The Hat

HAT

Real Name: Rampotatek

Class: Earth elemental

Occupation: Frogman

Group Affiliation: formerly Elite, Elite v.2

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile

First Appearance: Action Comics I #775 (March, 2001)

Powers: The Hat was an elemental composed of inorganic matter that chose to disguise himself as a human. He had an intimate connection with the earth, could breathe fire, but when in human form he used his hat as a focus for magic spells, including summoning demons and making alcoholic beverages appear.

History: A young Japanese man was taken over by the earth elemental Rampotatek and recruited into the Elite by Manchester Black, taking the name the Hat.

(JLA #100) - There were several volcanic eruptions, the hole in the ozone layer opened further, and other geothermal events that signaled an extinction level event. Hat sensed it was Gaea, who damned humanity for their abuse of her and their failure to get along, and reported to Sister Superior. In response Superior formed the Elite v.2 and proposed a plan to the JLA, and although they doubted her trustworthiness they agreed. The Elite stormed Washington, demanded all governments dissolve and declared themselves rulers of Earth because humanity had proved themselves unfit to rule. After UN meetings and a staged defeat of the JLA by the Elite, every nation on Earth put aside their differences to tackle the Elite. Gaea once again believed in humanity, seeing them unite against a common enemy, and held back her wrath. The Elite allowed themselves to be defeated, and the cover story was that the JLA had them imprisoned on the moon.

Comments: Created by Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen.

The Hat and the Elite were an analog for DC Wildstorm's totalitarian heroes the Authority.