Doctor Mayavale

Foe of the Legion of Superheroes, who fought him in S&tLSH #268, "Life after Life after Life". Written by J.M. DeMatteis and drawn by Steve Ditko, the story begins when a legion cruiser on which Karate Kid, Dream Girl, Cosmic Boy, Chameleon Boy and R.J. Brande are aboard, returning from a mission, encounters a mysterious streetcar in space. Which bears a large letter "D" on one side.

Investigating, three of them board it, Karate Kid, Dream Girl and Chameleon Boy. It suddently takes off at incredible speed, far faster than a legion cruiser, and takes them to a planet, where Dr. Mayavale meets them, sitting in a chair, bearing anachronistic garb (including a Cowboy Hat and an "I Like Ike" button), appearing human but with a number of extra green arms which surround him but don't seem to do much other than accentuate his emotional condition (shaking fists in anger, thumbs up, etc).

He then reveals he is from a planet that believes in reincarnation, and, ignoring warnings of his teachers, he entered a chamber of souls in which he learned the details of all his past lives. There he learned that these three legionnaires in particular had betrayed him in many of his past lives, all of which were apparently on earth, despite Dream Girl being from Naltor, and Chamelon Boy, a Durlan not even being human (although Durlans did visit earth long ago and masqueraded as Greek Gods, but that is another story).

Also, he revealed that in all his past lives, he had devoted his life to goodness, and that to balance his karmic scales, he had to devote one lifetime to pure, unrelenting evil. He then proceeded to get this underway by using a gas (one of his many inventions) to knock the legionnaires unconscious.

Then, in a feat unequalled in the annals of comic book history, he proceeded to laugh at them. For a FULL HOUR. Think about that for a minute. Try to laugh for a full minute at anything. Just try it. Now imagine what kind of man could laugh for a full hour at anything (let alone unconscious people). Think the Joker could do that? A full hour. I'll seeif I can get a scanned shot of this amazing feat of endurance.

He then makes the legionnaires relive the moments in their past when they betrayed him, using robot androids as stand-ins.

In one of Dr. Mayavale's past lives he was Julius Caesar. And Karate Kid was Brutus.

In another, Dr. Mayavale was an indian chief during the indian wars, tracked down by 7th_U.S._Cavalry scout Chameleon Boy.

In the last, he was a NYPD detective betrayed to the mob by his girlfriend, Dream Girl.

Karate Kid and Chameleon Boy succeed defeating the robots, and Dream Girl punches Dr. Mayavale, catching him off guard.

The fact that he was caught off guard stuns him, he states that "evil" should never be caught off guard, therefore he is not evil enough, and he frees the legionnaires and retires to his streetcar, to further study the ways of evil. He vows to return.

Amazingly, he has not. DC has to use him sooner or later or lose the rights to this valuable comic book character. No doubt a new blockbuster summer event will feature the long awaited return of.... Dr. Mayavale!!!!!

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Levity aside, Dr. Mayavale was a one-shot villain from a period that is often regarded as the low point in legion history (this came right after the "[Space Circus of Death]" storyline. It is seldom brought up except as mockery. The artwork is atrocious, and the storyline even more ridiculous (though J.M. DeMatteis would go on to insert topics of reincarnation and past lives into other (non-legion) books more eloquently in the future). Some time ago on one of the legion mailing lists, after a his name was trashed repeatedly, a "DMADL" was founded, also in jest, the "Dr. Mayavale Anti-Defamation League", which tracked the "crimes" of those who mocked the "good name" of the doctor. It became for a time kind of a running joke.

It is doubtful we will ever see Dr. Mayavale again (though Neil Gaiman could probably pull it off and make it worth reading).