Secret Society of Super Villains
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The Secret Society of Super Villains (SSoSV) is a group of comic book supervillains that exist in the DC Universe. The SSoSV, first introduced in their own comic magazine with issue #1 (May, 1976), could be considered an enemy of the Justice League of America, whose magazine they made several appearances in during the late 1970s.
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[edit] History
First organized by Darkseid, the Secret Society of Super Villains were based out of the Sinister Citadel in San Francisco. From early on, the team was plagued with power struggles. Lex Luthor, the Wizard, and Funky Flashman all sought to control the powerful team; Manhunter and Captain Comet, on the other hand, sought to divert the villains' evil ways into a more positive channel. After confusion over the purpose of the team, the SSoSV dedicated themselves to villainry and found a nemesis in Captain Comet. After discovering the true identity of their benefactor, the team rebelled against the alien overlord. To quash their uprising, Darkseid sent Mantis and Kalibak. At the end of the struggle, Manhunter sacrificed himself to stop Darkseid. After this, the team splintered, with Luthor and Flashman leading competing teams. However, the Wizard proved to be the most tenacious, by usurping power from Flashman and creating the definitive incarnation of the SSoSV.
This incarnation battled against the Justice League of America aboard their satellite headquarters. At one point in the battle, the two teams swapped bodies, allowing the super villains to discover the true identities of their nemeses. After gaining the upper hand, the Justice League wiped the memories of the super villains, precipitating Identity Crisis and the formation of the current Society years later.
Pre-Crisis, the history of the first incarnation of the SSoSV is different. After the Wizard gained leadership of his own branch of the SSoSV, he sought to travel to Earth-Two, where the superheroes would be ill equipped to battle against the villains of Earth-One. However, the SSoSV and Captain Comet found themselves on Earth-Three instead. After freeing the Crime Syndicate, the SSoSV made it to Earth-Two, where they were handily defeated by the Justice Society of America. After escaping back to Earth-1, the Wizard and his team attacked the JLA, and from there the history is the same as the post-Crisis version.
Also, pre-Crisis, there was a third splinter group of the SSoSV, formed by the Silver Ghost on Earth-One. This group battled against the Freedom Fighters. Post-Crisis, the post-war history of the Freedom Fighters is much different. Having never had to travel to Earth-X, the Freedom Fighters apperently broke up shortly after World War II, as Uncle Sam's American Talisman was shattered in 1946.
[edit] Ultra-Humanite's Society
Image:JLofA 195.jpg The next incarnation of the Secret Society was organized by the Ultra-Humanite, who organized foes of both the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America. This marked the appearance of the now-classic albino ape body of the Ultra-Humanite.
This incarnation of the SSoSV was betrayed by the Ultra-Humanite, who had his own agenda. However, he was defeated, and the entire group was incarcerated (pre-Crisis, the SSoSV was placed in Limbo, the area between parallel earths. Where the heroes incarcerated the SSoSV hasn't been explored post-Crisis, but an area of the Phantom Zone seems most likely). Ultra-Humanite contacted his younger self in 1942, who helped to break out the SSoSV using the power of Brain Wave. The ape Ultra-Humanite attacked Infinity, Inc. in the modern day, while the rest of the SSoSV battled against the All-Star Squadron in 1942. The villains were defeated, and returned to their proper times.
[edit] Underground
The SSoSV in time grew into a large underground group with dozens of villains holding membership in various scattered cells. After the reformation of the JLA, the seven superheroes decided to infiltrate and shut down this new Society.
Disguising himself as the deceased Brain Wave, Martian Manhunter lured the villains to one spot, where they were defeated by the JLA. As the tale was told by the Rainbow Raider to SONAR 2, there may have been some embellishment.
[edit] Luthor's Society
After the defeat of the last incarnation of the SSoSV, time would pass before villains would band together in any sort of large organization. Fueled by rumors of the mindwiping of Dr. Light, a new Society emerged. This Society was founded by Alexander Luthor, Jr. posing as Lex Luthor, along with five other supervillains: Calculator, Dr. Psycho, Deathstroke, Talia al Ghul, and Black Adam.
