Mister Mind

Mister Mind, the alien worm, appeared fully formed and in charge of the Monster Society of Evil in Captain Marvel Adventures #22 (Mar. 1943). The character is fairly recognizable today but his original Golden Age appearances were limited to the two-year serial that ran in Captain Marvel Adventures #23-46 (1943–45). Mind and the concept of the Monster Society were revived by DC in the early 1970s and again in post-Crisis continuity. Mister Mind was a central figure in 52, when he gained cosmic-level power and was instrumental in recreating the DC multiverse.

The serial's name was mentioned in an ad prior to the first story, and formally dubbed "The Monster Society of Evil" in the introduction of the second installment. After a while, the features became a bit formulaic but this monotony (which is more evident when the whole serial is read at once) was fairly well offset by the lively parade of evil freaks, and the globe-hopping intrigue. The members of his Society were recruited from among Captain Marvel's rogues, alien races, and many were monsters of Mind's own creation.

Mister Mind himself was presented as an alien, but his home world was never given a name. The planet seemed to be mobile and in Earth's solar system. Mind had also allied with/conquered the planetoid called Punkus, where the Crocodile Men lived. In an interview with, Fawcett artist C. C. Beck recalled that ...??

To defeat Captain Marvel, the best course of action was usually one of two scenarios: (1) catch him as Billy Batson and gag him or (2) distract him by endangering a civilian.

The Freak Parade Begins

The story began with young Billy Batson interviewing the Indian princess Dareena Rajabuti, who was donating jewels for the war effort. His broadcast made its way into space where the unseen Mister Mind listened in his laboartory. He has already built a "society of evil of the universe," with a network of agents ready to do his bidding. Mister Mind called upon Captain Nazi to steal the princess's jewels but finds only one, a large black pearl — which like a crystal ball, had the magical ability to project scenes and voices from anywhere. Billy uttered his magic word, "Shazam!" to become Captain Marvel and Captain Nazi fled with the Princess and her prize. She explained that the pearls must be used as a pair so they went to find its mate in India. When Cap caught up to them, he overheard Mister Mind for the first time on a radio. Mind called in more help, from Marvel's foes Sivana, Ibac, Nippo and Mister Banjo via belt radios. Captain Marvel wrapped up the gang save for Ibac, who escaped with the pearls. (Captain Marvel Adventures #22)

Ibac escaped in a rocket ship and Cap followed him to Africa. Mister Mind instructed Ibac to deliver the pealrs to the Axis powers in north Africa to help win an important battle. There Billy Batson visited an American camp and did his regular broadcast from there. Billy caught Ibac (as his alter ego, Stinky Printwhistle) sneaking into camp and chase him into the jungle. He managed to capture Billy and gave him over to cannibals while Ibac passed the magic pearls to Nippo, in Tokyo. (#23)

Mister Mind ordered Nippo to kill the American commanding officer in Hawaii. The man's daughter realized something was amiss and worked with Cap to uncover the plot and save the officer. Meanwhile the Monster Society worked to set off a nearby volcano to bury Pearl Harbor. Cap knocked out Nippo and took back the pearls. (#24)

Mister Mind next stopped the Earth from turning! Captain Marvel uncovered the engine of this treachery, a great gyroscope deep in the earth. Cap used the wisdom of Solomon to run the machine in reverse, then the military blew it up. (#25)

Billy realized he could use the pearls to spy on Mister Mind in his lair. He discovered his nemesis stationed on a "dark unknown world" out in space, near the moon! In the fortress, Cap encountered Mind's monsters: the Goat-Man, a robot, and a human-headed octopus. Mister Mind projected his thoughts and will into these creatures. While there, Billy brushed off a stray green worm — not realizing that the worm was Mister Mind. Cap battled with these minions and believed that he had defeated Mind, but his voice returned to haunt Captain Marvel and Mister Mind fled his ruined lab for Earth; his spacecraft was too small for Cap to notice it. (#26)

Coming to Earth

Mister Mind set down near Billy's home city and built a tiny new castle, using a special ray to make lowly insects do his bidding. The insects went on to ruin buildings all over tow and unleashed more of his minions, including an alien Crocodile Man. Meanwhile Billy's friend Steamboat discovered Mind's castle and put it in their garden. When Mister Mind came out in his tiny ship, Cap finally realized that the villain was tiny, but Mind evaded his grasp. The alien worm spoke via a tiny voice box hung around his neck. He was apparently able to telepathically project his thoughts to this speaker. (#27)

