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A supervillain is a variant of the villain character type, commonly found in comic books, action movies and science fiction in various mediums. Supervillains concoct complex and ambitious schemes to accumulate power and suppress adversaries. They often have colorful names and costumes and/or other eccentricities. Female supervillains are sometimes known as supervillainesses.

Supervillains are often used as foils to superheroes and other fictional heroes. Their extraordinary brainpower, superhuman abilities, or sheer ambition make them viable antagonists for the most gifted heroes.

Many supervillains share typical characteristics of real world dictators, mobsters, and terrorists.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Common Traits 3 Personality Types 4 Supervillains as Foils 5 Well-known supervillains 6 Well-known parodies of supervillains 7 Other uses 8 See also

[edit] Origins

By most definitions, the first supervillain was John Devil, a proto-Fantômas, created by Paul Féval, père in his eponymous 1862 novel, or Féval's nearly-immortal, machiavellian Colonel Bozzo-Corona, leader of Les Habits Noirs introduced in 1863. Professor Moriarty, the arch enemy of Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective Sherlock Holmes, was introduced in 1891. Dr. Fu Manchu, the antagonist of several popular novels of Sax Rohmer, is credited with popularizing many of the typical characteristics of the modern supervillain, including his sadistic personality, his desire for world domination, and his use of sinister lairs and themed crimes and henchmen. Rohmer's work had a strong influence on Ian Fleming, whose James Bond novels and their film adaptations further popularized the image of the supervillain in popular culture.

The first supervillain who wore a bizarre costume was the Lightning, from the 1938 film Fighting Devil Dogs, which preceded the first modern superhero, Superman.

The first supervillain to regularly battle a superhero was Ultra-Humanite, who first appeared in Action Comics #13 (1939).

--75.2.92.102 22:21, 1 December 2006 (UTC)== Headline text ==

[edit] Common Traits

While supervillains vary greatly, there are a number of attributes that define the character. Most supervillains have at least a few of the following traits:

• A desire to commit spectacular crimes and/or rule the world—or in some cases an entire universe—through whatever means necessary.
• A generally irritable and spiteful disposition and contempt for heroes, ordinary civilians, lackeys, and anyone else who may get in their way.
• A sadistic nature and tendency to revel in their sociopathic behavior and/or supposed intellectual superiority
• An enemy or group of enemies that he or she repeatedly fights.
• A desire for revenge against said enemies. The method of revenge often goes beyond simply killing them to making them suffer before death, such as using deathtraps.
• A brilliant scientific mind that he or she chooses to use for evil (see also mad scientist and evil genius).
• Superhuman abilities or special skills, similar to those of superheroes. Frequently, these skills are gained through selfish meddling with science as opposed to the "natural" or "accidental" gifts possessed by superheroes. Compare the origin of the Green Goblin and that of his nemesis, Spider-Man.
• A dark and threatening-looking headquarters or lair, the location of which is usually kept secret from police, superheroes and the general public. Examples include Magneto’s headquarters Asteroid M and The Legion of Doom’s Hall of Doom. However, some supervillains who feel secure from prosecution live and work in palatial buildings, such as Doctor Doom's castles in his country of Latveria and the office buildings and research facilities of the Green Goblin’s alter ego Norman Osborn. Others are mobile and do not have one particular base of operations.
• A theme by which he or she plots his crimes. For example, The Riddler plots his crimes around riddles, puzzles and word games and Mysterio plots his around movie special effects. Furthermore, most themed villains will stubbornly keep with their style even when it seems impractical or ridiculous to others in view of their typical lack of success.

