<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">The Lethal Luthors:
A Deceptive Brilliance

 by  Dennis Power

 PART ONE: LUTHOR BY NATURE BUT NOT BY NAME

Paul Finglemore divided his time between his two families but the Luthor branch got the short end of the stick as he lived most of his life as Dr. Thomas Wainwright. Thomas Wainwright would leave his family to do charity work once a quarter, traveling around Kansas giving medical attention to rural areas without a doctor. Actually he would shave his beard and return to Sally Finn for a month at a time. The Wainwrights had a total of three children, Henry born 1892, Alexander born 1894 and John born 1910.[1]

Henry King Wainwright 1892-1985

Henry Roi Wainwright, the Brainwave

Henry was a small, sickly child who suffered from mild dwarfism and a crook back. Despite his great desire to fit in with the other children Henry could not compete on a physical level.[2] Henry was bullied and mocked. Henry spent his childhood immersed in literature and science. Although his father encouraged the boy’s scholarly pursuits, he did not spend a great deal of time with the children—like many fathers of that time. When Henry began hearing voices in his head as a small child, he soon realized that these were the thoughts of people surrounding him. His father's true disappointment of his physicality was devastating. When he was thirteen Henry became ill and nearly died. After that the learned that he could project thoughts into someone's mind. At first this was a small ability. Henry became interested in science and biology hoping to find the biological mechanism that controlled his gift.

Unlike his brother Alexander Henry remained at home until it was time for him to go to college. Once he did leave, however, his family never heard from him again. His first year at college was a horror because he became sexually mature at this same time. Like his younger brother John, whom he knew nothing about, he matured slowly, yet not quite as slowly as John did. Henry's short, twisted body was not looked upon with favor by the fairer sex, and so he remained alone. The humiliation of this might have allayed after a while if he had not also been able to feel the disgust and loathing rising from these beautiful women.  During this time Henry learned that anger and sexual frustration/desire could channel his projective telepathy. As Henry studied psychology and biology, he honed his gift. He changed his name to Henry King, the later name chosen as a goal he intended to live up to; he would become a ruler of men—a ruler of the world—with his gift.

Henry King became a medical doctor and a psychiatrist, all while honing his mental gifts. He was quite tentative about actually using them. This was especially true after he heard about how the Great Powers had killed a man named John and his fellow members of a utopian colony because the colonists had had exhibited mental powers. Henry later learned that his brother Alexander had become a brilliant master criminal. Henry wondered if perhaps as a test he should try something of this nature.

Dr. Henry King first achieved this scheme in his dreams. In 1939 Dr. King became one of the few people to deliberately direct his subconscious to visit the Dreamlands, descending the seven hundred steps to the Gate of Deeper Slumber and setting out through the Enchanted Wood. From there he traveled through secret passages, and hidden trails where unearthly flora twisted into the visages of chthonic deities which swallowed all unwary visitors. He emerged into the shared unconsciousness of urban America, a dream version of his waking life that, having power over dream, he could mold, shape and sculpt into his own desires. He formed a vast criminal empire in the Dreamlands, where he called himself Dr. Sivana. Yet even in the Dreamlands he could not escape the influence of costumed vigilantes and was opposed by a caped super hero named Captain Marvel. When he felt confident enough to use his abilities in his waking life, despite being defeated by Captain Marvel several times, Dr. Henry King moved slowly towards creating a real world criminal empire, taking the cognomen “The Brain Wave” for these purposes. [3]

Rather than expose himself to danger or possible legal repercussions he worked through a patsy, using low level telepathy and ability to create solid illusions.[4] Dr. King induced a fellow scientist, who had mocked his theories about psychic powers, into a state of madness. Directed by voices the scientist Dr. Able used the name Dr. Elba.[5] Dr. Elba created a crime wave using blackmail, with information supplied by King as one of the voices and also by using a serum that drove men insane. The serum was derived from the hormones of a rare species of African ape that underwent periodic bouts of madness.

Dr. Elba overreached his ambition, and although he had schemes going in several Northeastern American cities he left a trail that led back to him. His schemes were thwarted by several of the costumed vigilantes of the day, who did not actually work as a unit, but did end the various plots within days of one another. When faced with capture Dr. Elba purportedly injected himself with his own serum and jumped out of a window. Actually Henry King induced Elba to jump and so prevented anyone from realizing Elba had been a puppet.

Intrigued by the arrival of costumed interference in Elba's plans, the Brain Wave approached the United States Army in his role as psychiatrist Dr. Henry King, desiring to undertake a study on behalf of the Army to delve into the psychology of the mystery men. The Army allowed King to interview each of the members of the Auxiliary Logistical and Special Tactical Response Squadron, but their identities would remain secret and he could only have a few moments each. All King needed to establish contact with a subject was a handshake.

As a test of his powers and a possible way of eliminating powerful opposition to his future plans of criminal supremacy, King began to invade the dreams of the mystery men and women who had opposed him. He filled their nighttime dreams with images of wartime conflict. He replayed the dreams over several nights, with each night the dreams becoming ever more realistic. His aim was to have them dream themselves to death by convincing them that the events were real and that they were powerless to prevent their violent ends at the hands of Japanese soldiers. Dr. King had designed a machine to amplify his psionic energy and tried to conclude this plan with one fell swoop by causing the mystery men’s dreams to blend into one large battle of the ALSTR squadron against the forces of Japan. Their collective will, however, proved to be too strong for him, especially when Alan Scott—the man known as the Green Lantern—marshaled their wills against The Brain Wave's will and used the Dreamlands version of his power ring to destroy the dream version of Japan. Green Lantern's weapon was a psionic amplifier that was as effective in this dream state as he was in the real world.[6] The feedback from the Green Lantern's counter attack shorted out The Brain Wave's psionic amplifier and caused him to lose his projective telepathy for months. All Star Squadron 19 and 20 depicted The Brain Wave as having lured the Justice Society and other members of the All Star Squadron to the New York World’s Fair pavilion and hooking them into a large device. In reality he actually had no physical contact with the members of ALSTR nor were they gathered together during their collective dream.

Over the next year, Henry King created a criminal empire, that is to say as a freelance criminal psychiatrist he met, made contact with, and began to influence criminals in various cities on the East coast of the United States. By chance or by design the cities in which King chose to direct crime sprees were the home cities of various costumed vigilantes. It is likely that he chose these cities deliberately to taunt the costumed mystery men with his cleverness. Despite having used proxies and having mentally directed his criminal activities from afar, he underestimated how persistent and intelligent the mystery men were. Having defeated his proxy criminals, each of the costumed mystery men discovered that the trail led back to the dummy bank accounts that King had set up in his base of operations, a small city on the coast of Maine. Each of the criminals had also described the mysterious figure that had invaded their dreams. Four of the mysterymen converged in the small town in Maine—called Sharkstooth Bay in the comics—and realized that they all sought the same person. King had not taken pains to disguise his appearance to the townspeople, and so the mystery men were directed to his base of operations, a lighthouse.

