The Funny Villains

[Steve]

Who are the funny villains in your campaigns? I'm talking the villains that are Foxbat-like, who probably have psych lims like Code Against Killing. I'm not necessarily talking CLOWN, just villains who are more light-hearted in their villainy, Silver Age sorts.

[Enforcer84]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

Well I reworked Dr Destroyer...I kid

 

 

 

Bulldozer's generally good for a laugh.

I tend to run Grab as a more lighthearted team.

[casualplayer]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

Once you decide to use Foxbat, any other funny villain is gratuitous. Foxbat actually joined one of my campaign's teams out of pity and sympathy. He had previously followed one of the players around, renamed himself Foxbat Ronin and said that they were partners "but not in that way." He had also previously assembled a villain team that he named Foxbat's Menagerie that consisted of himself, Bull(dozer,) Wyvern, Leech, Griffin and a safecracking savant named Raccoon who happened to be the kid brother of one of the players. Good times.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

I have to agree with Bulldozer ... he's definitely comedy relief, and Grab has CvKs as well, so they're good for some non-serious beatdown.

 

I can't remember if it came before or after Marvel made a team by the same name, but I once had a team called the Upstarts, who basically only committed crimes because they liked humiliating the good guys (Shrinker wound up on this team), but never really did them serious harm (or hurt bystanders). It was part of a plot to undermine the confidence in the heroes by making them look incompetent (little did I realize how little help they actually needed ...).

 

Most of my villains are kind of Silver Agey in general, when it comes to M.O.s. Even ones with Casual Killer generally only kill people who are in the way of their actual goal ... they just don't hesitate in doing so (as compared to, say, 'Mass Murderer' or 'Serial Killer', who do kill just for the hell of it), whereas most villains stick to the zero-point version of the CvK, summarized as:

 

"I'm not going to kill this guy, super-nemesis or not, because if I do, every caped drag queen in this city is going to be gunning to serve me my head on a silver platter with fries and a Coke. As it is, I'll just go to Stronghold ... if I kill this guy, even the nice ones will stop pulling their punches!"

[Terrapin]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

Captain Chronos isn't really a villain, but he's good for a laugh.

 

Also, in our campaign, Gravitar is a bit comical, since her "bored heiress with Omega-class mutant powers" theme gets stressed; she comes across as a sort of Paris Hilton with gawdawful-strong gravity powers and an outrageous accent.

[AdamLeisemann]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

In Fourth Edition, I always liked "The Fox of Crime." He was one of those charming types who loved to make the heroes look like inept fools. Though admittedly, he does seem a bit better off as the mastermind behind GRAB (Judging by the implication of his existance in CKC,)

[Hermit]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

Foxbat

C.L.O.W.N.

Grab can be funny

VIPER in certain cities is a joke (in others a dangerous threat)

Bulldozer

 

and a few of my own, including "The Fashion Bug" obessed with threads, weaves, cloth and textile thefts.

[Arkham]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

Foxbat...

Landshark, while not that lighthearted in his villainy, seeing as he tends to kill and eat people, but much funnier as he is 'reformed.'

He was inspired by a fairly recent film and decided that 'People are friends, not food.'

He has since had an appearance delivering pizza to a High-school party and picking up on a cheerleader there, tried to get onto the West Coast Supers reality TV show, and is now working for UPS delivering packages to the West Coast Super's base.

 

A lot of my home-brew villains seem silly, but are played straight anyway. The 'Big Game Hunter', Captain Crunk, Barbie Girl, Papa Fly, Dr. Martini, and the whole McNukem clan could be played for laughs, or deadly serious. Usually both.

[Evil Steve]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

Biff the Wonder Flash. He's a brickish speedster who is just smart enough and bold enough to get into trouble, but not to get out of it. And by trouble, I mean a mess that the Heroes must sort out.

 

He tends to pose alot, hogs the camera, and spout lines that seem like wisdom in front of the mirror, but don't work in the world.

 

He's the kind of guy who would try to threaten the city with a blackout if they don't 'pay up'. Then when they don't, steal the core from the local reactor...without considering the potential disaster running around with five kilos of fissionable material could cause.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

In Fourth Edition' date=' I always liked "The Fox of Crime." He was one of those charming types who loved to make the heroes look like inept fools. Though admittedly, he does seem a bit better off as the mastermind behind GRAB (Judging by the implication of his existance in CKC,)[/quote']

 

In a past campaign under Fourth Edition, I teamed the Fox of Crime with Panda and Racoon, all from Classic Enemies. They functioned rather like GRAB but with a less-obnoxious dose of CLOWN mixed in. They made a surprisingly effective team, particularly in escaping out of the heroes' hands.

