Villainy Inc. is a group of fictional villains who battle Wonder Woman. They originally appeared in the Golden Age and have reappeared as a modern-age team with a revamped line-up.
Fictional team history
Golden Age
Villainy Inc. debuted in Wonder Woman #28, in the last story written by series creator William Moulton Marston. The villains, who were individually sentenced to prison on the Amazon penal colony Transformation Island and later escaped, teamed up to take down their common enemy; led by the Saturnian slaver Eviless, who had tricked the Amazons into believing she had lost her evil nature by manipulating the lock on a magic girdle, and stole Wonder Woman's lasso. While faking her death by controlling her heartbeat, she then wraps the lasso around her arm to smuggle herself out. She tries to release the prisoners on Transformation Island, but most of them refuse due to their Venus Girdles. However, the ones that agree with Eviless join her. They capture Hippolyta using the lasso as Blue Snowman, Poison, and Hypnota lure her into a trap, as she thinks men are on the island. Hippolyta is then taken from the island. Later, the villains capture her by binding her with the lasso and taking her in a boat, but she drags the boat underwater and saves Eviless, as Saturnians cannot swim. Clea tried to anonymously buy a submarine from Steve Trevor to return to Atlantis, but Trevor recognized her and played along to capture her. He was knocked out by Giganta, and Clea and her aide decided to capture the Holliday Girls and Wonder Woman to force him to give them a submarine. They net and bind the Girls in Professor Zool's lab and Giganta attacks Wonder Woman as she enters, but is overpowered. This sort of worked, and they forced Wonder Woman to steal a US Navy sub for them—but Clea and Giganta were recaptured before their sub could fully dive. They would all be returned to Transformation Island by Wonder Woman and the Amazons.
Post-Crisis
Following the retcons in Crisis on Infinite Earths, the group's history began when they first menaced Hippolyta in the Golden Age. Cheetah, Zara, Doctor Poison and Hypnotic Woman were assembled by Queen Clea. The Atlantean monarch of the city Venturia enlisted the others to defeat her rival city, Aurania. They were repeatedly foiled by Hippolyta. Later, Hippolyta's daughter Diana traveled back in time and discovered them in battle. Clea was defeated by Diana and Clea's own daughter, Ptra. In recent times, when all of Atlantis disappeared from the Earth, Clea again set out to assemble a new Villainy, Inc. and conquer a land to rule. Together they descended upon the other-dimensional land of Skartaris. She used Cyborgirl to take control of the entire dimension. Clea's entire plan, however, was commandeered by Trinity. Trinity was in fact revealed to be a virus, engineered by the founders of Skartaris. When the "Trinity Virus" was reintroduced into Skartaris' governing computer system, the whole land began to regress and "devolve" to its origins. Wonder Woman managed to stop the process from becoming permanent, but still, some of Skartaris' inhabitants were lost in the de-evolution.
Members
Pre-Crisis
Post-Crisis
In other media
Film
Villainy Inc. debuts in the animated film . Led by Doctor Cyber, the team consists of Doctor Poison, Giganta, Cheetah, and their newest recruit, Silver Swan. The group's plan is to revive and empower the mythical Medusa through Poison and Cyber's combined science. They planned to use her as a weapon to invade Themyscira in order to steal the Amazons' technological artifacts, but after Medusa is awakened, she quickly turns against them, destroying Cyber and killing Poison. Medusa takes Poison's enhancement drug to enlarge herself to gigantic proportions, and goes on a rampage to destroy the Amazons. Silver Swan changes sides and helps Wonder Woman vanquish her. It is later revealed that Veronica Cale was the mastermind behind Villainy Inc.'s actions.
