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Nazis and Nazi affiliates

    Adolf Hitler 

Adolf Hitler

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/adolf_hitler_golden_age.png
Debut: Green Lantern #3 (1942)
" I tell you, dis must stop! Are ve men or mice? Dot Justice Battalion! Dey are a thorn in my side!"


The JSA's ultimate archnemesis during World War II, Adolf Hitler's incarnation in The DCU mirrors that of our world, with a few differences. By obtaining The Spear of Destiny—the lance that pierced Christ on the cross—Hitler was able to control any metahuman who set foot in the Nazi sphere of influence, which is why the JSA was unable to take the fight directly to Germany. He also formed his own team of Nazi super-villains meant to infiltrate the Allies—Axis Amerika. As in our world, Hitler committed suicide in 1945, ending the war and freeing the JSA to enter Europe.

    Baron Blitzkrieg 

Baron Blitzkrieg

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/baron_blitzkrieg.jpg
Debut: World's Finest #26 (1977)
"Stand back, Herr Samurai! I have not used my blistering eye-beams to destroy anything of late. And, do you know something? It feels wunderbar!"

Baron Blitzkrieg was originally an especially vicious German army officer who was blinded when a concentration camp prisoner threw acid into his face. German scientists experimented on Blitzkrieg, giving injections of experimental drugs, designed to siphon off the mind's vast energies. This allowed him full control, for brief periods, of his body's resources. At any given instant he could have superhuman strength, or be incredibly swift, or have the ability to fly.


  • 90% of Your Brain: Blitzkrieg's powers derive from being able to tap into the brain's unused energy.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: A Nazi Nobleman, he was a sadist and a fanatical Nazi even before he gained his powers.
  • Eye Beams: Can project blistering beams of heat from his eyes.
  • The Faceless: Blitzkrieg's face following the acid attack has been been seen. Its is aid to be hideously scarred.
  • Flight: Can harness his brain's energy to fly.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Prior to the acid attack, he has a Schmiss (duelling scar) along his left cheek. After being hit with the acid, his face is supposedly just a mass of scar tissue.
  • High-Class Glass: Prior to the acid attack, he used to sport a monocle.
  • Nazi Nobleman: The 'Baron' part of his name is legitimate.
  • Super-Speed: When focusing his energy on being fast, he is on a par with Superman, at least for a short time.
  • Super-Strength: When focusing his energy on being strong, he is on a par with Superman.
  • Super-Toughness: When focusing his energy on being invulnerable, he is on a par with Superman.
  • Take Our Word for It: Blitzkreig's unmasked mask is never shown, but anyone who does see it reacts with disgust and horror.

    Dragon King 

Dragon King

No Name Given

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jsadragonking.png
Debut: All-Star Squadron #4 (1981)


The leader of the Black Dragon Society, a World War II-era consortium of Japanese spies and saboteurs, the Dragon King worked closely with Hitler during the war and procured the mystical Holy Grail (yes, that Holy Grail) for Imperial Japan's use. After the war's end he went into hiding, only to re-emerge decades later in the U.S.A. raising his very own Daddy's Little Villain from the shadows. He has since been killed off, but his legacy survives through that daughter, the supervillainess Shiv.
  • Arch-Enemy: To JSA member Stargirl and her self-appointed caretaker, Pat Dugan a.k.a. S.T.R.I.P.E.
  • Badass Normal: Described as a "superior athlete and hand-to-hand fighter".
  • Big Bad: Of the Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. title.
  • Daddy's Little Villain: His daughter Shiv.
  • Deadly Gas: Among his wartime "accomplishments" was the creation of the specialized nerve gas K887.
  • Guinea Pig Family: His daughter Shiv was the subject of many of his experiments and operations.
  • Hero Killer: It's strongly implied in the Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. title that he murdered Firebrand of the All-Star Squadron, a WWII-era hero team.
  • Killed Off for Real: In the penultimate issue of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., released in 1999.
  • Mad Scientist: He practices both science and sorcery, but is insane regardless of his chosen discipline.
  • Nazi Grandpa: Effectively one by the time of his appearances in Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E..
  • No Name Given: Even in the modern day and up to his death, he is never identified by any other name but his nom de guerre.
  • Professor Guinea Pig: At some point he had the bright idea to splice his own DNA with that of a lizard, becoming a hybrid of human and reptile (though thankfully without any fast-acting Healing Factor),
  • Scientifically Understandable Sorcery: He practices it.
  • Secondary Color Nemesis: Easily identified by his green costume, and he's the Arch-Enemy of Stargirl and S.T.R.I.P.E.
  • Yellow Peril: Leads the Japanese equivalent of Those Wacky Nazis.

    Fourth Reich 

Fourth Reich

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jsa4threich.png
Debut: Justice Society of America #2 (2007)


A team of Those Wacky Nazis organized by Vandal Savage to institute The Purge against the JSA's modern-day descendants. While they did succeed in killing off several potential legacies, those that did survive (such as Citizen Steel) just became more resolute and determined to follow in their heroic forebears' footsteps. Their field leader is Shazam! foe Captain Nazi and their membership consists of Baron Gestapo, Baroness Blitzkrieg, Captain Murder, Captain Swastika, Count Berlin, Doctor Demon, Green Ghoul, Hunter, Rebel, Reichsmark, Shadow of War, Swastika, and White Dragon.
  • Badass Normal: Captain Murder, Captain Swastika, and Hunter don't actually have any powers.
  • The Baroness: Averted with Baroness Blitzkrieg, who has the title but not enough personality to qualify her for this trope.
  • Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Hunter uses an energy axe and he's an unrepentant Nazi brute.
  • Captain Superhero: Inverted. Captain Nazi, Captain Murder and Captain Swastika are all Captain Supervillains.
  • Evil Mask: Captain Swastika wears a... well, swastika on his otherwise blank mask, just in case anyone was wondering if he's evil.
  • Humiliation Conga: None of Captain Nazi's run-ins with the Secret Six have ever ended well for him.
  • Legacy Character: A number of them, such as Baroness Blitzkrieg, Captain Murder, are legacies of WWII-era Nazi supervillains.
  • Master Swordsman: This is what Captain Swastika brings to the team.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: The philosophy of Captain Murder, if her name is anything to go by.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Baron Gestapo? Doctor Demon? Captain Murder?
  • Nazi Nobleman: Baron Gestapo, Baroness Blitzkrieg and Count Berlin all have aristocratic titles and are unrepentant murderers. If they really are nobles is not explained.
  • Near-Villain Victory: They almost conquered the world in the JSA Bad Seed story arc, which had them abduct Obsidian and use him to power a "Darkness Engine" that would have de-powered all superheroes.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Fourth Reich member Reichsmark is responsible for Nate Heywood's metamorphosis into Citizen Steel.
  • No Swastikas: Captain Swastika's very existence defies this trope.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: With the exception of Captain Nazi and Karnevil, their real names were never revealed.
  • Our Ghouls Are Creepier: Green Ghoul looks like a dollar-bin German knockoff of Green Goblin, namely the Ultimate Spider-Man version of the character.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: As one might expect from his 'count' title, Count Berlin is a Nazi vampire.
  • Stupid Jetpack Hitler: Doctor Demon could be Stupid Jetpack Hitler's daughter, being a Nazi supervillain whose sole power is having cybernetic enhancements that allow her to fly.
  • Super-Speed: Baroness Blitzkrieg's superpower is this, making her an Evil Counterpart to Liberty Belle.
  • Superman Substitute: Team leader Captain Nazi is the archetypal evil Nazi Superman knockoff.
  • Unwitting Pawn: To Vandal Savage, who couldn't give a fig less about their delusions of racial supremacy and was just using them to nip potential future superheroes in the bud.
  • Villain Team-Up: Played with, as they played their Trojan Horse Karnevil and abducted Obsidian at the same time that the Injustice Society attacked their brownstone headquarters. They weren't actually working together though, it was just the two groups attacking together at the right time (or rather wrong time).
  • Would Hurt a Child: Captain Nazi and his teammates remorselessly kill women and children first whenever they attack the families of patriotic-themed superheroes.

    Grey-Shirts 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grey_shirts.png
Debut: All-Star Comics #4 (1941)


A group of Nazi sympathizers in Ohio during WWII, who want Hitler to take over the country.
  • All Germans Are Nazis: And all but one of them are blond, even.
  • Gratuitous Nazis: Well, it was WWII, but the idea of there even be 3,000 Nazi sympathizers in Ohio, let alone 30,000, stretches credulity.
  • Les Collaborateurs: What they wanted to be. Unfortunately for them, Germany never got so far as invading America, and the JSA came down on them like a hammer.
  • The Paralyzer: The spy code-named Baron has a machine that can paralyze people.
  • Phenotype Stereotype: A group of German Americans all but one of whom are blonde.

    Karnevil 

Karnevil

Jeremy Karne

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kidkarnevil.jpg
AKA: Kid Karnevil, the All-American Kid
Debut: Shadowpact #1 (2006)


A murderous teenager recruited to mystic supervillain group the Pentacle. Following the Pentacle's defeat and disbanding, Karnevil was among the dozens of supervillains exiled to a distant prison planet during the Salvation Run event, and following his return he fell in with the Fourth Reich. This would establish him as a JSA villain, as the Reich used him as a Trojan Horse to infiltrate the JSA from within under the fictional identity of the All-American Kid. Frightfully efficient, Karnevil murdered Mr. Terrific, and his treachery helped usher in a Nazi-ruled Bad Future that was only narrowly averted.
  • Arch-Enemy: To Detective Chimp during his time menacing the Shadowpact, and then to Mr. Terrific and King Chimera as a JSA villain.
  • Ax-Crazy: Regardless of the veracity of any of his more fantastical claims, he's verifiably insane and takes a deranged delight in acts of murder and mayhem.
  • Bad Future: In the original timeline, Karnevil and the Fourth Reich won. Further, their defeat of the JSA ushered in a Bad Future where the Fourth Reich conquered America and imprisoned all superheroes. Fortunately this future was averted.
  • Barred from the Afterlife: He claims that he once died and was sent to Hell for his sins but was kicked out and brought back to life because he scared the demons. But this probably was a lie.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Whe was was then sent to Salvation (a prison-planet) he met the Joker and told him that he was his role model and would try to outdo him by being more like Joker than he was himself, but Jeremy planned to do this by killing him one day. Joker felt with almost no concern as he said, "Many have tried. None have succeeded". Later, as they were escaping Salvation, Joker slapped Jeremy across his face saying, "Nobody likes a copycat!".
  • Enfante Terrible: Jeremy Karne, just a teenager, was a murderer and sociopath.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted — Pentacle leader the Strega recruited Karnevil precisely because he was so evil, even though he never demonstrated any supernatural powers or abilities to justify his inclusion in a villainous mystic group.
  • Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Exploited to maximum effect when he infiltrated the JSA. Garbed in patriotic duds and calling himself the All-American Kid, he looked like a saint next to the surly and brooding King Chimera.
  • Hero Killer: He murdered Mr. Terrific, with only the timely intervention of Dr. Fate saving Holt's life.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: As his debut indicates, he was actually first a villain to heroic mystic group the Shadowpact before taking on the JSA.
  • Serial Killer: According to Mr. Terrific he has thirty murders on his record.
  • Smug Snake: As a part of his socipathy he's unshakeably confident after being outed as a traitor and a monster and brags about how much fun he'll have killing whoever he's talking to. Without the element of surprise on his side, however, he's really not that much of a threat to any kind of powered or even just experienced opponent, hero or villain. His brazen but easily disproven boasting puts the lie to any claims he scared the denizens of Hell.
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: Kid Karnevil infiltrated the JSA, posing as the All-American Kid, for a short time. He claimed that the original All-American Kid was a sidekick to Mr. America during WWII. His goal was capture Obsidian, but is stopped by Mr. Terrific.
  • Teens Are Monsters: And Karnevil's about as monstrous as they come.
  • Those Wacky Nazis: He joins up with a modern day incarnation of them, which is no surprise seeing as he is the archetypal blonde-haired-blue-eyed Nazi stereotype.
  • Trojan Horse: Used as one for the Fourth Reich, who outfitted him with the All-American Kid identity and sent him to infiltrate the JSA.

