What You Need to Know About That Worm Guy

(Spoilers forward, clearly, for the additional scene that comes through the credit on “Shazam,” which teases the way forward for the collection.)

It was once that motion pictures from DC Comics didn’t embody any additional scenes after the credit rolled, whether or not they come throughout or on the finish. Once the credit started, the film was over, interval. It was a pattern for DC, defying the usual that Marvel motion pictures had been setting. Until “Justice League,” anyway, which teased a teamup of supervillains led by Lex Luthor. And then “Aquaman” teased the subsequent movie in that collection, as does “Shazam” now. DC Comics, it appears, has given in to that pattern.

The mid-credits teaser on “Shazam,” although, could be fairly a head-scratcher in case you don’t know what’s occurring. So let’s check out what precisely that bonus scene means.

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The mid-credits scene catches us up with Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong), now in jail after being defeated by Shazam-powered Billy Batson and his foster siblings. He’s gone a bit crazy, overlaying the partitions of his cell with the symbols that performed such a outstanding position within the film, and completely freaking out when his writing utensil breaks.

But we then hear a wierd robotic voice wafting into the scene providing Sivana some reassurance that he nonetheless has an element to play. “The seven realms are about to be ours,” the voice says because the digital camera pans over to a bizarre trying little worm or caterpillar man sitting on the window of his cell. The finish.

That speaking caterpillar was one in every of Shazam’s oldest archenemies — Mister Mind.

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Created by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck, Mister Mind was launched in 1943 in challenge #26 of Fawcett Comics’ “Captain Marvel Adventures.” (Back then Shazam was referred to as Captain Marvel, completely no relation to the Captain Marvel of Marvel Comics. Read extra about that right here.) And similar to within the film, he’s a superintelligent, evil-to-the-core, speaking caterpillar.

In his authentic Fawcett Comics appearances, Mister Mind was a mutant worm from one other planet whose powers embody telepathy and the flexibility to spin nearly-indestructible silk cocoons at unimaginable speeds — which he makes use of to encase his enemies. Because he’s so tiny, he makes use of a machine referred to as a “talk box” to speak with bigger beings — that was the factor hanging round his neck within the “Shazam” mid-credits scene — and he wears glasses as a result of he’s nearsighted.

His foremost superpower is his unimaginable intelligence, which supplies him superior strategic and organizing skills and makes him a pure chief. Those skills had been entrance and middle in his authentic appearances throughout a two-year storyline in “Captain Marvel Adventures” revolving round a bunch referred to as The Monster Society of Evil.

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See, being extraordinarily evil, Mister Mind first got here to earth principally to fire up hassle throughout World War II — actually, he’s principally a Nazi from outer house — and to take action he assembled a staff — the Monster Society — made up of Captain Marvel’s (AKA Shazam’s) wartime villains.

The Monster Society of Evil is notable as one of many earliest supervillain team-ups within the historical past of comics — and presumably the very first one made up of villains who had been beforehand defeated by a comic book e-book hero. It has had dozens of lineup adjustments over time — extra on that beneath — however the authentic membership included Captain Marvel enemies like Captain Nazi (a Nazi warrior created by Hitler), and sure, Dr. Sivana.

The society battled Captain Marvel over the subsequent few years till they had been lastly defeated in 1945’s “Captain Marvel Adventures” #46. Mister Mind was arrested and placed on trial, Captain Marvel/Shazam served because the prosecutor, and after it got here…