Pre-Crisis Sivana is a short, bald, self-described
mad scientist with a penchant for developing unusual technologies. He often plots to do away with
Captain Marvel and his
Marvel Family, but is usually thwarted in his plans. His trademark phrases are "Curses! Foiled again!" and his mocking laughter "Heh! Heh! Heh!" He also coined the insulting name Big Red Cheese to refer to Captain Marvel, a name that the Captain's friends have adopted with which to light-heartedly tease him. and
Georgia Sivana.Interior art from
The Marvel Family #10 (1947) by
C. C. Beck and
Pete Costanza Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, born in 1892, began with the best intentions and was one of
Europe's best scientific minds, with progressive scientific ideas that could revolutionize industry but were rejected by everyone he approached. Laughed out of society by people who called his inventions impractical and his science a fake, Sivana took his family to the planet
Venus in a spaceship he had invented. There he stayed until his children were grown, and Earth not so backward as when he left it. Since his children were adults by 1940, his departure from Earth would implicitly have been the late 1910s or early 1920s. During his years away, struggling to tame the Venusian jungle, Sivana turned bitter and planned his revenge against the world that had shunned him. He initially plotted his revenge with a radio silencer that would disable all radio communications permanently. He tried to extort $50 million, only to be stopped by Captain Marvel in his first adventure. Cap broke through the window of the building where Sivana was hiding and defeated the guards, binding them securely with tubing ripped from the radio-silencer. Sivana planned to kill Captain Marvel with a blast from his Atom-Smasher, but Cap leaped back out the window and escaped. During the fight, Sivana's returning army angrily asked why Captain Marvel had defeated them in their war against America despite their highly advanced weaponry. Sivana appeared to have been killed by the Atom-Smasher blast, but he returned a short time later, having somehow learned Captain Marvel's identity. He sent a letter to Billy Batson to lure him to the planet Venus, disguising himself as 'Professor Xerxes Smith'. Sivana's henchmen bound and gagged Batson, and Sivana tried to take away his memory using a Memory Mangler. Billy regained his memory after stumbling into the cave of Shazam and accidentally saying the word "Shazam". Sivana's henchmen rebelled against him and set off an explosion that destroyed the Mangler. Ironically, Captain Marvel saved Sivana and his daughter Beautia Sivana, who the henchmen had left to die. Sivana continued to nurse a megalomaniacal grudge against humanity and also a personal enmity with the Marvel Family. This persisted even after Cap revealed Sivana's former benevolent inventions (which Sivana considered useless), leading to his being awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physics. Far from being pleased, Sivana was insulted by the prize and stated that only when he was crowned Ruler of the Universe would he consider himself properly honored. The Golden Age Sivana was a twice-widowed father with four children: good-natured adult daughter
Beautia Sivana and evil teenagers
Georgia Sivana and
Thaddeus Sivana Jr. As the Sivana Family, Sivana, Georgia, and Sivana Jr. attempted to destroy Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr., respectively. They traveled through time via the
Rock of Eternity to various points in the history of Atlantis (ancient, modern, and future). There they attempted to steal technology to build a machine that would create a barrier around the Earth, thereby preventing the Marvels from calling down lightning. Georgia and Thaddeus Jr. possess brilliant minds like their father and share his enmity with the Marvel Family, but Magnificus and Beautia rarely fight the Marvels. In fact, Beautia has an unrequited crush on Captain Marvel, not realizing that he is really an adolescent boy.
Post-Crisis Following the
Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries, Sivana was first reintroduced as Billy Batson's step-uncle in a 1987 miniseries,
Shazam! The New Beginning. Magnificus and Beautia were depicted as his only children. A second retcon in 1994 established Sivana as a wealthy tycoon with political influence, similar to
Lex Luthor, only to have the events surrounding an archaeological expedition to Egypt he sponsored lead to both the creation of Captain Marvel and the fall of Sivana's fortunes. Blaming Captain Marvel for his fall from grace, Sivana dedicated himself wholeheartedly to using his inventions and intellect against the Marvel Family. In current continuity, Sivana's ex-wife Venus is still alive, as are all four Sivana children. They resemble their Pre-Crisis counterparts. The evil scientist appears briefly in the "
Infinite Crisis" storyline. Sivana also appeared along with Lex Luthor in the four-issue 2005
limited series Superman/Shazam: First Thunder by
Judd Winick and
Joshua Middleton, which depicts the first meeting between Superman and Captain Marvel. In the 2006–2007 limited series
52, Sivana was abducted to Oolong Island, a tropical paradise run by
Intergang, where he and many other DC Universe "mad scientists" are allowed to live a hedonistic lifestyle while creating the inventions of their wildest dreams as members of the
Science Squad and pitting them against one another. They create the Four Horsemen of the
Apokolips and succeed in capturing
Black Adam, whom Sivana then tortures for weeks, until Adam is freed by heroes storming the island. Sivana was with Libra when
Calculator was accused of sending computer codes that would help the resistance. Sivana joins with
Lex Luthor in betraying Libra, after being made to watch one of his own daughters succumb to the
Anti-Life Equation. Sivana creates a device to shut down the Justifiers' helmets, allowing Luthor to attack Libra. Sivana later appears as a member of
Cheetah's Secret Society of Super Villains.
The New 52 onward In September 2011,
The New 52 reboots DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Doctor Sivana first appears in
Justice League vol. 2 #7, depicted as a respected scientist desperate to save his family from an unknown plight. With science having failed him, he turns to magic (specifically the legend of
Black Adam). Sivana's team finds what he believes to be Adam's tomb; while attempting to open it, he is partially blinded by magical lightning and gains the ability to perceive magic. After Doctor Sivana's alliance with Black Adam fails, he attempts to directly access the Rock of Eternity, but is stopped by a magical shield and encounters Mister Mind. Introduced as a well-built man of average height, the corruption that results from using his magic-seeing eye causes the doctor to slowly wither to a form resembling his stooped, traditional Fawcett appearance. The Legion continues to feature heavily in later chapters of
The Multiversity. They invade Earth-42 and cull many of its heroes in
Guidebook, and sell weapons sourced from alternate worlds to the Freedom Fighters of Earth-10 in
Mastermen. In
Doomsday Clock, Doctor Sivana is among the villains who attend the underground meeting held by
Riddler to discuss the Superman Theory. Sivana later works with Mister Mind to free the Monster Society of Evil from the Monsterlands. They also encounter and free
Superboy-Prime before being defeated by the Shazam Family. ==Abilities==