WANTED: Earth-Two's Most Dangerous Super-Villains
Villainy Inc.
Group information
Member names: Giganta, Queen Clea, Cheetah, Blue Snowman, Hypnota, Dr. Poison, Zara and Evilless.
Residence: Mobile
Occupation: Professional
Criminals
First Appearance (Golden Age): Wonder Woman #28 (April 1948)
Character History
The first organization of the team known as Villainy Inc. began when a group of prisoners from Saturn were captured by Wonder Woman in late 1947 (Comic Cavalcade #22). The female prisoners insisted that Saturnian leaders would punish them harshly for their failures and begged an alternative treatment. Wonder Woman relented and instead diverted them female aliens to Transformation Island, the Amazonian penal facility. Upon their arrival, they are greeted by Mala who begins to place Venus Girdles around their waists, the implement used to subdue wicked impulses while prisoners reformed. Not planning to submit, Evilless inflated her belly so that Mala would fetch a larger girdle and while she did so, used Saturnian physiologic control to fake her own death. Finding her with no heartbeat and cooling flesh, Mala and Wonder Woman immediately start efforts to save her. When Wonder Wonder left to get the healing Purple Ray, Evilless quietly slipped her golden lasso under her sleeve. With her theft complete, Evilless suddenly "revived" and volunteered don her own girdle, secretly sabotaging the lock. When Wonder Woman returned, she realized her lasso was missing but a search turned up nothing. She returned to Paradise Island to search there and in her absence, Evilless ambushed Mala and freed her Saturnian comrades.
With the Amazon guard now bound with girdles of submission, Evilless set about freeing the rest of the prisoners. Those that preferred to keep their bonds were retained as slaves but many of Wonder Woman's most notorious adversaries wanted freedom .....and revenge. Once freed, they donned their familiar uniforms and assembled as the new team; Villainy Inc,! After interrogating the guards, Evilless learns the Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons and mother of Wonder Woman enjoys a stroll at twilight. Instructing the members that tend to dress like men - Doctor Poison, Hypnota and the Blue Snowman - to linger along the trail and speak in deep voices, Evilless tricks the queen into thinking the island has been invaded by men. When she moves to intercept the "men", she is herself captured by Cheetah, Giganta and Evilless, The kidnapped queen is the forced under the influence of the lasso to insist ion the arrival of all Amazons for a special presentation in the Assembly Hall at Sunrise. When they arrived, they were all paralyzed with a Saturnian immobilization gas and also bound with girdles of submission, essentially enslaving the entire population of Paradise Island, In a final act, Evilles forced Hippolyte to summon Wonder Woman, who had returned to the U.S. without her lasso. As the Amazon Princess approaches, the Blue Snowman unleashes a snowstorm, downing her plane where she is ambushed by the assembled criminals. Wonder Woman holds her on until she hears her mother on the radio, sharing that she will be executed if Wonder Woman does not surrender, which she promptly does.
With Wonder Woman subdued, the member of Villainy Inc. decides to take her back to Transformation Island and her own custom prison cell. Evilless, Blue Snowman, the Cheetah and Dr. Posion take the Amazon bound with the Golden Lasso into a boat and began to row between the islands. Evilless instructs Wonder Woman to not escape but as she is not holding the lasso when she issues this edict, Wonder Woman is not bound by it. She remains lashed to the boat however and in her escape, she leaps overboard dragging the boat and his occupants with her. The villains are in disarray until Wonder Woman notices that Saturnians cannot swim and cannot allow Evilless to drown. Her good deed does not go unpunished as once they break the surface, the Saturnian slaver grabs the end of the lasso and again assumes control of Wonder Woman, forcing her to get the assembled villains to safety.
Once on Transformation Island, Wonder Woman and her mother are bound with blazing chains, a gift from Zara the did not burn the prisoners but slowly shrank the chains as they got hotter. While the villains gloat, another Saturnian girl runs in and announces that they have depleted their supply of girdles. Evilless castigates the girl and instructs her to remove them from the prisoners who did not join at the beginning. When the girdles are removed, the prisoners feel their strength magnify but not their interest in crime, proving that been reformed. Enraged at the capture of their benefactors, the break the bars of their cells and storm the room where Wonder Woman and Hippolyte are being held, freeing them and engaging the assembled villains and their slaves in a massive brawl. In the end, Wonder Woman and her supporters are victorious and the Cheetah, Dr. Poison, Eviless and the Blue Snowman are captured. The report that Giganta, Clea, Hypnota and Zara did not return from Paradise Island and it is shortly reported that the palace has been sacked. A flying ship is seen leaving the island, likely loaded down with Amazon treasure and Wonder Woman takes off in pursuit.
