- 27/04/2025
There are some characters who won't be happy with anything less than the entire world to control.
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00:00Now, as a rule, most heroes are reactionists. They wait for the bad going to do something,
00:04and then they go to work. Most villains, on the other hand, are motivated purely by self-interest
00:09and greed. But a select few have had high aspirations towards total world domination,
00:13and an even smaller number, like the Joker, simply want to spread chaos to watch the world burn.
00:18So let's take a look at these big picture thinkers. As I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:22and these are 10 Big Picture Manipulators in Comics.
00:2610. Dr. Doom
00:27Victor Von Doom was the king of Latveria and one of the most brilliant minds on the planet.
00:32He had long hoped to make the world a better place through conquest, and has been at the heart of
00:36nearly every major event in the history of the Marvel Universe. The only things that caused him
00:40to consistently fail are his crippling arrogance, his gargantuan ego, and his obsession with Reed
00:45Richards. After becoming Doom, he plagued the newly formed Fantastic Four to prove his superiority over
00:50Richards. He battled the team alone or with the likes of Namor or the Terrible Trio, and in locales
00:55such as Sub-Atomica or the edge of the atmosphere. And he usually met defeat at every turn, usually
01:00due to his own arrogance. Doom even forced a group of villains to attack the wedding of Reed and Sue,
01:05but these rogues were repelled by the other heroes like the Avengers.
01:08Dr. Doom has had several instances of achieving his dream of winning everything, but it slipped
01:13through his grasp. In The Secret Wars, he stole the powers of the Beyonder, but the powers were so vast
01:17that they crippled him with their sheer scope, and he ended up losing them. Doom used the powers of the
01:22Beyonder and the Molecule Man to reshape reality after the multiverse fell, but he grew bored of
01:27the utopia he created, and Reed Richards eventually returned reality to its proper place.
01:319. Amanda Waller
01:33Having lost her two eldest children and her husband to gun violence, Amanda Waller made the choice that
01:38she would never, ever lose again. She got her final three children through school and put herself
01:42through school as well, gaining a degree in political science. She then took over the campaign
01:46of Democratic Congregational hopeful Marvin Collins and got him elected. And while looking through the bills,
01:51she discovered the old OSS organization called Task Force X. When the monster brimstone threatened
01:57Mount Rushmore, Waller recruited Rick Flagg and a team of villains as a new suicide squad. With their
02:02success, the president authorized the group to continue under Amanda's control. Waller set up
02:07the new team in Louisiana, and she argued against sending the squad on purely political missions,
02:11and especially stupid ones. She came to blows with NSC liaison Derek Tolliver for sending the squad
02:17on a disastrous mission to Moscow, saying that even though they were expendable, they weren't garbage.
02:22Amanda Waller's inability to compromise with people, coupled with the recent public outing
02:26of the Suicide Squad and Checkmate, caused Waller to be put on trial for the death of a leader of
02:30an organized drug cartel. She was later pardoned after a year, and reorganized the team as an
02:35independent group. She became part of Lex Luthor's cabinet as the Secretary of Meta-Human Affairs,
02:39and later as the White Queen of Checkmate.
02:42Number 8. Kang the Conqueror
02:44The man who would be Kang, Nathaniel Richards, was born in the 30th century on Earth-6311,
02:50a world that never suffered a dark age. His counterpart from Earth-616 brought peace to
02:55this war-torn world. At age 16, the Richards of this reality attempted to derail his eventual
02:59history as Kang, and traveled to 616 from the Young Avengers. He would then begin his eventual role
03:04that would define his entire life, that of a conqueror. Richards traveled back to ancient Egypt
03:09of Earth-616, and assumed the guise of Pharaoh Ramatut. He ruled there until he was ousted
03:14by the time-traveling Fantastic Four. He attempted to return to his own time, but a time storm dropped
03:19him into the current era of 616, where he tried once again to return to his own 30th century,
03:24but overshot by 10 centuries. In the war-torn 40th century, Richards took up the name of Kang,
03:30and conquered first the Earth, and then other planets. He continued to reach back into time,
03:35and spread his influence to the modern era. Kang and Immortus became regular foes of the
03:39Avengers, as he attempted various times to conquer various time periods. Immortus and the Scarlet
03:44Centurion often ran afoul of the Fantastic Four, and various incarnations of Nathaniel Richards from
03:49different Earths and or different time periods would come into conflict with each other when
03:53their goals did not align. 7. Anti-Monitor
03:56When scientist Croner used his science to look at the creation of the universe, he caused an explosion
04:01that created a positive matter multiverse and an equal negative matter universe. It also gave birth
04:06to the immensely powerful beings called the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor. When he later
04:11discovered his positive universe brother, he began a million-year war against him that culminated in
04:16the pair losing consciousness. 9 billion years later, scientist Kel Mosser undertook the same
04:21forbidden experiment to witness creation, which resulted in another explosion that awoke the
04:25Anti-Monitor, who then began his singular quest to destroy the multiverse. Countless universes were
04:31destroyed by the Anti-Monitor's energy wave. The Monitor set up towers on Earths 1, 2, 4, S, and X, and his
04:37death at the hands of his assistant Harbinger powered them to save the final five Earths from
04:41destruction. Thanks to Alexander Luthor and the heroes of the five universes, the worlds were reborn at the
04:46dawn of time as a single universe. Earth-2 Superman pummeled the Anti-Monitor into atoms before departing
04:52this universe. With the recreation of the multiverse, the Anti-Monitor returned and became part of
04:57Sinestro's Yellow Lantern Corps. He traveled to Earth and used his power to siphon positive energy,
05:02but was attacked by the Green Lantern Corps. Then, Superboy Prime turned against him,
05:06badly damaging his armor and hurtling him into space, where he crashed on the planet Reut in
05:10Sector 666 and was imprisoned in the Black Lantern Battery.