• Although super villain “team-ups” occasionally occur and some supervillain teams exist, such as the Mutants and Sinister Six, most supervillains do not collaborate with one another but employ a team of simple-minded and expendable henchmen to assist them. Some supervillains, such as Darth Vader, Berg Katse and Cobra Commander, control entire armies whose troops are considered equally expendable and subject to murderously draconian discipline.
• Due to a cowardly nature or physical inequality to their foes, some supervillains manipulate events from behind the scenes. These include Lex Luthor, a physical weakling compared to Superman, and Ernst Stavro Blofeld of the James Bond novel and film series.
• A strong commitment to their criminal profession to the point where they will quickly resume their activities in their favorite area immediately after escaping prison or recovering from serious injury.
• A refusal to accept responsibility for personal mistakes and setbacks in favor of blaming their enemies or subordinates.
• A back story or origin story that explains how the character transformed from an ordinary person into a supervillain. The story usually involves some great tragedy that marked the change. In the case of many supervillains, including Two-Face, Magneto, Doctor Doom, Mr Freeze, and some versions of Lex Luthor, this story involves a one-time friendship with their future foe.

[edit] Personality Types

One thing that supervillains do not share is motivation; characters choose to become supervillains for many different reasons:

• The Evil Genius: Lex Luthor, Doctor Doom, Red Skull, Krang, Professor Moriarty, and many others are portrayed as outright evil and power-hungry. Few writers attempt to portray them with any redeeming qualities. This approach was common in the Golden Age of Comic Books, but subsequent writers prefer more complex villains. Marvel Comics writer/editor Stan Lee often says it is more important that fans sympathize with villains than heroes.
• The Fallen: Darth Vader, Venom, Zen-Aku, and the Green Goblin, have fallen under some corrupting influence. In some cases, such as the ending of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the character overcomes his or her manipulator or hidden demons and is able to somewhat redeem themselves.
• The Psychopath: Sabretooth, The Shredder, Typhoid Mary, The Joker, Carnage, and most other Batman villains are criminally insane and incapable of controlling their murderous urges.
• The Mercenary: Sandman, Electro and Blob are simply thugs with superhuman abilities. They often work as henchmen of more ambitious and intelligent supervillains.
• The Beast: Man-Bat, Dr Jekyll, Baxter the Fly, The Lizard and Sauron undergo Therianthropic transformations and cannot control their savagery.
• The Trickster: Mr. Mxyzptlk, Impossible Man, Q, and The Riddler torment heroes for their own pleasure. In addition, they are typically far more powerful than the heroes and must be outwitted.
• The Born-and-Bred: The Super-Skrull, Davros, Maleficent, Lord Zedd and Brainiac are extraterrestrials and their behavior is either common or encouraged on their home planets.

• The Noble: A few characters deemed supervillains actually have goals that could be considered noble but pursue them in extreme ways. The best-known example is the X-Men’s enemy Magneto, a Holocaust survivor who seeks to end the human oppression of mutants, but uses war and terrorism to accomplish his goals. John Sunlight, featured in Doc Savage pulp magazines, Syndrome of the movie The Incredibles, and Ozymandias of the comic book series Watchmen have large-scale utopian goals but resort to destructive measures to implement them. Furthermore, they tend to callously shrug off the harm they inflict on the innocent as being part of a "greater good" that requires certain sacrifices. Poison Ivy and Ra's Al Ghul, both ecoterrorists and Batman adversaries, are dedicated to protecting the natural environment from human civilization but are willing to eliminate humanity to do so.
  • Japanese anime and tokusatsu series often feature noble villains, similar to the type described above. This type shows a sort of respect for his or her foe. As a common plot device, they, or one of their comrades or kin, owe a debt to the hero and work to repay it. However, when the debt is paid, the villain continues with his or her crimes.
• The Ultimate: A few supervillains, such as Galactus and Apocalypse personify forces of nature and cannot be judged by simple standards of morality.

In the Modern Age of Comic Books, heroes and villains have generally become less morally absolute. While many superheroes were portrayed as psychologically complex and morally fallible, if not questionable, villains have also become more multifaceted. Psychological impulses and personal tragedy were often explored as motivations behind their behavior. During this time, many villains were “redeemed” and, either permanently or provisionally, became anti-heroes. Examples include Magneto, Elektra, Venom, Sandman, Catwoman, Emma Frost, Juggernaut and Mystique

[edit] Supervillains as Foils

Image:Jll6.jpg Many supervillains are portrayed as an inversion of their foe. For example, Wolverine constantly tries to contain his animalistic urges, while Sabretooth fully embraces his. Batman is often portrayed as a humorless dark character who stands for order, while The Joker is an irrational, joke-loving, brightly colored character who represents the chaos which disrupts the order. The Incredible Hulk is the raging, reckless alter ego of a brilliant scientist while The Leader is the intelligent, conniving alter ego of a person of average intellect and both were transformed by gamma radiation. Professor X seeks for mutants to co-exist in harmony with normal humans, while Magneto believes that mutants have a right to rule over other humans.

