Magnificent Bastard/Comic Books



"Prometheus: I built my crooked house here, under the foundations of reality, where I could nibble away at the roots. Luthor: You wrote excruciating poetry as an adolescent, I can tell. You were published by your school magazine... Prometheus: Yeah, I guess we are pretty similar types, Luthor. Smart kids nobody ever really understood... Luthor: Mm."
 * It would be easier to list the heroes who don't have at least one of these in their gallery. Their villains tend to be larger than life and are often colorful, greatly increasing the likelihood of getting a villain that meets the rest of the criteria.
 * The Joker. He has pulled every Gambit in the book in his seventy year long career.
 * Another Batman example is Ra's Al Ghul, who, out of all the Batman villains, poses the biggest threat globally. He too, like The Joker, has pulled almost every single plan and gambit one could think of for his final goal of wiping out ninety percent of the world's population. Add his polite exterior and cunning mind, and you have one Batman villain who is not to be trifled with.
 * The Riddler almost reached this trope when he teamed-up with him. However he failed to become the Chessmaster due to the fact that . However, he has proven to be worthy of this title when.
 * His most Magnificent act of Bastardry was surely his reformation: he still gets to compete with Batman, but now he gets paid to do it, the police don't chase him, and there are many, many fewer Bat-beatings to be endured. The fact that good guy Riddler is an even bigger annoyance to Batman than bad guy Riddler is the icing on the cake.
 * As of the New 52, The Riddler qualifies. Zero Year portraits him as the mind behind Wayne Industries, serving as Philip Kane's consultant. In order to secure Philip's position after Bruce's return, he hires the Red Hood Gang to dispose of the latter, knowing well that the former is a member of the gang and has to comply. When Philip threatens to kill him, he nonchalantly reveals he is aware of the metal piece inside Philip's head and uses a giant magnet to incapacitate him. Then, he causes a massive black-out just before a hurricane hits the city counting on the GCPD to unwittingly give him complete access to every computer system in Gotham by bringing the light back. To be sure Batman doesn't interfere with his plan he also manipulates the desperate Doctor Death by funding his ethically dubious research in order to provide a distraction for the Caped Crusader. And the best part is that he succeeds, and hundreds of people drown in the hurricane as a result. What truly makes him worthy of this trope this time is the fact that, at least for now, he has never shown signs of being a Smug Snake, or losing his temper even when things didn't go as he predicted.
 * Prometheus is another one in The DCU. He's got no superpowers, but he's stampeded through the Justice League three times now, and has pulled off ridiculous stuff like completely disabling the Flash by lying to him, or talking Superman into suicide, or blackmailing the League into letting him go after destroying Star City. He even teamed up with Luthor once (they caused World War III, no big deal), which led to a Crowning Moment of Funny as Prometheus showed Luthor around his "crooked house for a crooked man", as the two masterminds passive aggressively snipe at each other.

"Do you seriously think I'd explain my masterstroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago."
 * Black Panther is quite likely the biggest in Marvel (sometimes). Basically every storyline during his longest run (under Christopher Priest) boiled down to "a bunch of really smart guys have a bunch of really smart, well-thought out, creative plans... that Panther anticipated and is manipulating to his own ends." It's doubly impressive because almost all of Panther's adversary are Magnificent Bastards themselves.
 * Lex Luthor, of The DCU. Since the eighties, he's been well entrenched in Magnificent Bastardry. The Diniverse version is especially Magnificent, almost becoming the President as a distraction from his true plan. Though, unknown to him, he had help with that.
 * The Prankster proved to be one of these in "The Art of the Prank", Superman #660, when dealing with Nitro G, a low-rate criminal with explosive powers that tried to strong-arm him into selling copies of his devices as weapons. And given that Prankster is a normal human, he couldn't simply beat Nitro G in a normal fight. So, he had to go by another route. Suffice to say Nitro G ended up naked, scarred, bruised and humiliated, begging Superman to take him to jail, in front of a laughing crowd while the Prankster ended up with more cash and more customers due to the publicity in his distraction-for-money business.