Injustice Society

    The Injustice Society of the World 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/injustice_society_0001.jpg

The Injustice Society is a team of villains who oppose their enemies, the Justice Society. They were originally active during the Golden Age in the 1940's, but there have been several incarnations of the team over the years. Their traditional leader is the Wizard, although they have also been lead by Johnny Sorrow.


  • Alternate Company Equivalent: Very similar to Mr Mind's Monster Society of Evil, which had debuted four years prior, and belonged to Fawcett Comics at the time (with the notable lack of Nazi Germany as a backer, since the War was over when the Injustice Society formed).
  • Legion of Doom: The whole point of the league.
  • Ur-Example: First known gathering of previously existing villains in DC.

    Blackbriar Thorn 

Blackbriar Thorn

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blackbriar_thorn.jpg
Debut: DC Comics Presents #66 (1984)

Blackbriar Thorn was a leader of the ancient Druids in the British Isles. As such, he had great powers and responsibilities. However, the Druids were killed by Roman forces. In an attempt to circumvent the conquerors, Blackbriar Thorn transformed into solid wood with the hopes of mingling with the trees and the surrounding forests. His ruse worked but a group of Druids, in a final effort to defend themselves, created a terrible land magic so that Thorn was swallowed into the earth. Centuries later, the body of Blackbriar Thorn was discovered by an archaeologist. His body was put on display at The Gotham City Museum of History. Waking up in a new land with his old powers intact, Thorn left Gotham City in panic.


  • Combat Tentacles: Thorn uses wooden vines and roots to attack foes.
  • Demonic Possession: Thorn could transfer his essence to other bodies with a mere touch.
  • Depending on the Writer:
    • Just how evil he is varies on who's writing him that day, sometimes he's a Poison Ivy-esque Anti-Villain who wants to punish humanity with Gaia's Vengeance, other times he's a downright sadistic fellow whose motives are quite personal. Generally speaking, if Alan Scott's around, expect to see his nastier side.
    • His power level is also very writer dependent, as sometimes he's just a background villain in the ranks of whatever Injustice League is causing trouble that day, while other times he's a genuine powerhouse who can go toe-to-toe with The Spectre.
  • Dirty Coward: When the Roman invaders came for his tribe, Thorn cut and ran, leaving his followers in the lurch. This came back to bite him.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Can move, shift, manipulate and otherwise control the very earth he stands on.
  • Druid: Blackbriar is a decidedly villainous rake who is a member of an ancient order of druids himself.
  • Evil Brit: Or rather evil Welsh, as he's an ancient inhabitant of Cymru.
  • Evil Old Folks: He's thousands of years old, and frankly, he looks it.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Technically an evil druid, but the results are the same.
  • Fire Keeps It Dead: The pieces of Blackbriar's body that are burned are unable to be regenerated.
  • From a Single Cell: Blackbriar can regenerate his body from a single sliver of wood.
  • Garden of Evil: Whenever he's around, expect to be menaced by one.
  • Genius Loci: At one point he grew to truly colossal proportions and fashioned himself as "the Living City".
  • Green Thumb: Can bend plant life to his will.
  • Logical Weakness: He must maintain contact with the earth or he will lose his powers.
  • Man of Kryptonite: His plant based physiology and powers make him this to Alan Scott, whose powers are ineffective against wood the way the Green Lantern rings used to be ineffective against yellow.
  • Master of Illusion: Is a master of illusion magic.
  • Plant Person: Blackbriar Thorn is made of wood.
  • Necessarily Evil: In more recent stories he's taken on this quality, being portrayed as one of the grumpier but still necessary agents of the Green, the fundamental elemental force that connects all plant life.
  • Really 700 Years Old: His exact age is unstated but as his sect of druids was wiped out by invading Romans, that puts him at least in the neighborhood of 2000 years old and probably older.
  • Redhead In Green: Not only do he and Poison Ivy have a common connection to the Green, they have similar tastes in their wardrobes as well. Surprisingly, the two villains have never met.
  • Religion of Evil: His origin story is a throwback to the days when pagan religions were portrayed as evil and barbaric.
  • Resurrective Immortality: Because of his strong connection with the Green, whenever he is killed he will just "regrow" back to life.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Despite fighting the JSA most frequently, he was opposed by Superman and Etrigan in his first appearance, and he's enough of an all-purpose villain to be pulled out for storylines that require a mystical baddie or two.
  • Sizeshifter: He's normally 6'3" but can become an Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever at will.
  • Strong as They Need to Be: Like many powerful C-List Fodder villains, Thorn's power level takes a nosedive whenever he's part of a team, while solo he's usually written as a team-wrecking threat.
  • Weak to Fire: He's vulnerable to fire.
  • Weather Manipulation: Is able to conjure snow, storms, or dense fog in instants.

    Brainwave 

Brainwave

Henry King, Sr.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brainwave.jpg
Debut: All Star Comics #15 (1943)
"Eight Swaggering Heroes! Eight Men Keen-Witted, Muscular and Daring!"


The first of two characters to use the Brainwave name, Henry King was born in the early 1910s with formidable Psychic Powers. As an adult he was a medical school graduate, but soon abandoned psychiatry in favor of a life of crime. He was a founding member of the first incarnation of the Injustice Society and a frequent foe of the JSA, but falling in love and having a child imparted on him a shred of morality. Sadly he couldn't stay on the straight and narrow and died in a botched revenge scheme, though with his last act he achieved redemption. His son, Henry King Jr., received his powers and became the second Brainwave.

    Geomancer 

Geomancer

Adam Fells (first Geomancer), No Name Given (Geomancer II)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jsageomancer.jpg
Debuts: JSA #5 (1999, Adam Fells), JSA All-Stars #2 (2010, Geomancer II)
“I’ll bury you !”


A metahuman criminal with the power of Dishing Out Dirt. He was Killed Off for Real, but a second, unnamed Geomancer emerged to take his place.

The first Geomancer was imported as a Villain of the Week for The Flash (2014), where he is played by Adam Stafford. For tropes applying to that Geomancer, see here.
  • Alternate Company Equivalent: He's basically just DC's version of X-Men villain Avalanche.
  • Arch-Enemy: The first Geomancer was this to Sand owing to their shared earth-manipulating powers. The second Geomancer was more of an all-purpose villain.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: A low to mid-level case, as he can shake things up in a fight but he's not by any means a Person of Mass Destruction.
  • Legacy Character: A second Geomancer appeared to take the place of the first, and seems to have the same powers and abilities.
  • Killed Off for Real: The original Geomancer died a pretty humilitating death, having been put in suspended animation by the Ultra-Humanite and then being killed accidentally by Icicle who was trying to free him.
  • The Movie Buff: The original Geomancer was a big Irwin Allen fan.
  • No Name Given: The second Geomancer was never identified by any name other than his code name.
  • Psycho for Hire: Adam Fells first appeared as one of these, working for a shadowy group called the Council before joining the Injustice Society.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Is it Geomancer or Geo-Mancer? The comics use both intechangeably.
  • Starter Villain: He was created more or less to show readers what the new and improved Sand could do.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: The original Geomancer was killed off just 3 years after being introduced.
  • Wicked Pretentious: Both versions of the character. The first Geomancer liked spouting movie trivia mid-battle, while the second Geomancer was a JSA history buff who traded quips with Cyclone.

    The Huntress 

The Huntress

Paula Brooks

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tigressbrooks.jpg
Debut: Sensation Comics #68

Formerly a member of the Young All-Stars, after being killed and revived, Paula Brooks became the supervillain the Huntress. Joining the Injustice Society, Paula married fellow member Sportsmaster, having a daughter with him, the second Tigress, Artemis Crock.


  • Badass Normal: Just like her husband and daughter, she has no powers, only skill and lots of training.
  • Cleavage Window: Her costume comes with a wide-opening for her cleavage.
  • Face–Heel Turn: She started as a hero and member of the Young All-Stars, but after she was seemingly killed and revived, she became a villain and that has remained since.
  • Outlaw Couple: With the Sportsmaster (Crusher Crock).

    Icicle 

Icicle

Joar Makhent (first Icicle), Cameron Makhent (Icicle II)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jsaiciclei.png
Icicle I, Dr. Joar Makhent
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jsaicicleii.jpg
Icicle II, Cameron Makhent
Debuts: All-America Comics #90 (1947, first Icicle), Infinity Inc. #34 (1987, Icicle II)


An Ice Person criminal, the first Icicle was Joar Makhent, a Mad Scientist who invented a "Cold Ray Gun" which he used to freeze his enemies. The second Icicle is his son Cameron, who was born with cryokinetic abilities and followed his father's footsteps into villainy.

Both Icicles have made adaptational appearances in Smallville and Young Justice. Joar was adapted into Superfriends, while Cameron has been adapted for Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox and Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.
  • Affectionate Nickname: Artemis calls Cameron by several nicknames, most commonly "Frostbite".
  • An Ice Person: Cameron, the second Icicle, can generate and control ice; he can create blasts of cold, ice missiles and walls of ice from ambient moisture, as well as forming sleet, snow, and freezing rain. This because his father's prolonged exposure to the weapon altered his genetics, allowing him to biologically pass down to his son the ability to freeze objects and people or to lower the temperature of a room or other area.
  • Battle Couple /Outlaw Couple: Cameron and Artemis form one, and eventually have a daughter together.
  • Beard of Evil: Has a beard and well you know evil.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Icicle I appreciates that Jay Garrick, the first Flash, never treated him like scum even though, by Jay's standards, he was.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: There was briefly a third Icicle, Joar's granddaughter (via his first marriage) Doyle, who tried out being a hero but she was only in a few issues and hasn't been mentioned in decades.
  • Death by Childbirth: Happened to Cameron's mother, likely a result of his condition. And since his condition is genetic, he's quite worried that the same thing could happen to Tigress.
  • Faking the Dead: At one point Joar did this by killing racketeer "Lanky" Leeds and altered Lanky's appearance to resemble his own.
  • Family Business: Cameron sees supervillainy as this, and strives to be a "professional" criminal.
  • Freeze Ray: Dr. Makhent, the original Icicle, had a gun that could generate and control ice. He could create blasts of cold, ice missiles and walls of ice from ambient moisture.
  • Friendly Enemy:
    • Icicle respeced Jay Garrick and Barry Allen.
    • Cameron and Tigress are on cordial terms with JSA members Hourman and Liberty Belle, and the four have helped each other out a couple of times.
  • Heel–Face Door-Slam: After an Enemy Mine 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 Heel–Face Turn, thanking him for his help and suggesting he serve his time and then come to the JSA. Cameron rejected this offer outright. Justice Society of America (2022) sees him finally join the JSA as an ally.
  • Honor Among Thieves: Cameron cares for the Wizard as if he was his own father, and is eager to take risks to help him.
  • Killed Off for Real: Joar met his death during the Crisis on Infinite Earths when he and several other super-villains attempted to invade the laboratory of the Krona, the renegade Oan.
  • Legacy Character: The first Icicle was Joar Mahkent, a European physicist hat create an ice weapon and fake his death becoming a criminal and member of the Injustice Society. His son Cameron Mahkent take the torch, not because of legacy, but because he's not a nice guy. He is a far more ruthless foe than his predecessor.
  • May–December Romance: Based on the ages of his grandchildren from his first marriage, Joar was several decades older than Cameron's mother.
  • Non-Specifically Foreign: Joar Makhent was of European ancestry, but exactly where in Europe is never specified.
  • Obnoxious In-Laws: Annie Macdonald (the sister of Joar's first wife) disliked him intensely and the feeling was mutual.
  • Official Couple: Cameron with Tigress in the Injustice team.
  • Passed-Over Inheritance: He's since gotten over it, but early on one of Cameron's hangups was that his father actually left his inheritance to The Flash rather than him.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Cameron often menaces other superheroes and superhero teams in his various adaptational appearances.
  • Superpowerful Genetics: Cameron was born with metahuman cold-manipulating powers.

