Diabolical Mastermind: Difference between revisions

Because of this, he ([[Always Male|and it is almost always a]] ''[[Always Male|he]]'') is generally protected by dozens of [[Mooks]] and sometimes [[The Dragon]]. As such, he is very rarely made to pay for his crimes.

The diabolical mastermind's motto is that you have to spend money to make money. As such, he may spend countless millionsmillions—or -- or billions -- ofbillions—of dollars building a super [[Kill Sat|orbital]] [[Death Ray]] operated from a secret volcano base, only to then hold the world's Governments to ransom for... er... millions -- or billions --millions—or ofbillions—of dollars. Since money is no object, the best way to ask the world for this ransom is to [[Do Not Adjust Your Set|take over every TV channel or network in the world]].

Of course, the diabolical mastermind isn't upset about getting his hands dirty if needed, although if he manages to capture the hero, he inevitably makes the mistake of pulling [[The Blofeld Ploy]] or [[Complexity Addiction|favouring a]] [[Death Trap]] [[Complexity Addiction|rather than just shooting the guy in the head]]. He is often a [[Bad Boss]] and his henchmen fear those ominous words: "[[You Have Failed Me...]] for the last time..."

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Makoto Shishio from ''[[Rurouni Kenshin (Manga)|Rurouni Kenshin]]'' seems to be a combination between a [[Diabolical Mastermind]] and a [[Badass]].

** Less argueablyarguably is Keel Lorenz, Gendo's boss and Number One of [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness|SEELE]].

* Subverted in [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]. We all thought the true [[Diabolical Mastermind]] was {{spoiler|Alejandro Corner}}... but it was {{spoiler|his [[Enigmatic Minion]], Ribbons Almack}}.

* Crocodile from ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]''. He's even based off Mafia-type gangsters, and he leads a secret criminal orgaization that out to overtrhow a whole kingdom. What sets him apart from other masterminds, is that Crocodile has superpowers.

* Izaya from ''[[Durarara!!]]'' manipulates people and supernatural beings just because he can, and [[For the Evulz|it's fun]]. He is an information broker who has a hand in basically everything that happens in Ikebukuro, and is arguably the most dangerous out of a cast of very dangerous people.

* In contrast to his predecessor, Muruta Azrael, who operated publicly as a legitimate (if still exceedingly evil) politician and lobbyist, Lord Djibril of ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'' prefers to operate as the terrorist version of this. He rarely leaves his hidden lair, from which he pulls the strings on Blue Cosmos, the Atlantic Federation, and eventually the Earth Sphere Alliance. Comes complete with [[Right -Hand -Cat]], [[A Glass of Chianti]], and [[Complete Monster|no moral compass]].

* Lex Luthor, prime antagonist of ''[[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]]'' in comics, TV and film, is a classic diabolical mastermind with the variation of often having a [[Villain Withwith Good Publicity|legitimate multi-billion dollar company as a front for his less than legal operations.]]

* The Octopus, archfoe of Will Eisener's much-acclaimed ''The Spirit'', is a classic example. Debuting in the 1940's, he anticipated both Dr. Claw and Blofeld in that his face was never seen -- evenseen—even on those occasions when he confronted the Spirit in person, his face was always in shadow, his most distinctive feature being his purple gloves with three yellow lines down the back. Initially a crime-boss, the modern-day reboot by Darwyn Cooke recreates him as the leader of a terrorist group -- thegroup—the Octagon.

* The [[Red Skull]] is a major one of these.

* ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'' had reoccuringreoccurring nemesis Mack Salmon, who thanks to Sam and Max has a fish in a glass bowl for a head, [[Noodle Incident|for some reason]].

* Mr. V, aka "Faceless" from the early ''[[Martian Manhunter]]'' comics was a [[Fat Bastard|fat guy]] in a [[Fashion Victim Villain|horrible costume]] and [[Malevolent Masked Man|mask]]. He was also the head of [[The Syndicate|international crime syndicate Vulture]], and [[Evil Genius|vexed]] the Manhunter for years with [[Evil Plan|one scheme]] and [[Mad Scientist|scientific gizmo]] after another. Even his inevitable defeats didn't stop him, because whenever he was captured and unmasked it was always revealed that it was just another one of his [[Body Double|henchmen]] under the mask and that the real [[Failure Is the Only Option|Mr. V had gotten away again]]. As this [http://idol-head.blogspot.com/2010/10/mr-v-fourth-most-important-martian.html blog] notes Mr. V is this trope, boiled down to its most simplistic and archetypal. "Faceless was the embodiment of crime, without any character depth or motivation beyond the desire to successfully commit crime and to put down those who would prevent crime."

