Twice-Told-Tales Untold of Sinister Societies

During the relatively brief yet memorial history of the original Secret Society of Super-Villians, there came a point where this group fragmented into at least three parts. One section, led by Gorilla Grodd, pursued a vendetta against his arch-foe the Flash and other members of the Justice League of America. Another faction accompanied the Wizard back to his home world of Earth-Two to battle the Justice Society of America. 

Meanwhile, back on Earth-One, Mirror Master and Copperhead recruited four previously unaffiliated members to assist them and their employer Silver Ghost. Their goal, to eliminate the Freedom Fighters, whom the Ghost has quarreled with for several months since their arrival from Earth-X. Originally from Earth-Two, the seven Fighters fought the Axis Powers on their adopted world for decades, before deciding to journey to a third Earth to start their careers anew.

Regrettably, their reputations were marred by Silver Ghost, who secretly was Raphael Van Zandt, a Nazi corroborator on Earth-X. When Van Zandt decided to create a criminal empire on Earth-One, he was pursued by his enemy Firebrand to this new planet. There, he would soon after encounter his old adversaries in the Freedom Fighters whom he also believed were following him. Wishing to rid himself of these pest, he sought the aid of the Secret Society.

While not much is known of how this battle between the two teams developed, we do know the outcome as Silver Ghost ended up transforming both himself and Firebrand into silver statues when exposed to his transmutation abilities (this process was reversed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths). Meanwhile, the remaining Freedom Fighters returned to Earth-X, while some of the members of the Secret Society such as Mirror Master and Chronos returned with their original group, the Injustice Gang a couple months later.

A similar untold tale of the Injustice Society on Earth-Two took place in the late 1940s, when future marriage mates Brain Wave and Merry the Gimmick Girl first met as opponents. During this case, the counterpart to Secret Society arch-foe Captain Comet battled the Injustice Society alongside Merry and other former allies of the All-Star Squadron. This man, Captain Triumph, had also traveled to Earth-X to assist the Freedom Fighters briefly before coming home, where he joined the Squadron. Among those present on this occasion was Doll Man, who had returned from the future to reunite with his fiancée Martha Roberts after several years with the Fighters.

This assemblage of evil was apparently led by the Wizard, and shortly after this while dueling with Superman, he conceived of reinventing this gang into a Secret Society. With this in mind, the Wizard was drawn to an actual realization of his concept while exiled on Earth-One in the late 1970s. Although most of the villains portrayed in this battle of 1949, such as Shade and Icicle, were the originals… the Solomon Grundy here present was evidently the imposter whom Johnny Thunder met a couple years earlier, when the Justice Society tracked down the real version who was terrorizing across the United States. At this point. Grundy was exiled on the moon (first by Green Lantern, later by Per Degaton) until the mid 1960s.

The February 1977 Invasion of Earth-One by the Injustice Society

February 1977 was a cold winter, and not just in the northern hemisphere of Earth-One. At the same time, an epic battle of the bands was occuring in a New York Colosseum, and an equally epic battle between Darkseid with the team of villains he sponsored!

These events stem from what had previously transpired on Earth-Two, a few months earlier (despite publishing dates of these tales on Earth-Prime). There, the Injustice Society reunited in order to finally defeat their old foes. Instead, their enemies in the Justice Society of America handed them a decisive defeat. Fiddler was captured in Tokyo Japan, followed by his allies Icicle and Thinker in Abu Dhabi, then Wizard and Brain Wave in Alaska. These villains allied with a race of subterranean being led by Underlord, seeking control of Earth's oil resources.

Yet despite being subdued, four of the members escaped prison to collaborate on  a new scheme involving the parallel planet most of them first visited back in the 1960's. That world, Earth-One had supervillains they could recruit to assist them against the superheroes of Earth-Two. They previously had success doing this as members of the Crime Champions.

The Shade unleashed shadow creatures from his Dark Dimension upon the Central City of Earth-One (including fellow fiend the Dark, in pursuit of the Ray), foiled by the Flash of Two Worlds. Vandal Savage attempted to revive his immortality and his physical form after having been thrust into Earth-One briefly, where he hatched a scheme to lure that world's Flash and Green Lantern into using their energies to restore his form for a return to Earth-Two.

