Organization
The Scourge was originally depicted as an individual vigilante dedicated to the assassination of criminals. This person, whose true name has never been revealed, was seen over the course of several months murdering known supervillains in cold blood. The Scourge would approach a supervillain in disguise, shoot him or her with an explosive-tipped bullet, shout his catchphrase ("Justice is served!"), and disappear. This first Scourge's killing spree reached its apex in Captain America #319, where he gunned down eighteen such criminals at an underworld meeting which was, ironically, held to devise a way of countering the menace of the Scourge. When Captain America captured the Scourge in the following issue, the character claimed to be the brother of a super-villain known as the Enforcer, whom Scourge had killed because his sibling's criminal activities had shamed their father. He claims that this crime led to him creating the Scourge persona with help from a private investigator only identified as "Domino", who provided him detailed information on the supervillain community. However, immediately after making this confession, the captured man was himself shot and killed by an unseen assailant, who was heard to cry "Justice is served!" in the fashion of the Scourge's other killings. This was the first clue that there was more than one Scourge.
Some time later, in Captain America #350, it is revealed that the Scourge is actually the creation of the Red Skull, who states that he created the Scourge as his personal assassin, with Albert Malik, the communist villain who assumed the identity of the Red Skull during the 1950s, as one of this version's confirmed kills. This was apparently a ruse by the Skull, as during the 1994 U.S. Agent miniseries, it is suggested that the Scourge is ultimately an identity used by several people, all of whom were financed by the original Angel, a hero from the World War II era of Marvel Comics, who had been driven to vigilantism in recent years. His Scourge agents operate through subterfuge to get close to targets, then kill them.
The organization operates through behind the scenes direction by Angel, and under him are several individual Scourge agents capable of autonomous action. A man named Domino worked for the organization, but the identities of most Scourges are unknown, with the exceptions of Vagabond, Caprice, and Bloodstain. A member must be a legal adult willing to submit to thorough investigation of his or her personal background and swear an oath of loyalty to the principles of the Scourge organization. Any Scourge attempting to reveal the existence of the organization would be assassinated by another member.
When not in disguise, a Scourge wears an all-white coat and hat, and a skull-like mask. Most Scourges are armed with a .50 cal Thompson machine gun with a sawed-off barrel and stock using a special purpose 5-round magazine. Each .50 cal round is equipped with an acceleration activated, delay-triggered explosive shell which exhibits the signature sound of "pum-SPAAK" in the comic book panels. Scourges also use radio devices for communication with Domino, as well as makeup and costumes for disguise.
Read more about this topic: Scourge Of The Underworld
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