Mister Mind and the Monster Society of Evil

Mister Mind
Mister Mind, in artwork from the cover of The Power of Shazam! #40 (1997). Art by Jerry Ordway.
Publication information
Publisher	Fawcett Comics (1943–1945) DC Comics (1973–present)
First appearance	Captain Marvel Adventures #26 (August 1943)
Created by	Otto Binder (writer) C. C. Beck (artist)
In-story information
Species	Venusian worm
Place of origin	Venus
Team affiliations	Monster Society of Evil Underground Society
Abilities	Advanced mind control Hypnosis Mental image projection Limited invulnerability Ability to spin super-strong silk at high speeds In evolved form: Capability to devour space-time Near-omnipotence

The Monster Society of Evil
Mister Mind, showing a picture of Captain Marvel to his Monster Society of Evil. On the left from the top: Oggar, Mister Atom and Doctor Sivana. On the right from the top: Ibac, Black Adam and King Kull. The first page of the 1980–1981 The Monster Society Strikes Back story arc. Art by Don Newton and Dave Hunt, lettering by Todd Klein, colors by Adrienne Roy, from World's Finest #264.
Publication information
Publisher	Fawcett Comics (1943–1945) DC Comics (1973–present)
First appearance	Cameo: Captain Marvel Adventures #22 (March 1943) Full appearance:Captain Marvel Adventures #26 (August 1943)
Created by	Otto Binder C. C. Beck
In-story information
Base(s)	None
Member(s)	Mister Mind Captain Nazi Ibac Doctor Sivana Monster Brigade Sivana Family Black Adam King Kull Oggar Mister Atom

Mister Mind is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. ^[1] Created by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck for Fawcett Comics, Mister Mind the character made a cameo appearance in Captain Marvel Adventures #22 (March 1943) before making his full first appearance in Captain Marvel Adventures #26 (August 1943).

One of Shazam/Captain Marvel's primary villains, Mister Mind is a two-inch alien worm of high intelligence with telepathic powers. Mind usually carries out his villainous plans through an organization called the Monster Society of Evil, significant as one of the first supervillain teams in comics to contain villains that a superhero had fought previously; prior to this, supervillain teams were composed of villains created just for that storyline. ^[2] The Monster Society of Evil made its debut in Captain Marvel Adventures #22, and the resulting "Monster Society of Evil" story arc continued for two years in Captain Marvel Adventures, ending with issue #46 (May 1945).

Mister Mind appeared as a cameo in the DC Extended Universe film Shazam! portrayed in CGI and voiced by the movie’s director David F. Sandberg.

Publication history

Fawcett Comics

"The Monster Society of Evil" was published in 25 chapters in Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel Adventures comic book. Its serialized format was inspired by the success of the live-action serial adaptation of the Captain Marvel strip, Adventures of Captain Marvel , by Republic Pictures in 1941. Chapter One of "The Monster Society of Evil" in Captain Marvel Adventures #22 (1943) depicted Captain Marvel learning that a criminal genius known only as "Mister Mind" - and only heard as a voice over a radio receiver - had gathered many of Marvel's other rogues - including Captain Nazi, Doctor Sivana, Ibac, Nippo, Mister Banjo, and more - to form "The Monster Society of Evil". After a brief appearance in issue #26, Mister Mind is eventually revealed in Captain Marvel Adventures #27 to be a cartoonish alien worm with spectacles and a talkbox around his neck to amplify his voice.

Despite his small size, Mister Mind continues to use his powers of intellect and telepathy to battle Captain Marvel in subsequent chapters of the serial, eventually recruiting numerous other allies from Alligator-Men to Adolf Hitler and all of the Axis Powers. "The Monster Society of Evil" serial concluded with Captain Marvel Adventures #46 (1945), in which Mind is finally captured, tried, and executed.

As the first and longest serialized story arc in comic book history, "The Monster Society of Evil" was hailed as a milestone of the Golden Age of Comics. Individual chapters would later be reprinted, after the Captain Marvel characters were acquired from Fawcett by DC Comics in 1972, in various collections under the trademark Shazam! In 1989, American Nostalgia Library reprinted the serial as The Monster Society of Evil – Deluxe Limited Collector's Edition. Compiled by Mike Higgs, the collection was an oversized, slipcased hardcover book strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies. ^[3]