From 1965 through 1967, Hal “Green Lantern” Jordan of Earth-One and Alan “Green Lantern” of Earth-Two each encounter villains from their counterparts world, invading their own. This began with Krona coming to Earth-Two to siphon Scott’s emerald energy to free him from his celestrial prison. Then Prince Peril pursued Princess Ramia and her future husband Doiby Dickles to Earth-One where he faced Hal in battle. 

In 1966, three felons in Crazy Quilt, Captain Challenge and Gentleman Ghost were pulled over to Earth-One from Earth-Two during the invasion of the Anti-Matter Man on both worlds… while Blockbuster of Earth-One and Solomon Grundy of their world temporarily traded places.

A year later in 1967, three criminals recruited by Sinestro ventured from Earth-One to Earth-Two, where they were transformed into his clones. Two other cunning crooks from Earth-One who attacked Earth-Two’s Atlantis were the Penguin and Blockbuster… the second of three times the latter visited that planet. Around the time, Grundy visited Earth-One’s Metropolis, while months earlier Shade invaded Earth-One’s Central City. 

Of course, there were earlier examples of crisscrossing criminals between the two Earths. Other Injustice Society members had sought a reversal of fortune on a new world, unhindered by their former foes, yet still found further frustrations. This included the Thinker, who with his new improved helmet and costume briefly plundered Ivy Town on Earth-One, before that world's Atom along with his counterpart cornered him on Earth-Two’s Calvin City. Then there was the occasion when King Kull recruited Penguin and Blockbuster of Earth-One to invade Earth-Two’s Atlantis, while Earth-Two’s Solomon Grundy sought out his counterpart in  Earth-One’s Metropolis!

The first of the Injustice Society's 1970's incarnation to travel to Earth-One was the Wizard (although technically, Thinker preceded them during his encounter with the Atoms). There, he joined the newly formed Secret Society of Super-Villains. However, he needed time to obtain both weapons and supervillains from their midst to aid him back in his native universe.

While this was transpiring, Icicle and Fiddler also journeyed to Earth-One. There, Icicle teamed up with his counterpart Captain Cold and that world's version of Minister Blizzard while working for the Shadow-Thief, trying to start a new Ice Age starting in Equador. The Justice League of America defeated this frightful four, and saved the planet.

Simultaneously, the Fiddler began a crime spree involving a series of concerts, which drew the attention of the Teen Titans. This seemed to include kidnapping Peter McCarthy (an Earth-One Beatle?). The Teen Titans overcame the Fiddler. Around this time, Psycho Pirate hid out on Earth-One until the Justice Society tracked him down, returning him to Earth-Two!

Months later, the Wizard* finally amassed enough power and pawns to travel back to Earth-Two, and battle individual members of the Justice Society. However, despite a few victories, his Secret Society of Super-Villians (consisting of the Wizard, Star Sapphire, Floronic Man, Professor Zoom, and Blockbuster) were chased off world back to Earth-One.

As for the Brain Wave, he departed for Earth-One several months after his former teammates. Building a secret base outside Metropolis, Brain Wave brought Killer Frost, Floronic Man, Signalman and Cheetah back with him through a portal to Earth-Two, where they met the latest Secret Society of Super-Villians. Their teammate Psycho-Pirate had earlier retreated to his temporary Earth-One headquarters followed by the Justice Society.

Contemporaneous with these events, independent villains traversed the dimension divide, where these entire encounter individual heroes. These characters included the Earth-One rogues such as Angle Man, Bat-Mite and Mister Mxyzptlk, and Jroyy and the Earth-Two rogues such as Red Panzer, Captain Hawkins and Muchacho, and Atoman. These malcontents menaced the Wonder Woman, Supermen, Batmen and Flashes.

