Marionette Ventures were a team of villains assembled by Toyman to take over Metropolis. When this plan failed, they shifted their focus to taking out the Blur and other superheroes.
Members[]
Image | Code Name | Real Name | First appeared | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Toyman | Winslow Schott | Requiem | ||
An ex employee of Queen Industries, who vowed to take revenge on Oliver Queen for firing him in 2003. He became an obsessed toymaker, and attempted to kill Oliver in an explosion at a LuthorCorp board meeting. He aided Lex Luthor in extracting revenge on Clark Kent, Oliver Queen and Lana Lang, but was stopped by the trio. He was incarcerated, but sent a robot duplicate to masquerade as him. Tess Mercer later approached him, and had him reverse engineer John Corben's Kryptonite heart. He was able to create technology to control Stargirl as well as a superpowered Lois Lane. | ||||
Metallo | John Corben | Savior | ||
A reporter from the Daily Planet who replaced Clark after he quit. He was infatuated with Lois Lane. John was ran over by a truck and rebuilt by the Kandorians. Under kryptonite psychosis, he attempted at killing The Blur, whom he hated for failing to save his sister. He kidnapped Lois as bait, and Clark later came to her rescue. In the ensuing battle, Corben accidentally ripped out his Kryptonite heart. Later, a reformed John Corben, set out to live his life. When Lois tried to help him escape to her father's command post, John was chipped by agents of Tess Mercer and Chloe Sullivan who sent him to stop Clark (under Red K) and Major Zod. He left Metropolis after saving Clark, and being rejected by Lois. He decided to become a hired gun and in the process Schott supplied him with a new kryptonite heart that could absorb meteor rocks. He is assigned to Supergirl. | ||||
Roulette | Victoria Sinclair | Roulette | ||
In 2009, she kidnapped Oliver Queen and forced him into a game for survival. She then kidnapped Lois, and held her at gunpoint. After Oliver saved Lois, he set to rescue her, as she was trapped under rubble while the building around her was in flames. After Oliver saved her, she deactivated the flames, and revealed it was all a set-up, made by Chloe and the Justice League, to help Oliver re-embrace his persona as the Green Arrow. She was assigned to target Watchtower. | ||||
Dark Archer | Vordigan | Disciple | ||
Oliver's old master, during his time as apart of a Celtic clan of archer assassins. He came to Metropolis in 2009, and shot Lois Lane in between her arm and shoulder with an arrow. Lois mistook him for Oliver, as did the rest of the League, and tried to stop Oliver. Later, Vordigan shot Chloe with an arrow, but only cut her shoulder, and kidnapped Mia Dearden, Oliver's apprentice. Vordigan and Oliver confronted, in which Vordigan revealed he was getting older, and as clan tradition dictates, Oliver must kill him before he becomes older. Oliver refused to kill him, and shot him with an arrow in the same spot, inbetween the arm and shoulder. He was assigned to target Green Arrow. | ||||
Black Manta | David (last name unknown) | Prophecy | ||
His assigned target was Aquaman. | ||||
Captain Cold | Leonard Snart | Prophecy | ||
His assigned target was Impulse. | ||||
Solomon Grundy | Cyrus Gold | Prophecy | ||
He was assigned to fight Black Canary.
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Season Ten[]
The Marionette Ventures is an organization that works to control the water front properties, as they used Stargirl, who they made of Toyman's mind control diodes to do their bidding.
Season Eleven[]
While fighting Lois Lane and Lana Lang, John Corben laments that Marionette Ventures did not work out.
Appearances[]
- Season Ten: Prophecy
- Season Eleven: Valkyrie (Mentioned only)
Notes[]
- Marionette Ventures is a team original to the continuity of Smallville. This team is similar to Legion of Doom.
- While Roulette, Metallo, Toyman, and Vordigan have already made appearances on Smallville, this was the first and only appearances of Captain Cold, Black Manta, and Solomon Grundy on Smallville.
- While only seven members appears in Prophecy, there are hints of an unseen eighth member of Marionette Ventures. In the scene, Roulette, Metallo, Vordigan, Captain Cold, Black Manta, and Solomon Grundy are seated around the table, while Toyman (who had been in prison for over a year) is only attending the meeting through video screens. However, there are seven chairs at the table. There are also seven glasses of water, one by each chair. Even if the seventh chair is intended for Toyman (upon a possible prison escape), there would be no reason to put out a glass of water for him at this one meeting.
- Interestingly, John Corben is part of the team even though he reformed in Upgrade. Although Season 11 writer Bryan Q. Miller explains in Valkyrie why he accepted to work with Marionette Ventures and choose the green Kryptonite heart and forsake the red one.