AUTHORITYAUTHORITY
Real Name: Tito Mendez
Identity/Class: Human technology user
Occupation: Information gatherer;
possible power broker;
former assassin for unspecified federal government
Group Membership: The Authority
Affiliations: Silver Sable, Spider-Man,
various field agents, Specialists, numerous others;
indirectly Flag-Smasher, Man-Thing, Carl
Shuffler;
formerly Albert;
Enemies: Nicole Mendez,
Sandman, Spider-Man, Uatu the Watcher, his former employers;
indirectly Doctor Zeus, Humanoids, Major Love, ULTIMATUM
Known Relatives: Nicole Mendez (wife, deceased), Rafael Mendez (father, deceased)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Currently
unknown;
formerly ### Riverside Drive (numbers not seen),
New York, NY
First Appearance: (In shadows) Marvel Team-Up II#1 (September, 1997)
Powers/Abilities: When last seen, the
Authority was virtually mindless.
The Authority possessed a wealth of knowledge
on all available sources. He utilized a number of operatives with
specific areas of expertise, and he could collate all of the
information he obtained, in order to make likely conclusions. He
also used a number of field operatives to contact or observe
others.
His armor allowed him to access the internet,
various forms of media, and to contact others at will. His base
was packed full of data storage, surveillance, and other
information technology.
He briefly held the Globe of Ultimate Knowledge,
which granted him access to the nearly infinite knowledge
gathered by the Watchers. It also allowed him to project blasts of force.
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 180 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown (shaved bald)
History:
(Marvel Team-Up II#5 (fb)) - As a child, Tito Mendez played in
the pool, pretending not to notice as his father ordered the
death of Mister Yellow, a suspected cop who had been discovered within his
criminal organization. Tito figured if anything would make his
father love him less he didn't want to know about it.
(Marvel Team-Up II#5 (fb)) - Tito Mendez grew to adulthood, still blind and deaf to his father's role in the world.
(Marvel Team-Up II#5 (fb)) - Mr. Mendez bribed Albert, an old friend in Federal Intelligence, to get Tito a job that would keep him far away from his father's work.
(Marvel Team-Up II#5 (fb)) - Tito was married and went to work as a U.S. government assassin. Tito went about his job just like the rest of his life. He was comfortable killing people, as long as he didn't know anything about them.
(Marvel Team-Up II#5 (fb)) One Father's Day, acting on vague
orders, Tito planted an explosive in a rented car, unaware that
the bomb would kill his own father. Distraught, he confided in
his wife, who revealed that she was also an agent of his
employers as she pulled a gun on him. Tito wrestled the gun away
from Nicole and killed her with it.
Tito then realized that his own ignorance had
made him vulnerable and had shattered his life.
(Marvel Team-Up II#5 (fb)) - Vowing never to be ignorant again, Tito spent his inheritance to endow the Authority, a formidable think tank for his personal use only.
(Marvel Team-Up II#5
(fb)) - The more Tito learned, the more threatened he felt and
the more terrified to look away he became. The world was a
stranger place than he knew, its hidden corners populated by gods,
monsters, and unfathomable forces. To protect himself, he would
have to become one of them; he would become the Authority.
(Marvel Team-Up II#4 (fb) - BTS / Marvel Team-Up II#5 (fb) - BTS) - Tito turned himself into an information guru, utilizing armor and technology that allowed him to access media and other information sources instantly.
(Marvel Team-Up II#3 (fb) - BTS / Marvel Team-Up II#5 (fb) - BTS) - The Authority sold information to various parties across the world.
(Marvel Team-Up II#3 (fb) - BTS) - The Authority had past dealings with Silver Sable, selling her information in exchange for a specific fee.
(Marvel Team-Up II#5 (fb) - BTS) - The Authority learned of the existence of the Globe of Ultimate Knowledge (a.k.a. the Ultimate Machine).
(Marvel Team-Up II#5 (fb)) - The Authority researched Spider-Man's powers, exploits, and behavior, hoping to see if he could be used to obtain the Globe. However, he actively avoided any efforts to learn Spider-Man's secret identity, knowing that if such information were leaked out it would hobble Spider-Man's effectiveness.
(Marvel Team-Up II#1 (fb) - BTS) <Six years after his father's death> - Seeking to learn more about Spider-Man, the Authority placed an advertisement in the Daily Bugle: "Spider-Man / South Central Los Angeles tomorrow / Millions will die."
(Marvel Team-Up II#1) - Seeing the
advertisement, Spider-Man traveled to L.A., where he assisted
Generation X in foiling a plot of Major Love and his Direct Euthanasia Action Division (D.E.A.D.).
The Authority was amused that Spider-Man
followed the instructions in the ad, and decided to continue to
use this method of manipulating him. He sent another
advertisement via e-mail to the Bugle: "Crete, Greece.