Prior to this, individual megalomaniacs each had separate yet consecutive incursions into the others universe, with Spirit King invading Earth-One while Darkseid invaded Earth-Two. While Darkseid pulled Shade, Fiddler and Icicle to his reality temporarily… these three remained on Earth-One for later capers (invading the Crime Champions, except for the Shade whose place was taken by the Wizard)… which mirrored when the Earth-One Crime Champions had a second engagement on Earth-Two years earlier. 

This last scheme of the Ultra-Humanite’s was the closest that the Injustice Society members came to triumph, however despite beating and capturing members of the Justice Society and Justice League, it was the Earth-One Super-Villians who attacked the Earth-Two Secret Society for their betrayal. And so, because these evildoers had no loyalty between themselves, they never had a lasting victory.

* The Wizard's reappearance back on Earth-One for a further Secret Society caper was offset by his counterpart Abra Kadabra's accidental journey to Earth-Two, where he battled both Flashes.

Crime Champions Create Criminal Chaos Cunningly

The Crime Champions were the first of its kind, two separate supervillain teams that merged into one combined group, with three members in each unit plundering their own worlds while spending their ill-gotten loot on a parallel planet. Although they caused the Justice League and Justice Society considerable grief on both worlds, they were eventually defeated.

The members would disperse, with the Earth-One Felix Faust and Doctor Alchemy hatching separate schemes before both seemingly repenting of their criminal lives, and their ally Chronos joining the Injustice Gang, while the Earth-Two Wizard, Icicle and Fiddler would each join later incarnations of the Injustice Society.

Then years later, the Johnny Thunder of Earth-Two requested that his Thunderbolt take him to meet his criminal counterpart on Earth-One, however as with their first encounter (which both forgot due to the T-Bolt) the crook waylaid his innocent natured twin and commandeered his powers. Orchestrating a scheme whereby the Thunderbolt cause all Leaguers to be rendered unconscious while the reconstituted Crime Champions each take over portions of Earth-One, the Society intervened yet nearly all perished until the Leaguers were revived and aided their dopplegangers. This due to the clever actions of the heroic Johnny versus his villainous twin, and at the end of the tale there would no longer be a Crime Champions evermore! 

Between these two occasions, the Wizard and his five criminal compatriots had attempted to stage a coup on Earth-Two after their initial defeats in an attempt to avoid capture. The Justice League and Justice Society employed the teamwork necessary to capture their amoral adversaries. This would be repeated years later on Earth-One during a similar plan by these costumed crooks.

One of the Crime Champions, Felix Faust, encountered his counterpart Kent Nelson in battle during this initial team up of the twin Justice teams. Nelson as Doctor Fate defeated Faust, which would later motivate Felix into adopting the costumed identity of his world's Doctor Fate that battled Superman and Green Lanterm of Earth-One. This same enmity between these two was replicated with their recurring foes, which they encountered on at least two occasions. These adversaries were Phantom Strange and Lando the Unknown, men of mystery and means.

Phantom Stranger and Faust first fought when Stranger was made an honorary member of the Justice League during a case. Later, the two opposing forces came to blows when the Stranger was allied with various unaffiliated heroes like himself. Both times, the Stranger gained the upper hand on Earth-One's faux Fate, Felix.

The once "heroic" Lando the Unknown adopted the alter ego of Krishna Das, pretending to predict the future for his own greedy goals. Doctor Fate had initially been bested by this turbaned tyrant, but turned the table on his foe in March of 1943. 

However, Das escaped using his abilities, and in May of 1943 adopted another alias...as Mister Fortune! Lando's true allegiance was finally revealed as a Nazi collaborator seeking to undermine trust in democracy and influence Americans into placing their trust in a German empire. In this role, Lando once more ran afoul of Doctor Fate during a case involving the Justice Society.

The connection between the Earth-One Johnny Thunder and his Crime Champion ally Felix Faust would be similar to that between the Johnny of Earth-Two and his Justice Society ally Doctor Fate... as both worked together only on the opposite side of the law from their doppelgängers. However, Faust would eventually turn to the side of good after extensive therapy, something that Lando no doubt would have benefited from following his fall from grace.