 * Loki, Marvel's expert free-form, improv manipulator. Not only does this guy play the big boys in the Marvel Universe, this is a guy who regularly improvises the end of freaking nine worlds armed primarily with mischief and his lying tongue. And he's brought about Ragnarok multiple times. How many baddies have the chops to pull that off? He also lies regularly so well that no one can tell his lies from truth. Loki almost always gets what he wants.
 * He's even made a deal with Mephisto and come out on top.
 * Convinced Thor to end the universe during the last Ragnarok cycle.
 * Manages to never get killed by his pawns.
 * In part because he's used magic to give himself Nigh Invulnerability and his tongue to convince the various gods of Death that they'd be better off letting him be resurrected everytime something bad happens to him- after all, you don't want Loki running around your afterlife, do you?
 * In the end, the only way Loki could die was because he chose it, a scheme to escape himself. His reincarnation keeps up his fine tradition of bastardry... without any of his previous powers.
 * Vril Dox II from L.E.G.I.O.N. (a modern-day "prequel" series to the Legion of Super-Heroes), a slick Insufferable Genius, orchestrates the total disruption of two planetary governments in pursuit of justice in just the first six issues. He's so cold, he practically tamed Lobo.
 * Doctor Doom is a perfect example in the Marvel Universe. When you can take on a GOD without flinching...
 * Many comic book masterminds consider the moment where they successfully stole the power of a cosmic entity as the crowning moment of their career. Doom calls it Tuesday.
 * Also, most masterminds would consider the day they successfully conquered a planet as the crowning moment of their career. Doom calls it Thursday.
 * Interestingly enough, the one main trait of a Magnificent Bastard that Doom subverts is a lack of pettiness. Doom's main purpose in life is his completely petty jealous grudge against Reed Richards; he just pursues it in such a grand-scale, badass and hammy manner that he appears to be the epitome of this trope. Ditto for Lex Luthor.
 * The Kingpin, also part of the Marvel Universe, until the "Last Rites" storyline. He was a major enemy of both Daredevil and Spider-Man, yet for the most part avoided being shut down by either and when they do succeed in bringing him down, he always find a way to climb back to the top.
 * As of the end of the Shadowland arc he's returned to this status in a big way.
 * Namor, the Marvel king of Atlantis and on again off again super villain can pull this off on occasion. Like when he joined the heroic "Illuminati" of Iron Man and Mr.Fantastic, and the villainous Illuminati of Doom and Norman Osborn immediately after.
 * Thanos of Titan, another example from the Marvel Universe, and arguably the quintessential one, at least for the company's cosmic landscape. A premier mover and shaker in many important storylines (if not the main focus altogether), he has a knack for successfully manipulating both sides of the fence (sometimes both at once) time and time again, despite his true nature being common knowledge to everyone.
 * General Wade Eiling from Captain Atom. First, he framed Nathaniel Adam for drug smuggling, mutiny, and murder, when in fact Eiling had been secretly running the conspiracy responsible for those crimes. Then he talked Adam into participating as a guinea pig in the "Captain Atom Project", which led to Adam's apparent death. Then Eiling married Angela Adam, Adam's "widow." Then, when Adam rematerialized eighteen years later, now possessing superpowers, Eiling was able to talk him into masquerading as a superhero to spy on the Justice League as part of the Captain Atom project, by telling him that this would give him the opportunity to clear his name, and even reconnect with his children, who of course thought of Eiling as their father. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. What makes this especially impressive is that Adam is very smart, and is no slouch at political intrigue. Since Eiling was created by Cary Bates and Greg Weisman, who went on to create Gargoyles and David Xanatos, this is probably not surprising.
 * Eiling ultimately got his commuppance: dying of cancer, he tried to transfer his mind into an immortal, nigh-indestructible body... that of the Shaggy Man. The process backfired as Shaggy Man's primitive animalistic body quickly turned Eiling into a mindless savage. It didn't help that Batman and Superman, upon fighting Eiling in his new body, promptly teleported him onto an asteroid in the middle of deep space, in order to get rid of him once and for all. Sadly, while Eiling DID eventually escape the asteroid, months of being stuck all by himself on a small asteroid in the silent void of space with a primitive brain effectively drove Eiling insane and caused him to lose his manipulative bastard skills.
