History Characters / MCUTheHighEvolutionary

* {{Hypocrite}}:
** The High Evolutionary venomously criticizes the bigotry and violence of humanity, which is a bit rich coming from a man who looks down on ''everyone'', treats Rocket and his ilk as failed experiments simply for not looking humanoid, and who brutally incinerates those who fail to live up to his standards. Up to and including ''planets''.
** He claims to value intelligence, creativity, and compassion in his creations. However, Lylla and especially Rocket exhibit plenty of these traits, yet he orders them killed for their physical defects. It's notably implied the reason he wants Rocket dead is because he may be smarter than the High Evolutionary. If his goals were genuine, he would have been happy, but since the High Evolutionary's goals are to feed his own narcissism, he instead lashes out.
** He deems The Sovereign failures for being {{Brainless Beaut|y}}ies with [[TheBeautifulElite an inflated sense of self-importance]]. Never mind the fact that he deliberately made them that way (on top of his own narcissism), so what was he expecting? The only reason he keeps them around instead of eradicating them like he did with various other "failed experiments" is because they are still useful to him as grunts, showing that he's also inconsistent. Also, his description of them describes ''himself'' too.
** He claims to be a wise and cultured man of science, but he proves to be rather incompetent at it. He's incapable of remaining objective, his experiments are often haphazard and needlessly brutal, and he barely seems to comprehend science and medicine himself without outside help.
** He wants his creations to be compassionate and pillars of moral character, while he is utterly immoral and thinks nothing of committing genocide at the drop of a hat. Notably, he expects his creations to kill for him and sees absolutely no contradiction in this.
** Finally, for a self-proclaimed atheist, he certainly has the pride and aspirations of omnipotence of a God, with a hubris and monstrously large ego to match. Not to mention ''openly acknowledging'' that Knowhere ''is'' the severed head of a dead god moments after declaring his atheism; implying that he does not so much deny the existence of Gods as he considers himself to be a God above all others.

[[center: [- [[Characters/MarvelCinematicUniverse Main Character Index]] > Villainous Organizations > [[Characters/MCUCosmicThreats Cosmic Threats]] > [[Characters/MCUThanosForces Thanos' Forces]] ([[Characters/MCUThanos Thanos]]) | [[Characters/MCURavagers Ravagers]] | [[Characters/MCUKree Kree]] ([[Characters/MCURonan Ronan]]) > ('''The High Evolutionary''' | [[Characters/MCUEgo Ego]] | [[Characters/MCUHelaOdinsdottir Hela Odinsdottir]] | [[Characters/MCUGorr Gorr]]) -]]]

* VillainousValor: The one (kind of) nice thing that can be said about him is that, unlike Ronan and Ego, he isn't a coward. When the chips are down and his creations fight back, he doesn't run or flee and when defeated by Rocket, he doesn't beg for mercy and even tells Rocket to simply kill him, showing he isn't afraid of death.

* ScaryBlackMan: Is played by a British-Nigerian actor, and is utterly sinister to boot.

** He claims to value intelligence, creativity, and compassion in his creations. However, Lylla and especially Rocket exhibit plenty of these traits, yet he orders them killed for their physical defects. It's notably implied the reason he wants Rocket dead is because he may be smarter than the High Evolutionary. If his goals were genuine he would have been happy, but since the High Evolutionary's goals are to feed his own narcissism he instead lashes out.
** He deems The Sovereign failures for being {{Brainless Beaut|y}}ies with [[TheBeautifulElite an inflated sense of self-importance]]. Never mind the fact that he deliberately made them that way (on top of his own narcissism), so what was he expecting? The only reason he keeps them around instead of eradicating them like he did with various other "failed experiments" is because they are still useful to him as grunts, showing that he's also inconsistent. Also, his description of them also describes ''himself''.

* {{Mundanger}}: Unlike most other cosmic threats the Guardians have encountered, the High Evolutionary does not intend to destroy or even rule the wider universe, and his ambitions are contained entirely to planets and societies that he himself has created (in fact, they would have been unlikely to have met him at all if Rocket had not been injured by Adam). Despite this, the horrific torture that he inflicts on Rocket and ''countless'' other test subjects in pursuit of his studies, coupled with his vast influence and his general disregard for the value of life, makes him by far one of the scariest and most purely evil villains in the entire MCU.