When Captain Marvel thought he witnessed Mister Mind eaten by a bird, Billy broadcast that the villain was dead. Instead Mind found himself on a ship full of meat bound for Germany. This food was served to the leading Nazi, Hermann Göring, who nearly killed Mister Mind until Adolf Hitler stopped him and proclaimed Mind their ally! Mind plotted with the Nazis to stop the Earth's rotation to keep America in the dark. They used guns to propel the Earth to stop. Cap flew right into Germany and punched Hitler, but he had to retreat in order to take care of pneumonia outbreak in the U.S. On the way, he requisitioned a bunch of giant chains from a fleet of warships, hooked them into the Earth, and dragged it into rotation again. (#28)

Mind's next batch of synthetic monsters were a handful for Cap. Oliver the octopus, Ophelius the ram, and Oliphant the dragon helped their master escape to Japanese-occupied China. He meets Japanese scientists Doctors Smashi, Hashi, and Peeyu, aka the Black Dragon Society of Murder. Billy also ventured to China and confronted these men at the Great Wall. They caused the wall to levitate from electrical force, giving the Japanese forces an advantage. Cap kayoed the three of them but as he began his next broadcast, Mister Mind crept up and quickly encircled his mouth — then his whole body — with silk. (#29) NOTE: These Japanese scientists, like many people of color, were depicted in ways that are offensive today.

Dr. Smashi stayed with Mister Mind as he retreated to Australia. They were aided by Herr Phoul and the Crocodile Man called Jorrk (Mind also revealed that the Crocodile Men were from a planet called Punkus). The Society built a flying mechanical spider-copter that released a net to trap enemy planes. (#30)

Mister Mind was forced back into space, to the planetoid Punkus, where he spoke to Captain Marvel via remote phonograph. He replayed the voice of Billy saying "Shazam!" which changed him and rendered Billy vulnerable. He was loaded by robots into a rocket ship to Punkus, where the atmosphere was poisonous to aliens. (#31) Once free on Punkus, Cap was immune to the atmosphere. He disguised himself as a local and discovered the villains' space-gun, Great Big Bertha. Cap set off their munitions supply, killing Herr Phoul and Jorrk. But Mr. Mind and Dr. Smashi remained to fire a billion tons of dynamite toward Earth. (#32) When Cap stopped their projectile, Smashi was killed. Marvel stashed Mr. Mind in his belt and headed back to Earth. (#33)

The battle was far from over and Cap chased Mr. Mind and his Nazi allies through England and Scotland. (#34-35) At the castle home of Sir Wm. Cherrypit, Billy met his servant Jeepers, who was a bat-monster in disguise. (#36) Jeepers fled with Mind to his underground home, a cave system under the earth that was home to his extinct race. The caves traced a passage under the Atlantic to an underground city in habited by the Sub-Americans. These small people originally wandered into the Earth when America was founded. They were monitoring the war and feared an Axis victory. If it wa so, they had an explosive that would split the Western hemisphere from the East. (#37)

Back Home for Billy

Billy returned home to find a letter from R. Hitchblock, a New Jersey director making a movie about Mr. Mind. The real Mister Mind replaced Hitchblock's mechanical worm and sabotaged the filming. (#38) Mind's black death ray machine looked as if it were going to destroy Captain Marvel once and for all, (#39) but it was found to only disintegrate metal. (#40)

Mr. Mind decided to try another route to conquest by writing his own book, Mind Kampf. His Crocodile Men helped to print and distribute it while Evil Eye mesmerized Billy Batson and made him broadcast great things about Mind on WHIZ radio. Cap eventually turned the tables and destroyed Mind's printing office. (#41)

Once again Cap and the world thought Mister Mind was dead. Mind used the time to create a new monster with electricity. This creature, the Hydra, had an animal body with a human head, but no intellect. When Mind sliced off its head in an attempt to kill it, two heads reappeared! And when Cap knocked off those heads, a lion head was added, then later a dragon. The heads turned on themselves in vying for a hunk of meat and devouring one another! (#42)

When Mister Mind was apparently knocked into a state of amnesia, he vowed to repent and claimed feelings great shame and regret. Billy tried to help him go straight but Mind's Crocodile Men reorganized under a new leader, Herkimer. In the scuffle with Captain Marvel, the violence sent Mister Mind into a wall and restored his memories. (#43)

