GREAT COORDINATOR

Real Name: Harvey Jessup

Identity/Class: Time-displaced (Earth-861095) human technology user

Occupation: Ruler, scientist;
    former chief scientist for Roxxon Oil Company

Group Membership: Leader of Exiles of Central City;
    formerly Roxxon Oil Company

Affiliations: Formerly Reed Richards

Enemies: Fantastic Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Woman/Susan Richards, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, She-Hulk/Jen Walters), Iron Man (Tony Stark)

Known Relatives: Unidentified wife (presumably deceased), Murna (daughter)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Central City, California and its time-displaced pocket realm

First Appearance: (BTS) Fantastic Four I#293 (August, 1986);
    (named and fully seen) Fantastic Four I#294 (September, 1986)

Powers/Abilities: Jessup had no superhuman powers. He was highly intelligent in the field of nuclear technology, and had a working understanding of the manipulation of the passage of time, though his calculations were less than perfect (see comments). He created the time-warping Salvation Generator.
    By the time the Fantastic Four encountered him, he had spent the vast majority of his life in suspended animation; he was extremely old and infirm, and could only be awake for brief periods of time before suffering from severe exhaustion. He wore a helmet containing the Ultimate Adjudicator (pictured at top right), which could project a blast that could disintegrate others. From his command capsule, he could project illusions throughout the city, as well as activate and control a variety of weapons, such as concussive blasters.

Height: 6' (by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: White (balding); formerly black

History:
(Fantastic Four I#294 (fb) - BTS) - Jessup worked in Central City, the hometown of Reed Richards, and the two were familiar with each other's work.

(Fantastic Four I#294 (fb)) - Jessup was responsible for overseeing the construction of a nuclear power plant for Roxxon Oil Company. However, he eventually began to feel that the project was not being handled well. He complained to his superiors about the dangerous cutting of corners, but they initially ignored him, and later fired him.

Jessup was plagued by nightmares of an imminent nuclear war that would destroy the world. He later saw a television interview with the recently-formed Fantastic Four; when he heard Reed Richards discussing the space-time continuum, Jessup came upon the idea of using time to save himself and his city from the war.

After several years of work, Jessup finished construction of his Salvation Generator. He then activated it, intending for it to form a bubble that would essentially warp time inside it, so that only a relatively short time would pass inside the bubble, while time would pass much more rapidly on the outside. He figured that after the world had cleansed itself of the nuclear radiation and it was safe once again, he would open the bubble and Central City's people would return to the outside world.

However, things did not quite work as Jessup had intended; in fact, almost the exact opposite happened: time instead moved extremely rapidly inside the bubble, while time moved normally outside the bubble. One month passed inside the bubble for each second that passed on the outside (see comments).

(Fantastic Four I#295 (fb) - BTS) - Jessup arranged approximately 50 loyal technicians to assist him; with their aid, he put the rest of the population--presumably against their will or without advance warning--into suspended animation. Jessup and his technicians ran the city for an unspecified period of time.

(Fantastic Four I#294 (fb) - BTS) - Eventually, as Jessup aged, he built a device in which he could be placed to remain in suspended animation. He set up a plan for his technicians to oversee everything, and he entered his machine, only being awakened every few centuries to reevaluate things, or when there were unforeseen complications. As Richards and his Fantastic Four had been a strong influence on Jessup, the successive generations of Exiles of the time-displaced Central City eventually developed a cult-like worship of the Fantastic Four.

(Fantastic Four I#295 (fb) - BTS) - Jessup eventually realized that something had gone awry with his device, but he was afraid to deactivate it, for fear of exposing the city to the radioactive wasteland (as he mistakenly perceived things to be on the outside of the bubble).

(Fantastic Four I#295 (fb) - BTS / Fantastic Four I#293 - BTS) - Approximately 9800 years after forming the bubble (but only 34 hours on the outside), Iron Man attempted to investigate the strange phenomenon. Iron Man spent three weeks (relatively speaking) inside the bubble, during which time he encountered the Exiles of Central City. After unspecified circumstances, Iron Man emerged from the bubble, partially dehydrated and starving, and with his power sources exhausted, while only about half a second had passed on the outside since he had entered the bubble.

(Fantastic Four I#295 (fb) - BTS) - In response to the encounter with Iron Man, Jessup had four patrols of mutates--Burner, Clobber, Head, and Wing--created to meet such threats.

