis version of the team, simply known as the "Crime Syndicate" (not 'of America'), was eventually introduced. This version is composed of Qwardians, residents of the antimatter counterpart of Oa. They act as the second Conglomerate team of Claire Montgomery, Maxwell Lord's ex-wife.

Following a further "soft" reboot of DC continuity in Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! (1994), the Crime Syndicate was introduced once again, in 2000, in the JLA: Earth 2 graphic novel by Grant Morrison, which combined the Pre-Crisis parallel Earth idea with the pre-Zero Hour antimatter universe concept. The Crime Syndicate's Post-Zero Hour antimatter Earth possesses a "reversed" history similar to Earth-Three's, but with a much darker tone to the team and its world. JLA Secret Files and Origins 2004 provided additional history of this team, showing that even though they did partially resemble the Earth-Three Syndicate, they were still easily identifiable from their Pre-Crisis Earth-Three incarnation. Unlike the Crime Syndicate of Earth-Three, this Crime Syndicate of Amerika are able to rule their world, though they allow governments to continue operating and honest people are able to continue operating in pockets such as Gotham City Police Commissioner Thomas Wayne (father to Owlman and counterpart of the murdered father of Batman).

Due to the events of the crossover JLA/Avengers, the antimatter universe is rebooted, replacing Power Ring with a counterpart of John Stewart. The Crime Syndicate journey to the matter universe to attack Earth, blaming the JLA for the changes. Meanwhile, the Qwardians rally behind a dimension-destroying weapon called the Void Hound and pursue the Syndicate to the matter universe, laying waste to hundreds of planets along the way. Reluctantly, the CSA team up with the JLA, but the Void Hound proves too powerful. The heroes defeat the Void Hound by using a former JLA foe, the Construct, to remove the artificial intelligence of the weapon and render it powerless. With the Void Hound defeated and the CSA owing the JLA a favor for saving them, the villains are sent back to the antimatter universe, where they discover to their horror that the Qwardians have also invaded their Earth.