The Headmen were the oppressive class on their home planet within the Vega System, and were at war with the rebel army of humans who had resisted the grotesque conversion of their cranial ray, a device that would augment a person's latent psychic powers at the expense of their free will. The Headmen first clashed with Green Lantern when they pursued the lovely freedom fighter Dorine Clay to Earth. There she sought refuge from the Headmen and allied herself with the Green Lantern. The two heroes repelled the Headmen and drove them off from Earth, while Dorine returned to her homeworld to continue the fight against it's overlords.

Years later, during his exile in space, Hal Jordan was pulled against his will to the Headmen's planet. A mysterious force overcame his own willpower and took control of his power ring, bringing the Lantern directly to his old enemies. The combined mental might of the Headmen overpowered Hal's own willpower. Hal was locked up by the Headmen, where he was reunited with Doreen and her small band of captured rebels. The Lantern was to be executed by the Headmen as an offering to the ruling government in the Vega System, the Citadel. The Headmen were in danger of invasion by the barbaric Psion race, whose practice of performing grotesque experiments on it's prisoners was widely feared. Only an alliance with the Citadel could save the Headmen from certain invasion and horrific future as subjects of the Psions' twisted science.

Now powerless, Hal and his friends were placed before a firing squad and prepared for death. They were saved by the timely interruption of the Omega Men who had intercepted the communications between the Headmen and the Citadel and rushed to the aid of their Lantern friend. Together the Omega Men, the Green Lantern, and the rebel forces defeated the Headmen. As the Psion warships drew into orbit, the Omega Men teleported the combined forces to their own ship and escaped before the Psions could attack. The Headmen were not as lucky; on the planet's surface a captured group of Headmen were examined with gleeful curiosity by the Psions, who intended to first study the amount of cranial fluid held within their newest subjects' enhanced skulls.

The Headmen have not resurfaced since, and it is unknown whether or not any of their species had survived the Psion experimentation.