The four mystery men and the one mystery woman entered his domicile with the intent of capturing him. As a ruse, The Brain Wave created mental doppelgangers of the mystery men’s and mystery woman's paramours and made it appear as if he held them hostage.[7] As a bargain for his freedom he allowed the vigilantes to free their paramours and then commanded these mental creations to attack the vigilantes. He attempted to escape during the fight between the vigilantes and their imagined foes. However, King was accidentally knocked out of a window and apparently plunged to his death below. The foes of the mysterymen winked out of existence upon King's demise.

But Dr. King had not died. A tree limb caught him as he fell, momentarily stunning him. Realizing that he was too weakened to take on all of these heroes, he projected a mental illusion that hid him from their view. He spent the next two months honing and refining his mental powers, and he came up with a great plan of vengeance.

When Dr. King was ready to enact his vengeance he lured the four mystery men who had previously defeated him to his tower and then seemingly subjected them to a shrinking ray he had invented, placing them on small shelves as trophies. He then had a meeting with his four lieutenants who lived in the home cities of the captured vigilantes and described the crime wave that he wished for them to undertake.

According to the comic-book version of events, Hawkman summoned his feathered friends who flew the shrunken heroes to their home cities, where they ended the crime waves. After the crimes had been thwarted, Johnny Thunder decided to use his magic thunderbolt to restore the heroes to their original size. The restored heroes returned to The Brain Wave's hideout, but he had mined the road. The heroes noticed the mines, and Johnny Thunder's thunderbolt placed the mines underneath the tower so that when The Brain Wave pressed the detonation plunger for the explosive plunger he actually blew himself up.

Dr. King did not really invent a shrinking ray nor did he shrink the heroes to the size of eight inches. This was one of his greatest illusions; he thoroughly convinced the four mystery men that they had in fact been shrunk. He also was able to cloak them in mentally created illusions that gave them the appearance of being eight inches tall to outside observers. Although he actually imprisoned them in iron cages, he made it appear as though they were placed on a shelf. His control of their mental perception was such that they could touch and feel the iron bars of their cages and not realize it.

There was one flaw in his plan, however, and this was due to one individual. The individual in question was Johnny Thunder, a man of limited intelligence who managed to track down and tag along with various heroes in various cities. Johnny claimed to be the possessor of a magic thunderbolt that granted his wishes. While there are documented cases of beings such as the Djinn sometimes crossing over into ordinary reality and functioning to a limited degree in the WNU existence, this does not appear to be what happened in Thunder’s case. Johnny Thunder appears to have been to what used to be called an idiot savant. Along with Thunder's limited intelligence, he was also gifted with powerful psionic powers, which he used in a limited fashion and for some reason had convinced himself that a magic friend was actually carrying out the feats of wonder. The genie may have been a manifestation of the lonely boy's imaginary friend.

In his comic book origin (Flash Comics #1, January 1940) Johnny Thunder was kidnapped as a child from his American parents by agents of Badhnisia (a small Asian country), because he had been born at a time of great significance to them - the 7th hour of the 7th day of the 7th month of 1917 - which they believed would mean that he would grow to wield great power at his 7th birthday. In this story, Johnny was an only child - later, it was stated that it was the fact that he was the 7th son of a 7th son that entitled him to his power. Johnny was given a magic belt featuring the inscription 'CEI-U' (the magic words which summon the Thunderbolt) by the Badhnisians. Unfortunately for Badhnisia, it soon found itself at war with a neighboring country. Johnny was hidden away in a secret place, though he didn't stay there for long. He fell into a boat and eventually made his way back to the United States and his family.

Many years later while working as a window cleaner, Johnny saw a colleague fall from a window several stories high. Since he'd just spoken the words 'say you' (CEI-U), when Johnny called out to his colleague to stop falling, his magic Thunderbolt appeared and stopped the man from falling to his death.

While Johnny Thunder may indeed have been born on the 7th hour of the 7th day of the 7th month of 1917, the story of him being the seventh son of a seventh son, and the idea that he may have been raised in the mythical land of Badhesia was likely been wish fulfillment on Johnny's part. Or rather the fantasy of an autistic savant child abandoned at birth that had lived through the rigors and horrors of the orphanage system. The heroes who were "privileged" to partner up with Johnny Thunder did not know how the magic effects that often accompanied Johnny were achieved but only that on occasion he was useful.

Johnny wished for the magic Thunderbolt to restore the heroes to their original size. Actually using his formidable but unacknowledged psionic abilities Johnny was able to overpower Henry King's pervasive illusion and show the captured heroes their true situation. They freed themselves from the cages and sought out Henry King. Hawkman flew after the four criminal lieutenants who had left by car. Dr. Fate accompanied him.[8]

Johnny Thunder, Dr. Midnite and The Atom continue searching for Henry King.[9] They discovered King at the top of his lighthouse. He claimed to have mined the entire complex. Having failed at his establishing his criminal empire, Dr. King was going to commit suicide and take as many heroes as he could with him. Dr. King pushed the plunger of the dynamite and the tower exploded. Johnny's magic thunderbolt carried Johnny, Dr. Midnite and the Atom out of harms' way. They saw the tower destroyed.

The explosion was real, however the image of The Brain Wave pushing the plunger was not real; Dr. King had set dynamite charges hoping to kill the meddling costumed heroes. But he had mistimed his charges and so was caught in the explosion and hurt. He survived with a twisted leg and a shoulder injury that healed improperly giving him the appearance of a hunchback.

