Dummy is the name of several characters appearing in

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...

s published by

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

Publication history

The original Dummy first appears in ''Leading Comics'' #1 and was created by

Mort Weisinger Mortimer Weisinger (; April 25, 1915 – May 7, 1978) was an American magazine and comic book editor best known for editing DC Comics' ''Superman'' during the mid-1950s to 1960s, in the Silver Age of comic books. He also co-created such features ...

and Mort Meskin. He is not to be confused with Scarface, the ventriloquist dummy/

alter-ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a different personality. Add ...

operated by Arnold Wesker. In addition to his ''Leading Comics'' appearances, the Dummy fought the

Vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...

in six Golden Age stories: ''

Action Comics ''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/Comic anthology, magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as Detective Comics Inc., which later merged into National ...

'' #58 (March 1943), #63 (August 1943), #69 (February 1944), #75 (August 1944), #87 (August 1945) and #96 (May 1946); although the Vigilante remained a regular ''Action Comics'' feature until issue #198 (November 1954), issue #96 was the Dummy's final appearance for many years. The second, known as Danny the Dummy, first appears in ''Batman'' #134 (September 1960) and was created by

Bill Finger Milton "Bill" Finger (February 8, 1914 – ) was an American comic book writer who co-created the DC Comics character Batman with Bob Kane. Despite making major (sometimes, signature) contributions as an innovative writer, visionary mythos/world ...

and

Sheldon Moldoff Sheldon "Shelly" Moldoff (; April 14, 1920 – February 29, 2012) was an Americans, American comics artist best known for his early work on the DC Comics characters Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and as one of Bob Kane's primary "ghost artists" (unc ...

Fictional character biographies

Original Dummy

The Dummy is an archenemy of the Golden Age era Vigilante, and a skilled inventor of weapons. As the leader of a criminal gang, the Dummy pretends to be a ventriloquist dummy through whom the gang's supposed "true" leader conveys instructions, the gang never suspecting that the Dummy himself is their leader. The Dummy's secret identity is never revealed, and it is never made clear whether he is a human or living dummy. The Dummy later joins

Mister Mind Mister Mind is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, primarily as an enemy of Captain Marvel (DC Comics), Captain Marvel. Created by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck for Fawcett Comics, the character made a cameo appea ...

Monster Society of Evil The Monster Society of Evil is a supervillain team created by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck for Fawcett Comics. It is led by Mister Mind against their mutual enemy Captain Marvel (DC Comics), Captain Marvel. The team is significant as one of the firs ...

and Injustice Unlimited. In the ''

Crisis on Infinite Earths ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' is a 1985 to 1986 American comic book fictional crossover, crossover series published by DC Comics. Written by Marv Wolfman and penciller, pencilled by George Pérez, it was first released as a 12-issue limited ser ...

'' continuity reboot, he is killed in battle with Vigilante. In ''

DC Rebirth DC Rebirth is a 2016 relaunch by the American comic book publisher DC Comics of its entire Line (comics), line of ongoing monthly superhero comic book titles. Using the end of The New 52 (2011–2016) initiative in May 2016 as its launching point ...

'', the Dummy is reimagined as a Victorian man who was magically transformed into a living dummy.

Danny the Dummy

Danny the Dummy, a pint-sized ventriloquist in a top hat and suit, has a hit act in which he plays the dummy to a normal-sized "ventriloquist" named Matt (who is revealed as the real dummy at the end of each show). But the fact that people invariably refer to Danny as "the Dummy" infuriates him, and inspires him to use dummies for crime to make dummies out of the law.

Powers and abilities

The original Dummy is a skilled inventor. He wields a cane in battle that can fire powerful force beams.

In other media

Television

The first incarnation of the Dummy makes minor non-speaking appearances in ''

Justice League Unlimited ''Justice League Unlimited'' (''JLU'') is an American superhero animated series that was produced by Warner Bros. Animation with DC Comics in season 3 and aired on Cartoon Network. Featuring a wide array of superheroes from the DC Universe, and ...

'' as a member of Gorilla Grodd's

Secret Society A secret society is an organization about which the activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence ag ...

Film

* The first incarnation of the Dummy makes a cameo appearance in '' Justice League: The New Frontier''. * The first incarnation of the Dummy appears in '' Lego DC Shazam! Magic and Monsters'', voiced by James Arnold Taylor. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information. This version is a member of the Monster Society of Evil.

Miscellaneous

The first incarnation of the Dummy appears in a flashback depicted in issue #4 of the

Arrowverse The Arrowverse is an American Superhero fiction, superhero media franchise and shared universe that is centered on various interconnected television series based on DC Comics superhero characters, primarily airing on The CW as well as web series ...

tie-in comic miniseries ''Earth-Prime'', in which he joins several supervillains in fighting Pat Dugan and the Star-Spangled Kid.''Earth-Prime'' #4. DC Comics.

References

External links

Dummy
at DC Comics Wiki
Dummy II
at DC Comics Wiki {{DEFAULTSORT:Dummy (Dc Comics) Comics characters introduced in 1941 Comics characters introduced in 1960 Characters created by Bill Finger Characters created by Mort Weisinger Characters created by Sheldon Moldoff DC Comics supervillains Fictional characters from the 19th century Fictional dolls and dummies Fictional inventors in comics Vigilante characters in comics