Villain Spotlight: The Signalman

As a supervillain the first thing you must do is choose a theme. If you have superpowers this is easy enough as you can build your new persona around that, but what happens to the intrepid young villian who has no powers?

If you are lucky your parents had the good sense to name you something that can easily be turned into a theme. Perhaps your name means something in latin or is an anagram.

Phil Cobb had neither of those(though the Cobb, using corn based weapons may have worked if he tried) and so he had to find inspiration somewhere else and he chose the bat signal becoming Signalman.

Expanding on his newly discovered theme Signal man created one of the most memorable costumes in comic book history and then began to commit crimes using this new motif by including symbols such as Morris Code or other symbols in every crime. Eventually he captured Batman in the Bat Signal but that was the high point of his career.

A lack of follow through ultimately led Phil Cobb down the wrong path and he gave up on Signalman becoming for a short time the Blue Bowman, but without follow through his following was lost and he became little more than another in the crowd joining the Secrets Society of Super Villains and even attempting once more to become Signaman, but his credibility had been lost.

There are those who still defend Signalman saying that he chose the persona of the Blue Bowman because superheros had become symbols themselves but Cobb has made no such argument himself refusing to comment when asked about the change of costue.