 * Tao of Wild CATS and Sleeper. Genetically engineered tactical supergenius turned nearly unstoppable crime lord, Tao wins fights just by opening his mouth - by the time he's done with you, you'll probably have signed up with him. (Failing that, you'll be mindwiped, in a coma, or have been shot by your own allies - going up against this guy just doesn't pay.)
 * Groucho Marx plays this role of Lord Julius in Cerebus. Incidentally, Dave Sim writes and draws a perfect Groucho.
 * Spider-Man villain Roderick Kingsley, the original Hobgoblin, managed to trick Spider-Man and the Kingpin into believing the Hobgoblin was deceased Daily Bugle reporter Ned Leeds for a good 10 years real time before being caught. He then blackmailed the Green Goblin into breaking him out of prison, and is currently living in luxury in the Caribbean. Not bad for a guy who was originally a fashion designer.
 * Just to drive this point home, because Roddy is so often overlooked: he manipulated and murdered one of Peter Parker's co-workers, killed several dozen people, began a coup to take down the Kingpin, scammed two generations of Osborns, caused a gang war, and served probably one month, comic-book time, in jail for it, before being able to sneak off to the Caribbean. Well, until he returned from retirement and was killed.
 * What makes him even more devious? He's franchising supervillain identities. He let Phil Urich continue being Hobgoblin after he beat the pretender for a cut of whatever he earns. He apparently has someone in Mysterio's old gear while he's chilling in the Ultimate Marvel universe and it seems that it may be the 616 version of Miles Morales.
 * Depending on the Writer, Norman Osborn/the Green Goblin can be this, whereas he's a Smug Snake otherwise. When Norman isn't acting Insane, he able to even out scam Kingsley! In the earlier example of Kingsley tricking Osborn into helping him escape from prison, Osborn was aware of that and bought Kingsley's company while making Kingsley believe he was falling for his trap.
 * Bomb Queen, the Stripperiffic Villain Protagonist of her self-titled Image Comics book. The iron-fisted dictator of New Port City has, in no particular order: wiped out the rest of her original villain team; turned New Port City into a place where nothing is illegal in designed "Crime Zones"; stolen ; kept New Port City's mayor under her control with sex and verbal assaults, casually killing anyone standing near him when she blasts a hole through his office wall (repeatedly to the point of being a Running Gag); orchestrated terror attacks on the cities of other Image superheroes; ; and . She is still a Villain with Good Publicity within her city, if only because her constituents are Complete Monsters who moved to New Port City in order to indulge in their vilest sins. Outside her city, she has absolutely no protection under US law; she manages to avoid justly-deserved punishments every time.
 * Lucifer is nearly the most Magnificent of all Bastards. Like a true Magnificent Bastard he isn't above putting himself on the line of fire, and can make and discard a hundred plans in a moment. He handily gets the better of just about everything in the universe, but.
 * John Constantine commits acts of Magnificent Bastardry on a regular basis, but he achieved awe-inspiring heights when, while dying of lung cancer, he risked destabilizing the cosmos by starting a war in Hell when he sold his soul to all three of Hell's most powerful lords--just so he could blackmail them into saving his life. And then he didn't even quit smoking.
 * But the thing which truly crowned him as a Magnificent Bastard? He turned around to the three lords of Hell, the rulers of all of damnation, gave a little smirk, and flipped them off, stating rather non-nonchalantly "Up yours."
 * Gary Jackson. It was recently revealed that he . He also has a swagger that commands respect from coworkers and fanboys in universe. The game system he created has much of his persona on display.
 * Edwin Alva in the series Hardware.
 * The Sultan Agameen from the indie graphic novel Artesia. He's handsome and dresses well - gold-threaded silk and fine plate are all the rage in Thessid-Gola this season. He is eloquent and treats his arch-enemy, Artesia herself, with respect. He is an incredible strategist and tactician...and he is protected by a goddamn Dragon spirit.
