Dial 8 for Evil

Last week, we looked at 8 of Your Own Heroes(TM) from Adventure Comics #485, which didn't leave any room for 8 of Your Own Villains(TM)! They are the Evil Eight, a baroque band of baddies assemble by the mysterious Master (no relation). Here they are in what we'll just have to call Case 31.5.Name: Chondak (his real name, it suits him)
Created by: Nelson Jimenez, Age 18, of the University of Connecticut
Costume: Essentially a giant, bearded ape with dark fur, a brown wrestling suit, and a circuited gold dome on his head.
Powers: Chondak is a super strong and tough gorilla. His punch can make the ground tremble and people on the other end of the shockwave to be incapacitated. He never speaks, only growls, so his intelligence is a matter of conjecture.
Possibilities: While DC has Gorilla City where a great ape like this might originate, he doesn't speak. The dome is the key. Chondak is an ape transformed by technology, and that thing could be a control device. The real "Chondak" is actually his handler, guiding the ape body from an undisclosed location. I might send him up against the likes of Nightwing. Why? Because I think every Nightwing villain should have a circus feel.
Integration Quotient: 75% (comics can't have too many apes)
Name: Ice King (what time is it? ADVENTURE TIME!)
Created by: Marshall Ferguson, Age 19, of Baltimore, MD
Costume: The Ice King wears silver pants with blue track lines, and a silver helmet with a sharp nose guard.
Powers: He can create ice and cold from his hands, and can travel on a flying ice plateform of his own creation.
Possibilities: DC already has the Icicle and Mr. Freeze, but Ice King's ethnicity might be an opportunity. Some northern U.S. urban center like Detroit... I don't have much here.
Integration Quotient: 20% (his niche is taken, and his name too)
Name: Piledriver (competing with a member of Marvel's Wrecking Crew)
Created by: David Wile of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Costume: A mostly gray body suit that matches his curly hair, with large studs on the chest and arms, and dark red pants, with yellow trim on the boots. Bit dreary.
Powers: There ain't nothin' he can't smash.
Possibilities: Just another brute, he might find employment in C-list teams, well gee, just like the Evil Eight.
Integration Quotient: 15% (uninspired)
Name: Maniak (quite good, can't believe no one ever used it for one of those anti-hero types)
Created by: Stephen Cappiello of Stamford, CT
Costume: From top to bottom, we have wild hair, a vaguely luchadore white mask attached with white string, a loose white shirt and belt, black gloves and pants, and very high white boots. There's something dog-like about him.
Powers: Maniak is an athletic acrobat and fighter.
Possibilities: Street-level heroes could do with a crazed maniac as a sparring partner. He'd need to be lot more unhinged as a solo villain though.
Integration Quotient: 60% (I admit, it's the name, but a non-powered villain is more flexible than a powered one)
Name: Phantasm (a cool ghostly name for either a hero or a villain, and Wolfman did nick it for the Titan Danny Chase)
Created by: Sixto Miguel, Age 18, of Laredo, TX
Costume: In ghostly white with red trim, Phantasm has floating cape with a high collar and skull clasp, flared gloves and boots, a fuzzy red and black belt with a silly "P" on it, a darkened face, red eyes and pointy ears. Except for the belt buckle, it's a cool look.
Powers: Phantasm's mystical powers allow him to become intangible, and summon ghostly green demon shapes to confound the enemy (they seem to be only illusions).
Possibilities: I'd have Phantasm trapped in between life and death and gain the ability to manipulate ectoplasm that way he does. That origin would allow him to grow beyond the simple illusion-casting, and maybe become a proper threat to Deadman.
Integration Quotient: 90% (though his powers are somewhat weak, they are unusual enough for him to become a new and progressively more interesting Phantasm)
Name: K-9 (the Doctor called...)
Created by: George Longley II, Age 17, of Toronto, Ontario
Costume: Furry clawed gloves and boots, and fur in the middle of his torso, right up to his shoulders and head, with an animal's face and ears. Underneath is something out of Wolverine's closet, tan and black, and with a red belt on which is a horrendously stylized "K9" in long white letters.
Powers: K-9 has sharp claws and the thirst for blood of the "man-killing wolf". His speed is amazing.
Possibilities: Does the world need another Wolverine wannabe, even on the villains' side? One with an awful name at that. Making the best of it, I would tie him to some government program gone wrong, an escaped super-soldier trained for rage. Maybe there's a whole squad of them. Not great, but still better than the Weasel.
Integration Quotient: 20% (better as a Project than as a lone character)
Name: Arsenal (another name that eventually ended up on a Titan... coincidence?)
Created by: Roger Banhan, Age 11, of Whitehall, NC
Costume: Metallic green and robotic, Arsenal has red 3D glasses and a red belt with many pouches. Sometimes, he looks human, has two hands, and the suit is made of cloth, so it's possible that's just an armor.
Powers: Arsenal has access to a great many weapons, including the armor above with its arm cannon, a tiny red harpoon gun that fires explosive arrows, and stun grenades.
Possibilities: The name is taken, but a villain that steals your name and shtick sounds like a Red Hood & the Outlaws story. All in green like that, he could be a Green Arrow villain as well.
Integration Quotient: 40% (the look is a major problem, but the name, surprisingly, is not)
Name: The Familiar (an odd, mystical name that doesn't fit her powers very well)
Created by: Ben Stilwell, Age 23, of Adolphus, KY
Costume: Here seen having taken the properties of a metal, the Familiar normally has Caucasian skin and strawberry blond hair. Her red bathing suit is accessorized with ancient gold jewelry and a short cape.
Powers: The Familiar becomes and takes the properties of whatever she touches (her red suit too, in the comic's interior) from lead plumbing to Luminus' light constructs.
Possibilities: Seems like a rather science-driven power for a character with a name and costume that invoke more supernatural elements. Let's make her a real familiar then, some kind of ancient homunculus. Maybe Felix Faust made himself a girlfriend or something.
Integration Quotient: 10% (the various elements are at odds with each other, and I'd rather have Amazing-Man back than her)

