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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.
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* [[The Joker]]. He has pulled every Gambit in the book in his ''[[Comic Book Time|seventy-year-long career.]]'' Of particular magnificence is his showing in the ''Batman & Captain America'' crossover - receiving information from a mysterious figure, he decides to use a nuclear weapon to blackmail Gotham City into paying him $1,000,000. He first plans to build his own nuke, successfully obtaining radioactive material and cleverly escaping from Batman in the process. When this approach fails after Batman and Captain America foil an attempt to kidnap Robert Oppenheimer, he changes tack and decides to steal a prototype atomic bomb. After succeeding, he learns that his informer is Red Skull. Declaring his hatred of Nazism, Joker tries to kill the Skull, and helps foil his plan to nuke Washington, D.C. Years later, he helps plot and execute a scheme to permanently De-Power Superman, only narrowly failing. Then he spends several years masquerading as his own non-existent successor as part of a long-term ploy to kill Dick Grayson, the second Batman, cheerfully turning himself in after he succeeds. Some time later, tormented by Dick's vengeful ghost, he refuses to break, and when he realizes his death is inevitable, he accepts it with quiet grace. Ruthless, witty, and able to roll with the punches, the Joker is always happy to demonstrate that he's earned his title of "Clown Prince of Crime".
**
** Coming into her own after her father's death, Talia Al-Ghul is one of the few to ever pull one over on [[Lex Luthor]], exposing his crimes to the public and transferring his assets way. Talia later takes over the League of Assassins and upon Batman's death, she purges the remnants of the Black Glove, revealing she has installed a device within her own son to allow herself to control him when needed. After Bruce Wayne's reemergence, Talia masterminds 'Leviathan' to wage war against him, bringing Gotham to the brink of destruction, even resulting in Damian's death and Bruce's near demise as well, with Talia being one of the few to ever push him to the brink, showing herself as truly her father's daughter.
** Bane appears to be a hulking [[The Brute|brute]], but is in reality [[Genius Bruiser|far craftier than he appears.]] In his first appearance in the ''Knightfall'' storyline, Bane achieved fame by psychologically manipulating Batman to drive him to the mental and physical brink before revealing Bane had deduced his secret identity. Ambushing Batman, Bane snapped his back over Bane's knee and proceeded to reign over Gotham until his defeat. Since then, Bane has been acknowledged by even Ra's Al-Ghul as one of the few men worthy to succeed him and has learned from every defeat to rise stronger than before. As a member of the [[Secret Six]], Bane displays a [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones|deep affection for his surrogate daughter]] Scandal Savage and shows a [[Even Evil Has Standards|deep sense of honor and loyalty to his team]] until the end when realizing his potential again, Bane manipulates them into one grand battle and defeat to shed all attachments and emerge stronger than before. Of all Batman's foes, only Bane has the distinction of being the man who once broke the bat
** The Riddler almost reaches this trope at times, particularly when he teamed up with Ra's Al Ghul. However he failed to become the [[Chessmaster]] due to the fact that
*** 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.
**** As of the New 52,
** Lady Shiva, mother of Cassandra Cain, is the best assassin and best martial artist in the world. Once she lost her beloved sister at the hands of David Cain, Shiva was forced to bear Cain's child, who she intended to use to one day surpass her. Shiva regularly guides other heroes and villains alike to become stronger, with a cult around her that worships her as a goddess. Shiva only uses them as pawns in her own schemes, and when she meets her daughter Cassandra she slowly guides her to become Shiva's own ultimate opponent, admitting that she had Cassandra to one day surpass and kill her. Shiva remains one of DC's boldest and most complex villains, always charismatic and dangerous no matter where she appears.
* 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...
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** General Dru-Zod II is one of Krypton's greatest criminals, and one of Superman's deadliest enemies. Confined to the Phantom Zone after his failed coup d'etat, Zod used his own son as a pawn in his plan to escape into the material realm during the events of ''Last Son'', and forced Superman and Lex Luthor to ally in order to stop his takeover of Metropolis. Released again during ''New Krypton'', Zod effortlessly incorporating the plans of others into his own, using civil unrest in Kandor, Sam Lane's various plots against the city, and Brainiac's invasion to reestablish himself as a populist military hero, and take control of Kandor from Alura Zor-El. Surviving Lane and Luthor's last-ditch effort to annihilate New Krypton, Zod and his surviving soldiers nearly conquer the world in the War of the Supermen, before the efforts of Superman, the JLA, and his own son saw him banished once more to the Phantom Zone. Always a brilliant strategist, and possessed of the raw strength to rival Superman, the Post-Crisis Zod can stand with Luthor as one of the Man of Steel's most capable and versatile foes.
