Comic books offer something special to us. They allow us to overcome (or not) the horrible evil and ills of our society in a grandiose fashion. Sometimes these evils are on a smaller scale, and sometimes they are world domination, but they all must have the same driving force behind them….. a comic
book super villain. As a creator and writer, your super villain must be capable of driving the story. This requires a very distinct set of qualities that all great super villains must have.
When you create your super villain, you must first have their driving force in mind. A great super villain has to have a purpose, much like your super hero. This force will give you the tools that you need to create your super villain. It is much easier to create a super villain around the purpose, than to try to add the purpose to the super villain. Get what pushes your villain clear in your mind first.
Once you know the driving force, then you need to figure out what made him or her the way they are. Why do they want to take over the world? Why do they want to kill your protagonist? Where did they come from? As you answer these important types of questions, your super villain will quickly come clear in your mind.
Once you have the legwork done, then the fun begins. Now you get to visualize your super villain and what he can do. Here is a list of things to consider when you create your super villain:
1. Your super villain must be powerful in some way. This might be power of intellect, or physical power. Either way, you must empower your super villain to be the equal of your hero, or better. The super hero will prevail for ethical reasons as a rule, not because they are more powerful.
2. Your super villain must have a plan. Very few random thinking super villains in history have made much of a splash. The long lasting villains always had a plan of some kind, however narrow.
3. Your super villain must be scary in some way. Again, it does not much matter if that is physically or mentally. Just make them scary. The occasional super villain that is noble in purpose has been created before, but they just do not last like the super evil genius villains.
4. The super villain really needs a cool costume. This one is kind of optional as their have been cool super villains in history that were not costumed, but they were largely boring. Give me Dr. Doom with the cape and metal face any day.
5. The super villain needs to be tied in some way to the hero. If not, then the story is not nearly as strong. Spiderman vs The Green Goblin; Batman vs The Joker; Superman vs Lex Luthor - all of these are examples of super villains that had history with the hero. Think of the great super hero movies of all time. All featured villains that were closely tied to the hero in some way.
6. Finally, the super villain has to get the best of the hero on occasion. A super villain that is caught every time out is not very super. Let him win on occasion!
If you follow these tips in creating a great super villain, you will have an engaging story, and a wonderful pallet to let your super hero grow on. Just remember, a hero is only as good as the villain he is fighting.
Image of Darth Vadar Credited to Flickr User Lee Cohen
