Vinson Vail

One of Metropolis's “leading scientists” in the thirtieth century C.E. The secret leader of a gang of “mystery-thieves” who have perpetrated a rash of spectacular “scientific thefts” as a prelude to “the most titanic theft of all time”; the theft of “the world’s power-supply” in the form of the “great atomic plant” outside Metropolis, which “supplies power, by wireless, to every machine, car and plane on Earth,” and without which the world would be helpless and ripe for a tyrannical takeover. Summoned to thirtieth-century Metropolis by the Superman of 2956, Superman exposes Vail as the mastermind behind the mysterious thefts and swiftly apprehends him (Act No. 215, Apr 1956: “The Superman of Tomorrow”).