** 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.
* Lord Gerald Shilling is the archnemesis of Revolutionary war hero and frontiersman
* [[Loki]], [[Marvel Comics|Marvel's]] expert [[Xanatos Speed Chess|free-form, improv manipulator]]. Not only does this guy play the big boys in the Marvel Universe, this is a guy who regularly improvises the [[The End of the World as We Know It|end of freaking nine worlds]] armed primarily with [[Manipulative Bastard|mischief]] and [[Consummate Liar|his lying tongue]]. And he's brought about Ragnarok multiple times. How many baddies have the chops to pull that off? He also lies regularly so well that no one can tell his lies from truth. Loki almost always gets what he wants.
** He's even made a [[Deal with the Devil|deal with Mephisto]] and come out on top.
** Convinced Thor to end the universe during the last Ragnarok cycle.
▲*** In part because he's used magic to give himself [[Nigh Invulnerability]] and his tongue to convince the various gods of Death that they'd be better off letting him be resurrected everytime something bad happens to him- after all, you don't want Loki running around your afterlife, do you?
* Vril Dox II from ''L.E.G.I.O.N.'' (a modern-day "prequel" series to the [[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]), a slick [[Insufferable Genius]], orchestrates the total disruption of two planetary governments in pursuit of justice in just the first six issues. He's so cold, he practically tamed ''[[Lobo]]''.
* [[Doctor Doom]] is a perfect example in the [[Marvel Comics|Marvel Universe]]. When you can ''take on a '''GOD''' without flinching''...
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** 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-Eyed Monster|jealous]] [[Arch Enemy|grudge]] against Reed Richards; he just pursues it in such a grand-scale, [[Memetic Badass|badass]] and [[Large Ham|hammy]] manner that he appears to be the epitome of this trope. Ditto for Lex Luthor.
* Wilson Fisk, AKA 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.
* Under Kevin Smith's pen in the story arc ''Guardian Devil'', Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio, is presented as a genius, theatrical puppet master seeking to cement himself in history as a "legitimate" supervillain after a career of being nothing more than a B-lister. Upon being diagnosed with cancer, Mysterio makes it his mission to drive the hero Daredevil to insanity, playing on the man's religious faith by using a combination of manipulation, disguises, and hallucinogenic drugs to make him believe a baby under his care is the Antichrist and needs to be killed. Convincing Daredevil's lover Karen Page she has AIDS, framing his best friend Foggy Nelson for murder, and hiring Bullseye to kidnap the baby and kill anyone in his path (leading to Page's death in Daredevil's arms), Mysterio locks the child in a chamber that will soon suffocate her if Daredevil doesn't go along with the villain's devised 'final act' of his grand plan. In the end, upon realizing he hasn't broken Daredevil, Mysterio gives him the baby back and proceeds to blow his own brains out in a final act of defiance towards both the hero and his own cancer, refusing to be taken down by anyone but his own hand. Despite his otherwise goofy or ineffectual outings, Mysterio here is a brilliant strategist, excellent manipulator, and holds all the charm that a [[Large Ham]] skilled in film and theater would possesses.
* Baron Helmut Zemo, heir to the deplorable Heinrich Zemo, eventually rejects his father's fascist ideology. One of captain America's greatest enemies, Zemo led a near perfect defeat of The Avengers in the Siege arc, ending by engaging Captain America himself and coming close to victory. Constantly returning with daring new schemes, Zemo even kidnapped abused and neglected children to give them a loving home with himself and his wife, and later formed the Thunderbolts as heroes specifically to give them cover for more villainous activities. Eventually deciding to save the world by conquering it, Zemo returns time and time again, sometimes as a deadly enemy and other times ready to defeat more evil villains than he himself, proclaiming he could never harm a world he works so hard to save.