    Johnny Sorrow 

Johnny Sorrow

No Name Given

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/johnnysorrow2.jpg
Debut: Secret Origins of Super-Villains 80-Page Giant #1 (1999)
"Come now, Scarab. You costumed do-gooders are ten a penny. A good villain, on the other hand, is far harder to find."


A silent film actor from The Roaring '20s 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 intangible 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 Another Dimension, where he met an Eldritch Abomination 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.
  • Achilles' Heel: While Sorrow's intangibility makes him nigh-untouchable, he suffers from a form of Takes One to Kill One, as he is vulnerable to his own deadly gaze, having succumbed to it on two different occasions. Interestingly, both these occasions would see Sorrow suffer this at the hands of the only two people respectively who have survived his gaze.
  • Arch-Enemy: To Sand Hawkins originally, as Sand was the one who accidentally sent him into the Subtle Realms by destroying his subspace prototype machine. Over time, he shifted his hatred to the JSA as a whole.
  • Bad Boss: So much so that his right-hand man Icicle fearfully tells his fellow villain Dr. Polaris that meeting Sorrow was "the worst thing that ever happened to me" and that if Polaris was smart, he'd pray that he'd never meet Sorrow in person. This fear is entirely founded, as Sorrow has been known to do everything from leaving his subordinates to die to outright cutting out their hearts.
  • Brown Note: Sorrow’s true face beneath his mask is one of these - whoever has the misfortune to witness it either dies, goes insane, or suffers an even worse fate.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He has on occasion spouted off a few good quips.
    Johnny Sorrow: I'm handing you the reigns, Icicle. I have other things to attend to.
    Icicle: What about Wildcat?
    Sorrow: He's an unarmed man in an Egyptian cotton bath towel. I think you can manage without me.
  • The Dragon: To the King of Tears, an extradimensional Eldritch Abomination.
  • The Faceless: No longer has a face, and to look into the space behind his mask where his face should be is instant death. Unless you're Harley Quinn.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: 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 intangible 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 Fate Worse than Death 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 Humanoid Abomination he is today.
  • The Heavy: Since the King's mind is so completely alien, Sorrow does most of the planning.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Originally a criminal who got torn apart by a dimension gate accident, the King of Tears decided to reconstruct him and bring him back, but as a extradimensional, intangible entity that phases between reality and his home dimension at will, and possesses a horrific visage comprised of insectoid limbs and tentacles that kills almost anyone who sees it instantly (though extremely powerful beings have survived it, and the blind are immune).
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: In JSA All-Stars his goal is this, as the life of a Humanoid Abomination has eroded almost all other traces of his sanity.
  • Intangibility: 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.
  • Large Ham: As a former actor, this kind of comes with the territory, though Sorrow's utter insanity also helps.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Consistently plays this role as the mastermind behind the Injustice Society.
  • Man of Wealth and Taste: He cultivates the appearance of this with stylish red suits, though Sand has been known to mock him for it.
  • Mask Power: Inverted — Sorrow's mask restricts his power, in the vein of the Medusa. It's when Sorrow takes off his mask that you should be worried.
  • Mouth of Sauron: For the King of Tears.
  • Never My Fault: Despite having minor Tragic Villain elements, Sorrow's insistence that he is utterly blameless for becoming what he is today makes it hard to summon up any sympathy for him.
  • No Face Under the Mask: When Johnny removes it, he becomes solid and reveals an other-dimensional visage so incomprehensibly hideous that all but the most powerful (or blind) of living things will instantly die at the sight of it. The one time it was shown, it appeared to be a shapeless mass of tentacles and insectoid limbs.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: A criminal who lost his body in an accident with a dimension gate and was revived as a ghost-like entity, inhabiting a suit with a mime mask. If he takes off his mask, anyone who sees his face dies immediately.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: His signature suits are usually colored to invoke this trope, though on occasion he was worn ties in other dark colors such as blue.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: When he was almost human again in JSA All-Stars he had a bald, rotted skull reminiscent of Jason Voorhees and the signature danger reds of this trope to go with it.
  • Remember the New Guy?: He was a villain during the Golden Age of Superheroes but first appeared in 1999.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: Ghost in this case; he appear like a floating elegant red suit with a mask and black glove.
  • Stalking is Love: In the first issue of JSA All-Stars, Johnny Sorrow seemed to have this for Stargirl. Eventually, it turned out to be B.S., and he was using her for a magic spell.
  • Was Once a Man: He was a former silent film actor who was forced into retirement by talkies and turned to a life of crime. In 1944, Sorrow battled the JSA. When Sandy fired his wirepoon at the teleportation device that Johnny Sorrow was wearing, Sorrow's body was torn apart and his consciousness was transported to the other-dimensional "Subtle Realms."
  • Villains Never Lie: According to him at least: "Sorrow always keeps his word!"

    Kestrel 

Kestrel

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kestrel.jpg
Debut: Hawk and Dove Vol. 2 #1 (1988)

Kestrel was a spell created by M'Shulla and Gorrum, two Lords of Chaos to either subvert Hawk to the forces of true chaos or kill him.


  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: The kestrel, a type of bird of prey.
  • Body Surf: The spell can shift between host bodies at will.
  • Dimensional Cutter: Kestrel can use his claws to slice through the fabric of space separating dimensions to allow himself to travel to a dimension of chaos that would fuel his powers more so than the standard earthly plane.
  • Flight
  • Nigh-Invulnerable: Possesses a near invulnerability to physical harm.
  • Purple Is Powerful: His costume is purple and he's more than a match for Hawk and Dove.
  • Secondary Color Nemesis: Dark purple and an evil version of Hawk and Dove.
  • Super-Empowering: Kestrel is able to imbue underlings with power that came from himself to further enhance the powers they already possessed.
  • Super-Strength
  • Wolverine Claws: Has claws that can cut through steel and enhanced by magic so hypothetically could cut Superman’s flesh.

    Killer Wasp 

Killer Wasp

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/killer_wasp.jpg
Debut: JSA #9 (2000)
"'Adrenergic'? You mind translating for those of use who weren’t finalists on Jeopardy!?"

The son of Wildcat's foe Yellow Wasp, Killer Wasp was the test subject of many of his father's experiments. Yellow Wasp mutated his son into a half-insect/half-human hybrid.


  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: Of the 'animal abilities' type.
  • Flight: Has functional wasp-like wings that somehow allow him to fly.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Killer Wasp has been mutated into a wasp-like form by his father.
  • Hand Blasts: Is able to fire energy blasts from his hands.
  • Patricide: Killer Wasp murdered his father.
  • The Un-Favourite: Wildcat's kidnapped son, Jake, was always Yellow Wasp's favorite. Killer Wasp killed them both, and now holds a grudge against Wildcat.
  • Winged Humanoid: Has functional wasp-like wings.

    Per Degaton 

Per Degaton

Post-Crisis: No Name Given, Pre-Crisis: "Believe it or not, that's it!"

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/per_degaton_0004.jpg
Debut: All Star Comics #35 (1947)
"But this world — this ERA — will PAY for its ill treatment of Per Degaton — when it WINKS out of existence like a candle that was NEVER LIT!"
— Per Degaton, All-Star Squadron Vol 1 #14 (Crisis on Earth-Prime)


