1. A supervillain doesn’t need to have a tragic backstory.
2. If your supervillain does have a tragic backstory, that doesn’t excuse their actions, it merely explains them.
3. Supervillains should be more powerful than the superheroes, whether it is in blunt strength, intelligence, etc. Otherwise, the stakes for the story aren’t nearly as high.
4. Use small actions to show the true face of a villain. Are they meticulous not in just their elaborate plans to destroy the world, but in the way they clean their room? Are they secretly good not just in their ultimate redemption, but in the way they will tip a waiter 50%?
5. A supervillain doesn’t need to have a connection to the hero before the beginning of the story, but they definitely should have a connection before the end.
6. A supervillain doesn’t need to have clear morals. Real people don’t have clear morals. Instead, think of what would influence these morals and how that could be applied in different situations.
7. Watch out for common stereotypes, especially when making your supervillain part of a minority. There’s nothing inherently wrong with a supervillain of a different race or religion, but think of how that portrays that race/religion in the context of the story. A general rule is, if there is going to be a bad version of something, there should be a good version of that something.
8. Supervillains don’t always think they are doing something for the greater good. They might just be selfish, or do something for a specific person/group.
9. Your supervillain should be strongly motivated towards their goals, and their goals should oppose the hero’s.
10. People are different depending on who they’re around. Supervillains are no different. How do they act in front of different people with different relationships to them, and why?
You are a supervillain who has just captured your rival’s child. Rather than being afraid, they’re begging you to let them stay.
Frankly, you’d known those idiots had had a kid for years now. You’d pretended not to, because while you’d committed a lot of atrocities in your life, you weren’t willing to face the moral quandary of whether you would knowingly kill a child just to spite its parents.
They probably thought they were being clever though, what with the blaming you for an injury you knew damn well you’d never given keeping one of them out of commission for a few months, then references to what they would ‘leave behind’ or ‘could not follow’ when in the latest death trap. One of them had accidentally pulled a pacifier out of their utility belt once, and tried to pass it off as being prepared for any young children they came across while rescuing.
Idiots.
Still, you had standards. Standards that fell somewhere past war crimes and before common decency, but they were standards.
[image: fanciful lettering in purple, orange and green on a black background. Text: Together We’ll Be UNSTOPPABLE. (And That’s Terrible). A Supervillain RPG by Zoe Maxine.]
So I haven’t been able to draw for a while, so what have I been working on in my spare time? A Supervillain team themed tabletop (or digital) RPG! It’s not out yet, but it’s almost a full rulebook now.
So now that I can draw, here’s a logo.
PLEASE ask me questions!
Please let me know if you’d be interested in gametesting it or know a group who’d be interested in playing it and giving feedback, too!
You are a supervillain who has just captured your rival’s child. Rather than being afraid, they’re begging you to let them stay.
Frankly, you’d known those idiots had had a kid for years now. You’d pretended not to, because while you’d committed a lot of atrocities in your life, you weren’t willing to face the moral quandary of whether you would knowingly kill a child just to spite its parents.
They probably thought they were being clever though, what with the blaming you for an injury you knew damn well you’d never given keeping one of them out of commission for a few months, then references to what they would ‘leave behind’ or ‘could not follow’ when in the latest death trap. One of them had accidentally pulled a pacifier out of their utility belt once, and tried to pass it off as being prepared for any young children they came across while rescuing.
Idiots.
Still, you had standards. Standards that fell somewhere past war crimes and before common decency, but they were standards.
Danger Man How do you like this fiery guy? Commission for Lance❤️ Thank you so much!☺️ If you also want a commission from me, check out my Patreon. Link in Highlights . . . #fire #fire #superhero #superheroes #supervillain #supervillains #comics #comicbooks #comicart #comicbookart #comicartist #comicgeek #comicnerd https://www.instagram.com/p/CC6bLswnGEQ/?igshid=1e44g4zmvflu
Ok, so far I think this is wildly underrated in all things old school Marvel.