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*** What makes him even more devious? He's ''franchising'' supervillain identities. He let Phil Urich continue being Hobgoblin after he beat the pretender for a cut of whatever he earns. He apparently has someone in Mysterio's old gear while he's chilling in the ''[[Ultimate Marvel]]'' universe and it seems that it may be the 616 version of Miles Morales.
** [[Depending on the Writer]], [[Norman Osborn]]/the Green Goblin can be this, whereas he's a [[Smug Snake]] otherwise. When Norman isn't acting Insane, he able to even out scam Kingsley! In the earlier example of Kingsley tricking Osborn into helping him escape from prison, Osborn was aware of that and bought Kingsley's company while making Kingsley believe he was falling for his trap.
* Bomb Queen, the [[Stripperiffic]] [[Villain Protagonist]] of her self-titled [[Image]] Comics book. The iron-fisted dictator of [[Vice City|New Port City]] has, in no particular order: wiped out the rest of her original villain team; turned New Port City into a place where ''nothing'' is illegal in designed "Crime Zones"; stolen {{spoiler|a government supercomputer, the powers of the demon lord Desarak and her clone Bomb Teen (the latter of which was "born" from her supercomputer)}}; kept New Port City's mayor under her control with sex and verbal assaults, casually killing anyone standing near him when she blasts a hole through his office wall (repeatedly to the point of being a [[Running Gag]]); orchestrated terror attacks on the cities of other Image superheroes; {{spoiler|repeatedly foiled the plots of the [[Government Conspiracy]] (which created her) to have her killed}}; and {{spoiler|indirectly killed an innocent girl roped into her co-worker's attempt to interview Bomb Queen for their website}}. She is still a [[Villain with Good Publicity]] within her city, if only because her constituents are [[Complete Monster
* In ''I Vampire'', Mary the Queen of Blood was born Mary Seward before being turned by her lover Andrew Bennett. Happily embracing her vampiric urges, Mary spends years plotting and building her forces until she initiates a ruthlessly brilliant gambit that nearly sees the vampires take over the entire world in a single day, before manipulating and playing Andrew as well. When her plans are thwarted, Mary ends up depowered and returned to human form before getting her drive back to stop the corrupted Andrew before he destroys the world, even using her death to become a powerful supernatural being that ends up saving the world and achieving redemption in the afterlife. As Mary herself says "being a vampire gave me powers. Being me made me awesome."
* [[Lucifer (comics)|Lucifer]] is nearly the most Magnificent of ''all'' Bastards. Like a true [[Magnificent Bastard]] he isn't above putting himself on the line of fire, and can [[Xanatos Speed Chess|make and discard a hundred plans in a moment]]. He handily gets the better of just about everything in the universe, but {{spoiler|barely manages to compete in the same league as God}}.
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* Edwin Alva in the series ''[[Hardware (comics)|Hardware]]''. {{spoiler|He catches a case of [[Redemption Equals Death]], unfortunately.}}
* The Sultan Agameen from the indie graphic novel ''[[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
* ''[[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-Intentioned Extremist|so that the Green Lanterns become a better police force]], by getting them to subvert their [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]] rule. ''Brilliant!''
** 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.
* The titular "V" in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' is a masked revolutionary dedicating to crafting "The Land of Do-As-You-Please" from the fascist hellhole Britain has become. Destroying Parliament, V later seizes control of the broadcasting center of London to inform the country of his intentions and escapes by having the station head dressed up as him and used as a decoy. Slowly eliminating all of those at the Larkhill Concentration Camp who could have identified him, V is revealed to be manipulating almost everyone else, hacking into Britain's dictator, Adam Susan's supercomputer and guiding a widow of a man he'd killed to eliminate Susan. V proceeds to force Evey Hamilton into being his successor by forcing her to accept her true self under torture, and later even works his own death into his plans to convince Evey to become his successor and tear down the established order.
* {{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 a virtual god's bad side.}}
{{quote|[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Do you seriously think I'd explain my masterstroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.]]}}
* Agent Philip Graves is the man who delivers the attache cases in ''[[100 Bullets]]'', offering people who have been wronged a chance for 'carte blanche' vengeance. Often having multiple hidden agendas to his actions, Graves strategically uses some attaches to gain favors or followers, and is eventually revealed to have faked his death with those of his squad, the Minutemen, who he manipulates back into service. Revealed to be secretly working in conjunction with his supposed rival Augustus Medici to slowly dismantle the infamous Trust and bring it down until only Augustus, Grave and their ally Javier Vasco remain, Graves is also revealed to be a man of principle, which separates him from the monstrous Augustus, willing to slect his principles over even his life in the end.