 * Romulus and Daken of Wolverine: one, the other... Just read Dark Wolverine #77.
 * Sinestro, post-Green Lantern: Rebirth. The guy organised a war between his new corps and the Green Lanterns. He manipulated Parallax, the Cyborg Superman, Superboy-Prime and the freaking Anti-Monitor. And when he's beat? He reveals that, all this time, he was using it so that the Green Lanterns become a better police force, by getting them to subvert their Thou Shalt Not Kill rule. Brilliant!
 * Before that, in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2 (1986), Sinestro was able to manipulate the omnipotent Sector 3600 into breaking the Sciencells, allowing Sinestro and the sector to escape.
 * from Watchmen.


 * Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad and Greg Rucka's Checkmate. Though she's occasionally played as a Smug Snake elsewhere, nobody can deny she's one of the few people capable of putting Batman against the wall. She is a heavy-set, nigh-menopausic black woman who escaped the Cabrini-Green area well after she had her children. And she is the leader of the very seriously titled Suicide Squad, capable of commanding both the fear and respect of the supervillains in her employ and staying on top of the pile in the politics game and as a vicious field agent by sheer force of personality, brute intellect, and this trope. This should tell you what kind of person Amanda is. To put it in perspective, both Lex Luthor and Batman have long since decided not to fuck with Waller. By personal experience.
 * Greg Pak's Bruce Banner is this after taking a level in Badass.
 * To illustrate that point, during the Dark Reign storyline, Norman Osborn tried to turn Banner(who had been Brought Down to Badass) back into the Hulk, because he felt that Banner was more of a threat to his plans than the Hulk could possibly be.
 * A somewhat obscure one, but recurring Cenobite Hunger the Hellraiser comics by Epic.
 * Maxwell Lord in the Brightest Day tie-in Generation Lost. Just go look at the page.
 * In issue #1 alone, he, and rounds it all off with a glass of claret and a cigar on the battlements of Checkmate HQ. Magnificent.
 * Sin City is filled with manipulation but Dwight McCarthy is probably at the top of the heap. To give you an idea, in his first storyarc, he was on the run form the cops, severely wounded, had no place to go, and had the Old Town girls ready to kick him out of the neighborhood or be killed by Miho. After about one page of dialogue, he got Miho on his side and had the Old Town girls not only giving him shelter but helping him get revenge on the Big Bad.
 * In the Sonic The Hedgehog comics, the villain Mammoth Mogul was originally conceived as one of these, but could never really pull it off. That is, until he essentially said to the heroes, "Hey, I just remembered I'm immortal. So here's my new plan: I'll live in this sweet casino I just had built, amuse myself by taking pot shots at you whenever I can, and wait for you all to die of old age. I can beat you by outliving you." You gotta love him for that.
 * Dr. Eggman definitely does by the Genesis arc. After laying low for a while, he secretly transforms his headquarters into a flying fortress/weapons platform, ; this is made even better by him savoring his victory by sipping from a glass of wine while firing his superweapon.
 * The man reasoned his way out of insanity, and emerged more dangerous than ever before. Hell yes does he qualify these days.
 * And let's not forget Dr. Finitevus, who straddles the line between this and Complete Monster -- he effortlessly manipulates the Guardians (including Knuckles), Dimitri, and two whole factions of the Dark Egg Legion in order to ensure that a new Enerjak can be created. And then he escapes scott free by jumping off Angel Island and disappearing into a Warp Ring with a smirk.
 * Given recent events, we can probably add Ixis Naugus to this list as well. Following his recovery from madness, he undertook a plan to make himself a Villain with Good Publicity by using Mina Mongoose's music as a conduit for his magic, turning the distrust that the citizens of New Mobotropolis had for NICOLE following her brainwashing by the Iron Queen into paranoia and hatred. He then appeared before the public and promised to "save" them from NICOLE with his magic if they just agreed to make him their king.  He's also become a master of Xanatos Speed Chess, apparently, as he's quickly managed to adapt to sudden situations in such a way that only improves the image this plan created for him. This includes defending the city from attacks by Eggman and the Battle Bird Armada, and acting as though his accidental   during a publicity stunt was intentional (the look on his face makes it clear, however, that he's as surprised as anyone else).