A disgruntled lab assistant to several scientists in the 40s, Per Degaton ultimately stole a time machine one of them had created and intended to use it to rule the world before being stopped by the JSA. His plots followed a Strictly Formula routine of making the attempt, being foiled, and forgetting he ever tried (until the next time). He was reinvented several times in the Post-Crisis years and some of his deeds were ascribed to a chronal duplicate of himself that he inadvertently created. TIME TRAVEL!
  • Adaptational Attractiveness: Pre-Crisis, Degaton looked positively ghoulish (which got even worse when he aged), but Depending on the Artist, now he looks a bit more presentable.
  • Aerith and Bob: In the original story, Per Degaton and Malachi Zee stuck out compared to other scientists with names like Abner, Braun and Staley.
  • Ambition Is Evil: Degaton is motivated by both his belief that he deserves to rule, as well as his desire to become more than just a lab assistant, as exemplified by his consistent refrain of "(sigh) I wonder if I'll ever be anything more than just a lab assistant?" when he gets his Laser-Guided Amnesia Once per Episode. His fact file in All-Star Squadron #2 notes that his height is "5 feet, four inches of solid, ruthless ambition".
  • Awesome Mc Cool Name: Much like his Arch-Enemy Rip Hunter, Per Degaton chose a deliberately cool-yet-obtuse name to conceal his true identity from rival time travelers. And much like Rip, his real name is unknown to this day. Of course, this is only a retcon; The original histories gave no explanation for his bizarre name, or that of his boss, Malachi Zee. His fact file also hangs a "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer on his name, as seen above (In Real Life, Per is a swedish shortening of Peter, for the record).
  • Badass Normal: The original Degaton repeatedly took on the JSA using nothing more than mundane armaments and his own native cunning, as he was constrained by the loss of his time machine.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: He pulled this with both Brainwave and Mekanique. He also worked alongside a corrupt politician with a grudge against the Justice Society, who instigated the plot of America vs. the Justice Society, although in that case, it's clear that he was just taking advantage of a very sick man.
  • Character Catchphrase: Not intentionally, but both him and Zee have a very specific set of lines they always repeat whenever Degaton is foiled and forgets his world domination attempt.
  • Conqueror from the Future: The Pre-Crisis and/or chronal duplicate Degaton's shtick.
  • Continuity Snarl:
    • Originally it appeared as though Degaton's time-alteration plots were successive attempts that followed from one another, due to him and Zee both vaguely retaining some memory of the events (Zee implying that he thought the previous attempts to use the time machine had failed, when in reality it had been stolen by Degaton and put back by the Reset Button), but other tellings say that they are all actually the same attempt, and he's returning to the same spot in the timeline after being defeated before inevitably trying again, in the same day and time.
    • The chronal duplicate Degaton is ostensibly the one who continues to appear in issues following his death in an Infinity Inc. annual, but there's no window of time in which he could've time-traveled elsewhere either prior to his creation, or his arrival and immediate murder by Mekanique. Similarly with the resolutions of his stories, it seems the chronal duplicate's existence somehow affects the events immediately prior to his creation and he's able to succesfully steal the time machine without Zee and attempt to rule the world with it before getting sent back, getting stuck inside of it with the dying professor and inevitably getting murdered. Hence, some sources refer to "chronal duplicates", plural.
    • Black Beetle, when describing from where in the timeline he grabbed Degaton, says it was when he was "a time-traveling Nazi". Even if we allow for the fact that he's simply calling him a nazi pejoratively, Post-Crisis Degaton never had the chance to do anything actually serious with his time machine (see above).
    • Similarly, his presence in the Injustice Society raises a lot of questions since none of the other villains should remember that he did anything noteworthy enough for him to be allowed to join them. This was lampshaded in America vs. the Justice Society, and Post-Crisis Degaton says that it was the advanced tech he got from his interactions with Mekanique that served as his 'in' with the Injustice Society.
  • Deceptive Disciple: To three different groups of scientists. Apparently, the Greatest Generation could sometimes be too trusting for their own good.
  • Decomposite Character: Pre-Crisis, there was only one Degaton, who tried several times to alter history in his favor, before ultimately sending Professor Zee's time machine along with the man himself several decades to the future and as such no longer being able to affect time in any way. Capers involving Degaton just being a regular baddie were him following this incident, and anything that involved him trying to alter time was the younger Degaton, stuck in a "Groundhog Day" Loop of remembering his erased exploits and trying again. With us so far? Okay, well, Post-Crisis, the incident where the time machine was sent forward happened first, and created a chronal duplicate of Degaton that was responsible for all the time-travel adventures that he did, while the original Degaton, unaware of any of this, waited out his years for the time machine to arrive in the present. How the chronal duplicate was able to use the time machine again despite dying immediately after stepping out is never explained.
  • Domestic Abuse: Betrays his robot girlfriend Mekanique by burying her still-active severed head.
  • Driven to Suicide: At the end of America vs. the Justice Society, original Degaton Ate His Gun when his murder of Professor Zee was finally exposed 40 years after the fact. This story was later retconned in the pages of two annuals for The Young All-Stars and Infinity, Inc., due to hinging on characters like the Earth-2 Batman, who no longer existed in continuity.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: Post-Crisis, the chronal duplicate Degaton is The Ageless, intangible, and has "Time Vision". Post-Rebirth, he made a Deal with the Devil (or a Lord of Chaos, rather) to become an unkillable living paradox. He now also knows a bit of magic.
  • Evil Is Petty: The chronal duplicate of Degaton firmly established himself as one in JSA Issue #59, realizing he could never truly defeat the JSA, he simply decided to entertain himself by visiting members of the JSA just to reveal how they will die or suffer in the future and take pleasure in their response as he leaves them to ponder. He even took the time to re-watch the relationship break-up of Stargirl and Captain Marvel for several hours just because seeing Stargirl in emotional agony was entertaining.
  • Evil Old Folks: The original Degaton eventually becomes one.
  • Evil Redhead: A redhead dickhead. He's actually quite proud of his hair color and was upset when he was given black hair after being put into a reconstituted body by Brainwave. (It was an accident - Degaton was going incognito with black hair and Brainwave assumed he preferred it that way.)
  • Finishing Each Other's Sentences: In All-Star Squadron #3, he finishes his own sentence and yet it somehow still counts for this trope.
    Degaton: What a tragic end to my plan of world conquest! And yet, somehow- it's almost-
    (back in the lab) -Funny, professor! I dreamed last night I was ruler of the world! (sigh)
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: ...To nobody, to nightmare, to nobody, to nightmare, to nobody, to nightmare, to Killed Off for Real and simultaneously also being alive somewhere in the timestream, to alive again and always having been a nightmare, post-New 52. And that's without getting into the chronal duplicate retcon!
  • Ghostapo: Post-Rebirth, it is said that he was in one, making it the first time he's portrayed as a genuine Nazi after years of Putting on the Reich.
  • Here We Go Again!: His Pre-Crisis capers, which ended with everyone suffering from time travel-induced Laser-Guided Amnesia, would always end with him wistfully remarking to Professor Zee about having a dream where he ruled the world. Those dreams would inevitably inform him of the truth eventually, leading to another adventure with him as the villain.
  • Hero Killer: The post-Rebirth version of him has succeeded in annihilating many different versions of the JSA across history.
  • Killed Off for Real: Original Degaton is definitely dead, but chronal duplicate Degaton continues to pop up from time to time, albeit only because of Timey-Wimey Ball since he, too, dies shortly after his original self.
  • Motive Decay: Eventually, he stopped trying to use time travel to conquer the world and started using it just to get revenge on the JSA.
  • Near-Villain Victory: A common trope with him - he almost always does succeed in altering the timeline as he wants, but ends up stopped by heroes who still remember.
  • Never the Selves Shall Meet: In an issue of Infinity, Inc., original Degaton is disintegrated when he finally catches up with his chronal duplicate.
  • Putting on the Reich: His uniform would later be established as being inspired by magazine photos of Nazi stormtroopers. (Mekanique doesn't like it.) He also was drawn doing a nazi salute in Who's who, but other than that shows no particular love for the nazis or their allies, wanting to become ruler of the world himself. Averted in current continuity where he was indeed a Nazi, the Ghostapo kind at that.
  • Reset Button: An element of the time travel technology he uses and the formula for his original stories. Once whatever change he did to the timeline to turn things in his favor is changed back, everyone will forget any of it ever happened, including him. note 
  • Retcon:
    • He only fought the JSA three times during the actual Golden Age. All of his other pre-Crisis appearances were the result of Bronze Age writers "retelling" (by which they meant "expanding") the JSA's history.
    • Post-Crisis, he became a Decomposite Character, with one Degaton being the one who joined the Injustice Society and enacted other plans that didn't involve time travel, and another was somehow stuck in some weird Timey-Wimey Ball loop where he was constantly succeeding in stealing the time machine and altering history only to be stopped by the JSA. Originally, he did all those things, only joining the Injustice Society because he accidentally lost Zee and the time machine before he could pull off another time travel scheme.
    • It's stated in one of his first (and, to him, one of his last) stories in the Post-Crisis continuity that he used Mekanique's advanced technology to essentially bribe his way into the Injustice Society, who didn't know who he was. Pre-Crisis, there simply was no good explanation for him to be there, other than "he begged really, really hard".
    • His being an assistant of the Time Trust and sabotaging the bomb-proof shield the Justice Society had worked so hard to bring back from the future. The original story ended with the shield working the first time and the Time Trust celebrating along with the Society and Degaton hadn't even been introduced yet, but Pearl Harbor certain real-life events]] forced the writers to give it a Happy Ending Override.
  • Ret-Gone: At one point he tortures Hourman by gradually going back and erasing every single person associated with a positive memory in his lifetime, explaining in detail the depth of significance each and every person has, sorry, had in his life and then killing them one by one before young Rex has the chance to meet them. He's commenting on what a bleak youth Rex had without any friends and about to wipe out the first girl he kissed when Hourman II bursts in and rescues his father.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Pre-Crisis/Chronal Duplicate Degaton has recurring dreams of his attempts at world conquest after they are undone by the JSA and/or others, which will eventually restore his memory, making him try again.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Post-Infinite Crisis, he became a member of Booster Gold's rogues gallery.
  • The Slow Path: The original Degaton has a bit of a psychotic break when he realizes he'll have to wait forty years for the runaway time machine to intersect with his personal timeline again. And then, when it finally does arrive, it leads to his death anyway (although exactly how it happens varies with the telling).
  • Take Over the World: His end goal, at least at first.
  • Time Machine: The chronal duplicate Degaton has one, which includes a Reset Button that has him trapped in a "Groundhog Day" Loop. It was (is?) stolen by him after his boss, Professor Zee, finishes it.
  • Timey-Wimey Ball: As a result of a struggle with the inventor of a time machine he was attempting to steal, there are two Degatons: the original (who got left behind by the time machine and ends up taking The Slow Path through time) and a "chronal duplicate" (who is Unstuck in Time). At some point, the duplicate was also plucked from the time stream and recruited into the time stealers, resulting in his continued appearances past when he was Killed Off for Real.
  • Took a Level in Badass:
    • As a result of having his whole backstory changed, Degaton, as shown in The New Golden Age, is now a Ghostapo character with supernatural powers and a Hero Killer.
    • Less obviously, he became a more serious character after returning to comics circa 2004, more coldly sadisdic and calculating, and with some new tricks up his sleeve, particularly the fact that he was now intangible.
  • Unholy Matrimony: With the time traveling robot Mekanique.
  • Unstuck in Time: The chronal duplicate Degaton is this, which also allows him to become intangible and exercise a limited form of precognition.
  • Villain Team-Up: Degaton is an inveterate joiner. Pre-Crisis, he was a founding member of the Injustice Society of America and teamed up on an individual basis with Mekanique, Brainwave, Solomon Grundy, the Wizard, the Ultra-Humanite, and the Crime Syndicate of America. After Infinite Crisis, he is a member of the Time Stealers, a cadre of villainous time travelers formed by Mister Mind.
  • Villainous Friendship: With Brainwave.

    Shiv 

Shiv

Cindy Burman

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cindy_burman_01.jpg
Debut: Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #1 (1999)
"When you and that knight slayed my father, I didn’t know what I would do. He was the only one that ever loved me. The way a father should. But I found a new family. Sisters, and brothers. A new father. And after we’re through with the JSA, Sorrow’s promised me a trip back to Blue Valley… where I’ll tear S.T.R.I.P.E. apart and feed him piece by piece to Pat."

The daughter of the villains known as the Dragon King, Cindy Burman was educated in the best schools in the world. Never wanting anything more than to please her father she followed in his criminal footsteps as the deadly blade wielding Shiv to battle Stargirl. She later became a member of the Injustice Society led by Johnny Sorrow.


  • The Ace: The neurotic Shiv is a compulsive overachiever. To please her father, Cindy owns every aspect of the archetypal good American girl, including straight As; fit and attractive; captain of the cheerleading squad; dating the most popular boy in town; involved in all the prestigious extra-curricular activities; etc.
  • Alpha Bitch: Of Blue Valley High. She manipulates every school clique; treats the cheerleading squad and her boyfriend as her property; dresses in tiny tight skirts and tight white blouses to ensure that most boys are looking at her and most girls are jealous of her; struts around like she owns the school and is the coolest and most assured human being ever; etc.
  • Ambiguously Brown: Shiv seems to be half-Japanese and half-Desi (although she has been mistakenly colored Caucasian in some appearances).
  • Armed Legs: There are retractable blades implanted along her forearms and legs.
  • Blade Enthusiast: Is very fond of, and extremely proficient with, edged weapons. Her supervillain name even comes from a slang term for a knife.
  • Cruel Cheerleader: Cindy was Blue Valley High's cheerleading captain, its resident Alpha Bitch and a fully fledged supervillain to boot.
  • Cyborg: Her arms and legs have been replaced with cybernetic versions.
  • Daddy's Little Villain: Is the daughter of the Dragon King. Between his torture and psychological conditioning, Shiv ended up much like a beaten dog. She was broken and pathetically eager to please her father.
  • Extracurricular Enthusiast: Was involved in all the prestigious extra-curricular activities, as part of her ongoing effort to please her father.
  • Fire-Breathing Weapon: Her more prominent weapon is the dragon-headed staff that she often carries. It can belch flames.
  • Green and Mean: Her costume is mostly green and she was never nice, even before becoming a supervillain.
  • Guinea Pig Family: The Dragon King subjected his daughter to various surgeries and cybernetic implants from birth to make her deadlier. Occasionally without anesthesia.
  • Matchstick Weapon: Her staff shoots fire.
  • Power Armor: Her armored costume containing a large arsenal of bladed weapons. The armor provided Shiv with superhuman strength, sufficient to throw an automobile.
  • Secondary Color Nemesis: Her costume is green with orange and she even wears green lipstick.
  • Serpent Staff: Her dragon staff can transform into a robotic snake when thrown on the ground.
  • Super-Toughness: Her cybernetic enhancements include sub-dermal armour grafted in. She can therefore take hits that should result in serious wounds, without apparent tissue damage.
  • They Call Him "Sword": Shiv is a slang term for a knife.
  • Tricked-Out Gloves: Has a red glove that can extend and rigidify its steel-bladed fingers. This essentially turns Shiv’s gloved hand into a large spear head.
  • Wolverine Claws: There are retractable blades implanted along her forearms and legs.

    The Sportsmaster 

Sportsmaster

Lawrence "Crusher" Crock

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sportsmaster_2.jpg
Debut: All-American Comics #85 (1947)
“They barred me from all sports, blast them ! Okay – okay ! There must be others, like me — guys who refuse to lose — don’t care how they win ! I’ll get ’em!”

A former star athlete who was banned from playing professionally for cheating, Crock adopted a mask and instead chose a life of crime, where he would never have to play fair ever again.