DC Comics

Fawcett ceased publication of Captain Marvel comics after settling a lawsuit from DC Comics in 1953. Twenty years later, DC acquired the rights to publish its own Captain Marvel stories under the title Shazam!, as well as the reprint rights to the Fawcett material. Mister Mind was reintroduced in a new story in Shazam! #2 (1973), which explained that he had survived his execution and hid while Captain Marvel and his allies were stuck in suspended animation for 20 years. Mister Mind would appear regularly as part of Captain Marvel's rogues gallery in his adventures in Shazam and World's Finest Comics through the 1970s and early 1980s. Mind also appeared, often with some form of the Monster Society of Evil, as a guest villain in other DC publications such as Justice League of America and DC Comics Presents . The final appearance of Mister Mind and the Monster Society of Evil in the original DC/Fawcett continuity was in All-Star Squadron #51–54 (November 1985 to February 1986), an arc written by Roy & Dann Thomas that was chronologically Mind's first appearance and revealed the origin of his hatred of humans and superheroes.

DC reset its comics' continuity with the 12-issue miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985-86, and Mister Mind disappeared from DC publications for a decade. He re-emerged in The Power of Shazam! #13 (March 1996), now a more realistically depicted caterpillar-like being from the planet Venus possessing powers which include mind control, telepathy, and mental image projection. This Mind was the main villain of The Power of Shazam!'s second major story arc, and was depicted as the lead scout of a race of Venusian worms looking to conquer the Earth. Even though Captain Marvel eventually destroys the other worms, Mind survives and becomes a recurring villain in The Power of Shazam!, JSA , and other DC publications, often forming a Monster Society of Evil to do his bidding as in the original serial. The weekly maxiseries 52 (2006-2007) featured Mister Mind as the series' final major adversary. In this story, Mind gains the ability to evolve into a gigantic "Hyperfly", able to eat space and time and inadvertently creating a new DC Multiverse in the process.

Following 52, Mind appeared irregularly as a supervillain in DC comic series such as Action Comics, Booster Gold, and more. In 2007, cartoonist Jeff Smith, the creator of Bone , wrote and illustrated a four-issue miniseries, Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil, which offered an updated take on the classic Fawcett story.

In 2011, DC again reset its continuity with The New 52 . In subsequent stories, Mister Mind has appeared sparingly, mostly in cameo appearances as in Justice League #21 (2013) and Convergence: Shazam! #2 (2015). He currently appears as one of the villains in DC's current Shazam! ongoing comic series, with his first appearance in Shazam! #2 (March 2019).

Fictional character biography (chronological)

Pre-Crisis

Earth-Two

The first appearance of the Monster Society of Evil, chronologically, was in All-Star Squadron #51–54 (November 1985 to February 1986). In the universe known as Earth-Two (where 1940s DC Stories are established to have occurred), Mister Mind came to Earth during World War II, drawn by its radio broadcasts; he especially loved Edgar Bergen's dummy Charlie McCarthy. Upon learning that his beloved Charlie was not real, he decided to conquer the world instead. To this end, he formed the first Monster Society of Evil, which was merely a shadow of what was to come. He gathered known villains like Dummy, Mister Who, Nyola, Oom the Mighty, and Ramulus to make up the Monster Society of Evil. They succeeded in capturing Hawkgirl. Not long after its founding, the other villains tried to kill him and Mister Mind retreated to Earth-S. Without his leadership, the team was quickly defeated in battle by the All-Star Squadron. ^[4]

Captain Marvel Adventures: "The Monster Society of Evil" (Earth-S)

As a side-effect of the reality-altering Crisis on Infinite Earths , Mister Mind arrived in the universe of Earth-S (where Fawcett's former characters dwelled) sometime around 1846 (it was mentioned in this story that he had been working on a weapon for 97 years). His brilliant intellect, telepathic powers, and ruthlessness allowed him to conquer much of space, establishing bases on many different worlds as well as varied locations on Earth. He recruited supervillains, armies, and entire alien species to aid him in his attempt to conquer the Earth, and first relayed his information from the planetoid Punkus via radio. He began his reign of terror on Earth in 1943, boasting that he and the Monster Society of Evil would give Captain Marvel "nightmares from now on". This formed the basis of the plot for "The Monster Society of Evil" serial in Captain Marvel Adventures #22–46 (March 1943 to May 1945). Mind was not revealed as a worm until Captain Marvel Adventures #26.

Mind had many and varied plans to conquer Earth, and to destroy Captain Marvel and/or his teenaged alter-ego, Billy Batson. But Captain Marvel stopped all of Mind's plans, dismantled all of his resources, and arrested, frightened away, or accidentally killed all of his henchmen. Reverse cliffhangers were used in the Monster Society stories, such as Mister Mind about to be crushed under a careless heel or about to be crushed in a paper roller. Finally, a desperate Mister Mind attacked Captain Marvel's alter ego Billy Batson with ether and left him unconscious. But he then realized that without his henchmen, he was practically helpless and unable to kill him. Captain Marvel soon captured the world's wickedest worm and had him tried and executed for killing 186,744 people.

