History Characters / JusticeSocietyOfAmericaVillains

[[folder:Johnny Thunder (Earth-One)]]
!!Johnny Thunder
[[quoteright:565:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/soillcalliteartha.jpg]]
->'''Debut:''' ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' #38 (1965)

The Earth-One counterpart of JSA member Johnny Thunder, and a petty criminal. When Johnny wished that they could meet, the criminal Thunder took advantage of the situation by knocking Johnny out and taking control of the Thunderbolt. Since the Thunderbolt was compelled to obey "Johnny Thunder", he was unable to resist the criminal's commands.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Many of his plans to oppose the heroes failed for this reason; his initial attempt to recreate the Justice League as villains failed when he pitted them against the Justice Society because his inexperienced villains easily lost to their more practiced foes, and when he tried to create his own monsters from scratch they still possessed easily exploitable weaknesses.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Taking control of the Thunderbolt allowed him to go from a small-time crook to a major threat.
* InformedFlaw: The Thunderbolt snarked that this Johnny Thunder was dumber than his heroic self. In practice, though, the criminal Thunder proved more decisive and creative in his use of the Thunderbolt than his heroic counterpart ever was.
* NotWearingTights: Like his heroic counterpart, Thunder wore a simple suit rather than a costume. This changed when he returned in the "Crisis in the Thunderlands" storyline, where he wore a lightning-themed outfit.
* PointOfDivergence: Like his Earth-Two counterpart, he was also raised by the Bahdnisians. However, he was never given a Thunderbolt of his own.
* ResetButton: After getting caught in the crossfire of an all-out battle between the Thunderbolt and Doctor Fate, the battered Thunder wished that he and the Thunderbolt had never met, undoing everything that had happened.
* {{Retgone}}:
** He had the Thunderbolt go back in time and prevent the Justice League from coming into existence by preventing the individual members' origins.
** He himself was subjected to this following ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''; After Earth-One and Earth-Two had been merged together, the criminal Thunder's existence was overridden by his heroic counterpart's.
* VillainTeamUp: In his second appearance, he joined forces with the Crime Champions.

[[folder:Ian Karkull]]
!!Ian Karkull
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ian_karkull.jpeg]]
->'''Debut:''' ''More Fun Comics'' #69 (1941)

In the 1930's scientist Ian Karkull and his partner Everett Dahlen found the lost city of Ragnor located in the Sahara. They quarrelled over a ruby that they had discovered. Everett struck Karkull unconscious, took the ruby, and left him to die in the fabled city. Abandoned in the lost city for days, Karkull learned an undisclosed array of secrets and magics that he carried with him back to America when he was finally rescued by nomadic Arabs. He vowed to seek vengeance against Everett and the entire world. Back in America, he constructed a machine which could transform men into living shadows and killed Dahlen, but was trapped in shadow form when Doctor Fate destroyed the machine. He returned to battle Fate and the JSA several times; often in the company of one of the JSA's other foes. He passed away during a fight with the JSA but survived in the Shadowlands, eventually corrupting the superhero known as Obsidian.

* TheAgeless: Since becoming a living shadow, Karkull does not age.
* BaldOfEvil: Is as bald as an egg.
* BedouinRescueService: Karkull was rescued from the lost city where Dahlen abandoned him by a band of desert nomads.
* TheCorruption: Karkull was able to slowly feed Shadowlands energy in the darkness manipulating hero Obsidian: gradually corrupting him and turning him eveil.
* EnergyAbsorption: His shadow form possesses some form of energy absorption.
* CastingAShadow: He has mastered certain mystic forces allowing him to access a dark realm known as the Shadowlands. Using this access, he has been able to utilize the shadows trapped by the ancient mages of Ragnor to further his own ends.
* {{Intangibility}}: Karkull's shadow form is intangible.
* LivingShadow: Karkull built a machine which could turn men into intangible shadows. He was trapped in this form when Doctor Fate destroyed the machine.

[[folder:Johnny Mimic]]
!!Jonathan Waddill
-> '''Debut:''' ''ComicBook/JSAClassified'' #25 (2007)
-->''"Baloney. The top brass in Washington never had clean hands. Just ask the survivors of Dresden or Hiroshima. It was Mystery Men like you who stood for something better, even the hoodlums looked up to Green Lantern. You were the super-man before there was a Superman! The world only seemed to make sense back then because guys like you set the standard! And now you're gonna let this Father Time putz drag you down to his level?"''
\\\
Johnny Mimic was the villain name of a meta-human thief who fought the JSA and Golden Age Green Lantern in their heyday. He reformed and stepped away from using his power since it taps into the memories of others and he felt it altered his own perceptions and personality to a degree while in use. In his later years the government wanted to force him to use his powers for them and threatened his wife to make it so.

