This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist comic book post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the early stories of a 1970s DC Comics series.
SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS Vol 1 #1 (Jun 1976)
Title: Attend – Or Die
Villain Roster: Captain Cold, Sinestro, Gorilla Grodd, Copperhead, Mirror Master, Star Sapphire II, the Wizard, Manhunter III, Shadow Thief and Captain Boomerang
Comment: “What are we, some kind of Secret Society of Super-Villains?” (Had to be said.)
Synopsis: Captain Cold and Mirror Master pull off a large jewel robbery and while dividing up their loot they get an invitation to join the title “Society” at a place called the Sinister Citadel in San Francisco.
Identical invitations are received by the supervillains called Gorilla Grodd, Copperhead, Sinestro and others. Everyone but Catwoman accepts. When they are all assembled in the aforementioned Citadel they meet the new woman using the Star Sapphire nom de guerre. They also meet their butler, Carstairs.
Suddenly, the Justice League members burst in and attack, but the villains fight and destroy what turn out to be robotic duplicates of the League. The costumed Manhunter III enters the room and tells the villains they passed their initiation by wiping out the robots. He calls himself a representative for their anonymous “host.”
NOTE: Their host is really Darkseid, as will be made clear soon. This third person using the Manhunter alias is one of the “evil” Paul Kirk clones whose organization the Council was thwarted by the lone “good” Paul Kirk clone, who also destroyed all the evil clones. (Paul Kirk was the original Manhunter from DC’s 1940s comic books.) Continue reading
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