Shazam!: Return of the Society

Shazam! #2 was Mister Mind's first appearance in a DC comic, and depicted his return to villainy. Although he had been sentenced to death in the electric chair, Mister Mind's alien physiology proved resistant to the high voltage, and he entered a state of suspended animation that was mistaken for death. On the verge of being stuffed for display in a museum, he awakened, hypnotized the taxidermist into creating a duplicate, and escaped.

Shortly after Captain Marvel's own return from suspended animation, he countered Mister Mind trying to destroy the country with an expanding balloon-like weapon in St. Louis. With intelligence from a reformed Herkimer, Marvel succeeds in thwarting Mind's plan and capturing the worm. ^[5]

Several future issues of Shazam! depict Mister Mind attempting to recruit new henchmen and reform the Monster Society of Evil, at one point even recruiting a displaced Lex Luthor from Earth-One. ^[6] The Monster Society of Evil was briefly reformed in Shazam! #14 (September–October 1974).

An escaped Mister Mind, hungry for revenge, assembled a new, smaller group which included Doctor Sivana, his evil children Georgia and Sivana Jr, and Ibac. They attempted to attack the Marvel Family - Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr. - with a death ray that created "dream" monsters using first evil thoughts and later the nightmares of Uncle Marvel. The Marvels end up defeating the Monster Society by convincing Uncle Marvel to dream up "dream" versions of the Marvels to fight the monsters.

World's Finest Comics: The Monster Society Strikes Back

Mister Mind reformed his Monster Society of Evil one last time in the classic continuity, in World's Finest Comics #264–267 (August–September 1980 to February–March 1981). Almost the entire Marvel Family had to unite in order to stop them—Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and the three Lieutenant Marvels: Tall Marvel, Fat Marvel, and Hill Marvel. Their wicked plans were wide-ranging, beginning with an assault on Egypt, expanding to a scheme to reverse the entire Earth's topography, Oggar raising an evil army from the sands and dusts of Egypt for Black Adam to lead, and conquering hundreds of planets and using them to build an army of spaceships. Their plans culminated in a massive assault on the Rock of Eternity, home of the Marvels' benefactor, the wizard Shazam.

World's Funnest

In the Elseworlds story Superman & Batman: World's Funnest (November 2000), the two near-omnipotent imps Mister Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite engage in a tremendous duel that destroys many planes of reality. One of these appears to be a version of Earth-S. During their time there, they run into a version of the Monster Society of Evil that is slightly different from any other, featuring many of Captain Marvel's enemies. Mxyzptlk easily destroys them (with a tentacled beast labeled Mr. Mxyzptlk's Anti-Social Monster) when they begin to annoy him, along with the rest of the universe; however, by the end of the book, all is returned to what it was.

Post-Crisis

The Power of Shazam!

Mister Mind was re-introduced into the DC Universe in Jerry Ordway's The Power of Shazam! series in 1996. Mind was one of a race of millions of mind-controlling worms from the planet Venus, who had plans to invade and take over the Earth, which they claim to have once ruled around the Ice Age. Appointed as the go-ahead agent, Mind arrived on Earth during World War II, by means of an indestructible green Venusian space suit, but was captured by Bulletman, Starman, and Green Lantern Abin Sur before enacting his plan. Mind eventually escaped, stowing away on the Magellan space probe, and decades later forced Doctor Sivana to join forces with him, needing Sivana's scientific prowess to facilitate the Venusian worms' plans. He took control of the wealthy Sinclair Batson in order to finance those plans.

The worms' plans to invade the Earth were thwarted by Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel, who succeeded in killing all of the worms by sending them into deep space where they froze, save for Mister Mind, whom they placed in the custody of Sergeant Steel and the Department of Metahuman Affairs. Mind eventually escapes, takes over Steel's mind, and programs the robot Mister Atom, another Marvel Family villain in Steel's custody, to destroy the town of Fairfield, where Billy Batson (Captain Marvel) and Mary Bromfield (Mary Marvel) lived with their adopted parents. After Mister Atom's nuclear blast destroys the city and kills nearly all of its residents, the Marvels arrive in Washington, DC seeking revenge. Mister Mind's plot to set off a nuclear holocaust included using clones of himself to take over the minds of several regular American citizens, who were to make their ways to nuclear bomb facilities and initiate a nuclear holocaust. However, Mind's plan was foiled by the Marvel Family and Green Lanterns Kyle Rayner and Hal Jordan.

