The following story and photos are from Giant Panda King's book,
Gotham 1919-1939 by Russell S. Beattie, available from www.giantpandaking.com.
Viewer discretion is advised.
With the ever growing threat that the League of Assassins represented,
there also came the threat of the Seven Men of Death. They were the elite of the elite within
the League’s ranks; deadly killers capable of doing their job by whatever means necessary.
These assassins had been hand-picked by Ra’s al Ghul, the leader of the League.
They would then be trained by the League’s most proficient teacher and second-in-command,
O-Sensei. No one knew O-Sensei’s true name, only that he was very old yet very formidable.
He held the respect of the great Ra’s al Ghul, after all. O-Sensei had been responsible for the
training of the Bat-Man during his time with the League of Assassins, as well as two other
students: Benjamin Turner and Richard Dragon. O-Sensei didn’t just teach assassination to
his students, he turned it into an art form. He had once been the League’s top warrior.
O-Sensei made the League’s new recruits into deadly weapons; ones completely loyal to The
Demon’s Head and the League of Assassins. They would kill unquestioningly. The only student that
he did not consider a success was Bruce Wayne, who had refused to kill. O-Sensei would later
discover that Bruce had become the Bat-Man, but before then, he trained countless others.
Malcolm Merlyn, an Englishman, was the longest serving member of the Seven Men of Death.
He was feared throughout the world, as well as within the League itself.
His exploits and missions for the organization had earned him the moniker “Dark Archer,” due to
his use of a bow and arrow. Some considered such a weapon to be archaic and obsolete, but Merlyn made
it his craft. He was the leader of the Seven Men of Death, second in the League only to O-Sensei.
Malcolm had joined the League of Assassins at the same time as David Cain.
The two had been rivals, and both achieved the rank of Man of Death,
with Cain later being exiled from the League - much to Merlyn’s satisfaction.
Merlyn took great pride in being the best at what he did. Even Oliver Queen would credit him
as being the best archer in the world. Merlyn’s role as the leader of the Seven Men of Death would
make him a key factor in the war on the horizon. He fought alongside the likes of Deathstroke,
the former soldier, and Professor Ojo, the blind truthsayer and master of torture.
There were others in the League who had also earned their place in the elite of the elite.
To be one of the Seven Men of Death meant that you relied on no one.
The members of this group were able to complete almost any mission on their own. Onyx Adams was
the only woman within their ranks, though she defected upon arriving in Gotham.
Her faith in the League had been shaken, and she allied herself with the Bat-Man.
This news made Merlyn furious, and he swore to bring the vengeance of the League down on her.
The other members of the Seven Men of Death had all made a name for themselves in their own right.
Silver Monkey, Hook, and Bronze Tiger were all held in high regard within the
League of Assassins. Silver Monkey had been a member of the Brotherhood of the Monkey Fist,
a martial artists organization in China. He had been deemed too extreme for his fellow members,
and was exiled from their ranks. He quickly earned a reputation as a playboy assassin,
taking odd jobs for money, until he received a job that changed everything. He was hired
to kill Ra’s al Ghul, the Demon’s Head. Upon confronting the leader of the League, Silver
Monkey saw a man driven by purpose in Ra’s. He realized that he himself had felt purposeless, so
he had dropped to his knees and asked to join the League. After extensive training from O-Sensei,
Silver Monkey earned his membership in the League, and soon rose to the rank of Man of Death.
Hook was another of the Seven Men of Death, also known as the “Hunter” by some. Hook had come to
the League of Assassins after serving time in jail for the murder of a man named Boston Brand.
Brand had been a renowned daredevil and stuntman until his untimely demise.
Hook had tremendous skills; his efficiency knew no bounds. He was proficient in tracking
and trapping, and he utilized this with every assassination he was assigned.
In his long career with the League, he had only failed once. As a result,
O-Sensei had the “Hunter’s” hand chopped off. This provided the assassin with a new name, one to fit
his new appearance. His prosthetic hook became a part of his identity within the League’s ranks.
Benjamin Turner - or as he was better known, Bronze Tiger - had come to the
League around the same time that Bruce Wayne had. Originally hailing from the South in America,
Turner had fled when he killed a white man who had tried to force himself upon Benjamin’s mother.
He had been overcome with anger and slit the man’s throat from ear-to-ear.
A family friend - a sailor sympathetic to the young man’s situation - had taken him on in
his crew. He remained on their vessel for eight years, grateful for the chance to start fresh.
He eventually found himself in the Far East, where he encountered men fighting in ways foreign to
him; fascinating methods of combat. Turner wanted to learn for himself, and he wanted the best of
the best to teach him. It wasn’t long before he was found by scouts for the League of Assassins,
and brought before O-Sensei. Upon completing his training, he took the name Bronze Tiger, and
eventually became the replacement for David Cain in the Seven Men of Death. These three fearsome
warriors - Silver Monkey, Hook, and Bronze Tiger - would become key to the League’s war in Gotham.
All-in-all, Merlyn led a group of the world’s deadliest assassins, and wielded it like a suit
of armor. Even with the loss of Onyx from their ranks, the remaining killers would be
more than enough - in his mind - to accomplish the plans that Ra’s al Ghul had for Gotham City.
The months following the start of the Shadow War would be the darkest Gotham had ever seen.
The Bat-Man and his allies would be hard-pressed to keep up with the machinations of the League,
and the citizens of Gotham would live in terror;
watching and waiting for the next strike to happen, not knowing when or where it would.
Malcolm Merlyn would relish this, thriving on the chaos that would ensue, and serving The
Demon’s Head. Merlyn, while intelligent, could not even conceive that, to his beloved master,
they were all just pawns in a game. Ra’s al Ghul would take Gotham City by whatever
means he considered necessary, even if it meant sacrificing his most prized warriors. The Demon’s
Head had little regard for the men serving him, but they had know way of knowing. The Bat-Man
and his allies could only prepare so much for the battles to come; but they would fight tooth
and claw for the city they protected. Many people would thank them, and many people would hate them,
but still, they would fight on. The Bat-Man would not leave Gotham in its darkest hour.