Returning to her secret identity, Diana begin to make phone cells to high-end jewelry merchants. She learns that one matching the description of one of her mother's most expensive diamond's was being offered by a young girl with one blue and one brown eye. Serendipitously, Clair Mystic, a girl in Steve's office matches that description and when Diana asks her if she knows about diamonds, she nervously denies. Suspicious, Wonder Woman watches from a window as a crimson flame appears from the girl's purse and instructions to return to the cult appear on her arm. Following her, Wonder Woman discovers a hidden passage to Zara's "Temple" but is ambushed by Zara and Hypnota. Rendered unconscious, she bound with flaming chains and male servant weld her bracelets together, rendering her powerless. Led into a room, she discovered that the two criminal had also kidnapped the Holiday girls. Hypnota insists that Wonder Woman execute Claire Mystic to bind her in servitude but Wonder Woman uses the moment to use a flaming sword to surreptitiously
free Etta Candy, who in turns grabs the sword and unbinds Wonder Woman's bracelets. Her strength restored, Wonder Woman and Etta quickly free the rest of the Holiday Girls and catching Zara and Hypnota by surprise, made short work of their operations. Using her magic lasso, she forced Zara to reveal that most of her powers were either tricks or scientifically explicable, mitigating the devotion of her followers. Searching the "Temple" revealed about half of Hippolyte's jewels, with Zara revealing that Clea and Giganta had absconded with the other half. Zara and Hypn
Meanwhile in the office of Steve Trevor, Queen Clea is approaching the military about buying a submarine. Recognizing her, Steve allows Clea to lead him back to the loot, which he claims is Amazonian jewelry and pulls a gun on Clea. Giganta clubs him for behind and convincing themselves that torture won't work, set out to find hostages that will lure Wonder Woman. At the Holiday College evolution lab, Dr. Zool is showing the Holiday girls his latest trouble - his evolution device only goes backwards, never forwards. In the middle of his presentation, Clea and Giganta charge and in capture Zool and the girls in a net and as Wonder Woman arrives back at the campus, she is caught off guard by the turn of events. Clea throws the netted captives into evolution machine, devolving them into apes. While Wonder Woman tries to reverse the proces, Giganta clubs here and renders unconscious, when she comes to, she is bound by Clea with her golden lasso and directed to help steal the desired submarine. Forced to comply, Wonder Woman breaks the anchor chain on an unattended sub and begins hauling it out to sea. Their first stop is the cave where they have secreted the Amazonian treasure and as they load up their ill-gotten gains, Wonder Woman quietly messages Steve to bring her Invisible Jet. En route back to the sub, she wrecks the boat, freeing the de-evolved Holiday crew and anchoring the sub to the arriving jet, drags it ashore and breaks open the hull. Giganta and Clea are quickly forced to submit and returned to Transformation Island (Wonder Woman #28).
The further activities of Villainy Inc. after this case are unrevealed. Indeed, other than the Cheetah, the activities of any of the members of this team on Earth-Two are likewise unrevealed. Finally, it seems likely that the concept of an all-female team would be meaningful to criminals beyond those opposed by Wonder Woman but whether other iterations of Villainy Inc might have formed are simply speculative.
Powers and Abilities
The abilities of Villainy Inc. were as diverse as it's members, including brute force super strength and speed (Giganta, Cheetah and Clea), alien technology (Evilless), advanced scientific weapons (Blue Snowman, Clea and Hypnota), bioweapons (Dr. Poison) and experience in psychological warfare (Zara and Hypnota). They appeared to form natural pairings but whether these relationships existed previously or they acquired them as inmates on Transformation Island is unclear.
Weaknesses and Limitations
The limitations of Villainy Inc also reflect the diversity of its members with their limitations no different than when they operated independently. The cohesiveness of Villain Inc. beyond the initial breakout and defeat of the Amazons is unclear as the group fragmented into different objectives once Hippolyte's palace had been looted.
Multiversity
Earth-0
A version of Villainy Inc. similar to Earth-Two version existed in this timeline in which Diana's mother served as Wonder Woman and encountered a group with a similar makes up (Cheetah, Hypnota, Zara, Dr. Poison) lead by Clea (Wonder Woman: Our Worlds At War #1). Decades later, Queen Clea assembled another group composed of Giganta, Dr. Poison (granddaughter of the original), Jinx of the Fearsome Five and Cyborgirl. This group obtained Poseidon's trident and attempted to conquer the hidden land of Skaratis before being defeated by the Modern Age Wonder Woman (Wonder Woman Vol. 2 #179-185).
Appearances
Issue |
Comment |
Reprinted in |
Wonder Woman #28 |
1st appearance, vs. Wonder Woman |
Adventure Comics #416, Wonder Woman: The Golden Age Omnibus #4, Wonder Woman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, Wonder Woman 80-Page Giant #1, Wonder Woman: A Celebration of 75 Years |