Who's Felix Faust?

Who's This? A wizard with JLA finger puppets.

The facts: Created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky as a JLA villain in Justice League of America #10 (1962), Faust was often empowered by the Demons Three, and originally appeared alongside them. He had several encounters with the JLA, but also started giving other heroes trouble and had roles in 52, One Year Later, and Dark Crisis. Justice League Dark made use of him, as did Constantine, Challenge of the Super-Sons, Black Adam, and by virtue of his son becoming a member, the 90s version of the Outsiders. You could say he had his best days in the 21st Century, especially during the New52.
How you could have heard of him: In addition to still appearing in contemporary comics, Faust has shown up in most of DC's animated shows and even in live action, on Constantine, played by Mark Margolis - perfect casting!
Example story: The Flash #162 (July 2000), "Magic Words" by Bryan Augustin, Mark Waid, Paul Pelletier and Doug Hazelwood

Because Felix Faust is a high-powered sorcerer, he's as good doing mastermind business in the background as he is fighting superheroes directly. Or so this issue would have us believe. Let's see if it's true... Our story begins New Year's Eve 1999 when Y2K fails to strike. Shadowy man who will be ultimately prove to be Felix Faust is not happy about this.

Cut to May 12th 2000 (3 weeks before this issue goes on the stands), an American Broadcasters Association Expo brings Wally West (via Linda Park) and radio sub reporter Billy Batson in the same town. At the airport the same day, as the Flashes are seeing Billy off, his flight is cancelled and all the other flights departure times are odd, so odd in fact that these magic numbers put the two reporters under some kind of spell. They speak in tongues and next think you know, reality has shifted rather abominably, especially if you were in the bathroom.

The effect is dispelled within seconds, but it was enough to make a plane lose its bearings and come crashing down on their terminal. Flash and Captain Marvel jump into action and together, prevent a catastrophe. The reporters have a sense of déjà vu about the words they spoke, something about the convention, so they go back and find the keynote speaker in the closet, the man who gave the conference a decaying homonculous.

From the Hermetic writing on the floor, Wally immediately knows who he's dealing with. He teams up with Captain Marvel again, and the Wisdom of Solomon realizes that the magic number is the time Linda's new network goes online, and if hundreds of newscasters report on it and start speaking in tongues, it could dial the whole country back to the Middle Ages. He also intuits that since it's called the Golden Spike Network, Faust is hiding at the site of the ACTUAL Golden Spike, where the railroad was completed in Utah. And further, that he must be staying at the Ali Baba hotel because the story uses a magic phrase. Supervillain logic.

Divination is apparently not in his bag of tricks, but turning neon signs into attack dragons, yes.

The heroes deal with this physical threat fairly quickly, but its gives Faust time to cast an impregnable mystic shield.

Common mistake: Just because Cap is essentially a flying brick like Superman, you don't think he's a magical character. Flash is wrong about having a hour-plus to fix the problem because Utah isn't in the same time zone as Central City. So a mere 5 minutes, which Faust very foolishly reveals. Had he not said anything, they would have missed the deadline. So between the Speed Force and the Speed of Mercury, the heroes do a [technobabble] thing and bring down the network. We do see some people saying/hearing the incantation, so perhaps SOME areas are Middle Aged...

...but like at the airport, not for long. The spell can't be cast again until the year 2336 (so watch out if you're reading this in the future). Just goes to show the other truism about Felix Faust: He's a loser. Ostensibly one of the most powerful villains in the DCU, he consistently underestimates the heroes, reveals his plans too soon, and doesn't have much of a backup plan for when things go awry. He's essentially the guy who loses to his hubris.

Now, more recent appearances where he's supposed to be, for example, JLDark's main concern, I haven't read. Maybe he got wiser with age. But you should know, he's already thousands of years old, so...

Who's Next? Lady warriors