# Supervillain motivations **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2009, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillain-motivations/516767 "2009-11-08T04:29:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillain-motivations/516767/21 "2009-11-09T04:38:05Z")
Probably I should link to a relevant TV Tropes page : [Cut Lex Luthor a Check.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CutLexLuthorACheck) As far as the costumes go, I’ll also point out that superheroes and villains besides their powers also tend to be really well built. Notably, in the real world young people who still have peak condition, unwrinkled, unsaggy, unfat bodies ALSO tend to wear tighter and skimpier clothing than the rest of us. And there’s also the dignity granted by power; a sexy young woman doesn’t need to dress conservatively to be taken seriously if she shows up floating three feet off the floor covered in lightning. You can dress in a clown suit and be taken seriously if you are lugging a tank over one shoulder. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillain-motivations/516767/22 "2009-11-09T13:13:10Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > In the other direction, as seen in, say, Watchmen, maybe the villains start wearing costumes and masks to make identification more difficult. Who’s to say you robbed the bank if you were dressed up as Ronald Regan, Guy Fawkes, or BoBo the Clown? The cops, frustrated with the inadequacies of the system, figure out if they wear costumes of their own, they can track down those they know are responsible and deal out justice personally. Of course, Watchmen was something of a cautionary tale, I think, where the world nearly got destroyed because of well-meaning superheros. There is a difference between wearing a mask to obscure your identity and wearing one to proclaim your identity. As an ego thing, I believe that most supervillains (and many superheroes) are attention whores, and live to see news reports that The Badger is back in town. Many of them may also be stupid enough to believe that is they do get arrested they can claim “No, I’m not The Badger, I’m just law-abiding excavation engineer Brock Setthouse.” Like that has ever worked. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillain-motivations/516767/23 "2009-11-09T15:18:11Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > There is a difference between wearing a mask to obscure your identity and wearing one to proclaim your identity. As an ego thing, I believe that most supervillains (and many superheroes) are attention whores, and live to see news reports that The Badger is back in town. That’s one of the common motivations for smarter supervillains (ones who are too smart to be simple thugs who see knocking over the bank as the path of least resistance between Me and Money). The obvious pitfall is that it tends to lead to Plan-Too-Complicated-to-Actually-Work snafus as demonstrating one’s genius takes priority over acutal results. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillain-motivations/516767/24 "2009-11-09T17:14:11Z")
And don’t even get me started on monologuing! ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillain-motivations/516767/25 "2009-11-10T14:00:26Z")
I believe that the motivations of supervillains are entirely at the whim of whatever “relaity overlord” created them and thus defy rational explanation by us. What I’m trying to say is that supervillains don’t just happen like the stories would have us believe. They are created by _something_ as a direct result of the appearance of a superhero. I mean, have you ever thought about the fact that there were almost no supervillains until the advent of superheroes? But every time one appears, it is not too long before the supervillain appears in some kind of unexplained “yin-yang” cosmic balancing act. Off hand, I can only think of one supervillain that existed before his superhero nemesis did. There may be one or two more, but just think of how often when a superhero somes into existence, soon thereafter along comes his/her supervillain. So my in-its-infancy theory is that this is no accident, and there is some force that does this and gives its supervillains their motivations. I don’t think we can blame the villains, they’re just pawns in some grand scheme beyond our ken. I foresee a time whenever a new superhero appears on the scene, the entire populance runs screaming from his/her home town, fleeing the new mega-menace that is soon to come! 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillain-motivations/516767.md?page=1)