DC Comics supervillian, specifically of the Flash
Comics character
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
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
Sam Scudder
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. Scudder dies around the same time as Barry Allen, alongside the Icicle during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.[5] Later, Captain Boomerang briefly assumes Scudder's identity, becoming the second Mirror Master. He uses this as an alternate identity with which to commit crimes, thus not alerting his teammates in the Suicide Squad to his extracurricular activities. Pre-Crisis, he studies mirrors after someone's reflection is held inside a mirror he was working on in the prison workshop. He then learns how to create creatures of light.
In the Blackest Night crossover event, Sam Scudder is reanimated as an undead Black Lantern during the Blackest Night and is preparing an attack on the Rogues with the other deceased members, who are also reanimated.[6]
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.[7] The Rogues learn that the giant mirror is actually a slow-acting poison.[8]
In The New 52, a 2011 reboot of the DC Comics universe, 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 that would merge them with their weapons, giving them superpowers. The procedure went awry, causing an explosion at the facility. Golden Glider, who was also at the facility, was caught in the explosion. The five were given superpowers but each in a twisted manner. Heat Wave gains pyrokinesis but at the cost of his body being burned, Weather Wizard becomes emotionally tied to his weather wand causing constant depression, Sam would be forever trapped in Mirror World, and Golden Glider becomes an astral projection of herself. It is implied that Sam is in a romantic relationship with her. The Rogues blame Captain Cold for this and have turned against him because of it.[9]
Evan McCulloch
Mirror Master (Evan McCulloch). Character art from
Who's Who in the DC Universe #13 (October 1991) by
Alan Weiss.
Scottish[10] mercenary Evan McCulloch is 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. Never caught, Evan leaves the orphanage at 16 with his parents' photograph.
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] 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.[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 so that they could ensure that Keystone's citizens were all in the city when it returned to Earth 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 kid.[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]
Other versions
Tangent Mirror Master
A Mirror Master featured in Tangent: Superman's Reign #1, has 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 wears a purple outfit briefly appeared as a member of the "League-Busters" in Justice League International v2, #65 (Jun 1994).
New Rogues
The New Rogues version of Mirror Master is Mirror Man, an unknown man who possesses Mirrors Stolen until killed by Trickster in Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge. He is not to be confused with the Batman villain of the same name.[22]
Flashpoint
In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Evan McCulloch is imprisoned in the mirrors in a place called the Mirrorverse. It is mostly assumed Captain Cold killed him, and he cannot leave the Mirrorverse or he will die. Anyone else entering the Mirrorverse will die also. Mirror Master assembles the Rogues members Weather Wizard, Tar Pit, and Fallout.[23] Mirror Master then escapes from Iron Heights and pursues revenge against Captain Cold for imprisoning him.[24] Captain Cold kills the Rogues members and then enters Mirror Master's Mirrorverse without warning. Mirror Master attempts to kill him, but Captain Cold pushes him out of the Mirrorverse and he dies.[25]
25th Century Mirror Master
A futuristic version Mirror Monarch is a heroic Mirror Master as part of the 25th Century cops known as The Renegades from Professor Zoom's future, but was found dead by Barry Allen in public by a shadowy figure in a Flash suit. The Monarch's allies, from a futuristic, heroic incarnation of the Rogues, arrest Barry.[21] 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 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.[26] 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.[8] 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 reveals 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.[27]
Injustice: Gods Among Us
Mirror Master appears in Injustice: Gods Among Us comic, leading a team hired by the US government through several shell companies to kidnap Superman's parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, from their home in Smallville. Mirror Master kicks down the door to their bedroom, ordering them down on the floor. When they do not act fast enough, he shoves Martha down, prompting Jonathan to punch him despite McCulloch's warning. Jonathan is restrained on Mirror Master's orders and then smacked upside the head by Mirror Master's rifle, knocking him out. McCulloch orders his men to torch the house before he and his men retreat into his mirror dimension with the Kents in tow. When Superman arrives at his parents burning house Mirror Master greets him through a mirror, mocking Superman, unfazed by his threats. He tells Superman that he will never see his parents again but that they are safe, despite the fact Scudder had to rough up Superman's father. In a rage, Superman smashes the mirror, but Mirror Master is unaffected. He goes on, telling Superman "Simple message: Stop what you're doing". He advises Superman to stay out of government business and that if he persists, they will start "sending little pieces of one of them. Maybe we'll even let you choose which one". Mirror Master is the subject of a Justice League manhunt in Central City, with several of the Flash's Rogues Gallery being interrogated by the League for McCulloch's location.
It is ultimately Captain Cold who reveals where Mirror Master is: A bar in Keystone City. The Flash and Wonder Woman crash the bar and make for McCulloch sitting at the bar, but it is revealed that it is not Mirror Master but a projection from the nearby wall mirror. Mirror Master mocks Flash, but the Speedster has the last laugh when Raven appears behind McCulloch and forces him out halfway from the mirror. Wonder Woman forces the location of Superman's parents out of Mirror Master with her Lasso of Truth and the threat of smashing the mirror he is only halfway out of. Mirror Master quickly reveals that the Kents are in Bolivia. Wonder Woman then orders Mirror Master to strip himself of his weapons so they can use his tech to free the Kents.
Though he is not seen after this, he is most likely incarcerated. He then reappears in Year Five, where he is one of the thousands of villains released from Superman's prison by Plastic Man. He is next seen along his fellow Rogues as their new leader, due to Captain Cold going into hiding, as they meet with Batman, who offers them to help him take down Superman's Regime, due to the Rogues' code against killing, which Batman respects. Mirror Master, along with Weather Wizard, Heat Wave, and Golden Glider, attack several Regime buildings in a coordinated attack around the world. They then attack a Regime base in Central City, evacuating the soldiers first before they set to blow it up. Bizarro though shows up and attacks them. During the fight, Scudder gets knocked unconscious, leaving Golden Glider to try to figure out how to use his belt to escape while Heat Wave and Weather Wizard distract Bizarro.
When Weather Wizard calls Bizarro a fake, an angry Bizarro lashes out and incinerates him and Heat Wave with his heat vision. Golden Glider, though, manages to escape through a mirror portal with Scudder and they report about what happened to Batman as they mourn Rory and Mardon. They are then seen holding a memorial for Rory and Mardon at a bar, where it is revealed that Scudder and Glider are in a relationship as they share a kiss. The Flash then visits the bar to pay his respects, but Scudder and Glider angrily berate him, thinking he has come to brag and turn them in, but Flash reveals that he has always respected the Rogues and came by to pay his respects. He also agrees to not turn them in as he, Scudder, and Glider share a beer together.
