LONNIE POOLE

Real Name: Lonnie Poole

Identity/Class: Alternate reality (Earth-148611) human paranormal

Occupation: Unrevealed (see comments)

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Charlotte Beck, Melinda (see comments)

Enemies: Justice (John Tensen)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Chicago, Illinois

First Appearance: Justice II#16 (February 1988)

Powers/Abilities: Lonnie could make women do whatever he wanted (see comments).

Height: 5'10" (by estimation - see comments)
Weight: 145 lbs. (by estimation - see comments)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Brown

History:
(Justice II#16 (fb) - BTS) - Following the White Event, where a blinding flash of light engulfed the world and granted many individuals paranormal powers, Lonnie Poole gained the ability to make women do whatever he wanted. The first signs of this power emerging where recurring headaches, which prompted him to visit the Clinic for Paranormal Research in Wisconsin. While there he encountered fellow paranormal Charlotte Beck (see comments) and tests revealed exactly what his new capabilities allowed him to do. Deciding not to stay, he charmed his way out of the Clinic, and immediately moved, leaving no forwarding address (see comments).

   Lonnie began using his powers to sleep with women. At some point he caught an STD with "fatal consequences" (presumably HIV), but continued to have unprotected sex despite knowing he could be dooming his partners to dying.

(Justice II#16 (fb)) - Shortly after Lonnie slept with his latest conquest/victim, Melinda, he was tracked down by Justice (see comments), who had appointed himself as the judge, jury and executioner of paranormals who abused their powers. The vigilante kicked in the door to Lonnie's apartment and confronted his prey, who tried unsuccessfully to talk his way out of the confrontation. Outlining Lonnie's crimes so the condemned man would know why he was being punished, Justice then incinerated the Lothario, leaving only Lonnie's left hand and head intact, both to enable the police to identify the victim and to ensure the authorities would know all of Justice's recent slayings were connected, and thus eventually to have the killings serve as a warning to other paranormals. To this end Justice also traced a set of scales in the ashes. Lonnie's head ended up a short distance from the ashes, hidden behind a potted plant, presumably having bounced and rolled along the floor at the moment he was decapitated. 

(Justice II#16) - After Lonnie's remains were discovered the police scoured the apartment looking for clues. Police Captain Tony Nesmith called in Miriam Morse, a paranormal able to witness visions of past events by touching objects that had been there during those times. With this ability she scanned through Lonnie's last moments, witnessing his time with Melinda and then his demise.

Comments: Created by Peter David, Lee Weeks and Tony DeZuniga.

   We don't see what he does for a living, but that's assuming he does anything. With the power to control women, an obvious option might be to just get some of his richer victims to just give him money. However, if he did commit this additional crime, Justice never bothered to include it when he listed Lonnie's misdeeds.

   What exactly happened when he encountered Charlotte Beck? She recalled his name a year later, but she had to double check Clinic records to confirm she'd remembered the correct person, then when asked why she remembered him after a brief meeting over a year earlier she became a touch defensive. The obvious implication is that she fell victim to his powers, but given she knew what his ability was (if not when they first met, then soon after) if they'd actually slept together I'd expect her to remember him without having to double check, especially as the context makes it clear she knew what he could do, if not when they first met then soon after. So I suspect it was more along the lines that as Lonnie learned to use his powers he tried to seduce her, but didn't actually succeed.

   Why did he leave the Clinic? Perhaps he realized that he couldn't go round using his powers to seduce women in a place that housed not only people who knew what he could do, but also who had powers of their own. He'd soon get caught and punished if he tried to abuse his powers there. Or maybe he sensed the villainous motives behind those running the Clinic (as shown in the DP7 comic), and got out when he could. Since Charlotte says he "charmed" his way out, it sounds like he used his power on a female staff member to facilitate his escape. Given he moved without a forwarding address, deliberately vanishing so the Clinic couldn't find him (Charlotte's comments make it sound like they did try), I'm leaning towards the latter option. If he'd just fled because he knew he couldn't misuse his powers if he stayed there would be no reason to hide, and if he'd fled because he'd already misused his powers (beyond perhaps trying unsuccessfully to sleep with Charlotte) to bed women there I'd again think Charlotte would remember him without needing to double check.

