How Chu, Money Master, Gem Girl and Smashing Sportsman. On Earth-Two, this fantastic and frightful foursome made a short but memorable impact in the annals of costumed crooks on their parallel planets. And just as this quartet on Earth-Two obtained their powers from Black Spheres originating from another universe, so to do another foursome on Earth-One. But who were they?
This has as yet not been revealed. However. around this period of time, there were similar colorful crusaders on Earth-One such as the mysterious Dexter "Doctor Light" Myles, Dela "Star Sapphire" Pharon, Attucka and Karl "Annihilator" Keller who had separate encounters with the Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Superman. Perhaps concurrent to these events, the Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow (substituting for Aquaman, as they've done before when swapping foes), and Superman encountered these four who had their brief costumed careers revitalized through encounters with four of the black spheres.
The radiations of the dormant Black Sphere life forms had twisted the morality of each of its intended recipients towards criminal ends. These were entities from another universe that traveled to the parallel Earths intent on preserving their race which was near extinction. In order to accomplish this, they had to merge their minds with those of sentient humans.
At a certain point, they would be irrevocably bonded to the men and women who had absorbed their energies. Both the Justice Society and Justice League battled these two sets of energy-maddened humans, and after assisting the Society in defeating their four foes on Earth-Two, the League returned to their own world to do the same to the Earth-One quartet they had first faced. This "Black Sphere Gang" consisted of:
- Business magnate Horace Rowland who transformed by the Black Sphere into currency-controlling Money Master, whose thefts drew the attention of Earth-Two's Hawkman and Mister Terrific.
- Claire Morton became an evil Gem Girl when infected by the Black Sphere, which led to thefts of jewelry and a pitched battle with the Wonder Woman of Earth-Two.
- Chinese warlord How Chu, whose execution was stayed when his body absorbed a Black Sphere, which imbued him with superhuman powers and energies which he could unleash through his spear. This led him into conflict with Hourman.
- The Smashing Sportsman was Martin Baxter, a former major league baseball player vindictive towards sports, as he no longer measured up to his peers, that brought him into conflict with Earth-Two's Robin. While Mantle was dying, Baxter's arthritis finished his career, the Black Sphere radiation gave him renewed might and use this to seek revenge against all professional sports, drawing Robin and Wildcat's attention.
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