| Villainy Inc. | |
|---|---|
Top: Jinx, Giganta, Trinity. Bottom: Cyborgirl, Doctor Poison, Queen Clea.
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Wonder Woman #28 (vol. 1) (March–April 1948) |
| Created by | William Moulton Marston |
| In-story information | |
| Member(s) | Queen Clea Cyborgirl Doctor Poison Giganta Jinx Trinity Blue Snowman Cheetah Eviless Hypnota Zara |
Villainy Inc. is a group composed of villains who battle Wonder Woman. They originally appeared in the Golden Age, and have reappeared as a modern-age team with a revamped line-up.
Contents
Fictional team history[edit]
Villainy Inc. debuted in Wonder Woman #28 (Vol. 1), in the last story written by series creator William Moulton Marston. The villains, who were individually sentenced to prison on the Amazon penal colony Transformation Island and later escaped, teamed up to take down their common enemy; led by the Saturnian slaver Eviless, who had tricked the Amazons into believing she had lost her evil nature by manipulating the lock on a magic girdle, and stole Wonder Woman's lasso. While faking her death by controlling her heartbeat, she then wraps the lasso around her arm to smuggle herself out. She tries to release the prisoners on Transformation Island, but most of them refuse due to their Venus Girdles. However the ones that agree with Eviless join her. They capture Hippolyta using the lasso as Snowman, Poison and Hypnota lure her into a trap as she thinks men are on the Island. Hippolyta is then taken from the island. Later the villains capture her by binding her with the lasso and taking her in a boat. But she drags the boat underwater, and saves Eviless, as Saturnians can't swim. Clea tried to anonymously buy a submarine from Steve Trevor to return to Atlantis (why she needed a submarine is unclear), but Trevor recognised her and played along to capture her. He was knocked out by Giganta, and Clea and her aide decided to capture the Holliday Girls and Wonder Woman to force him to give them a submarine. They net and bind the Girls in Professor Zool's lab and Giganta attacks Wonder Woman as she enters but is overpowered. This sort of worked, and they forced Wonder Woman to steal a US Navy sub for them - but Clea and Giganta were recaptured before their sub could fully dive. They would all be returned to Transformation Island by Wonder Woman and the Amazons.
Following the retcons in Crisis on Infinite Earths, the group's history began when they first menaced Hippolyta in the Golden Age. Cheetah, Zara, Doctor Poison and Hypnotic Woman (formerly Hypnota) were assembled by Queen Clea (it has not been revealed if Eviless or Blue Snowman were members, and Giganta was retconned into a modern-age villainess who joined later). The Atlantean monarch of the city Venturia enlisted the others to defeat her rival city, Aurania. They were repeatedly foiled by Hippolyta. (Wonder Woman: Our Worlds at War #1) Later, Hippolyta's daughter Diana traveled back in time and discovered them in battle. Clea was defeated by Diana (who disguised herself as Miss America) and Clea's own daughter, Ptra.
In recent times, when all of Atlantis disappeared from the Earth, Clea again set out to assembled a new Villainy, Inc and conquer a land to rule. Together they descended upon the other-dimensional Skartaris. She used Cyborgirl to take control of the entire dimension. Clea's entire plan, however, was commandeered by Trinity. Trinity was in fact revealed to be a virus, engineered by the founders of Skartaris. When the "Trinity Virus" was reintroduced into Skartaris' governing computer system, the whole land began to regress and "devolve" to its origins. Wonder Woman managed to stop the process from becoming permanent, but still, some of Skartaris' inhabitants (including Clea) were lost in the de-evolution. (Wonder Woman #179-183, Vol. 2)
Members[edit]
Pre-Crisis[edit]
- Blue Snowman (Byrna Brilyant) - A small town school-teacher and scientist who disguised herself as a man called "The Snowman" and uses "blue snow", a special substance invented by her late father which freezes everything it touches.
- Cheetah (Priscilla Rich) - A debutante and thief whose terrible feeling of inferiority periodically causes her Cheetah self to seize control of her personality.
- Doctor Poison (Princess Maru) - Leader of a Nazi spy ring whose ultimate goal was to wreak havoc in the US Army by contaminating the army's water with "reverso," a drug that "confuses the brain centers… [making] soldiers do the exact opposite of what they are told."
- Eviless - A slave driver from Saturn. Sent to Transformation Island for rehabilitation after her initial encounter with Wonder Woman, she later formed the first incarnation of Villainy Inc. in Wonder Woman #28, the last story by Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston, but never appeared again in any continuity, though she may have inspired the Silver Age hero Saturn Girl and the more ambiguous Saturn Queen.
- Giganta - An ape who is artificially evolved into a human strongwoman by Professor Zool.
- Hypnota - A stage magician who conceals her gender via masculine costume and false facial hair, Hypnota was accidentally shot in the head during the rehearsal of one of her act's illusions. Experimental surgery saved her life, but it also released a "blue electric ray of dominance" from her "mid-brain," granting her the ability to mesmerize and control the minds of others by projecting "blue hypnotic rays" from her eyes and hands. Using this new power for crime, she enslaved her sister, the weak-willed Serva, and used her as a pawn while selling hypnotized captives to the Saturn slave traders.
- Queen Clea - The cruel ruler of the Atlantean colony of Venturia - a subsea realm situated somewhere beneath the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean (Comics Cavalcade No. 18, Dec/Jan '46/47: "The Menace of the Rebel Manlings" until she is deposed by Wonder Woman.
- Zara - The self-proclaimed Priestess of the Crimson Flame. Her true past is unknown, however she claimed to be "an Arab girl," (although she had a French accent), and wore belly dancer attire. According to her tales, she was sold into slavery as a child; which created in her an intense hatred of mankind. Using a flair for pyrotechnics, she eventually created a new religion called the Cult of The Crimson Flame. Zara rigged various fire-based effects to dazzle her followers and keep them in thrall to her. After her initial defeat by Wonder Woman, the Cult went underground, though Zara was able to scare up at least one follower to do her bidding when she joined Villainy Inc.
Post-Crisis[edit]
- Cyborgirl (LeTonya Charles) - The niece of Dr. Sarah Charles, who required emergency surgery after a reaction to the "super-steroid" Tar. Her cybernetic implants give her all the same abilities as Victor Stone (Cyborg), but she has none of his sense of responsibility.
- Doctor Poison - The grandchild of the original Doctor Poison who continues her grandmother's grudge against Wonder Woman, though she holds her grandmother in contempt.
- Giganta (Doris Zuel) - A scientist whose mind was transferred first into the body of an ape, and later into the body of a circus strongwoman. She has the ability to grow in size, and she is now a modern-age villainess and did not exist in the Golden Age.
- Jinx - An elemental sorceress whose powers include the ability to command elements such as air, the manipulation of magical energy that she can manifest as offensive force bolts and green flame, the ability to dissolve matter, and create ground tremors.
- Trinity - A woman with three faces which are Time, War, and Chaos, each of which possesses its own power.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- Beatty, Scott (2009). Wonder Woman: The Ultimate Guide To The Amazon Princess. Dorling Kindersley Publishing. pp. 80–81. ISBN 0-7894-9616-X.
