History: (Leading Comics #1) - The Hand built up a criminal empire, and became known as the Caesar of Crime. ius doctor let him know he was deathly ill, and had less than a month to live, so he decided to go out in a blaze of glory pass on his teachings to a new generation of criminals, including up-and-comer Big Caesar. The Hand orchestrated daring jail breaks for Caesar, the Needle, and Professor Merlin, and tipped off the Dummy that the police were about to raid his hideout. He told them they'd be the Hand's five fingers. He'd planned a once in a lifetime crime for each of them, but warned them they'd be opposed by their arch-enemies, who he'd taunted to top them in the morning's paper. Merlin was given the address of Cactus Mike, a Death Valley prospector with so much gold that Merlin could wreck the economy if he stole it. Merlin was pursued by Green Arrow and Speedy, and after impeding his plans, Merlin seemingly died in a cave-in at Mike's mine where he had hidden the gold. The Hand was disappointed, but chalked it up to luck, and used his video monitor to observe the other fingers on his hand. The Needle was given a lead on Claude Brighton, an inventor of a ray-gun that was staying in Panama City, The Needle avoided his enemies the Star=Spangled Kid and Stripesy, and forced Brighton to show him his lab where he had constructed the ray-gun. The Needle used the ray-gun to shake the Panama Canal to its foundations, reasoning that such a demonstration of power would send foreign bidders running. The American Avengers apprehended him, and sent him to jail. The Hand was angry, reasoning that he could have succeeded where the Needle failed. Caesar and Dragon fell to their enemies, but the Hand was convinced that Dummy, the most intelligent of the lot, could follow through on the Hand's instructions. After his defeat the Hand was so frustrated by his minions failures that he decided to destroy the heroes himself to preserve his legacy. He contacted them via video, and gave them the address of his hideout, daring them to defeat him. Just then he got a call from his doctor that a new surgery could cure him. He realized he'd acted rashly, but his pride demanded he destroy his foes. The mysterymen made their way through all his booby-traps until they penetrated his sanctum. He aimed an electric beam at them, but Vigilante shot it down, electrifying him. The heroes realized the good they did teaming up, and decided to form the Seven Soldiers of Victory.