* UnknownRival: Though understandably haunted by memories of his imprisonment and the deaths of his fellow test subjects, Rocket has done his best to move away from his origins, and for as many powerful allies and heavy ordinance he's acquired since then, has been content to leave his creator alone. The High Evolutionary has spent the intervening years utterly despising Rocket for destroying his face, obsessing over how he unintentionally bested him by solving a problem in his lab he was unable to, and coveting how he has actual intelligence capable of growth and inspiration.

* LaughablyEvil: '''''Heavily''''' [[{{DownplayedTrope downplayed}}]]. While all of the atrocities he commits and the cruelty he inflicts on others are all played dead seriously, his petty immaturity can make the High Evolutionary somewhat humorous in the form of being ComicallySerious. That being said, even on the very rare occasions he's given a humorous line or Chukwudi Iwuji [[EvilIsHammy hams it up]] to the maximum, the High Evolutionary is [[HateSink such a vile character]] it's unlikely the audience will find him all that funny.

* LaughablyEvil: '''''Heavily''''' {{DownplayedTrope downplayed}}. While all of the atrocities he commits and the cruelty he inflicts on others are all played dead seriously, his petty immaturity can make the High Evolutionary somewhat humorous in the form of being ComicallySerious. That being said, even on the very rare occasions he's given a humorous line or Chukwudi Iwuji [[EvilIsHammy hams it up]] to the maximum, the High Evolutionary is [[HateSink such a vile character]] it's unlikely the audience will find him all that funny.

* KnightOfCerebus: The darkest MCU film villain to date, as James Gunn intended. The second he's on screen, the movie goes from fantastical, good-humoured and wondrous to sinister, bleak, gritty and outright ''terrifying''. Especially during the flashbacks to Rocket's nightmarish childhood as his experiment. Aside from a few ComicallySerious moments, the High Evolutionary is a villain where there is '''no''' humor to be found.

* LaughablyEvil: {{Downplayed}}. While all of the atrocities he commits and the cruelty he inflicts on others are all played dead seriously, his petty immaturity can make the High Evolutionary somewhat humorous in the form of being ComicallySerious. That being said, even on the very rare occasions he's given a humorous line or Chukwudi Iwuji [[EvilIsHammy hams it up]] to the maximum, the High Evolutionary is [[HateSink such a vile character]] it's unlikely the audience will find him all that funny.

* BadBoss: His staff and the Sovereign are all ''terrified'' of him, especially considering his tendency to hurl them around with his gravity powers should they displease him. By the end of the film, all his remaining staff have turned on him and threaten mutiny. He replies by causing an explosion so large it vaporises them all and destroys the central hub of the ship; the survivors who didn't bear witness to this, he orders them to kill the intruders and retrieve Rocket instead of abandoning ship.

* CruelMercy: Rocket spares his life and he is imprisoned in Knowhere. Given that this means he has to live with his hideous disfigured face exposed and the knowledge that he is a prisoner, a failure, and that his flawed, "freak" experiment Rocket is a better person than he could ever hope to be, [[FateWorseThanDeath death arguably would have been kinder for him.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: With how much of a vile scumbag he is, it would be so easy for Rocket to kill this monster. Instead, Rocket spares the High Evolutionary's life and then throws him to rot in a prison, where his disfigured face is exposed for everyone to see. [[LaserGuidedKarma Fitting karma]] for a narcissistic psychopath like him.

* MockingTheMourner: He has the gall to mock a grieving Rocket after having just murdered Lylla in front of him. This earns him a savage disfiguring courtesy of Rocket himself.