Prior to embarking on his career as a criminal mastermind, Dr. King had manufactured an identity for himself as Dr. Forest Malone, an expert in dream psychology. As part of the false identity, Dr. King projected a false image of himself using his projective telepathy. This identity was a legitimate cover in which King could take shelter in case his real identity was compromised. He fell in love with his office assistant a girl named Marva. She reciprocated his affections and they were married. On their wedding night he revealed his true appearance to her, that of a short man with a twisted back and an oversized head. Actually this was an illusion as well; it being the image that Dr. Henry King used to hide his real appearance as a frail, bald man with a small humpback. She fled in horror but returned shortly, discovering she loved the man inside rather than how he appeared.[10] Soon after Marva returned to him, Dr. Forest Malone discovered that he could use her as a medium with which to draw ectoplasm from the spiritual world and create solid three-dimensional thought images. With her help he created a pleasing shape made of ectoplasm that covered his own hideous seeming body. He resented Marva for accepting this more pleasing shape and also because he needed her to create his solid illusions. Dr. King was a sexual psychopath, strongly desiring women but also despising them as worthless chattel to be used and abused. He apparently did not act upon those impulses, so far as can be determined, until his rejection by Marva and his dependence upon her.[11]

However having discovered his new power Dr. Henry King embarked on a series of depredations against women which the comic's versions only hint. King hypnotized the unwilling Marva into accompanying him and using her power to draw ectoplasm. He would then gain entrance into the homes of various women by impersonating their sweethearts, husbands, or friends and subjecting them to humiliation, rape, torture, and in some cases murder. Concerned over these crimes against women, Wonder Woman became involved. King had run up against Wonder Woman twice in his previous exploits. He was in awe of and frightened of her feminine beauty; he both hated and loved her. Investigating these crimes, Wonder Woman quickly noted that a woman with an identical description was always near the scene of the crimes, something that the police apparently overlooked. Wonder Woman spotted Marva as she waited patiently outside of the house of one of the victims. Wonder Woman confronted Marva and suddenly Marva was freed of the hypnotism placed upon her. A scream inside followed. Wonder Woman apprehended a dwarfish man, who the lady of the house claimed had been her husband a moment before. Marva confessed that she had been forced to do the twisted dwarf’s bidding and vowed not to allow him to use her again. Marva only knew the dwarfish man as Dr. Psycho and could not recall much about herself. The dwarfish Dr. Psycho was arrested and jailed to stand trial for murder.[12] 

A month after Dr. Psycho was jailed, Marva appeared to have had a change of heart and visited him in prison. The next morning, Dr. Psycho's sleeping body disappeared as if it were smoke. This was one of Dr. Psycho's illusions, and the bad doctor had escaped.  Once again with Marva's unwilling aid, he used his ectoplasmic power for evil. Blaming Wonder Woman for Marva's betrayal and his subsequent incarceration, Psycho tried to destroy the super heroine’s reputation. Assuming the form of Wonder Woman, Dr. Psycho murdered Steve Howard's secretary in full view of the office staff. Even at this early date Wonder Woman had such a strong reputation for justice and morality that people did not believe the story, instead concluding it was in fact one of her enemies trying to discredit her or a case of mistaken identity. The real killer was unmasked once again as Marva came to her senses and dissipated the ectoplasm about Dr. Psycho. Dr. Psycho was sent to jail once more. In a few days he was free once again.

While Wonder Woman was performing at a charity carnival, Dr. Psycho appeared and challenged her to a contest of speed and strength. He was able to best her at both of these contests.[13] Even though he had beaten Wonder Woman, the crowd booed him and cheered her. When Wonder Woman tried to deflect the crowd's jeers by stating that he had won fair and square, Dr. Psycho believed that she was mocking him. He stole her magic lasso and forced her to do humiliating acts in public. Even so, Wonder Woman tried to convince him that she wanted to be his friend. She may have been sincere in this, but she could also have trying to keep Dr. Psycho on an even temper in the crowd so that he could not use his new powers to hurt people. Finally Dr. Psycho could not bring himself to believe her and made it appear as though the carnival mast had broken and that the tent was falling. As Wonder Woman tried to hold up the pole, Dr. Psycho escaped.

A few months later Dr. Psycho once again planned to destroy Wonder Woman by proxy, too afraid by now to confront her personally. He convinced Paula Dupree that she was in love with Steve Trevor and that the only way to have him was to kill Wonder Woman. Paula Dupree was a female gorilla who had been transformed by surgery and genetic therapy into a beautiful human woman but who still retained many of her bestial traits.[14]

 Although Paula initially overpowered Wonder Woman and defeated her in battle, Diana subdued her with her magic lasso. Paula was then remanded to the custody of the sanitarium where Dr. Psycho had found her, although the comic book version of these events had Wonder Woman taking Paula to Paradise Island.[15]

 Early in 1944 Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor unveiled what was supposed to be a statue of Wonder Woman built from copper pennies donated by her young fans.  They were flabbergasted to see that it had been stolen and replaced by a statue of Dr. Psycho. Dr. Psycho called Diana Prince and asked her to tell Wonder Woman that he would return her statue since he felt guilty about stealing from children. He gave her a time and place to pick up the statue. This turned out to be a ruse. He knocked out Wonder Woman with a mind bolt and created two ectoplasmic Wonder Women—one which was tyrannical and the other of which was vain—and sent them out into the world.[16] The duplicates chained Wonder Woman to a whale's back. [17] Wonder Woman freed herself, and she convinced the vain Wonder Woman to attack the tyrannical one. Wonder Woman encircled both of the duplicates in her magic lasso. Dr. Psycho was hard pressed to maintain the structural integrity of his constructs; since they were physical manifestations of his mind, the lasso also affected him. During his concentration on the battle Steve Trevor knocked him unconscious. The duplicates faded into nothingness and Dr. Psycho was captured once more and escaped again.

As the war continued Dr. Malone found that his private practice became so busy that he did not have time to spend bothering Wonder Woman or other costumed vigilantes. Once the war had ended, however, he soon returned to his old tricks. There was a great upsurge in the mistreatment of women by returning soldiers and civilian personnel. Most people believed that this was because men resented women for having altered the sexual status quo during the war. Having taken over jobs that had once been the exclusive employment of men while the men were at war, many women were reluctant to give these positions up.  Also many women began to assert a more equal status on the domestic front. The resultant backlash manifested in a rise of the depiction of independent women as scheming, loose connivers—depicted cinematically as the film noir femme fatale. The public propaganda against independent womanhood was unfortunately accompanied by an upsurge of crimes against women. Wonder Woman was not so certain that this wide-spread reaction was merely the result of post-war stress or if there was a deliberate force behind it. Diana discovered a pattern behind the seeming random violence and triangulated the point of origination. This led her to Dr. Psycho, who eluded her once again. Shortly after this Diana was shocked when the woman she knew as Marva was struck by an automobile before her eyes and died bleeding her life out in Diana's arms. When Marva gave up her last breath she faded away to nothingness. It appears that having failed to use his ectoplasm shaping power to destroy Wonder Woman and tired of his nagging remnant of a moral conscience, Dr. King killed off its manifestation, Marva.

