History
Little is known of the early life of the man known as King Faraday. An exemplary soldier, he was enlisted by the United States government several years ago to serve as a so called “agent without passport”, a top secret one-man underground army.
In the service of his country, King Faraday has travelled the world countless times over, doing whatever he feels necessary to protect and maintain the security of the United States. Several times in the last few years this has brought him into conflict with the Batman. Though their points of view differ, they retain a grudging respect for one another.
King Faraday has been an operative with Checkmate and the last version of Suicide Squad pre-Flashpoint.
New Teen Titans: Games
Faraday appears in the New Teen Titans graphic novel Games, having to seek out the teen team as a mysterious former employee targets him and New York City with destruction if Faraday cannot or will not play his game. However Faraday’s request for aid however is initially refused as Faraday’s Cold War mentality demands that the Teen Titans find and kill the mysterious Gamesmaster. However, despite being relieved from active duty, Faraday uses his CBI connections and forced the Titans to aid him, by coming out knowing Nightwing‘s secret ID, threatening to seize Dayton Industries, expel Starfire and Victor’s grandparents as illegal immigrants. However the Gamesmaster forces the Titans to aid him nontheless as his first attacks are made, killing Sarah Simms by bombing her bus, making Victor swear to kill the Gamesmaster. At the end, however it is revealed that the Gamesmaster was none other than Faraday himself, his mind having fractured during the Cold War leaving him to see threats everywhere eventually forming a persona to pose these threats to eventually make the US safeguard against these new threats. In the end Faraday is captured and meets an uncertain fate at the hands of the CBI, with Nightwing claiming it was probably best they didn’t know what would happen to him when asked.
New 52: Futures End
King Faraday made his new 52 debut in the weekly series New 52. Futures End, an story which happens five years forward in the timeline of the new 52 continuity.
He is after Grifter and hidding the evidence about the presence of daemonites on earth. The identity of his companion and if he was associated before with other characters is still unknown.
He recruited Grifter to work in an unknown project for Cadmus Island, along with Deathstroke and Fifty Sue. And also was warned by the masked Superman to keep far from Lois Lane.
New 52: Grayson
Faraday appeared as an ally to Spyral in their initiative to stop a rebellious Grayson. They all were defeated by the Midnighter.
Rebirth: Suicide Squad
In Rebirth, the history of King Faraday was restablished with some changes. This time he was more close to his original iteration, as agent of Argent, a division of Task Force X. There, he worked close with the second Suicide Squad, a 60s team of operatives who investigated anomalous events for the goverment. During this time Faraday developted feelings for Karin Grace, member of the squad, but who was interested in Rick Flag Sr., the commander of the unit.
After an encounter with a Starro probe, the agency started a secret space program to to defend the planet of possible hostile alien lifeforms, a program than cumined with the construction of a secret space station. Somedays after the squad returned after a secret travel to the moon, Karin gave Faraday a suitcase containing a fragment of the heart of a creature called the Red Wave, who could spread its conscience to others living beings and wanted to spread on earth. Because of his curiosity, Faraday opened the suitcase and expose himself to the infection, Faraday understood then than the whole Suicide Squad and the support team were infected with the Red Wave and using chemical substances put the infection in his own body in control, but he knew that was a temporal solution. In that state, he eliminated all the members of Task Force X. He destroyed all the files and put the station in quarantine meanwhile he isolated with the fragment of the creature in the remains of the Argent base.
For decades Faraday was hidden, being keep alive and without aging thanks to the influence of the alien virus. But when the creature awakened again on the moon, Faraday send a old robot to provoke to Amanda Waller to put the alert on the Suicide Squad. The Squad found the infected Karin and Flag on the station and the still alive Faraday hidden on earth and worked together to eliminate the menace of the Red Spread, but Flag Sr. died in the process. However, for Waller, Faraday and Dr. Grace were criminal and still in risk to be contaminated. They were put in solitary confiment in Belle Reve. However Karin still was infected but the infection would be dormant unless she and Faraday would be together. Thanks to the Red Wave, Karin got abilities than made her escape her prision. For the benefit of the world, Faraday choosed to stay and informed Waller of the situation, warning her than Karin will not be found if she didn’t wanted. Still a prisioner, Faraday was, now at least, conforted by knowing Karin alive.
Other Versions
New Frontier
Faraday plays a prominent role in the alternate universe series DC: The New Frontier. He leads an effort to contain and corral the large amount of super-powered entities appearing. He uses various illegal methods, such as laying a trap for Barry Allen, even though he has not committed any crimes. Despite all this, he forms a friendship with the Martian Manhunter . He is killed in the last issue of the series.
Smallville Season 11
In the Smallville Season 11 series, Dr. King Faraday was an agent of Checkmate. He served as guardian for the recently discovered white martian named Megan Morse and raised her as her own daugther due to seeing his own deceased daughter in the young alien. When Zod attacked Checkmate’s castle, Megan and Faraday stayed locked inside the facility with Faraday eventually dying from hunger and, in a last sign of affection, recorded on his cellphone a message for whoever finds his corpse: take care of his daughter.
Tangent Comics: Green Lantern
In the fifth week event Tangent comics a diferent King Faraday starred one of the short tales of the antology book Green Lantern. he was a exiled native Molodavian of royalty descent who have traveled the world working as a skilled detective while eluding assassins dispatched by the New Molodavian Republic. After dying in a tragic air accident, he was summoned again to life by the earth-9 Green Lantern to solve one last mystery. The only one he couldn’t solved in life.
Animated Versions
Justice League Unlimited
King Faraday appears in Justice League Unlimited show , voiced by Scott Patterson . His first appearance was in the episode “Double Date”, in which he was a federal agent assigned to guard Steven Mandragora , but he escaped. It was established in the 3rd season opener “I Am Legion” that he was appointed as the Justice League’s official liaison with the U.S. government. In the episode “To Another Shore”, he and a group of government agents wearing jet packs appear in a scene, helping Wonder Woman in a fight against members of the Secret Society . One point of interest in the scene is when he refers to his fellow agents as “goldbrickin’ yahoos”, a catchphrase more associated with Nick Fury , a Marvel Comics character Faraday preceded.
Young Justice
Faraday also appears in the Young Justice episode Performance, where he’s an agent of Interpol investigating Haley’s International Circus in connection to a rash a thefts across Europe.He initially suspects Jack Haleys’s involvement, but learns the true culprit to be the Parasite after a tip from Robin, and successfully takes him into custody following his defeat at the team’s hands.
Justice League: New Frontier
Actor Phil Morris voices King Faraday in the direct-to-video adaptation of Darwyn Cooke’s Justice League: The New Frontier . In the film version, Faraday dies the same death a character named Johnny Cloud did in the comic version by igniting grenades as he is being devoured by a dinosaur .