   We also don't get too many details about the specifics of his power. We know it doesn't work on men, and Justice claims Lonnie can make women "do whatever you ask." How long does it take to wear off once out of Lonnie's presence? Does it ever? Do they later come to realize Lonnie controlled them, and that the sex they had was non-consensual? If not, then how would Justice have learned of Lonnie's crimes? Charlotte presumably wouldn't have known he'd manipulated her in whatever encounter they had if not for the fact that the Clinic knew and could inform her. Conversely, if the control does wear off, allowing the women to realize they've been controlled, I'd expect at least some to seek retribution. Many might avoid going to the authorities to claim assault given the difficulty of proving it, and of course even if some did Lonnie could easily make them change their stories the moment he was in their presence. But if a few did, then the police might start to get suspicious something was off; if multiple women independently accuse the same guy of the same heinous crime, then even if they all subsequently drop the charges it would be a worrying pattern that I'd expect them to at least mention when they find him murdered, especially as they were openly discussing trying to figure out the vigilante's motive for choosing his targets. Putting aside the cops, if a victim eventually came to realize what Lonnie had done and that she couldn't get justice through the law, Lonnie might face revenge via male friends/relatives immune to his powers, or at the end of a gun from a victim out of range of the ability. But before that extreme option, I'd expect at least a few to try going to the police, so given their apparent lack of knowledge of any crimes done by Lonnie, even allegations later dropped, I'm leaning towards his powers never wearing off. His victims continue to think they slept with him of their own volition, and Charlotte only knows different because the Clinic told her after the fact that Lonnie had controlled her. As for Justice finding him? How does Justice find any of his victims? His senses went beyond the norm and he could definitely see how good or bad a person was based on the colors of their aura, so its likely that when he spotted a wrong 'un he did a bit of research to figure out what their power was and what they crimes they'd committed.

   Barring his dismembered hand and ashy remains, we only see Lonnie in Playback's visions, hence why his images on this page are somewhat translucent. We don't get a decent close up of his eyes to discern eye color, and we never see him standing next to someone whose height is known, as he and Justice never share a panel until after Justice turns him to ashes. However, we do get a somewhat indirect comparison to Justice. In one panel we see the 6'2" vigilante standing in Lonnie's apartment doorway, and there's only a small amount of clearance between the top of Justice's head and the top of the door frame; another panel shows Lonnie in the same doorway, and though the scale is a bit different we can definitely see more clearance between the top of head and door frame. So Lonnie is at least a few inches shorter than Justice, but not by a ridiculous amount. In terms of his weight, given we see him shirtless we can see that he's reasonably physically fit - not six packed ripped, but not definitely not carrying any excess belly weight. So an average weight for his height seems fair.

   Lonnie originally had a subprofile in the Justice Killings entry from 02/15/2003; this profile expands on that. Each of those characters deserves an explanation at some point

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Lonnie Poole has no known connections to:

Melinda

Melinda slept with Lonnie Poole (presumably seduced using his power to influence women). Having enjoyed the sex, as she prepared to leave she asked him to promise to call her. He reassured her that he would, but his hinted at his insincerity by failing to correctly remember her name. 

--Justice II#16

images: (without ads)
Justice II#16, p7, pan7 (main image)
Justice II#16, p8, pan2 (headshot)
Justice II#16, p8, pan4 (slain by Justice)
Justice II#16, p4, pan3 (remains)
Justice II#16, p7, pan2&6 (Lonnie and Justice in the doorframe, for height comparison)
Justice II#16, p6, pan7 (Melinda, reclining)
Justice II#16, p7, pan2 (Melinda, correcting Lonnie about her name)

Appearances:
Justice II#16 (February 1988) - Peter David (writer), Lee Weeks (pencils), Tony DeZuniga (inks), Howard Mackie (editor)

First Posted: 09/23/2025
Last updated: 09/23/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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