Mirror Master is the name of several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is a recurring foe of the Flash with considerable technical expertise and skills involving the use of mirrors. Three individuals have donned the guise of Mirror Master, and have been members of the Rogues. In 2009, Mirror Master was ranked as IGN's 79th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time. Both incarnations of Mirror Master have made several appearances in DC-related media, with Sam Scudder being portrayed in live-action by David Cassidy in the 1990 The Flash series and by Grey Damon in the 2014 The Flash series, while Efrat Dor portrayed a gender-swapped version of Evan McCulloch, named Eva McCulloch, in the 2014 series.

Publication history

The Sam Scudder version of Mirror Master first appeared in The Flash #105, and was created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino. The Evan McCulloch version of Mirror Master first appeared in Animal Man #8, and was created by Grant Morrison and Chas Truog.

Fictional character biography

Sam Scudder

Samuel Joseph Scudder is a simple convict, but has the goal to learn how to get inside the reflection of a mirror. Stumbling into a hall of mirrors, he experiments and discovers a way to get in his own reflection. He uses this power to become the criminal Mirror Master, and is a frequent foe of the Flash. During the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, Scudder is killed by Krona's booby trap. Years later, he is temporarily resurrected as a Black Lantern in Blackest Night. In The New 52 continuity reboot, Sam Scudder is the current Mirror Master. It is revealed that a year prior he, Captain Cold, Heat Wave and Weather Wizard underwent a procedure at an unknown facility to gain their weapons' powers innately. The procedure went awry, causing an explosion that gave the four and Golden Glider superpowers. As a side effect, Scudder was trapped in the mirror dimension..

Evan McCulloch

Scottish mercenary Evan McCulloch was left as a baby on the doorstep of an orphanage run by a Mrs. McCulloch, with nothing but his first name and a photograph of his parents. He grows up fairly normal and around age 8, Evan is sexually assaulted by an older boy. Evan, in self-defense, drowns the boy in a creek, and eventually leaves the orphanage at age 16. He settles in Glasgow, taking up a life that leads to crime and eventually takes up employment as an assassin. He becomes one of the most renowned mercenaries in the United Kingdom. One day, he has two hits scheduled, and due to an eye injury is barely able to make out his second target. After firing his shot, he recognizes the target as his father. At the funeral, Evan sees his mother. Over the next few days, he tries to work up the courage to see her, but visits her too late, discovering that she has committed suicide. Stricken with grief at the loss of both parents, Evan decides to turn himself in but is instead picked up by a consortium of U.S. government and big business interests, who offer him the costume and weapons of the original Mirror Master in exchange for his services. His first assignment is to scare Animal Man into abandoning his animal-rights stance, a mission he fails thanks to the hero's wife. After he is fired and replaced for refusing to actually kill Animal Man's wife and children, McCulloch helps Animal Man track and fight the same men who gave McCulloch his weapons, but his heroism is short-lived. He continued to work as a criminal and a supervillain-for-hire. On occasion, he has also worked out of costume as a mercenary in Britain. He moves to Keystone City and comes into conflict with Wally West, now the third Flash. He discovers a "Mirror Dimension" which enables him to travel through any reflective surface. In Underworld Unleashed, the Rogues accept him as Scudder's successor. After being betrayed by Neron, McCulloch and four of the other Rogues die and go to Hell, only to return after a confrontation between Neron and the Flash. For a brief time, McCulloch is a member of Lex Luthor's initial Injustice Gang and fights the Justice League, but abandons the team when Batman offers to pay him twice what Luthor was offering. During a brief team-up with Captain Cold, Mirror Master was contacted by Brother Grimm about a plan to permanently get rid of the Flash, but when Grimm betrayed Cold and McCulloch by trapping them in a pocket mirror universe in Linda Park's diamond ring, they joined forces with Wally to escape this dimension and confront Grimm's theft of Keystone City, Wally even briefly lending speed to the two Rogues to protector Keystone's citizens while Wally fought Grimm. He works with Blacksmith in her takeover of Keystone and Central City. When her plan fails, he joins Captain Cold's gang and battles a cocaine addiction. He seems to sober up since the death of Captain Boomerang. McCulloch joins Alexander Luthor Jr.'s Secret Society after the Rogue War. He, Captain Boomerang and Captain Cold battle the Outsiders before Infinite Crisis. In Infinite Crisis #7, they all participate in the Battle of Metropolis, being defeated by the Martian Manhunter. One Year Later, Evan is a member of the new Suicide Squad, again using cocaine. He is seen taking incriminating photos of Sasha Bordeaux and Michael Holt together. The Rogues are then persuaded by Inertia, an enemy of Bart Allen, the Flash IV, to kill the Flash. This makes all the Rogues angry for being tricked when they find out they murdered a child. Mirror Master is one of the exiled villains in the Salvation Run along with his fellow Rogues Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Weather Wizard, and Abra Kadabra. After the villains escape, he joins Libra's Secret Society of Super Villains. Evan teams with Doctor Light to recover Metron's chair, and are challenged by, but defeat, the League of Titans, a Teen Titans spin-off team. Evan persuades the rapist Dr. Light not to sexually assault the unconscious heroines. Evan and the rest of the Rogues reject Libra's offer, wanting to stay out of the game, and take their revenge on Inertia. Mirror Master and the Rogues visit his predecessor Sam Scudder's old hideout and unveil a giant mirror with the words In Case of Flash: Break Glass written on it. Afterward, McCulloch is still on the run with the Rogues.

Powers and abilities

Mirror Master uses mirrors that produce fantastic effects such as hypnotism, invisibility, holograms, physical transformations, communications and travel into other dimensions (other parallel universes or planes of existence). Evan McCulloch uses a laser pistol.

Other versions

In other media

Television

Live-action

Animation

Film

Video games

Miscellaneous