 

Recently I've considered teaming Bulldozer with Deadweight, from Enemies of San Angelo. They'd work well together for simple smash-and-grabs, and be good for a straightforward dustup where the heroes can enjoy punching out a couple of obnoxious rednecks. With similar backgrounds, origins and attitudes, Bulldozer and Deadweight will either get along famously or tick each other off royally - possibly alternating. And they sure seem to have similar taste in costumes.

[OddHat]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

Master Ninja is fun.

 

Kungfu Elvis.

 

The Danger Men (Space Cowboy, Maurice, and the Gangster of Love).

 

Tom Quick (theme gadgeteer).

 

Eurostar (as characters from Blazing Saddles)

[Enforcer84]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

Master Ninja is fun.

 

Kungfu Elvis.

 

The Danger Men (Space Cowboy, Maurice, and the Gangster of Love).

 

Tom Quick (theme gadgeteer).

 

Eurostar (as characters from Blazing Saddles)

Fess up OddHat, you're related to Bugs Bunny.

I like the Danger Men, do they Shake your Tree?

[casualplayer]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

The Danger Men's battle cry is "Lovey, lovey, lovey, lovey-dovey all the time!"

[OddHat]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

I like the Danger Men, do they Shake your Tree?

 

Combination attack once called on a female brick.

 

The Danger Men's battle cry is "Lovey' date=' lovey, lovey, lovey-dovey all the time!"[/quote']

 

Good idea; next time they show up.

[zornwil]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

Mine are probably more funny by deformity or oddity than being necessarily funny in their own right.

 

Such as the Living Tongue who is a giant tongue, around 7 feet tall, walking on the forward tips of his tongue-body. Or Penis Head, whose powers I won't describe here. Some are funny for being goofy, though, as I think about it, they just tend to be killers or reckless as well, such as Mocker, Bogeyman's sidekick (since I just mentioned Bogeyman elsewhere I'll give him a rest), whose soul schtick is childish mocking of people but it is so annoying it drops one's EGO anyway. There's Pieces, whose body parts all come apart and do their own thing, though he's not a villain per se. The Ugly Thespian is a basically-good NPC who is utterly paranoid and, indeed, an ugly thespian.

 

Those are just a few examples. A lot of my characters are goofy though most (by no means all) of those also have their more serious motivations underneath. (PS - such as Medusa, whom you can also just look up under posts by me, she's now gone off to live in the Plains of Despair, she's basically a melodramatic goth chick who got the powers of the mythical Medusa)

[Alverant]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

Kungfu Elvis.

 

I remember in an old Ninja High School/Gold Diggers crossover there was a villain named Spelvis, an Elvis impersonator turned evil mage. If I knew more about Evlis songs and movies, I would have turned him into a character.

[Kenn]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

Hmm. Funny villains.

In my campaign world...

 

The Invincible - a (originally) low-level brick who went around wanting to prove he was the toughest strong man type out there, and regularly got his tuchas kicked. Later on he got a "super drug" and got beefed up physically, but still gets his tuchas kicked.

 

Manifest Density - a gigantic, super heavy, villain. He's incredibly tough and strong, and really quite dangerous. If he was smarter he might be a real threat. But his name keeps people from taking him too seriously.

 

Lightning Strong Man, a former low-level pro-wrestler who gained electrical powers and super strength. The real punch line was out-of-game though. When I was 4 or 5, I came up with a character called Lightning Man. When my brother was 4 or 5 (and I was 8 or 9) he came up with a character named

Lightning Man. Not yet realising that every super-hero fan creates a hero called Lightning Man when they are 4 or 5, I got defensive about my creation. But I was willing to take a Jay-Barry approach to it. Matt, or course, has no recollection of my creation (he was too young), but didn't care for my attitude anyway. So he decided his character was also super strong and was Lightning Strong Man. So, a quarter century later, we're playing Champions, and I unleash my new LSM and watch Matt's face as the horror of our childhood silliness returned.

 

Kristoffer Mordred's Son - one of my really, really big villains; he is the sorcerous son of the Arthurian character. His schtick is that he wants to plunge England into its darkness hour so his grandfather (Arthur) will return... and then Kris wants to kill him. It sounds nutty, but since he knows his parents really are Mordred and Moran le Fey (yeah, it's a really creepy family) it isn't that nutty. And I play him completely straight. The gag for my original players is that there was this dean that lived on campus who got on our nerves. His name was Christopher Moderson.