“Marvel Superheroes: Secret Wars”
This surrounds a variety of superheroes, and a variety of supervillains, being abducted from earth and transported to a newly terraformed planet seemingly made up of various other planets.
Pitched against each other by an unknown entity it’s a clash of titans. Comparably the older comics are a bit, well, obtuse. But the concept here is awesome and even back then they killed it with this one.
Still trying to finish it but always reading and buying new books so sometimes things move to the back burner for a little bit.
The Hero’s eyes flicked between the various camera drones hovering about the big, empty conference room. “You know, if you just wanted an interview, you could have gone through my agency…”
Despite the quipping words, the Hero could feel his heart rate pick up as his gaze couldn’t help but fall on the table of various painful looking items that he had been trying his best to ignore.
The Villain laughed. “Fair, but then I would have had to deal with the waiting list. Besides…” She looked the Hero up and down, smirking. “…I like this set-up.”
The Hero frowned and tried not to squirm against the ropes keeping him tied to the chair.
“Young, unknown, inexperienced…” The Villain approached the Hero with a spread of her arms. “Is the new Team leader up to snuff, that’s what this city wants to know…!”
She stopped just in front of the Hero and began to trace a slow finger down and under his jawline, meeting his faltering glare with a condescending smile. “And that is what I’m here to answer for everyone.”
“I wasn’t aware you cared so much,” the Hero retorted tightly.
The Villain pouted. “Hey, this is my city too, and I can’t be going up against anybody.”
She gave the Hero a light smack on the cheek and turned away, sauntering over to that foreboding table. “That’s why you’re here…” She ran a slow hand over the assortment of tools - the blades, the whips, the electric prods, the screwdrivers - and began to push the table towards the Hero. “To see if you can pass probably the most basic test of a hero.”
The Hero fidgeted, eyeing the table as the Villain wheeled it right alongside him. He couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t betray his rapidly beating heart.
“I have a building in this city set to blow,” the Villain said casually, picking up a saw blade and examining it. “And you’re the only one who can stop it.”
“And how exactly am I supposed to do that?” the Hero said through grit teeth.
“By making a simple choice.” The Villain pressed the saw blade against the Hero’s neck. “Ask me to let you go, and I will. But that building will suffer the consequences for it.”
The Villain dropped the saw blade and glided over to the Hero’s side. She seized his jaw in a deceptively gentle hold and forced his head up. “Or… you could take the building’s place, so to speak. Ask me to do anything I want to you.”
Ice filled the Hero’s veins. The Villain’s hand, tracing down the side of his face, felt unbearably hot.
“Take it all like a good little hero,” the Villain said, “and I will let everyone else know where that building is.”
…He wasn’t hesitating. Of course he wasn’t hesitating. He knew what he had to do, and he had to do it, but–
The Hero’s eyes flicked from the Villain, to the table, to the many camera drones pulling down to get a good close up of his face. Now the whole city could see how scared he was.
But that didn’t matter. His emotions didn’t matter. All that mattered was what he did next.
The Hero swallowed. “…Fine.”
The Villain raised an eyebrow. “Hm? What’s that?”
“Do whatever you want to me.”
“Ah, ah, what’s the magic word?”
God, she couldn’t be serious. The Hero met her gaze again, glaring with all the anger and frustration he still had in him.
“Please,” he said, voice shaking with he did not know what. “Do whatever you want to me.”
I just heard about DC’s Female Furies supervillain group for the first time. I can’t believe I’ve never seen them before, as I follow a bunch of comics pages and myself was a Bronze Age reader as a kid, even though I haven’t been a regular reader since my early teens.
“TheFemale Furies are a group of fictional women warriors appearing in comics published by DC Comics. They are supervillainesses. All of them are New Gods who serve Darkseid. They operate directly underneath Granny Goodness, who trains all of Darkseid’s soldiers.” GRANNY GOODNESS? SERIOUSLY how have I not heard about this. One potential answer is:
THE DOWNSIDE: “Mad Harriet” - I haven’t read these comics, but the name and character drawing show mental illness stereotypes (“scary crazy person”) that lead to stigma, marginalization and oppression.
