Barbara Streisand has a day job.
Many a moon ago, I was a comic collector. Kinda dropped by the wayside when they became $1.25 and $2.50 an issue, and worse, you had to buy fifteen issues of eleven different titles (and worse still, under about twenty different artists) to get one storyline.
Galactus is indeed not truly a villain, but what other epithet can adequately describe one who strips your entire world to drifting, lifeless rubble?
(Trivia Quiz #1: What was Glactus’ real name?)
And, as others have said, a few villains such as Dr. Octopus- who gained fame and lost sanity when a nuclear accident permanently attached his remote-handling arms to him- and Dr. Doom- head Despot-in-charge of Latveria- have more or less “public” identities.
There’s the occasional baddie like the Mandarin, who makes no pretense to hide his true identity, but few- even good guys- know him as anything but the Mandarin.
There are also other, somewhat more petty crooks, however, such as the Sandman, the Living Laser, the Vulture and Stilt Man, who’s real names an identities are “public knowledge”, but for the most part they’re widely known only by the alter-ego.
And getting back to the “anti-hero” hero, yes, there’s Spawn, but also the Punisher, who thinks he’s a good guy, but hey, he’s basically a mass-murderer, even though most of 'em were bad guys.
And, of course, we can’t forget the heavy villains such as Loki, D’Spayre, Mephisto and Dormammu, who are all, shall we say, deities incarnate. And being such, their “day job” would, indeed, involve “being themselves”. Although, as “gods of lies” and “masters of evil”, Loki and Mephisto frequently take on quasi-human disguises in order to dupe the unwary.
I did read an early-early story on the Joker… his name is Jack something. And he got that way from the standard early-comic method, falling into a vat of chemicals.
Supposedly his clothes protected most of him, except for his hands and face. And, of course, his freakish appearance drove him mad shortly thereafter.
Bafaa- Actually, the Red Skull simply wore a mask until roughly the late '70’s- both real and “comic book” time- when he got lightly exposed to a chemical he’d devised called the “Dust of Death”, which gave his face the “actual” Red Skull look… And then later, after he recloned his original body, but before he gained a clone body from Captain America, from Swiss biochemist Arnim Zola…
But that’s another story.
Galactus’s real name? Wow, you mean Galactus was once just an ordinary Joe on Whatsagoomia or somesuch before destiny transformed him into [a giant, golf-playing koala]?
“I’ve never seen Doc so…grim. So…intense!”
Galactus was once known as Galan. Do I win a No-Prize?
I have The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told. Mr J does
claim to have been a factory worker who became the Red Hood.
In Killing Joke, he claims to have been an unsuccessful comic who aided criminals in entering a factory. He says that there was no single Red Hood and that the costume was worn by different people to create the image of a criminal mastermind.
There are plenty of other contradictory memories. In an issue of Super Powers, the J man recalls a scene from his childhood featuring a mother and father with the same coloring as his(white skin, green hair, bright red lips).
The Joker is insane. His memories of his past may be lies, or delusions. His past identity and name have never been established in the comics. The Batman Adventures revealed him to be a nameless mobster before becoming the Harlequin of Hate. The film with Nicholson gave him a name, past and revealed that he had shot the Wayne's. The comics however, have stated for years that Bruce's parents were shot by Joe Chill. Batman later held Chill in his arms as he died. Chill is very definitely dead and very definitely not the Joker.
I've been collecting comics for 18 years. I have 15 boxes of 500 comics each. For the first time in a post, I can say I'm an expert in this field.Quick question: does Harlequin (the Joker’s girlfriend in the animated series) exist in the comics? Her name is really Holly Quinn, and (in the TV show, at least) she used to be a psychiatrist at Arkham who was trying to cure the Joker’s insanity, but went crazy herself.
Harley was created for the animated series. After she
became so popular, she was introduced into the cannonical
comics. The fifth issue of her own series is on stands now. BTW her real name is Harleen Quinzel. She often
went by Harley, not Holly.
FYI:
The current Harley Quinn character is not to be confused with The Harlequin, a character who appeared in The Batman Family comics of the mid-1970s. The Harlequin claimed to be The Joker’s daughter.
Galactus was actually an everyday citizen in a former universe, and when people realized that that one was about to come to an end they put ol’ highpockets in some sort of egg or something and he was actually reborn as one with the new universe, so him and that big goof known as Eternity are actually brothers in a roundabout way, that’s why Galactus can’t die without the universe itself coming to an end. Now if someone could just explain last summers Death of Galactus storyline…
*I know, I know, he didn’t really die…:rolleyes:
As I understand it, one (generally) becomes a supervillain because:
a) one craves money
b) one craves power
c) one has suffered a personal tragedy or disfiguring, and has been driven mad with desire for revenge, or
d) a combination of the above.