* BlessedWithSuck: Long ago Johnny grew to realize that using his powers to tap into others' minds for his plans was twisting his own personality to be more cruel and violent in an echo of them. He stopped using his powers after this even though he'd loved them and his creative uses of them since his own personality and morals were being twisted and compromised by them.
* HappilyMarried: Johnny has been in a loving happy and commited relationship with his wife Linda for decades.
* PsychicPowers: Johnny can tap into the thoughts, pain and mindset of others who have been at a given location. In his heyday he used this to mimic the crimes of previous thieves by copying their plans.
* ReformedCriminal: Johnny Mimic was a small time supervillain back in the day, who made a deal with Alan Scott after being defeated by the Green Lantern and has kept his nose clean for decades since. He's pissed when Green Lantern shows up asking for help in defiance of their deal, and even more pissed to learn that the US government threatening him and his wife made Green Lantern do so.
* RememberTheNewGuy: Johnny was first introduced decades after his retirement, but treated as a former Golden Age villain.
* VillainRespect: Johnny has always had respect for the Mystery Men, which he does not extend to Government officials at any level or any other establishment institution which he feels are corrupted by power and greed at every level.
* WhatTheHellHero: Johnny is pissed when Green Lantern shows up at his house to ask him to use his powers despite their decades long agreement. He's even more pissed to learn it's because a government official is going to come in and take Johnny by force, even threatening Johnny's wife, if he doesn't agree.

* GenderFlipped: Eclipso was recast as a female villain, after typically taking male hosts, during the run toward DC's ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis event, taking Jean Loring as a host.

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: After an EnemyMine story where Icicle reluctantly helped the JSA take down the Ultra-Humanite, Sand went to visit him in prison and tried to guide him to a HeelFaceTurn, thanking him for his help and suggesting he serve his time and then come to the JSA. Cameron rejected this offer outright.

A silent film actor from TheRoaringTwenties who turned to crime after his "creepy voice" blackballed him from the new talkies, he stole a 'subspace prototype' device that allowed him to become an IntangibleMan and became a professional criminal. Unfortunately for Johnny his story did not end there, as during a battle with the JSA his device was damaged and he was accidentally sent into AnotherDimension, where he met an EldritchAbomination called the King of Tears. Reshaped in that being's image, Johnny returned to his world with new powers and an insane thirst for revenge.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Originally Johnny Sorrow was a simple actor who found fame and success in silent films, but saw his career ruined with the rise of talkies as he had "a pretty creepy voice." Turning to crime in desperation, Sorrow stole a device that allowed him to become an IntangibleMan and attempted petty crime with it, only to find himself dragged horribly into the Subtle Realms when Sand shot his device in the exact way required for Sorrow to meet a FateWorseThanDeath rather than simply fading out of existence. From there Sorrow was reshaped by the King of Tears into his emissary, given his mask to contain his power, and set loose back into the world as the HumanoidAbomination he is today.

* IntangibleMan: Sorrow is intangible, but can become solid and must in order to remove his mask. Once solid, he cannot become intangible again until the mask is replaced. While tangible, he can be hurt by physical force as well as matter manipulation.

* EmpoweredBadassNormal: Post-Crisis, the chronal duplicate Degaton is TheAgeless, an IntangibleMan, and has "Time Vision."
** Post-Rebirth, he made a DealWithTheDevil (or a Lord of Chaos, rather) to become an unkillable living paradox. He now also knows a bit of magic.

* UnstuckInTime: The chronal duplicate Degaton is this, which also allows him to [[IntangibleMan become intangible]] and exercise a limited form of precognition.

A career criminal since TheRoaringTwenties, William Zard worked as a minor league hood in his formative years before being arrested and serving his first prison sentence. After his release he traveled to Tibet and learned the mystic arts from a Tibetan llama. He clashed with the JSA upon his return to the States, and has remained a thorn in their side ever since.

* {{Expy}}: As a man dressed as a stage magician with real magical powers that he learned in the Himalayas, Zard is one of the [[FountainOfExpies many expies]] of Comicstrip/MandrakeTheMagician who popped up in UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks, with the difference that Zard is ''evil'' instead of heroic.

Superman's first ArchNemesis, before Luthor, was another bald scientist called the Ultra-Humanite. Arguably the first comic book villain with super-powers (in his case, super-intelligence), he eventually gained a gimmick where he surgically transferred his brain into other people's bodies, most notably actress Dolores Winters. Starting with UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks, the Ultra-Humanite has exclusively been a villain for the JSA.

* CardCarryingVillain: Early on, as was the norm for villains from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks: