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Mirror Master

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This article is about the character. For the album, see Mirror Master (album).

Mirror Master
The Sam Scudder incarnation of Mirror Master as depicted in The Flash #136 (May 1963). Art by Carmine Infantino.
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceScudder:
The Flash #105 (March 1959)
McCulloch:
Animal Man #8 (February 1989)
Created byScudder:
John Broome
Carmine Infantino
McCulloch:
Grant Morrison
Chas Truog
In-story information
Alter ego- Samuel Joseph Scudder
- George "Digger" Harkness
- Evan McCulloch
SpeciesMetahuman
Team affiliationsRogues
Secret Society of Super Villains
Injustice Gang
Suicide Squad
Legion of Doom
Abilities
  • Various powers over mirrors, including the ability to travel through them and trap others within them
  • Glass transmutation

Mirror Master is the name of several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is a recurring foe of the Flash with considerable technical expertise and skills involving the use of mirrors.[1] Three individuals have donned the guise of Mirror Master, and have been members of the Rogues. In 2009, Mirror Master was ranked as IGN's 79th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.[2]

Both incarnations of Mirror Master have made several appearances in DC-related media, with Sam Scudder being portrayed in live-action by David Cassidy in the 1990 The Flash series and by Grey Damon in the 2014 The Flash series, while Efrat Dor portrayed a gender-swapped version of Evan McCulloch, named Eva McCulloch, in the 2014 series.

Publication history

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The Sam Scudder version of Mirror Master first appeared in The Flash #105, and was created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino.[3]

The Evan McCulloch version of Mirror Master first appeared in Animal Man #8, and was created by Grant Morrison and Chas Truog.

Fictional character biography

[edit]

Sam Scudder

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Mirror Master (Scudder) in his first appearance. Cover of The Flash vol. 1, #105 (Feb.-March 1959 DC Comics), art by Carmine Infantino, pencils, and Joe Giella, inks

Samuel Joseph Scudder is a simple convict, but has the goal to learn how to get inside the reflection of a mirror. Stumbling into a hall of mirrors, he experiments and discovers a way to get in his own reflection. He uses this power to become the criminal Mirror Master,[4] and is a frequent foe of the Flash.

During the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, Scudder is killed by Krona's booby trap.[5] Years later, he is temporarily resurrected as a Black Lantern in Blackest Night.[6][7][8]

In The New 52 continuity reboot, Sam Scudder is the current Mirror Master. It is revealed that a year prior he, Captain Cold, Heat Wave and Weather Wizard underwent a procedure at an unknown facility to gain their weapons' powers innately. The procedure went awry, causing an explosion that gave the four and Golden Glider superpowers. As a side effect, Scudder was trapped in the mirror dimension..[9]

Evan McCulloch

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The Evan McCulloch incarnation of Mirror Master as depicted in Who's Who in the DC Universe #13 (October 1991). Art by Alan Weiss.

Scottish[10] mercenary Evan McCulloch was left as a baby on the doorstep of an orphanage run by a Mrs. McCulloch, with nothing but his first name and a photograph of his parents. He grows up fairly normal and around age 8, Evan is sexually assaulted by an older boy. Evan, in self-defense, drowns the boy in a creek, and eventually leaves the orphanage at age 16.

He settles in Glasgow, taking up a life that leads to crime and eventually takes up employment as an assassin. He becomes one of the most renowned mercenaries in the United Kingdom. One day, he has two hits scheduled, and due to an eye injury is barely able to make out his second target. After firing his shot, he recognizes the target as his father. At the funeral, Evan sees his mother.

Over the next few days, he tries to work up the courage to see her, but visits her too late, discovering that she has committed suicide. Stricken with grief at the loss of both parents, Evan decides to turn himself in but is instead picked up by a consortium of U.S. government and big business interests, who offer him the costume and weapons of the original Mirror Master in exchange for his services.[11]

His first assignment is to scare Animal Man into abandoning his animal-rights stance, a mission he fails thanks to the hero's wife. After he is fired and replaced for refusing to actually kill Animal Man's wife and children, McCulloch helps Animal Man track and fight the same men who gave McCulloch his weapons, but his heroism is short-lived.[12] He continued to work as a criminal and a supervillain-for-hire. On occasion, he has also worked out of costume as a mercenary in Britain.[13]

He moves to Keystone City and comes into conflict with Wally West, now the third Flash. He discovers a "Mirror Dimension" which enables him to travel through any reflective surface.[14] In Underworld Unleashed, the Rogues accept him as Scudder's successor. After being betrayed by Neron, McCulloch and four of the other Rogues die and go to Hell, only to return after a confrontation between Neron and the Flash.[15] For a brief time, McCulloch is a member of Lex Luthor's initial Injustice Gang and fights the Justice League, but abandons the team when Batman offers to pay him twice what Luthor was offering.

During a brief team-up with Captain Cold, Mirror Master was contacted by Brother Grimm about a plan to permanently get rid of the Flash, but when Grimm betrayed Cold and McCulloch by trapping them in a pocket mirror universe in Linda Park's diamond ring, they joined forces with Wally to escape this dimension and confront Grimm's theft of Keystone City, Wally even briefly lending speed to the two Rogues to protector Keystone's citizens while Wally fought Grimm.