* CompositeCharacter: He was behind the creation of Ayesha; in the comics, that was the Enclave's doing. Also, his creation, Counter-Earth is where Rocket Raccoon was created here, instead of Halfworld.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: A large part of what makes the High Evolutionary so horrifying is that, outside of the more overtly fantastical elements (i.e., grafting prosthetic limbs onto walruses and rabbits), many of his hideous genetic experiments and glorified torture sessions are clearly meant to serve as a parallel to brutal and unethical animal testing as performed by cosmetic companies. Heck, the scene where a weeping and partially shaved young Rocket is callously shoved back into a tiny, miserable little cage almost looks directly lifted out of an animal rights [=PSA=].

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: He wants to create the perfect society, but it becomes very evident that the High Evolutionary just fundamentally doesn't understand how to do it because of his LackOfEmpathy. He ''wants'' a PerfectPacifistPeople, but he values his creations being aesthetically pleasing over the moral character he claims to desire. He also wants his creations to be pillars of moral character, while also demanding they commit murder at the drop of a hat for him without any cognitive dissonance.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: {{Zigzagged|Trope}}. He understands the evils of bigotry and violence and values peace and tolerance, wanting to create a society composed of both. However, he believes that a peaceful and orderly world only comes through his iron will made absolute. On a personal level, he mocks Rocket Raccoon's grief over the deaths of his friends, not comprehending his feeling but only regarding it as an annoyance -- and is baffled when Rocket reacts in anger and viciously brutalizes his face.

** Related to this, he seems incapable of understanding how others are able to come up with new ideas, and usually can't seem to recognize it when it does happen. [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex This indicates that he's incapable of creativity, and can't grasp how Rocket could have come up with a new idea on his own.]]

* MovingTheGoalposts: He does this to himself unconsciously. With each attempt to create his so-called perfect world, he immediately singles out a previously unseen flaw that convinces him that the current world is a failure and needs to be destroyed so he can start over with a new one.

* {{Narcissist}}: He believes himself a supreme being whose actions are far above anything anyone else can comprehend. He also ''never'' forgave Rocket for mauling his face and it's heavily implied his intense grudge against him is owed greatly to the fact Rocket actually defied and hurt him.

* ThePerfectionist: He demands absolute perfection out of his creations, considering anyone that isn't perfect a failure or a worthless stepping stone, and he destroys any of his creations he considers failures. He's equally demanding of himself; when a young Rocket solved a problem that the High Evolutionary couldn't figure out, the High Evolutionary couldn't deal with being reminded of his own imperfection and [[KickTheDog took it out on Rocket]].