The next public scheme of Dr. Psycho was a rather lame attempt to discredit Steve Trevor. Dr. King arranged for a small-time thief and murderer to be transformed into the likeness of Steve Trevor through plastic surgery. He then committed crimes. This was a bit of a test to see how far Diana's devotion to Steve Trevor went. According to the comic-book version, Diana could not bring herself to apprehend a man who looked like the man she loved, and so she retired. In actuality she had no trouble separating the identities of the two men no matter how alike they may have looked. She took the ersatz Trevor into custody with no qualms whatsoever.[18]

In 1946 as Dr. Forest Malone, an expert in dream psychology, King solicited the OSS to test his theories about remote viewing and test his new dream analyzer. Always willing to try new technologies that would give them an edge, the OSS agreed. They also agreed that the costumed vigilantes would make good volunteers because of the strength of their determination for justice and patriotism. Instead of a dream analyzer, the device was a dream inducer that slowly drove its subjects mad instead of recording their dreams. Dr. King had injected them with a variety of psychoactive and narcotic substances before placing them in the dream inducer. Johnny Thunder was the only person not affected by the drugs and dream inducer. Johnny's mutant ability and his autism oddly enough combined to make it hard for him to be mind controlled. Confronted with his now-dysfunctional teammates and the victorious Brain Wave, Johnny Thunder again summoned his magical Thunderbolt to restore his comrades and capture the Brain Wave. That is, Johnny used his own psionic powers to remove Dr. King's influence over the costumed vigilantes and gave Dr. King a mind blast that knocked him out, temporarily stunning his psionic powers. This time there was no escape and Henry King got his first taste of a long term jail sentence.[19]

In the winter of 1947, Dr. King was contacted by a man who knew at least one of his criminal personas, that of Dr. Psycho. This man wished for Dr. Psycho to participate in a far-ranging plan to neutralize some of the costumed vigilantes whose efforts against crime had put a crimp in various criminal enterprises across the United States. The costumed vigilantes so targeted were those who had their abilities augmented by special devices. The various criminals contacted by the man who called himself The Collector wanted to first gain possession of these devices and then use them against the rest of the costumed vigilantes. Since The Collector knew of Dr. Psycho‘s special animosity towards Wonder Woman, Psycho was given the task of stealing her magic lasso and girdle. To achieve this goal Dr. King recruited some unwilling aid. He broke Paula Dupree from her sanitarium and also recruited the Nazi spy Paula von Gunther to help in stealing the two objects. Despite the overwhelming force deployed against her, Wonder Woman prevailed. In this instance Dr. Psycho was too distracted and intimidated by these three beautiful women to concentrate properly. He allowed his control over Paula Gunther and Paula Dupree to slip and the women escaped from his control. [20]

Through the underworld the Collector let it be known that he also was seeking the services of the Brain Wave, not realizing this was another alias of the same man. Dr. Henry King contacted him in the guise of The Brain Wave and was assigned the task of stealing the Green Lantern's ring. The Collector was in truth Vandal Savage[21] who was working in concert with a man named the Thinker[22], a young man named Per Degaton[23]and a pair of lesser known criminals known only as The Gambler[24] and The Wizard[25]. The Thinker was to negate The Flash's power, Vandal Savage was to capture Hawkman's wings, Per Degaton was to take on Dr. Midnite, and the Gambler was to challenge Dr. Fate.[26] To accentuate their plans and to create a diversion, The Wizard was in charge of releasing prisoners from penitentiaries across the nation.

The criminals were initially successful in capturing their particular foes and removing their sources of power, but the whole plan collapsed because of the arrogance of The Brain Wave. Having felled the Green Lantern with a mind blast The Brain Wave saw the Lantern fall into a ravine and plummet to a certain death. The Brain Wave did not follow through to make certain that the Green Lantern had indeed died. Although his ring protected him from serious harm, the Green Lantern was injured.[27] It took him a few days to recover enough to track down the location of the captive heroes where the villains were attempting to wrest the secrets of their technology from them. The mock trial in the comic-book version was a fiction created by the comic-book writers at the vigilantes’ request not to disclose the fact that they had been tortured for information about their devices, so as not to give other villains the same idea. Green Lantern did impersonate the Thinker but did so to free the others. Once freed, the vigilantes rounded up the criminals and turned them over to the police. [28]

While he was in jail, Dr. King was approached to work for the newly created Central Intelligence Division in their Psy-Ops division. Given a free hand, Dr. King designed programs that would later be known for creating sleeper assassins who could be triggered by certain phrases. He also worked for MK-Ultra [29]and designed mental enhancement drugs that did not quite work out as well as intended[30]

In the late fifties Dr. King had the idea to test his theories on the general public and use people who would susceptible to mind-control techniques and brainwashing and—in the opinion of the Agency—who would not be missed if the experiment went awry. These were narcotic addicts. Dr. King called the program Symbion to emphasize that people were part of a greater whole, that society was a living organism, and also because of the use of symbolism in the therapy. The therapy was a combination of ego destruction of the addict by his peers directed by the Programmer. When the ego destruction was complete, the ego reconstruction would begin, using sophisticated dream therapy and symbolism. They were actually using brainwashing techniques later co-opted by several cults.

One of the first persons who entered the program was Merry Pemberton, a society debutante who had moonlighted as costumed vigilante in the forties. She had been known as Merry the Girl of a 1000 Gimmicks. When she became hooked on heroin, her family disowned her and she became a prostitute to survive and keep supplied with heroin. She took the street name Merry the Girl with a 1000 Tricks. Merry quickly fell in love with Dr. King's illusionary image of a strapping young man with a full head of red hair. She eventually became his wife and a spokeswoman for the movement. Symbion grew over the next decade and a half. The CIA disliked King's growing status and tried to have it shut down. King out-maneuvered them by having Symbion registered as a religious organization in 1972.

There were radical splinters of Symbion that King publicly disavowed, such as the Symbionese Liberation Army, but which he actually directed. Symbion began to attack its critics, including legislators and government representatives, and reporters who investigated the Church. People were beaten, rattlesnakes were put in mailboxes, and the daughter of a major newspaper publishing chain was kidnapped. Not only was she kidnapped but King successfully brainwashed her into become a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army and had her carry out robberies with them.

Captain America and Power Girl helped to raid the Symbionese Liberation Army hideout. The terrorists chose to take their lives rather than be captured.