Occasionally, this contrast is more direct. Bizarro is an alternate reality version of Superman from a “Bizarro World” in which everything is an inversion of its DC Universe counterpart (In the current DC Comics continuity, however, he is a flawed clone of Superman.) The villain Venom is often considered the dark, twisted version of his nemesis Spider-man, as he wears Spider-man's old symbiote costume and as a result has similar powers but uses them to kill anyone he personally judges to be 'evil' instead of using them with a sense of responsibly like Spider-man does. Captain Marvel's foe Black Adam was once a protégé of the wizard Shazam, but used his powers for darker purposes and has returned to challenge Marvel, wearing a black version of his own outfit. Another example of inversions are the Reverse-Flashes, the enemies of the Flashes.

These contrasts help build-up the mythic grandeur of superhero and villain relationships and allow the villain to serve as a foil for the hero.

[edit] Well-known supervillains

See also: Archenemy

• Apocalypse
• Carnage, a psychopatic serial killer bonded with an alien symbiote, one of deadliest foes of Spider-Man.
• Cobra Commander, mysterious leader of the terrorist Cobra Organization in various G.I. Joe-related comic books and animated series.
• Darkseid, ruler of the Hellish planet of Apokolips and galactic conqueror, enemy of the New Gods and the DC Comics superhero community in general.
• Palpatine, the ultimate villain of the Star Wars films. He secretly manipulated events involving Kaminoans, the Galactic Republic, the Mandalorians, the Confederacy of Independent Systems and even his enemies, the Jedi Knights, to create a Galactic Empire and to obtain complete power. He is less well known than his apprentice, Darth Vader, despite being the ultimate Star Wars villain.

• Darth Vader, Black-cloaked Sith Lord in the original trilogy of Star Wars films, adversary of Luke Skywalker and the Jedi Knights.
• Davros, physically crippled but scientifically ingenious alien adversary of the Doctor; creator of the Daleks and sometimes their leader.
• Doctor Doom, mad scientist, wizard, and dictator of the fictional country of Latveria, arch-enemy of the Fantastic Four and adversary of the Marvel Comics superhero community in general.
• Doctor Octopus, mad scientist with four tentacle-like metal arms, adversary of Spider-Man.
• Dogai Singh, leader of the ancient Singh Brotherhood, adversary of The Phantom.
• Ernst Stavro Blofeld, international terrorist leader and arch-enemy of James Bond during the early years of the film series.
• Fu Manchu, the prototype of the modern supervillain, antagonist of several novels by Sax Rohmer.
• Green Goblin, millionaire-by-day/costumed-madman-by-night, arch-enemy of Spider-Man.
• The Joker, psychopath with a the appearance of a clown and a homocidal sense of humor, arch-enemy of Batman.
• Khan Noonien Singh, genetically engineered superhuman with plans for multi-world domination, adversary to the original Star Trek crew.
• The Kingpin, supremely powerful New York mafia boss, adversary of Daredevil, Spider-Man and the Marvel Comics superhero community in general.
• Lex Luthor, in early incarnations, a cold-hearted mad scientist; in later, a billionaire industrialist and white collar criminal, arch-enemy of Superman.
• Loki, trickster god and arch-enemy of Thor in both Marvel Comics and Norse mythology.
• Magneto, mutant leader with the ability to control magnetism, protector of his people at all costs, arch-enemy of the X-Men.
• Megatron, leader of the evil robot group the Decepticons from the Transformers animated series. He later became the more powerful Galvatron in Transformers: The Movie, but later episodes of the series (Season Three) turned him into a raving lunatic.
• Ming the Merciless, interplanetary despot, adversary of Flash Gordon.
• The Penguin, self-styled “gentleman of crime,” adversary of Batman.
• Professor Moriarty, criminal genius and adversary of Sherlock Holmes, arguably the first supervillain. Holmes described him as “the Napoleon of crime.”
• Ra's al Ghul, immortal eco-terrorist and adversary of Batman
• The Riddler, question mark-clad criminal with an obsessive compulsive to forewarn police and heroes of his crimes with complex riddles and word games, adversary of Batman.
• The Shredder, leader of the ninja crime gang the Foot Clan and arch-enemy of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• Skeletor, other-dimensional conqueror and arch-enemy of He-Man.
• Venom, Peter Parker's rival reporter Eddie Brock, who's empowered with an Alien Symbiote and a desire for revenge, adversary of Spider-man.

