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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.

Contents

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.

Cover to Secret Society of Super-Villains #3. Art by Ernie Chan.
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Cover to Secret Society of Super-Villains #3. Art by Ernie Chan.

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 and Captain Comet. After escaping imprisonment, 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 traveled to Earth-X and 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.

Ultra-Humanite's Society

The Secret Society on the cover to Justice League of America #195 by George Pérez.
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The Secret Society on the cover to Justice League of America #195 by George Pérez.

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.

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 another villain, there may have been some embellishment.

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.
The Society's council. Cover to Villains United #1 (2005). Art by J.G. Jones.
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The Society's council. Cover to Villains United #1 (2005). Art by J.G. Jones.

Luthor's intent was to gather together a cadre of supervillains to retrieve several key superheroes. These key superheroes were to power a device of his own design. While the Society believed this device to be a machine to mindwipe all the heroes of Earth, its true purpose was to warp reality and recreate the multiple Earths wiped out during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. 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 Society plays a key role in the limited series Villains United, as well as in Villains United: Infinite Crisis Special and Infinite Crisis as a whole.

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. 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.

List of Appearances

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.

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.

See also

List of Secret Society of Super Villains members

External links

 

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