  • Badass Normal: He went up against Green Lantern, the wielder of unimaginable power, with mundane (wooden) sporting equipment. Dude had some serious guts...though being an Olympic-class athlete and exploiting Lantern's weakness helped.
  • Blatant Lies: Boasts about having a champion's spirit, but he's just a cheating bully.
  • Busman's Vocabulary: Crock peppers his speech with a lot of sporting metaphors.
  • Cool Boat: The Injustice Society were competing to see who could pull off the most patriotically-themed crime, so Sportsmaster affixed jet engines to the USS Constitution and flew it.
  • Daddy's Little Villain: His daughter Artemis Crock became a supervillain, first under her own name, then as the second villainous Huntress.
  • Didn't See That Coming: His attempt to trap Harlequin using a fake case and kill her in revenge for betraying the Injustice Society went awry when it turned out her backup on said case was some dude by the name of, uh, "Superman"?
  • Early Installment Character-Design Difference: At first he was just a rough-looking guy. Later, he gained a distinctive mask.
  • Faking the Dead: How his first encounter with GL ended. He repeated the trick a few times afterward.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Apparently his mastery of sports encompasses the ability to design sports-related gadgets or rig sports equipment with bombs, poison gas or such. Perhaps it makes more sense when you recall that he's also an expert at cheating.
  • Instant Expert: Had the ability to instantly master any sport or sport-related talent like a world-record champion, no matter how obscure.
  • Killed Off for Real: He would be killed by the Human Flame during Final Crisis: Aftermath and his death would remain until the universal reset of the New 52.
  • Outlaw Couple: With the Huntress (Paula Crock).
  • Swiss-Army Superpower: Car/boat/airplane/horse racing is a sport. Competitive shooting/archery is a sport. Martial arts, gymnastics, and track and field...all sports. Need we go on?
  • Trick Arrow: Used a number of tricked-out sports gadgets.
  • Unnecessary Roughness: Banned from sports after deliberately crippling a guy on the other team during a football game.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: During a fight with Green Lantern, he stunned GL with a baseball bat and blew up a corner store with an exploding baseball. The store's unstable owner, who'd looked upon Lantern as a sort of god, killed five people, including Gotham's Mayor, and carved the words "Made of wood" into their chests. The crime went unsolved for decades.

    Tigress 

Tigress

Artemis Crock

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jsatigress.png
AKA: Artemis
Debut: Infinity Inch #34 (1987)
"I can taste your fear, Kendra. Your sweat is full of it."


A Legacy Character if ever there was one, Artemis Crock is the daughter of two supervillains — her mother Paula Brooks was the Golden Age Tigress, while her father is the minor-league villain known as the Sportsmaster. Like her usual lover Cameron Makhent (a.k.a. the second Icicle), Tigress followed her parents' footsteps into villainy,

    The Wizard 

Wizard

William A. Zard

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wizarddc.jpg
Debut: All Star Comics #34 (1947)
"—And I have more power than you dare conceive in your most lunatic dreams!"


A career criminal since The Roaring '20s, 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.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: He was once able to wipe Superman's memories of his heroic alter-ego, reducing him to living only as Clark Kent. Ironically, this led to a Humiliation Conga where the Wizard lost his confidence and ability to perform his magic when no one would believe that he was the one responsible for Superman's disappearance.
  • Beard of Evil: Evil with a beard.
  • The Cameo: Subverted, as a character called the Wizard appeared in the 1949 Batman and Robin (Serial) but as it turns out it's an Original Generation villain with no connection to Zard.
  • Create Your Own Hero: He is actually responsible for the second Black Canary (Dinah Lance) having her sonic scream power, "cursing" her with it as a baby.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He had this as his motive in his first appearance. He'd missed the early years of the team as he was in isolation, learning black magic, and when he returned to civilization, the Wizard could not believe that smart people with superpowers would use them for altruistic purposes. Therefore, the JSA had to be pulling the biggest scam ever, and the Wizard demanded to be cut in.
  • Evil Mentor: To Cameron Makhent, the second Icicle. Somewhat subverted in that Cameron wanted a mentor who was evil and would show him the supervillain ropes, and the two villains do actually seem to be fond of each other.
  • Evil Sorcerer: He trained under a Lama in Tibet in order to learn the ways of magic before becoming a supervillain and has abilities like Astral Projection, Illusion Casting and Hypnosis.
  • Expy: As a man dressed as a stage magician with real magical powers that he learned in the Himalayas, Zard is one of the many expies of Mandrake the Magician who popped up in The Golden Age of Comic Books, with the difference that Zard is evil instead of heroic.
  • Joker Jury: He served as the prosecutor in one when the Injustice Society captured the JSA and put them on trial.
  • Legacy Character: Subverted. There are a full five other DC character that call themselves the Wizard, but none of them have any connection with Zard. It's really his own fault for picking such a generic codename.
  • Obviously Evil: His facial hair paints him as the very picture of a classic villain.
  • Older Than They Look: He maintains the appearance of a middle-aged man when in truth he's pushing a hundred years old. Presumably he accomplishes this via his magic.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In a fairly transparent attempt by DC to give the Global Guardians something to do, he once relocated to Canada and organized a new international version of the Injustice Society called Injustice Unlimited.
  • Steven Ulysses Perhero: Sort of, but a villain.
  • Villain Decay: He was actually the leader of the first incarnation of the Injustice Society, but over the years he's lost his taste for leadership and in modern stories prefers to let other villains call the shots.
  • Villain Team-Up: Like Per Degaton above, the Wizard is a joiner through and through. If you're organizing a villain group in the DC universe, be it the Injustice Society, Secret Society, or Crime Champions, just ask this guy politely and he'll be on board. He'll even lead the group for you if you're not a self-starter.
  • Your Magic's No Good Here: His magic is weaker on Earth-1, as he discovered to his frustration.

Other villains

    Doctor Chaos 

Doctor Chaos

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dr_chaos.jpg
Debut: Justice Society of America #46 (2011)
"It's a hobby. But, y'know, a hobby I get paid for. Do what you love and you'll always love what you do, et cetera..."

Doctor Chaos was hired by Senator Eagin, a government official who wanted to scare away the Justice Society of America when they made Monument Point their new headquarters after Scythe’s terrorist attack. Senator Eagin ordered the good doctor to kill the mayor at Monument Point and threaten the JSA to leave. Doctor Chaos is successful in killing the mayor because the mayor drank from Monument Point’s reservoir which was filled with micro-bombs (explosives no bigger than human blood cells) then activated by remote control.


  • Combat Clairvoyance: Doctor Chaos has demonstrated incredible knowledge, able to roughly predict the actions of others with unerring skill, as well as discern secrets.
  • Green and Mean: His outfit is green and he's a bomber and a terrorist.
  • Mad Bomber: Is very fond of using explosives in his work.
  • One-Steve Limit: This Doctor Chaos has nothing to do with the Dr. Chaos that served as Dr. Fate's Evil Counterpart.
  • Only in It for the Money: Has no idealogical affiliation and sells hi services to the highest bidder.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name wasn't revealed, leaving him at just Doctor Chaos.
  • Professional Killer: Is a mercenary and assassin for hire.
  • Terrorists Without a Cause: Chaos is happy to make his attacks look like the work of a terrorist, but he is actually just a mercenary.
  • Watersource Tampering: Filled the Monument Point reservoir with micro-bombs which would allow to remotely explode anyone who drank from it.
  • Why Am I Ticking?: Anyone who drank from the Monument Point reservoir became a walking bomb that Chaos could remotely detonate.

    Eclipso 

Eclipso

Galid, God's Spirit of Wrath

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eclipso10.jpg
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eclipso_1.jpg
Debut: House of Secrets #61 (1963)
"We are linked, from now until the very end of creation! Which, incidentally, should occur any day now!"

While trying to view a solar eclipse, Dr. Bruce Gordon was wounded by a mysterious black diamond after fighting off a native sorcerer. He kept the gem, but during the eclipse, his personality became twisted. The villainous Eclipso emerged and wanted to wreak havoc on mankind. Complicating matters was that he saw the first obstacle to his rise for power as Bruce Gordon himself, making plans to kill his alter-ego. Following his initial appearance, Eclipso made several appearances in the DC universe at large.

In the early 1990s, DC revamped Eclipso in a company-wide crossover. Eclipso was not simply Bruce Gordon's dark half, but a vengeful demon who had possessed Gordon. Eclipso's soul had originally been bound inside a giant black diamond called the "Heart of Darkness" in Africa. A treasure hunter found it in the late nineteenth century and brought it to London in 1891, where he had a jeweler cut it into one thousand shards. This weakened the binding spell, allowing Eclipso to possess anyone who became angry while in contact with one of the shards. He was no longer limited to possessing Gordon during an eclipse, but pretended otherwise so that Gordon would not know the truth about the black diamonds.

After several storylines of the new status quo, Eclipso obtained several new hosts, including Alexander Montez, Superman, and Jean Loring, but eventually returned to possessing Bruce Gordon again. The New 52 connected him to Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, who defeated him once more. In DC Rebirth he possessed Maxwell Lord and was able to control the Justice League with expanded powers, but was defeated and imprisoned in the diamond by the end of the storyline.


  • Arc Welding: Revealed in Countdown To Infinite Crisis as a creation of Darkseid.
  • Arch-Enemy:
    • Originally, Bruce Gordon.
    • The Spectre who took his role of God's Spirit of Wrath.
    • Prior to the Spectre, The Phantom Stranger served as this as well, both in his own series and in Eclipso's.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Heart of Darkness, a black crystal which allowed Eclipso to possess his host, granted them fearsome mystical powers.
  • Artistic License – Space:
    • Seems like there's an eclipse happening every other week, which is good for the plot but highly implausible note . Technically, there are between four and seven eclipses in any given year, but they'll each only be visible at specific points on the planet.
    • During his Crisis Crossover event, Eclipso's citadel is revealed to be on the side of the moon facing away from Earth, the dark side of the moon, to avoid his Weaksauce Weakness... which would still be in effect, since the "dark side" of the moon faces away from Earth, but not the Sun.
  • Been There, Shaped History: To put into perspective how bad he is, it was Eclipso who caused the Great Flood in Biblical Stories under order from God, leaving Noah and his kin as the only survivors.
  • Demonic Possession: Anyone who is unlucky enough to come into contact with Eclipso's black crystal prison will be possessed by it. The first individual known to be possessed was Bruce Gordon while the last was Jean Loring, the Atom's ex-wife. During the 90's Crisis Crossover added the rules that a person must become extremely angry and have a naturally violent personality in order to be possessed. If that person isn't violent then he/she will expel from his/her head a dark substance that will form into a demonic monster.
  • Early Installment Character-Design Difference: At first Eclipso looked just like Bruce, but soon gained pointed ears and a more demonic face.
  • Evil Counterpart:
    • To "The Spectre". He was the first God's Spirit of Wrath, but, by definition, was driven largely by anger.
    • In the New 52 continuity under the Justice League Dark title, Circe explains that powers that be brought him into existence to fill the vacuum Hecate made when she sealed away her true shadow counterpart the Upside Down Man.
  • Evil Versus Evil: During the Silver Age, the Comics Code meant that Eclipso could never succeed in his villainous plans. To keep him from seeming too easy to defeat, some stories would have him go up against another villain and defeat their plans before being sealed away again.
  • Gender Flip: Eclipso was recast as a female villain, after typically taking male hosts, during the run toward DC's Infinite Crisis event, taking Jean Loring as a host.
  • Heinousness Retcon: After spending the first three decades as a C-list villain and the dark half of Dr. Bruce Gordon, in the 1990's he was retconned as actually being the immensely powerful Spirt of God's Wrath (making him the Evil Counterpart to The Spectre, the Sprit of God's Vengeance). Initially, it was claimed he was only pretending to be a minor threat to throw the heroes off guard, though later appearances this was forgotten and he was treated as always being a serious deal.
  • Hero Killer: Eclipso is well-known for having killed Dr. Midnight II, Wildcat II, Commander Steel, and Major Victory.
  • Hyde Plays Jekyll:
    • In the very first story, Eclipso fooled Gordon's friends by pretending to be him so he could escape confinement.
    • Eclipso was fond of faking his hosts' identities over telephones or other communicators, gloating to his captives about it after.
  • I Wished You Were Dead: During the Crisis Crossover, this was usually the level of anger needed for a person to be possessed by Eclipso. For whatever reason, Eclipso was bound to kill the target of the possessee's anger before his could continue with his own plans.
  • Jekyll & Hyde: Originally Eclipso was Bruce Gordon's more devious self, often making plans to kill his alter-ego. As a side note, Mr. Hyde himself appears in The New 52's All-Star Western, and it's strongly implied that the Heart of Darkness is what created him.
  • Killing Your Alternate Self:
    • Eclipso often made plans to kill Bruce, not knowing or caring that they shared the same body.
    • An interesting variant when Batman fought Eclipso!Joker by using a Heart of Darkness shard to allow himself to be possessed. There were now two Eclipsos who were bound to kill each other, which Eclipso himself said was impossible. The two fought until the sun rose, removing the possession (which may have been Batman's plan all along).
  • Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Like most Silver Age scientists, Bruce Gordon studied whatever the plot required him to.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: In the story "Love Life" for DC Pride in 2021, Eclipso literally (magically) rains on a Pride parade, forcing everyone attending to feel the anxiety and anger they've carried as a result of homophobia, in order to harvest their negativity for his Evil Plan. He even says, "God loves you. I do not."
  • Portmanteau: Bruce Gordon took his name from Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon.
  • Powers via Possession: He allows various powers to his possessed like Flight, Super-Strength, Sizeshifter, magic powers and energy manipulation.
  • Purple Is Powerful: Eclipso is characterized by the color purple, and is one of the most powerful entities faced by the Justice Society.
  • Robot Me: An early Eclipso story had him create a robot version of himself, which went haywire and attempted to kill him.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can:
    • Wrath's physicality was trapped within the "Heart of Darkness", a black diamond that brought only woe and misery to anyone who came into its possession.
    • The only time Eclipso was ever contained, the captor used special tattoos all over his body to turn himself into a living prison. Unfortunately, those were broken by an accidental slice from his lover Nemesis, and the freed Eclipso ended up killing both of them.
  • Secondary Color Nemesis: Eclipso is easily identified by the colors purple and magenta.
  • Total Eclipse of the Plot: Eclipses happened alarmingly often in the series, especially early on. Eclipso first appeared during an eclipse, and would reappear for every subsequent eclipse.
  • Villain Protagonist: In his first appearances, and occasionally in his 90s series.
  • The Watson: Professor Bennett existed to be the smart guy who Bruce and Eclipso regularly outsmarted, and thus the recipient of their exposition.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: He could manifest himself on Earth only at night and only when summoned by a possessor of a black diamond. This is because sunlight is Eclipso's primary weakness; it disintegrates his corporeal form on contact. Originally, any uneclipsed light would also banish him.

