Magnificent Bastard/Western Animation/Marvel Animation

As in their source material, Marvel animated properties have presented many Magnificent Bastards of their own.


 * In The Spectacular Spider-Man, L. Thompson Lincoln, also known as Tombstone and "the Big Man of Crime", proved himself to be this upon his very first encounter with Spider Man. He floors the webhead in one swift move, antagonizes him by telling him how he is fighting a losing battle, uses it as an attempt to get Spider Man to do what he wants and finally makes Spider Man look bad in the eyes of the cops. All in around five minutes. Displaying numerous moments of honorable qualities, be it helping to locate a bomb at one of his parties at the cost of his own life or even saving the lives of one of his closest henchmen, Tombstone is also an excellent Villain with Good Publicity, convincing the entire city that he is an upstanding, charitable man, despite his monstrous appearance. No situation catches Tombstone off guard for long, as he attempts to be the voice of reason when the Green Goblin starts a gang war, and even publicly assists Spider-Man in dueling numerous villains to keep up his appearance, only to then betray and attempt to murder the man once out of public eye. Unlike most every villain in the series, Tombstone gets off scot-free, easily paying his way out of prison and returning to his former seat of glory, with only surface-level damages to organization.
 * Dr. Otto Octavius, AKA Doctor Octopus has also obtained this status, particularly as "the Master Planner" in Season 2. He operates his plan, for the most part, from a mental ward, has Gwen Stacy kidnapped and then has her father betray the law in exchange for her safety, damn well nearly takes over the world in the end... all while managing to casually sit back and drink coffee out of a mug labeled "Evil Genius".
 * Norman Osborn is also up there, playing both sides throughout Season 1--getting paid to make supervillains to fight Spider-Man, and then getting paid to come up with the systems to contain them. In season 2 this continues, plus . Oh yeah, and.
 * Spider-Man: The Animated Series:
 * Wilson Fisk is a wealthy philanthropist, but is known amongst the criminal underworld as The Kingpin of crime. Crawling out of life of impoverishment and constant abuse, Fisk became the head of a worldwide criminal empire using the skills he honed in prison. From his headquarters within the Empire State Building, Fisk has the various gangs and supervillains in New York under his thumb. He supplies those under his employ with weapons in exchange for their complete loyalty, while taking great care to ensure they remain utterly dependent on him. Despite the constant interference of superheroes like Spider-Man, it's never enough to loosen the Kingpin's grip over Manhattan. His wealth and public image allow him to avoid the consequences of his actions, even if it means sacrificing the ones he loves the most. With schemes such as forming the Insidious Six, to framing others for his crimes, to even attacking the SHIELD Helicarrier; Fisk isn't afraid to get his hands dirty in his pursuit for absolute power.
 * Jason Philip Macendale, AKA The Hobgoblin. In his introductory two-parter, he's a hired mercenary working for Norman Osborn using goblin tech that Osborn created, and assigned to take out the Kingpin. Hobgoblin then doublecrosses Osborn in favor of working for Kingpin against him instead, but then is revealed to be a double agent still working for Osborn. But then he quadruple-crosses both Osborn and the Kingpin, taking over Kingpin's HQ and holding Harry Osborn hostage as leverage so that Norman couldn't stop him. And that's not getting into how effortlessly he plays with circumstances in order to derail Herbert Landon's project in the X-Men crossover two-parter or how he almost gets his hand on the dimensional transporter due to planting a spy in Kingpin's organization ahead of time, or even almost gets Felicia Hardy to marry him so that he can cease her wealth and resources. He unfortunately becomes subject to Villain Decay and The Worf Effect when up against the Green Goblin, but his run was good while it lasted.
 * Doctor Doom, seen in the above series and both The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk animated seres', has twice stolen the powers of the Silver Surfer and tricked the Hulk into nearly killing the Thing. When the UN ordered him to be tried for war crimes, Doom trapped Washington D.C. under a force field and forced the Hulk to destroy the entire capital. Doom was the most successful villain during the Secret Wars and transformed the territories he conquered into utopias free from conflict or strive. Managing to even steal the powers of the almighty Beyonder, Doctor Doom has proven he has one of the most cunning and audacious minds in the Marvel Animated Universe.
 * Loki in Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes most certainly fits the bill, first established during flashbacks in his first appearance and cemented when
 * Baron Heinrich Zemo is the leader of the Masters of Evil and has harbored a grudge against Captain America ever since he foiled his plans in World War II. Zemo relinquished control of HYDRA upon hearing of his return in the 21st century and vowed revenge against Captain America. Zemo infiltrated Avengers Mansion to steal a sample of his blood to help cure his exposure to Virus X. Upon being recruited by the Enchantress to form the Masters of Evil, Zemo quickly established himself as the team leader despite not having any superpowers. He led the Masters of Evil into a break-in of Avengers Mansion, managing to easily incapacitate most of the team. When the Enchantress unveiled her scheme to use the Norn Stones to lead the armies of the Nine Realms to conquer Earth, Zemo anticipated her eventual betrayal. After holding his own against Thor in a duel, Zemo placed a mind-control collar on the Enchantress in an attempt to control the approaching armies for himself. When she came seeking for her revenge, Zemo allied with the Avengers to take her out and kept a Norn Stone as insurance in case they failed. A massive opportunist, Zemo exploits the strengths and weaknesses of both his allies and enemies.
