- "You've made quite a reputation for yourself. I set up this test so I could see with my own eyes if you were man or myth. And clearly, you're both." - Morgan to Kal, [1]
Morgan Edge was the leading crime lord in Metropolis and a childhood friend of Lionel Luthor. After he hires Clark Kent to steal a package from Lionel, he comes to Smallville to retrieve the package. He kidnaps Martha and Jonathan Kent to force Clark to comply. He kidnaps Clark and attempts to deliver him to Lionel.
Later, Edge conspires with Lionel to break Lex's psyche and ends up in a shoot out with Lex Luthor. Morgan flees in a car but Lex shoots him fatally while driving off; then Morgan passes out or presumably dies leaving the vehicle unattended heading straight towards Lex. Clark leaps in front of the car to prevent Lex from being hit, destroying the car.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Morgan Edge met Lionel Luthor in Suicide Slums, becoming close friends. They decided that he and Lionel should kill Lionel's mother and father in order to claim the insurance money on them and the property.
They planted a bomb in their apartment and killed them; Lionel made sure he had an alibi so that he wasn't connected to the murder. They then split the money and started their careers: Lionel started LuthorCorp and Morgan became a crime boss.
Season Three[]
In 2003 in Metropolis, Clark Kent had stolen the money from a bank while one of Edge's gangs were in the middle of a heist. Edge approached Clark in his apartment and offered him a job. At first Clark turned him down, but after Lana Lang found him, he decided he could use the money to disappear and meets Edge to accept his offer. Edge asked him to break into Lionel Luthor's office and steal a package from a titanium reinforced safe. [2]
Clark later learned that the item he stole was the blood sample that was taken by Helen Bryce, which Jonathan Kent destroyed it immediately. Edge came to Smallville and demanded the package. Clark told him that he didn't have it, but Edge took Jonathan and Martha Kent hostage to force Clark to give it to him. Clark used a piece of green meteor rock to cut his arm and give him a new sample. [3]
Edge returned the blood to Lionel and told him that he could provide him with the source. Lionel was very interested because he did not know the source. Edge's thugs brought Clark to Metropolis in the back of a truck for the hand off, but Clark used his heat vision to create an explosion, which destroyed the truck. Lionel believed that Edge set him up to be killed. Edge fell into the water after being shot by Lionel's security, where he was presumed dead. [3]
However, it turns out that Morgan had survived and had plastic surgery to hide from Lionel, but Lex Luthor found him. He carried a string of meteor rock beads in case he ever met Clark again. Edge confessed on tape to the murders of Lionel's bastard father and gin-soaked mother, but then conspired with Lionel to break Lex's fragile psyche and discredit his testimony. [4]
Lex tracked him down and shot him, but he escaped and tried to use his car to kill Lex. Lex shot Edge several more times, but Clark still had to save Lex from the car speeding toward him out of control, thus Clark revealed his powers to Lex when he stopped the car just before Claire Foster and others dragged him off to the sanitarium. [4]
In the Comics[]
Morgan Edge, or rather an evil clone of him, first appeared in Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133 (October, 1970). He had been created under orders from Darkseid, and created criminal organization Intergang. The clone also bought the Daily Planet, making it a subsidiary of Galaxy Communications (the media company owned by the real Morgan Edge). The clone ultimately died in Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #152 (September, 1972).
The real Morgan Edge first appeared in Superman #244 (November, 1971), and was a more benevolent character (serving as a supporting character until the reboot following Crisis on Infinite Earths). Born Morris Edelstein, into a lower-class Jewish family, he changed his name to "Morgan Edge" to conceal his background (which he had struggled with feelings of shame over his whole life) after becoming the owner of a television station in Albuquerque. In time, Edge branched out, becoming the owner of several television stations across the United States (along with becoming rich), which became Galaxy Communications.
In the late 1980s, the DC Comics universe was rebooted, which included Morgan Edge. The revamped Edge was more in line with the Morgan Edge clone (from the previous continuity), than the main Morgan Edge up to that point. Morgan Edge was the head of Galaxy Communications and leader of Intergang, which received advanced alien weapons and technology from Darkseid. After being exposed by Daily Planet reporters Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Cat Grant, Edge and was arrested. He was arrested by Superman after a robot from Apokolips tried to assassinate Clark and Lois. While in jail, Morgan wrote a tell-all autobiography embarrassing his father Vinnie Edge.
He eventually escaped prison and maintains the goal of destroying Superman and regaining his position in the Metropolis crime ring at one point by recruiting second-rate villains to form the Superman Revenge Squad. Edge's goal is to destroy Superman, discredit Lex Luthor, and become a major player in the Metropolis crime scene.
He was very much seen on the New Krypton story arc being a rather regular character, as the owner of WGBS, and through his new show Edge Of Reason, turning up against the Kryptonians that showed up with the re-establishment of the bottle city of Kandor, which was shrunk by Brainiac, but most important turning against Metropolis' savior, Superman.
Later on, having several guests at his show, such as Cat Grant and the so-called "American Hero" General Sam Lane, once more he turned against Nightwing and Flamebird, calling them terrorists, and Supergirl an embarrassment for Superman.
In the New 52 Morgan Edge is an African-American. He's still the president and CEO of Galaxy Communications and the owner of the newspaper The Globe. He is also called "the spiritual architect of the so-called New Daily Planet. "[5]
Notes[]
- Coincidentally, Rutger Hauer starred in a film called Warrior Angels in 2002, completely unrelated to Warrior Angel of Smallville.
- Rutger Hauer also portrayed the role of the antagonistic CEO of Wayne Enterprises--William Earle--in the 2005 movie Batman Begins. Earle looked over and eventually schemed to take Wayne Enterprises public prior to Bruce Wayne's return to Gotham City.
- In a deleted scene in Exile, Edge disciplines one of his henchman for his failure at the bank heist and tells him that he and the rest of the families of Intergang won't tolerate it.
- While searching for the mysterious Stiletto (a recently arrived vigilante in Metropolis) in 2009, Chloe Sullivan comes across a Daily Planet article about Morgan Edge being missing.[6] An article on Morgan Edge also appears in the episode Odyssey.[7]
Appearances[]
- Season Three: Exile, Phoenix, Shattered, Truth (Mentioned only)
- Season Eight: Odyssey (Mentioned only), Stiletto (Mentioned only)
References[]
Other faces of Morgan Edge[]
See also[]
External links[]
- Intergang on DC database
- Morgan Edge on DC database
- Intergang on Wikia DC Animated Universe
- Morgan Edge on Wikia DC Animated Universe
- Intergang on Wikipedia
- Morgan Edge on Wikipedia