    Extant 

Extant

Hank Hall

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/extant.jpg
Debut: Zero Hour #4 (1994, as Extant)


A Fallen Hero turned into one of the JSA's greatest foes, Hank Hall was once Hawk of the Hawk and Dove hero duo. Losing his brother imbalanced Hank, and while a new Dove came along, it wasn't enough to keep him grounded. Turning to supervillainy, Hall Took a Level in Badass and became Monarch, the Big Bad of Armageddon 2001. Following this story's end, Hall mutated further into Extant, a deranged avatar of chaos with high-order Time Master power.
  • Arch-Enemy: While he made an enemy out of the whole JSA during his battle with them, it was Atom Smasher who would bear the deepest enmity for him, due to Extant's actions leading to his mother's death.
  • Asshole Victim: Via some temporal manipulation between Atom Smasher and Metron, he's deposited on a plane seconds before it crashes. While the older generation of the JSA are able to suss out what Al did and are horrified, they don't press the issue quite as much as they could have because of all the things Extant did.
  • Big Bad: As Armageddon during Armageddon 2001. As Extant he was set up as the Big Bad again during Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!, but was in fact working for Parallax.
  • Cardboard Prison: As Metron tells the JSA, it's impossible to keep a living embodiment of pure entropy prisoner for any length of time, barring a pretty permanent solution, which the majority of the JSA won't countenance.
  • Celestial Body: His final form, attained when he fights the Society in JSA and becomes a full blown Reality Warper, is silver with a stellar pattern.
  • Cosmic Entity: While he started out as a human, the merger with Waverider turned Hall into one of these. Notably, The Atom was de-aged decades when he attempted to enter Extant's body.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: His fight with the JSA was absolutely this, as he contemptously inflicted Rapid Aging on the elderly superheroes, reverting them to their actual ages and some even to their deaths.
  • Darker and Edgier: As a time-themed villain who could force the elderly JSA members to their rightful ages, he was among one of the darkest and most threatening foes the team ever faced.
  • The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Originally fell because Dove, his counterbalance and soul-mate, died. As Extant, one of his goals becomes trying to resurrect her. He succeeds at that, but by the time he does is so far gone he's forgotten who she is and what she means to him, and ends up killing her again.
  • Fallen Hero: Not only is he one, he teamed up with a second Fallen Hero during Zero Hour.
  • Fusion Dance: He forcibly fused with the time-traveling hero Waverider to become Extant.
  • Hero Killer: He has the odd honor of having permanently killed off two heroes, the first Atom and Dr. Mid-Nite, whose deaths have never been really undone in the main continuity, not even after all the subsequent Crisis events (he also essentially killed the third Hourman, although this was part of the android's plan to save the original Hourman by taking his place).
  • Killed Off for Real: He was tricked into expending his cosmic power and then swapped out for Atom Smasher's mother on a plane seconds away from crashing.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: Hank Hall always had a fondness for red, but as Hawk he had a heroic red-and-white theme. As Monarch he ditched red entirely, but he circled back to it and adopted villainous black for his costume as Extant.
  • Time Master: A power he acquired from his fusion with Waverider.
  • Took a Level in Badass: As Hawk, Hank Hall was a solid example of C-List Fodder, having the basic superhero powers of Super-Strength and Super-Toughness along with some claws because he was, well, Hawk. As Monarch he became an interstellar conqueror with the aid of Powered Armor, and as Extant he acquired time-manipulating powers.

    Gog 

Gog

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jsagog.jpg
Debut: Justice Society of America #12 (2008)
"You have nothing to fear, human beings. I am here to save you."


A Cosmic Entity retconned into the first, true Gog, he is a refugee from the Third World, banished from that realm for refusing to choose sides in a great war of the gods. Falling to Earth, he spent centuries as an inert face entombed in a mountain, until a man named William Matthews unwittingly awakened him. Proclaiming himself to be a benevolent deity who only wishes to bring peace, Gog ingratiates himself to the JSA by seemingly granting all their greatest wishes, and travels across the Congo seemingly performing good works wherever he goes. Of course, this self-proclaimed savior from the stars is not what he seems...
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Unlike the previous Gogs, he is a colossal giant.
  • Back from the Dead: He resurrects the junior JSA member David Reid as Magog, fulfilling the prophecy of that character's coming that had been hanging over the mainstream DCU ever since Kingdom Come.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: He grants several of the JSA members their dearest wishes, such as healing Damage's face, restoring Dr. Mid-Nite's sight and allowing Sand to sleep peacefully, but ultimately all these gifts have unforeseen consequences, such as Mid-Nite becoming a less effective doctor as he can no longer intuitively sense tissue damage, or Sand becoming a less effective crime fighter since he no longer sees horrible things happening to people in his dreams. It's unclear if Gog deliberately grants wishes in this way, in the vein of a Jackass Genie, or if it's simply the result of Surprisingly Realistic Outcome. Either way, most of the JSA decides they're better off without Gog's gifts.
  • Big Bad: Of the epic, year-long Thy Kingdom Come story.
  • Cosmic Entity: He's some sort of forgotten god from the Third World, with all the cosmic power one would expect from such a being.
  • Fallen Angel: His origin story is clearly meant to invoke this, from being cast out of a "heaven" to falling to Earth.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Birds flock to and rest on him, and he can apparently communicate with them.
  • God Guise: Magog's mother Alba stated that Gog was not even an actual god at all, and simply pretended to be one.
  • Gods Need Prayer Badly: It's unclear just how much Gog needs prayer, given that he was thrashing the JSA even after all his worshipers were removed from the field, but he clearly gets stronger in the presence of his faithful, in classic prayer-needing god tradition.
  • Gold-Colored Superiority: Like Magog and all the previous Gogs, he has golden metal skin.
  • I Come in Peace: This is literally the first thing he says to the JSA after being awakened.
  • Losing Your Head: He is beheaded by Magog after finally crossing the line to the point that even his most ardent believer can no longer deny what he is.
  • Neutrality Backlash: Gog claims that he was the sole neutral bystander in the great war of the Third World, and was cast out for it.
  • Planetary Parasite: The climax of Thy Kingdom Come revealed that he is one of these, and that if he was allowed to fully root himself to Earth that he could never be removed after.
  • Reality Warper: A high-order one, as he rewrote reality for several JSA members to grant them what was seemingly their dearest wishes.
  • Retcon: His very existence is one, as originally Gog was a disaffected worshiper of Superman from the Kingdom Come future who was empowered by the Quintessence and decided to use the power to hunt down and destroy all Supermans throughout time. After the underwhelming reception of this first Gog, and the waters being muddied by a second Gog who was apparently some time-displaced version of the original, Geoff Johns cut the knot by introducing this character as the real Gog, retconning the original into a mentally unstable man who found Gog's power staff by chance and simply hallucinated being empowered by the Quintessence, killing Supermen throughout time, and so on.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Thy Kingdom Come ended with his disembodied head being stuck on the Source Wall at the end of the universe. As the Wall is one of the most effective cans in the DCU, the chances of his returning are slim.
  • Stepford Smiler: The cosmic equivalent of one, as prior to being exposed as a Planetary Parasite he was always smiling and behaving roughly in the manner of a sweet but mentally impaired child with cosmic power. Alan Scott saw through this right from the start, but it took most of the rest of the team much longer to catch on.
  • Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: After his banishment he attempted to manifest in Magog's body outright, claiming he would "clean this world and start anew." Fortunately Magog was able to resist this possession and drive him off for good.
  • Transflormation: He considers an apt punishment for soldiers taking the lives innocents is to be turned into fruit bearing trees that now feed them. He believes this is a way to stop them without hypocritically killing, but some of the JSA aren't so convinced from the practical similarities.
  • Villainous Breakdown: After the JSA attacks him Gog drops the cosmic Stepford Smiler act and shows his true colors as a Jerkass God, viciously withdrawing his blessings from the JSA while mocking each of them cruelly all the while.
    Gog: How can you be so ungrateful? How can you do this after all the blessings I have given you?

    Johnny Thunder (Earth-One) 

Johnny Thunder

Debut: Justice League of America #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.


  • Didn't Think This Through: 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.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Taking control of the Thunderbolt allowed him to go from a small-time crook to a major threat.
  • Informed Flaw: 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.
  • Not Wearing Tights: 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.
  • Point of Divergence: Like his Earth-Two counterpart, he was also raised by the Bahdnisians. However, he was never given a Thunderbolt of his own.
  • Reset Button: 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 Crisis on Infinite Earths; After Earth-One and Earth-Two had been merged together, the criminal Thunder's existence was overridden by his heroic counterpart's.
  • Villain Team-Up: In his second appearance, he joined forces with the Crime Champions.

    Ian Karkull 

Ian Karkull

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.


  • The Ageless: Since becoming a living shadow, Karkull does not age.
  • Bald of Evil: Is as bald as an egg.
  • Bedouin Rescue Service: Karkull was rescued from the lost city where Dahlen abandoned him by a band of desert nomads.
  • The Corruption: Karkull was able to slowly feed Shadowlands energy in the darkness manipulating hero Obsidian: gradually corrupting him and turning him eveil.
  • Energy Absorption: His shadow form possesses some form of energy absorption.
  • Casting a Shadow: 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.
  • Living Shadow: Karkull built a machine which could turn men into intangible shadows. He was trapped in this form when Doctor Fate destroyed the machine.