Phantom Stranger would assist the Justice League in several adventures following his initial clash with Felix Faust. These included the League’s battles with:

• Versus the Key
• Versus the Shadow Thief and his allies Minister Blizzard, Captain Cold and the Icicle of Earth-Two
• Versus Count Crystal (while Crystal’s counterpart Frederic Vast faced the Justice Society alone)
• Versus The Red Tornado Construct entity
• Versus the Key once more, along with Star Tsar and the Privateer
• Versus the “Fiend with Five Faces”
• Versus the alien War-Kohns
• Versus the Appellaxians

Lando eventually returned when he and Ian Karkull traveled from the past to recruit Vandal Savage, who was fleeing the combined might of the Justice Society following their invasion of Savage’s artificial world Colu-Two. What became of Lando/Krishna Das/Mister Fortune following this final appearance was his transformation into a shadow being like Ian, who was eradicated from existence when Karkull’s plot to assassinate future presidents of the United States was thwarted by the Justice Society. Doctor Fate and his teammates ended up absorbing the abilities of Lando and Karkull.

Titanic Teams: Secret Societies

In the beginning,  there were Injustice Gangs and Societies that terrorized their native worlds, each time put down by their opposite numbers in the heroic community. So a new type of organization was developed by these ferocious felons, more a collaborative than a syndicate. A Secret Society of Super-Villians, if you will. And right from the start, the men who made their fellow superpowered champions know of their evil existence were the resident telepaths... Captain Comet and Brainwave Junior. Traveling through space and time, they were bound and determined to bring down the Society... or perish in the attempt!

Early on in the lifespan of these lethal leagues, two hyper-intelligence simians assumed the power vacuum left behind by their predecessors who first assembled these Societies. Though strategists par none, aligning superior numbers of costumed criminals to their cause, these individuals... Gorilla Grodd and Ultra-Humanite... found a formidable challenge in the presence of Captain Comet and Brainwave Junior, who matched their mental energies in mind matches between them. Even when the simians thought the foes in the Justice League and Society were defeated, their plans were overturned.

Even avalanches caused by their adversaries did little to stem the tide of victory in the path of Comet and Junior. One other candiate for leadership tied to the Secret Society was the Wizard, who manipulated rogues on both Earths One and Two to vanquish his persistent foes. Ultimately, things came full circle to the beginning, as it was Ultra-Humanite who... as he had in the 1940's, regained authority over his Super-Villains in a desperate attempt to wipe his world of all heroes. Failing in that, his sending his erstwhile allies back to the 40's renewed the legacy that was a Secret.

Twice-Told-Tales: Fake Flash-backs

In our first installment of Twice-Told-Tales, which highlight either the parallel nature of the Multiverse or the lack of creativity leading to the rehashing of old tales, we find Barry "the Flash" Allen in two quandaries with similar elements in each. He wakes up to worlds not his own, on Earth-One in a hospital bed in Central City General and Earth-Two on a plot of land outside Keystone City. 

Then things turn curiouser and curiouser for the scarlet speedster in these separate tales in Flash Comics #300 and Adventure Comics #460. The latter tale began with a race between Barry and counterpart Jay, at which point he attempted to return to his own Earth.

He learns that his "wife" is now married to another man and each has a son (and Vicky Grant, apparently, in Iris' case). While his real wife Iris states she couldn't keep waiting for the comatose Barry and fell in love with Wiley, his counterpart Jay Garrick's wife married arch-enemy the Fiddler. Looks that's Fiddler Jr plucking away on the floor!

Soon he comes to the realization that everyone believes he is something other than he believes himself to be, either plain Barry in bandages or jealous Jay. When he encounters Professor Zoom who is somehow a Reverse Flash (who liberates him from his bondage out of his good nature and the suggestion of Barry's benevolent doctor, he likewise encounters Mayor Shade of Keystone who absolves him of charges despite assaulting the rogue turned elected official (aren't all elected officials rogues?) after a brief duel between the two. Oddly enough, on Earth-Two they all see Barry appearing as Jay, such as Zoom is a Reverse Flash with the original being exactly who? As the mystery thickens, Flash becomes increasingly suspicious in each case and is determine to find out what's exactly going on.

