Mist (comics)

Not to be confused with Doctor Mist.

The Mist is the name of two DC Comics supervillains, archenemies of the original and 1990s Starman.

Publication history

The Kyle Nimbus version of Mist first appears in Adventure Comics #67 and was created by Gardner Fox.

The Nash Nimbus version of Mist first appears in Starman Vol. 2 #0 and was created by James Robinson and Tony Harris.

Fictional character biography

Mist (Kyle Nimbus)

The Mist
Publication information
Publisher	DC
First appearance	Adventure Comics #67 (October 1941)
Created by	Gardner Fox
In-story information
Alter ego	Kyle Nimbus
Team affiliations	Injustice Society Secret Society of Super Villains
Notable aliases	Johnathon Smythe Nimbus
Abilities	Able to transform into a living vapor, becoming tangible and intangible at will.

The first Mist's name was Kyle Nimbus. He fought in World War I as a Captain in the Canadian Army, winning the Victoria Cross. He was also a scientist and created a device that turned his body into a gaseous form; he became a supervillain, first fighting the Golden Age Sandman under the name 'Johnathon Smythe', before changing his name to the Mist. In 1941 he undertook a crimewave in Opal City and was stopped by Ted Knight, the Golden Age Starman; he vowed revenge on Starman and became his nemesis.

He was a member of the Ultra-Humanite's incarnation of the Secret Society of Super Villains, and appeared during the late 1980s Starman series (chronicling the adventures of Will Payton), then using the name Nimbus.

The Mist had two children named Nash and Kyle.

In the early 1990s after Ted Knight had retired (following the events of Zero Hour), the Mist planned his final revenge on Starman and sent his son, also named Kyle, to kill Knight's son David, as well as nearly killing his second son, Jack, demolishing his home and kidnapping the elder Knight. In exchange for his father, Jack battled the younger Kyle, resulting in the junior Kyle's death, which drove the Mist mad. He was like this for some time until making a deal with the demon Neron, restoring his sanity. This allowed him to advise his daughter on joining Simon Culp's scheme to destroy Opal City and conversely kill Culp himself when he threatened her, on the grounds he "hated dwarfs". Ultimately, he revealed he was tired and had decided to end his life, planting a nuclear bomb in Opal City set to detonate at the moment of his death and then taking poison. However he failed to destroy the city as a terminally ill Ted Knight used an advanced version of his gravity rod to lift the entire building miles into the air; the two enemies made peace just before the Mist's heart stopped, killing them both.

Earth-Two version

What follows is an account of the Mist's history as it existed on the world of Earth-Two, prior to the consolidating of DC Comics' alternate Earths in the Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries. Much of this can still be considered canon where it does not contradict later established information.

June 1962 saw Earth-Two's public re-emergence of Vandal Savage. He briefly terrorized a handful of important U.S. cities and was able to attack and incapacitate various members of the retired JSA.(Flash #137, 6.63) This brazen attack on major American cities and on the persons of a handful of retired JSAers resulted in the re-emergence and the re-formation of the Justice Society of America. This did not have an immediate effect on the super-scientists and criminals who operated openly in the 1940s and covertly in the 1950s, but over time this curious breed of villain did begin to re-emerge.

September 1965 found the Mist working with a gang of hoodlums along the Atlantic coast in Park City. With his secret formulas and gadetry he was controlling Mrs. Dinah Lance, using the Drake Flower Shoppe as the means to gain access to the wealthy citizenry, and using his hypnotic influence to have the rich rob themselves and hand over their wealth to the Mist's henchmen.

Though Park City did have a protector in the guise of the Black Canary, this heroine was only seen infrequently and the Mist seemed not to have been perturbed by this. Though he was using Mrs. Lance he never discovered her dual identity as the Black Canary.

By September his crime spree was advancing nicely and was baffling the local police. Finally, a local private investigator - Mr. Larry Lance (and husband to Dinah Lance) figured out the connection between those robbed and his wife's flower shop. At about this time the Lance family was visited by their friend Ted Knight, he accidentally intercepted a hypnotic sound wave sent by the Mist. Together the three heroes went about hunting down the gang and the leader.

During this crime spree, the Mist discovered how to use his inviso-solution, sound waves and a recording of motor noises from the Park City Observatory to block star-energy from reaching Starman's gravity rod, in effect making it powerless; however, Starman had with him a newer, quasar-powered rod which proved impervious to the deactivation. In the end the Mist and his men were defeated and handed over to the police. (The Brave & the Bold #61, 9.65)

Mist (Nash)

Nash was not initially the villain that her father or brother were, but rather a meek, stuttering girl. During her father's campaign of revenge against Ted Knight she was in a position to kill Jack Knight, but let him go after he reasoned that she personally had no reason to kill him. However, after Jack killed her brother she underwent a major personality shift and became the second Mist, exposing herself to the same process that had transformed her father. During her first major crimewave she drugged Jack, had sex with him while he was unconscious and became pregnant. She later gave birth to a son, Kyle Theo. named after her father and Jack's. She passed on a second opportunity to kill Jack, deciding to better herself as a villain whilst Jack worked to become a better hero. She spent much time in Europe where she killed the second Amazing Man, Crimson Fox and Blue Devil. She was then one of the many villains who took part in the plan to destroy Opal City during the Grand Guignol storyline. After this failed, her father made his own attempt to destroy the city. Since his plan would kill Nash and her son, she attempted to stop him. Her father shot her and in her dying moments she gave her son over to Jack.

Powers and abilities

Both Mists are able to transform into a living vapor, becoming tangible and intangible at will.

In other media

Television

The Kyle Nimbus version of Mist appears on The Flash, portrayed by Anthony Carrigan. Nimbus is a mob hit-man, who was turned on by his employers and testified against. After being charged he was made a death row inmate who was being executed via gas chamber when the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator exploded, giving him his elemental abilities as he can literally transform into the gas that was being used to execute him. He begins executing people responsible for landing him in prison, the last attempt being Joe West, his arresting officer. The Flash is able to defeat The Mist after keeping him in his gas state for an overextended amount of time, weakening him to the point of unconsciousness. He was later locked in a makeshift cell in the converted particle accelerator turned metahuman prison. He is briefly seen again in the episode "Power Outage", but just in his mist form. He is shown again in the episode "Rogue Air" when he and the other prisoners manage to escape while being transferred from the particle accelerator prison to the island prison of Lian Yu.