52

Mister Mind played an integral role in DC's year-long 2006-2007 weekly comic, 52 , although the importance of his role in the series was revealed gradually over time and involved the concepts of time travel and temporal paradoxes.

The day following the end of the Infinite Crisis event, Dr. Sivana discovers Mister Mind lying in a crater in the desert and pockets him, sealing him in a specimen jar and taking it back to his laboratory to prevent him from interfering with his plans to take over the world. ^[7] Sivana bombards Mind with particles of Suspendium, a time-altering element introduced in the 1970s Shazam! title. Although Sivana is then kidnapped by Intergang and forced to join their Science Squad, the Suspendium induces Mister Mind's delayed metamorphosis. As Sivana is dragged off, Mind observes a televised memorial for the heroes lost in the Infinite Crisis, and takes particular note of Skeets, the robotic companion of the time-traveling superhero Booster Gold. ^[8] With his metamorphosis beginning, Mind proceeds to weave a cocoon around himself, which doubles as a matter transporter that he uses to beam himself inside Skeets in Dr. Magnus' lab, ^{[9] [10]} intending to use the robot as a "cradle" where he can spend the following year gestating and completing his transformation.

Destroying Skeets from within, Mind adopts his identity and makes plans to consume the Multiverse, which had returned to existence as a result of Infinite Crisis. Discovering that Rip Hunter is aware of his plans, Mind, as Skeets, attempts to hunt him down and draw him out, to no avail. Eventually, he discovers Hunter hiding in the bottle city of Kandor, but when Hunter turns the Phantom Zone projector on him, Mind overpowers it and "eats" the Phantom Zone itself. At the end of the year, Mind tracks Hunter and Booster down to the lab of T. O. Morrow, intent on acquiring the head of the Red Tornado, whose computerized brain has mapped the Multiverse. ^[11] There, Mind's gestation completes and he emerges from within Skeets in a monstrous imago form known as a "Hyperfly". Now, instead of feeding on the brainwaves of individuals, he feeds on space-time itself and decides to devour the entire Multiverse. ^[12] Booster and Hunter flee back in time to the moment of the Multiverse's birth, with the now-gigantic Mind in pursuit, following them from universe to universe, all 52 of them, where he consumes portions of each world's history, altering their timelines and creating 52 new, distinct Earths. ^[13] Mind is lured back to Hunter's lab, where he shrinks in size and becomes trapped within Skeets' Suspendium-lined shell. ^[14] Booster hurls Mind backwards through time, where the Suspendium reverts Mind back to his larval form, and lands on the day after the end of Infinite Crisis, where he is found by Dr. Sivana and sealed in the jar. The remaining 52 seconds of time are used to bind him in a time loop. ^[15]

Also during the series, unrelated to Mind's activities, a new incarnation of the Monster Society was formed, consisting of the Four Horsemen of Apokolips, creatures engineered by Intergang's Science Squad (including Sivana). Of particular note is Sobek, a humanoid crocodile not unlike the beings who were members of the Pre-Crisis Monster Society. This Monster Society attacked the Black Marvel Family for not joining the Freedom of Power treaty, and killed Isis and Osiris, only to be destroyed by Black Adam, save for Death, who flees. In his hunt for Death, Black Adam destroys the nation of Bialya, before defeating the final Horseman, torturing it for information, and killing it. ^[16]

Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil (2007)

A new Captain Marvel prestige format four-issue limited series from DC Comics, Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil, written and illustrated by Jeff Smith (creator of Bone ) began publication on February 7, 2007. Smith's Shazam! miniseries, in the works since 2003, is a more traditional take on the character, returning Captain Marvel to his roots with a story set outside of the DC Universe. In this version, Mister Mind resembles a small snake, with a more threatening face sans glasses, while wearing a modern style communicator headset. Many different monsters are shown in the Society, with the Crocodile Men becoming Alligator Men.

The New 52

In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Mister Mind makes his first appearance after Doctor Sivana's alliance with Black Adam fails. Sivana heads to the Rock of Eternity, where he cannot get in because of a magical shield. He cries out for someone to help him save his family, saying that while science has failed them, magic could save them. Sivana then discovers a caterpillar-like creature trapped in a bottle within the Rock. The creature claims that people call him "Mister Mind" and makes note that he and Doctor Sivana shall be the "best of friends". ^[17]

