# Worst. Supervillain. Ever. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 12, 2004, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809 "2004-07-12T23:55:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/41 "2004-07-13T14:52:38Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > DC also has WAY too many super-gorillas. OK, there’s Grodd, Nnamdi, Solovar, (and the other gorillas of Gorilla City) Ultra-Humanite (sort of), and Monsieur Mallah, that I can think of…still that’s pushing the number of super-gorillas a little far. Hmm… never noticed that before. Has anyone ever done the obvious team-up: Super-Gorilla League of America? Legion of Super-Gorillas? ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/42 "2004-07-13T14:52:45Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > I can’t believe I got beaten to the punch on Turner D. Century. Bonus points for anyone who can tell us how Turner met his gruesome end (no googling!). I don’t know, kids with their haircuts and music kept walking across his lawn? ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/43 "2004-07-13T15:01:49Z")
I knew it had to be out there somewhere… [The Hostess Superhero Foes Web Page](http://www.seanbaby.com/hostess.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/44 "2004-07-13T15:30:27Z")
> [@gonzoron](#): > > Hmm… never noticed that before. Has anyone ever done the obvious team-up: Super-Gorilla League of America? Legion of Super-Gorillas? The JLA were changed into[super-apes](http://members.tripod.com/~MitchellBrown/xover/jla_annual3.jpg) a few years back. Earlier, many of the super-apes in the DCU appeared in [Swamp Thing Annual #3](http://image2.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/84625780710.3.GIF) caught in a psychic backlash as Grodd tried to take over the world. Alas, Detective Chimp and Titano was not among them. (Titano had been killed off by John Byrne before anyone else could use him.) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/45 "2004-07-13T15:50:06Z")
> [@Murcielago](#): > > The first one that comes to mind is Spidey’s enemy, [“The Spot.”](http://www.samruby.com/Villains/Spot/spot.htm) It was like the writers saw the “Sea of Holes” sequence in the animated _Yellow Submarine_ and thought it was a great concept for a character. > > It wasn’t. Isn’t it his fault that Norman Osbourne got caught in that other dimension? ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/46 "2004-07-13T15:51:23Z")
Slight hijack: In the late fifties, DC published an anthology title – I believe the name of it was _Strange Adventures,_ although I could be mistaken – and one month, they did a cover story about a guy who swaps minds with a gorilla, and winds up in a zoo. That particular issue, for one reason or another, went totally hogwild at the newsstands, and for quite some time after that, it seems that everyone wanted to do gorilla stories, and put gorillas on the covers of the comics. Supposedly, DC higher-ups had to actually institute a policy of no more than one gorilla per month on the cover of any DC comic book… which implies some interesting editorial meetings (“All right, who gets the ape this month? _Superman_ has YET to get an ape… but _Batman_ doesn’t want the ape this month… and \*Strange Adventures \* is still screaming for an ape…”) …but this would seem to go hand in hand with DC’s excess of ape villains and heroes. Speaking of which, I’m amazed no one has mentioned Congorilla yet, although he wasn’t a villain (heroic Congo Bill and the golden gorilla had identical rings; Bill, when trouble beckoned, would pop some sleeping pills, then rub his magic ring, and exchange minds with the gorilla, becoming CONGORILLA, while the ape’s mind, stuck in the pith-helmeted adventurer, would sleep it off under a tree. I always thought it would be so incredibly cool if Congorilla came back to where he’d left Bill one day… only to find a fat, sleeping lion wearing a pith helmet…) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/47 "2004-07-13T16:30:57Z")
Yes, DC used a lot of apes, and mostly because an ape on the cover sold. But the super apes of Gorilla City were a perfectly good science fictional concept (with more justification than many) – the idea that something like a gorilla had evolved intelligence and a civilization. It sounds silly, maybe, but it worked just fine in the stories, and was no more ridiculous than, say, Dr. Doom being king of Lateria or wherever he came from. See if you can read the original 60s stories featuring Grodd – they are quite good. **CalMeacham** is right about **Angel and the Ape**. Foglio did a great job. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/48 "2004-07-13T16:58:04Z")
