Evil Genius

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Spinnerette: Dr. Universe, wait! At least tell me something! You were a respected scientist, your work on the Cherenkovkirby Reactor was going to benefit all of mankind! Why would you turn into a supervillain? WHY?!
Dr. Universe: I read an Ayn Rand novel.

The Evil Genius is a standard character in The Evil Army. They're usually rather high-ranked, commonly below The Dragon but above the Quirky Miniboss Squad. They are almost exclusively male except in fiction that either has an unusually high female ratio or a female motif for its villains. The Evil Genius is obviously intelligent, and is the one in charge of the Wave Motion Gun or shipping the nukes into the country or resurrecting the Lost Superweapon or what have you. This character is usually the one that will demonstrate to the Big Bad how to use a particular MacGuffin. They're usually a Mad Scientist, a military tactician, a specialist in a particular field (such as computers or electronics), or has ties to The Government (or a combination), so they're in the best position to deliver the goodies to the Evil Overlord. In medieval fantasy settings, this role is often played by an evil strategist, rogue/spymaster, or a dark wizard (provided they aren't also the Big Bad).

Prone to being Bad Boss'd when the ridiculously circuitous plan inevitably fails or if they are no longer needed and viewed as a liability.

The Evil Genius is part of the Five-Bad Band dynamic, the Evil Counterpart to The Smart Guy. An Evil Genius who is also the Big Bad will frequently be The Chessmaster and maybe even a Magnificent Bastard. They can also show up as members of Quirky Miniboss Squads, but then are usually made significantly less effective by virtue of their quirkiness.

Not to be confused with the Diabolical Mastermind simulation game Evil Genius (which has its own page), Nor the books by Catherine Jinks, which involve a School for Scheming aimed at creating these.

Examples of Evil Genius include:

Anime and Manga

  • One Piece makes occasional mention of the World Government's top scientist, Dr. Vegapunk. He is one of the most speculated-upon characters in the manga. Apparently, he's an Omnidisciplinary Scientist, having created a cyborg with Devil fruit powers (Kuma), multiple copies of said cyborg armed with laser weaponry (the Pacifista), catalogued all known devil fruits, revolutionized the power of the sea as uses of Seastone, and figured out a way for inanimate objects to "eat" Devil fruits. For all this, events around the Time Skip have alluded to Vegapunk being morally ambiguous, and truly any statement of him being "evil" before then was an assumption. During the Time Skip, Franky, having burned off all of his skin, rebuilds his body using Vegapunk's technology
    • To a lesser extent, Gecko Moria's right hand man Dr Hogback, a surgeon of legendary skill who assisted Moria in creating a zombie army.
    • Vegapunk's rival, Ceasar Clown, is stated by all parties except his underlings as being evil, and was arrested by the world government for sabotaging the science team's human experimentation.
  • Uno of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, who is known as the second brain of Jail Scaglietti and acts as Mission Control for the Numbers. Jail himself easily qualifies as Big Bad variation.
  • John Smith (no, that's not an alias) from Mai-Otome, with a dash of Mad Scientist thrown in.
  • Princess Kycilia Zabi, the Lady of War from Mobile Suit Gundam who also was the Zabi family member in charge of Newtype research.
  • Shader in Chrono Crusade serves as the Sinner's main techie. Aion, the Big Bad, has elements as this as well, considering he's a bit of a chessmaster.
  • Herr Doktor in Hellsing is the evil genius for Millennium.
  • Hakase in Mahou Sensei Negima probably would have played this part in Chao's evil army if not for the fact that Chao was also an Evil Genius of an even higher degree. Still, this was essentially her role in that she was the one overseeing the ritual to remove the world's Weirdness Censor, not actually taking part in the battle.
  • Professor Nanba (or is it Kimba?) is the Evil Genius who gives Butch and Cassidy orders in Pokémon.
  • Kururu from Keroro Gunsou lives and breathes Evil Genius, though he's technically with the good guys.
  • Sosuke Aizen from Bleach combines this with Big Bad (as well as Manipulative Bastard, Magnificent Bastard, The Chessmaster, etc).
  • Koshiro Kokujo of Duel Masters was this, or so he said.

Kokujo: I know everything!
Shobu: How's that?
Kokujo: Because I'm an evil genius!

Comic Books

  • The Cyborg Superman builds all of the technology used by the Sinestro Corps, including the Manhunter robots who recharge yellow rings and the space station they used as a base.
  • Darth Maladi from Star Wars Legacy is both a Sith alchemist and the head of Sith Intelligence. She's generally portrayed as one of the most cunning Sith characters in the comic, but seems to enjoy her schemes and experiments more for their own sake than from the hope of doing anything constructive with them.
    • Also Vul Isen as he is believed to be a scientist. He never accepts anything without a proof.
  • In All Fall Down, IQ is very bitter about not being one of these anymore.

