Kevin's Watch

Phillip "Phil" Cobb was a gangster with big ideas. He came to Gotham City intent on hiring a gang of his own and making it big, only to be laughed at when he tried to recruit the gang because he had no reputation. Steaming with anger, he vowed to prove himself to Gotham's mobsters, and when he noticed how modern society was regulated by signs, signals and symbols, he found the inspiration for his criminal career. Becoming the Signalman, he went on a spectacular crime spree using those signs and symbols as his motif.

Ultimately captured by Batman and Robin, he returned for a rematch a year later in Batman #124, and then switched gears and became the Green Arrow-copycat called the Blue Bowman in Batman #137. After that, he remained unseen until 1976, when he resumed his Signalman guise in Detective Comics #466. This time, he actually managed to trap the Batman inside the Batsignal.

In the years since then, Signalman has also been a member of the Secret Society of Super Villains and, in that capacity, did battle with the Justice League and Justice Society. In recent years a running gag in villain crowd scenes has been someone making a disparaging comment on his symbol-covered costume.

comiccoverage.typepad.com/comic_coverage/2007/11/cover-to-cover.html

Since when was Count Nefaria a DC villain?

Character history
Jonathan Cheval is an honest businessman in the field of optics; however due to the scheming of a criminal he loses his business. Determined to get revenge on the people that cheated him, Cheval invents a number of monocles that can emit beams of energy. He is eventually captured by the Golden Age Hawkman.

Decades later, after being released from prison, he is invited by the Ultra-Humanite to join his Secret Society of Super Villains which battles Hawkman along with the rest of the Justice Society of America and the Justice League of America. He along with his colleagues are defeated and banished into an interdimensional limbo until the Ultra from 1942 contacts his future counterpart, enlisting the aid of all criminals then present in limbo. Monocle briefly resides once more in 1942 until he and his allies are defeated once again, this time at the hands of the All-Star Squadron.

Monocle joins up with a new version of the Secret society in JLA-80 Page Giant #1 (1998). Responding to another reformation of the Justice League, the Society, fearing a tyrannical JLA rule of Earth, decides to destroy them once and for all. The meeting is a trick by the JLA and Monocle, along with many other villains, is subdued and arrested.

Monocle appears with Merlyn and other various villains and ex-Suicide Squad members in the mini-series Identity Crisis (2004). Though his appearance in Identity Crisis sets him up for the big time, he is killed by the most recent Manhunter (Kate Spencer) in Manhunter # 9 (June 2005).


Powers and abilities
The Monocle has created a number of special monocles that emit different types of rays or beams. For example, one fires a destructive ray, another emits a laser like beam capable of cutting through most materials, and yet another emits an intense beam of white light capable of blinding an opponent. The monocles can be operated either when being held by Monocle or remotely, though Monocle tends to use them most often while holding them over his eye

Oh, the Monocle....then you do see that he looks just like Nefaria.

yes, i do see the resemblance.

Crazy-Quilt is a noted painter who leads a double-life as a master criminal. He gives the plans for his crimes to various henchmen through clues left in his paintings. His criminal empire crashes to a halt when one of his henchmen double-crosses him and sets him up to be arrested. Blinded by a gunshot wound, he is sent to prison, where he volunteers for an experimental procedure that restores his vision. This is combined with a special helmet fused to his optic nerves

The procedure works to a point, but has a tragic side effect: he can see, but the colors are blindingly vivid and disorienting. It drives him mad, and upon his release he takes on the guise of Crazy-Quilt. He is stopped first by the Boy Commandos, but has since had encounters with Batman, Batgirl and two Robins, Dick Grayson and Jason Todd.

Crazy-Quilt's sight is restored briefly for a time after he kidnaps a surgeon to assist him. Batman and Grayson intervene. In self defense, Robin reflects the madman's light beams back into his newly restored eyes. Unintentionally, Quilt is permanently blinded. Obsessing over his young adversary, he becomes one of the few bat-villains to hate Robin more than his mentor. This extends to Graysons' successors in the role. Later, thinking to enact his revenge upon Grayson, he mistakenly takes out his aggression on Jason Todd, who was new to the role at the time. Todd is nearly beaten to death. Again, it is Robin who is pivotal to stopping Crazy Quilt's plans.

Crazy-Quilt appears in the Belle Reve riot in Justice League #34, lugging around the eviscerated body of the prison warden. The prisoners, along with much of humanity, were being affected by outside forces.

He also has a role in one of the many reincarnations of the Secret Society of Super Villains. In the JLA-80 Page Giant #1 (1998), dozens of villains form in response to the JLA's new moonbase and extended team efforts. During the meeting, Quilt has his outfit insulted by the Monocle. The meeting turns out to be a JLA trap and all the villains are captured.

Female Crazy Quilt

Apparently the Society, led by Alexander Luthor, Jr., has in its roster a new version of Crazy Quilt, a female one with the characteristic costume and vision-helmet of the previous villain. She has appeared in the 'Villains United' series. She works with many other supervillains to take down the 'Secret Six'. In Outsiders #50, she is captured by the Suicide Squad.

In the Secret Six series, she is one of the villains who accepts the offer of a bounty on the heads of the Secret Six from mysterious crime boss, Junior. She is possibly shot by the Six, and stabbed in the stomach by Scandal.

She later appears in James Robinson's Justice League: Cry For Justice mini as one of the many villains who attacks the team.

double post