Super Friends #24 (April, 2010)

Professor Hugo Strange arrived at a hotel on Oolong Island for a conference of the W.O.R.M.S. Strange entered the auditorium just in time for the opening speech, an actual worm speaking at the podium. "My fellow madmen, megalomaniacs, and evil scientists... Mister Mind welcomes you to this year's meeting of W.O.R.M.S.-- the World Organization for Research of Mad Science! In this room sit the world's most brilliant evil scientists. Every day, we use our incredible brains to help the most important cause in the world-- ourselves! Yet, despite our genius, those blasted Super Friends always stop us! One day, we'll have our revenge! We'll show them! We'll show them all!" Doctor  Sivana, his brood of Georgia & Sivana Junior, the Terrible Trio, and occasional Martian Manhunter foe Doctor Light applauded.

Mr. Mind scrunched off to a side table as Lex Luthor took the stage to announce the commencement of this year's judging for greatest criminal genius of all. Ira "I.Q." Quimby figured himself a shoo-in, and told Professor Rigor Mortis so, while Doctor Tyme looked on. Later, Louie the Lilac and Poison Ivy shot the breeze with Atom foe the Floronic Man. Other attendees included Super-Duper, Professor Milo, Baron Bug, Doctor Togg, Komrade Krabb, Doctor Cyclops, the Brain, Doctor Double-X, Maxwell Tremaine, Doctor Poison, Doc Morhar, Professor Bravo, Mr. Morden, Rog, and Mr. Atom.

The Ninth Most Important Martian Manhunter Adversary struck up a conversation with a Wonder Woman villainess. "Nice to meet you, Doctor Cyber. I'm Professor Hugo."
"Professor Hugo Strange?"
"No, Hugo Strange is over there. I'm Professor Hugo."
"Hugo... Strange?"

Monsieur Mallah whispered to Super-Gorilla Grodd, "Sacre bleu... here comes the Ultra-Humanite! Pretend you don't see him." Grodd moaned, "Ugh. A villain with a human brain in a gorilla's body. What a gorilla wannabe!"

The convention was raided by the Super Friends based on a tip from Lex Luthor himself. "Can you think of a better way to judge our little contest? If anyone's invention does defeat the Super Friends, that person is obviously the winner." Of course, Luthor was exiting the scene, just in case.

Batman gave Dr. Light a kick. Professor Arnold Hugo shot Superman with a ray that tickled him. "I know! Even lasers can't cut through your steel-hard skin. So I won't even try! My Tickleator will tickle your skin-- until you're helpless with laughter!" Doubled over with tears in his eyes and hees out of his mouth, Superman fought back. The Man of Steel decapitated a mechanical praying mantis that had grabbed Aquaman, then the Sea King returned the favor by swatting the Tickleator out of Hugo's hands with the bug severed leg.

Professor Ivo and T.O. Morrow had been arguing about the benefits of power-copying robots like Amazo, which was destroyed as a result, before ever being employed against the Super Friends. Gorilla Grodd found the mess of too many misdirected mad scientists in one room ridiculous. "We can't beat the Super Friends with guns and robots! We need to use our most powerful weapons-- our brains!" Grodd ordered Brainstorm, the Thinker, and Hector Hammond to combine their mental powers with his own, and force the heroes to fall asleep.

The villains argued over what to do with the napping Super Friends, until Dr. Sivana suggested they do "everything." For instance, Dr. Light trapped them in giant light bulbs, Professor Amos Fortune strapped them to a wheel of misfortune, and Prof. Hugo giddily prepared dynamite with a timer. Unfortunately for them, they turned their backs for a few seconds to address a hotel manager distraught over the mess caused, and the heroes escaped. Professor Hugo tried to aim one of his ray guns, but the Flash swiped everyone's before a shot could be fired. Wonder Woman lassoed all the monsters at the scientist's disposal, while Superman dismantled the robots.

The W.O.R.M.S. made a collective break for it, and while the Super Friends pursued, Lex Luthor tried to steal everyone's inventions. Superman was on to Luthor's gambit, so Lex joined everyone behind bars.

Grodd, Hugo and the rest were confronted in their prison orange by the heroes, who explained that they had repurposed all those inventions to do a lot of good for the world, like enlarging food to help feed the world. At the thought of their wicked ideas being twisted into something beneficial to society, the mad scientists bawled.

"Weird Science" was brought to you by Sholly Fisch, with art credited to Dario Brizuela, although online sources report it was actually J. Bone.