A few days later Power Girl managed to free the captured heiress from her captors. There were definite links between the Symbion organization and this terrorist offshoot, despite claims to the otherwise. The CIALD was given the green light to take the leaders of Symbion into custody for stockpiling weapons and laundering money taken in bank robberies. The CIA's domestic intelligence offices suddenly came by the information that fingerprints proved that the leader of Symbion was Dr. Henry King, formerly known as The Brain Wave, an ex-convict. When Captain America and Power Girl went to the Symbion Compound, they found Dr. Henry King gone, as was his front man. Many of the cultists had however poisoned themselves by drinking doctored coffee. Among these was reported to be Merry Pemberton.

Dr. Henry King eluded capture, but his reputation was in a shambles. And he mourned Merry, for he had truly loved her. Wishing vengeance on the world for having destroyed all that he had created and loved, in June of 1975 he contacted his old comrade in crime Per Degaton, who was currently using another name and no longer looked as he had as a youth. Per Degaton had become quite wealthy through various criminal schemes, and he agreed to help Dr. King because it would further some of his own plans. Per Degaton allowed Dr. King the use of a satellite and a weather-making device. With these he staged a series of catastrophes across the globe in a bid for world domination.[31] A volcano formed in Peking, an earthquake occurred in Seattle, a gas disaster occurred in Africa. These activities captured the eventual attention of the CIALD and the Diogenes Club. A team of CIALD contractors and two members of the Diogenes Club were sent to stop the satellite and its controller before any more disasters occurred.

Power Girl was once again among those who captured Dr. King, as was the person whom the comic story called Colonel Steven Trevor. This was to provide continuity to the Wonder Woman mythos and also to protect the real name of the government agent. This character was later called Steve Howard and so we will adopt that name. It was learned that the disasters had in fact not been real, as with other of Per Degaton's inventions the disaster satellite did work. Dr. King had used the satellite to augment his projective telepathy so that he created realistic illusions of the disasters, so real in fact that some people did succumb to injuries[32]. In a few days' time, Dr. Henry King was again in jail.

Dr. Henry King was not imprisoned long however and soon was free.

In February of 1976, he teamed with the Wizard, who was not his old companion from days gone by but another using the name. His plan to hijack the Alaskan pipeline was defeated by Power Girl, Prince Zarkon, and the Omega organization in Alaska. [33]

In September of 1977 Dr. King pulled his most outrageous crime, he sent a message to the newspapers stating that unless certain costumed vigilantes were placed in solitary confinement and on death row in prison, he would send the home cities of these heroes to the Phantom Zone. His list of vigilantes demonstrated that Dr. King was losing his faculties for it included the original Flash, the Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and a few others who were dead or retired. He also named Power Girl and Wonder Woman[34] and asked for a million dollars per city. The threat was ignored and Kansas City, where the original Flash had retired, disappeared. This was, of course, another of The Brain Wave's fantastic illusions; the city never went anywhere, people were just prevented from seeing or hearing it. Although the comic book has Power Girl once more capturing Dr. Henry King, this time it was actually Wonder Woman, although Power Girl was also involved to a lesser degree. [35]

In 1979, Dr. King briefly took advantage of a situation in which several costumed vigilantes had lost their moral inhibitions from drinking contaminated water from the so-called Stream of Ruthlessness. He used his mental abilities to increase the violent tendencies of the vigilantes. Once again he was thwarted by Power Girl, among others.

After once again confronting Wonder Woman Dr. King developed an obsession for Steve Trevor that made his hatred for Wonder Woman all the more intense.[36] Viewing his attraction towards Steve Howard as something external rather than internal, Dr. King believed that the only way to eliminate it was to eliminate Wonder Woman and Steve Howard. He arranged a situation where Wonder Woman and Steve Howard were informed about the activities of some Russian spies. These Russian spies reacted with deadly force and Steve Howard was badly wounded. This took place in March of 1981.

Only when Steve Howard was nearly dead did Dr. King realize that he did not want the man to die. However, rather than admit that his motives were due to his attraction to Howard, Dr. King suddenly realized that Steve Howard could be used as a medium to pull ectoplasm from the dream dimension. Actually the thought of losing Howard was the emotional trigger that once again allowed him to use his ability to create solid thought figures. He devised a complicated stratagem to take Howard away from Wonder Woman and also destroy her, but in such a fashion that Howard would not directly blame him. [37]

One of Dr. King's psychiatric patients in a bogus practice he had set up after escaping from prison was a former ballerina named Helena Alexandros. She was rather plain faced with many skin blemishes. In his sessions with her, Dr. King discovered that she hated all men. Using his projective telepathy, Dr. King invaded Helen Alexandros’ dreams. He appeared to her in the form of Ares‑according to the comic books one of Wonder Woman's greatest foes. He revealed to Helen that she was descended on her mother’s side from Zeus, Leda, and Helen of Troy. Dr. King told her that he could grant her beauty and power through her heritage of blood if she would destroy Wonder Woman. Helen agreed, and was transformed into the beautiful Silver Swan, with the powers of flight, great strength, and a "swan song" that could wreak destruction. Dr. King told the Swan that Helena would be able to change into her for an hour at a time, as long as she served him, and on the day that she destroyed Wonder Woman, she would become the Silver Swan forever. He sculpted her a new body out of ectoplasm when she "transformed" into the Silver Swan. The swan song and its destructive effects were all illusionary.

Wonder Woman checked up on Steve Howard at the hospital and learned from Dr. Prescott, who was in charge of him, that Steve was not endangered by his head wound, but that, somehow, his body or soul seem to be in transition. Left alone with him, Wonder Woman managed to bring Steve back to consciousness. Shortly afterwards, the Amazon came upon a gang of bank robbers, and a new arrival, a flying, costumed female who called herself the Silver Swan, helped her bring them in. The Silver Swan flew off and Wonder Woman discovered that the briefcase of secret documents she and Steve had been carrying was gone. Following the Silver Swan, Wonder Woman attempted to retrieve the briefcase, but the Silver Swan snatched it away and defeated the Amazon in battle. Unwilling to destroy Wonder Woman around witnesses, the Swan turned over the briefcase to the military and convinced General Darnell and company that she mistakenly thought Wonder Woman was stealing it. Wonder Woman herself was not convinced.

