Category:Evil Genius

From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

An Evil Genius is a villain who takes pride (justified or not) in the brilliance of his, her or its grand schemes. A successful Evil Genius is what a Mastermind wants to be when he, she or it grows up - commanding vast armies of dedicated minions to do their bidding and make the world tremble in their name. Nemesis and Lord Recluse are probably the most well-known examples of this type in the City of Heroes/Villains setting, but there are others.

While easily mistaken for (or found together with) the equally common Mad Scientist, an Evil Genius differs in several key points, to wit:

• They need not be insane (debates as to whether a commitment to evil is inherently a sign of insanity are not germane to this article).

• While many Mad Scientists are evil - or possibly just so far removed from reality that they no longer realize the difference, which amounts to the same thing - just as many are not. There are plenty of examples on either side of the morality fence; "Doc" Emmet L. Brown from the Back to the Future movies certainly springs to mind as a 'good' Mad Scientist, as does Professor Sunflower from the Tintin comic series. Just because they don't think of the consequences before designing time machines, giant robots and Mass-Destruct-O-Rays doesn't mean they didn't mean well...

• Similarly, an Evil Genius's, well, genius doesn't necessarily extend to the hard sciences. While the Joker dabbles in chemistry beyond the limits of what Man Was Meant To Know, his recognized genius is in the hilarious atrocities he commits, some with nothing more than twisted versions of novelty-store gags. Most James Bond master villains were certainly Evil Geniuses, but most of them wouldn't know a Tesla coil from a microscope without subtitles; that's why they keep the Mad Scientists around, to build the diamond-covered satellites, earthquake machines and plague bombs. Only an Evil Genius would have the skill to create a vast underground organization, the vision to conceive a plan to remake the world in his or her own image, and the audacity to set that plan in motion.