| Hypnota the Great | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Wonder Woman vol. 1 #11 (Winter 1944-1945) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Hypnota |
| Team affiliations | Villainy Inc. |
| Notable aliases | Hypnotic Woman |
| Abilities | Mind control; master of stage tricks |
Hypnota the Great (aka Hypnotic Woman) is a comic book supervillain who battled the Golden Age Wonder Woman and was a member of Villainy Inc., an enemy team. She first appeared in Wonder Woman #11 (Vol. 1)
Fictional character biography[]
Pre-Crisis[]
A stage magician who conceals her gender via masculine costume and false facial hair, Hypnota was accidentally shot in the head during the rehearsal of one of her act's illusions. Experimental surgery saved her life, but it also released a "blue electric ray of dominance" from her "mid-brain," granting her the ability to mesmerize others with a glance.
Hypnota uses this new talent both in her stage act and in crime, including the selling of her mesmerized victims to slave merchants from the planet Saturn. Hypnota hypnotizes her twin siter, Serva, into becoming her assistant on stage and in crime. When Saturn's slave trade in Earthlings is banned as part of a peace treaty with Earth, Hypnota, hoping to revitalize her source of revenue, steals America's contingency defense plans against the ringed world in order to foment hostility and break the treaty. Her warmongering efforts attract the attention of the heroic Wonder Woman. Hypnota battles Wonder Woman with the unwilling aid of Hypnota's twin sister Serva. Hypnota hypnotizes Wonder Woman a number of times, making her publicly humiliate herself before helping Hypnota in her crimes and warmongering. Wonder Woman breaks free of Hypnota's control, frees Serva from hypnosis and stops Hypnota with the aid of a mirror causing Hypnota to hypnotize herself.
Hypnota, like many of Wonder Woman's enemies, is sentenced to prison on the Amazon penal colony Transformation Island, but in 1948 she and seven other female super-villains escape and pool their talents as Villainy Inc. Led by the Saturnian slaver Eviless, they become the evil eight. Hypnota reinduces Wonder Woman temporaraly during a fight with her but her control is broken once again. The evil eight are again defeated by Wonder Woman. Whether or not Hypnota's masculine garb, which concealed her true gender throughout most of her first appearance and which she retained in her second appearance, is to be taken as anything more than a stage affectation is unclear.
Post-Crisis[]
Post-Crisis, Hypnota is referred to as Hypnotic Woman, possibly meaning the crossdressing has been retconned. (Wonder Woman: Our Worlds at War #1)
Powers and abilities[]
Hypnota could project "blue hypnotic rays" from her eyes and hands, which could control the minds of anyone who fell under the rays' influence.