The Order

The Order is a covert international brotherhood and organized-crime empire steered by a council of supervillain kingpins. Ranking among the largest and most influential criminal networks on the planet, it holds sway over the underworlds of many countries at once. Its power rests on a leadership tier of crime lords rather than a single figure, giving it reach far beyond any one city.

Formed at some unknown point by the deadliest supervillain bosses on Earth, the syndicate long ran under the hand of Mister Liu, who held it together for years and beat back challengers, including Machine Head, who wanted his seat. When Liu learns that Titan has quietly displaced Machine Head, he contacts the new boss of Chicago and orders him to spring Multi-Paul from Payton Penitentiary. Certain Titan would never publicly own his place in the Order, Liu plots to have him killed for good.

The scheme backfires. Machine Head, having fled, joins forces with Titan to strip Liu of his rank, trading his help for control of the whole organization, and the plan succeeds. Once in charge, Machine Head keeps his word to Titan by letting him rule Chicago on his own terms while he oversees the broader Order. The syndicate has also been quietly threading spies into the Global Defense Agency, its agents marked by a silver ring bearing a red circle, using one such mole to leak the location of Rex Splode and Invincible to Liu.

Leadership passes from Mister Liu, its former top kingpin, to Machine Head, its current one, above a bench of crime lords that includes The Face, The Walking Dread, Red Eye, Embrace, Slaying Mantis, Insomniac, War Woman II, and Titan. The Chicago wing counts Titan as its present boss alongside Isotope, Kursk, Tether Tyrant, Magmaniac, and Furnace, while Mister Liu's faction gathers Great Wall, Multi-Paul, and the late Magnattack. Battle Beast once worked for the Order as hired muscle. The concept draws on evil groups such as the Masters of Evil and Hellfire Club from Marvel and the Injustice League and the Light from DC.