Dummy (DC Comics)

Dummy is the name of two fictional supervillains in DC Comics. The first Dummy debuted in Leading Comics #1 (Winter 1941).

He is not to be confused with Scarface, the ventriloquist dummy/alter-ego operated by Arnold Wesker.

Fictional character biographies

First Dummy

The Dummy is an archenemy of the Golden Age Vigilante, and a skilled inventor of weapons. As the leader of a criminal gang, the Dummy pretends to be a ventriloquist's 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; in fact, it is never made clear whether the Dummy is a very short human being or an actual wooden dummy that has somehow been brought to life.

The Dummy was a member of a group of villains brought together by the Hand in Leading Comics #1 to cause crimes around the nation, which led to the first case of the Seven Soldiers of Victory; his particular efforts were prevented by the Vigilante, with whom he had apparently already clashed in untold stories, since he was already a known Vigilante enemy. The Dummy returned in Leading Comics #8 to challenge the Seven Soldiers on his own. In addition to his Leading Comics appearances, the Dummy fought the Vigilante in four golden age stories: Action Comics #58 (March 1943), #63 (August 1943), #75 (August 1944), and #87 (August 1945); although the Vigilante remained a regular Action Comics feature until #198 (November 1954), #87 was the Dummy's final appearance for many years.

The Dummy was shown to be responsible for the death of the Vigilante's sidekick Stuff the Chinatown Kid in World's Finest #246 (August–September 1977). However, after the reality alteration caused by the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the 1995-1996 mini-series Vigilante: City Lights, Prairie Justice (1995–1996) depicts Stuff having been killed by mobster Bugsy Siegel.

The Dummy also appears in All-Star Squadron, where he is recruited for Mister Mind's Monster Society of Evil (pre-Crisis). In the course of this storyline, the Dummy passes through Green Lantern/Alan Scott's energy force-field unimpeded, implying that the Dummy is made of wood (which would make him immune to Scott's power) and is indeed a living ventriloquist's dummy.

In modern times, the Dummy returned and took over the criminal organization Injustice Unlimited to battle Infinity, Inc..

Second 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" 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.

In other media

Television

• Dummy I appears in several episodes of the Justice League Unlimited animated television series as a member of the Legion of Doom.

Film

• Dummy I also appears at the end of the DTV movie Justice League: The New Frontier during the famous John F. Kennedy speech.