Under “I should be surprised but sadly am not,” even in modern feminist versions of the group “Mad Harriet” is still a thing (see below).
Sidenote: Stompa looks like a biker and is clearly a butch icon. Since they’re a god we literally have a butch god here.
Over the years the group has teamed up with Scooby and the gang and their latest incarnation is taking on sexism.
“Big Barda, Lashina, Bernadeth, Stompa, and Mad Harriet appear as the protagonists of the Female Furies six-issue miniseries. Set in an alternate universe, the Furies attempt to overcome sexism and misogyny on Apokolips, eventually driving Darkseid and his forces off of the planet and leaving women to rule. Aurelie, Sweet Leilani, Gilotina, and Giganta also appear throughout the story.”
I know the popular take is Batman’s rogues getting their butts handed to them by Bruce Wayne, and I’m not belittling that, because that’s really funny for all stated reasons?
But how about a new take: most of Batman’s rogues call him off limits, because they find out he is their benefactor, when/if they try to reform?
Mr Freeze won’t touch him because when he’s in Arkham, Bruce is the one who finances the research to help Nora Fries.
Poison Ivy won’t touch him because he had been the one supplying her with plants, while in prison.
Harley won’t touch him because he’s just a great guy an’ gotham needs guys like that.
Riddler won’t touch him because he was the secret backer that time Eddie tried to open a detective agency.
Croc won’t touch him because he’s one of the few people who ever talks to him like a person.
Deadshot refuses any hits on him because he found out Wayne does a lot of secret work for people down on their luck who made bad mistakes.
Two-Face having a crisis in the middle of the street because, on the one hand, he’s just trapped Bruce Wayne inside of a bank, so he can get some serious cash outta this.
But also: Harvey is screaming at him like “f*** you dude, that guy was my best friend. Also, he visits me in Arkham and treats the both of us like a damn human being.”
And Two-Face being like “f*** it, that’s fair. i’ll flip a coin and see.”
Harvey: “you most certainly wILL NOT. Just walk away, man.”
The GCPD, shielded behind their cars, staring in shock and confusion: “what.”
Bruce slowly forming an amicable relationship with the Rogues is such a fun concept to me, because as much horror as these people have caused, Batman’s whole shtick is that everyone deserves a chance. So, while he doesn’t forget that these people are in Arkham for very legitimate reasons, he also takes the time to treat them as human beings
Riddler gets asked one day by a detective why he seems to explicitly avoid anything Wayne related, and he’s just like, “oh, he’s actually helping me draft plans for escape rooms and puzzle boxes and stuff as a positive outlet for my implicit need for attention and a constructive way of using my intelligence. It’d be just rude of me to bother him, ya know?”
Ivy: “how many billionaires do you know that seem to genuinely care about our planet and make actual, tangible efforts to create technologies to preserve what we have? The man is a rarity. Also, he convinced the guards to let me have a few plants with me—for comfort. Nice guy.”
Freeze:“he’s basically the only person who’s every given a damn about helping me save my wife. No way in hell am I crossing him.”
Deadshot, scrolling (or whatever) through his potential contracts: “Wayne? Oh hell no. I thought I blacklisted those ones. Delete. Begone. Live your best life Mr Wayne. Payday will come from somebody else.”
Harley: “I just think he’s neat. Also I know he’s Batman and he’s a cool dude, but I’m not gonna tell anyone that sooooo yeah.”
Waylon (Croc): “he saw my previous cell in Arkham and flipped made sure I got an actual habitat, and not a shoddy hole in the ground filled with sewer water, which made my stay there much more livable. He gives me food sometimes when he sees me in the wild. Nice guy. 10/10 will not eat.”
I just,,, love this.
Joker, who doesn’t have such morals and is also kind of an asshole: *lays a hand on Bruce*
All the other villians in Gotham simultaneously, regardless of distance:
