Monty Moran: The Getaway Mastermind

2016 Monty Moran Space City Comic Con Commission by Thom Zahler

Alter Ego: Monty Moran
AKA: The Getaway Mastermind
Occupation: Criminal Inventor
Marital Status: Unknown
Group Affiliation: Various
Base of Operations:
First Appearance: Detective Comics #259

Little is known about the life and origins of Monty Moran before his rise to power as a crime boss in Colorado. The criminal mastermind was proud of his bizarre getaway gimmicks, such as a six-wheeled, cigar-shaped rocket car that could divide into three separate mini-cars, each capable of being remote-controlled. Moran amassed a slew of such contraptions, which his henchmen would employ in heists. The Manhunter from Mars, operating clandestinely as police detective John Jones before his super-heroic existence became public knowledge, eventually began thwarting Moran’s various plans. Moran was surprisingly nonchalant about his multiple defeats, fully expecting ultimate conquest with a super-weapon he had been developing. Once Detective Jones traced Moran to his secret laboratory hideout, the device was revealed as a fantastic force field, which would have caused the deaths of numerous policemen from their own ricocheting bullets, but for the invisible intervention of the Martian Manhunter. Before the Getaway King could make off in a hidden submarine, the Manhunter telekinetically directed the massive lot of bullets he’d retrieved against the crooks. Their “sting” drove Moran and his men from the lab into the hands of waiting police.

While serving his time, Monty Moran became a prison trustee, giving him access to another laboratory. From odds and ends, Moran invented a shrink-ray, allowing himself and five of his fellows arch-criminals to escape the pen in nothing more than a matchbox tied to a helium balloon. The sextet put the Justice League of America through their paces, but their accomplishment was eclipsed by an overlapping case involving Dr. Destiny and the fact Moran and his fellows were eventually captured by Green Arrow on his own. The encounter served as both validation of the archer’s initiation into the League, and the final appearance of the Getaway Mastermind.

While the Getaway King showed neither particular athletic prowess nor combat facility, his technological prowess was clearly exceptional. Besides those devices previously mentioned, Moran also invented a vehicle with a built-in boring machine that could penetrate a stone wall in seconds, and a small jet plane that could disguise itself as a fully functional automobile. He likely was also responsible for the spacecraft and remote monitors used against the JLA by the one-time collective of himself, Electric Man, Puppet Master, Captain Cold, Professor Menace, and King Clock. It’s possible he also aided Dr. Destiny in his earliest adventures, as that villain went from a general inventor to a dream specialist almost immediately after their association ended.