Mr. Nobody (comics)
| Mr. Nobody | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | As Eric Morden: Doom Patrol #86 (March 1964) As Mr. Nobody: Doom Patrol vol. 2 #26 (September 1989) |
| Created by | Arnold Drake Bruno Premiani Grant Morrison Richard Case John Nyberg |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Eric Morden |
| Team affiliations | Mister Somebody Enterprises Brotherhood of Dada Brotherhood of Evil |
| Notable aliases | Mr. Somebody, Thayer Jost |
| Abilities | Ability to possess people (as Mr. Somebody)
|
Mr. Nobody (Eric Morden) is a supervillain in the DC Comics universe. He is the founder of the Brotherhood of Dada and an enemy of the Doom Patrol. Introduced as Morden in Doom Patrol #86 (March 1964),[1] the character was re-envisioned as Mr. Nobody for Doom Patrol vol. 2 #26 (September 1989).[2]
Mr. Nobody made his first live adaptation and was part of the main cast of the first season of the Doom Patrol television series on DC Universe, portrayed by Alan Tudyk.
Fictional character biography
Mr. Nobody's real name is Eric Morden. 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 grants 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.[3]
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.[4] 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 and removes what is revealed to be a mask. Cliff Steele attempts to place the semiconscious Mr. Nobody back inside the painting but it was apparently destroyed by gunfire from government agents before Steele could do so. Mr. Nobody then seems to disintegrate.[5]
Mr. Nobody returns, this time white instead of black. He now calls himself Mr. Somebody. He inhabits the body of billionaire Thayer Jost and controls MSE (short for "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. Mr. Somebody had the true goal of being killed by the Doom Patrol to further his own goals.[6]
Powers and abilities
As a normal person, Eric Morden was a scientist who created a giant robot "Rog", which he offered to the Brotherhood of Evil in exchange for membership.
Once transformed into Mr. Nobody, Morden gained ambiguous Godlike powers at the cost of his humanity and sanity. Rejecting science, Morden could now warp reality, possess people, and teleport seamlessly through time and space.
In the Doom Patrol TV series, Mr. Nobody possesses omniscience, allowing him to view and interact with the past, present, and future at will. He also possesses psychic powers: using these powers, he's able to create lifelike illusions which he uses to torment others and to drive them irrevocably insane (as he did Lodestone, Celcius, and Mento). He also can use his power to alter the past; communicating with Crazy Jane to prevent her from killing her psychiatrist and instead making one of her personalities (that can control minds) form a cult to create a cosmic horror entity by of belief/worship to fight another cosmic horror entity. Mr. Nobody, in the TV show, also can warp reality, turning humans into piñatas and creating monstrosities known as "the Vinyl Men" as henchmen. He can also drive people into a homicidal frenzy through sound, as he used the music of Perry Como to drive innocent people irrevocably insane and create miniature pocket universes, where he can hide people from others.
In the comic, Morden can not change back and forth from his normal form and his human form. During his second encounter with the Doom Patrol as Mr. Nobody, a weakness was revealed relating to canceling out his power. Being hooded or masked can cause Morden to revert to normal human form (where he was portrayed as naked save for the gloves he wore as Mr. Nobody). Removing the mask caused Morden to turn back into Mr. Nobody; while masked, Morden was horrified at what he became, as his sanity also returned and begged the Doom Patrol to not let him revert to Mr. Nobody. However, one of the Brotherhood of Dada removed the mask from Morden's face and he returned to his insane inhuman form. This is inverted in the Doom Patrol TV adaptation; Mr. Morden can turn from human to his Mr. Nobody form at will, nor does he have a weakness where he can be stripped of his power.
In other media
Eric Morden appears in DC Nation Shorts Doom Patrol, voiced by Jeffrey Combs.
Mr. Nobody appears in the Doom Patrol television series, portrayed by Alan Tudyk.[7] In the 1940s, Eric Morden was a low level criminal in the Brotherhood of Evil until he was replaced by a giant gorilla, causing him to lose his girlfriend in the process. Wanting to be more than a "nobody", Morden traveled to Paraguay to undergo an experimental procedure that would've given him metahuman powers. The procedure however was interrupted by Niles Caulder, who attempted to halt the experiment. Morden however survived the ordeal, having gained power beyond his own imagination. In the series, Mister Nobody's powers differ from those in the comics. He possesses near (but not total) omnipotence, appears to have control over reality, can alter it to suit his needs, and can create what appear to be small pocket universes. He does, however, keep some sense of his original character, as he uses his near omnipotence to drive others insane, including former members of the Doom Patrol. In the series, Mr. Nobody also acts as the narrator that has broken the 4th wall of the series. He was responsible for capturing the Chief in the first two episodes and threatens the Doom Patrol to give up their search, warning them that he will torture them should they continue. Mr. Nobody endlessly tortures Niles and briefly releasing him to help stop the Decreator. Then he tricked at Cyborg into nearly murdering his own father Silas Stone. At the time when he posed as a hospital patient (portrayed by Ed Asner), Mr. Nobody decides that it's time for him to fight the Doom Patrol. In the episode "Penultimate Patrol", a flashback to the 1940s has Morden telling his girlfriend Millie that he was kicked out of the Brotherhood of Evil and replaced by a gorilla. In "Ezekiel Patrol", Mr. Nobody prevents Crazy Jane from attacking Chief after the Doom Patrol learned that he caused the accidents that gave them their powers and teleports them away. Chief's daughter Dorothy Spinner forces Mr. Nobody out of the picture they are in and then enlarges Ezekiel the Cockroach and Mr. Whiskers who go on a rampage. Elasti-Girl convinces Mr. Nobody to continue his narration, which guides Ezekiel and Whiskers to seek the destruction of the world, and the team allow themselves to be devoured by Ezekiel until Negative Man unleashes a blast that takes out both creatures. When Beard Hunter asks Mr. Nobody what they are supposed to do, Mr. Nobody quotes "Oh sh--" before the explosion happens trapping them in the painting. When Miranda, Vic, Larry, and Roni enter the White Space painting in the second season episode "Dumb Patrol", Mr. Nobody is not present. The Beard Hunter explains that he landed an animated gig, referencing Tudyk's voice over roles on the series Harley Quinn.
References
- ^ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 204. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
- ^ Beatty, Scott; Jimenez, Phil (2004). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 208. ISBN 978-0756605926.
- ^ Doom Patrol vol. 2 #29. DC Comics.
- ^ Doom Patrol vol. 2 #50. DC Comics.
- ^ Doom Patrol vol. 2 #52. DC Comics.
- ^ Doom Patrol #11. DC Comics.
- ^ Andreeva, Nellie (August 31, 2018). "'Doom Patrol': Alan Tudyk Cast As Mr. Nobody In DC Universe TV Series". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 31, 2018.