| “ | Imperium: J'onn J'onzz. It's been a long time. (He then has his followers zap him, revealing his true alien form) Much better. You have defied us for centuries. Martian Manhunter: And I will never bow before you. Or any of your kind. Imperium: Then we will personally see to finishing what should have been accomplished long ago.... the elimination of the last Martian! |
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| ~ The Imperium and J'onn J'onzz. |
| “ | J. Allen Carter impersonator: Imperium! Imperium: Unhand me, worm! |
„ |
| ~ The J. Allen Carter impersonator being betrayed by the Imperium. |
The Imperium is a minor yet pivotal antagonist in the DC Animated Universe, serving as the main antagonist of the Justice League three-parter premiere "Secret Origins".
It is a parasitic alien who attacks the Earth in search of a new home after wiping out all Martian life on Mars, leaving J'onn J'onzz as the sole Martian survivor and leading him to go to Earth to warn its superheroes about its threat. In a way, the Imperium ends up becoming the reason for which the Justice League was formed.
It was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, who also voiced Chairman Drek in Ratchet & Clank, Joker in The Batman, Trigon in Teen Titans, General Aguila in TMNT and the Shadow King in Wolverine and the X-Men.
What Makes It Pure Evil?[]
- Invaded Mars, stripping the planet of its resources and plunging its inhabitants the Martians into a centuries-long war before killing them all even though the Martians were a peaceful native species and didn't know how to defend themselves at first.
- It also allowed its race to feed on the psychic energy of the Martians they captured and tortured, allowing them to absorb the shape-shifting and telepathic abilities of the Martians they captured and tortured.
- Stayed behind while letting its race fight against the last surviving Martians, killing all of them minus J'onn J'onzz, who used a toxin to paralyze the Imperium and its race for 500 years.
- After being awakened from stasis alongside its species, it had one of its soldiers disguise themselves as the deceased J. Allen Carter, the astronaut who accidentally woke them up, go to Earth, become a senator and request Superman to disarm all of the world's nuclear weapons so humanity would be defenseless upon the Imperium's invasion.
- Has its soldiers impersonate different Earth civilians so they could sabotage the Earth's other defenses. During this time, they also kidnap a decent number of people to feed on their psychic energy similarly to how they did with the Martians they captured.
- Invades the Earth so it can take it over just like it did with Mars, leading J'onn to go to Earth to alert humans about the Imperium.
- Sends its robots to attack different places, like Metropolis, the Eiffel Tower, Cairo and Malasia's forests, setting most of them on fire and likely killing an unknown number of people.
- During the invasion, it sends multiple factories to different parts of the world to project an ionizing field into the atmosphere, creating massive clouds that cover the entire planet to block out the sun and shroud everything in darkness forever since its race is nocturnal, allowing them to roam and prey on people freely.
- Upon having its soldiers capture all members of the Justice League minus Batman, realizing that J'onn isn't going to bow down before it after defying its race for years, the Imperium sticks its tentacles through J'onn's skin, assimilates him into its body and electrocutes him inside, causing him a great deal of agony, just so it could slowly torture him to death to mark the end of the Martians.
- As the Justice League starts killing its race by exposing them to sunlight, it opts to escape, leaving all its soldiers to their fate.
- When the soldier who impersonated J. Allen Carter grabs onto it due to wanting to escape with it, it swats him off, leaving him to his fate even though it was thanks to that soldier in particular that their invasion on Earth was even possible, proving its total ungratefulness.
- Despite being a starter villain, its actions were awful enough that the Justice League was formed to prevent such a threat from ever invading Earth again.
- Even though it didn't do the majority of its heinous crimes, the Imperium still stands out due to ordering its soldiers to commit these acts for it, aside from being one of the few villains in the DCAU to have committed genocide, proving that it doesn't fail the standard.
Trivia[]
- The Imperium is the Pure Evil villain with the least amount of screen time in the DC Animated Universe, being physically present for less than five minutes. This makes its actions even worse since it makes such a huge impact on the story in such a short period of time.
External Links[]
- Imperium on the Villains Wiki
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 Animated Universe Pure Evils
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Batman: The Animated Series: Joker |
Grant Walker | ||
 Pure Evils
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Comics Television Movies Video Games | ||
