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    Ten

    Character » Ten appears in 111 issues.

    A member of the Royal Flush Gang. The more popular version of the character (Melanie Walker) appeared in the DC animated universe.

    Short summary describing this character.

    Ten last edited by aphillips17 on 05/02/19 01:17AM View full history

    Origin

    The character Ten is one which shows up generally with every version of the Royal Flush Gang. In many cases the characters has shown up and not been identified specifically as other than Ten, though the character is generally female. In the first appearance of the Royal Flush Gang, Ten was a character named Wanda Wayland. She had been an experimental test pilot, whose skills and abilities rivaled those of the best pilots in the world (including Hal Jordan). Despite this her beauty often stood in the way of her acceptance in the male dominated industry, and she experienced many cases of sexual abuse. This eventually led to her being fired. Eventually she met Ace who recruited her to the Royal Flush Gang because of her feelings of being used and abused by everyone else. This is the origin as it applies to Wanda, the character that represents Ten is often not directly identified in comics and thus their backgrounds are either assumed to be the same or simply undefined.

    Creation

    Her first appearance was in Justice League of America #43 in 1966. She was created by Gardner Fox and drawn by Mike Sekowsky.

    Character Evolution

    The character is often a stock character and not very well featured or even identified. The most character development that she has undergone was in her early years and that of her alternate versions in other media. It is interesting to note though that with the origin of the character that the societal norms over sexual discrimination were that of an earlier period when it was still not expressly forbidden to fire someone for complaining about company staff behaviour. It is worth noting however that early appearances of the character were during the Silver Age when it was relatively uncommon for much continuity between issues, especially among villains.

    The exception to the lack of character development for Ten is Melanie Walker, an alternate version of the character that strove to change her life from that of a villain to that of a hero.

    Major Story Arcs

    The character has shown up only periodically in the publication history of DC Comics and generally has been an enemy of the Justice League of America alongside her companions in the Royal Flush Gang. In her first appearance (Justice League of America #203) she operated alongside Jack as the two were to infect Justice League members with a chemical called Z-Radiation. Soon after accomplishing this against Aquaman and Firestorm, she infiltrated the Justice League Satellite and successfully infected Green Arrow as well, although he had been able to temporarily subdue her with a net arrow. She was soon captured by Elongated Man and Black Canary, but Hector Hammond mentally controlled her so that she would not talk. Eventually Hammond was stopped by the astral form of Professor Martin Stein.

    About to be punched by Booster.
    About to be punched by Booster.

    The character later appeared as an early enemy of the post-Legends Justice League team. She attacked Justice League headquarters alongside her teammates exactly at the time that Booster Gold was being considered for membership in the league. He effectively stopped the whole team by himself, including when he knocked out Ten with one punch. Ironically they had a discussion about cultural norms not to hit women beforehand, which coincidentally tied into the history of the character experiencing sexual discrimination (though it was never actually confirmed that this was Wanda.) Incidentally it was the battle against the Royal Flush Gang which laid the foundations of friendship between Booster Gold and Blue Beetle (which would be a recurring theme throughout this series.)

    The character later showed up to battle another version of the Justice League of America. This version was not identified as Wanda either, though she had the same general appearance. In this version Professor Amos Fortune and Roulette each controlled their own Royal Flush Gangs where members worked their way up from lackeys (in the lower numbers) by rising in numbers of the gang. It is only once reaching number Ten that they are considered as members of the field team. This gang staged numerous robbery attempts in Las Vegas before being stopped by the combine forces of Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, Doctor Light, Red Tornado, Firestorm and Vixen. Also in this version for the first time there were battling versions of gangs as there was also clearly visible a Ten of Clubs (who was a male character.)

    Powers and Abilities

    Wanda is a regular human in above average physical conditioning who is an excellent pilot. Every version of the character is supplied with high-tech weaponry and equipment which makes her a threat. the nature of her weaponry changes between her various appearances and there appears to be no continuity in this regard. It is worth noting that the powers given to her by her equipment are meant to operate alongside those of her teammates, so while the Queen might create illusions, she can attack the confused victim with an energy blast. A common piece of equipment is a giant playing card which gives them the ability of flight when they stand on it.

    Other Media

    The character also showed up in numerous shows, mostly all of the as an enemy (alongside the rest of the Royal Flush Gang) for one of the many versions of the Justice League. She first appeared in other media against the Super Powers Team (based on a toy line) where she is an African-American thief and where the Royal Flush Gang is being controlled by Darkseid.

    In the series Justice League from the 2000s the character was an male African-American superhuman with super strength on the same level as Superman. This version of the team was created by Project Cadmus. The team ended up working alongside the Joker in an effort to discredit the Justice League.

    In Justice League Unlimited the character appeared again but this time a female in line with her comic appearances. This character could also control her own hair.

    Justice League: Doom
    Justice League: Doom

    She later appeared in Justice League Doom again with a depiction in line with the original version of the character (though again not identified as such.)

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