Doctor Sivana

Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain created by Bill Parker and C. C. Beck. He first appeared opposite superhero Captain Marvel in Whiz Comics #2 (February 1940) by Fawcett Comics. Sivana was soon established as Captain Marvel's archenemy and most frequent foe, a role that he continues to hold to this day in his appearances in DC Comics who eventually acquired the rights to those characters from Fawcett. In 2009, Doctor Sivana was ranked as IGN's 82nd Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time. Beck has said Parker created Sivana's name by combining the name of the Indian god Siva with the word "nirvana".

Publication history

Fawcett Comics and pre-Crisis DC Comics

Infamously evil, Doctor Sivana appeared in well over half of all of the Golden Age Captain Marvel comic stories, and the first four stories, after having deduced Captain Marvel's dual identity as boy radio broadcaster Billy Batson early on. Depicted as a brilliant, if evil, scientist, Sivana used all manner of unusual inventions and techniques against the Marvels. He somehow held high status among the beings of the planet Venus. Along with the Marvel Family, Sivana entered publishing limbo in 1953, following a ruling in the National Comics Publications v. Fawcett Publications court case finding that Captain Marvel was an illegal infringement of Superman.