At the hospital Steve Howard found himself in the hands of a new arrival, Dr. Psycho. [38]

When Diana returned to the hospital to check on Howard, she learned that a doctor, answering the description of her old foe Dr. Psycho had transferred him to a private hospital. Psycho had strapped down Howard to a table with the aid of his henchman Melvin. Wonder Woman learned where Howard had been taken and burst into his room. Just as she burst in, Psycho summoned a mass of ectoplasm from Howard. Dr. Psycho used the ectoplasm to build a new, costumed body-shell for himself. This is new body was a duplicate of Steve Howard although in a costume resembling Wonder Woman's. This new body was as powerful as Wonder Woman and probably represented a fusion of King's desires for both Howard and Wonder Woman. In his new form King called himself Captain Wonder. Wonder Woman was hard-pressed in battling him, until she succeeded in knocking him around and broke his concentration. This caused his Captain Wonder identity to dissolve. There were probably also psychological reasons why Psycho could not maintain this form for very long. The Amazon was about to leave with Steve Howard when the Silver Swan broke in and declared she had come to kill them both. [39]

Wonder Woman battled the Silver Swan and encircled her with the magic lasso, but the Swan’s ectoplasmic shell gave her the ability to stave off domination. Dr. King was able to use Steve Howard to produce enough ectoplasm to turn himself into Captain Wonder again. As Captain Wonder he attacked Wonder Woman, gained control of the lasso, freed the Swan, and roped Wonder Woman. The Silver Swan fell in love with Captain Wonder at first sight. She agreed to his plan to take the captive heroine to the White House and kill her before the eyes of President Ronald Reagan. But Ares appeared to the Swan and demanded that she order Captain Wonder to send Diana's invisible plane crashing into the White House and thus murder the President and destroy Wonder Woman and Steve Howard. The Swan and Captain Wonder loaded Howard and Wonder Woman into the plane and took off for Washington.

Steve Howard awakened from his coma and grabbed the lasso from Captain Wonder, freeing Wonder Woman. Having no time to waste, Diana punched Captain Wonder, knocking him from the plane. Shocked by the fall, King was unable to maintain his Captain Wonder persona, but he did manage to cushion his fall with telekinesis before hitting the ground. The Silver Swan attacked Wonder Woman, but was defeated, and the Amazon managed to prevent her plane from smashing the White House and endangering President Reagan. Dr. King also lost his control over the Silver Swan ectoplasmic body and plain old Helen appeared. Of course in the comics it was Ares who withdrew her powers and returned her to the Helen Alexandros identity. When Helen saw Dr. King, she was frightened and ran away. Finally, Wonder Woman reunited with Steve.[40] Dr. King sustained a head injury causing brain damage that seemed to have eradicated his mental powers for a time.

Sometime during 1984, Dr. King escaped from jail, now known to be with the aid of the Luthor family, specifically Lex Luthor II and Alexis Luther. The Luthors had captured the villainous Mr. Hyde and subjected him to cybernetic augmentations including crystalline kryptonite bone spurs. They needed The Brain Wave to control the mind of Mr. Hyde so that he would kill ruthlessly, not allowing his inner morality to take control of him at a possible crucial moment.

The mind-controlled Hyde successfully killed Superman (Clark Kent), Super-Girl, and Power Girl. However, their roles was eventually taken over by others. The Luthors successfully made it appear as though these killings were a scheme of the Ultrahumanite and The Brain Wave. The Superman family took it upon themselves to exile these two villains to the Phantom Zone in 1985.[41]

NOTES



[1] John however was not raised by Paul Finglemore and Margot Picardot aka Thomas Wainwright and Margaret Wainwright but rather by Dr. Thomas Wainwright and “Pax” Wainwright in England. Why is further explained in the Paul Luthor and Odd John sections of this piece.

[2] One of the progenitors of his genius as well as his distorted physique was his ancestor the seriously genetically twisted George Gordon, Lord Byron, from whom Paul Finglemore could also claim descent. If all the research about Lord Byron is correct, he was not only a Capellean-Human hybrid and a Mover for the Tocs and Ogs, he also carried both the Highlander strain of immortality and a form of vampirism. The latter two manifested after his "death". Yet Paul must have also been affected by something circa 1898, for many of his children conceived after this date displayed traits that those conceived earlier did not.

[3] More about Dr. King's career as Dr. Sivana will be explored in the forthcoming article Lightning Dreams: The story of Billy Batson

[4] To this day it is not truly known what exactly Henry King's powers were. Scientists and psychic researchers are divided on this question. Among the various theories are that he was a powerful projective telepath who made people believe that they were seeing, hearing, feeling three-dimensional images when in fact it all took place in their minds. Other researchers, more cognitive of his ancestral history believed that Dr. King using a variation of his ancestor's Mover (see the article Aliens Among Us. Toc and Ogs for more on the Movers) power had the ability to draw energy from the Phantom Zone and give it substance and animation through his own psyche. Others of course believe that he actually did contact the spiritual realm and commanded the souls of the dead to do his bidding, an ability derived from a vampiric heritage. As The Brain Wave, King made ludicrous claims of having been descended from George Gordon, Lord Byron and also from Dracula, King of the Vampires. This was probably a ruse to throw researchers off of the track.

[5] Dr. Elba appears in All Star Comics 8, that he was a tool of The Brain Wave is revealed in All Star Squadron 20

[6] According to The Secret Wars: The Modern Age by Jess Nevins the device that the Green Lantern used “was technologically advanced but its use had a deleterious effect on its user, perhaps due to a radiation leak of some kind, and it was confiscated, by the American government, following the death of the ‘Green Lantern’."  Nevins in A Wold Newton Universe Timeline states "Alan Scott, an American engineer, discovers an alien weapon while in China. He uses it for a brief period to do good, but due to a kind of radiation leak is killed by the weapon within a few weeks' time." These are true statements but not fully true. The device was alien in origin, it did have a deleterious effect on its user and it was confiscated by the United States government after the death of Alan Scott. Mr. Nevins is however mistaken in how fast the device killed the user, it took years rather than three weeks. The exact origin of the artifact in question was correctly identified by C. Richard Davies in his The Green Light of Justice as being created by the Arisians, who have also been known as the Preservers, Guardians, Ancients, and various other names, but perhaps most fittingly as the Omni. The artifact was not a lantern as previously believed the Lantern was merely its hiding place.  The artifact was a small piece of crystal shaped into a ring. This particular crystal was a fragment of a larger piece and so was flawed. Although the crystals were supposed to be indestructible, some great force in the past had fractured it. The crystal was a prototype what would later be known as the Lens as created by the Arisians for an elite guard on Atlantis and Lemuria. They were keyed to the descendants of two particular families the Kinnisons and a group of families with the distinctive traits of gold flecked eyes, bronze hair and tanned skin, which could be designated “the Bronze family.” Alan Scott was descended from some members the Bronze family. Later models of the Lens would be keyed to individuals and would self-destruct upon the death of their owners.