* In ''[[Runaways]]'', [[Badass Normal|Alex]]'s [[Archnemesis Dad|par]][[Evil Matriarch|ents]], Catherine and Geoffrey Wilder are this, controlling most of the LA underworld through fear and intimidation. They have agents within the LAPD, execute anyone who commits a crime without asking their permission first, and have successfully kept most superheroes and supervillains out of the city. The Pride as a whole might actually count, but since Geoffrey is [[The Big Bad]], and the one who handles affairs in LA directly, he and Catherine are the clearest examples (the rest being a collection of [[Mad Scientist|Mad Scientists]]s, [[Evil Sorcerer|Evil Sorcerers]]s, time-travellers, [[Mutant|Mutants]]s, and [[Human Aliens]] who have their own areas of responsibility in [[The Syndicate]]). Bonus points for being [[Badass Normal|Badass Normals]]s to boot.

** In subsequent chapters, {{spoiler|1985!Geoffrey}} shows himself to be an example as well. Having just been pulled into the future he forms The New Pride, while successfully manipulating a superhero group and the Runaways into doing exactly what he wants them to, ultimately {{spoiler|killing one of them}} before being returned to the past.

* Ernst Stavro Blofeld, nemesis of [[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]] and leader of supercrime organisation SPECTRE, is probably the most obvious example. Employees of SPECTRE, even famous ones such as Dr. No, probably shouldn't count, since they are subservient to Blofeld, but they do otherwise have most of the neccesarynecessary qualifactionsqualifications and certainly act as such in the context of their SPECTRE missions.

*** [[Goldfinger (Film)|Goldfinger]] is a big time international gold smuggler and a millionaremillionaire entrepreneur, with ties to the Reds.

*** Kananga from ''[[Live and Let Die (Filmfilm)|Live and Let Die]]'' is an island dictator and {{spoiler|drug lord Mister Big}}.

*** Stromberg in ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me (Film)|The Spy Who Loved Me]]'' is a billionarebillionaire shipping magnate with an underwater base who steals nuclear submarines.

*** Hugo Drax in ''[[Moonraker (Film)|Moonraker]]'' is a billionarebillionaire industrialist with his own secret space station who makes shuttles for NASA.

*** The [[Big Bad Duumvirate]] in ''[[Octopussy (Film)|Octopussy]]'' are an [[Ax Crazy]] Russian general, and an Afghan smuggler and prince living in India, respectively.

*** [[A View to Aa Kill (Film)|Max Zorin]] is ''yet another'' billionarebillionaire industrialist, as well as a rogue KGB agent and the product of Nazi genetic engineering.

*** The [[Big Bad Duumvirate]] in ''[[The Living Daylights (Film)|The Living Daylights]]'' are once again a corrupt Soviet general and a criminal, this time a KGB chieftain and a crooked arms dealer respectively, who plan to have Bond murder the formersformer's KGB superior to cover up their ring of embezzlement, drug running and diamond smuggling.

*** [[Licence to Kill (Film)|Franz Sanchez]] is a big time drug lord with "an invisible empire from Chile to Alaska" and the local dictator in his pocket.

*** ''[[GoldeneyeGoldenEye (Filmfilm)|GoldeneyeGoldenEye]]'' has Janus, who is the head of a big time arms dealing syndicate that has got its hands on a [[Kill Sat]].

*** Media magnate Eliot Carver from ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies (Film)|Tomorrow Never Dies]]'', who uses money from his media empire to create tomorrow's headlines.

*** Renard from ''[[The World Is Not Enough (Film)|The World Is Not Enough]]'' is a notorious international terrorist, while {{spoiler|Elektra King was an oil heiress, until she killed her father for revenge and to get rid of the "heiress" part}}.

