Anthony DeanToday’s the birthday of Mark Mardon, aka Flash villain the Weather Wizard.
(Art by Carmine Infantino and Scott Shaw.)
#1976DCCalendar #TheFlash #CaptainCarrot #ZooCrew #DCComics #comics
The Weather Wizard owns a wand that lets him control/generate weather, and is one of Flash's major villains (or "rogues"). Of course, he could make a fortune legitimately (between droughts, climate change, etc.), but using advanced, world-altering tech to rob banks and engage in repeated fights against some guy in spandex is clearly a much better use. 😉
DC's "Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew" series, set on the funny animal parallel Earth of "Earth-C", eventually introduced "Earth-C Minus" (yes, a parallel Earth name that's a pun), which had funny animal versions of the main DCU characters.
As such, it had as their top team the "Justa Lotta Animals" ("JLA"), including "the Crash," a speedy turtle with Barry's costume/powers. His foe here's the "Weather Weasel."
For the record, DC has *three* turtle characters with super-speed: this guy, Fastback of the Zoo Crew, and the Terrific Whatzit (Fastback's uncle, a turtle with Jay Garrick's costume/powers). Apparently the Crash's favorite comic character as a kid was the Terrific Whatzit (a la Barry being a fan of Jay's comics)...
But back to the Weather Wizard, he could've made a fortune just from generating water for Phoenix alone. IRL, Phoenix is now restricting housing construction due to ongoing water shortages:
Drought, water overuse prompt Arizona to limit construction in some fast-growing parts of Phoenix
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona will not approve new housing construction on the fast-growing edges of metro Phoenix that rely on groundwater thanks to years of overuse and a multi-decade drought that is sapping its water supply.
Though guess it's an ongoing thing in superhero comics: middle-tier or low-tier villains using tech that in real life would make them famous *and* vastly wealthy. See this famous Spider-Man panel (turned meme):
David Harlan"...But I don't WANT to generate water for Phoenix alone!"
Cynicism is Obedience@ComicBookProgressive True, but he's not a Flash-style speedster, so I didn't include him. 🙂
Sentence Grimes@dtgeek I'd be much more into The Flash if the Speed Force family included the turtle speedsters more often.
Ragnell the Mildly Unpleasant@dtgeek Did he invent the wand, or did he steal it?
@ragnell his original origin states he was a petty crook who, while escaping prison, found his brother's lab (his brother had just died). Said brother was working on weather control tech, which Mark used to turn into his weather wand.
Apparently some modern story (Final Crisis?) states Mark might've murdered his brother?
Either way, yes, Mark was a criminal in the first place...