** Interestingly, to [[Series/ThePunisher2017 William Rawlins]]. Both are power-hungry psychopaths with immense resources and an obsession with tracking down their enemies for petty and personal reasons, both have no real combat experience and are prone to StupidEvil tendencies, both have a strong connection to the origin of the heroes (Frank Castle was the highest-ranking member of Rawlins' platoon and a member of his secret organization while Rocket was created by the High Evolutionary) and both are indirectly responsible for their own deformities due to their mistreatment of the heroes (Rawlins [[EyeScream lost his eye]] after Frank attacked him while the High Evolutionary's face was mauled beyond repair by Rocket). However, while Rawlins dealt in drug smuggling, illegal operations within the military and was just an ordinary human from Earth, the High Evolutionary is a MadScientist whose origins are unknown and his power and scope extends far beyond Rawlins' wildest dreams. Additionally, Rawlins had no abilities of his own to speak of, while the High Evolutionary commands gravity with his technological enhancements. Rawlins is also shown to be a sexual {{Sadist}} who thrives on hurting others, while the High Evolutionary never displays any sexual desire of any kind and is wholly indifferent to murder, genocide and torture. Rawlins is also a white American, while the High Evolutionary (though not human) is a black EvilBrit.
** To Arishem the Judge. Both are highly intelligent and renowned beings who are set up as antagonists to a SuperTeam (Arishem with the Eternals and the High Evolutionary with the Guardians), both are famed for creating and experimenting with sapient life, both are responsible for [[CreateYourOwnHero the existence of the main protagonists]] -- Arishem created the Eternals and the High Evolutionary created Rocket -- and both are a great threat to the galaxy. However, Arishem is an AntiVillain who doesn't enjoy destroying life, [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure is willing to give humanity a chance]], his morally questionable methods are based in logic and he has a genuinely understandable reason to want to destroy Earth (i.e. it holds the egg of an unborn Celestial and not only does it need to be born, but Arishem recycles the energy of sapient planets to create stars, other planets and even entire solar systems to sustain life long-term). Meanwhile, the High Evolutionary is an abusive, tyrannical psychopath who views humanity (and organic life as a whole) with contempt, holds no regard for the life he's created over the many years and he's also highly illogical with his methods due to mental instability and a fundamental LackOfEmpathy. Also, while neither of them are really fighters, Arishem is a borderline omnipotent being who dwarfs an entire planet with his sheer size alone, the High Evolutionary is a weak NonActionBigBad with no combat ability and even his powers over gravity -- while effective in some ways -- are not much against an entire team of seasoned heroes (especially if they've found a way to NoSell them like Rocket did).
** In a wider franchise sense, he serves as one to Kang. Both are brilliant scientific geniuses who commit their atrocities in the name of building their own empire, but the differences lie in their approach and attitudes. Kang was a self-described conqueror, one who may have dressed up his desires in fancy words but ultimately made no bones about wanting to conquer and rule the entire multiverse purely because he could. Although Kang probably wouldn't call himself "evil" he would describe himself as a tyrant. The High Evolutionary meanwhile is a scientist through and through -- interested only in creating his perfect society and disposing of any disappointments (be they animals, people or ''entire planets'') for failing to meet his ludicrously high standards. Ironically, Kang being so open and transparent about his villainy serves to highlight his nobler qualities and prevent him from being completely unlikable, whereas High-Evolutionary's cold cruelty serves to make him absolutely loathsome. It's also worth noting that while Kang is a tyrant who flaunts his countless victories, [[StrongAndSkilled Kang has the brawn to back up the boast]] and posed a ''serious'' physical threat to the heroes (to the point he casually recalls how he's killed all of them -- including ''Thor'' -- in at least one timeline), while the High Evolutionary is a PaperTiger who couldn't even fight off Rocket as a kit. Even his gravity powers are utilized in a relatively standard way that suggests there's limited variation to how he can use them, whereas Kang's powers are highly diverse and built for combat.
** Unlike all other foes of the Guardians (Ronan, Ego, Ayesha, Thanos, Adam Warlock), the High Evolutionary has absolutely ''no'' attachments or loyalty to anyone or anything, ''ever'', except his mad, narcissistic dream of "perfection" and the means to achieve it. He also has no desire to conquer or destroy anything, except his "failed" experiments, up to a planetary scale, and no "family" to speak of. In fact, he's so abusive Nebula thinks he makes ''Thanos'' look like Father of the Year. The High Evolutionary is also mainly a ''builder'', not a destroyer.
** Interestingly, despite being arguably the most loathsome of the three Guardians villains, he also differs from them in that he's the only one to not be killed by them. Ronan was killed when the Guardians used the Power Stone, Ego was killed when they implanted a bomb in his celestial core, but the High Evolutionary, though put through an utterly humiliating and painful defeat, was spared from death and instead sent to prison on Knowhere.

** A large part of High Evolutionary's insecurity is a result of his implied lack of creativity, as all he does is recycle ideas that already exist. He is incapable of actual innovation, which directly mirrors the actual "innovation gap" we are currently going through. In many ways, this makes him similar to corporations trying to use AI content generators like ChatGPT, which has to steal people's work to come up with something that "appears" new.

* AdaptationalUgliness: The High Evolutionary typically has his face covered by his mask in most of his incarnations, but the few that depict him without it show him with a fairly ordinary face (translation: classically handsome in accordance with superhero comics' typical GenericCuteness). While this appears to be the case with the MCU version, said face turns out to be a LatexPerfection of his real face, created to cover his face after Rocket ''mauled'' him following the death of Lylla. What's behind said mask is a horrific skull-like cranium that would make the Red Skull gasp in horror.

