Damage #1

History

The character originated as a pitch by DC editor Bill Kaplan under the working name 'Nuke,' but the name was unavailable — Marvel already had a character of the same name — and after Kaplan departed DC, the project passed to writer Tom Joyner and artist Bill Marimon, who recast the concept as 'Damage.' Joyner and Marimon built the series around an Atlanta-set coming-of-age mystery: a 16-year-old foster child whose powers manifest without warning and whose true parentage connects to the JSA's Golden Age roster. Inks on the early issues were provided by Tom McWeeney, with Don Hillsman taking over for the bulk of the run, and editor Jim Spivey shepherded the launch. The series ran 20 numbered issues plus a Zero Hour tie-in issue #0, from April 1994 through January 1996.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Grant Emerson / Damage (writer Tom Joyner, penciler Bill Marimon, inker Tom McWeeney); on-sale date March 8, 1994, cover-dated April 1994.
• The story 'Who Is Damage?' introduces Grant as a 16-year-old student in suburban Atlanta whose explosive metahuman powers erupt for the first time when he is attacked at school by the Superman villain Metallo.
• Grant's powers were designed by Vandal Savage's Symbolix corporation through 'Project: Telemachus,' which infused him with DNA samples collected from multiple JSA and JLA members, making him — in-universe — a living synthesis of Golden Age and Silver Age heroic lineage.
• Grant Emerson is the secret biological son of Al Pratt, the original Golden Age Atom, a fact concealed from both father and son; Al Pratt was killed by the villain Extant during the Zero Hour event the same year Damage debuted, meaning the two never met.
• The concept originated under editor Bill Kaplan as a character called 'Nuke'; the name was dropped because Marvel Comics already held it, and the project was then handed to Tom Joyner and Bill Marimon, who renamed the hero Damage.
• Only six issues into his solo series, Grant was pulled into Zero Hour: Crisis in Time (1994), where his power buildup was channeled by Waverider and other heroes to trigger a new Big Bang and restart the DC Universe after Parallax destroyed it.
• Grant Emerson went on to membership in the New Titans, the Freedom Fighters, and the Justice Society of America across more than a decade of DC continuity before dying during the Blackest Night event (2009); he was later restored to the timeline in Doomsday Clock.
• The series ran 20 numbered issues (April 1994 – January 1996) plus one Zero Hour tie-in issue #0 (October 1994); Damage #0 is reprinted in the Zero Hour: Crisis in Time 25th Anniversary Omnibus.

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Variants (1)