Villains
From petty crooks to universe-shaking conquerers, here are the villains, troublemakers, and invaders who keep the heroes' days very busy and full of interest. open/close all folders
The Deacon
"How can I help you, my friend?"
Real name: Deke MacManusThe most eminent crime lord of Astro City. He has no powers himself, but he doesn't need them.
- Arch-Enemy: To the Confessor, albeit not actually in a religious manner.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: The Deacon always wears priestly robes, even though there's no evidence that he holds any ecclesiastical station. This further contrasts him from the Confessor, who is entitled to such apparel but doesn't feel worthy to wear it.
- Big Bad: Of the series of as a whole; being the undisputed lord of organized crime in Astro City.
- Dissonant Serenity: Deliberately, for creepiness.
- Expy: To the Kingpin, in terms of his role.
- Faux Affably Evil: The Deacon is always quiet, smiling and polite, even as he orders his men to kill you in the most painful way possible.
- Manipulative Bastard: Spends years manipulating his boss without him knowing, then kills him and takes over his position as crimelord.
- Sinister Minister: Subverted, as the Deacon is sinister, but not an actual religious figure.
- The Starscream: Before becoming the Deacon, Deke MacManus was second-in-command to Astro City crime boss Joey "The Platypus" Platapopoulous. He took advantage of the social tension in Astro City during the 70's to covertly hide away funds and weapons, then during the riots of '76, he revealed to The Platypus that he'd orchestrated most of the turmoil to weaken his position, then shot his former boss dead.
The Unholy Alliance
"Attention Binderbeck Plaza! You've been scheduled — for DEMOLITION!"
A team of super-villains led by Demolitia. Typically consists of four or five members, with little variation in membership. They perform various villainous acts for whoever pays them, and sometimes just For the Evulz.
- The Brute: Slamburger.
- A Day in the Limelight: Glowworm gets a little more development in a story in which an in-universe comic book implies he's a white supremacist.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: One of Glowworm's complaints during his rant towards the comic book publisher is, "Do you know what my mother thought when she read this?!?" The publisher's response is to ask what she thinks of him robbing banks.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Oddly, even though Slamburger has been characterized as nothing but a violent brute and potential rapist so far, Steeljack regards him as a good enough friend to be horrified at the thought of him getting killed, so he may have Hidden Depths.
- Everyone Has Standards: "Where the Action Is" implies that Glowworm is deeply offended by the above-mentioned comic not just because his original human form wasn't white, but because publishing it was lying to children.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Demolitia, who once escaped from prison by building a jackhammer out of a toilet.
- Hand Blast: Glowworm can fire radioactive energy from his hands.
- Hired Guns: Sometimes they're taking pay from a Greater-Scope Villain, sometimes they're just in the mood to spread fear and misery.
- Lovely Angels: For a while, the black-leather-clad Spice was partnered with Sugar, her frilly lace girly-girl counterpart.
- Playing with Fire: Flamethrower.
- Powered Armor: Demolitia is almost never seen outside of her homemade armored harness.
- Power Glows: True to his name, Glowworm glows bright green. Before the mutation, it's not clear what ethnicity he was before, but given that he's outraged about being depicted as a white supremacist ("Do you know what color I used to be?!?"), it wasn't Caucasian.
- Snake People: Glowworm's lower torso is an elongated snake-like tail.
- Stuff Blowing Up: True to her name, Demolitia's specialty is destruction and demolitions.
- Super-Strength: Slamburger's their main source, although Glowworm does seem to have slightly above-human brawn.
- Whip of Dominance: Befitting her vaguely BDSM-y design, Spice carries one of these.
Pyramid
- Ancient Conspiracy: Pyramid has been active for centuries and conspires to take over the world.
- Artifact of Doom: The Sekhmet Stone, a giant Sphinx-like stone face that is somehow alive and claims to have mystic insight.
- Badass Army: The heroes of Astro City keep knocking them down, but they keep coming back up.
- Cult: Indoctrination of its soldiers and worship of the Sekmet Stone are major parts of their operating procedure.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Dark Age shows that Pyramid employs stereotypical drill instructors to put new recruits through Training from Hell in their boot camps.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: The group doesn't care about what social groups their recruits come from, they accept anyone, though it's implied that anyone who isn't physically fit enough to be soldiers are disposed of to prevent them from leaking information.