(Fantastic Four I#295 (fb)) - Decades later (as time passed within the bubble), the She-Hulk entered Central City (having become trapped by the bubble within a minute or so of Iron Man entering/exiting it). The mutate patrols were sent after the She-Hulk, who managed to fight them off, but they continued to pursue her for months, until she was finally exhausted and overcome. She was brought before the Great Coordinator--as Jessup was now called--who had his daughter, Murna, use her psychic powers to probe the She-Hulk's mind. However, neither Jessup nor any of the other Exiles were able to accept the fact that the She-Hulk had been one of the Fantastic Four (who had been elevated to a god-like status by the Exiles of Central City) and Murna was decried as a blasphemer. Jessup saved Murna from being torn apart by the enraged Exiles, but he told them that she knew not what she was saying, as she had been possessed and corrupted by contact with the "green demoness". Jessup--perhaps suspecting the truth, but unwilling to allow the information to become public knowledge--stripped Murna of her status as a priestess and forbade her from speaking or interacting with others ever again.

(Fantastic Four I#295 (fb) - BTS) - Jessup had the She-Hulk placed into suspended animation.

(Fantastic Four I#293) - One hundred-and-fifty years later (ten minutes on the outside), the rest of the Fantastic Four--joined by Wyatt Wingfoot--entered the bubble in search of the She-Hulk.

(Fantastic Four I#294) - After encountering and fighting the mutate patrols, the FF and Wyatt met with Priestess Livia, to whom they explained their origins. Livia believed their stories and proclaimed to the city that the Four had come to save them. However, when she summoned the Great Coordinator, he denounced them as frauds. Reed challenged Jessup to prove his claims, and Jessup used the Ultimate Adjudicator on them--while they expected to be submitted to a lie-detector-type process, they instead apparently disintegrated under its beam. As Reed Richards faded away, he could only ask why; Jessup muttered under his breath, "because a society may have many gods--but there is room enough for only one savior."

(Fantastic Four I#295 (fb) / 294) - The Fantastic Four escaped death due to the Invisible Woman, who had shielded them and then caused them to progressively become invisible from the outside in, thus making them to appear to disintegrate.

(Fantastic Four I#295) - The invisible FF and Wyatt were discovered by Murna, who answered their questions and then led them to free the She-Hulk. Meanwhile, Jessup was being prepared to return to stasis, when the FF confronted him again. However, Jessup managed to get within his command capsule and drive them off briefly, but they fought their way back in. Eventually Reed had Murna link his mind with Jessup's, and Jessup was forcefully confronted with what had really happened. After realizing his tragic error, Jessup commanded the Exiles to stop fighting, and he told the people to trust in Murna. With the last of his strength, Jessup showed Richards the mechanisms to his Salvation Generator.

Richards then deactivated the Salvation Generator and shifted all of Central City out of sync with time, taking care to create a "shearing factor" in the dome's field to return the underground chamber with the city's original population, along with the sections of the original city, to normal time. As a result, the advanced Central City was sent into the future, where it would reappear in ten thousand years--to the Exiles, the time shift would seem to take only a few days, and perhaps in that distant future, they would no longer be exiles.

Comments: Created by John Byrne, Roger Stern, Jerry Ordway, Al Gordon.

    Interesting story. Byrne wrote and drew #294, and drew and co-plotted #295. Roger Stern scripted #295 and wrote #296. I'm not sure whether Byrne had anything different intended, but the end result was pretty good. From the sudden appearance of the Bubble around Central City in the modern era (and from the calculations below), it would have seemed that it should have happened right then. Perhaps it was Jessup's obsession with his work that made him ignore or miss relatively recent changes in the Fantastic Four, such as: (1) Sue's changing her name to the Invisible Woman (as occurred in #283, only 11 issues (and perhaps just a week or so in Marvel Time) before this story, and (2) The Thing quitting and being replaced by the She-Hulk, as occurred in F4#265 (29 issues, perhaps just a few months in Marvel Time).

   However, I thought that it was a big cop-out that every person from the original Central City--except Jessup and a few allies--had been put in suspended animation and were all restored back to their normal lives at the end of the story. The people from the "future" Central City were then sent into the future to live out their lives. And everyone lived happily ever after.

10,000 years = 3,650,000 days = 87,600,000 hours = 315,000,000,000 seconds

At roughly a 2.6 million:1 conversion, that equals a little over 34 hours on the outside.

As Alpha Flight nemesis Llan the Sorceror makes a comeback every ten millenia, the people of this community could very easily fall prey to him. Imagine what he could do with their advanced technology augmenting his own magic!
--Carycomic

Back when he was in college, Reed Richards encountered another scientific genius whose invention was based on faulty mathematical equations: Victor von Doom and his "Necrophone".

