His dad, Baron Helmut Zemo, was the Nazi (and the one who killed Bucky). Heinrich was just trying to get some vengeance for the paterfamilias when he got his mask permanently adhered to his face. (He’s actually turned down opprtunities to have his ruined face repaired.)
Prof. Miles Warren became the Jackal because he had a creepy obsession with Gwen Stacy and blamed Spider-Man for her death. He eventually made clones of her and of Spider-Man.
The Rainbow Raider became a super-villian because he was color-blind and couldn’t achieve his dream of becoming a great painter.
Well, there’s sort of Dream Girl, who got into the Legion with the express intent of disabling several members (Lightning Lass, I remember because that’s how she ended up becoming Light Lass, and I think Ultra Boy and Matter-Eater Lad got the shaft from her, too.) - although that was to keep them from getting killed.
I think the actual bad intent is restricted to those you listed and the villains inducted by Dynamo Boy when he took over. Including the LSV.
I think, despite their bragging, only Calorie Queen was actually more powerful than her equivelant (Matter-Eater Lad) - the others were better in one-on-one fights, but had no real edge in powers. And their teamwork sucked. And Phantom Lad and Magno Boy had really, really crappy costumes.
The LSV were a fun batch for this discussion…they had the various rejects (Spider Girl. Ronn-Kar, Radiation Roy, the Super-Rejects, possibly others I can’t remember), they were founded by Tarik the Mute who hated not just the Legion, but all law enforement personelle because he was injured (and lost his ability to speak) when he got caught in crossfire; and they also had Lightning Lord, who, while his reasons for hating Lightning Lad and Lightning/Light Lass made sense (sort of), when the whole context of Winath’s culture is considered…‘I hate you because you’re twins and I’m not!’ really sounds lame at first blush.
Sorry, bud, you’ve got your Zemos mixed up. Heinrich is the father, and Helmut his son. It was Heinrich who was the Nazi, who got his mask adhered to his face, and who killed Bucky. Helmut’s notable acts include leading the Masters of Evil to trash the Avengers mansion and forming the Thunderbolts. For more info, see Bring On the Bad Guys: Baron Zemo.
Interesting footnote: Though his father was a noted Nazi, Helmut Zemo and his wife Heike* actually adopted a number of ethnically diverse children he had kidnapped from abusive homes. The children were eventually taken from him by Captain America, who did his best to find them new families.
*A bizarre, bizarre character I’ll go into another time.
Am I the only one with enough of a gutter mind to read some really non-Comics Code approved subtext into sibling relations on Winath? Especially given one time when L. Lord was ranting something like “I was the eldest, I had rights!”
Heh…I wouldn’t say Winathi society as a whole, but some of the writers do make me think things might have been a little…odd in the Ranzz household. The way Mekt menaces Ayla in the first LSV arc of the Baxter series, in particular.
IIRC Lee and Kirby disagreed on how badly Doom was hurt in the explosion. One wanted Doom to have minor scar. The other wanted Doom’s face to be ruined before he put on the mask.
Lumpy The post crisis Luthor was fat and out of shape (then he transferred his brain into a cloned body, and I don’t know what he looks like now). The pre-crisis Luthor was in great shape. Though not massively muscled, he clearly spent time at the gym.
Re Eddie Brock
Yeah, that was a bit odd. Brock breaks the story of the true identity of a serial killer. Then, Spider-Man caught and unmasked the killer. Brock had been wrong. The Daily Bugle fired him. Rather than his boss, or his sources, Brock blames Spidey.
Back To The OP
Living Monolith- He discovered that Havok was somehow absorbing cosmic energy that LM needed to activate his powers. LM kidnaps Havok and puts him in a radiation proof cell.
Iron Man has been attacked by plenty of other folks who lost contracts or status because people went with Stark technology.
Which villain was the Prosecutor who got his face splashed with acid by a gangster he was trying and blamed Batman (I think it was Batman) for it because he didn’t stop the guy in time, and became a Super Villain because of it?
That’s Two Face, but I don’t think he really blamed Batman for Falcone’s actions. The disfigurement just sort of broke his mind, and he rather inevetably butted heads with Batman as a result of turning criminal.
Although ‘Gotham’s Supervillains are Batman’s fault’ is a common theme in Batman stories - IIRC, it comes up in Arkham Asylum (which I might need to reread), several of the movies, the Dini animates series, and presumably in other places.
I once wrote a novella where the bad guy had the four heroes (from another dimension) chained to a wall in a cave. Then he explained why he did it.
“When I was 8, Bobby Jenkins told me I was so lame, I couldn’t kidnap 4 people from another dimension and chain them to a wall. Ha, I proved him wrong.”
Fabian Stankowitz, the Mechano Marauder. Years later, he auditioned to join the Avengers and didn’t make the cut, but Cap hired him as some kind of staff mechanic. He didn’t last long; he failed a drug test and made Cap uncomfortable by asking what the difference was between his crystal meth habit and Cap’s Super Soldier Serum. “It’s, uh, different, okay?”
Actually, Dr. Doom hated Rex Reed for appearing in Myra Breckenridge as the pre-op Myron. He also had a vendetta against Raquel Welch and Mae West for the same reason. The thing is, if you’ve seen the movie, that’s hardly irrational…
It’s often been said (in the actual comic pages) that Ultron has an Oedipus complex – he wants to kill his father (Pym) and possess his mother (Janet van Dyne/the Wasp – and/or Jocasta, the robot Ultron created with a personality patterned on Janet’s). That Ultron’s brain waves are modeled on Pym’s own might have something to do with it.
This explains something that’s always puzzled me…I started reading Avengers in the period when Jocasta was an associate member but in between Ultron attacks, so I missed the explanation and always wondered why this robot was named after Oedipus’s mother. Slightly more erudite than you usually expect from comics, especially in the 80s.
Hell, the whole robo-Pym clan might just steal the title of Most Dysfunctional Comic Book FamilyTM from the Superman-Superboy-Lex Luthor group over at DC Comics. We have Daddy Hank Pym, the wife-beatin’, occasionally insane superhero mad scientist. Then we have Momma Janet Van Dyne, the ditzy broad-turned-strong woman of doubtful fidelity. There’s Ultron (Hank Pym, Jr.), the killer robot with the Oedipal complex. Ultron’s daughters/wives, doormat Jocasta and bitch queen Alkhema, and Ultron’s “he-done-right” sons, Vision and Victor Mancha. I bet going home for the holidays to this incestuous, brain-stealing family has got to be stressful, at least.