History
Dr. Otto von Schmittsder was a notorious scientist who worked for the Nazis during World War II. Following the defeat of the Nazis during the war, Otto was fated to go to trial for war crimes. Having devised new weapons of death and destruction, Von Schmittsder had also developed a means to cheat death in an attempt to take over the world: the "Electro Brain Magnet". Otto -- knowing that he would be found guilty and executed for his crimes -- confided in his assistant Fritz and made arrangements to be restored to life after his trail. As he anticipated Von Schmittsder was found guilty of his crimes and hung. He body was buried immediately, and within 24 hours his assistant Fritz uncovered Otto's grave, severed his head, and brought it back to the lab within Otto's castle. There, Fritz used the the Electro Brain Magnet to restore Otto's brain to life. The process also endowed Otto with mental powers including telepathy and mind control as well as granting his severed head limited mobility and speech. Otto -- now calling himself the Brain -- ordered Fritz to leave him in his castle so that he could prepare to enthrall a suitable subject to assist him in his world conquering scheme.
Eventually, his castle was visited by two American soldiers who were part of the occupation of Nazi Germany: Larry Siodmak and his best friend and fellow soldier. Overhearing how Larry was planning on pursuing a career in science after being sent home to the United States, the Brain decided that he would be an ideal candidate and used his mental power to take control of Larry's mind. Sending Larry away, the Brain gave him orders to go AWOL and return to the castle where. With his equipment confiscated or destroyed by Allied Forces, the Brain then had Larry purchase new equipment using a hidden cache of jewels. Larry -- now completely in the Brain's control -- was then forced to create a biological weapon that would kill thousands of innocents. Chartering a plane, Larry tested out his bacterial weapon, and succeeded in killing those he tested it on. When Larry returned to the castle, he was followed by his friend, who had not given up on searching for Larry after he went missing. The Brain ordered Larry to kill his friend with a gun, but unable to bring himself to hurt someone he cared about, Larry instead turned his gun on himself. Dying, Sidomak attempted to explain what how was forced to commit his crimes for the Brain, but died in his friend's arms before he could properly explain himself and the Brain managed to escape.[1]
Evading detection and capture the Brain then smuggled himself into the United States in the hopes of continuing his ambitions for world domination. While on a transatlantic flight he hid himself in a hat box after being discovered and managed to get into New York City. There he managed to hop into the back of a truck of a chemical company operated by Gilda Spears, a world renowned scientist who worked for the United States government. Hiding out in Gilda's lab among a number of wax heads, the Brain then spent the next few weeks subtly asserting his control over Gilda. He then forced her to destroy her work for the United States government and then sent off letters to the Soviet Union in an attempt to sell her services to them, he then forced her to try and frame her colleague Professor Emmet, whom the Brain viewed as an obstacle to his plans. However, Gilda's letters to the Russian government were intercepted by FBI agent Steve Manners who was a friend of Spears. When Manners confronted her about the letters he also confessed that he loved her and the Brain attempted to use this love to trick Manners into agreeing to being experimented on. The Brain then attempted to force Gilda to drain all of Steve's blood, but in his excitement spoke aloud alerting Steve to the Brain's presence. As the Brain attempted to escape Steve, he commanded Gilda to kill the FBI agent, but her love for Steve also caused her to hesitate. During the struggle chemicals and a acetylene torch were knocked over causing a fire. As Steve got Gilda out of the burning building, the Brain pretended to burn alive in the fire, but in reality managed to escape to continued his world domination plans anew.[2]
The subsequent activities of Otto von Schmittsder are unknown and he presumably remains active.Attributes
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See Also
- 2 appearance(s) of Otto von Schmittsder (Earth-616)
- 2 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Otto von Schmittsder (Earth-616)
- 1 image(s) of Otto von Schmittsder (Earth-616)