 * Giving himself some more points in the Magnificent Bastard department, he allows his mole to be put on trial and found guilty of treason . It's actually quite impressive.
 * And then there's the fact that he pretty much plotted the Great War between the Mobians of Acorn and the Overlanders. Feeling threatened by the royal court's cheif engineer Nate Morgan's inventions and rise of influence in the king's eyes, he made an alliance with General Kodos, whose hatred of Overlanders Naugus had no problems to use to win him over, and then pulled up a scheme where a patrol of Overlanders and Kodos' patrol, with Morgan in it, would meet with each others and, with the help of his magic, would cause their xenophobia toward each other to turn violent. The outcome worked as it did, leaving only Kodos and Morgan alive, and he and Kodos quickly blamed Morgan for treason, causing him to be kicked out of the kingdom. Not only did this get rid of his main rival in the court and made him the top dog again, but it also made the relationship between the Mobians and the Overlanders go into red alert. Aware that a war was inevitable, he created the Zone of Silence to hide in while the war would go on and wait for the outcome, both of which were win-win to him: if the Mobians win, he'll return and simply take over a much stronger kingdom. If the Overlanders win, he'll return and take over what's left and rebuild the kingdom from the ruins. Only one mistake hindered his plan: he didn't create any way out of the zone, leaving himself locked in a prison for years to come.
 * Mr Natural lives to manipulate people despite his facade of being a little old man, from his early days as a patent medicine salesman to getting Flakey Floont into trouble by forcing him to truly follow the zen practices he cherished.
 * The first Zoom could be considered this considering he tricked most of the League (including Wally) into thinking he was Barry back from the dead, killed Iris, and almost killed Barry's second fiance.
 * He also brought his nemesis back from the dead to insure his own existence then found a way to break the universe badly enough to be able to kill Barry again without it affecting him. This caused the entire DC Universe to reset. See The New 52. The best part is, he got Barry to break the universe for him in an attempt to fix something Zoom had done.
 * Dubbelosix fron Asterix and the Black Gold. With a James-Bond-esque chariot, and a trained housefly (with an unnaturally long life) to deliver his messages, he's a force to be reckoned with.
 * Tortuous Convolvulus from Asterix and the Roman Agent. Wherever he goes, he sows mistrust and discord For the Evulz.
 * Julius Ceasar anyone? It says a lot about the man that after years of publication and having his plans fail constantly, he is still treated as a genuine threat by both the fanbase and the characters. The fact that he is incredibly cool under fire probably helps--when confronted by two (superpowered) heroes, our non-powered viillain states that "If you have come to kill me, I will have you know that I intend to sell my distinguished life dearly." You never doubt him for an instant.
 * Writers often try to make The Phantom Blot a Magnificent Bastard, and sometimes they even succeed. At his best, he hatches truly convoluted schemes that have Mickey Mouse (often portrayed as little short of a Great Detective himself in such stories) running around clueless for a long time before he even begins to figure them out; and has a dark, threateningly cool presence. That said, most stories can't pull this off too well.
 * Anathos, from Les Legendaires, big time. He put in place a Xanatos Gambit years before his first appearance in the serie in order to come back amongst the living. Whereas most characters will fall for the No Man of Woman Born trick, this guy was so Dangerously Genre Savvy he used it to his advantage as part of his plan B. As a result, the Gambit worked, despite the opposition of the protagonists, the Big Bad and even an Eldritch Abomination. Not to mention he scarred the heroes to life and almost eradicated humanity...

Newspaper Comics

 * The megalomaniacal Dogbert, pet of Dilbert. Though a multi-billionaire and former ruler of the world, he often works as a business consultant simply for the fun of conning people and stirring up trouble.
 * Jason from FoxTrot. He constantly comes up with newer and ridiculous ways to annoy and prank his siblings, especially Paige.