The crystal fragment attuned to Alan Scott, but imperfectly, and this imperfect match was like a grafted organ that eventually is recognized as a foreign object by the body and is rejected. The use of this power unknowingly caused damage to Scott’s brain function, lymphatic system, and immune system. In the comics Alan Scott is shown creating visible objects of green light that are molded by his will, and the ring also allowed him to fly and made him immune to everything but wood. The crystal fragment did give off a light when it was used, but this was a polychromatic light; the effects that Scott created were actually psionically created multihued force fields. The weakness to wood was created by Scott's unconsciousness when a man wielding a wooden club startled him and knocked him unconscious when Scott allowed his force field to drop. From thereafter he believed that wood could hurt him, and so it could. The ring also allowed him to fly, but only for short distances. Zipping from coast to coast was purely fictional. Use of the ring also fatigued him to a great degree; an hour's worth of use was the equivalent of four hours of intense physical strain.

The obvious question as to why Alan Scott did not end the war by himself or combined with other "super powered" beings such as Superman, the Flash, Wonder Woman, etc., is simply that he could not. On his own Scott would not have been powerful enough to fly over the ocean, take on the entire German army, reach Berlin, and capture Hitler and the rest of the Nazi High Command. His ring simply was not that powerful. It is also rather naïve to believe that once engaged in this war of conquest that the military command of Germany would have ceased combat operations merely to have Adolf Hitler and other high ranking officials returned to them.

As for Superman, Hugo Danner had fought in WWI and wanted no part of another war such as that. His years in the future had given him a wider perspective on historical events and he realized that however terrible it might seem, the war had to play out. In the comics Clark Kent tried to join the Army but was rejected because of vision problem, however the actual reason that Kent did not pursue a military career was because he was a conscientious objector. This is not to say he was not a patriot, but he had taken a vow not to use his power to kill or to place himself in a situation where his powers would put him in a position of authority over humanity, as winning the war would have certainly have done. Certainly adulation would have come at first, but then would have come fear and distrust.

Wonder Woman with her invisible "plane" and enhanced strength may have been able to make a dent had she been able. Wonder Woman and Namor and a team of non-super powered individuals did make three or four attempts to breach the Nazi's offenses and capture the German High Command. Each time, however, minor and major set backs prevented them from accomplishing their mission. Wonder Woman, and others, began to wonder if some force or power was preventing them from ending the war, as if the war had to run its course. Some in the Allied Command believed this as well, but others believed that the heroes had jinxed their own mission.  Another speculation was that there was something to the Axis propaganda about the Spear of Destiny or Holy Grail influencing people who came within its area of influence or the similar story of Parsifal, the German hero who canceled out superpowers. Wary that there might be some truth to such rumors, the Allied Command did not make having the heroes penetrate Axis territory a feasible strategic option.

[7] In the comic book Wonder Woman, believing the JSA to be in dire straits, organized a rescue team of herself, Hawkgirl, Peachy Pet Thunder, Inza Cramer, Doris Lee and Dian Belmont. Disguised as their male counterparts, they assaulted the tower at Sharktooth Bay but were captured by Brain Wave's projected images of the JSA. The JSA presently arrived in force, rescued the heroines, and turned the battle to the Brain Wave, who seemingly plunged to his death (All-Star Comics #15).

[8] Hawkman and his girlfriend—later wife—were masked vigilantes based in the Boston area. They had created what amounted to antigravity belts by using what they called the “Nth metal.” This appears to be the same substance known as Cavorite. There was a very limited supply of Cavorite or Nth metal in the world, all deriving from from the fragments of a spacecraft that had crashed near Egypt thousands of years before. Although cavorite or the Nth metal was activated by and fueled by solar radiation to interact with electromagnetic forces by default to negate gravity, the substance was psycho reactive agent and how interfaced with electromagnetic forces could be controlled by thought. One side effect of this mental control was that the metal  retained impressions of its users. When Carter Hall started to use the Nth metal belts, he began to believe that he was reincarnated from an ancient Egyptian, but actually he was picking up the mental impressions of one or more of its previous owners. Dr. Fate's power were quite exaggerated in the comics, he did possess super strength, limited invulnerability, flight, and the ability to project force beams from his hands or eyes. These were not magical functions, however, but rather functions of the Helmet of Nabu. The Helmet of Nabu was an extraterrestrial object most likely related to the various power suits later found by the Thunder Agents

[9] Although The Spectre and Starman were depicted as taking part in this adventure, the Spectre was a fictional character and the Starman actually rarely left his home city of Miami, Florida.

[10] In 1979 a woman's body that had been preserved in formaldehyde was discovered hidden in a wall of one Dr. Forest Malone's former residences. Forensic pathology revealed that the body had been sexually assaulted and strangled. At first forensic psychiatrists believe that Dr. King had tried to seduce the girl and had been violently rebuffed. Enraged, he had assaulted and killed her. Fingerprints however proved that the woman was Dr. King's wife Marva. The killing rage and the ensuing guilt and denial had unleashed the most powerful of his psionic gifts. King had created an on-going illusion of his murdered wife; so great was his denial that he actually believed that the illusion was Marva, alive and in love with him.

[11] It now in fact appears that his first wife and his first medium, Marva was, in fact his first psychic manifestation and that he could in fact create these solid illusions on his own. How he did it is still up for debate. More recently researchers have suggested that he could tap into the other dimensional realities such as the dreamlands or tooniverse or realms of raw chaos and built bodies out of dreamstuff, toonstuff, or raw chaos. Others still maintain that the illusions were not solid at all, it was just Dr. King's projective telepathy making all who saw them perceive them as real.

[12] Since Marva was in fact a solid manifestation of Dr. King's subconscious, her unwillingness may have represented an underlying sense of morality that his conscious mind ran roughshod over. Confronted by Wonder Woman, his subconscious rebelled and the ectoplasmic power was lost. Feeling guilty about his crimes, he allowed himself to be jailed and punished. Despite his madness, King was cunning enough to use his dwarfed, big headed Dr. Psycho guise rather than his true appearance of a frail, bald headed man, or his guise of handsome Dr. Forest Malone.

[13] The comic book version, (Wonder Woman 160 February 1966) states that this was plot by Ares to demonstrate that the powers given to Wonder Woman by the female deities were nothing compared to those given to her by the male ones, Hercules and Mercury, Ares gave those powers to Dr. Psycho. However the simpler and truer explanation is that Dr. Psycho made Wonder Woman believed that she had lost those abilities and that he had gained them, making everyone see and believe that he had beaten her when in fact he had not.

