A group of heroes published by
Comico.
The Elementals first
appeared in
Elementals #1.
In response to a being named Saker's attempt to gather a huge amount
of mystical energy to be used by him to rule the world, the forces
of nature embodied in the four elements
(Air, Earth, Fire, and
Water), decided to raise up some champions of their own. To this
end, they endowed four people with powers corresponding to one of
the four elements. The twist to this is that they used four people
who were already dead.
The Elementals, as they came to be called, were:
- Jenette Crane/Morningstar: A police officer, Crane was killed
when the building she was in was burned to the ground by an arsonist.
Crane returned having the ability to project high intensity flame,
often times accompanied by flaming eyes and hair. Morningstar
adopted the role of leader of the Elementals.
- Jeff Murphy/Vortex: A former pilot in Vietnam, it was hinted
that Murphy took part in some type of questionable behavior during
the war. He returned to the U.S. and became a helicopter pilot for
the Coast Guard. Murphy and his helicopter crashed when caught in
a waterspout. Murphy returned with the ability to fly and create
and control winds. Vortex is also probably the most unlucky of the
Elementals, often getting injured to the point of death (except that
the Elementals are already dead and therefore cannot die).
- Tommy Czuchra/Monolith: Czuchra was the fourteen year old
son of an archeologist and was killed in a landslide that also killed
his father. Czuchra was a child genius but socially awkward with
others. He returned with the ability to transform into a massive
creature composed of earth and stone which was superhumanly strong.
Czuchra was the brains of the Elementals.
- Rebecca Golden/Fathom: Daughter of a rich family, Golden
was killed in a yachting accident. She returned with the largest
physical change, having been transformed into a green skinned version
of her former self. She could control water in any form, projecting
it in forceful sprays and could also tranform into water. Golden's
father's estate became the Elementals home in the early stories
but they later moved to their own home.
The Elementals fought against many different supernatural foes, with
their main enemies being
Saker and his agents the
Destroyers.
The Destroyers were used in early versions of the game
Champions
by their creator
Bill Willingham.
The Elementals as a series attempted to address the idea of the
characters being placed in the "real world" rather than in a comic
book world. The characters initially acted a little more realistically
than their counterparts in other comics, like killing opponents rather
than putting them in jail, but as with other experiments in this
field (like Marvel Comics New Universe) once the characters are
placed in this world, the "real world" and the world in which the
comics characters exist rapidly begin to diverge.
The Elementals series went through a number of cancellations and
restarts. The creator Bill Willingham seemed to have a definite
idea about what he intended for the series, but difficulties with
publishers and the fact that he comes off in everything I have
ever read that was not comics related as an opinionated twit ultimately
caused the series demise.