While in the hospital bed on Earth-One he traces his history and that of his friends and foes from the beginning to the present to restore his sanity, its hard for him to get his bearing on Earth-Two... and Earth that is not his own and which he's only visiting a handful of times personally beside reading about it in comic books as a youth.

While he is able to ascertain Abra Kadabra was behind his bedside dilemma whereby all present, including close friends Green Lantern and Elongated Man, and Iris herself tried to dissuade Barry from his Flash "illusion"... each of them being illusions; on Earth-Two his attempt to return to his home world revealed the hand of the Wizard. 

No doubt picking up on the theme in Secret Society of Super-Villain's issues wherein the arch-criminal was directing his team towards taking out individual members of the Justice Society during this period, evidently he realized that Flash was the hardest to catch and left that hero for himself to defeat in a dreamlike illusion between both dimensions. However, he caught the wrong Flash in the process. In each case, the Flash wakes up and regains his bearings in the world. And would go on to defeat each criminal shortly thereafter.

But there is still another Twice-Told-Tale for us to consider highlighting the parallel lives of this pair of felons.

Wicked Wand Wielders vs the Scarlet Speedsters

Not everything is as it appears, appearances can be deceiving, charm is only skin deep but wickedness is clear to the bone. Apt our such descriptions for Earth-One's Abra Kadabra and Earth-Two's Wizard. While on the surface, they both appear to be malicious magicians they are in fact phony felons. Their treacherous tricks are actually created from techniques and devices they stole along the way.

In Abra Kadabra's 64th century superscience makes it appear like the villain is using magic instead, and in the middle 1940's the Wizard use illusions to make things appear real without substance.

Still, they were each a force to be reckoned with and caused their scarlet speedsters, the Flashs Barry Allen and Jay Garrick, considerable grief from time to time. Both were showmen who wished to impress their adversaries with their elaborate machinations, and the Fastest Men Alive with the their quick witted reasoning was their greatest challenge. They each actually created artificial realities where the wives of each Flash was married to someone else, and the heroes were tormented with tragic lives until they realized these were fake.

Additionally, they branched out to face off against the Justice League and Society and join the Injustice Gang and Society, in fact leading these two tyrannical teams versus their World's Greatest Heroes.

Each were known for their trickery, and not just in their abilities, but in their cutthroat nature at their self-centered goals. Both traveled to the other's universe but sadly never did the two meet until the Crisis threatened both dimensions.

In fact, when Wizard temporarily resided in Earth-One, his powers were greatly diminished. As such, he manipulated the Secret Society of Super-Villains into helping him procured four items of an ancient treasure that another criminal named Atkins had used against the World's Finest team of Superman and Batman. Among these items was a cloak of invisibility invisibility, power gloves and a gem that reflected any force aimed at it back at its originator, as well as a creature chest.

Atkin's counterpart on Earth-Two used an ancient piano that attracted rather than repel, while wearing garments similar to those assembled from the Wizard's stolen treasure. After a clash versus Wildcat and Stretch Skinner, this Atkins was vanquished. 

Interestingly, Wizard was able to split the Superman and Clark Kent identities, with the former kept in a year-long comatose state while the latter ended up embodying more heroic characteristics. Eventually, Clark married Lois Lane, only for her to discover he was also Superman. Seeking out the Wizard, she convinced him to restore the Superman identity once more. 

A similar situation occured on Earth-One when the time traveling tyrant Lord Satanis and his wife split Superman in half, each possessing a portion of the Man of Steel's combined powers. After considerable time apart, the pair of Supermen were made whole again, defeating the villians. 

Back on Earth-Two, Dragon King used his abilities to draw out the evil half of Superman and other superhuman members of America's All-Star Squadron, with the intent of making them slaves of the Axis Powers. Thankfully, these heroes were freed from the "Sphere of Influence" that Dragon King created around half the globe.

The remarkable parallel histories of Abra Kadabra and Wizard do not just stop there. We'll consider a couple of Twice-Told-Tale involving the pair as they confronted their foes.