Umm…Hello? [TYPEFACE](http://www.samruby.com/Villains/Typeface/typeface.htm) anyone? And add me to the Spot fan club. The ability to port anywhere you leave a spot? Even multiple places at once? I think he could have done serious damage if used properly. ---
**Author:** ![aegypt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@aegypt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aegypt)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/49 "2004-07-13T18:03:21Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > So lame, he wasn’t even known as a Batman villain - he was a **Robin** villain. Heh, guess you can’t get much lamer than that. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/50 "2004-07-13T18:18:15Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > I can’t believe I got beaten to the punch on Turner D. Century. Bonus points for anyone who can tell us how Turner met his gruesome end (no googling!). **Uekte**? 😃 I didn’t know that he was featured again after the failed “horn” incident - I’ll try to track that down. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/51 "2004-07-13T19:09:50Z")
> [@adam yax](#): > > I don’t know, kids with their haircuts and music kept walking across his lawn? 😃 > [@](#): > > Uekte? 😃😃 [spoiler] **Sweetums** got it–Turner was offed by Scourge, a.k.a the Scourge of the Underworld. Scourge was a mysterious villain who started popping up in various Marvel titles, sometimes in disguise, sometimes hidden from view, sometimes wearing a distinctive deathlike costume, shooting supervillians dead with a machine gun with a distinctive PUM-SPAK! report and shouting “justice is served!” His main targets were worn-out lame-o’s like T.D.C. that nobody would seriously miss, but he also killed the occasional fairly popular B-lister like Death Adder just to make things interesting. When word began to spread in the dork underworld that a mysterious killer was assassinating supervillians with extremely poor driving concepts, a large group met at a secret supervillian bar to discuss what should be done. Among this group was Turner, apparently recently escaped from a mental institution and bewildered that he was now forced to associate with cads and scoundrels. Unfortunately, immediately after the obligatory roll call of evil, the bartender whipped out his machinegun and mowed the assembly down, having been Scourge in disguise all along.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/52 "2004-07-13T19:13:07Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > DC also has WAY too many super-gorillas. OK, there’s Grodd, Nnamdi, Solovar, (and the other gorillas of Gorilla City) Ultra-Humanite (sort of), and Monsieur Mallah, that I can think of…still that’s pushing the number of super-gorillas a little far. There’s a new one in the rebooted Doom Patrol: Grunt. A gorilla with four arms. One of the all-time great comic book covers was on DC’s early '60s Strange Sports Stories issue with the super gorillas who formed a super baseball team. It showed a hugely grinning gorilla, all correctly suited up, sliding into home. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/53 "2004-07-13T19:25:16Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Flying, by itself, is not a legitimate reason to be a super-villian! Not to hijack this thread, but I’ve always felt that way about Angel being a super-hero. All he does is fly too (which, admittedly, no one else on the original X-Men could do, but even so…) Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/54 "2004-07-13T19:56:02Z")
> [@Sweetums](#): > > Scourge! PUM… spak. No, no, no, no, no! The line is supposed to be, “Justice is served!” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sweetums](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Sweetums](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweetums)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/55 "2004-07-13T20:59:48Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > No, no, no, no, no! The line is supposed to be, “Justice is served!” 😉 ``` :smack: ``` I can’t belive that I forgot “Justice is served” Duh-oh! ---
