Father Box

A Father Box is a device that features in DC Comics.

Origin
Father Boxes were devices created by the New Gods of Apokolips. During the early history of the planet Earth, the New Gods arrived in a time when primitive Neanderthals inhabited the surface. The Sky Tribes brought the gifts of fire, imagination and magic to the Neanderthals. Before they departed, they created a hybrid of New God and Neanderthal to serve as the first superhero of the planet with the mission of bringing order to a chaotic world. This being was known as Aurakles who was given the Seven Imperishable Treasures to serve him. Amongst these items was the all-knowing Fatherbox and it eventually ended up within the possession of the Sheeda due to time travel. The device became known as the Croatoan in the Sheeda Croakspeak where it was well known as a weapon of the gods. (Seven Soldiers of Victory v1 #2)

Prior to his battle with Orion, Darkseid provided a Father Box to his servant Mortalla with instructions to give it to his son should he be the victor of the battle. This was with the intention of corruption Orion's soul and instilling Darkseid's own values in order to secretly corrupt him. (Orion v1 #14) Following Darkseid's apparent defeat, Mortalla provided the device to Orion after his own Mother Box had gone silent. When Orion was overwhelmed with a vision, the Father Box spoke to him and directed him to the Armory of Apokolips. With the device, he activated a hellborer and caused it to leave a fire pit at the Armory. (Orion v1 #8) His usage of the Father Box was because his Mother Box had ceased speaking to him after the battle Orion had with Darkseid. (Orion v1 #9) Whilst in Apokolips labyrinth, the Father Box warned that subtle jamming prevented the creation of Boom Tubes. (Orion v1 #10) When he returned, Orion asked the device to determine Desaad's location based on his use of a Boom Tube. The Father Box initially refused and an angry Orion threatened it whereupon it complied with his wishes. (Orion v1 #11) Afterwards, the device failed to detect the approach of the Promethean giant Gedirath who had been freed from the Source Wall by Darkseid's manipulations. (Orion v1 #14) Orion later used it to create a pistol and compelled Darkseid through the use of the Anti-Life Equation to kill himself. (Orion v1 #15)

The criminal known as Doctor Impossible was known to had acquired a Father Box at some point when he adopted his supervillain identity. When he was captured by Professor Ivo and his allies, the device was working to subvert the control over him that was being maintained by a Starro parasite. (Justice League of America v2 #4) Doctor Impossible was later dispatched to acquire the body of Red Tornado and, after succeeding, he teleported away with the aid of a hush tube from the Father Box. (Justice League of America v2 #1) When Hal Jordan destroyed one of Impossible's throwing discs, the angry Jonas Lock asked the Father Box to turn the Green Lantern into a stain. (Justice League of America v2 #4)

The Apokoliptian Power Boy was known to had a Father Box in his possession and accessed it when Supergirl attacked him. He intended to use the device to escape from Kara Zor-El but she renewed her attack before he could depart. During the fight, she damaged the Father Box unit and it warned both Power Boy and Supergirl that it was going critical due to a Source energy disruption. Whilst Kara did not understand the voice in her head, the panicking Power Boy urged her to throw the damaged Father Box into the sun before it exploded. Once thrown, it went critical and sent Supergirl elsewhere as a result of the temporal disruption. (Supergirl v5 #15)

At some point, Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite intended to examine the concept of good and evil whereupon they created miniature versions of the Justice League called the Lil League and their villainous counterparts called Lil Villains. The villains intended to destroy their good counterparts and Lil Lex Luthor led part of the team to infiltrate the Justice League trophy room to gather one of the artifacts present. This turned out to be a Father Box which the Lil Villains had a miniature version in their own reality which was why Lil Lex Luthor believed a bigger one was present in the New Earth dimension. With it, he empowered Lil Doomsday and made him much more powerful in order to use him to conquer the universe. This act led to Lil Doomsday growing much larger but Superman warned that the unpredictable nature of the Father Box meant that the entire universe could be destroyed. To stop the catacylsm, Lil Superman took Lil Doomsday into orbit where he exploded from the Father Box energy which killed the supervillain along with superhero. (Superman/Batman v1 #52)

The New 52
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of history was created with a different series of events. One of the Female Furies along with a group of Parademons had a Father Box that they were using to open Boom Tubes to conduct their operations on Earth. This attracted the attention of Green Lantern Simon Baz who killed several Parademons but was unable to determine how they were moving around quickly. He was later approached by the mysterious Spyral operative named Agent 37 with the two tracking the Parademon to the Fury. In the battle, the pair managed to send the Apokolipitians through a Boom Tube thus defending them. When Baz attempted to check in with Agent 37, he discovered that he was gone and that he had taken the Father Box that he surmised was the Spyral operatives objective. (Grayson Annual v1 #3)

Overview
These devices were noted for being opposite to Mother Boxes in the sense that these Apokoliptian versions were ungentle and fierce. It was claimed that they were aware of elements of Apokolips that even Mother Box did not know. As it was a creation of Apokolips, these machines were able to interface with Apokoliptian weaponry and bringing them under their masters control. (Orion v1 #8) This included also the capacity to create Boom Tubes for travel between two distant locations. One feature similar to a Mother Box was that these machines warned their users of dangers such as traps and of jamming that prevented it from summoning a Boom Tube. (Orion v1 #10) Another ability was the capacity to track the location of New Gods by determining the position of their Boom Tube usage. (Orion v1 #11) However, on one occasion it failed to detect the arrival of a Promethean giant. Ultimately, the usage of a Father Box led to the corruption of a pure good soul and instill the dark ways of Darkseid on their user. (Orion v1 #14)

A Father Box was described as being the most dangerous weapon in the universe yet unpredictable devices. They were capable of empowering beings with far greater energy and making them stronger. However, the nature of the box meant that it was perfectly capable of destroying the universe and its host that was provided with additional energy exploded from the raw power given to them. (Superman/Batman v1 #52) In addition, they were able to warn their charges on dangers approaching such as those coming from the other side of a wall and had the ability to channel energy to eliminate targets. (Justice League of America v2 #4) Father Boxes were able to teleport their users that faded away through the use of hush tubes. (Justice League of America v2 #4)

They tended to refer to their charges as "my daughter" or "my son" depending on the gender of the person. Similar to the Mother Box, they were connected to the Source but damage to the unit created a Source energy disruption leading to the Father Box entering into a critical state where it exploded with much power. In this time, it needed to be either sealed or destroyed in order to prevent a complete temporal spatial eruption. (Supergirl v5 #15)

Users

 * Orion :
 * Doctor Impossible :
 * Power Boy

Television

 * In Young Justice "Disordered", Desaad provides Bruno Mannheim of Intergang with a Father Box to use to corrupt Infinity-Man just prior before he is formed by the Forever People. It features again in the episode "The Hunt" where Lex Luthor provides it to his "team" on a mission to the War World to rescue Nightwing's Team. They use its Boom Tube capabilities to teleport to the War World and track down Superboy's Kryptonian DNA but they destroyed it after the completion of the mission after they learnt of Luthor's deception was discovered.

Appearances

 * Orion v1: #8, #10, #14
 * Justice League of America v2 #4:
 * Superman/Batman v1 #52:
 * Supergirl v5 #15:
 * Seven Soldiers of Victory v1 #2:
 * Grayson Annual v1:

External Link

 * DC Database Entry
 * Comicvine Entry