Simpler times.
The Monster Society of Evil was a society – of evil! – dedicated to one thing, and one thing only. Killing Captain Marvel. Because they hates them some Captain Marvel. The original Monster Society was probably, by our standards, the most mainstream and serious. Formed by Mr. Mind – and you know Mr. Mind already, I would guess, but if not, he’s an evil little worm who wants to conquer the universe – and featuring Oom (the big gray guy who beat the crap out of his enemies), Nyola (a demonic sorceress), the Dummy (a psychotic little bastard who later was adapted to become the first Vigilante’s archnemesis), Ramulus (a sort of plant-human hybrid wizard) and Mister Who, possessed of one of the worst supervillain names of all time. Seriously, when Roy Thomas brought back the Monster Society in All-Star Squadron, he basically had Dr. Fate and Hourman do an Abbott-and-Costello riff on Mr. Who’s name.1
Then things… changed. Mr. Mind’s first Monster Society didn’t quite work out, so he started recruiting more guys. The evil Goat-Men! The evil (and unimaginatively named) Evil Eye! The evil Crocodile Men! Well, actually only two of them. Herkimer and Sylvester. But they sure hated Captain Marvel! They hated him so much.
When attacking Captain Marvel with the furry brigade resulted more or less in what you would expect (hint: abject defeat), Mr. Mind went out and got more guys, fetching Dr. Sivana and Ibac and Captain Nazi, all definite challenges for the Big Red Cheese. Also, he got Mr. Banjo. Mr. Banjo is a spy who played the banjo, and by this fact quite probably had a worse supervillain name than Mr. Who. Seriously, “Mr. Banjo?” One kind of has to wonder at Mr. Mind’s overall strategy. “All right, I’ve got a demonically-powered strongman, a massively superpowered Nazi, the evilest mad scientist on the planet… hey, this guy plays the banjo! Let’s bring him in!”
Of course, Mr. Banjo was better than Nippo from Nagasaki. No. Seriously. That is what they called him. Nippo from Nagasaki. You have to love that DC Comics didn’t bother trying to hide this in the pages of Who’s Who, regardless of how racist and tasteless it was. Their sole concession was suggesting that possibly “Nippo from Nagasaki” was not his real name, but instead a codename given to him by his self-hating Japanese masters. Still, regardless of his bosses’ need for serious therapy regarding their self-esteem issues, Nippo was in the Monster Society! Because he hated Captain Marvel.
Also, there was Jeepers, the intelligent rat-man. The less said about him, the better.
Of course, these guys got their asses handed to them too, because surprisingly Captain Marvel had no weaknesses involving banjos or racism. Decades later (thanks to DC wanting to explain why there were no Captain Marvel comics between the 1940s and 1970s, they handwaved up a suspended-animation sort of solution), Mr. Mind would again bring about the return of the Monster Society of Evil, this time with serious heavyweights: Sivana again, of course, and Ibac, but also King Kull, who was sort of a superpowered Neanderthal, and Black Adam (who wasn’t yet as badass as he eventually became), and Mr. Atom the atomic, vaguely dildo-shaped robot – and Oggar, who was essentially one of the Wizard Shazam’s former bosses who got laid off and was still bitter about it.
And then Captain Marvel beat them all up again. Because that is what Captain Marvel does.
Okay, so the Monster Society are goofy. But you have to admire their inclusivity. If you hate Captain Marvel, you’re a member! And that’s why there are so many of them.
Top comment: One of the great things about DC is that all the rogue galleries have a unique theme behind them. Superman’s villains are all twisted reflections of him, vying philosophies of what makes a “super man”. Batman’s villains each exemplify an anxiety of modern man whipped into a killing frenzy. Wonder Woman fights about the dark dead-ends and criticisms of empowerment. The classic rogues of The Flash mix common sense and fraternal affection into their culture.
The Monster Society of Evil, meanwhile, is a bunch of guys who find stumbling down the street, drunk, at four in the morning, constantly running into each other and belligerently yelling, “Fuck Captain Marvel! Fuck that guy!” — NCallahan
- This was when Dr. Fate had the half-helmet, which allowed him to magically possess a sense of humour, but also made him much, much less cool as a result. [↩]
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Black Adam looks like Christopher Lee in all those old Hammer movies. I do like how the giant grimacing face of Mr. Mind makes it look like the villains all gathered to pay tribute to r. Mind. Like it is a Monster Society of Evil reunion at the Ramada Inn.
The Batman inspires fear in everyone.
The Batman himself fears no one.
No one except…
Mister Banjo.
TERROR IS A BANJO!
Black Adam’s expression in this picture suggests he’d rather be anywhere else than with these losers.