[14] Paula Dupree's tragic life was documented in the films, Captive Wild Woman (Universal 1943), Jungle Woman (Universal 1944), and Jungle Captive (Universal 1945).

[15]  Depicted in Wonder Woman 163, July 1966

[16] The comics version, ("The Three Fantastic Faces of Wonder Woman," Wonder Woman 165, October 1966), depicts Dr. Psycho splitting Wonder Woman into two people with a ray gun of his devising.

[17] That Dr. Psycho had chosen a whale in which to chain Wonder Woman is interesting psychologically. The whale might have represented obsession.  As Ahab was obsessed with trapping and destroying Moby Dick, so was Dr. Psycho obsessed with trapping and killing Wonder Woman

[18] Wonder Woman 170, May 1967.

[19] All-Star Comics #30, September 1946 "The Dreams of Madness"

[20] Wonder Woman No. 168  February 1967 Three Hands On the Magic Lasso

[21] Vandal Savage was—as has been speculated elsewhere—one of the names used by the immortal named Kane. Among the Kane/Savage research are the following articles , Prehistoric Survivors in the Pacific by Mark Brown, . Fast Living-the true story of Barry Allen, the second Flash by David Kennedy, Immortal Befuddled-Prelude by Dennis E. Power

[22] According to his biography, The Thinker was a young district attorney named Clifford Devoe who had failed to convict the criminal kingpin of Keystone city, Hunk Norvock, because his witnesses suddenly began giving favorable testimony for Norvock. Keystone City was DC’s stand-in for Philadelphia in the Golden Age. Disillusioned, Devoe offered to use his legal training and brilliant mind to work for Novok. Devoe was in seclusion for about a decade. Norvock suddenly called upon Devoe to help him with the problem that was plaguing him, the Golden Age Flash. Devoe eliminated all witnesses against Norvock and realized that Norvock would kill him rather than be grateful.  Devoe maneuvered Norvock into shooting himself. Devoe then seized control of Novak’s criminal empire. He was one of the 1940's Flash's most constant opponents. In the late forties he acquired the Thinking Cap, a cybernetic device that amplified intelligence. Actually the story is a bit more complicated than that. As will be explained in greater detail in the Lawrence Luthor article, Clifford Devoe's sudden conversion to crime and his decade of disappearance was due to the fact that in late 1933 while in a drunken stupor, Clifford Devoe became the first victim of the Black Beller known as Braniac.)

[23] The true origin of Per Degaton will also be revealed later in this article.

[24] The Gambler was one of the first criminals to follow the lead of the vigilantes and work in costume. His guise was of an old riverboat gambler, but in reality he was a master of disguise. He based his costume on his grandfather, who was a renowned river boat gambler and an acquaintance of George Devol. George Devol was the renowned riverboat gambler who wrote the classic 40 Years A Gambler On Mississippi and Henry Finn. Steven Sharpe spent time with a carnival, learning a variety of knife throwing and make-up techniques to complete his disguises; he became acquainted with the Wizard during this training period. Although the Gambler had sprung to national fame by pulling off a small-town bank robbery against heavy odds, Sharpe in fact began his career in the Mississippi Delta by robbing trains and small-town banks. By 1944, the Gambler's grew tired of the small amounts he was taking from Midwestern banks and went East for larger hauls.

[25] The Wizard, according the biography given to him by DC Comics was a small-time crook with the name William I. Zard, who learned magic while in prison. He eventually ended up, as did everyone it seems in the Thirties and Forties who wanted to learn esoterica, in Tibet. He learned the art of illusion and returned to the United States where he used his knowledge for crime. The origin given to the Wizard by DC comics was mostly fictional because the truth would have been hurtful to many people. The Wizard had been a stage magician of some renown, Mephisto the Marvelous, a contemporary of Houdini—who had counted him as a friend/rival in the arts of prestidigitation and escape. When Mephisto's wife and child died, he became an opium and cocaine addict. This eventually led him to use his skills for criminal endeavors. )

[26] The comic book version has the Gambler taking on the Atom, but the Atom was not adventuring much after his near fatal electrocution by Gudra the Valkyrie.

[27] By this time Alan Scott was in almost constant pain from the effects of his ring. The ring was designed to kill unauthorized users and the ring did not wholly accept him as an authorized user, so its defense mechanism attempted to kill him. But the ring was also designed to protect its wearer, so it repaired the damage caused by its defense mechanism. Over time Scott’s immune system was compromised, and he wholly depended on the ring for his health. To remove the ring would have meant certain death. The ring kept him alive, yet at the same time it was killing him. Over time Scott's body could no longer tolerate the constant destruction and rebuilding of his tissues, and he would take the ring off and succumb to sickness a few weeks later. This happened in late 1949. Later stories about Alan Scott were based on previously untold exploits or should be taken as tributes to a man who was a hero despite his constant agony.

[28] All Star Comics 37, November 1947  "The Injustice Society of the World"

[29] For a bit of information about MK Ultra

[30] See Nightcrawlers by Robert M. McCammon and Jacob's Ladder

[31] For more information on “Per Degaton” please see the Lethal Luthors: Austin and Evil article.

[32] This version diverges from the comics version (All-Star Comics 58-59, January-February 1976- March-April 1976)

[33]  All-Star Comics #66 May-June 1977 The comic book version has the Star Spangled Kid involved in this case. This is because Omega did not wish the publicity. Oddly enough the original Wizard was one of the men in the Omega organization who captured Dr. King at this time.

[34] This was not the original Wonder Woman from the forties but rather her daughter Lyta Trevor who assumed the role in 1975

[35] Showcase #99 (April 1978): "The Crater That Was Keystone City"

[36] Dr. King's jealousy of Wonder Woman over Steve Howard was misdirected. Although the comics portrayed a romantic relationship between Wonder Woman and Steve Howard, to echo the earlier forties romance between Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman and Howard were only good friends and partners. Her true romantic relationship was very secret until recently. She was currently dating another member of the intelligence community named Arnold Munro.

[37] DC Comics Presents No. 41  January 1982 A Bold New Direction For Wonder Woman”

[38] Wonder Woman 288, February 1982 “Swan Song”

[39] Wonder Woman 289, March 1982 “His Name Is Psycho”

[40] Wonder Woman 290, April 1982. “Panic Over Pennsylvania Avenue

[41] There is a persistent rumor that Henry King had a son by Merry Pemberton who inherited his powers. Others have theorized that that the red headed man who bore a striking resemblance to the illusionary form projected by The Brain Wave in the seventies was nothing more than that, a thought image projected from the Phantom Zone or perhaps the wily villain had escaped.

 

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