Mirror Master

Mirror Master
Mirror Master (Scudder) in his first appearance.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	(Scudder) Flash #105 (March 1959) (McCulloch) Animal Man #8 (February 1989)
Created by	(Scudder) John Broome Carmine Infantino (McCulloch) Grant Morrison Chas Truog
In-story information
Alter ego	- Samuel Joseph Scudder - Digger Harkness - Evan McCulloch
Team affiliations	Rogues Secret Society of Super Villains Injustice Gang
Abilities	Various powers over mirrors, including the ability to travel through them and trap others within them.

Mirror Master is a fictional character and a supervillain in the DC Universe. He is a recurring foe of the Flash with considerable technical expertise and skills involving the use of mirrors. Four individuals have donned the guise of Mirror Master. In 2009, Mirror Master was ranked as IGN's 79th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.^[1]

Sam Scudder

Sam Scudder was a simple convict, but had the goal to learn how to get inside the reflection of a mirror. Stumbling into a hall of mirrors, he experimented and discovered a way to get in his own reflection. He used this power to become the criminal Mirror Master.^[2] He battled the Flash several times. Scudder died around the same time as Barry Allen, alongside the Icicle during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Later, Captain Boomerang briefly assumed Scudder's identity, becoming the second Mirror Master. He used this as an alternate identity with which to commit crimes, thus not alerting his teammates in Suicide Squad to his extracurricular activities. Pre-Crisis he studied mirrors after someone's reflection was held inside a mirror he was working on in the prison workshop. He then learned how to create creatures of light.

In Blackest Night crossover, Sam Scudder has reanimated as an undead Black Lantern during the Blackest Night and is preparing an attack on The Rogues with the deceased members who are also reanimated.^[3]

The Rogues visit Sam Scudder's old hideout and unveil a giant mirror with the words In Case of Flash: Break Glass. It has been shown in several past incidents that something lives in the mirror universe that is deadly.^[4] When the Flash enters the gateway of unveil a giant mirror, it only shows him a vision of his mother.^[5] The meaning of "In Case of Flash: Break Glass" remains unknown.

Evan McCulloch

As a baby, Scottish^[6] mercenary Evan McCulloch is left 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, who Evan in self defense kills and drowns in a creek. Never caught, Evan leaves the orphanage at 16 with his parents' photograph.

He settles in Glasgow, taking up a life that leads to crime 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 offer him the costume and weapons of the original Mirror Master in exchange for his services.^[7]

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.^[8] 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^[9]

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.^[10] During the events of 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.^[11] For a brief time, McCulloch is a member of Lex Luthor's Injustice Gang and fights the Justice League of America, but abandons the team when Batman offers to pay him twice what Luthor was offering.

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.

Infinite and Final Crisis

McCulloch joins Alexander Luthor'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 Martian Manhunter.

One Year Later, Evan is a member of the new Suicide Squad,^[12] 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, Flash IV, to kill the Flash. This makes all the Rogues angry for being tricked when they find out they murdered a kid.^[13]

Mirror Master is one of the exiled villains in the Salvation Run along with 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 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.^[14] Evan and the rest of the Rogues reject Libra's offer, wanting to stay out of the game, and take their revenge on Inertia.^[15]

The Flash (Vol. 3)

McCulloch is still on the run with The Rogues. A futuristic version of Mirror Master, referred to as the Mirror Monarch, is killed and his body is dropped in public by a shadowy figure in a Flash suit. The Monarch's allies, from a futuristic, heroic incarnation of the Rogues, arrest Barry.^[16] However, after witnessing Barry's selfless heroism when their attempt to arrest him is interrupted by Captain Boomerang, the future version of the Top explains that Barry will kill Mirror Monarch because he mistook him for Mirror Master; the 'In Case of Flash' mirror will release the powerful demons known as the Mirror Lords, one of which will possess Iris, with Barry being forced to kill Mirror Master in order to send the demons back into the mirror or face Iris being permanently possessed by the Mirror Lord, only to kill Mirror Monarch by accident.^[17] When the Flash enters the gateway of unveil a giant mirror, but there are no demons or Mirror Lords only for it to show him a vision of his mother and he is caught by the Renegades. The Flash learns that Top is actually framing him for a crime he committed.^[5] The Flash is taken to a 25th century courtroom and tells them, despite the historical evidence that the Mirror Lords did not escape and travels back to the 21st century to fight the Top. The Top revivals that he killed Mirror Monarch prevent the Flash from finding out that the Top's ancestor was the real murderer case which would cost him his job. The Renegades then take the Top back to the 25th century to be tried and the Flash finds the real murderer.^[18]

Powers and abilities

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

• Mirror Master appeared in issue #23 of the Super Friends spin-off comic book.
• Mirror Master appeared in issue #12 of the Justice League Unlimited spin-off comic book.
• Mirror Master appeared in issue #16 of the Batman: The Brave and The Bold comic book.

Tangent Mirror Master

A Mirror Master featured in Tangent: Superman's Reign #1, had a body made of a glass-like substance, and was able to create portals to other worlds in the Multiverse.

League Busters Mirror Master

A fourth Mirror Master who wore a purple outfit briefly appeared as a member of the "League-Busters" in Justice League International v2, #65 (Jun 1994).