Every time the Monster Society appears, it should not only have everyone who was ever a member, but five or six new guys. They’re hoping to either crush C.M. by sheer force of numbers (unlikely) or eventually making him feel bad about how many people hate his guts.
I was just waiting to read about some guy Captain Marvel picked on in High School, his bitter ex-girlfriend, and maybe the janitor from Scrubs being included.
The best appearance of Mr. Mind and the Monster Society of Evil is definitely “The Beast-Man Who Shouted ‘Hate’ at the Heart of the U.N.” By way of showing you how influential this story has been in my life, I remembered that title off the top of my head.
It’s a Superman/Captain Marvel team-up in which Mxyzptlk’s magic makes King Kull syphon off the power of Shazam’s magic lightning bolts to become more powerful than the entire Marvel family combined. Just as Kull defeats Captain Marvel and Superman, Mxyzptlk whisks them away to a parallel dimension — Funny Animal Land, inhabited by talking bunnies — where they are only comic book characters! Mr. Mind is waiting for them with a ten-story, Shazam-powered Robbit (which, as the editors helpfully point out for the thousands of blind comics readers, is a Rabbit Robot).
But all is not lost! To send Supes and Captain Marvel to Funny Animal Land, Mxyzptlk has to bring FAL natives Millie and Hoppy to our world in their place. The police arrest Millie and Hoppy, and when Millie faints in the back of the paddy wagon, we learn that Hoppy isn’t just any talking anthropomorphic rabbit.
HE’S HOPPY THE MARVEL BUNNY, AND HE’S HERE TO KICK SOME ASS.
I swear to God I am not making this up — click my name for proof.
Aw, they’re cute! Crocodile Man in his suit, Goat Man in a cool turtleneck, Black Adam’s seriously freaky receding/aggressively advancing hairline, togas, casual dudes rolling off the couch in a bathrobe maybe with some cold pizza tucked in somewhere. Sheer numbers and the presence of an adorably angry bear should get them at least in the 70s.
Honestly, you have to include ten points for Captain Nazi alone. I mean, other bad guys are scary. He picked the name Captain Nazi, and even after things didn’t turn out so well for them in the 40’s, he just ran with it.
Mr. Mind must retire from the supervillian business. Nothing that cute can concour the Universe, there’s just no way you could take him seriously. He looks like a fucking Glow Worm! I honestly thought he was shopped in when I first saw it.
CM must be pretty popular with the ladies though given that only one ever bothered to join.
googum:”…eventually making him feel bad about how many people hate his guts.”
I would so read this.
Cookie:
I think the sweater can definitely be described as “swanky,” which is quite a compliment for a goat, I’m sure.
Also, there are two crocodile-man(s?) in that picture.
Is that the same Oom who had that ultra-trippy battle with the Spectre in All-Star comics? Or was he a Fawcett creation?
CB; One to the left of Captain Nazi and one back and to the left of Nyola, the only woman in the picture.
Does anyone know what happen’d to Mr. Mind after 52? I was kind of annoyed/traumatized by what they did with him.
The thing about Captain Nazi is…
Well, here’s the thing. It is often said of the National Socialist movement in the 1930s: “Those Nazis may have been evil, genocidal little fuckwads with an absurd mythology and a talent for getting worked over by the Russians, but damn they had good fashion sense.”
Captain Nazi doesn’t even have that. Seriously, lime-green tights tucked into red pirate boots? Giant gold epaulettes? He makes me ashamed to call myself badly dressed.
Is Goat-Man’s sweater cashmere, by any chance?
Mr Mind split up into thousands of tiny standard Mr. Minds after 52, and went through the timeline destroying the Justice League before they were born, but in the end, he was stopped by Booster Gold.
Booster Gold 1-12. Good comic bookery there.
Crocodile Man The Second kind of looks like he’s wearing just a sweatshirt and khakis (perhaps he secretly wanted to be called Captain Casual?), but he still gets credit for picking orange to contrast nicely. And Mr. Beardy should get credit for sensibly pairing a warm cloak with his suit, in case they all accidentally end up in a vital new Jason film featuring snow.
CB: There are two crocodile men in the picture because there were several in the MSoE.
Evan Waters: Yes, that is the same Oom who fought the Spectre. The first MSoE was actually a ret-con created in the 80’s by Roy Thomas using old DC villains.
Mr. Who is staring into my soul.
Thanks, Uber Geek.
That’s awesome. Oom from the Dark Side of the Moon was way cool- he commanded interdimensional dragons and came to Earth to kill people just for the fun of it.
Um… who says that?
The Croc Man in the suit, whichever one he is, is quite dapper. He could host a makeover or fashion show on cable, but people would be a bit reluctant to let him into their homes.
