| Mister Mind | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 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 Mindworm Magic Bookworm |
| Place of origin | Venus |
| Team affiliations | Monster Society of Evil Underground Society |
| Partnerships | Doctor Sivana |
| Notable aliases | Hyperfly Maxivermis Mind |
| Abilities |
Vast Psionics
Expertise inmagic
As Hyperfly:
|
Mister Mind is asupervillain appearing inAmerican comic books published byDC Comics, primarily as an enemy ofCaptain Marvel.[1][2] Created byOtto Binder andC. C. Beck forFawcett Comics, the character made a cameo appearance inCaptain Marvel Adventures #22 (March 1943) before making his full first appearance inCaptain Marvel Adventures #26 (August 1943).[3] Mister Mind is a two-inchaliencaterpillar-like being of high intelligence with telepathic powers who usually carries out his villainous plans through an organization called theMonster Society of Evil.[4] The Society made its debut inCaptain Marvel Adventures #22, and the resulting "Monster Society of Evil" story arc continued for two years inCaptain Marvel Adventures, ending with issue #46 (May 1945).[5]
Mister Mind appears in theDC Extended Universe filmsShazam! andShazam! Fury of the Gods, portrayed in CGI and voiced by directorDavid F. Sandberg.
After a brief appearance in issue #26, Mister Mind is eventually revealed inCaptain Marvel Adventures #27 to be a cartoonish alien worm with spectacles and a talkbox around his neck to amplify his voice.[6]
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 ranging from Alligator-Men toAdolf Hitler andBenito Mussolini. "The Monster Society of Evil" serial concluded withCaptain Marvel Adventures #46 (1945), in which Mind is captured and executed forcrimes against humanity at theNuremberg trials.
Fawcett ceased publication of Captain Marvel comics after settling alawsuit from DC Comics in 1953. Twenty years later, DC acquired the rights to publish its own Captain Marvel stories under the titleShazam!, as well as the reprint rights to the Fawcett material. Mister Mind was reintroduced in a new story inShazam! #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 inShazam andWorld'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 asJustice League of America andDC Comics Presents. The final appearance of Mister Mind and the Monster Society of Evil in the original DC/Fawcett continuity was inAll-Star Squadron #51–54 (November 1985 to February 1986), an arc written byRoy Thomas and his wife Dann that was chronologically Mind's first appearance and revealed the origin of his hatred of humanity and superheroes.
DC reset its comics' continuity with the 12-issue miniseriesCrisis on Infinite Earths in 1985–86, and Mister Mind disappeared from DC publications for a decade.[7] He re-emerged inThe Power of Shazam! #13 (March 1996), now a more realistically depicted caterpillar-like being from the planetVenus possessing powers which include mind control, telepathy, and mental image projection. This Mind was the main villain of the second major story arc ofThe Power of Shazam!, and was depicted as the lead scout of Venusian worms looking to conquer the Earth. While Captain Marvel eventually destroys the other worms, Mind survives and becomes a recurring villain inThe 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 maxiseries52 (2006-2007) featured Mister Mind as the series' final major adversary. In this story, he gains the ability to evolve into a gigantic "Hyperfly", able to eat space and time and inadvertently creating a newDC Multiverse in the process.
Following52, Mind appeared irregularly as a supervillain in DC comic series such asAction Comics,Booster Gold, and more. In 2007, cartoonistJeff Smith, the creator ofBone, 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 withThe New 52. In subsequent stories, Mister Mind has appeared sparingly, mostly in cameo appearances as inJustice League #21 (2013) andConvergence: Shazam! #2 (2015). He appeared as one of the villains in DC'sShazam! ongoing comic series, with his first appearance inShazam! #2 (March 2019).
Mister Mind came to Earth during World War II, drawn by its radio broadcasts; he especially lovedEdgar Bergen's dummyCharlie 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 likeDummy,Mister Who, Nyola, Oom the Mighty, and Ramulus to make up the Monster Society of Evil. They succeeded in capturingHawkgirl. Not long after its founding, the other villains tried to kill him and Mister Mind retreated toEarth-S. Without his leadership, the team was quickly defeated in battle by theAll-Star Squadron.[8]
As a side-effect of the reality-alteringCrisis 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 inCaptain Marvel Adventures #22–46 (March 1943 to May 1945). Mind was not revealed as a worm untilCaptain Marvel Adventures #26.
Mind had many and varied plans to conquer Earth, and to destroy Captain Marvel 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 theMonster 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 withether 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 Mind and had him tried and executed for killing 186,744 people.
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, 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 thetaxidermist into creating a duplicate, and escaped.
Shortly after Captain Marvel's own return from suspended animation, he encountered 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.[9]
Several future issues ofShazam! depict Mister Mind attempting to recruit new henchmen and reform the Monster Society of Evil, at one point even recruiting a displacedLex Luthor from Earth-One.[10] The Monster Society of Evil was briefly reformed inShazam! #14 (September–October 1974).
An escaped Mister Mind, hungry for revenge, assembled a new, smaller group which includedDoctor Sivana, his children Georgia and Sivana Jr, andIbac. 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 ofUncle 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.
Mister Mind reformed his Monster Society of Evil one last time in the classic continuity, inWorld's Finest Comics #264–267 (August–September 1980 to February–March 1981). Almost the entireMarvel Family had to unite to stop them—Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and the threeLieutenant 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'stopography,Oggar raising an evil army from the sands and dusts of Egypt forBlack 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 theRock of Eternity, home of the Marvels' benefactor, the wizardShazam.
