Bring on the Bad Guys: Desparo

Real name: Desparo

First appearance: Justice League of America I#1 (Oct./Nov. 1960)

Abilities: Hypnotism, teleportation, telepathy  

Worst act: Murder

Quote: "Members of the Justice League of America, you are gathered here to deal with the menace of Desparo! But I--Desparo himself--am taking over! Since I have defeated you all, I now declare this meeting adjourned...forever!"

Created by: Gardner F. Fox (script), Mike Sekowsky (pencils), Bernard Sachs (inks) 

The first villian the JLA fought in their own series. Desparo wouldn't have a lot of appearances but they tended to matter when he did so up. In a mostly "holy crap we're all going to die!" kind of way.

When we first see him, Desparo is fairly skinny (later showings would have him bulked up considerably) but his main focus is on his mind. 

The main character of the first story is a scientist, Jasonar, and his fleeing his world from Desparo. Jasonar needs time to finish a secret weapon capable of defeating the tyrant. Desparo knows about this and heads him off at the pass, easily taking the JLA out in the process.

How? Mostly by beating the Flash in a rigged chess game and teleporting each member or so to a different planet. They manage to get back to Earth, but it turns out JLA mascot Snapper Carr already took care of it. Yeah, remember that secret weapon? Carr found it and used it. Super easy, barely an inconvenience really. 

So not the best introduction but things would get better, although nowadays he tends to be more Doomsday like than Dr. Doom. 

Bring on the Bad Guys: Professor Ivo and Amazo

Real name: Ivo

First appearance: Brave and the Bold I#30 (June/July 1960)

Abilities: Making robots, being immortal 

Worst act: Attempted murder, stealing super powers 

Quote: "Before the chlorine gas in the cylinder overcomes you, Flash--I want you to know I am Professor Ivo, creator of the amazing android, Amazo!"

"I move clumsily--sluggishly! I'm not fast anymore! Master...what's happening?"

Created by: Gardner F. Fox (script), Mike Sekowsky (pencils), Bernard Sachs (inks)

Considered making these guys two separate profiles, but eh. Last time the League would be in Brave and the Bold, with their next appearance would be in their own series. 

Ivo seems to have 2 motives. First, he builds Amazo for the purpose of stealing super powers; second, he wants to be immortal. 

For the first part he succeeds and manages to capture most of the League with little to no issue. Funny enough he ignores Superman, but this isn't present as arrogance or foolishness on his part. With the other powers at his disposal plus easy access to kryptonite, what would he do with Superman?

As for the latter he also succeeds but it is clearly more of a curse. The JLA escapes and get their powers back, so now he's sentenced to 500 years. Didn't think that one through, did you?

Ivo isn't the JLA main eventer but he's still managed to pop up a decent amount. Amazo has had a longer career. Sort of predates the Super Adaptoid too, what with his many hero powers bit. 

Bring on the Bad Guys: Xotar the Weapons Master

 Real name: Xotar

First appearance: Brave and the Bold I#29 (April/May 1960)

Abilities: Access to time travel, old history books

Worst act: Attempted conquering of Earth

Quote: "Attention--Justice League of America! Armed with the four most destructive weapons ever devise, I have time-traveled 10,000 years from the future to do battle with you! Ready--let the action begin!

Created by: Gardner F. Fox (script), Mike Sekowsky (pencils), Bernard Sachs/Joe Giella (inks)

After the last guy, bit of a comedown. We open to the year 11960 AD, in which master criminal Xotar has his ultimate plan! He has four, count 'em four weapons of unstoppable power! The only weakness, the police has the perfect counter measures to three of them but he doesn't know which ones. 

One of the weapons is a page from the Justice League of America casebook. Sure it isn't complete but it does say the words beaten, so it must detail how the JLA were beaten, right? Hopping back in time, Xotar uses his weapons on the assembled team. He does a pretty good job, but if he paid attention, he'd notice that Superman wasn't present at the meeting he crashed...

Decent and with the time travel hook I'm surprised he didn't pop up again. 

Bring on the Bad Guys: Starro the Conqueror

Real name: Starro the Conqueror 

First appearance: Brave and the Bold I#28 (Feb./Mar. 1960)

Abilities: Mind control

Worst act: Brainwashing, attempted conquering of Earth

Quote: "I am Starro! I have selected you three starfish--who must be distant relatives of mine--to help me conquer this planet!"

Created by: Gardner F. Fox (script), Mike Sekowsky (pencils), Bernard Sachs/Joe Giella/Murphy Anderson (inks)

Moving back into the Silver Age and we're kicking off with something that really set the standard. Instead of each member of the team having a individual chapter and foe, here we get one bad guy and wow. Giant alien starfish; didn't see that one coming. 

