WANTED: Earth-Two's Most Dangerous Super-Villains
The Mask
Personal information
Nina Close
Residence: Washington DC
Occupation: Housewife, Criminal
First Appearance (Golden Age): Wonder Woman #24 (August 1947)
Character History
Nothing is known of the early life of Nina Close before she married millionaire game hunter Brutus Close and lived with him in Washington in the late 1940's. She first came to public attention in the summer of 1947 when Wonder Woman, returning from Paradise Island, encountered a pilot in distress. Swooping in in her invisible plane, Wonder Woman saw the pilot eject and captured them falling with no parachute. She was surprised to see the pilot was a woman but before she could inquire further the woman fled. Exploring the downed plane, Wonder Woman found a purse and the business card of Mrs. Brutus Close.
Later that evening, Diana Prince pays a call on the Close mansion. There she finds Nina Close, a mousy woman who is the wife of Brutus. Nina claims that a woman, Fancy Framer, who is one of her husbands hunting associates is exploiting the family and that it was she who stole the plane and her own purse. As she berates Framer, the woman in question appears and castigates Nina. While the two quarrel, Brutus Close appears and lambasts Framer. Prince leaves the squabbling trio but is called later by Nina Close who claims her husband is in desperate trouble.
Arriving Prince finds Brutus Close with a zippered mask. Nina claims an strange woman has slapped this mask on him and if anyone save her removes it, it will flush his throat with cyanide, killing him. The woman, who called herself The Mask, demanded $1,000,000 ransom delivered to the top of the Empire State Building. The Closes agree but with Diana Prince and Steve Trevor hidden in the shadows to captured the extortionist when she appears. They are shocked when The Mask appears piloting the invisible jet, leading everyone to believe that Wonder Woman is the extortionist. Shortly there after, another ransom note is received for another $1,000,000, citing objections to interfering with The Mask. When Nina Close attempts to get the bank to front another ransom, Wonder Woman intercedes and claims she will capture the Mask herself, leaving Close sputtering in rage at the risk posed to her husband's life.
That night, The Mask appears at Holiday College and forces the girls into cyanide-laced masks. The summon Wonder Woman to bring $1,000,000 to save the lives of the girls and after pawning priceless Amazon jewels, Wonder Woman arrives with the money. Still in possession of the invisible jet, The Mask scoops Wonder Woman and the Girls into a net and taken them to her hideout. There she takes control of Wonder Woman's lasso and leads them into her lair, where the find Brutus Close desperate for food. As the Mask gloats, Wonder Woman manages to regain control of her lasso and removes the Mask's disguise. To Wonder Woman's surprise, it is not Fancy Framer but Nina Close who is the true criminal. Driven to madness by her husband's abuses and austerity, she had snapped and taken the new identity in revenge. She is judged mentally unfit for trial and referred to a sanitarium for treatment (Wonder Woman #24).
Whether she recovered or if the Mask was active again has not been revealed.
Powers and Abilities
Nina Close was an ordinary woman with surprising abilities. Though
mousy and submissive in her normal life, she was brazen and calculating
as The Mask. She was a skilled pilot, even quickly learning to pilot
Wonder Woman's invisible jet. She had either the resources to acquire
or the ability to create masks with cyanide triggers that she used as
part of extortion schemes. Her hand-to-hand combatant skills were at
least average.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Separated from her equipment and devices, The Mask was an ordinary human female who could be injured or captured as such. Moreover, she suffered from deep-seated neuroses as a result of long-term spousal abuse.
Multiversity
Earth-One
The Mask of Earth-One is thought to be essentially identical to her Earth-Two counterpart. No independent case work has been documented and she is only known from the appropriation of her costume by the Demons Three to attack the Justice League (Justice League of America #35).
Prior Earth-0
A version of The Mask is active in this timeline and is seen as part of a large group of Wonder Woman foes mounting a mass attack (Wonder Woman Vol. 3 Annual #1) but her history is largely unknown.
Appearances
|
Issue |
Comment |
Reprinted in |
|
Wonder Woman #24 |
First Appearance, vs. Wonder Woman |
Wonder Woman: The Golden Age Omnibus #3 |