Mr. Nobody (comics)

Mr. Nobody
Mr. Nobody. Art by Richard Case.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Doom Patrol, Vol. 2, #26 (September 1989)
Created by	Grant Morrison.
In-story information
Alter ego	Mr. Morden
Team affiliations	Mister Somebody Enterprises Brotherhood of Dada Brotherhood of Evil
Notable aliases	Mr Somebody, Thayer Jost
Abilities	Can drain the sanity from others.

Mr. Nobody is a supervillain in the DC Comics universe. While he appeared in his original identity of Mr. Morden in Doom Patrol vol. 1 #86 (March 1964), his first appearance as Mr. Nobody was in Doom Patrol vol. 2, # 26 (September 1989).

Fictional character biography

Mr. Nobody's real name is Morden, first name unknown. He appeared in one issue of the original series (Doom Patrol #86) as a member of the Brotherhood of Evil. In this appearance he steals Rog, a robot designed by the Chief for lunar exploration.

When Grant Morrison reintroduced Morden in Doom Patrol vol. 2 #26, he provided a back story to explain Morden's absence. Former Brotherhood of Evil teammates the Brain and Monsieur Mallah had promised to kill Morden if he appears again, so he hid for many years in Paraguay. Still longing to be a part of society again, he undergoes experiments by an ex-Nazi scientist that grant him the ability to drain the sanity from human beings. However, he himself is driven insane, and forms the Brotherhood of Dada instead. He now looks like a two-dimensional artistic representation of a shadow and has an empty space on his chest in the shape of a heart.

Mr. Nobody recruits several bizarrely-powered individuals to form the first Brotherhood of Dada: Sleepwalk, who has vast strength only when sleepwalking; Frenzy, a large, garishly-dressed dyslexic Jamaican man who can transform into a whirling cyclone; Fog, who can absorb humans into his being when in his gaseous form; and the Quiz, a Japanese woman with "every super-power you've never thought of." The Brotherhood steals a psychoactive painting and uses it to absorb the city of Paris, France, along with several members of the Doom Patrol. They also unwittingly unleash "the fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse" from the painting. They are forced to help the Doom Patrol stop it, and DP member Crazy Jane harnesses the power of the painting to transform the Horseman into a hobby-horse, releasing her teammates and the city of Paris and trapping Mr. Nobody and his Brotherhood within the painting.^[1]

Later, Mr. Nobody escapes from the painting with the help of four members of his new Brotherhood of Dada, Agent "!", Alias the Blur, the Love Glove, and Number None. They steal the bicycle of Albert Hofmann, and use its lysergic resonance to power Mr. Nobody's presidential campaign.^[2] The US Government, unwilling to let Mr. Nobody become president, sends a super-powered agent after him: John Dandy, a man whose face is blank but has six other faces floating around him. Dandy kills almost every member of the Brotherhood, including Mr. Nobody. He throws one of his faces at Nobody, rendering the latter powerless and defenseless. Dandy then impales the now-human Mr. Nobody on a broken pole. Cut off from his powers, Mr. Nobody slowly fades away into nothingness.^[3]

Mr. Nobody returns in the final pages of Doom Patrol #11, this time white instead of black. He now calls himself Mr. Somebody. He inhabits the body of billionaire Thayer Jost, and controls MSE, "Mister Somebody Enterprises," for his own mysterious goals. Through MSE, he has leveled Danny the Street into Danny the Brick with his multidimensional gentrifiers, and created the Front Men, his own team of metahumans with the public goal of being a police to the superhuman community, but had the true goal of being killed by the Doom Patrol to further his own goals.^[4]

Powers and abilities

Mister Nobody had the ability to drain the sanity from his victims.

References

1. ^ Doom Patrol vol. 2, #29
2. ^ Doom Patrol vol. 2 #50
3. ^ Doom Patrol vol. 2 #52
4. ^ Doom Patrol #12

• The DC Comics Encyclopedia, DK Publishing. 1st American ed., 2004. Phil Jimenez. ISBN 0-7566-0592-X
• Mr. Nobody at the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe