Terdu the sorcerer and the Masters of Evil

He’s mostly notable for deploying the first version of a team called the Masters of Evil. The name would be reused for multiple, major villainous congregations, who chiefly fought the Avengers.

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Terdu boasts of being a sorcerer. But in DC Heroes RPG terms he seems to be more of an Occultist .

Masters of Evil

This version is composed of persons who are supposedly the greatest criminals of history as seen from the 1940s US :

• Captain Kidd .
• Jack the Ripper .
• Jesse and Frank James .
• Bluebeard .
• Gyp-the-blood .
• Three unspecified American gangsters from the Roaring Twenties.
• And possibly others.

They are conjured from a massive witch’s cauldron. Since they are revenants of dubious authenticity, they also evoke the later Legion of the Unliving super-teams.

In the context of the Marvel Universe and given how they fought, those guys are likely minor demonic servants, shapechangers who would take the form expected by Terdu. My best guess would be small tribe of shape-changing Dykorrs.

The cops could not bring them down with gunfire (and assumed they were missing them). Even Cap and Bucky did not manage to knock them unconscious. The “criminals” could be knocked to the ground but would not stay down.

History

Terdu first appeared when crime ring leader “Terrible Tom” Garrett (whose super-power is that his name can be spelled with either one or two ’r‘, even on the same page) fled from Captain America and Bucky while they were taking out his men with righteous fists of justice.

In a panic, Garrett stole a car. He drove away at random until he was out of gas. He continued on foot but, as the rain came, had to seek shelter in a nearby, spooky, isolated house.

As always, the place was inhabited by an evil sorcerer – Terdu. Terdu offered his support to the disbelieving Garrett. He conjured up criminals from the past to launch an unstoppable crime wave which killed (or maybe wounded) several cops and reeled Captain America and Bucky in.

The “men of evil” defeated Cap and Bucky and brought them to Terdu’s place. However, Terdu would not let Garrett just plug the two heroes while they recovered. Depriving the gangster of his gun, he insisted that he confront personally the two champions of America. A sympathetic Captain Kidd gave Garrett his cutlass, but of course that helped very little.

Seeing Garrett’s defeat, Terdu went ballistic. He proclaimed that he had lost his faith in Garrett and, for some reason, in the criminals of the past, whom he sent back to the grave.

He then charged Cap from behind, but accidentally fell into his own cauldron, disappearing into the reportedly all-consuming mixture.

Description

See illustration.

Personality

Terdu, as he puts it, “glories in evil”. He think it’s cool to help loosely defined “forces of evil” (such as gangsters, Communists, people who talk at the theatre, night elf hunters with a pet named “cat”, etc.) against their opposition. But only as long as those people are strong !

If they start acting like wusses, he will ditch them and retract his support in a New York minute. Then, they will have to prove themselves without his support.

Likewise, he really hates people opposing “evil”. He is likely to go postal on them, exhibiting all the tactical acumen of a drunken badger wearing a propeller beanie when he does.

Quotes

“I’ll tell you who I am ! My name is Terdu ! I am a sorcerer and I can do things no mortal man would attempt ! Come !”

“I know of criminals who would not fear Captain America ! But they do not live in the present ! […] [However] they can be brought back ! Behold, Garrett, the great criminals of history !”

“Welcome, men of evil !”

DC Universe History

He would *totally* be a pre-Crisis Captain Marvel villain, and a member of the Monster Society.

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: All-Select Comics #7 (1944).

Helper(s): Chaplain Chris.