Mr. Nobody (comics)

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Publication information
Mr. Nobody
Mr Nobody. Art by Richard Case.
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	Brotherhood of Dada Brotherhood of Evil
Abilities	Can drain the sanity from others.

Mr. Nobody is a fictional character 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).

[edit] Character History

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 someone you see in the back of your eye and he has a spot 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]

The Mad Director's cut:

Mister Nobody is the strange old familiar voice that you hear inside your head during the early hours of dawn... whispering back to you, ideas, moods, feelings, and questions, about this world, which you had with you, when you were a mere infant, when your thoughts weren't yet infected by society and the rules and locks they had set to keep your mind working at below 10% of its full capacity. Mister nobody is all the characters you were, in all your past lives, walking with you simultaneously, humming you stories of old, and stories that were never told... ...the gold in your soul, the gold that can’t be sold. Mister Nobody is the painting/song/movie or poem that captures your soul, incarnated as a person... mister nobody is the lover that causes such intense heaviness in your heart, yet you’ve never met... the stranger, you’re sure you knew... the name at the tip of your tongue... Mister Nobody is the young man, who once, a long, long time ago, saved you from the bullies when you were just a kid, and is now standing by your deathbed, still exactly the same, while you’re 90, old, and drained. Yes, Mister Nobody is all that. Writer Grant Morrison (Guy’s one crazy bastard, check him out) rolled all these in a single character. Designed him after all things and beings forgotten, but which lingers still... strumming away at our heartstrings, creating insane moods, like a feather drifting away, oh so gently, in the sweet spring breeze... tra, la, la, la... la, hmmm, yeah....