I love this guy. He's so simple yet horrifying. He's a starfish and he's going to conqueror your planet! Why? What does he need a planet for? And HOW is pretty darn creepy. He sends out waves of little versions of himself and they affix themselves to your face, letting him see everywhere. 

I also love his introduction. He lands on Earth and explains his plan to some starfish in the ocean, justifying they must be relatives of him. He hasn't been used that much and I think that works in his favor, so when he pops up it's a THING. He's got enough appearances to be recognizable but not enough to be overexposed. 

WWE VS the World XVII

 Another year and another tradition. Rules the same as before, pick who you want to win, most votes win.

RAW VS TNA (Day 1)

With Joe Tessitore and Tom Hanifan at Madison Square Garden 

Tag Team match

The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso) VS the Hardys (Matt and Jeff Hardy)

Winner: The Hardys 0-1

Maxxine Dupri VS Rosemary

Winner: Rosemary 0-2

Iron Man Match

Gunther VS Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo

Winner: Lorenzo 0-3

Tag Team match

The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) VS the Ilnspiration (Cassie Lee and Jessie McKay)

Winner: Lee and McKay 0-4

X Match

Dominik Mystero VS Leon Slater

Winner: Slater 0-5

Ladder match

Stephanie Vaquer VS Lei Ying Lee

Winner: Lee 0-6

CM Punk VS Frankie Kazarian 

Winner: Kaz 0-7 with a total shutout for RAW. 

_______________________________________________________

SMACKDOWN VS AEW (Day 2)

With Michael Cole and Excalibur at the Frost Bank Center, San Antonio, TX

Jade Cargil VS Kris Stratlander

Winner: Cargil 1-0

First Blood match

Damien Priest VS Jon Moxley

Winner: Priest 2-0

Carmelo Hayes VS Kazuchika Okada 

Winner: Okada 2-1

Chelsea Green VS Willow Nightingale 

Winner: Nightingale 2-2

The Wyatt Sicks (Joe Gacy and Dexter Lumis) VS FTR (Dax Hardwood and Cash Wheeler)

Winner: Gacy and Lumis 3-2

Alexa Bliss and Charolette Flair VS the Babes of Wraith (Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron)

Winner: Nightingale and Cameron 3-3

Trios match

Trick Williams, Solo Sika, and Roman Reigns VS The Opps (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Katsuyori Shibata)

Winner: Williams, Sika, and Reigns 4-3

Matt Cardona VS Ricochet 

Winner: Cardona 5-3

R-Truth VS Mark Briscoe

Winner: Briscoe 5-4

Cage match

Cody Rhodes VS MJF

Winner: Cody 6-4

And WWE takes the win. 1-1

___________________________________________________________________

NXT VS NJPW (Day 3)

With Vic Joseph at the Osaka Prefectural Gym

Tag Match

Hank and Tank VS House of Torture (Sho and Douki)

Winner: Hank and Tank 1-0

Ethan Page VS Yota Tsuji

Winner: Tsuji 1-1

Jackson Drake and Cappuccio Jones VS The Pretty Boys (Magic Mark and Pretty Richie)

Winner: Mark and Richie 1-2

Jasper Troy VS  Evil

Winner: Troy 2-2

Fallon Hendry VS AZM

Winner: Hendry 3-2

Trios match

 Los Psycho Circus (Psycho Clown, Murder Clown, and Dave the Clown) VS House of Torture (Sho, Ren Narita, Yujiro Takaashi)

Winner: House of Torture 3-3

Jacey Jayne VS Syrui

Winner: Jayne 4-3

Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo VS Douki

Winner: Stacks 5-3

Thea Hail VS Saya Kamitani3

Winner: Saya 5-4

Tag match

DarkState (Osiris Griffin and Saquon Shugars) VS Knock-Out Brothers (Yuto-Ice and Oskar)

Winner: Griffin and Shugars 6-4

Ricky Saints VS Tomohiro Ishii

Winner: Saints 7-4

Pagano and Psycho Clown VS Los Hermanos Chavez (Angel del Oro and Niebla Roja)

Winner: del Oro and Roja 7-5

Trick Williams VS Konosuke Takeshita

Winner: Takeshita 7-6

WWE takes the overall win, 2 to 1. Had fun doing this, hope to see you all next year

Bat Taco

 Can't recall the artist

And so we end 2025 and good riddance to the creep. 

Bit of a story behind this. I was at a Christmas party a while ago, and one of the children in attendance stood and in a disturbingly good Christian Bale voice said "I'm Batman"

He then decided, after a few minutes, to repeat the stance and voice, only now declared himself a taco. The image stuck and thus here we are.

TFtember: Skywarp/the Wasp

 Art by the Manic