Next time Gadget ... next time.

Started doing a bit of work today and began developing a slight paranoia of becoming workaholic. Consequently, I decided on trying to figure out would make the the greatest super-villain of all time.

Been going through some of them in my head. Feel free to add.

• Magneto is without a doubt one of the most badass (human) supervillains out there. With the mutant power of manipulating anything or anyone that carries a trace of metal (even the iron in their blood!), he can single-handedly take on most of the villains in this list. He is well-developed as a villain as well - being a Jew in Auschwitz, his family was further persecuted for his mutant powers - which contributed to his hatred of all those non-mutant. He has a sick outfit too - especially when his consciousness manifests itself as Onslaught.

• One of the first supervillains I came across was Shredder (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). Vengeful, spikey and equipped with antique ninja gear the chief problem is he can't do much besides martial arts stuff. He's also not very developed as an villain; rather he runs around and performs evil acts simply for the sake of being evil. The fact that he had to enlist Krang after failing to take on the turtles on his own cost him a few points as well.

• Orochimaru of the popular Japanese anime Naruto. An outcast ninja powerful enough to take on the Third Hokage (the most powerful ninja of Konoha), he excels with ninjitsu techniques of various types and has refined his art to a point where he can defy death itself. His specialty is with snake-like techniques and can generally seen riding a giant snake. Even when stripped of his ninja powers and the use of his arms, he still has enough power to fight toe-to-toe against two of the most powerful ninjas in Konoha. Sick bastard but reminds me of Michael Jackson sometimes.

• Professor Chaos is a re-curring alter-ego of Butters from South Park. Aided by his side-kick, General Disarray, he seeks to spread fear and chaos as revenge upon the world that has forsaken him (made him socially unpopular), but has a problem with scale. An example of his typical exploits is attempting to flood the planet by leaving the backyard hose on.

• Darth Vader from Star Wars is definitely one of the most recognised super-villains of all time - having three (be it crap) movies dedicated his journey towards the dark side goes to show how much complexity and interest surrounds this Jedi. Even the thematic elements of the original trilogy (namely, the antithesis between the 'Light' and 'Dark' side) can be reflected in the internal struggles of our young Anakin Skywalker. Plus he's got the Force Choke Power.

• Professor Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes is one of those diabolical masterminds. I'd say that within his own domain, he would kick other villain's ass through sheer intellectual power alone (he's the only villian that was successful at killing off Detective Holmes; before some lame attempt at resurrecting said detective a decade later). Problem is that compared to any of the other superheroes or villains, he doesn't actually possess any special powers whatsoever.

• Captain Pollution the polar opposite of our good friend Captain Planet. Created from Professor Blight's dark variants of the original Planeteer's rings - Deforestation, Super Radiation, Smog, Toxics, and Hate (how can you go wrong with Super Radiation?), this villain represented everything that Captain Planet was not. Definitely an interesting deviation from the usual preachy episodes (does anyone remember Planetwatch?), yet his beach-surfer voice quickly got on my nerves.

• Megatron is the chief antagonist against the mighty Autobots in the Transformers universe. His primary weapon is "arm-mounted fusion cannon, capable of levelling a city block in one blast, which he can sub-dimensionally link to a black hole, generating even more powerful antimatter blasts." (how can you mess with someone that can summon a black hole?) Though powerful and highly megalomaniacal in each of his manifested forms, Megatron seems to lack the patience or the tactical ability to succeed in each of his tasks. The fact that when he transforms, he turns into a gun a fraction of his original size doesn't make sense to me either.

• Gargamel (courtesy of Pickos) from The Smurfs. This horrible sorcerer is evil, cunning and somewhat of a dimwit - he hates the Smurfs and is constantly in pursuit of them but the Smurfs always outwit him and manage to escape. Like so many other lame cartoon villains, after each setback Gargamel swears he shall be revenged. I always thought his cat Azrael was kinda cool though.
  
• Dr Evil
• Mr Burns crossed my mind too.

But my favourite has to be Venom from Spider-Man:

Formed from an alien symbiote combining Eddie Brock - a journalist whose reputation was tarnished by (I've just realised I sound like a huge nerd), the alien had the effect of fusing with whichever organism it touched to form a black mesh-like costume with the powers stronger than Spider-Man and his own form of webbing. The symbiote's shapeshifting ability allows Venom to camouflage himself like a chameleon or to assume the likeness of nearly any person. Venom's also undetectable by Spider-Man's spidey-sense.

Unlike Carnage (one of the offsprings of the symbiote, with the same crazy powers but bonded with the mind of a death-row inmate), Venom is curiously protective of those he sees as 'innocent'. In his quest for vengeance against Spiderman, he'll avoid killing bystanders or innocents - and has teamed up with Spiderman (and The Punisher) as an anti-hero ...

Oh ... and he's in the next Spidey movie :)