Psimon

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caption=Psimon, by Tom Raney
comic_color=background:#8080ff
character_name=Psimon
real_name=Dr. Simon Jones
publisher=DC Comics
debut="New Teen Titans" #3 (December 1980)
creators=Marv Wolfman
George Pérez
alliance_color=background:#cccccc
alliances=Injustice League Fearsome Five Secret Society of Super Villains
aliases=
powers=Psychokinesis, Telepathy, Genius intelligence|

Psimon is a fictional comic book supervillain from DC Comics created by George Pérez and Marv Wolfman. He first appeared in "New Teen Titans" #3 (January 1981) as one of the founding members of the Fearsome Five, which became a frequent enemy of the Teen Titans, Superman, and the Outsiders.

Fictional character biography

Physicist Dr. Simon Jones was working on experiments in contacting other dimensions when he was contacted in turn by the demon Trigon the Terrible, the father of the superhero Teen Titan known as Raven. Trigon used his abilities to transform Jones into a powerful psychic with telepathic and telekinetic powers, and gave him the mission to destroy the Earth. Finding an ad by the psychopathic supervillain Doctor Light in the "Underworld Star", a criminal underground paper, Jones, now calling himself Psimon, joined Light’s new group, the Fearsome Five, hoping to fulfill his mission, and usurped Light’s role as the team’s leader during their first battle against the Teen Titans, in which he telepathically planted the suggestion in their minds to kill the Justice League. The plan failed, however, and the Five were defeated.

In "New Teen Titans" #5 (March 1981), Trigon, growing impatient with Psimon’s lack of progress, banished his psychic minion to another dimension. In "New Teen Titans" #7 (May 1981) the remaining members of the Five attacked the Titans at their new headquarters, Titans Tower, and used their dimensional transmitter to return their teammate to them, but they were subsequently imprisoned.

Psimon’s teammate Gizmo eventually broke the team out of prison, and Psimon, now acting as team leader, led the Five in kidnapping Dr. Helga Jace in order to force her to make them an army of "Mud Men" to aid them in their battles, but they were again defeated, this time by the combined forces of Batman, the Outsiders, and the Teen Titans.

Psimon later allied himself with the immortal dimensional traveler known as the Monitor during the seminal 1985 event known as "Crisis on Infinite Earths". During this, the rest of the Five, feeling betrayed by Psimon, turned on him, apparently killing him. In Pre-Crisis continuity, Psimon was rescued by Brainiac and the Earth-1 Lex Luthor, saving him from the Anti-Monitor's Shadow Demons and recruited him for their Villain Army, taking over Earths 4, S, and X. He became suspicious of the two villains' plans and, learning that they were going to take over the worlds by themselves once the heroes and villains were wiped out, attacked the two. He apparently destroyed Brainiac and went to finish off Luthor, only to have his brain blasted away by a recreated Brainiac in one of the more brutal surprise deaths of the storyline.

He later turned up alive, cutting a swath of destruction through another star system far from Earth, devastating the planets of Kallas and Talyn (home of Jarras Minion). He returned to Earth to seek revenge on those who wronged him. Finding his former teammates Mammoth and Shimmer at a Tibetan monastery, having renounced a life of crime, he attacked them, driving a spear through Mammoth’s head, and turning Shimmer into glass and then shattering her. When he found Gizmo, he shrunk the diminutive inventor down to subatomic size. He then attacked and psychically tortured the Teen Titans, but was defeated and placed in the custody of the interstellar police force known as the Darkstars, and later imprisoned in the metahuman prison known as the Slab, after which his powers were apparently diminished.

Psimon was present during the "Last Laugh" riots initiated by the Joker in the 2001-2002 crossover storyline "Joker: Last Laugh". In "Outsiders" Vol. 3#6 (January 2004), he managed to engineer a massive prison breakout and escape when the cult leader Brother Blood had taken over the prison in an attempt to activate a global satellite system.