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* [[Sin City]] is filled with manipulation but Dwight McCarthy is probably at the top of the heap. To give you an idea, in his first storyarc, he was on the run form the cops, severely wounded, had no place to go, and had the Old Town girls ready to kick him out of the neighborhood or be killed by Miho. After about one page of dialogue, he got Miho on his side and had the Old Town girls not only giving him shelter but helping him get revenge on the [[Big Bad]].
* In a heavy contrast to his other iterations and their psychopathic megalomania, Baron Hraal Karza is depicted in the IDW ''Micronauts'' comic as the ruthless, yet well-intentioned, baron of defense in the empire that rules Microspace. A genius tactician who has made his own way as one of the Emperor's Co-Dragons, Karza assassinates the Emperor's son Red Falcon when he becomes insane and detrimental to the empire, then puts the Emperor himself into stasis until the empire is in a more peaceful era for him to rule. Karza does anything and everything he can to halt the approach of the Entropy Storm, fighting his fellow baron of science Daigon when the man tries to control and understand the storm, and even following the Micronauts into the storm itself in his quest to save Microspace from it. After spending eons inside the storm and discovering the creator of Microspace, Micronus Prime, Karza decides that Microspace needs to both be saved from the Entropy Storm, and to be guided into a utopia with his own hand, and to this end, teams up with everyone from the Micronauts themselves to the monstrous Dire Wraiths to use in various attempts to halt the Entropy Storm, always ready with a scheme or backstab to gain the upper hand over his supposed allies. In the end, Karza gets exactly what he wants as he uses the Micronauts and Dire Wraiths as puppets to banish the Entropy Storm from Microspace, then returns to his home hailed as a beloved hero, ready to take the reigns and rule Microspace with a firm but steady hand.
* [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Arpin Lusene]] is Scrooge McDuck's most intelligent and competent foe. A charming French millionaire playboy who lives a double life as a [[Gentleman Thief]], Lusene vows to steal Scrooge's entire fortune in front of the whole world before going into retirement. After accidentally coming into the possession of the dangerous Omnisolve, Lusene gets the brilliant idea to coat a stolen suit of armor with the substance, turning himself into an unstoppable Juggernaut of a [[Black Knight]] who nearly destroys all of Scrooge's riches to fake having stolen it. After Lusene's defeat, he returns and uses subterfuge to regain his suit of armor, then makes his previous plan fool-proof. Scrooge scuppers his original plan to empty the Money Bin by threatening a media blackout, so Lusene settles for destroying Scrooge's other trophies housed in the Duckburg museum, and nearly dissolves poor Donald after accidentally being trapped with him by Scrooge. Even despite being ultimately bested by Scrooge, Lusene always [[Graceful Loser|accepts his defeat gracefully]], both regarding the other as a [[Worthy Opponent]].▼
* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' ''Legends: Soul's Winter'': Oroku Saki AKA Shredder, as presented in this darker take on TMNT franchise, is a powerful Japanese Samurai lord, who has a long history with the Turtles and Splinter. Being their sworn enemy, Shredder at one point has a mental fight with Splinter, solely to draw him out to the open, so that Shredder could surround them with his Foot Clan warriors. Managing to quickly overwhelm them, Shredder decided to let them go, enjoying feeling of victory and desiring to feel it again in the future. Sensing that Splinter summoned a great God of the animals, Animus, to cure one of the wounded turtles, Shredder immediately tracks down their location and after easily apprehending an attacking Mutant Turtle, healed the wounded Turtle and when asked why, he answered "Everything beautiful... Bleeds".