- Expy: Pyramid is one of these for Hydra and G.I. Joe's Cobra.
- Faceless Goons: Pyramid members typically wear helmets that partially or completely cover their faces.
- Fantastic Rank System: The ranks within Pyramid are named after animals native to the Egyptian deserts.
- Mythical Motifs: Being a group based on Egyptian mysticism, scarabs and sphinxes are prominently featured.
- Nebulous Evil Organization: A well-funded supervillain crime syndicate/terrorist organization/Cult that wants to Take Over the World.
- Religion of Evil: Has aspects of this, especially with their worship of the Sekhmet Stone.
- Take Over the World: Their goal.
- Training from Hell: The group has dozens of paramilitary camps hidden out in the wilderness where recruits are put through an extiensive regiment of combat training and brainwashing.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Pyramid agents are trained to believe this."The world is bad! The world is foul! Only Pyramid can fix it! Only the strong hand of the Scarab Throne!"
Aubrey Jason/Lord Sovereign
"It ends here. Your folks stay dead, you join them, and in all this carnage no one ever thinks twice about it."
Beginning as a Pyramid field commander, Aubrey Jason gradually rose through the organization and was poised to join their highest ranks. But the determined vendetta of Charles and Royal Williams derailed those plans, eventually sending him to seek greater power and leading to his transformation into Lord Sovereign.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When confronted by Charles and Royal Williams, he readily admits he doesn't remember — nor care about — his cold-blooded murder of their parents.
- Casting a Shadow: As Lord Sovereign, he can control and wield the mysterious dark energies that empower him.
- Create Your Own Villain: Aubrey Jason would have been content to remain a high-ranking member of Pyramid, but was pushed into acquiring vast power to protect himself from the relentless pursuit of the Williams brothers.
- Dark Is Evil: Jason was already evil from the beginning, so acquiring dark energy powers was a natural fit.
- Department of Redundancy Department: His eventual supervillain alias, "Lord Sovereign" (Or "Lord Lord", essentially), which the Williams brothers even note in-story. It works as a nod to the Dark Age of Supernames, however.
- Evil Is Petty: Gunned down two innocent people because he was pissed off that the HUD on his helmet was busted.
- Mass Hypnosis: Lord Sovereign is able to mentally control weak-willed underlings and make them do his bidding.
- Red Right Hand: Aubrey Jason has a long scar running down the right side of his face.
- Telepathy: As Lord Sovereign, Jason can read the thoughts of people nearby.
- Upgrade Artifact: Lord Sovereign needs a piece of the Sekmeht Stone to contain and focus his energy powers.
The Chessmen
- Chess Motifs: The armor was originally built resemble chess pieces and the functions of the said pieces. However, the armor set has been destroyed, rebuilt, dismantled, modified, upgraded, separated and reassembled so many times over the years, the link is tenuous at best.
- Expy: To DC Comics' Royal Flush Gang.
- Legacy Character: Numerous otherwise unrelated gangs of criminals have used the armor over the years.
- Power Armor: The Pawn armor seems to be built for speed, the Rooks (which are more like Mecha) as Beam Spam machines, the Knights as teleporters, and the Bishops as full-fledged Flying Brick types. Queen and King-class armor has yet to make an appearance.
The Junkman
"It doesn't matter what I can do — what I can think of, what I can create — I'm just suddenly obsolete?"
Real name: Hiram Potterstone
A villainous retiree who seeks vengeance on society for age discrimination, the Junkman commits crimes using equipment he recycles from discarded trash.
- Anti-Villain: His 'crimes' are largely restricted to heists and resisting arrest, he's got a sympathetic motivation, and he seems to enjoy bantering with Jack-in-the-Box.
- Arch-Enemy: To Jack-In-The-Box.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: The Junkman pulls off a bank heist so perfect that no one has any idea who did it, and then retires, secure in the knowledge that he outsmarted everyone. His joy is short-lived when everyone assumes that the robber must have been caught anyway, simply because the heroes always win. This makes Junkman realize that his victory isn't really worth anything if no one knows about his deed - so he repeats the heist with one tiny flaw and gets caught, so that the whole world can watch his televised trial and understand his brilliance.