Psimon later joined up with frequent Captain Marvel archenemy Dr. Sivana, who, in a storyline in "Outsiders" #12 -15 (July-October 2004), freed Psimon’s former teammates Mammoth, Gizmo and Jinx from prison, and was able to successfully restore Shimmer’s shattered form, returning her to life. Despite lingering animosity between Psimon and Mammoth, Sivana put the team to work for him in a scheme to short sell Lexcorp stock by having them steal its accounts from its corporate building in Metropolis, and then driving down the stock by killing all the people in the building, and destroying two other Lexcorp properties. At the latter of the two, a microchip processor factory of Lexcorp's subsidiary, Kellacor, the Five were confronted by the Outsiders. After escaping, the criminally unsophisticated Five urged Sivana to take Lexcorp's nuclear missile facility near Joshua Tree, California. When Sivana refused, Psimon asserted that they would take it anyway, and in response, Sivana killed Gizmo with a laser blast to the head, and severed relations with the remaining four, warning them that he would kill them if they ever crossed his path again. The Five decided to initiate the plan themselves, but were defeated in their plan to take the facility and fire a nuclear missile at Canada. Mammoth was returned to the metahuman prison on Alcatraz Island, but Psimon and the others remain at large.

Most recently, he is seen among the new Injustice League and is one of the villains featured in "Salvation Run". Exiled to a savage new world, he attempts to convince his fellow super-villains that escape is impossible, and then proceeds to lay down plans for beginning a new civilization. He is interrupted by the Joker, who apparently murders him by breaking the dome which houses his brain and smashing it with a rock, repeatedly.

Personality and abilities

An arrogant, power-hungry sadist, Psimon does not always kill his victims, but prefers to instill his opponents with fear. He once attempted, for example, to fire a nuclear missile at Canada, simply because he thought it would terrify the world.

Psimon possesses powerful telepathic and telekinetic abilities. With his telepathy, he can read minds, take over other people’s minds to force them to do his bidding, cast telepathic illusions so that he or others may appear to be someone else. His telekinesis allows him to move objects, and can even affect large objects in his presence but outside his line of sight, as when he caused a ceiling to collapse onto Outsider Nightwing. Devices known as psychic dampeners can be used to prohibit him from using his powers, either by having him wear one, as had been done when he was incarcerated in the Slab, or by being worn by a potential victim, though Psimon can override the dampener’s effectiveness by coming into physical contact with the victim, specifically by placing his hands on the victim’s head.

Other Media

Television

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* In the "Teen Titans" animated series, Psimon appears in Season 5 as one of the recruits of the Brotherhood of Evil. He was chosen to attack Raven and trap her in another dimension for the Brotherhood of Evil. He succeeds due to the interference of Kyd Wykkyd (who, while Raven was locked in a stalemate with Psimon, sneaked up behind Raven and trapped her, kicking her into the portal Psimon subsequently created). But apparently, Raven escapes as she shows up to rescue Beast Boy. He is defeated by the Herald and Raven in the final battle and flash-frozen by Mas y Menos.

Bibliography

* DC’s "Who's Who"
* "The Official Teen Titans Index" (ICG; 1985)
* "The New Titans Sourcebook" (Mayfair Games; 1990)
* "New Teen Titans" Vol. 1 #3 - 5 (January – March 1981)
* "New Teen Titans" Vol. 1 #7 (May 1981)
* "New Teen Titans" Vol. 1 #37 (December 1983)
* "Batman and the Outsiders" #5 (December 1983)
* "Adventures of Superman" #430 (July 1987)
* "Tales of the Teen Titans" #56-58 (August-October 1985)
* "Crisis on Infinite Earths"#1-3 (April - June 1985)
* "Crisis on Infinite Earths" #9 & #10 (December 1985 & January 1986)
* "New Titans" #116-117 (December 1994 – January 1995)
* "Green Lantern" #57 (December 1994)
* "Joker: Last Laugh Secret Files" #1 (December 2001)
* "Joker: Last Laugh" #1 (December 2001)
* "Joker: Last Laugh" #3 (December 2001)
* "Joker: Last Laugh" #6 (January 2002)
* "Birds of Prey" #36 (December 2001)
* "Outsiders" Vol. 3 #6 (January 2004)
* "Outsiders" Vol. 3 #12-15 (July – October 2004)Usage"
* "Salvation Run" Vol. 1 #2 (January 2008)

External links

* [http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=psimon http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=psimon DCU Guide]