And Central City's plight kind of reminds me of Stephen King's later-published book "Under the Dome".--Ron Fredricks

Profile by Snood. Expansion by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Great Coordinator (Harvey Jessup) has no known connection to:

The Exiles of Central City have no known connection to:

The Warp Bubble around Central City has no known connection to:

The Exiles and Central City

Located in California, the original city was the home of both Reed Richards and Harvey Jessup. The entire city had been enclosed within a time-warping ebony bubble created by Jessup's Salvation Generator; the warp allowed 10,000 years to pass inside the bubble. In addition, the majority of the natives were put into suspended animation, and only fifty people--loyal technicians to Jessup--ran the city, and also served as the genetic stock to repopulate it. After Iron Man's arrival, steps were taken to create a defense force, which consisted of the four mutate patrols (Burner, Clobber, Head, and Wing).

A cult-like worship of the Fantastic Four had developed, including a shrine to the Four and the Baxter Building, as well as establishing the use of their powers and symbols as sacred.

A little over a day had passed on the outside world, when the warp bubble was discovered. The West Coast Avengers--joined by the She-Hulk, who had been out searching for the missing Thing--received notice and investigated. Iron Man entered the dome first and narrowly escaped with his life. The She-Hulk probed the warp bubble and her hand became trapped in it. She was eventually pulled in, and then minutes later, the rest of the Fantastic Four arrived and followed her in.

Reed Richards eventually managed to deactivate the warp and shunt the entire population of the Exiles, along with their advanced city, 10,000 years into the future (one alternate/potential future anyway), hoping that there they would be able to fit in better.

Many of the city's Exiles residents--likely descendants of Jessup's original technicians--bore a physical resemblance to the four mutate patrols, but it was unrevealed if they also shared the same paranormal abilities.

-- (city) Fantastic Four I#293, (exiles) #294 (294(fb), 295(fb), 293-295

citizens of Central City

Numbering in the unspecified thousands, they were the original inhabitants of Central City. They had been forced into suspended animation after Harvey Jessup activated his Salvation Generator and surrounded their city in a time-warping dome.

While time sped by within the bubble at an incredibly accelerated rate, they all slumbered without aging within an underground chamber.

They were awakened after Mr. Fantastic deactivated Jessup's device and transported the Exiles and their city 10,000 years into the future, while the original sections of the city returned to normal time--fortunately only a day-and-a-half was lost to the people, and much of the original city had been preserved underneath the more advanced city of the Exiles.

--Fantastic Four I#295 (293 -BTS, 294 - BTS, 295

Burner Patrol

Numbering at least three, they were patterned after the Human Torch.

They were dwarfish and simple-minded, and each could transform into a ball of fire; they also secreted a thick flaming substance which adhered to and covered other people and things. They were immune to flame attacks, and instead just seemed to soak up fire.

A trio of them covered the Human Torch, smothered his flame, and forced him to crash to the ground below--they were unharmed by the crash.

--Fantastic Four I#294 (295(fb), 294, 295

Clobber Patrol

Numbering at least six, they were patterned after the Thing. They were simple-minded, about 8-9 feet tall, and possessed superhuman strength (Class 5?) and durability.

They were human in appearance, but wore helmets similar to that which the Thing had worn in the past to cover his face.

While fighting, they continuously yelled "Clobber Time!" as an obvious reference to the Thing's famous "It's Clobberin' Time!".

--Fantastic Four I#294 (295(fb), 294, 295

Head Patrol

Numbering at least three, they had some similarities to the Invisible Woman--they seemed to have telekinetic powers similar to Sue's force field, and could levitate themselves as well.

Although they had two conjoined heads on a single body, they each apparently had only one dominant personality, and spoke with only one voice.

--Fantastic Four I#294 (295(fb), 294, 295

Livia

A Priestess in the worship of the Four, she broke up the first fight between the Fantastic Four and the mutate patrols. She recognized them as the Four and proclaimed them as such to the rest of the Exiles. However, when the Great Coordinator was awakened, he overruled her claims and condemned the Four as demons.

    She may or may not have had mental powers. She projected a hologram of the original Fantastic Four, but she may have been using technology to do so.

--Fantastic Four I#294 (295

Murna

The daughter of the Great Coordinator, she served as a Priestess until she revealed the She-Hulk to be one of the Fantastic Four, which threatened to reveal that something had gone wrong with the Salvation Generator. The Coordinator saved her from death at the hands of the other Exiles for her apparent blasphemy, but he forbade her further contact or communication with others ever again.

One-hundred-and fifty years later, she was an old woman, but retained her mind and powers, and she detected the invisible Fantastic Four after they had faked their deaths at the Great Coordinator's hands. She revealed to them the history of the Exiles and led them to rescue the She-Hulk.

When the Fantastic Four finally confronted the Coordinator again, Murna used her powers to link the minds of the Coordinator and Reed Richards, forcing her father to accept the truth about what he had really done. Before he apparently died, the Coordinator named Murna as his successor and told the others to trust and follow her.

