Origin
Sergeant Clifford Zmeck underwent the same test as Nathaniel Adam during the Vietnam War. When Nathaniel seemingly disappeared, the government deemed it a failure, and began testing on another subject, but with Cliff they increased the amount of metal used, in comparison to the original project. Clifford was found in a high security prison during his time with the USAF for a rape crime, and sentenced to life time in prison. He was offered a pardon, should he partake in the project, the results were the same. However, this time, Cliff arrived one year later than Nate. During experimentation (prior to arriving a year after Nate did), the government implanted micro explosives under the metal while it was still malleable, in order to control Zmeck in case he went rogue. He was first shown as an ally of Captain Atom, but after a brief scrap, Captain Atom left, and the newly dubbed Major Force became his successor. Constantly fighting Captain Atom, he eventually became a hired gun for General Eiling’s purposes. Major Force would prove to be unbalanced, and killed the Green Lantern Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend and stuck her remains Into a refrigerator. Infuriated, the Lantern nearly killed Cliff, but was stopped by the military of the United States. Cliff goes on to kill a different Green Lantern and, later in Tokyo, another Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, seemingly kills Cliff. However, he is completely made of energy, so in essence, Major Force is immortal.
It is later, when then president, Lex Luthor, recruits Captain Atom to organize a task force of sorts, to bring in Superman when a Kryptonite asteroid was heading towards Earth. Eventually, Major Force’s hands are sliced off, releasing the nuclear based energy contained in his suit. Captain Atom had to absorb him, quantum leaping him a few years. Major Force, at that point, had disappeared.
He would later appear killing another person close to Kyle Rayner, this time his mother, whose severed head he stuck in an oven. Kyle then engaged Major Force in a lengthy battle. In the midst of it, the Major had almost gotten away with Kyle’s ring after attempting to persuade him to give it up. Major Force also revealed that the head in the oven was the head of a mannequin, confirming that he never really killed Kyle’s mother. Nonetheless, Kyle was able to retrieve his ring, and resume the battle, taking Major Force into outer space. Knowing that he couldn’t really kill him, Kyle decapitated his head from his body, and sent it hurtling through outer space.
One Year Later, Major Force is causing a disturbance in Blüdhaven, and during the battle, rips off the arm of a character named “ Major Victory“, and beats him to death with it. Captain Atom would later awaken, in the Monarch suit, to drain all of Major Force’s energy, leaving his corpse to fall to the ground. Major Force would later reappear alongside many Government sponsored & created super soldiers in opposition to Uncle Sam and his Freedom Fighters. In a quick skirmish he’s easily dispatched by the newly returned Miss America. Later he would go to bat for a gang of supervillains as a hired gun to kill members of the JSA, but they were eventually defeated.
Major Force has been identified as one of the deceased entombed below the Hall of Justice.
It is unknown how he reconstituted himself. He was seen with a band of villains led by Tapeworm. Major Force later finds himself working for General Sam Lane, under Project 7734. Soon after Captain Atom regains bits of his memory and takes out a military strikeforce with high-tech weapons, Major Force arrives in Skartaris to bring him into custody. Captain Atom refuses, and a battle between him and Major Force ensues. During the fight, he reminds Captain Atom of his exploits as Monarch and that they used to work together under Lex Luthor. In the midst of the battle, Major Force grabs Captain Atom and transports him back to Metropolis, surrounding him with soldiers in high-tech suits specially designed to defeat and contain him. But, before the battle was resumed, Mon-El (who was contacted by Natasha Irons to assist) blitzes Major Force and the military soldiers before they could even react. After Captain Atom deals the last blow, he leaves Major Force unconscious and retreats with Mon-El to the JLA Watchtower.
New 52
Major Force has been redesigned with a dark grey charcoal suit with white gloves and white boots. His crew cut hair is white and he has two stripes coming down vertically from his shoulders forming a star at his chest. General Eiling sends out Major Force to help Firestorm. He knocks Hyena into a lamp post and knocks out Black Bison once he is freed by Firestorm after being encased in ice from Killer Frost.
Major Force, who has been briefed about Firestorm’s ability to withstand any physical attack, renders Firestorm unconscious through a neural attack disguised as a photo op with himself and Firestorm. Major Force is thrown into a nearby wall when Superman thumps him on the chest for capturing Firestorm and using him to work for the government.
Powers and Abilities
Quantum Field Manipulation – Like Captain Atom, Major Force’s superhuman abilities are tied to the Quantum Field. He is powerful, but not quite as powerful as Captain Atom is shown to be (since the ability to use the Quantum Field is based on imagination, intelligence, and willpower) due to his lack of a significant level of intelligence, as well as his psychotic nature. Force cannot remove his Dilustel skin like Bombshell or Captain Atom either due to the nature of the atom bomb he was hit with when he merged with the metal or simply never learned how.