*** ''[[Die Another Day (Film)|Die Another Day]]'' has Gustave Graves, a millionaremillionaire jewellerjeweler who secretsecretly trades in conflict diamonds, passing them off as Peruvian. {{spoiler|He's actually corrupt North Korean colonel General Moon}}.

*** The various members of [[Nebulous Evil Organization|Quantum]], from ''[[Casino Royale (Film)|Casino Royale]]'' and ''[[Quantum of Solace (Film)|Quantum of Solace]]'', count where SPECTRE agents do not, as they seem to be an organization of equals. Aside from phony green activist Dominic Greene their leadership includes a former Russian minister turned billionarebillionaire mine owner; a former Mossad agent turned telecom bigwig; and an advisoradviser to the British Prime Minister.

* Sr August de Wynter in ''[[The Avengers (1998 (Filmfilm)|the 1998 film version of ''The Avengers 1998]]'']].

* Clarence Boddicker in ''[[Robo CopRoboCop]]''.

* ''[[Megamind]]'''s titular character falls somewhere between a low-budget version of a [[Diabolical Mastermind]] (with a small number of flying robot minions, a series of secret lairs and endless, albeit simple, schemes to stop Metroman once and for all) and the [[Mad Scientist]] (which is far more prevalent).

* Judge Doom from ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]''.

* Lord Blackwood {{spoiler|and Professor Moriarty}} in ''[[Sherlock Holmes (Filmfilm)|Sherlock Holmes]]''.

* Dr. Arless Loveless in ''[[Wild Wild West (Filmfilm)|Wild Wild West]]''.

* Lex Luthor in the original ''[[Superman]]'' movie. The character's [[Mad Scientist]] aspects were dropped, and the [[Diabolical Mastermind]] parts played up for everything they were worth.

* [[Artemis Fowl (Literature)|Artemis Fowl]] sees himself as such in the first book.

* ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'' faced dozens -- possibly hundreds --dozens—possibly ofhundreds—of these during their adventures. In fact, the series created the term: Mrs Peel's last words to Steed were: "Always keep your bowler on in times of stress, and a watchful eye open for diabolical masterminds."

* Some of the more [[Genre Savvy]] Gou'ald System Lords fit this to a T on ''[[Stargate SG 1|Stargate SG-1]]''. Particularly the big three that SG-1 faced off against; (in escalating order of how well they fit) Apophis, Anubis, and [[Magnificent Bastard]] Ba'al.

* ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'' had a recurring sketch about one of these, and his frustrations with certain aspects of the job. Such as a contractor's requirement that a secret revolving wall have a clearly visible sign on it saying "Warning: Wall may rotate", and his henchmen responding to the instruction "Let's hope he meets with an unofrtunateunfortunate accident" by ''hoping'' that the man in question met with an accident.

* In the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Our Man Bashir" most of the crew's transporter beam patterns are accidentally put in a holosuite portraying characters in Dr. Bashir's 1960s spy program. Captain Sisko plays a mad supervillain planning to flood the world called "Dr. Noah".

* Dr. Miguelito Loveless in ''[[The Wild Wild West (TV series)|The Wild Wild West]]''.

* Jim Moriarty, the BBC series ''[[Sherlock]]'''s interpretation of the literary character, is a "consulting criminal", which winds up being a cross between [[Diabolical Mastermind]] and [[Psycho for Hire]]. Moriarty is portrayed as rivaling Sherlock in terms of intelligence; but where Sherlock stimulates himself by solving crimes and mysteries, Moriarty plans perfect crimes (mostly for other people to actually commit) for the same kind of rush. The money and (incidental) power are just pleasant bonuses for him.

* Dr. Blackgaard, the [[Manipulative Bastard]] of ''[[Adventures in Odyssey (Radio)|Adventures in Odyssey]]'', in charge of troops ranging from teenaged thugs to international bio-terrorism organizations.

* Edmond Furax from the french radio-serial ''[[Signe Furax]]''.

* The game ''Evil Genius'' is basically a [[Diabolical Mastermind]] simulation, where you select one of three evil supergenius characters and build up a globe-spanning criminal empire, dealing with any spies or secret agents sent to take you out or disrupt your operation.

