The Secret Society of Super-Villains #1-7

The Secret Society of Super-Villains #1-7

Originally released in 1976

Written by Gerry Conway (#1-2), David Anthony Kraft (#2-4), Bob Rozakis (#5-7)

Art by Pablo Marcos (#1-4), Rich Buckler (#5-7)

Looking through DC's list of comics, the Secret Society of Super-Villains caught my eye.  The idea of a supervillain team-up like the Legion of Doom is a fun one, seeing these egos clash even when superheroes aren't involved, so a series based around that seemed like it would be entertaining.

A man going by the name Manhunter (not to be confused with the Manhunter robots from Green Lantern, or the Martian Manhunter from the Justice League) puts together a group of supervillains, who are all backed by a mysterious financer.  Given the anonymity, the person being willing to spend money to build an evil counterpart to the Justice League, and the lack of Superman villains in the line-up, my first guess was that Lex Luthor was the financer in question, though the story went in a different direction.

One thing that surprised me was that the team's line-up largely seemed limited to Flash and Green Lantern villains - there's Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, and Gorilla Grodd from the Flash's rogues gallery, and Sinestro and Star Sapphire from Green Lantern's enemies.  Other members are present in the first issue, but those six (along with Manhunter and Captain Comet, a hero from decades earlier who was tricked into joining) seem to make up the main group.

Pre-Crisis, the Captain Marvel characters were in a different universe from the main DC cast, so I get why someone like Dr. Sivana or Mister Mind wouldn't be on the team, but it seems odd to me that there are no Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, or even Aquaman villains in this line-up. (unless lesser-known villains like Copperhead or Shadow Thief are part of their rogues galleries - at the very least, there are none that readers would immediately recognize as villains of those characters) I get that some of them might not obey orders or would dominate the story, but at the very least, a character like Cheetah or Black Manta seems like they'd fit well here.  It feels like a missed opportunity.

Most of the focus is on Manhunter to start with, who's seemingly the leader of the team.  He's a clone of a man named Paul Kirk, and despite being a good person, he developed a villainous reputation that he decided to play along with.

Once the team discovers who was responsible for financing them, they quickly decide that it's not worth it to serve under that person and take the fight to them.  The Secret Society seems to spend more time fighting other villains than they do fighting other heroes, and they're more successful. (the most successful crime that they accomplish is Captain Boomerang and Mirror Master stealing five burgers and some fries from a thinly-veiled McDonalds parody)

I'm assuming that the Comics Code Authority had to do with this, as it was pretty strict about what could or could not be shown - I'm assuming that villains weren't allowed to succeed. (which is a bit of a shame - I would have liked to see some kind of elaborate heist involving villains like these)

By the start of issue four, the team already shows signs of falling apart, with Sinestro and the Wizard (a villain from Earth-2, where the Golden Age comics took place) facing heavy amounts of suspicion for not doing anything in battle.  There's some good (unintentional?) comedy where Manhunter tries to put down their rebellion, to prove his leadership, only for Sinestro to immediately swat him out of the air, or when Green Lantern is told that Mantis drains energy and immediately follows that up by trying to blast Mantis with energy.

When Manhunter sacrifices himself to stop their would-be backer, the series shifts focus to Captain Comet and his attempts at capturing his former allies.  Around this time, Funky Flashman shows up - this character was introduced in Jack Kirby's run on Mister Miracle as a particularly mean-spirited/vicious parody of Stan Lee.  Here, he sets himself up as the Society's public relations man - I'm not sure if this was meant to be mocking something that Marvel was doing, or if it was poking fun at DC's editorial for wanting to make the book more marketable, since Funky appears around the time that the book shifts gears to a more traditional "heroes vs. villains" story.

It's at this point that Lex Luthor enters the story, having heard about the Secret Society and wanting to run it. (though he only plans to gather magic-based villains to kill Superman)  However, he chooses to have the wizards attack a spot where they're filming a Superman movie that Superman himself is serving as a stuntman on (wanting the death of Superman to be caught on-camera), and the wizards attack an actor who's playing Superman instead.

Frustrated by their incompetence, Lex quits the Secret Society of Super-Villains almost as quickly as he joined it.  It seems like the remaining issues will stick to the format of Captain Comet and a Justice League member (in the case of these past few issues, it's been Hawkman, Black Canary, and Hawkgirl) defeating a member of the Secret Society.  I was kind of hoping the series would consist more of villains being villains (even if they were more principled ones like Captain Cold), but I suppose that as concepts go, it was limited by the time that the series was made in. (I did enjoy what I read; I just wish that more could have been done with the supervillain aspect)