Superhuman Strength – He possesses vast superhuman strength in excess of 100,000-ton range (having been able to knock Superman across three states and physically engage him in the same battle, knock around Wonder Woman and Resurrection Man, physically engage the likes of Vuldarian Guy Gardner, Lashina [who was under the alias of Duchess at the time] and stand toe-to-toe with Captain Atom, physically).
Dark Matter Manipulation – His initially showed the ability to project blasts of dark matter for offensive measures, as well as hard constructs for other uses. Like replacing a lost hand due to inserted explosive detonation, coat his Dilustel fists in dark matter increasing his striking power, making sleds and ramps to ride along making up for lack of aviation, pulling a lantern fabricating rudimentary builds like giant fists to bludgeon enemies with, encasing others inside a chunk of dark matter trapping them in it. His most creative usage of the power is converting and transmuting objects into dark matter; having once morphed Adam’s quantum blasts into a column of the stuff to bind his arms and fling him around with it.
Quantum Speed – After having undergone another resurrection stint after the second Bludhaven nuking incident. Major Force had gained a new increase in locomotive propulsion which didn’t involve flight capacity. Once having been able to keep up with the likes of Miss Cosmos in a contest of speed while running along the ground matching her pace for pace and nearly catching up.
Nigh-Invulnerability – He is also has a significant level of invulnerability (though, not as invulnerable as Captain Atom, due to having his durability exploited by things Atom can and has withstood), due to the Dilustel skin covering his body. Being able to tank blows from the likes of superman, wonder woman, vuldarian warrior, captain atom and the resurrection man as well as force blasts the likes of a green lantern power ring, quantum energy blasts, pulses from the star rod and more.
Metamorphosis – After resurrecting himself again the clandestine sect known as Quorum had augmented his abilities with the Quantum Field and his capacity to use them by grafting tissue samples of Guy Gardner’s Vuldarian DNA. Major Force could now alienate the shape and substance of his Dilustel armor skin into a great many shapes and sizes he saw fit, regularly creating bladed or blunt force weaponry to bludgeon his enemies, and ranged munitions like a laser cannon used in tandem with his dark matter powers.
Self-Sustenance – With the energies of the Quantum Field, Major Force can last all but indeffinately. Having no need for to eat, rest, or even breath as knockout gas capsule beneath his face proved ineffective in tempering him. He can even survive in the depths of outer space.
Superhuman Stamina – His endurance is increased to superhuman levels, able to enact strenuous activity for a long and undefined periods of time without need of resting to recuperate.
Ability Enhancement – After a ripple in the quantum mega structure of reality caused Major Force to quantum jump back to life after Warrior Guy Gardner caused him to implode. He came back far more powerful than ever before due to a reality warp caused by Mr. Skism, easily able to level several city blocks of metropolis and topple buildings. He was able to stalemate the whole of the entire Justice League with the added assist of a quantum powered Mitchell Shelley.
Energy Projection and Manipulation – Due to his lack of intelligence, he was unable to (or never learned how) absorb energy (as a result, his Dilustel skin could be melted down by extreme temperatures like heat vision or breached by Green Lanterns ring blasts, or blasted or ruptured through other such powerful means such as extreme abrasive force or mystic weaponry, e.i. Katana’s Soultaker), Over the years, he has learned to project Quantum blasts much like Captain Atom, as well as dark Quantum energy that could drain solar energy from Superman’s cells and project energy shields (finally!). In a particularly creative use of his powers Zmeck created an energy field around a busload of kids moving them about telekinetic like with his energy powers.
Flight – Initially Major Force was once unable to fly. He has also currently shown the ability to fly at impressive speed matching Captain Atom in aerial combat.
Immortality – Major Force is also immortal due to his connection to the Quantum Field. being a being composed of pure energy, even if his physical being is somehow fatally compromised he will live on indefinably.
Revitalization Empowerment – No matter how or in what way he’s depleted or dissipated, Major Force will recuperate eventually having pulled himself back together piece by piece after having been dispersed at a quantum level by high end telekinesis. An interesting effect of his link to the quantum field is that no matter how many times he expires and comes back, he seemingly returns even stronger than before. Showcasing and utilizing new effects of his spectrum of abilities he didn’t know he had himself. Having recuperated from being impaled by Guy Gardner gave him more refined control over his quantum and dark quantum energies, being decapitated by GL Kyle Ryner gave him more refined projection of said energies. Getting his energy drained by a maddened Captain Atom allowed for even greater refinement of his power and so on.
Other Media
In the direct-to-dvd animated movie, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Major Force features as part of the group of superbeings employed by the government and the antagonists who aim to capture the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader.
He later appeared in Batman; The Brave and the Bold, as an enemy of Captain Atom.