He wasted no time reestablishing the Monster Society, but the diminutive devil felt as though he'd lost his edge. He enrolled in a refresher course from his own, the School for Evil, where the professor taught from Methods of Murder. As a graduation requirement, Mind was paired with Archibald the satyr to terrorize a picnic (where naturally, Billy Batson was in attendance). They managed to capture Billy and parade him in front of their classmates. Once free, Captain Marvel destroyed the school completely. (#44)

Mister Mind's last good effort took him undersea, where he befriended a whale and ordered it to attack a ship. Then at his deep sea hideout, he activated another secret Monster Brigade made of giant sea creatures. (#45)

Mister Mind was finished when his last Crocodile Man and thug deserted him. Without helpers, he was fairly helpless; the fiend was finally caught and put promptly on trial. Captain Marvel served as the prosecuting attorney and accused Mind of murdering 186,744 people. Upon hearing this, even Mister Mind's own lawyer was horrified and refused to defend his client. The jury quickly found him guilty and he was sentenced to die in the the electric chair. It happened swiftly, then Mister Mind's body was interred in a museum. (#46)

At the close of the two-year serial, a small questionnaire was printed at the end of the story asking whether readers liked Mister Mind as a villain, if they were sorry to see him gone, and if they like serials in general. The results of the survey are unknown, but Mister Mind never made a reappearance in any Golden Age Captain Marvel tale.

Post-Crisis

In post-Crisis continuity, Mister Mind was depicted in various ways. He first debuted in a story arc titled "The Monster Society of Evil" in the Power of Shazam! series, it did not feature a villain group per se, only Mister Mind and Mister Atom. As before, Mind was a creature from the planet Venus. Ibac also appeared around the time of that story.

» FIRST APPEARANCE: Power of Shazam # ()

Notes

This "Monster" saga was reprinted with a deluxe treatment in 1989. The American Nostalgia Library published The Monster Society of Evil, edited by Mike Higgs, in an oversized, slipcased hardcover book, limited to 3,000 numbered copies.

The first 500 editions were supposed to include a plate autographed by C.C. Beck. However, Mr. Beck was only able to sign about 125 of these because he passed away that same year.

Most owners report that these are extremely fragile; the binding is bad and comes apart easily.

Powers

Mr. Mind is one of the most powerful telepathic minds in existence. He can, at times, transfer his mind into other bodies for various periods. For the most part, he depends on others to carry out his plots.

He can also spin cocoons — not to tum into a moth — to bind and gag his foes, thus preventing them from saying their magic words.

Mr. Mind once survived by regenerated his body from a piece broken off from his corpse.

Appearances of Mister Mind

Monster Society Membership

DC Monster Societies

Earth-Two

In a saga penned by Roy Thomas, it was revealed that Mister Mind piloted his Monster Society on Earth-Two before forming his more notorious group on Earth-S. Mind's transdimensional radio picked up Earth-Two broadcasts and he learned of the Justice Society. To defeat them, Mr. Mind recruited some of their enemies, including Oom, Mister Who, Nightshade (a.k.a. Ramulus) and Nyola and formed the first Monster Society. (All-Star Squadron #51–52)

The Dummy joined the Monsters and led a revolt against Mister Mind. They were still defeated and Mister Mind returned to Earth-S. (All-Star Squadron #53–54)

Mr. Mind Returns from the Dead

Mister Mind had been sentenced to the electric chair, but no one knew that his race was immune to electric shock. The electricity instead placed the alien into suspended animation, and Mind regained consciousness just as the taxidermist was about to preserve his body for posterity. The World's Wickedest Worm possessed the man and jumped away, leaving a decoy to rest in the museum. (Shazam! #31) In one encounter, Mind told Captain Marvel that a segment of his body broke off and he had regenerated from thatl Cap didn't believe him. (#9)

Just after Billy and his friends had been freed from their Suspendium and was adjusting to life in the 1970s, he visited his friend Mr. Tawky Tawny, who was a tour guide at the local museum where Mr. Mind had been interred decades earlier. As Tawny began recounting the tale, the building began to rumble and collapse! Captain Marvel investigated and found that Mind's case had been left with a fake worm; Mr. Mind's glasses and voice amplifier were gone. On the trail for Mr. Mind, Cap found Herkimer the Crocodile Man, who had taken up work in circus. He caught up with the worm in St. Louis, where Mind was quickly defeated and returned to prison. (Shazam! #2)