In theElseworlds storySuperman & Batman:World's Funnest (November 2000), the two near-omnipotent impsMister Mxyzptlk andBat-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. Mxyzptlk easily destroys them along with the rest of the universe, but eventually restores it.
Mister Mind's return to the DC Universe in wake ofCrisis was first hinted at in Roy Thomas'Shazam! A New Beginning. It closed with a defeated Dr. Sivana hiding out and drinkingtequila in a Mexicandive bar. He ponders how he will defeat Captain Marvel when he sees a worm in the bottle and has the idea of using it as a weapon against the hero.
Thomas' idea of Mister Mind being a mutated tequila worm was not followed up on and he was given a different origin in his next appearance.
Mister Mind was fully re-introduced into the DC Universe inJerry Ordway'sThe Power of Shazam! series in 1996. Mind was one of a race of mind-controlling worms from the planetVenus, who had plans to invade and take over the Earth, which they claim to have once ruled around theIce Age. Appointed as the go-ahead agent, Mind arrived on Earth duringWorld War II, by means of an indestructible space suit, but was captured byBulletman,Starman, andAbin 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 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 inWashington, D.C. seeking revenge. Mister Mind's plot to set off anuclear 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 andGreen LanternsKyle Rayner andHal Jordan.
Mister Mind played an integral role in DC's year-long 2006-2007 weekly comic52, although the importance of his role in the series was revealed gradually over time and involved the concepts oftime travel andtemporal paradoxes.
The day following the end of theInfinite 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.[11] Sivana bombards Mind with particles of Suspendium, a time-altering element introduced in the 1970sShazam! title. Although Sivana is kidnapped byIntergang and forced to join theirScience Squad, the Suspendium induces Mister Mind's delayedmetamorphosis. As Sivana is dragged off, Mind observes a televised memorial for the heroes lost inInfinite Crisis and takes particular note of Skeets, the robotic companion ofBooster Gold.[12] With his metamorphosis beginning, Mind weaves a cocoon around himself, which doubles as a matter transporter that he uses to beam himself inside Skeets inWill Magnus' lab, intending to use the robot as a "cradle" where he can spend the following year gestating and completing his transformation.[11][13]
Destroying Skeets from within, Mind adopts his identity and makes plans to consume theMultiverse, which was restored inInfinite Crisis. Discovering thatRip 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 bottled city ofKandor, but when Hunter turns thePhantom 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 ofT. O. Morrow, intent on acquiring the head of theRed Tornado, whose computerized brain has mapped the Multiverse.[14] There, Mind's gestation completes and he emerges from within Skeets in a monstrousimago 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.[15] 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, where he consumes portions of each world's history, altering their timelines and creating 52 new, distinct Earths. Mind is lured back to Hunter's lab, where he shrinks in size and is trapped in Skeets' Suspendium-lined shell. Booster hurls Mind backwards through time, where the Suspendium reverts Mind back to his larval form, and lands on the day after the end ofInfinite Crisis, where he is found by Sivana and sealed in the jar. The remaining 52 seconds of time are used to bind him in a time loop.[11]
Also during the series, unrelated to Mind's activities, a new incarnation of the Monster Society was formed, consisting of the Four Horsemen ofApokolips, creatures engineered byIntergang'sScience Squad (including Sivana). Of particular note isSobek, a humanoid crocodile not unlike the beings who were members of the pre-Crisis Monster Society. This Monster Society attacked theBlack Marvel Family for not joining the Freedom of Power treaty, and killedIsis andOsiris, only to be destroyed byBlack Adam, save for Death, who flees. In his hunt for Death, Adam devastates the nation ofBialya, before defeating the final Horseman, torturing it for information, and killing it.[11]
A new Captain Marvelprestige format four-issuelimited series fromDC Comics,Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil, written and illustrated byJeff Smith began publication on February 7, 2007. Smith'sShazam! 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 communicatorheadset. Many different monsters are shown in the Society, with the Crocodile-Men being replaced with the Alligator-Men.
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".[16]
Mister Mind returns in the newShazam! series during the "DC Rebirth", still in an alliance with Sivana. It is revealed that Mister Mind's real name is Maxivermis Mind and that he originates from the Wildlands, one of the realms of the Magiclands. He additionally possesses magic derived from the Library of Eternity.[17][18][19][20]
Mister Mind originally possessed a high intellect in which made him among the greatest criminal masterminds in theDC Universe, could temporarily transfer his mind into others for a limited of time, and could also spin cocoons strong enough to bind and gag the Marvels to prevent them from speaking the magic word.[21] Later appearances of the character describes them as a "telepath of the highest order" able to consume the thoughts of others, a vastly overpowered telekinetic whom could belt a magical champion over great distances and is a powerful sorcerer in his own right as of recent publishing, having consumed spell books in the Rock of Eternity to gain their knowledge and power.[17]
While very long-lived, Mister Mind's usual body is also only thelarval stage of his breed.[22] He briefly reaches maturity and evolves into the dreadedHyperfly which can manipulatereality, feeds on the timelines of singular universes, and traverses space, including dimensions with relative ease. After returning to his pupal stage, Mind retains the ability to reproduce asexually.[23] He can also adjust his size and mass at will or psionically influence technology from galaxies far away.[24][25]
Mister Mind appears as a character summon inScribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.[32]
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