Millions will die."
(Marvel Team-Up II#2) - Again responding to the
ad, Spider-Man traveled to Crete, where he teamed with Hercules
to defeat Doctor Zeus and his Menagerie of Myth.
Now convinced that he could use the
advertisements to manipulate Spider-Man, the Authority concluded
that he could use Spider-Man for any task he chose.
(Marvel Team-Up II#3) - The Authority contacted
Silver Sable, telling her he knew that she had been contracted to
protect the European Union. He transmitted to her all of his
known data on the renegade faction of U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. and the
danger it represented to the E.U. He told her that he'd know if
she used the info, and would expect his usual fee. The Authority
told her to give his regards to Spider-Man, who called her for
aid in getting back to the USA mere seconds later.
Sable was quite happy with the Authority's
information, which warned of an attack on the Channel Tunnel
("Chunnel"), but she was furious when he used his
connection to her computers to upload her confidential files. As
he explained his insatiable curiosity and locked her out of her
own system to prevent her from halting the transfer, she turned
her weapon on her computer, blowing it up.
(Marvel Team-Up II#4 (fb) - BTS) - The Authority paid one of his field agents to give Spider-Man his card.
(Marvel Team-Up II#4) - The Sandman informed
Spider-Man of the existence of the Authority, sharing data from
Sable's files revealing the Authority's interest in Spider-Man.
Shortly thereafter the Authority's agent got Spider-Man's
attention and gave him the Authority's card. Meanwhile, the
Authority and his agents compiled data to discover why it was
raining everywhere in the world at once. Learning that
dimensional barriers were destabilizing (as a result of the
heroes return from Counter-Earth (Franklin)), that damage to
Asgard had sent the Norn Stones to Earth, and these factors had
combined to reconstruct the Man-Thing (discorporated by Ashema)
and scrambled its persona with that of a Norn Stone bearer, Carl
Shuffler, the Authority extrapolated that the Norn Stones--which
normally amplify power (and multiple stones amplifying power
exponentially)--could amplify the Man-Thing's psychokinesis,
causing everyone on Earth who knew fear to burn.
When Spider-Man arrived at his base, the
Authority told him he had been looking forward to meeting him. He
then explained the current threat to Spider-Man, who used the
information to locate and separate Shuffler, the Man-Thing, and
the Norn Stone. The Authority was pleased with Spider-Man's
success, but was disappointed when the Norn Stone vanished before
it could be brought in for examination. Nonetheless, the
Authority decided that Spider-Man owed him for the information he
had provided, and that he would pay for it whether he chose to or
not.
(Marvel Team-Up II#5) - When Spider-Man
returned to the Authority's base demanding answers, the Authority
told him that he would normally have earned $750, 000 from the
leads he had given Spider-Man freely, and that the wall-crawler
now owed him. The Authority showed Spider-Man the Globe within
the Leader's former Italian base, warning him that the Humanoids
within the base might gain omniscience from the Globe, but that
it might also fail to dull their ferocity, which would make them
a threat to all life on Earth. He gave Spider-Man a device that
would allegedly vaporize the Globe, eliminating its threat, and
then teleported him into the Leader's former base. Spider-Man overcame the Humanoids, but when he attempted to vaporize the
Globe, he instead found that the Authority's device was actually
a homing signal that allowed both the Globe and Spider-Man to be
teleported back to the Authority's base.
Placing the Globe over his own head, with his armor
protecting from being overwhelmed, the Authority
began to accumulate massive quantities of information.
Information flooded to those nearby the Authority, namely Spider-Man
and the Specialists, showing them an alternate Earth (Earth-98151)
in which the Authority accumulated ever greater knowledge until
he controlled the entire universe. Unwilling to allow this to
occur, Spider-Man leapt forward and tore the Globe from the
Authority's head.
Uatu the Watcher then appeared, revealing he
had had to wait until the Globe was in the hands of someone who would
surrender it to him willingly, and he then claimed the Globe. The
Authority then begged Uatu to take him with him, to make him like
him. Uatu told the Authority that he knew too much already and
that the Globe was not meant for mortal minds, and he erased the
knowledge of its existence from the Authority, the Specialists,
and Spider-Man. The Authority collapsed to the ground as his
knowledge faded, unable to recall anything, and he repeated over
and over: "I don't know!"
Comments: Created by Tom Peyer, Pat Olliffe, and Al Williamson.
The Authority's card advertised "Confidential Information / Services." Further, his phone number was (##8) 555-9243, and his website was www.authority.dat.
The Globe of Ultimate Knowledge was actually taken from the Leader's Italian base by the Hulk and then taken back by Uatu, but apparently Uatu must have seen the Authority as a threat and somehow caused the Globe to return to the Leader's Italian base in order to eliminate him.