So that's the Evil Eight - though really the Mercenary Eight. Next time, Dial H goes to hell!

Comments

Jeff R. said…
There's only room in the DCU for one piledriver, and that's the purple one.
Siskoid said…
Research'd. Well that's certainly an obscure reference, Jeff!

Action Comics #464, for those interested.
Jeff R. said…
He showed up more that once, although that may have been his only cover appearance. (He was absolutely perfect for making the 3 pages of required fight scenes as absolutely perfunctory as possible when the main story is something more quiet and emotional...)
Anonymous said…
They don't really look alike but I always thought Maniak was a Lunatik ripoff.

Not really clear on why The Familiar is called that:

fa·mil·iar


/fəˈmilyər/


adjective

adjective: familiar



1.


well known from long or close association.
"their faces will be familiar to many of you"



•often encountered or experienced; common.
"the situation was all too familiar"


synonyms: well known, recognized, accustomed; More
common, commonplace, everyday, day-to-day, ordinary, habitual, usual, customary, routine, standard, stock, mundane, run-of-the-mill;

literarywonted


"a familiar task"




•having a good knowledge of.
"ensure that you are familiar with the heating controls"


synonyms: acquainted with, conversant with, versed in, knowledgeable of, well informed in/of; More
skilled in, proficient in;

at home with, no stranger to, au fait with, au courant with;

informalup on, in the know about


"are you familiar with the subject?"






2.


in close friendship; intimate.
"she had not realized they were on such familiar terms"


synonyms: informal, casual, relaxed, easy, comfortable; More
friendly, unceremonious, unreserved, open, natural, unpretentious


"a familiar atmosphere"



antonyms: formal



•informal to an inappropriate degree.

synonyms: presumptuous, overfamiliar, disrespectful, forward, bold, impudent, impertinent
"he is too familiar with the teachers"



antonyms: formal




noun

noun: familiar; plural noun: familiars; noun: familiar spirit; plural noun: familiar spirits



1.


a demon supposedly attending and obeying a witch, often said to assume the form of an animal.




2.


(in the Roman Catholic Church) a person rendering certain services in a pope's or bishop's household.