    She had the power of telepathy--though she apparently had to be in physical contact with others to accomplish this--as well as other forms of ESP, allowing her to detect beings who were invisible. She aged at a slower rate than a normal human.

--Fantastic Four I#294 (295(fb), 294, 295

Salvation Generator

Built by Jessup, it created a force field around Central City that warped time around it; the massive device formed an immense ebony dome that covered all of Central City (about 70 square miles).

Unfortunately, rather than slowing down relative time inside it, it did the inverse, and 10,000 years passed inside the bubble, while only a day-and-a-half passed on the outside. After he learned what he had done, Jessup showed the Generator to Richards, who deactivated it--in the process, Richards sent the Exiles and their futuristic city about 10,000 years into the future, while returning the normal citizens in suspended animation to normal time.

Despite the massive time differential, beings who passed through the bubble did not suffer any ill effects from what would have been caused by a difference in blood flow to their body. Apparently beings passing through the warp remained within the wall of the bubble initially and were then shunted to the inside all at once.

(Comment: That bubble reminds me of the barrier that Blackout once created to surround Avengers Mansion [@ Avengers I#274]--perhaps Jessup's bubble had some connection to the Darkforce Dimension.--Ron Fredricks)

--Fantastic Four I#294 (295(fb), 294, 295

Wing Patrol

Having membranous "wings" under their arms, which extended from their wrists to their ankles, they were apparently patterned after Mr. Fantastic (from a flying stunt he once performed in Fantastic Four I#18).

They flew and used battle staffs as weapons.

(Comment: It was unrevealed if their "wings" were organic parts of their bodies, or just part of their uniforms.)

--Fantastic Four I#294 (295(fb), 294, 295

images: (without ads)
Fantastic Four I#294, p20, pan2 (main image - Great Coordinator)
Fantastic Four I#295, p10, pan2 (main image - Great Coordinator, with helmet removed by Mr. Fantastic)
Fantastic Four I#294, p16, pan3-4 (in flashback, younger Harvey Jessup argues with his superior and gets fired)
Fantastic Four I#294, p19, pan4 (Great Coordinator in suspended animation)
Fantastic Four I#295, p11, pan1 (giant illusion of Great Coordinator)
Fantastic Four I#293, p19, pan1 (futuristic Central City of the Exiles)
Fantastic Four I#293, p22, pan1 (Fantastic Four shrine)
Fantastic Four I#294, p15, pan2 (Exiles citizens of futuristic Central City)
Fantastic Four I#295, p14, pan1 (regular citizens of Central City in suspended animation; Human Torch [center])
Fantastic Four I#294, p9, pan4 (Burner Patrol member)
Fantastic Four I#294, p10, pan6 (Burner Patrol surrounding Human Torch)
Fantastic Four I#294, p8, pan5 (Clobber Patrol battles Wyatt Wingfoot)
Fantastic Four I#294, p13, pan1 (Clobber Patrol member; Invisible Woman [right])
Fantastic Four I#294, p8 pan5 (Head Patrol attacks Invisible Woman)
Fantastic Four I#294, p12, pan4 (Head Patrol member)
Fantastic Four I#294, p13, pan2 (Livia)
Fantastic Four I#294, p14, pan1 (Livia projects hologram of Fantastic Four)
Fantastic Four I#295, p5, pan2 (Murna)
Fantastic Four I#295, p5, pan3 (Murna)
Fantastic Four I#294, p17, pan3 (Salvation Generator)
Fantastic Four I#295, p1, pan1 (warp bubble over Central City)
Fantastic Four I#293, p9, pan6 (She-Hulk gets her hand caught in warp bubble; Tigra [background])
Fantastic Four I#294, p8, pan2 (Wing Patrol attacks Mr. Fantastic)
Fantastic Four I#294, p11, pan1 (Wing Patrol member, struck by Wyatt Wingfoot)

Appearances:
Fantastic Four I#293 (August, 1986) - John Byrne (writer/pencils), Al Gordon (inks), John Workman (letters), Glynis Oliver (colors), Mike Carlin (editor)
Fantastic Four I#294 (September, 1986) - John Byrne (plot), Roger Stern (script), Jerry Ordway (pencils), Al Gordon (inks), John Workman (letters), Glynis Oliver (colors), Mike Carlin (editor)
Fantastic Four I#295 (October, 1986) - Roger Stern (writer), Jerry Ordway (pencils), Al Gordon (inks), John Workman (letters), Glynis Oliver (colors), Mike Carlin (editor)

First posted: 02/16/2004
Last updated: 09/08/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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