The Superman Revenge Squad rating is going to be about 8%, because despite having the exact same motivation as the Monster Society of Evil, it has the downside of not having any name villains in it; it consists solely of random aliens like the crocodile-men, but with less personality. Also, a much less grandious name that merely points out their pathetically narrow scope. At least the MSofE was trying to take over the universe.
Now I’m curious how the Time Stealers would rate on the Rex the Wonder Dog scale.
On the one hand, the average member is both cooler and more powerful than the average member of the Monster Society of Evil. One the other hand, they’re Booster Gold villains.
Lister,
I agree, Mr Mind looks cute.
It did not stop the US government from trying to electrocute his vermicular, bespectacled, mind-controlling ass.
Even before Grant Morrison got him, cute looking or no, Mr Mind was an evil, antisocial little bugger.
I can’t even remember the number of murder counts he was charged with and got the death penalty for — this was in the comic, I’m not making this up (it’s in his own WW entry, help me out, MGK?).
The suit-wearing Croc Man obviously went to the same tailor as Tawky Tawny: “Anthropomorphs our specialty”.
Tawny is ssstyYYLIN’ and you all know it. 😉
And…King KULL?
DC was lucky the ghost of Robert E. Howard didn’t rise from his grave and smote them.
Hey now, King Kull was pretty good in his recent appearance on Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Let’s not trash talk him.
Is there a society for people who are just totally ambivalent about Captain Marvel? Because I would like to join that team. We wouldn’t hate Captain Marvel, we’d just never be happy to see him either.
“Look! Up in the sky! It’s Superm… oh wait, no. It’s Lightning McManchild. False alarm everyone, sorry.”
End,
Thanks. I know nothing about the DC King Kull.
Making a poor joke on name basis alone.
I will track down that episode and revise my opinion accordingly on viewing.
By the way, folks, I’ve talked to Doctor Who and he’d like to say that he deeply and sincerely apologizes for that time he spent bumming around the universe before he went to grad school. He was young, and fell in with a bad crowd.
Honestly, these bozos look like rejects from ‘The Venture Brothers,’ as they somehow manage to be more lame than deliberately ridiculous evildoers like Truckules, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Nightmare Coat, Girl Hitler or Manta Claws.
As to the “Nazi=Sharp Dressers” equation… As a jew even I got to admit they were sharp dressed (more so the SS than your standard brown shirt). I mean what else are ya gonna do when Hugo Boss designs your outfits, fight the Russians naked in Jackboots and a Kaiser Helmet?
I will track down that episode and revise my opinion accordingly on viewing.
They changed his name a bit (maybe there were rights issues with REH’s estate?) and blended in a bit of Vandal Savage too. Still, fun ep.
Black Adam should add to his badassery by going down that roster list and killing every single one of them.
Mr. Mind was put on trial for the deaths of 186,744 people, I believe. The exact number is in Richard A. Lupoff’s look at “The Big Red Cheese” in *All in Color for a Dime.*
His own lawyer wouldn’t even defend him, and the jury didn’t even have to go out to deliberate!
As Steamboat would have put it, “Hooray!”
Chris: “It was really great to meet you, Marvel Bunny!”
I laughed my face off.
Mr. Atom isn’t around, he self-nuked Marvel’s hometown.
“Of course, these guys got their asses handed to them too, because surprisingly Captain Marvel had no weaknesses involving banjos or racism.”
Ah the memories this stirs in brain. Simply awesome. As laughable as this group is they would still clean the floor with Flash’s Silver Age Rogues.
Oh, and Chris R. thanks for that Hoppy link. I’m still hoping that DC will wise up, kill off Freddy Freeman and give the power of Shazam! to the one rabbit who truly deserves it.
One of the great things about DC is that all the rogue galleries have a unique theme behind them. Superman’s villains are all twisted reflections of him, vying philosophies of what makes a “super man”. Batman’s villains each exemplify an anxiety of modern man whipped into a killing frenzy. Wonder Woman fights about the dark dead-ends and criticisms of empowerment. The classic rogues of The Flash mix common sense and fraternal affection into their culture.
The Monster Society of Evil, meanwhile, is a bunch of guys who find stumbling down the street, drunk, at four in the morning, constantly running into each other and belligerently yelling, “Fuck Captain Marvel! Fuck that guy!”
“The Beast-Man Who Shouted ‘Hate’ at the Heart of the U.N.”” – thats a riff on the Micheal Moorcock story ‘The Best Who Shouted ‘Love’ At the Heart of the World’
…
@Christian: Oh, my God. NO, it’s not Michael Moorcock who wrote that story.
Harlan. Ellison.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_that_Shouted_Love_at_the_Heart_of_the_World_%28short_story%29
Where is Aunt Minerva???