DC Rebirth

Mister Mind returns in the new Shazam! series during the "DC Rebirth," still in an alliance with Sivana. Residing inside of Sivana's ear, Mister Mind has Sivana go to a doctor's office in order to cut out the tongue of a "medicine man" as it is needed for a spell. It is revealed that Mister Mind's real name is Maxivermis Mind and is believed to have originated from the Wildlands, one of the seven realms in the Magiclands. Believed to originally be a simple bookworm, Mister Mind suffered abuse as a child and tried for years to break into the Library of Eternity. He eventually succeeded and after absorbing all the knowledge and power of countless spells, he returned to the Wildlands and took his revenge on those who he believed had wronged him. Achieving his revenge, he set his sights on the Council of Eternity. He managed to work his way inside the Council and it took the combined might of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury, and ! to contain Mister Mind, but he was able to cause the death of Solomon. Mind's goal is to consume and control all the power of the Magiclands. ^[18]

Mister Mind and Doctor Sivana plan to head to the Monsterlands in order to build the Monster Society of Evil from it's inhabitants. As King Kid fights the Shazam Family in Philadelphia, Doctor Sivana and Mister Mind are directed to a boat by Dummy who can't accompany them since he can't deal with water. When they arrive at the Dungeon of Eternity, Mister Mind states that the inmates of the Dungeon of Eternity were gathered from all over the Magiclands and imprisoned for challenging the Council of Wizards. In addition, Mister Mind stated that the Monsterlands used to be called the Gods' Realm until the day of Black Adam's betrayal which led them to strip the gods of their powers and close the doors to the Magiclands. They find a small prison containing Superboy-Prime in the Monsterlands as Superboy-Prime states that he can hear what Mister Mind is saying. Mister Mind and Doctor Sivana begin their plans to free the Monster Society of Evil from the Dungeon of Eternity. ^[19] Mister Mind senses the fight between the Shazam Family and Mamaragan as he instructs Doctor Sivana to stab his magical eye with a dagger which starts to melt the doors to the cells holding the Monster Society of Evil. Then Mister Mind started to control C.C. revealing to Billy that he is using him as a host and not Doctor Sivana. Mister Mind states to the Shazam Family that he plans to use C.C. to unite the Magiclands under his rule. He then proceeds to summon the Monster Society of Evil leaving Dummy behind who is tricked by Superboy-Prime into freeing him. ^[20]

Powers and abilities

Mister Mind is one of Earth’s most formidable telepaths. He is able to take control of an individual’s mind. He also possessed many insect-related abilities, like the ability to spin very strong silk at speeds faster than the eye can see, so quickly he can encase a human in a cocoon within seconds.

Apparently very long-lived, Mister Mind's current body is only the larval stage of his breed: during the 52 miniseries he briefly reaches maturity, becoming a Hyperfly with increased time- and space-bending abilities, feeding over the timelines of singular universes. By this ability, he is able to transform the 52, exactly identical, universes of the current DCU Multiverse into vastly different worlds, literally eating away portions of their history.

After being forcibly rejuvenated in his larval stage, Mister Mind apparently retains the ability to reproduce asexually, using a host to breed his identical siblings.

Monster Society of Evil membership

First version

• Mister Mind – A two-inch talking worm with telepathic powers and a genius intellect.
• Dummy – A living ventriloquist's dummy who was a recurring enemy of Vigilante.
• Mister Who – A crippled criminal mastermind with one working eye who created Solution Z which grants him the abilities of shapeshifting, size-shifting, invisibility, limb regeneration, phasing, and an amphibious nature. An early adversary of Doctor Fate.
• Nyola – A weather-controlling Aztec priestess who previously fought Hawkman.
• Oom the Mighty – A super-strong animated large statue with magical powers who was an early adversary of the Spectre (Jim Corrigan).
• Ramulus – A green-skinned supervillain with the ability to control plants who was an early opponent of Sandman and Sandy the Golden Boy.