Film

  • A very frequent minion type in the James Bond series.
  • Theo and Hans Gruber in the first Die Hard.
  • Grand Moff Tarkin from Star Wars could count, as he has the Death Star, and is a strategist with his own doctrine.
    • And in the prequel trilogy era, Nute Gunray and the Seperatist Council fit the role as they the brain of everything, and later when they are no longer needed, they are killed by their boss.
  • James McCullen and The Doctor in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. At the end of the film, the Doctor becomes the Big Bad, Cobra Commander, and turns McCullen into Destro.
  • Mystery Men's Casanova Frankenstein is an evil Disco genius. Even his archnemesis asks him for help with his quips. He wears a set of golden finger cuffs that carry sonic rays and hyper-lasers, and a pair of slippers that emit poison gas. And that's just what his enemy knows he's wearing while he just sits around in his dressing gown.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, has Quartermaster, a zombie who can always predict a future, and he is the one who guides Blackbeard to the Fountain of Youth.
  • In A Fistful of Dollars, Ramon Rojo is a non-stereotypical example. In a family of archetypal Mexican banditos, Ramon is The Strategist, concocting the plan to steal the gold from under the Mexican army's nose, and orchestrating the eventual massacre of the rival Baxter family. He's also the only one to see through Joe, and keeps a wary eye on him throughout the film, eventually deducing that he is the traitor in their ranks.
  • Soundwave plays the Evil Genius role in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon as an intelligence specialist as well as overseeing a decades-long scheme in the latter movie.

Literature

Live Action TV

Mythology

Tabletop Games

  • In Magic: The Gathering, it could be argued that Yawgmoth is this, but in New Phyrexia, with its five-color theme, Jin-Gitaxis, the blue praetor, takes this role.

Video Games

  • Professor Hojo in Final Fantasy VII is this to President Shinra. After Shinra is killed, Hojo either remains the Evil Genius or gets additionally promoted to Big Bad, depending on which side of the multi-faceted "who's responsible for Sephiroth's actions" debate you're on.
  • Wild ARMs 1 had the Mad Scientist demon Alhazad. Wild ARMs 4 had part scientist, part strategist Augst.
  • Albert Silverberg of Suikoden III.
  • Izuka in Fire Emblem 10 (Radiant Dawn).
  • In Advance Wars Black Hole Rising and Dual Strike, Perky Goth Lash provides the bad guys with all of their advanced technology.
    • Caulder/Dr Stolos in Days of Ruin, who eventually becomes the Big Bad.
  • Hazama/Terumi Yuuki from BlazBlue. The most dangerous thing about his genius, however, isn't his transcendental knowledge of alchemy, which allowed him to create the titular Blaz Blue, the Black Beast, Arakune and some other unpleasant things; rather it's his tactical genius, which, so far, has allowed him to outmaneuver an omniscient supercomputer with three minds (although he got help from the guy below). Then again, Hazama himself would qualify in any positions given in the Five-Bad Band.
    • If this is what Hazama entails, then there must also be a mention of Relius Clover, a brilliant researcher who sought only perfection and has performed horrendous experiments and plans (as shown during his EX Story where he practically played Sector Seven and Kokonoe for chumps to create his Ignis). He just got less time to shine than Hazama though his inclusion as a playable character and a story mode for him in elevated him a bit.
  • In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Vexen, a stereotypical Mad Scientist fits for this role. Then, in Kingdom Hearts II we have Luxord, a strategic gambler. In the original Kingdom Hearts, Jafar definitely owned this role.
  • Galak Fyyar from Jedi Outcast.
  • In Epic Mickey, The Mad Doctor appears to be The Dragon for the Shadow Blot. Later however, it is revealed that the Shadow Blot himself is The Dragon for the real Shadow Blot (with the other Blot revealed to be just a disconnected part). This moves our Complete Monster Mad Scientist to the position of this trope.
  • Agnus fills this position for Sanctus in Devil May Cry 4.
    • Although one could equally argue that he's The Dragon, as he appears to be the only member of the Order beyond Sanctus who truly understands what's going on; killing him is the last thing that needs to be done before the final confrontation, and the nominal Dragon is a Hero Antagonist guilty of Honor Before Reason.
  • The player character in Evil Genius, of course.
  • Murzhor in Hero's Realm. He's got a bit of Master of Illusion to boot.
  • Dr. Elvin Atombender from the Impossible Mission games is a genius computer programmer and former university professor. Although he has been unstable his whole life, he officially became criminally insane when a power failure caused the deletion of an artificial intelligence program that he had nearly finished. The player must stop him from hacking into the defense networks of the world's superpowers and starting a nuclear holocaust.
  • Dr. Ivo Robotnik (better known as "Dr. Eggman") is the mortal enemy of Sonic the Hedgehog. He is said to have a IQ of 300, and desires to create an empire by taking over the world with his mass-produced army of machines. Eggman's various plans thus far have included using the Chaos Emeralds to fuel a powerful superweapon, awakening god-like beings, or building a massive amusement park.
  • Dr. Neo Cortex, the creator and archenemy of Crash Bandicoot, fits the Mad Scientist archetype to a T, complete with Frankenstein-styled evil lairs and laboratories. The series also has the similarly-named N. Brio, N. Gin, and N. Tropy.
  • Ratchet and Clank's many foes is Dr. Nefarious, a Mad Scientist that was turned into a robot during his last encounter with his former nemesis Captain Qwark. He plans to turn all "squishes" in the Solana Galaxy into robots and control them by the use of his Biobliterator, he later traveled to the center of the universe ("give or take 50 feet") to use the Great Clock so he can rewrite history by making every heroic victory never happen.