He works with Blacksmith in her takeover of Keystone and Central City. When her plan fails, he joins Captain Cold's gang and battles a cocaine addiction. He seems to sober up since the death of Captain Boomerang.

McCulloch joins Alexander Luthor Jr.'s Secret Society after the Rogue War. He, Captain Boomerang and Captain Cold battle the Outsiders before Infinite Crisis. In Infinite Crisis #7, they all participate in the Battle of Metropolis, being defeated by the Martian Manhunter.

One Year Later, Evan is a member of the new Suicide Squad,[16] again using cocaine. He is seen taking incriminating photos of Sasha Bordeaux and Michael Holt together. The Rogues are then persuaded by Inertia, an enemy of Bart Allen, the Flash IV, to kill the Flash. This makes all the Rogues angry for being tricked when they find out they murdered a child.[17]

Mirror Master is one of the exiled villains in the Salvation Run along with his fellow Rogues Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Weather Wizard, and Abra Kadabra.

After the villains escape, he joins Libra's Secret Society of Super Villains.

Evan teams with Doctor Light to recover Metron's chair, and are challenged by, but defeat, the League of Titans, a Teen Titans spin-off team. Evan persuades the rapist Dr. Light not to sexually assault the unconscious heroines.[18] Evan and the rest of the Rogues reject Libra's offer, wanting to stay out of the game, and take their revenge on Inertia.[19]

Mirror Master and the Rogues visit his predecessor Sam Scudder's old hideout and unveil a giant mirror with the words In Case of Flash: Break Glass written on it.[20] Afterward, McCulloch is still on the run with the Rogues.[21]

Powers and abilities

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Mirror Master uses mirrors that produce fantastic effects such as hypnotism, invisibility, holograms, physical transformations, communications and travel into other dimensions (other parallel universes or planes of existence).

Evan McCulloch uses a laser pistol.

Other versions

[edit]
  • An alternate universe variant of Mirror Master appears in Tangent: Superman's Reign #1. This version's body is composed of a glass-like substance and can create portals to other universes.
  • An unidentified Mirror Master dressed in a purple outfit makes a cameo appearance in Justice League International v2, #65 (Jun 1994) as a member of the "League-Busters".
  • A character based on Mirror Master called Mirror Man appears in "Gotham Underground" and Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge as a member of the New Rogues until he is killed by Mirror Master.[22]
  • An alternate timeline variant of Evan McCulloch / Mirror Master appears in the Flashpoint tie-in Flashpoint: Citizen Cold. After being imprisoned in the Mirrorverse and presumed dead, he recruits Weather Wizard, Tar Pit, and Fallout to form the Rogues before breaking out to pursue revenge against Citizen Cold,[23][24] only to be killed by him.[25]
  • A heroic, futuristic incarnation of Mirror Master called Mirror Monarch appears in The Flash (vol. 3) as a member of a metahuman police force called the Renegades from the 25th century who was killed by an ancestor of his teammate the Top.[21][26][8][27]

In other media

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Television

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Live-action

[edit]
Mirror Master as seen in The Flash (1990).
  • The Sam Scudder incarnation of Mirror Master appears in The Flash (1990) episode "Done with Mirrors", portrayed by David Cassidy. This version is a criminal who utilizes holograms projected by reflective disks.
  • Characters based on Mirror Master appear in The Flash (2014):
    • The Sam Scudder incarnation of Mirror Master appears in the third and seventh seasons, portrayed by Grey Damon.[28][29] This version was originally a member of Leonard Snart's gang three years prior to the series before gaining mirror-based abilities amidst the explosion of S.T.A.R. Labs' particle accelerator. This also trapped him in a mirror, where he remained until escaping in the present and freeing his partner Rosalind Dillon from Iron Heights Penitentiary so they can go on a crime spree together, though the two are defeated by the Flash and Jesse Quick. As of the episode "All's Well That Ends Wells", Scudder and Dillon joined Black Hole until Eva McCulloch (see below) shatters him, revealing he was the first mirror duplicate she created. Additionally, a possible future version of Scudder appears in the episode "The Once and Future Flash".
    • A genderbent incarnation of Evan McCulloch named Eva McCulloch (portrayed by Efrat Dor) appears in the sixth and seventh seasons.[30] She is a quantum engineer, co-founder of McCulloch Technologies, and wife of its CEO Joseph Carver who was also blasted into a mirror and became a mirror duplicate like Scudder when S.T.A.R. Labs' particle accelerator exploded, though she was trapped for six years. After learning Carver stole her technology and used it to create Black Hole, McCulloch developed and honed her newfound mirror-based abilities to get revenge. During her sixth year in the mirrorverse, McCulloch traps several key figures with her and uses mirror duplicates of them to procure technology and eventually escape the mirrorverse. Upon doing so, she kills Carver and retakes her company. After attacking Black Hole's remnants, shattering Scudder's mirror duplicate, discovering her true nature, and the Flash leaking it to the public, McCulloch goes berserk, takes the name "Mirror Mistress", and attempts to replace everyone in Central City with mirror duplicates until the Flash and Iris West-Allen convince her to stand down. Due to her duplicates having grown too powerful, the three destroy them before McCulloch releases her prisoners and returns to the mirrorverse to start anew.

