Teutonic Order

Religious order important in eastern Europe in the late Middle Ages. Founded in 1189–90 to nurse the sick in Palestine during the Third Crusade, it was militarized in 1198 and given land in Jerusalem and Germany. It transferred its base of operations to eastern Europe in the 13th century, gaining control of Prussia by 1283 and making Marienburg the centre of a military principality (1309–1525). The order extended its influence until it was defeated at the Battle of Tannenberg (1410). Another Polish victory in 1466 forced the knights to cede lands to Poland and become vassals of the Polish king. In 1525 the grand master in Prussia converted to Protestantism, dissolved the order in Prussia, and became a duke under Polish suzerainty. In other parts of Europe, especially Austria, the order survived the Reformation. Napoleon declared the order dissolved in 1809 and redistributed most of its remaining lands. In 1834 the Austrian emperor refounded it as a charitable religious order, and it is now headquartered in Vienna.

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Religious order founded at Jerusalem in the 11th century to care for sick pilgrims. Recognized by the pope in 1113, the order built hostels along the routes to the Holy Land. The Hospitallers acquired wealth and lands and began to combine the task of tending the sick with waging war on Islam, eventually becoming a major military force in the Crusades. After the fall of the crusader states, they moved their headquarters to Cyprus and later to Rhodes (1309). They ruled Rhodes until it fell to the Turks in 1523; thereupon they moved to Malta, where they ruled until their defeat by Napoleon I in 1798. In 1834 they moved to their present headquarters in Rome.

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First important national labour organization in the U.S. Founded in 1869 by Uriah Smith Stephens as the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor, it included both skilled and unskilled workers, and it proposed a system of workers' cooperatives to replace capitalism. To protect its members from employers' reprisals, it originally maintained secrecy. Under Terence V. Powderly (1879–93) it favoured open arbitration with management and discouraged strikes. National membership reached 700,000 in 1886. Strikes by militant groups and the Haymarket Riot caused an antiunion reaction that rapidly reduced the organization's influence. A splinter group left to form the AFL (later AFL-CIO).

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Fictional character background

• Circuit Breaker (Josie Beller). Invented a kind of bodysuit with imbedded circuits that allowed her to move her body after a spinal cord injury, disrupt the circuits of electronic devices and Transformers, and fly.
• Thunderpunch (Lee Gruber). Has tremendous strength.
• Rapture (Katrina Vesotzky). Can project images into a person's or other animal's or even a robot's mind, causing him/her to dream and forget the real situation.
• Dynamo (Hector Dialonzo). Can channel the force of the Earth itself and use it to his advantage.

Circuit Breaker predates the introduction of the Neo-Knights. Unlike the other three members, and Blackrock, she does not distinguish between Autobots and Decepticons but instead treats all robots as her enemies. The other three members first appeared in the same issue as the team was formed.

Unlike Circuit Breaker, the remaining Neo-Knights seem to have been born with their abilities, making them closer in nature to Marvel's mutants.

G. B. Blackrock and the Neo-Knights were accidentally transported to Cybertron along with the Transformers when Primus sought to unite all his children against the dark god Unicron. Upon first contact with Unicron, Circuit Breaker fainted because of his sheer size and complexity, and Dynamo was unable to fight because Cybertron's nature was too unlike Earth. Rapture, however, did manage to briefly convince Unicron that he had succeeded in destroying the universe.

Issue #68, where the Neo-Knights first appeared, was the only issue in the entire series drawn by Dwayne Turner, whose dark-shaded drawing style was noticeably different from other artists in the comic.

References