Web Comics

"If I win, I get to be a king. If I lose, I get to be a legend."

    • Please that's just Genre Savvy. His real genius shines in is his military and political capabilities. He was able to conquer eleven nations in 8 months before he was forced out by a coalition of twenty-six other countries. Then after that he crafted a plan that would get him and his adventuring group into ruling the whole continent by controlling multiple nations through figureheads in a scheme that eventually would absorb the whole continent while still making it look like there are three different empires remaining.
  • Wayward Sons: Doctor Chu, who very much enjoys performing torturous experiments on live subjects.
  • Elia of True Villains takes over most Evil Genius duties. Just replace technology with magic.

Web Original

Western Animation

  • Tarantulas of Beast Wars is this all over the place.
  • Exo Squad has an entire race of Evil Geniuses called Neo Megas.
  • Wraith in The Mighty Ducks, distinguished for mainly using magic when the Big Bad prefers technology.
  • Doctor Octopus goes the extra mile by having "Evil Genius" printed on the side of his coffee mug in The Spectacular Spider-Man. Although he is subordinate to no one.
  • Two examples from Teen Titans: Gizmo is the resident Gadgeteer Genius of the HIVE Five, though his utter lack of people skills keeps him from rising any higher, while the Brain pulls double duty as Evil Genius and Big Bad of the Brotherhood of Evil.
  • Heloise on Jimmy Two-Shoes, whenever it suits her to work for Lucius.
  • Dexter's Laboratory has Mandark, Dexter's self-styled Arch Enemy who seeks to be the greater boy genius.
  • Darkwing Duck gives as Bushroot, a member of the Fearsome Five group, which makes perfect example of Five-Bad Band.
  • Jumba Jookiba from Lilo and Stitch likes to call himself this, although both the "evil" and "genius" parts are debatable to a certain extent. The "genius" part is less so, however; when Spike made him 99% stupid, the remaining 1% was still enough to cook up all sorts of weird gizmos.
    • And he was even smarter as an "evil genius child prodigy!" Not to mention adorable.

Baby!Jumba: "Haha! Ewil! Ewil!"

  • Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2 doubles as this and the Big Bad.
  • Dr. Claw is the main antagonist of Inspector Gadget and the leader of the evil organization known as M.A.D. ("Mean And Dirty"), where he heads most of the countless schemes to destroy Gadget and/or conquer the entire world.
  • One of SpongeBob SquarePants's greatest foes is Plankton, Mr. Krabs' rival who wants to steal the Krabby Party secret formula so his restaurant, The Chum Bucket, will have customers which he believes will shut down Krabs' business and will rule Bikini Bottom.
  • The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius has several examples, many of whom serve as recurring villains.
    • Professor Calamitous is a peculiar example: while undoubtedly a genius by the usual standard, he frequently leaves tasks unfinished, often due to forgetting some (usually important) detail. In his debut appearance, his robot suit proves incredibly high-tech and is even capable of capturing Jimmy's robot dog Goddard, but he never installed a bathroom in it, which proved to be his undoing.
    • Jimmy also has other enemies that matches his brain smarts such as Sydney Moist, his baby cousin Eddie, and a evil clone created by him.
  • Mojo Jojo, arch enemy of The Powerpuff Girls, is a super-intelligent and very, very over-talkative ape who wants to take over the city of Townsville, and eventually the world (or destroy it, whatever the dartboard says that week).