Animation

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Film

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Video games

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Miscellaneous

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  • An unidentified Mirror Master appears in Super Friends #23.[36]
  • The Sam Scudder incarnation of Mirror Master is referenced in the Ookla the Mok song "Stranger in the Mirror".[37]
  • The DCAU incarnation of Mirror Master appears in issue #12 of the Justice League Unlimited tie-in comic book.[38]
  • The Sam Scudder incarnation of Mirror Master appears in issue #16 of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold tie-in comic book.[39]
  • The Evan McCulloch incarnation of Mirror Master appears in the Injustice: Gods Among Us prequel comic. First appearing as the leader of a U.S. government-backed strike team, they are hired to kidnap Jonathan and Martha Kent in an attempt to make the increasingly hostile Superman stand down and stop meddling in government affairs or else they will kill the Kents. In response, the Justice League launch a manhunt for Mirror Master, eventually locating him and rescuing the Kents. Years later, Plastic Man breaks Mirror Master, among other supervillains, out of prison to help Batman's Insurgency cripple Superman's Regime. Mirror Master leads the Rogues in doing so until Bizarro kills Heat Wave and Weather Wizard, after which the surviving Rogues and the Flash hold an informal memorial service for them.

References

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  1. ^ Rovin, Jeff (1987). The Encyclopedia of Supervillains. New York: Facts on File. pp. 221–222. ISBN 0-8160-1356-X.
  2. ^ "Video Games, Wikis, Cheats, Walkthroughs, Reviews, News & Videos - IGN". Comics.ign.com. Archived from the original on 8 October 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  3. ^ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
  4. ^ The DC Comics Encyclopedia. Dorling Kindersley Limited. 2004. p. 204. ISBN 0-7566-0592-X.
  5. ^ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Manning, Matthew K.; McAvennie, Michael; Wallace, Daniel (2019). DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle. DK Publishing. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-4654-8578-6.
  6. ^ Blackest Night: The Flash #1 (February 2010)
  7. ^ The Flash Secret Files and Origins 2010
  8. ^ a b The Flash (vol. 3) #5 (September 2010)
  9. ^ The Flash (vol. 3) Annual #1
  10. ^ The Flash (vol. 2) #133 (January 1998)
  11. ^ Flash: Rogues
  12. ^ Animal Man #8
  13. ^ Mobfire #1-6
  14. ^ Flash (vol. 2) #105
  15. ^ Flash (vol. 2) #129 (September 1997)
  16. ^ Checkmate (vol. 2) #6
  17. ^ Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1-13
  18. ^ Final Crisis #1
  19. ^ Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge #1-3
  20. ^ Flash Secret Files and Origins 2010
  21. ^ a b The Flash (vol. 3) #1 (April 2010)
  22. ^ Gotham Underground #3
  23. ^ Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #1 (June 2011)
  24. ^ Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #2 (July 2011)
  25. ^ Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #3 (August 2011)
  26. ^ The Flash (vol. 3) #4 (July 2010)
  27. ^ The Flash (vol. 3) #6 (November 2010)
  28. ^ Ching, Alfred (10 August 2016). "EXCLUSIVE: "THE FLASH" CASTS ITS MIRROR MASTER". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on 11 August 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  29. ^ "Are More Rogues Coming To CW's Flash? | Newsbite | That Hashtag Show". YouTube. 10 August 2016. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  30. ^ Agard, Chancellor (21 November 2019). "The Flash casts Mayans M.C. actress in role that 'pushes the boundaries of sanity'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  31. ^ a b c d e f g "Mirror Master Voices (Flash)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 9 June 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
  32. ^ "Smoke Voice - The Batman (TV Show)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 9 June 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
  33. ^ Tudor, Brian (18 January 2012). "West Coast Premiere Of Justice League: Doom". ScienceFiction.com. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  34. ^ Couch, Aaron (21 July 2021). "DC's Injustice Sets Cast for Animated Movie (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  35. ^ Eisen, Andrew (4 October 2013). "DC Characters and Objects - Scribblenauts Unmasked Guide". IGN. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  36. ^ "Super Friends #23 - S.O.S. From Nowhere (Issue)". Comic Vine. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  37. ^ Ookla The Mok – Stranger In The Mirror, Genius.com, retrieved 9 June 2024
  38. ^ "Justice League Unlimited #12 - Old School (Issue)". Comic Vine. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  39. ^ "Batman: The Brave and the Bold #16 - Mirror, Mirror... - Part One (Issue)". Comic Vine. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
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  • Alan Kistler's Profile On: THE FLASH - A detailed analysis of the history of the Flash by comic book historian Alan Kistler. Covers information all the way from Jay Garrick to Barry Allen to today, as well as discussions on the various villains and Rogues who fought the Flash. Various art scans.
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