 * Kang the Conqueror hails from the 41st century and uses his advanced tech and knowledge to conquer worlds for his own. Upon learning Captain America's actions will eventually lead to the destruction of humanity, Kang traveled back in time to kill him before that could happen. After his lover Princess Ravonna was nearly erased by a rift in time, Kang vowed to conquer the past and use his armies to protect the Earth from any potential threat. He transported the Avengers to the future to show them what their actions will cause and led an invasion after he failed to gain their cooperation. Kang conquered three-quarters of the planet before the Avengers could sneak into his warship, the Damocles. Kang was apprehended, but later escaped to bring his armies back to the past after transporting the Avengers outside of the time stream. With a cunning intellect and tech that gave even Tony Stark pause, Kang is among the most threatening opponents the Avengers have ever faced.
 * Queen Veranke is the ruler of the Skrull Empire and mastermind behind the Secret Invasion of Earth. After the destruction of the Skrull homeworld, Veranke lead her people to Earth based upon an ancient prophecy. She arranged for her forces to infiltrate strategic locations on the planet using their shape-shifting abilities. The Skrulls sneaked into various government, superhero, and criminal institutions, and sent the people they replaced to a prison ship far off-world. Vernanke disguised herself as Mockingbird and found herself among Nick Fury's confidants in his hunt for the Skrulls. She able to divert attention from her spy within the Avengers by convincing Fury that Hawkeye was the Skrull instead of Captain America. With the Avengers torn apart due their mistrust in one another, Veranke launched her invasion and attempted to convince humanity to surrender using the Skrull disguised as Captain America. When that failed, she used her spies hidden within AIM to activate a satellite array to try and wipe out every human being on the planet. Managing to keep humanity in the dark until it was too late, Queen Veranke is a master of subterfuge and deception.
 * Avengers Assemble:
 * Loki is once again a master at manipulating people into doing what he wants. During his introduction, Loki helped the Avengers separate Doctor Doom from the Destroyer armor, only to betray them and try to use it for himself. He later instigated a fight between Thor and the Hulk, and offered them to Hela in exchange for her Horn; allowing Loki to steal her entire army. When he was taken prisoner to Valhalla, Loki tricked Thor into setting him free and preyed on his insecurities to make him unworthy to wield Mjolnir. In "Secret Wars", Loki reformed the Cabal from behind the scenes and had them scatter the Avengers across time and space. With the Avengers gone, Loki conquered the planet with the Casket of Ancient Winters and threatened to destroy the Earth should his rule be opposed. After being betrayed by the Beyonder, Loki pretended to help the Avengers and rebuilt the Bifrost to fix the damage the Beyonder caused. Upon being given the Eye of Agamotto by Doctor Strange, Loki betrayed the Avengers and stole Odin's powers to become the most powerful magic-user in the universe. A cunning opportunist, Loki stopped at nothing in his quest for ultimate power.
 * Nighthawk is the leader and self-described "architect" of the Squadron Supreme. After destroying his home world when they refused to accept their rule, Nighthawk traveled to Earth and infiltrated the ranks of SHIELD. He tried to recruit Sam into his ranks and stole contingency plans he made that detailed how to defeat the Avengers, using them to great effect. Nighthawk later assembled his old team and used the Reality Stone to create a world where they were respected heroes, while the Avengers were despised supervillains. Afterwards, Nighthawk separated the Avengers and rigged their tower to teleport New York into another dimension. When Sam released the built-up energy, it was funneled into the Citadel and revived Nuke just as Nighthawk planned. The Avengers were forced to fake their deaths, and Nighthawk led the Squadron Supreme to conquer the entire world in their absence. Prepared for every possibility, Nighthawk knows how to manipulate his opponents to play right into his hands.
 * N'Jadaka is the leader of the Shadow Council in the Black Panther's Quest season. Believing that T'Challa was a weak and pampered ruler, N'Jadaka sought to overthrow him by finding the Crown of Wakanda. Taking advantage of his position as Wakanda's ambassador, N'Jadaka launched an attack on Atlantis that increased hostilities between the two nations. Expanding the Shadow Council's reach to various aspects of Wakandan society, N'Jadaka hacked into the palace's security system and made them vulnerable to attack. Now calling himself Killmonger, he had Princess Zanda infiltrate the Avengers by replacing Black Widow Killmonger planned with Zanda to sabotage the peace talks with Atlantis with another attack. He convinced T'Challa to save him from Atlantean imprisonment by telling where Natasha was and took the opportunity to break out and free Bask while he was away. Once Bask became Queen of Wakanda, Killmonger served as her advisor and was ready to betray her when once he realized he couldn't manipulate her. Always one step ahead, N'Jadaka proved he was the most dangerous foe T'Challa ever faced.
 * In the Guardians of the Galaxy series, Loki, ever the suave and cunning God of Mischief, is the Arc Villain of the Asgard War arc. Amidst rising tensions between Asgard and Spartax, Loki manipulates the Guardians into exposing Emperor J'Son for stealing the Cosmic Seed from Asgard years ago. In reality, Loki had stolen the Seed back from J'Son, intending to start a war between Asgard and Spartax. When Thor goes to war, Loki hijacks the Destroyer Armor and tries to eliminate his brother which would leave him Asgard's wartime leader and sole heir to the throne. Although exposed by the Guardians, Loki "redeems" himself by aiding in stopping Thanos from invading Asgard. Later imprisoned for unknown crimes, Loki forms an Enemy Mine with the Guardians when Asgard was invaded by symbiotes, only to later betray them and attempts to send the symbiotes to Midgard instead. Thwarted and captured, Loki uses a binding spell he had casted on Star-Lord earlier, influencing him to request Loki be pardoned once again. A smooth-talker and opportunist, Loki always weasels his way out of any situation, claiming to be acting for what's best for Asgard.