Nefarious Four

The Nefarious Four is a team of comic book supervillains in the Belch Dimension Comics universe. They are adversaries of the Treehouse Warriors.

The members are Demi-Jon, Captain Maggot, Dr. Ichabod P. Freely, and Dung Tung Wu. Their sponsor and chief is the villianous Hiss Hole. They first appeared as a team in Belch Dimension #37, though all the members have appeared separately in previous issues.

The assemblage of a special villain team by a criminal sponsor is a familiar one in comic books and cartoons: DC Comics has The Suicide Squad, Villains United, The Injustice League, and The Fearsome Five (not to be confused with a team of the same name in Darkwing Duck); Marvel has The Sinister Six. As with most supervillain teams, they exist because they feel their individual failures point to a need to pool their diverse strengths together for a common goal: annihalating a mutual enemy.

History
The Nefarious Four was assembled by Hiss Hole after a number of terrible, embarassing defeats. He selected four villains--Demi-Jon, Capt. Maggot, Ichabod Freely, and Dung Tung Wu--each with their own unique talent and bearing long-standing grudges against the Warriors.

In their first appearance, the plan was to first draw Jon to them. That was simple enough (thanks to Demi-Jon's exact resemblance to his "cousin"), which allowed him to fool and kidnap Marcie Sweet. Once this was done, Hiss Hole brought Jon and his team to a special "proving ground" called the Black Labyrinth, a huge maze of dark stone located in another dimension. The maze has walls too high and slick to climb over and was cloaked in a magical barrier, which kept Jon, Ben, and Jimmo from using their powers or talents.

The second part of the plan was to split the team into separate factions and defeat them piece by piece. Dividing into four teams, the Warriors met and battled all four villains. Each gave the heroes a puzzle for them (as well as the reader) to solve. When put together a certain way, the four pieces revealed a clue as to where to find Marcie: the African desert, in the middle of the Sudanese region.

Demi-Jon, meantime, had disgusted of the company and split from the group upon returning to earth. The remaining three members of the Four were standing outside their hideout--a secret underground bunker--where they had begun bickering amongst themselves. Jon waylaid him in the wilderness and disguised himself as his twin to gain access to the criminals' lair. Hiss Hole had, meantime, tired of Marcie and was about to shoot her with a Derringer pistol. However, the Warriors, who had defeated the remaining three outside, entered the bunker. Marcie was spared being shot to death, but Hiss Hole took out his rage on Buddy, firing a bullet into his head. Jon was so incensed he strangled Hiss Hole to death with his bare hands.

Due to space constraints it is never seen; however, creator J.M. Sweet confirms that a flashback was scripted for Double Trouble that reveals Interpol took Freely, Maggot and Wu away, but Demi-Jon eluded capture and returned to America alone.

Appearances

 * The Nefarious Four, #37 (May 2008)
 * Double Trouble, #39 (Jul 2008) (nonspeaking cameo in flashback)