WANTED: Earth-Two's Most Dangerous Super-Villains

The Secret Society of Super-Villains

     The origins of the Earth-Two Secret Society of Super-Villains are unknown and it's existence or activities prior to 1980 has not been documented.  During the case in 1980, the Ultra-Humanite declared that the "Secret Society must live again!", implying the other versions had existed in the past on Earth-Two, as the Ultra-Humanite is not documented to have visited Earth-One.  The first documented case of this Society involved the recruitment of Brain Wave of the original Injustice Society so there may be some relationship between the two that has not been defined. Any relationship with the Secret Society of Earth-One has also not been defined.

The first documented case involving the Secret Society of Earth-Two occurred in the fall of 1981, when the Ultra-Humanite began re-forming the organization.  He recruited Brain Wave and tasked him with recruited representative criminals from Earth-One. He then began to reach out to several Earth-Two foes of Justice Society members including the retired Monocle. They two criminals then released the Psycho-Pirate from a Gotham City prison and parted ways, the Humanite locating the recently released Mist and the Monocle and Psycho-Pirate recruiting the Rag Doll in the midst of a Keystone City Robbery.  

Meanwhile, Killer Frost on Earth-One had been contacted by Brain Wave and begun a campaign to round up recruits from that world.  She found Phill Cobb, the Signalman, escaping from a Gotham Hospital and the Debbie Domaine living as a vagrant until she was reminded that she was the Cheetah.   The group then paid a visit on Jason Woodrue, a member of the Earth-One Secret Society who was supposedly trying to reform.  The Cheetah quickly strips him of his human guise, revealing the Floronic Man and the four rendezvous with Brain Wave to leave for Earth-Two.

Once there, the Ultra-Humanite revealed his full new form, a giant white ape housing the brain of Superman's oldest adversary.  He revealed a plan to capture ten heroes, five from each Earth and send them to Limbo.  He calculated  that the resulting cosmic imbalance would create a destablization force that removed all heroes from one of the Earth.  Which, he did not know, giving the villains from each world an equal chance.  He then charged each of them with ambushing  their old adversaries.  First blood fell to the Mist who captured Black Canary, followed by the Monocle's defeat of Hawkman and the Cheetah's defeat of Wonder Woman.

In rapid succession others fell.  The Psycho-Pirate, Rag Doll and Brain Wave captured Hourman, the Flash and Johnny Thunder on Earth-Two.  The Floronic Man, Signalman and Killer Frost, in turn, brought in the Atom, Batman and Firestorm from Earth-One.  Finally the Ultra-Humanite himself engaged the Superman of Earth-Two, bringing in the 10th hero.  Back in his mountain retreat, the heroes were loaded into tubes in a rotating device which spun rapidly into Limbo while the villains awaited the outcome.

Within moments, the world shifted and the Humanite was elated to see that Earth-Twi was unprotected.  The Earth-One villains realized that he had expected this outcome the whole time, using them for a supposed equal chance.  As they rise against him, a flick of a switch on one of his devices send them also to Limbo.

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     While the Earth-Two villains rampaged across a world with no opposition, the Earth-One members fumed in revenge.  They captured the Green Lantern and then used him to gain access to a JLA transporter, from which they entered Limbo and freed the very heroes they had captured.  Doing so began a chain reaction that would do the loss of the heroes of Earth-Two and in the meantime, the Earth-One foes made their way to the Ultra-Humanite's lair and summoned the Secret Society.  While the heroes squabbled over who had called, the heroes revealed themselves and after an extended melee, cast the members into Limbo until they could be processed for trial (Justice League of America #195-197).

After some months in Limbo, the Earth-Two members remained trapped while the Earth-One members were collected for arraignment.  The Ultra-Humanite used his vast mental powers to try to reach a like mind to pull them out and instead contacted himself in the body of Dolores Winters in 1942,  The two evil intellects hatched the idea to pull the Secret Society along with new member Vulcan into the 1940's and disrupt the flow of history, assassinating FDR and allow the newly informed Ultra-Humanite to conquer the world.  A variety of circumstances disrupted his efforts - Ultra's 1942 plan to take the body of Robotoman which attracted the attention of the All-Star Squadron and the pursuit of the Society by Infinity Inc. from the 1980's.  Ultimately, the Society was returned to Limbo and the Ultra-Humanite seemingly destroyed in 1942 (which could not be the case since he remained alive in the '80s (All-Star Squadron #24-26, All-Star Squadron Annual #2). 

Members of the Society appeared shortly thereafter during the Crisis on Infinite Earths indicating the likely escaped Limbo at some point but the activities of the Society on Earth-Two afterwards are unknown.

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Multiversity Villains

Multiversity


The history of the Secret Society is merged with Earth-One's (presumably) and incarnated in several versions since.  How the change in timelines (such as the removal of Wonder Woman and Superman from their historical roles) affected the history of the known casework in this timeline is unrevealed.

Appearances

Justice League of America #195-197

First known cases work of the Secret Society of Super-Villains on Earth-Two, vs. the Justice League and the Justice Society

Crisis on Multiple Earths TPB Vol. 6, DC Classic Library: Justice League of America by George Perez Vol. 2

All-Star Squadron #25-26, Annual #2

In the 1940’s,  vs. the All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc.

Infinity Inc.: The Generations Saga Vol. 1