"The Man With The Magic Monocles" is one of the many bizarre foes of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and as such is usually overlooked. Actually, he's always overlooked. Today's Z-Lister is another obscure Hawkman villain known as The Monocle!
Created by Gardner Fox and Joe Kubert in "Flash Comics #64" in 1945, Jonathan Cheval was a business man who sought to run an optics company. Jon was making great leeway, but his business was stolen by clever criminals. To exact his revenge, Jon created several monocle-based weapons and took the name "The Monocle". After killing two of the criminals who wronged him, The Monocle was approached by Hawkman. Jon's weaponry included monocles that could emit a cutting laser, a destructive beam, and a blinding flash, but these various and constantly upgraded tools could never best Hawkman, and Jon was tossed in prison with one of the criminals who stole his company.
The Monocle would appear on a few versions of The Secret Society of Super-Villains. During "Identity Crisis" he was unsurprisingly killed by The Manhunter. No, not the Martian one. During "Blackest Night" several deceased characters were being revived as Black Lantern zombies, so The Justice League gathered the corpses of several villains and held them away so that they would not be revived, Monocle being one of them. Poor guy, he was a crappy villain and he never even got to be a zombie. How sad.
After the New 52 reboot of the DC Universe and during the "Forever Evil" story, The Monocle resurfaced as one of the many villains to join The Crime Syndicate's army, but upon meeting the evil-versions of superheroes, The Monocle believed The Crime Syndicate were just The Justice League in disguise. Ultraman-the evil version of Superman...no, not Bizarro-vaporized The Monocle with his heat vision. His death was quick and comical.
The Monocle was a very silly villain, much like many obscure 40's characters he was clearly a man of his theme. I wouldn't mind seeing this goofy gentlemen again, especially if they can revamp his origin and give him more interesting monocle-related powers! Regardless, this Z-Lister will always be the joke of Hawkman's history. Which, sadly, is a joke already.
Thanks for reading and Happy Celebration September!
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