Alexander Luthor's intent was to gather together a cadre of supervillains to retrieve several key superheroes who have ties to the multiverse, in order to harness their residual temporal vibration to recreate the multiverse, through a giant "tuning fork" tower similar to the ones seen in the original Crisis. Only Psycho Pirate, who remembered the multiverse, knew of this plan, as Alexander Luthor lied to the members of his inner circle and their recruits, telling them that he was building a massive mind-erasing machine to use against all of the heroes in the DC Universe.
Playing on the fear of superheroes, retalition for refusal, and the desire for power, Alexander created a Society whose size is larger than all previous incarnations combined, with over 500 members.
The group, referred to simply as "The Society" as opposed to SSOSV, were featured in the Infinite Crisis lead-in mini-series Villains United. The mini-series was heavily promoted as being about the Society's activities and their inner workings, but this turned out to be a case of false advertising. The Society only appeared as background characters in the mini-series, playing the role of villains for a new incarnation of the Secret Six which consisted of villains who rejected the Secret Society's demands for all villains to join it's organization. Perhaps because of this backlash, the follow-up sepcial "Infinite Crisis: Villains United" focused exclusively on the Society as they inacted Alexander Luthor's back-up plan to conquer Earth in the event his main plan failed. This led to the climactic final battle of the Crisis in the form of "The Battle of Metropolis", where the Society, led by Dr. Psycho and Doomsday, made their final battle against the forces of good inside the DC Universe.
[edit] One Year Later
Alexander Luthor, Jr. was killed by the Joker and Lex Luthor in Infinite Crisis # 7. In the One Year Later storyline, the Society is still going strong despite Luthor's absence. It has not yet been revealed who has been leading the team. At least 2 key members are absent: Dr. Psycho has been captured by the authorities and is on trial in the Manhunter series. (He is also out and about, playing a role in other books such as Secret Six.) After being betrayed by the Society during Infinite Crisis, Black Adam is no longer with them and was seen fighting with the heroes in the Battle of Metropolis in Infinite Crisis #7.
Deathstroke has recently been apprehended by Green Arrow, and is currently incarcerated. Presumably, Talia and the Calculator are the only remaining original members.
[edit] List of Appearances
- Secret Society of Super-Villains # 1-15
- Amazing World of DC Comics #11 (Contains alternate version of SSoSV # 1)
- DC Special Series # 6 (SSoSV Special)
- Super-Team Family # 14
- DC Special # 27
- Cancelled Comics Cavalcade # 2 (Contains 'unpublished' black and white version of SSoSV # 16-17)
- Justice League of America # 166-168, 195-197
- All-Star Squadron # 25-26, Annual # 2
- JLA # 115-119
- Villains United # 1-6
- Villains United: Infinite Crisis Special
[edit] Other media
In Justice League, Gorilla Grodd and Giganta formed the Secret Society with Shade, Sinestro, Killer Frost, and Parasite. In its formation, Grodd took pains to encourage a more cohesive organization in order to avoid the infighting of Lex Luthor's Injustice Gang. His first plan was to rescue Clayface from Morgan Edge's mansion where Killer Frost froze Morgan. Grodd tells Clayface that he'll help him find a way to return Clayface to his true identity of Matt Hagen after they defeat the Justice League. The Secret Society defeated the League the first time, but the Secret Society was defeated in the second battle.
Where as the team led by Lex and Aresia were motivated by money, Grodd's team had more personal reasons:
- Giganta- Fiercely loyal to Grodd.
- Parasite- Revenge against Superman.
- Sinestro- Sworn blod oath agaisnt all Green Lanterns.
- Killer Frost- Simply to kill.
- The Shade- Offered the chance by Grodd to be a master criminal.
- Clayface- Is shortly freed by Grodd and company in the episode. He wants to be cured of his condition, but Grodd offers him the best of both worlds.
Subsequently, Grodd renewed his attempts to create a society and succeeded with the creation of a massive co-operative operation. Although based on the Legion of Doom from the Super Friends animated series, it is never referred to by this name in the series, and is treated simply as an expanded Secret Society.
[edit] See also
List of Secret Society of Super Villains members