05:146. The High Evolutionary
05:16Herbert Windham was a student in the late 1920s and was inspired by the work of geneticist Nathaniel
05:21Essex, the man who would become Mr. Sinister. Given the secrets of unlocking genetic codes by a
05:26disguised inhuman, Windham and fellow scientist Jonathan Drew set up a base on Wundergore Mountain
05:31to continue their work, where Windham realized his dream of evolving animals into humanoid forms to
05:36become his new men. He created a powerful suit of armor to protect himself and took on the name
05:40of the High Evolutionary. Windham's genetic influence did not stop with the new men.
05:45Jonathan Drew's daughter had been treated with spider serums and Windham's technologies,
05:49and so emerged as a brand new spider woman. A woman named Magda gave birth to twins on the mountain,
05:54and they were touched as well by the demonic energies of the new men's recent fight with
05:57Chthon, and they grew up to be the mutants Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Windham created an exact
06:02copy of the Earth on the opposite side of the sun, which was meant to be free of evil that he called
06:07Counter-Earth, and attempts to take it from him occurred almost immediately. First, it was nearly
06:11consumed by Galactus, and later by the Prime Movers on behalf of the Beyonders. Realizing how
06:16incalculably advanced the Beyonders were, he fell into despair and de-evolved himself into protoplasmic goo.
06:225. Vandal Savage
06:24Vandal Savage has been alive for over 50,000 years, and has literally seen the evolution
06:29of the human race. He has been an advisor to kings, to warlords, to chieftains, and has been
06:33in thousands of conflicts throughout the centuries, as well as manipulating the world towards his own
06:38image. Vandal has even claimed to have been famous historical conquerors such as Julius Caesar,
06:42Genghis Khan, and Vlad the Impaler, but Savage is far from an unimpeachable source. This rogue stepped
06:47from behind the curtain to directly engage the mystery men that emerged in the late 1940s. Either
06:52he saw them as an obstacle to his centuries-long plan of world domination, or he was simply curious
06:57to test himself against these new stronger and worthier opponents. Either way, Savage became
07:02a frequent problem for the Justice Society of America, and later, the Justice League.
07:06Vandal has had hundreds of offspring and even more descendants throughout history. He maintains
07:10his immortality in part by replacing failing body parts by taking them from his descendants.
07:15Most of his children do not know of their heritage, but one, Scandal Savage, is a villain in her own
07:20right and the leader of the Secret Six. Her complicated feelings about her father often
07:24bring them into conflict. 4. Apocalypse
07:27En-Sabah Nur was born more than 5,000 years ago in the Valley of Kings in Egypt. As Nur grew,
07:33he adopted the tribe's primary principle that only the strongest, best, fittest, toughest,
07:38and worthiest should survive, and hardened his heart to the world, and even his own tribesmen hated him
07:43for his appearance, intellect, and strength. He lived as a slave for a time until his mutant
07:47powers of immortality and shape-shifting emerged, and so he took on the name of Apocalypse.