With that in mind, why WOULD you have a day job? If you went into the supervillaining biz for money, and you’re a successful supervillain (hereinafter SV, since my fingers keep wanting to type “vallian”), your financial needs are taken care of, rendering a day job pretty useless. If you’re a power-hungry SV (again, assuming you’re doing your job well), presumably your needs are taken care of by virtue of being powerful. Need shelter? “Minions, go seize me that condo.” Food? “Henchmen, why don’t you go seize me a pizza?” Protection? “Lackeys, go fight off the invading superhero by throwing yourselves at him or her one at a time while the rest of you dance about menacingly in the background, while I prepare a diabolical trap to spring when he or she whups the lot of you and penetrates my inner sanctum.” And, of course, if you’re an insane SV, you just live in your cave or dilapidated mansion or whatever, giggling and wringing your hands while lightning flashes in the background, eerily illuminating your face, while you plot obsessively how to most diabolically exact vengeance. Hope that clears things up.
A fine evocation of the spirit of villainy, O Typo.
The wording of the OP, “Evil Superheros,” made me think of how everyone keeps accusing THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN of being evil when he’s actually a good guy. Misunderstood.
When I was a very young kid and first saw the adventures of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, that confused the heck out of me. As I got older I realized it was a device for dramatic irony. After a while this trope wears thin.
If you don’t read superhero comics, then you’ll find my post dull and pointless. Fanboys can hang around.
As it’s been pointed out before, it’s a convention of the superhero genre that super-villians do not (typically) have secret identities, while the vast majority of superheroes do (and some, like the DC’s Martian Manhunter or Wildstorm’s Crackerjack, have several identities, or more, they routinely use – sometimes including day jobs) and are always at constant peril to be ‘exposed’. This ‘hooded justice’ tradition exists at least as far back as the Lone Ranger – or depending on your politics, the Ku Klux Klan.
That said, ALL debuting super-villians have a secret ID. It lasts for as long as they don’t get arrested. But once a super-villain has been defeated, caught, unmasked or exposed, and handed over to authorities to be incarcerated, super-villians cease the privileges of having secret, double lives. They have a criminal record, which lists their name, DOB, vital statistics, etc. The MOST they can do, from that point on, is run from the law and plot their crimes anew. The extra-normal super-villains (aliens, cyborgs, shapeshifters, mad gods, demons and the like) don’t usually bother with secret IDs.
Most super-villians are pretty darn-tootin’ flamboyant, but there are a few who’ve had day jobs and secret identities AFTER they’ve turned to crime: Spider-Man villians the Chameleon and Mysterio. (It was years before it was known who they were.) Miracleman’s twisted protege, Kid Miracleman. (Even when they locked him up, they had no idea who they were dealing with.) The various heads of the Marvel Comics’ crime syndicate, the Maggia, were kept “secret” until they were busted. The Kingpin of Crime, Wilson Fisk, kept his criminal activities secret for years before his downfall – but I can’t remember if Wilson Fisk’s son, the Rose, managed to keep his identity a secret before he died. And whole point of the old “Hobgoblin” storyline in Spider-Man was that no one was sure who he was. And in JLA: Earth 2, Super Woman is revealed to have a secret ID.
In Captain America, even after he died in the White House, the evil Supreme Hydra’s secret identity was never revealed, except to hint that he was a VERY highly placed government official – someone so shocking that Cap lost faith in America and retired for awhile. (All post-Watergate, of course.) And then there was the Scourge (“Justice is served!”)-- the ONLY Marvel Comics villain to live and die without having his identity revealed (but that was because he was a serial killer, who killed other super-villains.)
In WATCHMEN, Ozymandias, the quiet, retired superhero we were led to believe we could trust in this 12 part serial, is revealed by issue 10 to be the mastermind behind the scenes and actually SUCCEEDS in killing half the population of New York City.
Lex Luthor wins the supervillain secret ID prize, though: he has never been arrested, and few in the general public realizes he has been trying to kill Superman for years because of his public persona as a generous philanthropist. It’s served him well - he is currently the U.S. President in Superman comics!
Actually, AKH, that was (is) Luthor’s driving force in the “new” Superman- Luthor had known of the possibility his personal QE2-sized yacht would be attacked by some nameless rebel band (some political thing they glossed over) and did nothing to stop it, more or less in order to lure the brand-new (at the time) Superman out so Luthor could “hire” him.
Supes, of course, turned it down, and found out immediately thereafter that Luthor knew of the attack possibility, but didn’t stop it or even report it. And since the Mayor of Metropolis was aboard and among the potential hostages, he had Supes arrest Luthor.
That was, of course, rather humiliating to a widely-known businessman, and so Luthor- having probably been spoiled as a child- swore vengeance. Not so much to “kill” Supes, but for the first few years- after the new rewrite by John Byrne (one of my favorite artists)- he simply wanted Supes under his control or influence, or at least publicly humiliated/reviled.
However, that’s all post-rewrite. Previously, Luthor had of course been arrested (and escaped) literally hundreds of times. And his hated of Superman came from some early incident where a chemcial reaction caused Luthor’s hair to fall out. He blamed it on Superman, and again, swore revenge. (Though it was, more or less, to “kill” Supes even from the beginning.)
Otherwise an excellent post.
Anyone see that “Milk” commercial recently? I loved it. 
Say, Doc: You’re absolutely correct in correcting me. I MEANT to type, “Luthor has never been arrested for trying to assault/kill Superman.” But ya see how longwinded I get? Thanks for the props on the post.
Now, is it, “Super-villain” or “Supervillian”? I ALWAYS mix 'em up.
“Villain” is correct.