* ''[[Transformers]]'' comics:
** Shockwave is the military commander of the Decepticons and has devoted his entire life to logic and conquest. After masterminding the original attack on the Ark that left both sides stranded on Earth, Shockwave emerged from stasis to destroy all the Autobots in a single blow. He seized control of the Decepticons away from Megatron, and attempted to use the Creation Matrix to create new soldiers for his army. Although he eventually stepped down as the Decepticons' leader, he soon manipulated Megatron into seemingly killing himself by taking advantage of his paranoid delusions. Shockwave entered a brief alliance with Cobra to gain control of Power Station Alpha and betrayed them, all so he could steal the Earth's resources for himself. When he lost his forces after being left for dead, Shockwave teamed up with Starscream to stage a coup against Scorponok and try to take command again. With intelligence to match his strength, Shockwave is one of the most dangerous Decepticons the Autobots have ever faced.
** Ratbat was once the Decepticon's fuel auditor, but he rose through the ranks to eventually become the leader of the Decepticons. Obsessed with maximizing efficiency on all aspects of the war effort, Ratbat refused to take unnecessary risks and waste precious energy. Upon arriving to Earth, he brainwashed G.B. Blackrock into producing a line of car washes that would hypnotize its customers into supplying fuel for the Decepticons. Ratbat soon took Buster Witwicky as a hostage, and seized command over Shockwave's forces after his supposed death. Ratbat took advantage of the Autobot's splintered command after Optimus's death, and launched a surprise attack on the Ark that nearly wiped them all out. When Starscream betrayed the Decepticons to steal the power of the Underbase, Ratbat helped coordinate an offensive against him, all while planning to take the Underbase's power for himself. Despite not being the strongest Decepticon, Ratbat proved to be one of their most efficient leaders.
* In the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic The Hedgehog]]'' comics, the villain Mammoth Mogul was originally conceived as one of these, but could never really pull it off. That is, until he essentially said to the heroes, "Hey, I just remembered I'm [[Immortality|immortal]]. So here's my new plan: I'll live in this sweet casino I just had built, amuse myself by taking pot shots at you whenever I can, and wait for you all to die of old age. I can beat you by outliving you." You gotta love him for that.
** [[Big Bad|Dr. Eggman]] definitely does by the Genesis arc. After laying low for a while, he secretly transforms his headquarters into a flying fortress/weapons platform,
*** The man ''reasoned his way out of insanity,'' and emerged more dangerous than ever before. Hell yes does he qualify these days.
** And let's not forget Dr. Finitevus, who straddles the line between this and [[Complete Monster]] -- he effortlessly [[The Chessmaster|manipulates]] the Guardians (including Knuckles), Dimitri, and ''two whole factions'' of the Dark Egg Legion in order to ensure that a new [[Physical God|Enerjak]] can be created. And then he escapes scott free by jumping off Angel Island and disappearing into a Warp Ring with a smirk.
** Given recent events, we can probably add [[Evil Sorcerer|Ixis Naugus]] to this list as well. Following his recovery from madness, he undertook a plan to make himself a [[Villain with Good Publicity]] by using [[Idol Singer|Mina]] [[Unwitting Pawn|Mongoose]]'s music as a conduit for his magic, turning the distrust that the citizens of New Mobotropolis had for [[Hero with Bad Publicity|NICOLE]] following her [[Brainwashed and Crazy|brainwashing]] by the Iron Queen into [[Hate Plague|paranoia and hatred]]. He then appeared before the public and promised to "save" them from NICOLE with his magic if they just agreed to make him their king.
*** Giving himself some more points in the Magnificent Bastard department, he allows his [[The Mole|mole]] to be put on trial and found guilty of treason
*** And then there's the fact that he pretty much plotted the Great War between the Mobians of Acorn and the Overlanders. Feeling threatened by the royal court's cheif engineer Nate Morgan's inventions and rise of influence in the king's eyes, he made an alliance with General Kodos, whose hatred of Overlanders Naugus had no problems to use to win him over, and then pulled up a scheme where a patrol of Overlanders and Kodos' patrol, with Morgan in it, would meet with each others and, with the help of his magic, would cause their xenophobia toward each other to turn violent. The outcome worked as it did, leaving only Kodos and Morgan alive, and he and Kodos quickly blamed Morgan for treason, causing him to be kicked out of the kingdom. Not only did this get rid of his main rival in the court and made him the top dog again, but it also made the relationship between the Mobians and the Overlanders go into red alert. Aware that a war was inevitable, he created the Zone of Silence to hide in while the war would go on and wait for the outcome, both of which were win-win to him: if the Mobians win, he'll return and simply take over a much stronger kingdom. If the Overlanders win, he'll return and take over what's left and rebuild the kingdom from the ruins. Only one mistake hindered his plan: he didn't create any way ''out'' of the zone, leaving himself locked in a prison for years to come.
