- "The Unity cleanses a planet with fire, transforming it into a copy of the enemy's world. All who live become servants of Darkseid, alive but drained of life: parademons."
- ―Wonder Woman[src]
Parademons are a sentient, genetically modified species created when altering other species with the Mother Boxes. Although subservient to the overlord Darkseid, they are actively employed by his generals.
They were notably employed by a younger Darkseid during his attempted planetary invasion of Earth, and later again by Steppenwolf in his battle against the Justice League.
History[]
Creation[]
Parademons are created by the tried and true process of deconstructing and repurposing genetic material from dead and captured enemies of Apokolips with the Mother Boxes. Newly created Parademons are then processed, trained, and enhanced to serve Darkseid.[1]
Invasion of Earth[]
Parademons were used as Darkseid's army when the New God first attempted to conquer Earth. During this invasion, countless hordes of Parademons emerged from the Apokoliptian dropships, requiring the combined might of the Amazons, Atlanteans, and armies of Mankind to match their numbers and manage to fight them back. With the assistance of the Old Gods and Yalan Gur, the Parademons were defeated along with Darkseid and were forced to retreat.[2]
Parademons swarm the Batmobile during Batman's assault on Steppenwolf's stronghold
Preparing for war[]
Sometime after Bruce's vision of an alternate future, he confided in his friend and guardian Alfred Pennyworth, about the creatures he'd seen within these nightmares. Alfred then went to work on creating a simulation system that would allow users to simulate stepping into the shoes of the potential team members that Bruce was looking to recruit to fight in this war against these creatures. As Bruce set about making use of the system, Alfred professed that he'd encountered trouble in creating an accurate simulation of the creatures and how they would react when challenged in combat.[3]
War for Earth[]
After the death of Superman at the hands of Doomsday , one of the Mother Boxes awoke and called to Steppenwolf, with many Parademons assisting Steppenwolf when he arrived at Themyscira to retrieve from the Amazons their heavily guarded Mother Box. After the New God retrieved the second Mother Box from Atlantis, the Parademons began kidnapping certain workers from S.T.A.R. Labs to learn of the last Mother Box of three's location.
At this point, a team of heroes intervened, saving the hostages and defeating several Parademons in the process. Steppenwolf built a hive inside a decommissioned nuclear silo in northern Russia, where his Parademons stayed relatively hidden, not attracting much attention from the world until the Unity could be started. Once the Unity process began, the heroes arrived to stop it, being initially overwhelmed by the Parademons' great numbers. Eventually, the League, with the help of the now recovered Superman, were able to stop the Unity and slay Steppenwolf, with all remaining Parademons presumably being dispatched along with their master.[2]
Insurgency nightmare[]
- "I had a dream; it was the end of the world."
- ―Bruce Wayne to Diana Prince about his vision.[src]
A parademon from the Knightmare.
In a nightmarish vision of an alternate future shown to Batman as a warning from a version of the Flash from that future, parademons invaded Earth, having seemingly allied themselves with a ruthless and tyrannical version of Superman and his Regime Stormtroopers.[4][2] Several parademons began taking much of the last remaining Insurgency members away to a place unknown. One parademon managed to knock out Batman after the latter had successfully killed a Regime trooper, taking out the Dark Knight in a single strike.[4]
Characteristics[]
Parademons lack personality and individuality while possessing an instinctive combat ability upon creation. They are loyal soldiers to their New Gods masters, especially Darkseid, as they operate proudly under his banner, as seen when Steppenwolf commands an army of them in his attempted terraformation of Earth, and during his second attempt.[1] During Bruce Wayne's vision of an apocalyptic future, parademons were loyal also to the tyrannical Superman.[4]
A parademon variant attacking an Insurgency soldier
Parademons also have improved physical abilities, since they are seen carrying people with ease and have been shown to be capable of overpowering Atlanteans even underwater, where they are said to be at their strongest, and dragging them to the surface, and a single parademon was able to knock down Wonder Woman after she had previously been hit by Steppenwolf, though she had been caught off guard at the time. They also possess other skills such as superhuman agility and speed. They also have two wings that allow them to fly at high speeds.
