Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
214,144
edits
Magnificent Bastard/Comic Books: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
(clean up) |
No edit summary |
||
| (41 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{
[[File:Ozymandias.jpg|link=Watchmen (comics)|frame|Ozy beat you to it!]]
▲* 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 [[Xanatos Planned This Index|the book]] in his ''[[Comic Book Time|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 [[Affably Evil|polite exterior]] and cunning mind, and you have one Batman villain who is ''not'' to be trifled with.
Line 10:
*** 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.
* 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.
{{quote| '''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. }}
* [[Black Panther]] is quite likely the biggest in Marvel ([[Depending
* [[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 part.
* 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.
Line 27:
** Many comic book masterminds consider the moment where they successfully stole the power of a cosmic entity as the crowning moment of their career. [[But for Me It Was Tuesday|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 [[Disproportionate Retribution|completely]] [[Minor Injury Overreaction|petty]] [[Green
* The Kingpin, also part of the [[Marvel Comics|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 again.
** As of the end of the ''Shadowland'' arc he's returned to this status in a big way.
Line 46:
* The Sultan Agameen from the indie graphic novel ''[[Artesia (Comic Book)|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 {{spoiler|pitted the most ruthless killers in a game of succession and manipulated Wolverine for a hundred plus years}}, 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 [[Emotion Eater|Para]][[Eldritch Abomination|llax]], the [[Technopath|Cyborg]] [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|Superman]], [[Ax Crazy|Super]][[Physical God|boy]]-[[Trapped in TV Land|Prime]] and ''the freaking [[Eldritch Abomination|An]][[Omnicidal Maniac|ti]]-[[Crisis On Infinite Earths|Monitor]]''. And when he's beat? He reveals that, all this time, [[Xanatos Gambit|he was using it]] [[Well
** 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.
* {{spoiler|Ozymandias}} from [[Watchmen]]. {{spoiler|Right up until the end, he's the most beloved man on the planet, seemingly admired by everyone but Rorschach and the Comedian. Rich, handsome, a star gymnast well into middle age, and the smartest man in the world, the man's got style and class. And his master plan, which involved manipulating hundreds of scientists and artists and gets both [[Cold War]] superpowers to lay down their arms, succeeds, at least for the time being. And he survives the story, despite an assassination attempt at almost point blank range - he catches the bullet - and getting on the bad side of a virtual god.}}
Line 73:
* [[God of Evil|Anathos]], from [[Les Legendaires (Comic Book)|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 [[Omnicidal Maniac|eradicated humanity]]...
{{tropesubpagefooter}}
| |||