# Supervillains WITH day jobs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 8, 2013, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157 "2013-04-08T15:17:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/21 "2013-04-08T18:00:45Z")
Sorry for the simultaneous post. I’m having computer problems. ---
**Author:** ![irritant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@irritant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irritant)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/22 "2013-04-08T18:03:05Z")
There are a rare few super-villains who’ve managed to maintain secret identities. The Green Goblin, Norman Osborne, maintained his front as a wealthy industrialist for years, even after Spider-Man knew who he was. And then later on he became the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. while still occasionally making appearances in costume. His successor as Spidey’s nemesis, Roderick Kingsley, the Hobgoblin, headed a perfume company for about a decade before finally being outed in the mid-90’s. Damn, partially ninja’d. Mysterio, I believe, turned to crime because he’d been fired from his stuntman/special effects job. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/23 "2013-04-08T18:23:59Z")
Well yes, 90% of the supervillains out there were fired from jobs that tied into their villainy gimmick of choice. The question is what 10% of those villains were spared the pink slip. (probably more like 2% if you account for the bad guys who were gods,aliens,born into supervillainry, etc). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/24 "2013-04-08T18:29:55Z")
[The Walrus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walrus_(comics)) is a cab driver . . . if he even counts . . . ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/25 "2013-04-08T19:10:47Z")
> [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](#): > > The Green Goblin was a successful businessman in Spider-Man, v. 1. > I believe the Circus of Crime did perform for paying customers. (Sometimes they paid in more waysthan one .) > Batman’s minor foe, The Man with 10 Eyes, worked as a security guard for an airlines. > Did not the Trickster and Mysterio initially moonlight as super-villians when they were working as stunt people. IIRC, the Circus of Crime would perform as a regular circus for paying customers, and then, at the apex of the show, Ringmaster would use his Hypno-Hat and the other performers would go through the crowd removing the patrons of their valuables. The customers, being hypnotized, would not realize what was wrong: at least not until the Circus left town. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/26 "2013-04-08T20:00:51Z")
Baron Unterbeit was the ruler of Unterland until he was overthrown. ---
**Author:** ![irritant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@irritant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irritant)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/27 "2013-04-08T20:50:47Z")
There’s also a Jekyll/Hyde class of villains, who have no control over their transformations, and may not even be aware of them. The Lizard and Man-Bat are both successful scientists by day, and the public is not generally aware that they sometimes turn into monsters. More recently, Mr. Negative suffered from this. I don’t remember what Carol Ferris’s relationship with her alter ego Star Sapphire was, but she was head of an aircraft company. Ozymandias seemed to be doing pretty well for himself. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/28 "2013-04-08T21:11:01Z")
Dr. Doom’s got a whole country to run. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/29 "2013-04-08T21:14:45Z")
Sauron had a secret identity as Annatar, Lord of Gifts, a ring maker, making him a jeweler. Darth Sidious of Star Wars was an Republic Senator. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/30 "2013-04-08T22:07:45Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Dr. Doom’s got a whole country to run. Another one besides that one that was mentioned in the second post? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/31 "2013-04-09T00:44:12Z")
The Sandman (The Spidey villain) had a day job for a while. He realized that his life sucked. Every time he committed a crime, some superhero would beat him up and he’d go to jail. He finally got tired of it. The Thing showed up to arrest him and prepared for a big fight. The Sandman surrendered. Over a few beers, Sandy told the Thing his life story. The Thing said “People think that the Sandman is dead. Let him stay dead.” paid the tab and left. After that, Sandy worked a variety of odd jobs. He worried about getting a better job. But he couldn’t so much as submit a proper W2 without alerting the authorities. Eventually, Sandy joined Silver Sable’s team as a hero. Then some idiot writer decided to undo decades of writing and make him a villain again. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/32 "2013-04-09T02:03:14Z")
> [@irritant](#): > > Ozymandias seemed to be doing pretty well for himself. And here I was, getting ready to mention him in the other thread. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/33 "2013-04-09T10:31:18Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > The other trope is villains who became villains because they were scientists whose experiments backfired: the Lizard, Morbius, Man-Bat, etc. There are a couple of other super-villain/professor tropes. There is the scientist who’s research doesn’t get funded, so takes to a life of crime to carry on his own experiments (eg [Humbug](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbug_(comics))), plus the Professor who gets obsessed over a female student (eg [The Jackal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackal_(Marvel_Comics))) ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/34 "2013-04-09T11:19:49Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > The Sandman (The Spidey villain) had a day job for a while. > > He realized that his life sucked. Every time he committed a crime, some superhero would beat him up and he’d go to jail. He finally got tired of it. The Thing showed up to arrest him and prepared for a big fight. The Sandman surrendered. Over a few beers, Sandy told the Thing his life story. The Thing said “People think that the Sandman is dead. Let him stay dead.” paid the tab and left. > > After that, Sandy worked a variety of odd jobs. He worried about getting a better job. But he couldn’t so much as submit a proper W2 without alerting the authorities. Eventually, Sandy joined Silver Sable’s team as a hero. > > Then some idiot writer decided to undo decades of writing and make him a villain again. I always thought Sandman struggling to reform and joining the good guys was an interesting bit of character development and was also disapointed when I saw that he went back to crime. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/35 "2013-04-09T17:06:18Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > I don’t know if that’s the _whole_ point. Some are out for revenge against the superhero, some have morally ambiguous and sometimes sympathetic goals (Mr. Freeze or Magneto), and some have motivations known only to themselves (The Joker or Baron Zemo). IIRC, Baron Zemo started out as a Nazi scientist and his motivation (which I’m pretty sure he’s told people about) is that during a battle with Captain America, Cap made his helmet/mask stick to his head with glue that wouldn’t come unstuck. Zemo invented the glue. His motivation may have changed, of course. Also, Emma Frost used to be the headmistress of a private school. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157/36 "2013-04-09T17:40:29Z")
What sticks out in my memeory, besides Captain Boomerang (already mentioned, and presumably unable to keep his day job, as already offered) was Major William Vickers, the first _ **Major Victory** _ of the _**[Force of July](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_of_July)**_. A quick research just done shows me that DC has had [three versions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Victory_(DC_Comics)) of such a character. (I had missed a lot by swearing off buying new comics (for the most part) back in '88.) I gather that all three individuals were considered to have “legitimate” government jobs. If the two that succeeded the original were true to form, all three could still be considered villains, by the ruthlessness of their covert actions. (Although the entire Force of July has been classed as “antagonistic superhero[es]” in the Wiki article.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supervillains-with-day-jobs/655157.md?page=1)