They first appeared in Shadow Cabinet #0 (January 1994), and were created by Dwayne McDuffie, Robert L. Washington III and John Paul Leon.

In the Milestone Comics universe the Shadow Cabinet is a secret organization of superhuman beings acting to protect the world by neutralizing potential threats while they are still relatively harmless - "to save humanity from itself, no matter what that requires".

[2] Red Dog, a powerful Irish sorcerer, is the leader of the Shadow Cabinet from the late nineteenth century until the mid twentieth.

In theory, he knows the ultimate consequences of whatever action he sends his operatives to perform; however, the impossibility of considering every factor has led to his fear that he may be causing the very disasters he is trying to prevent - in the words of one agent: "What about the man who died?

Icon also has evidence that Dharma had been involved in the 'Big Bang', a riot which, due to altered tear gas, ended with dozens of fatalities and superpowers granted to the survivors.

[6] Following the death of Darkseid (as chronicled in Final Crisis), the space-time continuum was torn asunder, threatening the existence of both the Dakotaverse and the mainstream DC universe.

It is revealed that he was responsible for the Big Bang, hoping to create powerful beings capable of preventing a fast-approaching apocalypse whose cause he could not determine.

When his last two prospects, Hardware and Static, fail to meet his expectations, he turns to the only course he believes is left open to him; awakening and harnessing the powers of the god-like being Rift.