* Mr. Natural lives to manipulate people despite his facade of being a little old man, from his early days as a patent medicine salesman to getting Flakey Floont into trouble by forcing him to truly follow the zen practices he cherished.
* [[The Flash|The first Zoom]] could be considered this considering he tricked most of the League (including Wally) into thinking he was Barry back from the dead, killed Iris, and almost killed Barry's second fiance.
** He also brought his nemesis back from the dead to insure his own existence then found a way to break the universe badly enough to be able to kill Barry again without it affecting him. This caused the entire DC Universe to reset. See
* [[The Mole|Dubbelosix]] fron ''[[Asterix]] and the Black Gold''. With a James-Bond-esque chariot, and a trained housefly (with an unnaturally long life) to deliver his messages, he's a force to be reckoned with.
** Tortuous Convolvulus from ''Asterix and the Roman Agent''. Wherever he goes, he sows mistrust and discord [[For the Evulz]].
** Julius Ceasar anyone? It says a lot about the man that after years of publication and having his plans fail constantly, he is still treated as a genuine threat by both the fanbase and the characters. The fact that he is incredibly cool under fire probably helps--when confronted by two (superpowered) heroes, our non-powered viillain states that "If you have come to kill me, I will have you know that I intend to sell my distinguished life dearly." You never doubt him for an instant.
* Writers often try to make [[Mickey Mouse Comic Universe|The Phantom Blot]] a [[Magnificent Bastard]], and sometimes they even succeed. At his best, he [[The Chessmaster|hatches truly convoluted schemes]] that have Mickey Mouse (often portrayed as little short of a [[Great Detective]] himself in such stories) running around clueless for a long time before he even begins to figure them out; and has [[Evil Is Cool|a dark, threateningly cool presence]]. That said, most stories can't seem to pull this off too well.
▲* [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Arpin Lusene]] is Scrooge McDuck's most intelligent and competent foe. A charming French millionaire playboy who lives a double life as a [[Gentleman Thief]], Lusene vows to steal Scrooge's entire fortune in front of the whole world before going into retirement. After accidentally coming into the possession of the dangerous Omnisolve, Lusene gets the brilliant idea to coat a stolen suit of armor with the substance, turning himself into an unstoppable Juggernaut of a [[Black Knight]] who nearly destroys all of Scrooge's riches to fake having stolen it. After Lusene's defeat, he returns and uses subterfuge to regain his suit of armor, then makes his previous plan fool-proof. Scrooge scuppers his original plan to empty the Money Bin by threatening a media blackout, so Lusene settles for destroying Scrooge's other trophies housed in the Duckburg museum, and nearly dissolves poor Donald after accidentally being trapped with him by Scrooge. Even despite being ultimately bested by Scrooge, Lusene always [[Graceful Loser|accepts his defeat gracefully]], both regarding the other as a [[Worthy Opponent]].
* Hunter Rose in ''[[Grendel]]'' was born Eddie in New York. A natural genius with exceptional physical talent, Hunter reinvented himself and returned to New York as the mysterious Grendel. Dominating the criminal underworld, Hunter brought most criminal syndicates under his thumb while showing no mercy to traitors, child pornographers or pimps. Viewing everything as a game, Hunter manipulated the cops and criminals alike, as well as his archnemesis, Argent the Wolf. Constantly a step ahead of his enemies, Hunter even tricked Argent into being seen as a savage beast in front of Hunter's adopted daughter, Argent's beloved Stacy, to destroy her love for him. A ruthless, charming manipulator, Hunter reflects the darkness of New York and constantly shows himself a step ahead of all challengers.
* [[God of Evil|Anathos]], from ''[[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]]...
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* The megalomaniacal Dogbert, pet of ''[[Dilbert]]''. Though a multi-billionaire and former ruler of the world, he often works as a business consultant simply for the fun of conning people and stirring up trouble.
* Jason from ''[[FoxTrot]]''. He constantly comes up with newer and ridiculous ways to annoy and prank his siblings, especially Paige.
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