Flashpoint

In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Evan McCulloch is imprisoned in the mirrors called the mirrorverse. It is mostly assumed Citizen Cold killed him, and he cannot leave the mirrors or he will die. Anyone else entering the mirrors will die also. Mirror Master assembles the Rogues members: Weather Wizard, Tar Pit, and Fallout.^[19] Mirror Master then escapes from Iron Heights and pursues revenge against Citizen Cold for imprisoning him.^[20] Citizen Cold kills the Rogues members and then enters Mirror Master's mirrorverse without warning. Mirror Master attempts to kill him, but Citizen Cold pushs him out of the mirrorverse and he dies.^[21]

In other media

Television

• Mirror Master appeared in an episode of Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show entitled "Reflections in Crime" voiced by Casey Kasem. Interestingly enough the Flash doesn't appear in this episode. In the episode, Mirror Master sets about trapping the Super Friends in this particular episode inside mirrors called the sixth dimension. The Super Friends managed to escape and trap Mirror Master in a House of Mirrors.

Mirror Master as seen in The Flash.

• An episode of the live action The Flash TV series featured Samuel "Sam" Scudder (played by David Cassidy), a criminal nicknamed the Mirror Master, who used holograms projected by small mirrored disks to commit his heists.

• Mirror Master cameos in the Justice League episode, "Eclipsed". An actor is hired to play Mirror Master as a part of Flash's Lightspeed energy bar commercial. The actor has a slight Scottish accent, similar to McCulloch.

Mirror Master in Justice League Unlimited

• Mirror Master next appears in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Flash and Substance" voiced by Alexis Denisof. The character seems to be a mix of Scudder and McColloch. He is clearly American and thus not the Scottish follow-up Mirror Master, as well as being a simple criminal and not a hitman; however, his mirror powers are tilted more towards the enhanced, almost supernatural McCulloch skills, including a Mirror Dimension. It was mentioned by Captain Boomerang that the Flash made Mirror Master eat his own "Laser-Kaleidoscope", though Mirror Master dismissed this as being false saying "That's a rumor! A complete exaggeration. Besides, it was a laser pistol". This incarnation seemed to act as the de facto leader of the Rogues, convincing the others to exact revenge upon the Flash for repeatedly thwarting their plots, joining forces with Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold, and Trickster to attack Flash and later demolish the newly opened Flash Museum upon entering through Linda Park's compact mirror. In his battle with Flash, Batman, and Orion, Mirror Master ended up trapped in the broken shards of the mirror after Batman threw his Batarang at Linda Park's mirror. Forensics were shown collecting the pieces of the mirror. He also had a cameo as a member of the Secret Society in JLU episode "The Great Brain Robbery".

Mirror Master with his assistant Smoke on The Batman.

• Mirror Master appeared in the fifth season of The Batman voiced by and modeled after John Larroquette. This Mirror Master is referred to as Dr. Sam Scudder, a brilliant but mad optical physicist. In "A Mirror Darkly," he employed mirror versions of Batman, Flash, and Robin to steal components for his Mirror Portal Ray. He used it to trap Gotham's citizens in any reflective surface--mirrors, windows, even a silver serving tray. On a side note, he has a female assistant named Smoke (voiced by Amanda Anka). In "Lost Heroes," he fights Flash and Green Arrow in a circus fun house only for Green Arrow to cut off his reflection by a slime-emitting arrow.

• Mirror Master appears in Batman: The Brave and the Bold voiced by Tom Kenny. Judging by his Scottish accent, this Mirror Master is the Evan McCulloch version. He and Captain Cold are mentioned as having been recently defeated by Batman. He makes a non-speaking cameo in "Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster" where he traps Batman and Barry Allen in a trap only for Batman to cut him and Allen out of the trap and then for Flash to redirect a beam back to Mirror Master, supposedly knocking him out. In the anthology only episode "Four Star Spectacular!" in the vignette "Double Trouble." He traps the Flash using a mirror maze and attacks him with a horde of mirror duplicates. Flash eventually realizes which of the images is the one real Mirror Master and knocks him out.

Film

• Mirror Master will appear in Justice League: Doom with Alexis Denisof reprising his role from the Justice League animated series.^[22]

Video Game

• Mirror Master appears in DC Universe Online, voiced by Brandon Young

References

1. ^ Mirror Master is number 79 IGN. Retrieved 10-05-09.
2. ^ The DC Comics Encyclopedia. Dorling Kindersley Limited. 2004. p. 204. ISBN 0-7566-0592-x. 
3. ^ Blackest Night: The Flash #1 (February 2010)
4. ^ The Flash Secret Files and Origins 2010
5. ^ ^{a b} The Flash (vol. 3) #5 (September 2010)
6. ^ Flash #133 (January 1998)
7. ^ Flash: Rogues tpb
8. ^ Animal Man 8
9. ^ Mobfire 1-6
10. ^ Flash v2 105
11. ^ Flash #129 (September 1997)
12. ^ Checkmate #6
13. ^ Flash: The Fastest Man Alive 1-13
14. ^ Final Crisis #1
15. ^ "Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge" #1-3
16. ^ The Flash (vol. 3) #1 (April 2010)
17. ^ The Flash (vol. 3) #4 (July 2010)
18. ^ The Flash (vol. 3) #6 (November 2010)
19. ^ Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #1 (June 2011)
20. ^ Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #2 (July 2011)
21. ^ Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #3 (August 2011)
22. ^ http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/news.php/news.php?action=fullnews&id=1135

External links

• Hyperborea entry for Mirror Master I
• Hyperborea entry for Mirror Master II
• 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.
• Crimson Lightning - An online index to the comic book adventures of the Flash.