- 2 days ago
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 an
02:30organized drug cartel. She was later pardoned after a year, and reorganized the team as an independent
02:35group. She became part of Lex Luthor's cabinet as the Secretary of Meta-Human Affairs, and later as the
02:40White Queen of Checkmate. 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 this
02:55war-torn world. At age 16, the Richards of this reality attempted to derail his eventual history
03:00as 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 of
03:09Earth-616 and assumed the guise of Pharaoh Ramatut. He ruled there until he was ousted by the time-traveling
03:15Fantastic Four. He attempted to return to his own time, but a time storm dropped him into the current
03:20era of 616, where he tried once again to return to his own 30th century, but overshot by 10 centuries.
03:27In the war-torn 40th century, Richards took up the name of Kang, and conquered first the Earth,
03:31and then other planets. He continued to reach back into time and spread his influence to the modern era.
03:37Kang and Immortus became regular foes of the Avengers, as he attempted various times to conquer various
03:42time periods. Immortus and the Scarlet Centurion often ran afoul of the Fantastic Four, and various
03:47incarnations of Nathaniel Richards from different Earths and or different time periods would come
03:51into conflict with each other when their goals did not align.
03:557. 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 discovered his
04:11positive universe brother, he began a million-year war against him that culminated in the pair losing
04:16consciousness. 9 billion years later, scientist Kel Mosser undertook the same forbidden experiment
04:22to witness creation, which resulted in another explosion that awoke the Anti-Monitor, who then began
04:27his singular quest to destroy the multiverse. Countless universes were destroyed by the
04:32Anti-Monitor's energy wave. The Monitor set up towers on Earths 1, 2, 4, S, and X, and his death at the
04:38hands of his assistant Harbinger powered them to save the final five Earths from destruction.
04:42Thanks to Alexander Luthor and the heroes of the five universes, the worlds were reborn at the dawn of
04:47time as a single universe. Earth-2 Superman pummeled the Anti-Monitor into atoms before departing this
04:52universe. 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 Wondergore 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,
05:48and 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 of the human
06:30race. He has been an advisor to kings, to warlords, to chieftains, and has been in thousands of
06:34conflicts throughout the centuries, as well as manipulating the world towards his own image.
06:38Vandal 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.
07:264. 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
08:06who gave him two sons and two daughters, who became his first horsemen. Apocalypse battled Thor multiple
08:11times in the 11th century, losing his fourth set of horsemen to the Thunder God. In 1459,
08:17Nur personally beat Vlad the Impaler in single combat, which led him to directly becoming Dracula.
08:22In modern times, Apocalypse plagued the mutant community and turned the maimed angel into the
08:26blue-skinned and metal-winged archangel. However, when the new mutant nation of Krakowa was established,
08:32Nur was actually welcomed, as were all mutants. He was given a position on the Quiet Council,
08:36but later left after he was contacted by the grandchildren of his first horsemen on their own
08:40sentient island now called Arako. 3. Darkseid
08:44Uxas, the god of tyranny known as Darkseid, began making plans at a very young age to take
08:49the throne of Apocalypse, pushing past his peaceful brother Drax and mother Hegra. He interrupted
08:54Drax's connection 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 loyal
09:10hunger dog named Goodness in charge of the orphanages to produce obedient soldiers who
09:14would give their lives for Darkseid. When Darkseid encountered the Green Martians,
09:18he learned in their belief in the will as an all-powerful force that they called the Life
09:22Equation. He surmised that there must be an equally powerful force called the Anti-Life
09:26Equation, and it became the focus of his existence. Darkseid believed that the people of Earth had
09:31fragments of the Anti-Life Equations locked within their brains, and he made elaborate plans and schemes
09:36that brought him into conflict with Earth's heroes, especially Superman. Darkseid actually took over
09:40the Earth on a few occasions, but was ultimately thwarted each time and has yet to achieve his ultimate
09:44goal.
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.
09:56Later, he began pursuing her, even though the realization that she was actually death drove the
10:01young Titan mad. It did not dissuade him from decimating his home planet and begin moving
10:05the pieces in place so that he could achieve universal power. First, Thanos misused the cosmic
10:10cube on Earth, but had to relinquish that power and be saved by his ship. Later, he gathered all
10:15of the soul gems, 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 the
10:25universe in an attempt to impress death and earn her love. The remaining heroes of Earth and Adam
10:30Warlock 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
10:43of the Galaxy to halt the invasion of the Cancerverse, and worked with Deadpool to release death
10:47from Eternity'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
10:59Lex Luthor. 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 town
11:26except 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
11:38than Lex could abide. Lex Luthor is one of the most brilliant people on the planet, and
11:42he uses his intellect as both a superpower and a weapon. It has made him an insanely wealthy
11:47man, given him the ability to design and create any weapon or machine virtually any situation
11:51might call for, and has given him the leadership skills to head several villain teams at once
11:56and achieve the office of President of the United States. Not bad, right? Well, technically
12:01it's all bad, but you know what I mean.
12:03And there we go, my friends. Those were 10 big picture manipulators in comics. I hope
12:06that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments
12:09section below. As always, I've been Jules, and you can go follow me over on Instagram
12:12at RetroJ, but the O is a zero. Hope to see you over there. As always, I've been
12:16Jules, you have been awesome. Never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
12:21Bye.
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