Morris - The legion of regrettable supervillains: [oddball criminals from comic book history]

Dedicated to the Red Bee.

Few have done so much with so little.

WHAT GOOD IS A SUPERHERO without a decent supervillain?

It didnt take long for the first comics creators to ask themselves that very question. While the dynamic new literary genre of the costumed crime-fighter was still cooling on the windowsill, the heroes opponents began to crawl out of the woodwork. Almost immediately, their ranks were tremendous and their variety seemingly limitless.

From the start, the narrative burden in superhero comics has always been on the bad guys. They need to outnumber and overpower the heroes, enact an array of schemes to provide conflict, be alluring in their appearance and modus operandi, andmost importantset the heroism of the good guys into stark relief. Some supervillains have risen to the occasion, and their fame has grown as great as the heroes they battle. Lex Luthor, the Joker, the Green Goblin, Thanos, Ultron, Doomsdaythese are household names among comic book fans, and even in the wider pop culture universe their renown is on par with that of their noble nemeses.

But those illustrious reprobates represent only the tiniest tip of the illicit iceberg of do-baddery. Within the pages of this book you will find villainys vilest runners-up in all their weird, wonderful glory. These are the forgotten fiends whose usually brief, and frequently fatal, careers belie a degree of wild inventionand a peculiar appeal that often makes the crook more compelling than the hero. Its not their fault that so many of these lurid lowlifes and repulsive rogues enjoyed only short and uncelebrated careers. After all, the hero gets the glory, even though the villain does so much of the heavy lifting.

Inside this volume you will meet wild werewolves, sensuous snake women, and avaricious alien conquerors in abundance. Youll find such wild wrongdoers as a bioelectric brainpowered baddie, a space wizard with a nose full of lightning, and a voodoo villain dressed like a haunted chicken, just to name a handful of evils oddest representatives. Comics fans will recognize a few familiar and belovedif bizarrebad guys, including a high-hopping bundle of French clichs, a flying cyborg head, and a hundred-foot-tall hard-boiled Communist egg.