    Johnny Mimic 

Jonathan Waddill

Debut: JSA Classified #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.
  • Blessed with Suck: 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.
  • Happily Married: Johnny has been in a loving happy and commited relationship with his wife Linda for decades.
  • Psychic Powers: 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.
  • Reformed Criminal: 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.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Johnny was first introduced decades after his retirement, but treated as a former Golden Age villain.
  • Villain Respect: 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.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: 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.

    Kobra (and his cult) 

Kobra

Jeffrey Burr (first Kobra), Jason Burr (Kobra II)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jsakobra.png
Kobra I, Jeffrey Burr
Debut: Kobra #1 (1976)
" The Age of Chaos is coming, counsellor. A great darkness will spread its wings over creation."


Kobra is the name of both legacy of snake-themed super-villains and the Apocalypse Cult that they lead. The first Kobra was Jeffrey Burr, a Card-Carrying Villain terrorist who was opposed by his twin brother Jason who he shares a Psychic Link with. Eventually Jeffrey killed Jason, only to be killed himself. The cult then used a Lazarus Pit to resurrect Jason and brainwash him into becoming the second Kobra.
  • Apocalypse Cult: The Kobra Cult believes in a coming apocalyptic event called "Kali Yuga" which they anticipate and work to bring about.
  • Backup Twin: The Kobra cult specializes in recruiting twins to be their leaders, so in case one dies the other can take over. There's als a religious element to it; i.e. they believe twins are sacred (along with snakes).
  • Card-Carrying Villain: The Kobras and their cult are about as morally complex as the mustacle-twirling black hats who tied damsels to railroad tracks.
  • Death Is Cheap: The Kobra cult maintains their own Lazarus Pit which they use in extreme circumstances in to resurrect key members of the cult.
  • Expy: They're basically the DCU version of the COBRA terrorist group from G.I. Joe.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Some minor villains such as Slipknot have converted to the Kobra cult, to the general disgust of the rest of the super-villain community.
  • Fantastic Caste System: Perhaps fittingly for a cult with a knockoff Hindu bent. Low-level Kobra members are called Lanceheads, Middle-Management Mook members are Nagas, and the Bestowed are Blood Magic adepts who answer to Kobra himself.
  • Heel–Face Brainwashing: A specialty of the Kobra cult. Jason Burr was their avowed enemy in life, but after resurrecting him they put him through a brainwashing program until he had swung the other way completely and became the group's new leader.
  • Killed Off for Real: The first Kobra was killed by Black Adam's Anti-Hero coalition of himself, Atom Smasher, Northwind and Brainwave.
  • Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: When the first Kobra was eventually arrested and tried in court, he initially claimed to be a a bodhisattva (a term from Buddhism for a person who has achieved enlightenment but stays mortal to help people) whose acts of terrorism were motivated by a goal of freeing souls from their karmic debt. When the court wasn't buying it, he revealed that he had a group of suicide bombers among the protesters outside the courthouse and that they would sacrifice themselves in his name unless the court and the JSA let him walk. Luckily Black Adam decided this Karma Houdini would not stand and he made extra sure to be the enforcer of Kobra's Karma Houdini Warranty.
  • Religion of Evil: The Kobra cult believes in worshiping snakes, abducting and brainwashing twins, and committing acts of terrorism to bring about an apocalypse.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: A snake-themed villain who runs a snake-themed cult.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Fittingly for the DC incarnation of the COBRA group, they get around. The JSA are their most frequent opponents, but they've also messed with The Outsiders, Captain Atom, the Suicide Squad, The Flash, and others.
  • Secondary Color Nemesis: Kobra is easily identified by their green and orange costumes.
  • Separated at Birth: Jeffrey Burr was abducted by the Kobra cult at bith to be raised up as their leader.
  • Smug Snake: Both Kobras, but the first Kobra was particularly smug.
  • Snakes Are Sinister: And a cult that loves them turns out to be in function a religious terrorist cell.
  • Sssssnake Talk: The first Kobra talked like this. The second Kobra averted it.
  • Tragic Villain: Of a minor sort, as neither of the Kobras wanted to lead a terrorist Apocalypse Cult. Jeffrey was abducted at bith and raised to be their leader, while Jason tried to escape the cult's influence but was resurrected after his death and brainwashed to be the cult's new leader.
  • Twin Telepathy: The Burr twins share a Psychic Link which kept them from harming each other. Jason was recruited by an anti-terrorist group to help them stop his brother, but they were unsuccessful, and eventually Jeffrey had a device built that nullified the effect long enough for him to kill Jason. 'Luckily' for Jason, Death Is Cheap when Lazarus Pits are around.
  • Weaker Twin Saves the Day: Averted. Not only does Jason fail to stop his evil brother, he ends up falling in with the cult he opposed and becoming the second Kobra himself.

    The Loreli 

The Loreli

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/theloreli.png
Debut: All-Star Comics #39 (1948)


The cruel witch ruler of the fairytail lands. She is DC's take on the traditional siren-like personification of the Lorelei on the River Rhine.
  • Compelling Voice: Her voice is hard to disobey, and to be cursed with the "Voice of the Lorelei" turns a human temporarily into a major Reality Warper whose every stated wish becomes true, often in twisted ways.
  • Deliberately Monochrome: While most of the Fairytale Lands are far more vibrantly colored than Earth's normal dimension the Loreli is in pure grayscale from black to white.
  • Hot Witch: The Loreli is the queen of the witches and looks like a tall thin woman with long black hair wearing a transparent dress and a corset.
  • Ominous Owl: There is often a shadowy dark owl perched behind her while she's giving orders.
  • Pure Magic Being: While there is magic on the regular plane of earth she needs a portal open to her own realm in order to walk the earth, and the closing of the portal causes her to dissipate into nothing.
  • Robe and Wizard Hat: The Loreli wears an awesome tall hat whose flat top, taper and angle are very obviously inspired by Steeple Hennins, but which has a much more casually attached veil and a wider cone that therefore doesn't sit quite as far back as the historical hats and a small forward facing brim.
  • Vain Sorceress: The Loreli isn't depicted using her magic on her own appearance despite looking very different from all the other much shorter stooped witches, but delights in using it to make her opponents look twisted and ugly.
  • Unholy Matrimony: With the Wizard, on one occasion.
  • Wicked Witch: She's a witch and she's very wicked, and fits the more dangerously beautiful take on the classic wicked witch.

    Number 1 

Number 1

Arthur Pemberton

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jsanumber1.jpg
Debut: All-Star Comics #70 (1978)


The nephew of Sylvester Pemberton aka the WWII-era JSA member Star-Spangled Kid, Arthur is substantially more evil than his relative. An aristocratic Jerkass, Arthur leads the Strike Force, a paramilitary band of Psycho for Hire criminals, in which he as their leader is known as Number 1.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: He affects the air of a Wicked Cultured villain.
  • Artifact of Power: Collects these and uses them to fight heroes.
  • Badass Normal: A mild case. Arthur has no powers or abilities, but he relies on Powered Armor and artifacts to fight heroes.
  • Black Sheep: Most of his relatives are heroes, such as the aforementioned Star-Spangled Kid and Merry the Gimmick Girl (who eventually married and reformed Injustice Society member Brainwave).
  • Evil Old Folks: He's of advanced age and is a villain through and through.
  • Evil Uncle: To the Star-Spangled Kid.
  • Humiliation Conga: Following his first defeat, he disappeared for a time while a new unnamed villain took control of his Strike Force. That man was also defeated and at some point Arthur regained control of the Strike Force.
  • Jerkass: On top of his general villainy, he also gloated to the JSA All-Stars about his heroic uncle's passing, asking them mockingly if Sylvester was still dead.
  • Long Bus Trip: He first debuted as the villain in a 2-part story arc and following that story hopped on his first bus, from which he dismounted six years later for a couple of appearances in 1984 and 1985. Following this. he hopped on a second, much longer bus that he rode for 15 years before reappearing in JSA All-Stars. He hopped on his third bus in the middle of that book's run, and if his track record is any indication readers shouldn't expect to see him any time soon.
  • Offing the Offspring: Attempted. He gave all of his team members (including his own daughter Lorna) "teleporter" belts to only use if they were surrounded y heroes, when in fact those belts really contained bombs to blow them up so they couldn't be questioned. He was willing to let Lorna die this way, although Kara saved her life.
  • Only in It for the Money: His motivation in JSA All-Stars. Specifically, he was being paid by Johnny Sorrow.
  • Power Nullifier: One of his artifacts, the Mundane Staff, has this effect on demigods.
  • Private Military Contractors: His Strike Force was an early example of this, being a band of Psycho for Hire mercenaries with paramilitary training.
  • Spell My Name With An S: It's Number 1, not Number One.
  • You Are Number 6: Everyone in his Strike Force is identified only by a number. He, of course, is Number 1.

    Professor Elba 

Professor Elba

Dr. Able

Debut: All-Star Comics #8 (1942)


Dr. Able is a professor with a history of studying pathogens in gorillas. He figured out a way to make a serum which drives people mad and unintelligible which he sold to various criminal organizations under the name Professor Elba. Dr. Mid-Nite and Starman were invited to join the Justice Society of America after they helped the society track down the professor.
  • Disney Villain Death: Elba crashes througha window falls to his apparent demise in his fight with Dr. Mid-Nite.
  • Hidden Villain: Prior to Dr. Mid-Nite realizing that Able and Elba were the same person Elba is covered in shadow in all of his appearances, even in brightly lit rooms.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Elba fell out a window after accidently injecting himself with his own Insanity Serum.
  • Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Able has a doctorate, and teaches at a university, and is also a greedy man who shows no hesitation in trying to kill old students or sell biological weapons to the highest bidder.
  • No Honor Among Thieves: The criminals tied to Professor Able's orgainization all start betraying and killing each other at the drop of a hat, which makes it very difficult for the JSA to interrogate any of them since all the ones they manage to capture alive are quickly killed or drugged into insanity.
  • Sdrawkcab Alias: Elba's real name is Able.

    Psycho-Pirate 

Psycho-Pirate

Charles Halstead (first Psycho-Pirate), Roger Hayden (Psycho-Pirate II)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jsapsychopi.png
Psycho-Pirate I, Charles Halstead
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jsapsychopii.png
Psycho-Pirate II, Roger Hayden
Debuts: All-Star Comics #23 (1944, Halstead), Showcase #56 (1965, Hayden)
"Tortured, heh. Driven mad, as many said. Mad from all the years of strip-mining feelings from everyone else. Drinking in their sorrow and anger and laughter. But I'm not crazy. Not really." (Hayden)


Psycho-Pirate is a legacy of super-villains with psychological themes. The original was Charles Halstead, an enemy of the JSA who committed crimes based on different emotions. His successor was Roger Hayden, who wears a Medusa Mask that can manipulate the emotions of others. This mask has arguably driven him insane over the years, and he once switched places with Animal Man ally James Highwater to escape it. Hayden was a member of the Secret Society of Super-Villains.

The second Psycho-Pirate has made adaptational appearances in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Justice League Unlimited, the video game LEGO DC Super-Villains, and a single one-shot comic created for the Young Justice series.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Infamously, Black Adam does this to Roger with one bare hand, driving the latter's Medusa Mask right through his skull. "No more silly faces" indeed.
  • The Cameo: Hayden's appearance in Justice League Unlimited amounts to this. Though he is shown as a member of Gorilla Grodd's Secret Society, he has no lines and never does anything, only showing up to stand in group scenes.
    • Roger's Medusa Mask, sans Roger himself, makes a cameo appearance in Constantine.
  • Care-Bear Stare: In Batman: The Brave and the Bold he is ignobly defeated by the Dark Knight thinking nice thoughts at him.
  • Depraved Dwarf: As seen above, the first Psycho-Pirate was a tiny little guy.
  • The Dragon: The second Psycho-Pirate made a shtick out of serving as the Dragon to Crisis Crossover villains. He worked for the Anti-Monitor during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and twenty years later he reprised his role to the Big Bad Duumvirate of Alex Luthor and Superboy Prime during the Infinite Crisis.
  • Emotion Control: Psycho-Pirate has alternately either had the Medusa Mask that allowed him to project emotions into people or has been an "emotion vampire", able to drain emotions from people. The first mask often seems to work through intensifying emotions a person already feels, no matter how small.
  • Emotion Eater: During his 90s revamp, Roger was an "emotion vampire", able to drain emotions from people.
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: Roger to Power Girl in Infinite Crisis.
  • Killed Off for Real: Both Psycho-Pirates are dead, with Charles Halstead dying in the introduction story of his successory and Roger Hayden being killed by Black Adam during Infinite Crisis. Hayden eventually came back via Cosmic Retcon post-Flashpoint.
  • Legacy Character: Halstead's dying wish to have a legacy prompts him to tell Hayden of a secret which he has divined in his jail years, the existence of the Medusa Masks.
    • During his appearance in Animal Man Roger passed on the identity of the Psycho-Pirate to a physicist named James Highwater. However, this only lasted for one issue and Hayden became the Pirate again without much explanation.
  • Mask of Power: Psycho-Pirate got his emotion-controlling powers from the "Medusa Mask" although this is a subversion, as he had to take the mask off (so people could see his face) to use his powers.
  • No-Sell: Black Adam's willpower is strong enough that he can resist Roger's powers, but he's irritated enough by the attempt to give Hayden an Eye Poke... with Super-Strength.
  • Nonindicative Name: Neither version is actually a pirate or ever attempted piracy of any kind.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: As previously mentioned, Roger Hayden went through an "emotional vampire" phase during the 90's.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: Hayden's costume is clearly meant to invoke this.
  • The Resenter: The first Psycho Pirate started committing crimes out of bitterness over being denied a promotion at his job.
  • Retcon: Originally Roger was a jailed gangster, later retconned into a young twenty-year-old who was sentenced to a year in prison for attacking his emotionally abusive psychiatrist father.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Roger is the only one to remember the events of Crisis On Infinite Earths.
  • Sanity Slippage: After the resolution of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Roger is one of the few to have full memories of the event and is driven mad by these memories.
  • Soul-Crushing Desk Job: Charles Halstead was introduced as the holder of one, being a newspaper linotyper who became frustrated with his lack of advancement and becoming the Psycho-Pirate in a bid to ruin his boss. That ruining his boss would put him out of a job doesn't seem to have occurred to him.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Roger Hayden is the only Psycho-Pirate to be adapted into any other medium.
  • The Starscream: Roger thinks of pulling this on the Anti-Monitor after Supergirl's Heroic Sacrifice in the first Crisis, if only because he's afraid of what might happen to him, as he discusses to the Flash. He's only spared because the Anti-Monitor believes in Pragmatic Villainy.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Charles Halstead, the first Psycho-Pirate, only made six appearances before being Killed Off for Real.

    Ultra Humanite 

Ultra-Humanite

Gerard Shugel (maybe)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7e9155b8314da896653b9c75dcefb1b7.jpg
Debut: Action Comics #13 (1939)
"Meta-ethical moral relativism is simple cowardice. I accept evil. I embrace evil. Evil simply is."


Superman's first Arch-Nemesis, 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 The Bronze Age of Comic Books, the Ultra-Humanite has exclusively been a villain for the JSA.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: The Justice League depiction of him is notably less villainous than his mainstream counterpart, to the point where he helps the League in every appearance he makes.
  • Arch-Nemesis: Believe it or not, he was actually Superman's very first arch-enemy way back in the '30s, and one of the first recurring supervillains in comic book history. Of course, this was before Lex Luthor was introduced in 1940, and, then, well, the rest is history.
  • Bald of Evil: He was bald in his original human form.
  • Becoming the Mask: Deconstructed in the 90s JSA run; by this time the Ultra-Humanite has been jumping bodies for decades, both in and out of universe, and resident team detective Sand postulates that all those years of taking on different forms and personas have degraded the Humanite's sense of identity to the point where he no longer even knows his own name.
  • Big Creepy-Crawlies: He briefly inhabited the body of a giant ant.
  • Body Surf / Puppeteer Parasite: Accomplished by implanting his brain into new bodies.
  • Brain in a Jar: When he's between hosts.
  • Brain Theft: His gimmick as a Superman villain; pull a Grand Theft Me by switching brains with stronger hosts than his own body.
  • Captain Ersatz: The unnamed villain in the classic Fleischer Superman short "The Mad Scientist" was based on Ultra.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Early on, as was the norm for villains from The Golden Age of Comic Books:
    Ultra-Humanite: Unfortunately for mankind, I prefer to use this great intellect for crime. My goal? DOMINATION OF THE WORLD!!
  • Expy: The original bald-headed Superman character in Siegel and Shuster's "The Reign of the Superman" bears a resemblance to the Ultra-Humanite, and probably was his inspiration (And yet people still compare him to Lex Luthor...).
  • Evil Counterpart: Superman is a hale and hearty alien with vast physical abilities; the Ultra-Humanite is a crippled human with vast mental abilities.
    • The name is a clue as well- like Superman, Ultra-Humanite is a rough(er) translation of "Übermensch". Lex inherited this aspect of their emnity, a battle between supermen.
  • Evil Cripple: Intentionally designed to be one as a Shadow Archetype to Superman; while Supes is a very physically fit hero with Super-Strength, the Humanite was introduced as a crippled criminal who also happened to be an...
  • Evil Genius: One of DC's very first, with a particular emphasis on the technology and science of Body Surfing.
  • Evil Old Folks: His original body was aged and decrepit, fitting his status as Superman's opposite, though it's uncertain whether or not this actually was his real body, even the Humanite himself is uncertain.
  • Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: He's a super genius with an indeterminate, incurable illness since childhood desperate for a body that won't betray him. His problem comes from thinking his suffering justifies any action he takes to get what he wants, shouting that anyone who resists him simply doesn't understand what he's gone through. He isn't causing suffering to make up for how he suffered, he's long since crossed the line of just causing suffering because he wants to.
  • Gender Bender: His theft of Dolores Winters's body.
  • Genius Bruiser: Transferred his consciousness into a gorilla's body. He know scientific techniques which endow superpowers to ordinary humans.
  • Grand Theft Me: Aside from being incredibly intelligent, he also specializes in transporting his brain from one body to another. Over time, he's acquired a variety of different forms, be it his original form, that of an old bald crippled scientist, young beautiful actress Dolores Winters, or even a giant scientist, but by now, his most recognized form is that of a large Albino Ape, with a rather large noggin to match.
  • Handy Feet: Some incarnations of him have this characteristic.
  • Hive Mind: When he took over the world in JSA he used the Thunderbolt's magic to transform almost all of humanity into this, with him of course being the master mind controlling all the others.
  • Killer Gorilla: His most recognizable incarnation is when he transferred his brain into the body of an albino gorilla.
  • Legacy Character: The original Ultra-Humanite appears to have no connection to Gerard Shugel, who took the name in more recent times.
  • Mad Scientist: If he wasn't mad from the start, all those years of swapping his brain into different bodies certainly turned him so.
  • Mind Manipulation: Has sufficient power to implement a suggestion in the minds of almost all members of Infinity Inc. simultaneously
  • My Brain Is Big: In his albino gorilla form.
  • No Name Given: The original Ultra-Humanite's name is unknown to this day. It might be Gerard Shugel, though as noted above that might also just be a Legacy Character who succeeded the first Humanite.
    • It may or may not be Morgan Wilde, as revealed in Legends of the DC Universe #1-3.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: In his first outing in the gorilla body, the Humanite gathered up the Secret Society of Super-Villains and had them displace several heroes from Earth-One and Earth-Two. What he hadn't told the villains from Earth-One was that the end result would destroy their world's Earth, causing them to turn on him.
  • Power Degeneration: Common host bodies will degenerate after some unspecified amount of time.
  • Put on a Bus: He was Superman's most recurring foe in the earliest Superman comics, until he was seemingly Killed Off for Real in #21 in 1940. Two issues later, Lex Luthor made his first appearance, quickly supplanting the Humanite, who wouldn't be seen again for over two decades.
  • Retcon: Many of his later appearances were retconned in during the Silver Age as having taken place on Earth-2, which was the home of the Golden Age DC heroes until the first Crisis. Afterwards, he was originally active during the 1940's, but fought the Justice Society rather than Superman.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Originally, he was an Arch-Enemy of Golden Age (Earth-Two) Superman, but when Earth-Two was wiped out Post-Crisis, his enemies extended to the entire JSA. (Though he did face the All-Star Squadron once.)
    • Legends of the DC Universe #1-3 may be an attempt to make him the Post-Crisis Superman's enemy, but it didn't stick.
  • Super-Strength: In his albino gorilla and tyrannosaur bodies.
  • Take Over the World: He actually succeeded once, transferring himself into the body of Johnny Thunder and using the Thunderbolt's power for himself.
  • Time Master: A version of the Ultra-Humanite was a member of the villainous Time Master group called the Time Stealers.
  • Underestimating Badassery: Had a particular tendency to do this when facing Power Girl, assuming that she was basically just a Flying Brick and not realising that she was actually smart, capable of thinking of ways to defeat him and his plans beyond just hitting him a lot.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: In post-crisis Power Girl, after terrorizing two cities and stealing Terra II's body he is given a clean slate in a completely healthy clone body of his own. Talking to Power Girl, he explains he's going to use his second chance to turn over a new leaf. When he thinks he's out of earshot he starts ranting under his breath about his undying hatred towards her.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means / Dystopia Justifies the Means: When he took over the world in JSA he argued that he had brought peace to it, and indeed there was no war and society had developed to an advanced state. But seeing as how he achieved this peaceful utopia by reducing all of humanity to a Hive Mind, the heroes quite accurately noted that his utopia was anything but for everyone except him.
  • Wicked Cultured: As a cerebral villain, it should comes as no surprise that the Ultra-Humanite has been portrayed this way. When combined with Adaptational Heroism in Justice League, the result was a Humanite that angsted over children's educational broadcasting not being cultured enough and modified a Christmas toy to recite The Nutcracker (in his own voice, no less) instead of rapping and making flatulence noises as it did originally. The orphanage kids loved it.

    Vulcan, Son of Fire 

Vulcan, Son of Fire

Christopher Pike

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vulcan_34.jpg
Debut: All-Star Comics #60 (1976)

Commander Christopher Pike was selected for a space mission aboard the Vulcan Probe One, a two hundred day orbit of the Sun. For unknown reasons however, he went berserk on board the spacecraft, killing his two colleagues Raoul Jerome and Dr Edward Solomon and sending the Vulcan Probe plunging toward the Sun. The ship's command module ignited, forming a molten shell around Pike's body which somehow protected him from the heat but caused him to become irradiated.Three months later, Pike crashed to Earth (right on schedule), mutated, radiating heat and calling himself Vulcan, Son of Fire, and went on a rampage in Gotham City, absorbing huge amounts of electrical energy from the city. He attempted to kill his childhood heroes the Justice Society of America, believing that his desire to emulate 'heroes' had cost him his humanity, but the JSA learned that Pike's transformation had been caused by a benevolent alien named XLK-JNN, who had instigated the process in order to stop Pike from being consumed by the Sun's heat. The transformation was flawed, hence Pike's instability, and the alien intended to fix the flaw but Pike, angered at what had been done to him, incinerated him before he could do so.Seemingly destroyed at the end of his first encounter with the JSA, Vulcan would nonetheless return several times to attempt to destroy his former heroes: both collectively and individually.


  • Clingy Costume: Cannot remove the metalic shell XLK-JNN created around him.
  • Flight: Is able to fly.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Some later appearances have shown Pike wishing to lose his powers and return to being human.
  • Playing with Fire: Can project thermal blasts from his hands and control fire with his mind.
  • Shout-Out: It is probably not coincidence that astronaut Christopher Pike shares his name with the original captain of the Enterpise on Star Trek.
  • Touched by Vorlons: Gained his superpowers from a benevolent alien who was attempting to save his life.

Alternative Title(s): Eclipso

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