Second version

• Mister Mind – A two-inch talking worm with telepathic powers and a genius intellect.
• Adolf Hitler – He and all the resources of Nazi Germany have assisted the Monster Society of Evil. Adolf Hitler was the one who gave the orders to create Captain Nazi.
• Archibald – A satyr and graduate of the Monster School who helped Mister Mind capture Billy Batson.
• An army of termites and worms.
• Artificial Bodies: Artificial bodies Mister Mind could mentally inhabit and which were used to fool Captain Marvel as he searched for Mister Mind on his asteroid base consisting of:
  • Goat-Man – A humanoid goat creature who was the first recruit of the Monster Society of Evil.
  • A seemingly indestructible robot.
  • A giant purple octopus with a grinning human face.
  • A circus strongman with strength rivaling that of Captain Marvel himself.
• Benito Mussolini – He and all the resources of Fascist Italy have assisted the Monster Society of Evil.
• Bonzo – A hunchback human with large eyes and fangs.
• Captain Nazi – A superstrong Nazi warrior who assisted in the first plot.
• Crocodile-Men – A race of humanoid crocodiles from the planetoid Punkus.
  • Herkimer – A Crocodile-Man who is Mister Mind's second-in-command and briefly took command of the Society when Mister Mind lost his memory, but later reformed and started working in the circus.
  • Jorrk – The greatest scientist of the Crocodile-Men and one of Mister Mind's three lieutenants alongside Dr. Smashi and Herr Phoul.
  • Sylvester – A Crocodile-Man and one of Mister Mind's preferred gunners.
• Dobbin – Mister Mind's seahorse steed.
• Dome Attendants – Creatures that tend to Mister Mind's undersea base. It consists of a Pig Man, a Goblin, a Werewolf, an Ogre, and a midget submarine captain. The midget was the last of Mister Mind's minions to leave him.
• Dr. Smashi – A short Japanese scientist and one of Mister Mind's three lieutenants alongside Jorrk and Herr Phoul.
• Dr. Hashi – A spiky-haired Japanese scientist.
• Dr. Peeyu – A tall Japanese scientist.
• Doctor Sivana – The "world's wickedest scientist".
• Evil Eye – A green-skinned humanoid monster with the ability to hypnotize.
• Herr Phoul – A bald Nazi scientist with a monocle and one of Mister Mind's three lieutenants alongside Jorkk and Dr. Smashi.
• Hideki Tojo – He and all the resources of Imperial Japan have assisted the Monster Society of Evil.
• Hydra – A serpentine monster with multiple heads that can regenerate. It was created by Mister Mind.
• Ibac – A criminal who sold his soul to Lucifer for super-strength and durability which he gets by saying the magic word "Ibac".
• Jeepers – The last of a race of bat monsters.
• Marmaduke – A criminal with big ears and a fat face.
• Monster Brigade – Undersea monsters under Mister Mind's command consisting of a sperm whale, a gigantic octopus, a hammerhead shark, and a huge sea serpent.
• Monster Professors – Teachers at Mister Mind's Monster School. It consists of a human, a Crocodile-Man, an unspecified fanged monster, and a humanoid with the head of a hippopotamus.
• Monster Students – Pupils at the Monster School that consist of tough humans, Crocodile-Men, and a horned black demon.
• Mr. Banjo – A criminal and leaker of Allied secrets via coded music from his banjo that were played on a popular radio show (only appears for one panel in the first chapter)
• Nippo – A master of disguise, master swordsman, and spy for the Japanese.
• Synthetic Animals – Fake animals created by Mister Mind. They consisted of Oscar (a giant lobster), Oliver (a gigantic octopus with human hands), Ophelius (a huge ram), and Oliphant (a dragon).
• Tough Guys – Generic human enforcers of Mister Mind's wishes. The notable ones include a Tommy-gun wielder, a cloaked swordsman, a beret-wearer, a stereotypical "Goomba", and a Gatsby cap-wearer.

Third version

• Mister Mind
• Doctor Sivana
• Ibac
• Georgia Sivana – Dr. Sivana's youngest daughter.
• Thaddeus Sivana Jr. – Dr. Sivana's youngest son.

Fourth version

• Mister Mind
• Doctor Sivana
• Ibac
• Black Adam – A traitorous first of the Marvels with powers similar to the others, but from the Egyptian gods.
• King Kull – The last of the Beast-Men that once ruled the Earth until Cro-Magnon man rebelled, causing him to go into suspended animation. He has enormous strength and durability and a brilliant mind, along with bizarre technology.
• Mister Atom – An indestructible and superstrong genocidal robot, who possesses the power of an atomic bomb.
• Oggar – An immortal sorcerer of great power, although his spells do not directly work on females, with strength and durability matching Captain Marvel.
• The inhabitants of 247 planets – Different alien races that were forced by Sivana and Ibac to work for them and build their fleet.

Fifth version

• Mister Mind - He is revealed to be controlling C.C. Batson.
• Doctor Sivana - A mad scientist from Earthlands.
• Crocodile-Men - A three-headed anthropomorphic crocodile from the Wildlands.
• Dummy - A Victorian man-turned-ventriolquist's dummy who was exiled to the Monsterlands. He was double-crossed by Superboy-Prime.
• Evil Eye - A one-eyed tentacled green monster from the Monsterlands.
• Jeepers - A bat monster from the Darklands.
• King Kull - The last of the Beast-Men from the Earthlands.
• Mister Atom - A giant robot from the Gamelands.
• Mister Merry-Go-Round - A villain from the Funlands.
• Red Queen - A red-skinned queen from the Wozenderlands.
• Scapegoat - An anthropomorphic goat from the Wildlands.
• Wicked Witch of the West - An evil witch from the Wozenderlands.