It would appear that the Authority was not affiliated with Major Love or Doctor Zeus, but merely learned of their plots and used them to establish a connection with Spider-Man.
The flashback origins of the Authority were given by Uatu, who also took a second to glimpse an alternate reality (Earth-9815) in which Spider-Man had refused to help the Authority.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:
The Specialists have no known connection to:
The Authority
Initially organized as a think-tank for his own use, it evolved into a high-tech organization, with Specialists literally plugged into information sources.
--Marvel Team-Up II#4, (named) 5 (5(fb), [1-3], 4-5
Nicole Mendez
Tito's former wife, she was actually a government agent. After he had been tricked into killing his own father, she tried to kill Tito, but he wrestled the gun from her and killed her.
--Marvel Team-Up II#5 (5(fb)
Rafael Mendez
A drug lord, he made efforts to keep his business separated from his son, Tito. He eventually bribed his old friend Albert to get Tito a job working in government intelligence primarily to keep him far away from his illicit activities. However, the ignorant Tito was eventually duped by his employers into planting a bomb into a car, not knowing that this was a car Rafael would be renting, and Rafael was killed by the bomb. He died on Father's Day.
--Marvel Team-Up II#5 (5(fb)
Mister Yellow
Employed by "Rafael" Mendez and put in charge of the New York drug supply, he was discovered by other agents of Mendez in the process of copying the real shipping manifests. Mendez' men then worked him over and brought him before Mendez, who ordered him to be killed slowly.
--Marvel Team-Up II#5 (5(fb)
The Specialists
Masters of their various
fields--from mythology to dimensional physics to radiation-induced
mutation to biochemistry as it relates to size-alteration--they
operate out of the Authority's nerve center, from which they
gather and analyze data from all over the world. However, they
tend to be quite ignorant of matters outside of their own fields
and are unable to extrapolate or correlate different types of
data. They were quite averse to physical conflict.
They all maintain shaved heads, black body
suits, certain eyewear, and data feeds plugged directly into
their heads.
--Marvel Team-Up II#4 (5
field agent
Given a mission to give one of the Authority's cards to Spider-Man, the man got the hero's attention by pushing a large piece of masonry off of the top of a building over where Spidey was perched. Confronted by Spidey, the agent simply gave him the card.
--Marvel Team-Up II#4
Albert ??
Albert, an old friend of "Rafael" Mendez, worked in Federal Intelligence, and he took some hefty bribes to get Tito a job that would keep him far away from his father's work.
--Marvel Team-Up II#5 (5(fb)
Earth-9815
Known Inhabitants: Authority, Globe of
Ultimate Knowledge, Humanoids, Spider-Man)
Classification: Divergent Earth
History: Earth-9815 is a divergent Earth on which Spider-Man
refused the Authority's instructions to obtain the Globe. The
Authority attempted to obtain the Globe from the Leader's
Humanoids himself, but was slain in the process. The Humanoids then accessed the Globe, with each of
them gaining advanced knowledge and intellect. They then spread
across Earth, slaughtering all they encountered.
This reality was glimpsed by Uatu as he monitored the Authority's quest to obtain the Globe
--Marvel Team-Up II#5
Earth-98151
Known Inhabitants: Authority, Globe of
Ultimate Knowledge, Specialists, Spider-Man)
Classification: Divergent Earth
History: Earth-98151 is a divergent Earth on which the
Authority used the Globe to assimilate ever more information
until he controlled the entire universe
This reality was glimpsed by Spider-Man and the Specialists due to their proximity to the Globe when the Authority first donned it.
--Marvel Team-Up II#5
images:
Marvel Team-Up II#4, p7 (field agent)
p8, panel 3 (actively
absorbing data)
p9, panel 1 (Specialists)
#5, p2 (full body)
p5, panel 6 (face)
p7, panel 4 (Earth-9815)
p9, panel 1 (Albert)
panel 2 (Mr. Mendez)
panel 6 (Tito face)
p14, panel 2 (Nicole)
panel 4 (Authority board)
p19, panel 1 (Earth-98151)
Appearances:
Marvel Team-Up II#1 (September, 1997) - Tom Peyer (writer), Pat Olliffe (pencils), Al Williamson (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Marvel Team-Up II#2 (October, 1997) - Tom Peyer (writer), Pat Olliffe (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Marvel Team-Up II#3 (November, 1997) - Tom Peyer (writer), Darick Robertson (pencils), Gary Martin (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Marvel Team-Up II#4 (December, 1997) - Tom Peyer (writer), Josh Hood (pencils), Andrew Pepoy (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Marvel Team-Up II#5 (January, 1998) - Tom Peyer (writer), Tom Grindberg (pencils), Dick Giordano (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Last updated: 10/13/07
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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