How Is Mister Mind In Shazam! Fury Of The Gods Different From The Comics?

The following article contains spoilers for "Shazam! Fury of the Gods."

In the first "Shazam!" movie post-credits scene, we saw the main villain Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong), in jail, drawing on the walls. He was muttering about the Sun of Ra, Ouroboros, and Solomon's Knot, clearly trying to figure out how to get himself some magic. In the midst of his frustration, a mechanical-sounding voice issues from his window, mocking the "primitive symbols" and calling humans "walking, talking monkeys with your cave drawings." Though he makes fun of Dr. Sivana, he tells him that they're going to have fun together and that they'll take over the Seven Realms. He also says he is the one that names the gods, but I somehow doubt that the gods from the sequel would be happy to hear that. 

If you've seen "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," you know that while he isn't one of the villains of the story, he does show up in the post-credits scene. This evil little dude almost became the villain of the sequel, according to a roundtable interview I attended with director David F. Sandberg after a screening of the film. He said, " ... originally we did start outlining a version where Mister Mind and Sivana were in it, and they were the ones who brought the gods here, but it was too much story to tell because even without that, it's still over a two-hour movie. But we still had to check in with this Mister Mind person a little bit at the end. So he's still up to something."

Let's take a look at Mister Mind's origin and what he's up to in the film. By the way, this version of Mister Mind is voiced by none other than Sandberg himself. 

Mister Maxivermis Mind first appeared in Faucett Comics in 1943 in "Captain Marvel Adventures" #26 and reappeared in DC Comics in 1973. (As you may know or have gathered from the joke in the film, Captain Marvel used to be Shazam's name.)

Mister Mind is a tiny worm/caterpillar creature from Venus. (He looks like a caterpillar but is classified as a Venusian worm. Don't worry about the semantics. He's a talking insect, friends.) When he began, he was an evil worm with glasses and a little box on his neck that allowed him to use human speech. You can see it on him in the first film, and it's clearly causing his mechanical voice. 

He's a genius with the power of telepathy, telekinesis, hypnotism, and magic, and he's a part of The Monster Society of Evil (one of the first comic book teams of villains). He can also quickly create powerfully strong silk cocoons. Mister Mind was sentenced and put to death by electrocution for working with the Nazis in the Fawcett Comics run, but somehow Palpatine Mister Mind came back. Later on, he evolved into Hyperfly who can eat both time and space. I mean, caterpillars eat a lot, but dang.

When he showed up in DC Comics' New 52, he forced Shazam to do a spell that unlocks and destroys the Seven Magiclands, which is what he may have been referring to in the first "Shazam!" film.

Mister Mind seems pretty ominous in the Shazam films, but there is also a comedic element. I mean, he's an evil worm who talks. In the after-credits scene, he appears again in Dr. Sivana's cell. The doctor is upset that he's been away so long after promising what he did. (About two years have passed in the world of the film.) Despite the fact that the teeniest villain has the power of telekinesis, he clearly can't transfer himself with his mind. He tells Sivana that he has the "perfect plan" but that it takes him a while to get anywhere. He says he has "one more thing" that he needs to do for said plan.

His plans sound pretty ominous in the film, and considering that he's a Nazi worm who has killed 186,744 people (that was the count in the Fawcett Comics run), I'd say that's pretty dead on in terms of character. Still, the scene was played for laughs, sort of making fun of the fact that he was teased as the villain for the sequel. We're unlikely to see a third "Shazam!" movie, sadly, particularly since the changes in the DC Universe are already in motion. Still, it would be fun to see this pay off in some way, perhaps in an animated series. 

"Shazam! Fury of the Gods" is in theaters now.