Parademons also possess innate abilities for hand-to-hand combat and the handling of different weapons. However, they aren't actually capable of standing up to immensely skilled and strong beings, as not only was Aquaman shown able to defeat hordes of them effortlessly, but even Batman, who was only at the highest level of human physical prowess, was able to dispatch scores of Parademons with the Batmobile's weaponry and even go head to head against them with martial arts and his equipment and come out as the victor. Well over 5000 years ago, parademons, while formidable foes nonetheless, were noticeably weaker than those of the current age, as many were defeated by the hands of ordinary humans, who were physically inferior to Amazons and Atlantians, using rudimentary weaponry, suggesting that the process of creating parademons has been changed and improved upon.
A variant of parademon. Note their distinctively different appearance compared to other "ordinary" parademons.
Some parademons posses the unique trait of extending an extra pair of insect-like pincers from their abdomen, used to pierce their targets, along with two sets of wings they use when flying, and have slimmer arms and legs. These parademons are considerable larger and seem to have a different head shape compared to normal parademon troopers. They are seen during the Knightmare and are present in Steppenwolf's base.
Equipment[]
- Apokoliptian weaponry: During the first invasion of Earth, parademons were armed with glowing axes. During Steppenwolf's mission to acquire the Mother Boxes, his troops were equipped with much more advanced weapons, energy rifles. Their rifles fire a form of red-colored, plasma-like energy, bearing remarkable similarities to the function of Kryptonian Plasma Carbines. The weapon is lethal when fired upon vital spots or unprotected humans, though the Flash was able to survive an incapacitating round to the leg, and Batman had to make great effort to avoid the weapon's blasts.
- Apokoliptian plasma turret: The parademons also use powerful plasma turrets, these turrets emit powerful plasma bursts.
- Parademon armor: Parademons wear an organic, chitinous body armor that protects them from conventional weapons, resulting in Batman needing to upgrade his Batmobile's arsenal and utilize high-powered explosives to cause damage. This armor, however, is not strong enough to protect against extremely powerful weapons like Wonder Woman's sword or Aquaman's trident, nor can it withstand great impacting forces, as the Flash was able to kill a parademon by pushing it at super-speed.
Notable parademons[]
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
Concept artwork[]
Behind the Scenes[]
- "Steppenwolf has backup, called parademons. He can summon them. They're his army, basically shock troops. There are a lot of them; their power is in numbers. They're winged and can fly in very quickly and do damage with their custom weapons."
- ―Ciarán Hinds[src]
Concerning their design, Jeremy Hanna, a concept artist for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, said "We worked with Zack Snyder back in 2015 to develop a look for the parademons which feature in the dream sequence in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. We wanted to blur the line between organic and technological forms, making it difficult to distinguish the creature from their armor, breather, and weaponry."[5]
Differences in Justice League[]
- Parademons arrived on Earth via unknown means before the Boom Tube from Apokolips opened and were seen Scouting for Mother Boxes across the world.
- Batman hunted the parademon Scout in Gotham City in an attempt to discover what they sought, but to no avail apart from the residue of its suicide sort of looking like three boxes.
- Parademons' blood is green instead of red.
- Their armor is silver instead of black.
- The insectoid variants seen in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder's Justice League are not present.
- Parademons are attracted to fear and a specific siren sound.
- Drawn by Steppenwolf's growing fear of the Justice League, the parademons attacked their master, and the lot of them were pulled into a Boom Tube.
Trivia[]
- Parademon blood is normally red but turns bright molten orange when the unity is being formed.
- Director David Ayer revealed parademons were originally planned to appear in Suicide Squad as a part of Enchantress's army, but as the script for Justice League evolved, it was decided they would be replaced by Eyes of the Adversary.[6]
- Zack Snyder revealed parademons were to have an alternate transformation scene in Justice League. A piece of concept art shows Batman in a room where human bodies are hanging upside down, in the process of becoming parademons. Ultimately this was deemed "too scary".[7]
- In a few of the scenes of Justice League, it was implied that parademons do not have internal organs.
- The parademons were all voiced by Gary A. Hecker in Justice League.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Justice League
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Zack Snyder's Justice League
- ↑ Justice League VR: The Complete Experience
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
- ↑ Jeremy Hanna ArtStation - Batman V Superman Parademon
- ↑ Steppenwolf Was Originally a Huge Part of Suicide Squad
- ↑ Justice League Parademon Transformation Pods