* Giovanni from ''[[Pokémon Red and Blue (Video Game)|Pokémon Red and Blue]]''. He was only [[The Faceless]] on the Gym Leader page in the manual and in parts of the ''[[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pokémon]]'' anime prior to the release of ''[[Pokémon: the First Movie (Anime)|Pokémon theThe First Movie]]'', though.

* ''[[City of Villains]]'' features an entire character class devoted to this trope, appropriately named the "Mastermind." Your primary ability is summoning henchmen, be they a [[Mecha -Mooks|robotic army of doom]], waves of the undead, heartless mercenaries, armed thugs, or ninjas. Of course, since you can always resummonsummon more, you're expected to let them die in your name -- andname—and one support power called "Detonate" specifically is described as giving your minion an explosive device, then while he's trying to set it up, you blow the device and the minion sky high. Also true to the trope, you have the least hit points of any class in the game -- butgame—but any damage you take can be funneled through your minions in certain situations.

** The parent game, ''[[City of Heroes]]'', actually has its share of these as well- almost every group of NPC villains has at least one of these at the top, as well as a few [[Diabolical Mastermind|Diabolical Masterminds]]-in-training amongstamong the lieutenants.

* Mr X of ''[[Streets of Rage]]'' manages to take over the city. Pity he didn't arm his mooks with any of the guns there... He got a nice one for himself though.

* Edwin VanCleef in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' was the mastermind behind the criminal organisation the Defias that has its tentacles everywhere. He was otherwise unusual for the role in being a [[Well -Intentioned Extremist]] whose [[Authority Equals Asskicking]].

* The Illusive Man of ''[[Mass Effect]]'' is this for a sci-fi setting. He's a [[Well -Intentioned Extremist]] who believes that [[Humanity Is Superior]] and sees aliens as tools at best and enemies at worst. While he does claim that his actions are solely for the benefit of humanity and will handwave any [[Moral Event Horizon|Moral Event Horizons]]s of Cerberus as "rogue cells", in his opinion [[ItsIt's All About Me|Cerberus is Humanity]] and it seems that he only does so if said Moral Event Horizons lead to colossal failures.

* Valmont in ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures (Animation)|Jackie Chan Adventures]]''.

* [[Manipulative Bastard|Slade]], [[Psychic Powers|Brother Blood]], and [[BraininaBrain In a Jar|the Brain]] on ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' all qualify. Slade does serve as [[The Dragon]] for [[Satan|Trigon]] at one point, but that's purely out of personal gain rather than loyalty - his only affiliation is ever himself.

** Slade also manages not to belittle himself on the villain food chain by serving as Dragon, considering who he's working for.

* Dr. Heinz Doofenschmirtz from ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]''. Although it could be argued that he is half [[Diabolical Mastermind]] and half [[Absent -Minded Professor]].

* Mr. Big in ''[[Word Girl]]'', considering this is a children's edu-tainment show, don't expect him to get away with his evil acts.

* Dark Kat from ''[[Swat Kats (Animation)|Swat Kats]]''.

* ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Transformers Beast Wars]]'' Megatron is a prime example. Unlike other Megatrons, this one didn't have any political power among his faction. (The Council considered him a dangerous rogue.) He's described as brilliant for his cleverly crafted strategies he uses to thwart the Maximals throughout the show. He has a handful of lackeys, (half of them traitorous, and the other half stupidly loyal) and he takes the time to incorporate their plans against him to further his agenda without them knowing.

* In ''[[The Gamers Alliance (Roleplay)|The Gamers Alliance]]'', [[Evil Old Folks|Vesuvius]] [[The Chessmaster|Matheson]] is the wealthy head of the far-reaching Matheson Crime Family which owns the city of Matheson and has his minions infiltrating or bribing many government officials in Maar Sul. He hatches elaborate schemes to strengthen his power base, even going so far as to fund the [[Dirty Communists|Proninist]] invasion of Maar Sul.

* The aptly named Mastermind from [[The FAN (Webcomic)|The FAN]] appears to be this, though not much is known about him at the moment. He does seem to be the head of a powerfullpowerful corporation that has it's own army and several MIB in it's employment, and he only appeared so far as a black distorted silouettesilhouette with a magenta colored eye on a green monitor, amongstamong a lot of static.

[[Category:Diabolical Mastermind{{PAGENAME}}]]