[edit] Well-known parodies of supervillains

Because the supervillain is such a common but distinct character type in modern fiction, several parodies have been created. Some of the best-known include:

• Mr. Burns, crotchety power plant owner on The Simpsons, takes on the role of supervillain in various episodes, as when he builds a device to block out the sun which causes Waylon Smithers to remark: "He's gone from regular villainy to cartoonish super-villainy!" At least one episode featured a shot of Mr. Burns with the Darth Vader theme playing. Mr Burns also bears a likeness of the Evil Emperor Palpatine, another villain in the Star Wars saga.
• Stewie Griffin, diabolically ingenious, talking baby of the TV series Family Guy. In earlier episodes attempted to control the weather, to rid the world of broccoli, and his biggest aspiration is to kill his mother, Lois.

• Dr. Evil, bumbling criminal mastermind and adversary of Austin Powers in a series of spy film spoofs. His clothing suggests he is parodying Blofeld from the James Bond movies.
• The Brain, from the cartoon series Animaniacs and one of the titular stars of the spin-off show, Pinky and the Brain, is a diminutive lab mouse bent on global conquest.
• Syndrome, hyperactive evil genius and superhero-wannabe from the computer animated film The Incredibles, and arch-enemy of the Incredible Family.
• O'Malley, the main villain and common adversary of both sides in the second, third, fourth and fifth seasons of the machinima series Red vs. Blue, is an over-the-top supervillain caricature. He frequently uses clichés and ridiculous dialogue, usually accompanied by extreme close-ups of his host's helmet visor, and followed by evil laughter.
• Professor Chaos, the recurring alter ego of Butters, a fourth grader on the animated series South Park, seeks to spread fear and chaos as revenge upon the world that has forsaken him (made him socially unpopular), but has a problem with scale. Exploits include switching people's soup at a restaurant, attempting to destroy the ozone layer by spraying regular aerosol cans and flooding the planet by leaving the backyard hose on. Once suffered an existential crisis prompted by the fact that all of his plans had previously been done on The Simpsons.
• Dark Helmet, and the Spaceballs. A parody of Darth Vader with a new and creative twist: underneath his massive helmet is a short man wearing a tie.
• Casanova Frankenstein is the villain in the 1999 movie Mystery Men. He employed several gangs of themed henchmen including the "Disco Boys." His goal was to destroy Champion City with a doomsday machine.
• Chairface Chippendale, a criminal mastermind with a chair for a head, adversary of The Tick.
• The Monarch, the butterfly-suited antagonist in The Venture Bros.. The Monarch is a parody of comic book villains such as Black Manta, The Penguin, or The Cheetah, all of whom choose to model their personas after creatures, albeit ones far more fearsome than a monarch butterfly.

[edit] Other uses

• Linux users occasionally use the term "Supervillain" as a comical self-reference, inspired by the Switch to Linux cartoon by Chris Hill. The cartoon features a character named Steve, who describes how Linux helps him become a Supervillain.

[edit] See also

• List of supervillain teams and groupsde:Superschurke

fr:Super-vilain it:Supercriminale ja:怪人 fi:Superroisto sv:Superskurk