Blast that infernal Amazon -- She beats off my iron robots like paper dolls! But she can't fight her own Magic Lasso! Ha Ha! The Blue Snowman
The Blue Snowman was an extortionist and thief. Though through the costume, the villain seemed like a man, it was actually a ruse by Byrna Brilyant. After her initial arrest, she became a recurring villain of Wonder Woman as part of Villainy, Inc..
History
A resident of Fair Weather Valley, Byrna Brilyant worked as a schoolteacher. Unbeknownst to the rest of the town, Byrna had adopted a male identity - the "Snow Man" - in order to extort those around her. Her father had died while working on a secret experiment he intended serve humanity, a chemical known as blue snow. As the Snowman, Byrna used the substance to freeze her adversaries and keep the civilians of Fair Weather Valley under her control.
Etta Candy learned of the Snow Man's plot from one of the Holliday Girls, Patsy Peters, and alerted Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. On the way to investigate, the pair's plane was encased in blue snow from the Snow Man's telescopic snow ray. Wonder Woman brought the unconscious Steve Trevor to Mrs. Peters' house where she found Patsy and several animals had been frozen by blue snow.
Wonder Woman then met Byrna Brilyant and several citizens of Fair Weather Valley at the schoolhouse where they were conducting an emergency meeting regarding the attacks. Byrna served as secretary for the meeting, and scolded the men for acting worse than her school children. Unnoticed by the others, she slipped a ransom note into the classroom for Mr. Peters. Byrna feigned fear as a Robot Snow Man burst through the window, taking Mr. Peters' money in order to receive the antidote to save his daughter's life. Wonder Woman grabbed onto the robot's leg and followed it back to Fair Weather Mountain, the Snow Man's headquarters. The Snow Man captured Wonder Woman with her Lasso of Truth and bludgeoned her into unconsciousness. She threw Wonder Woman into a vat of blue snow, freezing her instantly.
Elsewhere, Etta Candy, Steve Trevor, and the Holliday Girls traveled to the Snow Man's base in Wonder Woman's Invisible Plane. However, they found it surrounded with a blue snowfall. Inside, the Snow Man planned to freeze the entire valley and relocate as she had taken all of the farmers' money. Wonder Woman recovered and broke herself out of the vat of blue snow. Still bound, Wonder Woman used the end of the magic lasso to encircle the Snow Man. She forced the Snow Man to free her and turn on the defrosting ray to free Fair Weather Valley from her menace.
Before Wonder Woman unmasked the Snow Man, she had already deduced that the criminal was really Byrna Brilyant.[1]
Villainy Inc.
As with most female super-villains defeated by Wonder Woman, Byrna Brilyant was sent to Transformation Island in order to reform. While there Byrna secretly worked on a second suit of Snowman themed armor, this time termed the Blue Snowman. After Eviless freed herself from capture and defeated the prison chief Mala, she invited all the prisoners to join her. However, only Byrna and seven others wished to have their Venus Girdles, made from magical metal from Venus that causes complete obedience, removed from them. Eviless freed the women and formed Villainy Incorporated. Their objective was to conquer Paradise Island and use it as a base to raid countries on Earth.
Villainy Inc's first mission was to capture Queen Hippolyta. She sent the Blue Snowman, Doctor Poison and Hypnota to the palace garden. She believed that their masculine appearances would distress Hippolyta due to Aphrodite's Law that forbade men from stepping foot on the island. The trio led Hippolyta into a trap, easily capturing her.
Wonder Woman, learning of this plot, traveled to Paradise Island on her Invisible Plane. Suddenly, she was bombarded with blue snow from the Blue Snowman's revamped telescopic snow ray. However, Wonder Woman burst through the freezing rays and smashed the telescope gun. She chased the Blue Snowman into the palace where the Snowman's teammates managed to defeat the amazon.
The group planned to imprison Wonder Woman on Transformation Island, and set off to the island on boat. The Blue Snowman used Wonder Woman as a foot cushion. Wonder Woman attempted to escape, causing the boat to flip and scatter her captives. The group recaptured Wonder Woman and dragged her to Transformation Island. However, Wonder Woman managed to free her sisters and defeat the Blue Snowman, Eviless, Doctor Poison, and Cheetah, though Queen Clea, Giganta, Zara, and Hypnota escaped with Hippolyta's crown jewels.[2]
Byrna Brilyant was presumably returned to her cell on Transformation Island.
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
- Chemistry Blue Snowman's brilliant father invented Blue Snow, and only she knew the formula.
- Deception The fat, bald, male Blue Snowman was actually a shapely, brunette, female schoolteacher.
- Gadgetry Blue Showman built a Telesacopic Snow Ray, capable of freezing wide, distant areas with Blue Snow, creating blue snowstorms to defend airspace, and of deep-freezing individual enemies.
- Robotic Engineering Blue Snowman deployed a swarm of flying iron robots, modeled to resemble her masculine costume. Their delicate mechanical brains were tuned to respond to her own brain waves.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Weapons
- Telescopic Snow Ray: Machine that generates massive quantities of freezing blue snow over wide areas.[1][2]
Notes
- This version of Blue Snowman, including all history and corresponding appearances, was erased from existence following the collapse of the original Multiverse in the 1985–86 Crisis on Infinite Earths event and later restored following the rebirth of the infinite Multiverse during the Dark Crisis of 2022-2023. Even though other versions of the character may have appeared, this information does not apply to those versions.
Related
Footnotes
  This character is or was primarily an enemy of Wonder Woman and the Amazons in any of her various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Wonder Woman Villains category." |