* FacialHorror: After he killed all of Rocket's friends during their original escape, the infuriated raccoon attacked him and tore his face to shreds. The apparent face he has by the time of this film is actually a [[LatexPerfection rubber mask]]; he's completely skinless underneath it. When he's unmasked at the end of the movie, it's a horrifying sight to behold. [[AssholeVictim Not that he didn't absolutely deserve it of course.]]

* IWasQuiteTheLooker: PlayedWith. In Rocket's flashbacks, he carried himself in an elegant manner and was a lean and well-groomed man who dressed neatly. In the present day, he's notably more rigid and rage-driven in his posture, he wears a rather unflattering purple armour, his face is stitched with the augmentations that give his head an odd and uncomfortable look and his face now has an UncannyValley quality to it. It's later revealed that Rocket mauled his face after he killed Lyla and his friends, with his face in the present day now just a [[LatexPerfection mask]] of his former visage ([[{{Narcissist}} a man like him]] would accept no substitute after all) and [[FacialHorror what's underneath]] will make his original face look like an Adonis in comparison.

** The ''second'' he believes Counter-Earth is no longer up to his delusional standards and isn't needed for his trap, he orders the whole planet incinerated and watches almost ''bored'' as innocents are violently and abruptly killed in fiery explosions, earthquakes and collapsing buildings.

* MaskingTheDeformity: At the end of ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol3'', it's revealed that the High Evolutionary had been wearing a LatexPerfection mask of his own face to hide his real one after Rocket ripped it apart in a RageBreakingPoint years ago. His real face is an [[FacialHorror unsightly mess]] with no nose, eyelids, or lips, and very little skin left everywhere else.

* FauxAffablyEvil: He would often cradle Rocket in his lap akin to a father and his son and tell him of the wonders he has envisioned for the future. He's very calm and patient with Rocket when he's still a child, praises his intellect and presents himself in a very paternal and nurturing manner. However, every positive or affirming trait he has in the film is entirely undone when he coldly tells Rocket he was always nothing more than just an experiment he'll discard as a failure once he creates something better and he never actually intended for Rocket or his friends to join in his new world. He can be deceptively charming even to those who know of his true nature, as he is also surprisingly open and honest with Star-Lord and Groot when he speaks with them, is oddly jovial in his demeanour; not even getting angry when Peter is openly hostile and rude to him and promises not to cause any further suffering if they hand Rocket over to him... but then he acknowledges that Counter-Earth is a failure and casually and remorselessly orders it and everyone in it destroyed, before having his men corner Peter and Groot to execute them without a second thought. It's clear that he's only polite and patient with those who serve a purpose to him. Those who don't, he'll gladly incinerate.

* FauxAffablyEvil: He would often cradle Rocket in his lap akin to a father and his son and tell him of the wonders he has envisioned for the future. He's very calm and patient with Rocket when he's still a child, praises his intellect and presents himself in a very paternal and nurturing manner. However, every positive or affirming trait he has in the film is entirely undone when he coldly tells Rocket he was always nothing more than just an experiment he'll discard as a failure once he creates something better and he never actually intended for Rocket or his friends to join in his new world. It's clear that he's only polite and patient with those who serve a purpose to him. Those who don't, he'll gladly incinerate.

** On the receiving end, the Guardians arrive just in time to back up Rocket's LastStand against his greatest enemy. And because he's both suffering a severe VillainousBreakdown and Rocket just shot one hell of a hole through his chest, he's hardly in a position to fight back. What happens next is one of the most cathartic [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown No-Holds Barred Beatdowns]] in the MCU to date.

* InsistentTerminology: The High Evolutionary's ego is so great that when someone manages to solve a problem that he couldn't, one of his failed experiments in fact, he becomes unhinged and unable to sleep.

* IntriguedByHumanity: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. The High Evolutionary admires the "human spirit" and their culture and art, while rejecting their bigotry and violence. Yet he still chooses to create his own version of Earth populated by humanoid animals... before choosing to destroy it when it no longer meets his standards. This makes it clear that he only thinks of humanity as a tool to execute his vision of a perfect society and holds no actual respect towards them.