Who's Who: Dr. Mayavale

Dr. Mayavale
by Russell & Siskoid

Real Name: Mayavale

Super-Power(s): Super-creepiness? But seriously, incarnation awareness and access to all manner of technology, including 6 additional synthetic arms
Planet of Origin: Avatanda

Relationship to Legion: Villain

Legion Log
Dr. Mayavale had been living in a monastery on the planet Avatanda when he visited a special room of meditation there called the Chamber of Lives. Experiencing a type of enlightenment, he learned that he had been reincarnated innumerable times, always as a force for Good. Unfortunately, Mayavale decided that in order for him to reach the next level of karmic balance, he would have to start working as a force for Evil.

Dr. Mayavale left Avatanda. He somehow acquired a planet-sized ship and surrounded himself with various different artifacts, such as a New York City subway car and an army of specialized robots.

Dr. Mayavale encountered the Legion of Super-Heroes while a group of them were in outer space with R.J. Brande working to create new suns in order to rebuild Brande's fortune. Dr. Mayavale, Surgeon of Evil, kidnapped Chameleon Boy, Dream Girl, and Karate Kid because he believed that they had done him wrong in three of his previous lives.

Mayavale used hypnotic mists to convince the Legionnaires that they had all traveled back in time. When he had been a Chief of the Cherokee nation, Chameleon Boy had betrayed him to the U.S. Cavalry. When Mayavale had been Julius Caesar, Karate Kid had been Brutus. And when he had been police officer John Alvaraz, Dream Girl had been the girlfriend who betrayed him to the criminal gangs he was investigating.

With the lives of the Legionnaires given as sacrifice, Dr. Mayavale intended to perform the rite of spiritual rebirth, which would have given him unlimited cosmic powers.

However, Dream Girl broke free of her hypnotic state and confronted Mayavale. This shocked the so-called reincarnated villain, who believed himself infallible due to his lifetimes of experience. In fact Dr. Mayavale was so surprised at Dream Girl's inner strength that he chose to disappear. Dr. Mayavale  took his planet and went to another dimension to further meditate on the nature of Evil and Destiny. He never returned.

Dr. Mayavale appeared to be something of a hoaxster. When he first kidnaps the Legionnaires he boasts of being master of all the creatures and people on his planet; he then orders several animals to attack Karate Kid. He also makes the Legionnaires think that he has time traveled with them; the creatures and humans that the Legionnaires come in contact with are revealed to be robots, and they are all still on his spaceship. So perhaps Dr. Mayavale is really a renowned robotics master? He never battles them with any specific super-power, using mists to hypnotize and weaken the Legionnaires, force-field bubbles to trap them, and energy blasters to wound them. When he does attack in an overtly physical way, he uses only a ceremonial dagger. When Dr. Mayavale appears to transport his entire world into another dimensional plane, perhaps he had simply pulled a switch. 

Dr. Mayavale never appears again, in any continuity.

After Infinite Crisis, Dr. Mayavale's original history has presumably been more or less restored.

Only Dr. Mayavale story:

Legion of Super-Heroes (v2) #268

The one-and-done appearance of Dr. Mayavale