Kevin Scrivner
Jul 9th, '03, 03:09 PM
Thanos vs. Darkseid? Bah! Darkseid adopted villainy for the perks and Thanos is merely trying to impress his girlfriend. A true minion of Evil would promote the cause for the sheer joy of it whether he personally benefitted or not. Fortunately, we have two heroes of malfeasance who fit this higher standard: Dick Dastardly and Snidely Whiplash! Both persisted in the face of countless setbacks and humiliations.
Dick Dastardly's vile ambitions were so great that it took two cartoon series to depict them: "The Wacky Races" and "Dastardly and Muttley and Their Flying Machines." How many other bad guys have had even one TV show devoted entirely to their depradations? On the auto racing circuit, Dastardly spared no effort to create mayhem worthy of a Speed Racer story arc among his fellow drivers. No dirty trick or act of sabotage was too low. He ultimately abandoned his sports career to enlist in the Kaiser's air corps (never mind that World War I had ended some 50 years earlier) where he oversaw a high-tech counter-espionage operation against the Allies.
Snidely Whiplash's crimes were less cosmopolitan but were performed with no less gusto. He took every opportunity to rob orphans, evict widows, seize others' property, tie maidens to railroad tracks, steal elections, and to be generally nasty toward the inhabitants of rural Canada. These deeds were committed with panache and a snickering twist of his long, narrow mustache. It wasn't his fault that he was saddled with such a lackluster opponent as Dudley Do-Right.
So let's hear it for some REAL villains!
Dick Dastardly's vile ambitions were so great that it took two cartoon series to depict them: "The Wacky Races" and "Dastardly and Muttley and Their Flying Machines." How many other bad guys have had even one TV show devoted entirely to their depradations? On the auto racing circuit, Dastardly spared no effort to create mayhem worthy of a Speed Racer story arc among his fellow drivers. No dirty trick or act of sabotage was too low. He ultimately abandoned his sports career to enlist in the Kaiser's air corps (never mind that World War I had ended some 50 years earlier) where he oversaw a high-tech counter-espionage operation against the Allies.
Snidely Whiplash's crimes were less cosmopolitan but were performed with no less gusto. He took every opportunity to rob orphans, evict widows, seize others' property, tie maidens to railroad tracks, steal elections, and to be generally nasty toward the inhabitants of rural Canada. These deeds were committed with panache and a snickering twist of his long, narrow mustache. It wasn't his fault that he was saddled with such a lackluster opponent as Dudley Do-Right.
So let's hear it for some REAL villains!