 

Hydronaut II and Devilfish II - There were a couple of aquatic themed power suit villains: Hydronaut and Devilfish, created by two different GMs at different times. Not major players, but they appeared. Some years later, a third GM was running a game in Denver. He decided to use the two, together, to rob a bank. The GM's logic - they're still effectivly invulnerable and super-strong in the suits. I was like, but the getaway, their personalities, it's just... wrong for them. So, later on me and Savinien developped Hydronaut II and Devilfish II, the pair of thugs who stole the powersuits out of police impound while the originals were in jail. The originals will have to get new armour suits now. But Herb and Lester, between their devotion to one another, and their general goofiness, make them amusing.

 

Prince Tubit - Earth was invaded by mercanary aliens in boob-trapped power suits. It turns out they were hired by an alien from yet a different race who was low-level loyalty who wanted to use the conquest of the Earth as a way to climb in his society's caste system. But to the heroes of Earth he was just another "Tubit, Alien Prince." I went 45 minutes just calling him "Prince Two-Bit" before I sprung the pun on my players...

 

The Thunder Twins - a pair of super-strong, super mean bricks with a Corsican brother-type connection. To a player group that grew up on super friends, their nom de guerre causes a chuckle. Sadly, they're two of the meanest, casual killer, casual rapist villains on the planet. They really aren't at all funny, except for the name.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

Other than Foxbat, most of mine are home-grown.

 

I had Max Extreme, an extreme-sports fan with a high-speed battlesuit. He loved to do move-throughs (though his targeting wasn't always the best). He wanted to join the hero team something fierce, kept showing up to "help" them, once put Foxbat in the hospital by accident. Though technically a hero, he caused enough trouble for the heroes to qualify here as an honorary villain.

 

The Windy City Sportsmen are my current creation, a bunch of guys using a Chicago sports motif that mostly like to drink beer and have fun. In terms of personality, imagine a group of superpowered frat guys with little regard for laws. Iron Mike had his name legally changed to Mike Ditka, then his appearance surgically altered to more closely resemble his hero. Unfortunately, VIPER was the one doing the alterations... Then there's Bull, a tall African American speedster who dislikes basketball and absolutely hates the sterotyped assumption that he's a hoop natural. Bear, a former high school football star and now a were-bear. Cubbie of course is a rabid Cubs fan (is there any other type?) with teleportation powers and the ability to "borrow" the specialty baseballs from the pocket dimesion where Fastball (of Cy-Force, from 4th Ed's High Tech Enemies) stores them. Blackhawk is a gung-ho helicopter pilot with just a touch too much confidence in his flying ability and a bit too gung-ho about guns (Iron Mike insisted on adding non-lethal ammo to his arsenal). And finally (and least original of all), Fire, the Human Torch type that has too much fun using his powers.

[Funksaw]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

I did a writeup of a supervillian organization for Digital Hero that actually took all the "ridiculous" "comedy" villians and got them into a well-organized mafia of sorts. CvK, and an unhealthy obsession with your motif? No problem, so long as you're competent or can be trained into competence. I can't give away too much here, because then why would your read the article?

 

Buuuut...

 

I can tell you this much? Ever notice how a hell of alot of villians, despite never having served in the military, get the rank of "Captain." That's what this organization names it's highest ranking officers... finally providing a justification for genre convention.

 

The big six I defined were:

 

• Fuego - an electricity-based elemental controller who chose the name "Fuego" because it sounded cool. Yes, he is quite aware it's Spanish for "Fire," why do you ask?
  
• Ms. T. - a misunderstood transvestite brick the size of a buick who turned to crime when he was disowned by his parents.
  
• Kitten Kaboodle - A mad scientist who uses her sexy, sexy body and her brainy, brainy, er... brain as two weapons in her arsenal.
  
• Mr. Fiscal - A financial genius beyond compare, blindly interested in accumulating wealth for it's own sake.
  
• The Chain Wizard - Nearly omnipotent in his own limited way, This man probably would have made a very good wizard on the Trismestigus council if it wasn't for the fact that he was absolutely obsessed with chains - both literally and as a figurative concept.
  
• Yo-Yolanda - 4'11" of pure punk grrl yo-yo swirling, swinging, hitting, entangling fury...
  

 

If I had thought of it at the time, "Lowe Depot, the Hardware Store that WALKS LIKE A MAN!" would have made the list.

 

Keep in mind, the entire point of the article was the idea that these low-ranking comedy villians found out a way to become a high-ranking threat by working together... so while they're individually hilarious (and, in 99% of cases, they know it, too) they're also a serious threat.

[Narratio]

Re: The Funny Villains

 

I built a villain based upon Fred Astaire - called him the Dancing Bandit. His weaponry was silver age gimmicks like those of the Top, or the Penguin. he'd dance in, steal a few thousand and dance off.

 

Played strictly for laughs and the "I cannot believe that just happened!" effect. Built with 75 points under 2nd Edition, I just keep updating him. Never grows in pointage though.