07:52Soon after gaining his power, he forged his own clan and gathered the best human warriors in the
07:56world as riders of the dark. With these two armies, he transformed Egypt into a utopia for a time,
08:02but at some unknown point in the past, he traveled to the scientist island of Okara and took a wife who
08:06gave him two sons and two daughters, who became his first horsemen. Apocalypse battled Thor multiple times in the
08:1211th century, losing his fourth set of horsemen to the Thunder God. In 1459, Nur personally beat
08:18Vlad the Impaler in single combat, which led him to directly becoming Dracula. In modern times,
08:23Apocalypse plagued the mutant community and turned the maimed angel into the blue-skinned and metal-winged
08:28archangel. However, when the new mutant nation of Krakoa was established, Nur was actually welcomed,
08:33as were all mutants. He was given a position on the Quiet Council, but later left after he was
08:37contacted by the grandchildren of his first horsemen on their own sentient island, now called Arako.
08:433. Darkseid
08:44Uxas, the god of tyranny known as Darkseid, began making plans at a very young age to take the throne
08:49of Apocalypse, pushing past his peaceful brother Drax and mother Hegra. He interrupted Drax's
08:55connection to the Omega Realm and achieved the godhood that was meant for him. Thus transformed,
08:59he took the name Darkseid. Darkseid started a long war with neighboring New Genesis, in part to
09:04eliminate the potential threat and to keep his uncle Steppenwolf occupied. He put the brutal and
09:09loyal hunger dog named Goodness in charge of the orphanages to produce obedient soldiers who would
09:14give their lives for Darkseid. When Darkseid encountered the Green Martians, he learned in
09:18their belief in the will as an all-powerful force that they called the Life Equation. He surmised that
09:23there must be an equally powerful force called the Anti-Life Equation, and it became the focus of his
09:28existence. Darkseid believed that the people of Earth had fragments of the Anti-Life Equations locked
09:33within their brains, and he made elaborate plans and schemes that brought him into conflict with
09:37Earth's heroes, especially Superman. Darkseid actually took over the Earth on a few occasions,
09:41but was ultimately thwarted each time and has yet to achieve his ultimate goal.
09:452. Thanos
09:47For most of his life, Thanos has had a single goal, winning the love of the personification
09:51of Death. She was his confidant as a small boy to help him get over his fear of killing. Later,
09:57he began pursuing her, even though the realization that she was actually Death drove the young Titan mad.
10:02It did not dissuade him from decimating his home planet and begin moving the pieces in
10:06place so that he could achieve universal power. First, Thanos misused the cosmic cube on Earth,
10:11but had to relinquish that power and be saved by his ship. Later, he gathered all of the soul
10:16gems, aka the Infinity Stones, having taken the stones from the six elders of the universe,
10:20and assembled them on a golden gauntlet. Using that gauntlet, Thanos killed half the beings in
10:25the universe in an attempt to impress Death and earn her love. The remaining heroes of Earth and
10:29Adam Warlock were able to reverse this action. Despite his megalomania and homicidal nature,
10:34Thanos wasn't actually without reason. In fact, he would even aid others against threats that were
10:38greater than himself. He helped Adam Warlock against the Magus, worked with the Guardians of
10:43the Galaxy to halt the invasion of the Cancerverse, and worked with Deadpool to release Death from
10:47Eternity's prison. All of these things benefited Thanos personally, but also ended up benefiting
10:52others as well.
10:531. Lex Luthor
10:54There is probably no more purely manipulative person in the DC universe than Alexander Lex
11:00Luthor. From a very young age, and despite his dirt-poor upbringing, he began to judge
11:04people by what use they were to him. Luthor arranged to have his parents killed in an
11:08auto accident in order to collect the hefty insurance policy that they had. And with that
11:12money, he created LexCorp. Lex has long seen Metropolis as his own personal fiefdom, having
11:17bought, taken over, or built nearly every business in the city. Nearly every person in the town owed
11:21their livelihood to Lex, and he made sure that they knew it. He owned every media outlet in
11:26town except the Daily Planet, and used that power to shape the image of a benevolent philanthropist.
11:31This all came crashing down with the arrival of Superman. A deliberate attack on the Man
11:35of Steel led Luthor to be jailed for the first time, and this humiliation was simply more than
11:39Lex could abide. Lex Luthor is one of the most brilliant people on the planet, and he uses
11:43his intellect as both a superpower and a weapon. It has made him an insanely wealthy man, given
11:48him the ability to design and create any weapon or machine virtually any situation might call
11:52for, and has given him the leadership skills to head several villain teams at once and
11:57achieve the office of President of the United States. Not bad, right? Well, technically it's
12:01all bad, but you know what I mean.
12:02And there we go, my friends. Those were 10 Big Picture Manipulators in Comics. I hope that
12:06you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section
12:10below. As always, I've been Jules, and you can go follow me over on Instagram at RetroJ,
12:13but the O is a zero. I hope to see you over there. As always, I've been Jules, you have
12:17been awesome. Never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
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