The Secret Code of the Monster Society

"The Secret Code of the Monster Society" was frequently referred to in the comic book. As early as the Fawcett comic, readers could mail away for a decoder key for the Monster Society and read the secret messages in the book by translating the messages given to them according to the substitution cipher. The cipher is very basic, in that the ciphertext alphabet is actually the regular English alphabet backwards.

During The Power of Shazam! ongoing series in the 1990s, when Mister Mind and the Monster Society of Evil were re-introduced in Post-Crisis continuity, DC Comics had done a similar thing as readers could mail away for a decoder card for the "Venusian Language" and read the secret messages. Similar to Kryptonian and Interlac, this was a cipher based on an "alien" alphabet. Various alien characters in DC Comics have been seen using it since.

Jeff Smith used the original 1940s Monster Society code in his Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil miniseries, even titling the miniseries' four chapters with ciphered text. DC Comics' official website provides an on-line tool to cipher and un-cipher the messages.^{[ citation needed ]}

Other versions

• In Superman #276 (June 1974), an analogy to Captain Marvel from Earth-276 appears named Captain Thunder who is given a compulsion to commit evil acts by his enemies the Monster League of Evil. This League includes Count Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Wolf-Man, and the Mummy.
• In Mark Waid and Alex Ross's 1996 miniseries Kingdom Come , Dr. Sivana was credited by Lex Luthor for creating a breed of mind-controlling worms before his death. Also in Superman's gulag, many of the prisoners were members of the Pre-Crisis Monster Societies, such as Jeepers, Mister Banjo, King Kull, the Crocodile Men, Ibac, and Goat-Man.
• In Jim Krueger, Doug Braithwaite and Alex Ross's series Justice , Dr. Sivana uses mind-controlling robots based on Mister Mind. ^[21]

In other media

Television

• Mister Mind appeared in The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! animated series voiced by Alan Oppenheimer. In one episode, he is strangely stricken with an inferiority complex as bigger villains never take him seriously, despite his historical ability to organize and direct villains far more powerful than himself.
• The Monster Society of Evil is featured in Batman: The Brave and the Bold . In the episode "Mayhem of the Music Meister!", Music Meister puts Batman and Black Canary in a death trap where on the walls are names of various DC Comics teams including the Monster Society of Evil. Mister Mind debuts in episode "The Malicious Mister Mind!" voiced by Greg Ellis. ^[22] He ends up usurping leadership of the Monster Society of Evil from Doctor Sivana. Besides Mister Mind and Doctor Sivana, the Monster Society of Evil consists of Mister Atom, Kru'll the Eternal, Ibac, Jeepers, Oom, and an unnamed Crocodile-Man (presumably Herkimer). When it came to fighting Batman and the Marvel Family, Mister Mind goes inside the minds of the Marvel Family members, making them turn against each other. When Doctor Sivana tries to eliminate Mister Mind with the death ray he was constructing, it ends up turning Mister Mind into a giant insectoid creature (similar to his Hyperfly form) as he reveals that he reprogrammed the ray to become a growth ray while telling Sivana he was improving the death ray. The infant Batman manages to fire the growth ray on Mister Mind, reducing him back to normal size. The Growth Ray is then used to restore Batman to his rightful age.
• Mister Mind appears in the DC Nation short SHAZAM!: Stamina. He challenges Captain Marvel to a staring contest with his challenger Evil Eye.
• Mister Mind appears in Justice League Action , voiced by Oliver Vaquer. He is depicted as wearing a radio around his neck that he uses to talk. In "Follow That Space Cab!", Mister Mind is on the run from a debt to a space crime lord named Boss Kack. Superman already had him in custody while avoiding Lobo and receives help in getting away by the Space Cabbie. During a fight between Lobo, Hawkman, and Superman, Mister Mind gets out of his containment and is lured out of the engine by the Space Cabbie wanting a picture of him. After exiting the Space Cabbie's space cab, Mister Mind ends up near where Superman and Hawkman were fighting Lobo. Lobo accidentally steps on Mind, squashing him. Reasoning that there is enough of his body to collect the bounty from Boss Kack, Lobo wipes his remains off his boot and cheerfully takes his leave without realizing that Mind had the ability to regenerate. Mister Mind's remains are taken into captivity and Mister Mind regenerates inside a prison cell within the Justice League Watchtower. In "The Brain Buster" Mister Mind, disguised via a hologram, uses a robot to kidnap Batman, Mr. Terrific, Lex Luthor, Calculator, and Brain, and forces them to participate in a series of challenges to determine which one is the smartest. He traps anyone who loses a challenge in a prison cube. When Luthor is the last one standing, Mister Mind reveals himself and his plan: to place his mind in their body, and add their genius intellect to his own I.Q. Mr. Terrific breaks Batman out of the prison cube, and Batman stops Mister Mind’s plan.
• Mister Mind appears in the episode "Little Elvis" of Teen Titans Go! , voiced by Scott Menville. In this iteration, Mister Mind is portrayed as more child-like and goofy compared to his previous media appearances, in tune with the series' tone. After the Teen Titans fail to take Shazam and his feud with Mister Mind seriously, he escapes and conjures up the Seven Deadly Sins in a vacuum cleaner and plots to unleash their powers on the world. He is defeated when Shazam destroys the Seven Deadly Sins and throws him into outer space. After this, he is killed by a meteor.

