Magnificent Bastard/Comic Books: Difference between revisions

**** 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.

'''Luthor''': Mm. }}

* [[Black Panther]] is quite likely the biggest in Marvel ([[Depending on the Writer|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.

** 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.}}

* 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. [[Determinator|This should]] [[Good Is Not Nice|tell you]] [[Da Chief|what kind]] [[Sassy Black Woman|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 [[Incredible Hulk|Bruce Banner]] is this after [[Took a Level In Badass|taking a level in Badass]].