The Reach
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Real Identity: Not Applicable
Affiliation(s): The Light
Appearances: Alienated, Salvage, Bloodlines, Before The Dawn, True Colors, Runaways, War, The Hunt, Intervention, Summit, and Endgame
Powers/Skills: Various
Voiced By: Various
The Reach are an alien species bent on taking over the universe. The full force of the Green Lantern Corps stopped their advance. The Reach signed a peace treaty with the Guardian of the Universe. They could then only lay claim to a planet if they were invited. Subsequently, if a Green Lantern originated from such a planet, they were barred from ever returning. They adapted to the treaty and sent out one Scarab to each planet supporting primitive life. The Scarabs would bond with a lifeform and take full control of its native host, giving the Reach an advance operative for their inevitable invasion. They planned to eventually conquer the galaxy as they originally intended. An advance operative was sent to Earth but it went off-mode. About 4000 years later, the Reach became interested in the human Meta-Gene after the Rimbor incident and dispatched covert forces to Earth, coming into competition with the Kroloteans.
The Reach became allied to the Light and moved forward with extinguishing the Kroloteans from the planet. Allegedly, they hired Lobo to capture a Krolotean posing as Secretary-General Tseng of the United Nations and were fine with him making a spectacle of the hunt. As part of an agreement, the Reach would take on Earth as its property and the Light would operate as their favored agents. The Reach underestimated the Light and viewed them as naive tools to be used. On January 6th, Black Beetle, an agent of the Reach infiltrated Malina Island and planted an explosive device. According to plan, the bomb killed off the Kroloteans gathered on the island. The Reach were pleased by the results and continued their alliance with the Light. The Light obeyed their instructions and began kidnapping teenagers, often run aways and delinquents who wouldn't be missed, then delivering them to Reach Ships. The Reach Scientists began experiments to isolate the Meta-Gene by stimulating potentially dormant powers in average human test subjects.
On February 20th, a shipment of teenagers was disrupted by a squad from the Team. Luckily, another shipment was already prepared for delivery. On March 30th, Impulse and Beast Boy were exposed to various forms of stress to determine if the Meta-Gene could be extracted in an attempt to weaponize it. Blue Beetle was kept in isolation and his Scarab studied to assess the cause of its crash. The Team boarded a Reach Ship in the Pacific Ocean and rescued both their kidnapped comrades and all teenagers present. Before the Reach could be exposed, they went public and appeared at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on March 31st. Meanwhile, an armada of Reach Ships lay in wait in the Mariana Trench. In April, the Reach partnered with LexCorp to end world hunger through increased food production. The Reach promised no genetic enhancements were conducted. All they did was enhance produce with vitamins designed to bring out its full potential. Secretly, the Reach were adding an additive of non-terrestial origin to the produce.
The possible expansion of Earth's meta-population influenced Mongul to challenge the Reach's claim and destry the planet. Despite revealing and sacrificing two-thirds of the hidden fleet and Blue Beetle betraying the Team, the Reach were more interested in procuring the Warworld's Crystal Key. The Reach secretly occupied the Warworld and transferred Mongul, the Team, and the Crystal Key into stasis chambers. Reach soldiers pursued Arsenal for a few days. On May 30th, four runaways boomed to the Warworld and saved the Team. On Earth, the Reach Ambassador revealed the Reach would safeguard the Warworld until humanity was ready to use it. The Ambassador appeared on the "G. Gordon Godfrey Show" and was confronted on his lie about the size of the Reach fleet. The negative publicity undermined the Reach but they remained on Earth and utilized Blue Beetle to salvage public opinion. On June 14th, they were dealt another blow when the Scarabs of Blue Beetle and Green Beetle were placed off-mode.
The Light called for a summit. The Reach agreed and they met on Santa Prisca on June 19th, 00:00 ECT. Among their grievances against the Light was the Team gaining access to the Bialyan scarab temple. The Light countered the Reach should have been more forthcoming with the Scarab's history and pointed out their failing public rating approval, the failed Reach drinks, and the loss of Blue Beetle and Green Beetle. The Ambassador asserted they would be killed by Black Beetle and their scarabs would be given to new hosts while they salvaged their reputation by building on the half-truths against the Justice League. However, Artemis and Kaldur'ahm's revelations shattered the Reach's alliance with the Light. The Team revealed themselves and crashed the summit. Under Article 16 of the Reach Planetary Acquisition Code, Black Beetle assumed control of the Reach delegation and left the Ambassador behind. At 04:20 UTC, the Reach forces of the Warworld were boomed away by the Light. At 05:27 EDT, the United Nations rescinded their invitation to the Reach to stay on Earth.
As a result, the Green Lantern Corps had regained jurisdiction on Earth and could forcibly remove the Reach from the planet. Since simply leaving would still leave behind evidence of the Reach's tampering and thus violate the treaty with the Guardians of the Universe, Black Beetle decided the Reach would destroy Earth. He activated 21 Magnetic Field Disrupters hidden across the planet. On June 20th, 06:16 EDT, the Reach delegation were defeated by the Team. On July 4th, 21:15 EDT, the three Green Lanterns from Earth escorted the Reach to Oa to stand before the Guardians of the Universe on charges of breaching their peace treaty.