Film

Mister Mind appears in Shazam! voiced by director David F. Sandberg who was not credited for the role. ^[23] He is first seen as a captive of the Wizard Shazam at the Rock of Eternity at the time when a younger Doctor Sivana is brought to the sanctuary. He is able to escape his imprisonment after Doctor Sivana's attack on the Wizard. In the mid-credits scene, Mister Mind approaches Sivana in his prison cell, proposing a future alliance.

References

1. "When Mister Mind Was Literally Just a Disembodied Voice!". CBR. 15 March 2019. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
2. Conroy, Mike (2004), 500 Comic Book Villains, Barron's, ISBN   0-7641-2908-2, OCLC   56915138
3. Higgs, Mike; Brookes, Carl (1989). The Monster Society of Evil. American Nostalgia Library, an imprint of Hawk Books. OCLC   23188912.
4. All-Star Squadron #51-54. DC Comics.
5. Shazam #2 (1973). DC Comics.
6. Shazam #15 (1974). DC Comics.
7. 52 #52: Week 1, Day 1. Each of these footnotes represents a timestamps from the 52 comic book, depicting when events happened during the 52-week timeline of the series. As the story involves time travel, several of the events were presented in the comic out of sequence.
8. 52 #01: Week 1, Day 6
9. This is seen in 52 #52: Week 2, Day 1; whilst we the readers first see the cocoon in 52 #03: Week 3, Day 6, and Magnus shows it empty to Dr. Morrow in 52 #10: Week 10, Day 6. DC Comics.
10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-12-09. Retrieved 2007-05-12.
11. 52 #50: Week 50, Day 7. DC Comics.
12. 52 #51: Week 51, Day 7
13. 52 #52: Week 0, Day 0. DC Comics.
14. 52 #52: Week 51, Day ?. DC Comics.
15. 52 #52: Week 1, Day 1. DC Comics.
16. 52 #52: Week 43-47. DC Comics.
17. Justice League (vol. 2) #21. DC Comics.
18. Shazam! (vol. 3) #2 (January 2019). DC Comics.
19. Shazam (vol. 3) #10 (January 2020). DC Comics.
20. Shazam (vol. 3) #11 (February 2020). DC Comics.
21. Justice #9
22. "The World's Finest - The #1 DC Animation Resource". The World's Finest. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
23. Patches, Matt (2019-04-05). "Shazam director reveals the voice behind his post-credits scene tease". Polygon. Retrieved 2019-04-06.

Further reading

• The Monster Society of Evil – Deluxe Limited Collector's Edition (1989). Compiled and designed by Mike Higgs. Reprints the entire The Monster Society of Evil story arc that ran for two years from Captain Marvel Adventures #22–46 (from 1943 to 1945) where Captain Marvel meets Mister Mind and his Monster Society of Evil. This oversized, slipcased hardcover book was strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies. Published by American Nostalgia Library, an imprint of Hawk Books Limited. ( ISBN   0-948248-07-6)
• The Complete Original Monster Society of Evil: Gwandanaland Comics #1679—Captain Marvel Must Battle Against His Worst Enemies Banded Together!—From Captain Marvel Adventures #22–46. Reprints the entire story utilizing scanned images of the pages from the original published comic books. Published by Gwandanaland Comics, a print-on-demand publisher. ( ISBN   1983869643) ( ISBN   978-1983869648)

External links

• Who's Who entry at the Marvel Family Web
• Mister Mind at Comic Vine
  • Monster Society of Evil at Comic Vine
• Chapters 1–11 of the original Monster Society serial
• Chapters 12–25

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Timeline of DC Comics (1940s) February 1943

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