**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/56 "2004-07-13T21:11:17Z")
> [@zev\_steinhardt](#): > > Not to hijack this thread, but I’ve always felt that way about Angel being a super-hero. All he does is fly too (which, admittedly, no one else on the original X-Men could do, but even so…) > > Zev Steinhardt Agreed. But then that’s probably why they had Apocalypse upgrade him. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/57 "2004-07-13T22:18:47Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > …than, say, Dr. Doom being king of Lateria or wherever he came from. Latvia. 🙂 Anyone from the Scourge murders would certainly apply. I remember Turner D. Century, by the way. I used to be a HUGE comic book fan, and owned all of the Scourge-killing-someone issues. “The Bar With No Name,” Medina County, Ohio is where Turner D. Century was gunned down, along with several other stupid villains. How about [The Ringer](http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/r/ringer.htm)? Ooh…he has rings on his costume that he can throw. Or [Hammer & Anvil](http://victoria.tc.ca/Recreation/Comics/Vic.html)? They’re connected by a tether . If one dies, they other one does, too. And Scourge shot one in the head, killing them both. Anyone remember Rocket Racoon? ---
**Author:** ![aegypt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@aegypt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aegypt)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/58 "2004-07-13T22:47:26Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Latvia. 🙂 Wouldn’t that be so much cooler, if he really was from Latvia? That would totaly change the whole character concept. Plus he could compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. And probably win, because, as we Old Europeans know, the Eastern Europe countries all vote for each other anyway. Just in the interest of dispelling ignorance though (for those who didn’t realize you’re kidding), in the comics it’s Latveria, a made-up (or extremely low-profile) country (Vital facts: borders Romania, Serbia and Hungary; population: 500,000; major ethnic groups: Magyars, Gypsies; captial city: Doomstadt; currency: Latverian Frank (LFR); government: armored-nutjob-ocracy). ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/59 "2004-07-13T22:58:41Z")
Can’t believe nobody’s mentioned [Arcade](http://www.spiderfan.org/characters/arcade.html) yet. He’s supposedly a highly sought-after assassin of superbeings, but unless you come to his theme park he can’t do a goddamn thing to you. Sometimes he arranges for people to be forcibly brought there for him to try and kill, failing to realise that if he could do that he could just have them killed on the spot. What an awful character concept. Oh, and he’s never managed to kill anybody with superpowers either. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809/60 "2004-07-14T02:20:35Z")
> [@Evil Death](#): > > Can’t believe nobody’s mentioned [Arcade](http://www.spiderfan.org/characters/arcade.html) yet. He’s supposedly a highly sought-after assassin of superbeings, but unless you come to his theme park he can’t do a goddamn thing to you. Sometimes he arranges for people to be forcibly brought there for him to try and kill, failing to realise that if he could do that he could just have them killed on the spot. What an awful character concept. > > Oh, and he’s never managed to kill anybody with superpowers either. Never occurred to me. Guys like \*_Razorback_, Turner D. Century, \*\* and the \*\*Ringer \*\* were all … well… _crap,_ basically. They had a sort of flavorlessness, a thinness about them that said, “Man, deadline is coming up, and we don’t have jack. Come up with somebody colorful to fight, QUICK.” Arcade wasn’t like that. Arcade was a cool, slick assassin, fit for a James Bond movie… with the added attraction that Arcade was very funny, clever, witty, and cuh-RAZY as a loon. I mean, put him in a room with the Joker, and I’m honestly not sure who’d come out alive. I wouldn’t be surprised if they _both_ did, shaking hands, laughing, and exchanging email addresses. They were birds of a feather, almost – villains whose charm lay in the fact that they both had a good grip on the funny side of _murder_. True, Arcade had no powers. He did, however, have a variety of clever kidnap tricks for obtaining his victims and releasing them in Murderworld, his amusement park of death. My main beef with Arcade was “man, how do you keep a secret underground amusement park of death secret after five or six superheroes escape from it? And did you _really_ have enough money to have \*two or three \* secret underground amusement parks of death?” (\*um… a big, tough trucker. Who talked in CB lingo. Wore green tights. And… um… had a big, um, pig-shaped hat that shot electricity. Yes, I know. It was the seventies) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-supervillain-ever/254809.md?page=4)