The resilient creature was slippery as ever and returned repeatedly. He used a "hate projector," to transform an army of worms' minds into a living weapon. (#9) He teamed with Sivana and Ibac to challenge the Marvel Family to a death duel. (#14) And when Lex Luthor came to Earth-S from Earth-One, he met Mr. Mind and formed an alliance. (#15)

When Billy Batson and his "uncle" Dudley were on the road, Mind attacked them again. His most elaborate scheme involved creating a group of villainous women called the Rainbow Squad. Each had powers that were reminiscent of the six possessed by Captain Marvel: Dauntless had courage, Sibyl wisdom, Dynamoll atomic radiation, Virago strength, Gibralta a light aura, and Celeritas super-speed. The women knew their leader only as "Mr. Wonderful," whose servant, the Handyman, created the Rainbow Machine that gave them powers. The Minute Man helped Captain Marvel defeat them. (#31)

Miser Mind's reconstructed the nuclear robot called Mister Atom (who was dispatched all the way back in Captain Marvel Adventures #78, 1947) as a racecar called the Atomobile. Cap defeated it by building his own vehicle, powered by his divine patrons. (#33)

Mister Mind gathers a new Monster Society of Evil with Sivana, IBAC, King Kull, Mister Atom, Black Adam (restored by Sivana) and Oggar. He speaks via screen with Oggar's magic, who was restored by Mind. When Mind had transferred his consciousness to the Invincible Man, Oggar was in the form of a wild boar. When Mind siphoned some magic energy it let him change back. Oggar attacks first. He was a pupil of the Wizard who attained immortality then rebelled. He waited til his death to strike at Cap, has magic powers, strikes Billy mute, then Adam descends. They raise an army of sand from Egyptian desert. Mary arrives; Oggar's magic doesn't work against women. She outraces their lightning, letting it strike Billy so he's transformed. Oggar accidentally strikes Adam with a bolt and they retreat. (World's Finest Comics #264)

The Rocky Mountains are shrinking and the oceans rising due to King Kull's machines, powered by Mister Atom. Billy visits Freddy and Professor Edgewise who helps them pinpoint the villains. They end up getting captured then free themselves. The fillains retreat.

265

Spaceships shaped like Sivana's head attack. Sivana recalls conquering planet Venus and plots to take other worlds, plundering their tech. Both he and Mind think they are using each other to their ends. He takes IBAC to Dralpoq ruled by the Chalyug, conquering them easily with IBAC's strength. Then on to other planets, Forthor and king Mulo. Sivana's device turns him to stone and he's crumbled. They take 62 rulers and 247 planets, using their factories to build spaceships to attack Earth. Cap uses a redwood as a pool cue to knock them into one another. They disappear.

266

All Marvels including the Lieutenant Marvles rush to the Rock to find it under attack by the Monster Society. Mary takes out Oggar, Junior tricks Adam into saying "Shazam," Hill Marvel deflects Sivana's ship's beams back on him. Others force IBAC and King Kull to strike each other and knock themselves out. Cap sends Mister Atom into another universe, one where life never appeared. They search for Mind who's in Shazam's beard!

267

But he also gathered the greatest villains of Earth:

• Captain Nazi, champion of the Third Rich;
• Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, self-styled "Rightful Ruler of the Universe."
• Ibac the Cursed, originallya small-time crook with big ambitions — Stanley ("Stinky") Printwqhistle, Prince Lu8cifer gave him, in return for his soul, the powers of evil from four tyrants.
• Nippo from Nagasaki was a Japanese agent and a master of swordplay and the martial arts.
• Mister Banjo was a criminal, Dr. Filpots, who spied for the Axis and used a musical code to trasmit American millitary secrets.
• Jeepers, an intelligent bat-monster, the last of his cave-dwelling race.
  

Decades later, after the Marvels had come out of the suspendium sleep, Mister Mind formed what was to be the core of a new Monster Society, using Ibac, Sivana, Sivana Jr., and Georgia Sivana.

Finally, he assembeled his greatest group of villains, again using Sivana dn Ibac, also the following:
Mister Atom, the Atomic Robot.

When thiswas thwarted, he made his next try in the vicinity of Earth-S, setting up his headquarters on a planetold. He then broadcast to the greatest villains on Earth, as well as the leaders of the Axis powers, enlisting them all in his Monster Society of Evll.

» FIRST APPEARANCE: Shazam! #2 (Apr. 1973)

Post-Crisis Membership