- Gadgeteer Genius: All of the Junkman's equipment come from equipment scrounged from the city dump and re-purposed.
- Homemade Inventions: His motivation is to show that "old things" - such as himself - aren't useless, so he'll rebuild junk into tools and weapons.
- Mundane Made Awesome: For example, super-speedsters are a major inconvenience, unless you've juiced up some marbles to be attracted to their feet.
- Who's Laughing Now?: Used sympathetically in his backstory.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Humorously deconstructed in "Show 'Em All".
The Conquistador
"I have assembled an army of operatives — all skilled, if not deep thinkers."
Real name: Esteban Rodrigo Suarez Hidalgo
A modern-day version of the conquerors of old, the Conquistador gathers an army of criminals for his grand scheme — a plan whose full details are even more brazen and daring than anyone could imagine.
- Bad Boss: Not only does he kill any of his hired criminals if he suspects they might figure out his Engineered Heroics plan, but the plan itself ends with killing all of them ANYWAY just so he can establish himself as a new superhero, El Guerrero.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Hidalgo is willing to frame Maria Alvarado as the Conquistador simply because he's never forgiven her for marrying someone else.
- Engineered Heroics: The Conquistador's plan is to gather numerous criminals to simultaneously commit crimes across Astro City so he can use his heroic identity of El Guerrero to kill them all as part of his heroic debut.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: His madness is driving him from Fallen Hero to out-and-out Knight Templar.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The Consquistador wanted to be famous and remembered by the world. Following his defeat, he's just about never mentioned again and come the Vertigo series, his mask is used as a table decoration at a supervillain-theme restaurant. To rub salt in the wound, Steeljack puts his hat over the mask but doesn't even comment or fully acknowledge it while sitting down with Cutlass.
- Power Armor: The Conquistador and his heroic alias El Guerrero is clad in a suit of Power Armor that completely covers his features. It also distorts the voice of the person wearing it, and can project a hologram to disguise the wearer's face as another person's.
- What Measure Is a Mook?: The Conquistador insists on not hurting any people with his plan, but does not consider his criminal underlings as "people."
The Mock Turtle
"I assure you, my dearest one, you haven't heard the last of the Mock Turtle!"
Real name: Dr. Martin Chefwick
A lifelong daydreamer, nebbish Dr. Chefwick thought he finally had a chance to become a brave adventurer when he invented an advanced all-environment exploration suit. But when his employers wanted to give it to a professional explorer, Chefwick stole the suit, equipped it with weapons, and became the Mock Turtle, a daring thief of the British underworld.
- Animal-Themed Superbeing: For some reason he chose the Tenniel version of an obscure Alice in Wonderland character.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: His death is needlessly overdone. First his armour is frozen and cracked, then it's pumped with poisonous gas. Then he's dropped off a rooftop.
- Developing Doomed Characters: He was given an entire story arc and he is a very dorky Love Martyr. He's killed off in his next appearance.
- Ditzy Genius: He's painfully easily manipulated and spent his childhood trying to climb through mirrors, but he's a skilled inventor and an effective supervillain.
- Expy: His schtick of a romantically-inclined and unusually clever Mad Scientist who sticks to low-level work and an Alice in Wonderland theme despite his obvious genius invokes the Mad Hatter.
- Gentleman Thief: Chefwick imagines himself to be this as The Mock Turtle.
- Hopeless Suitor: Lucia leads him on, the poor chump.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Martin Chefwick spent his childhood trying to find his way into a magical world like Oz or Narnia or Wonderland. As an adult he became an engineer and snapped after learning that he wouldn't be allowed to pilot the exploration suit he had created. His childhood sweetheart may have had something to do with it as well...
- Just Like Robin Hood: Martin envisions himself as this, stealing from the rich and giving to Lucia's "charitable works." In reality, she's a Manipulative Bitch who's building her own criminal empire with his aid.
- Longing for Fictionland: Martin would spend his childhood trapped in wardrobes, trying to find a portal to Narnia. If he could have found a twister or a rabbit hole, he would have tried that too.
- When he arrives at Astro City, it's framed and lit to strongly resemble the Emerald City of Oz, and he thinks he may finally have found the place of his dreams.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Despite his intellect, Martin is blinded by love for his childhood sweetheart Lucia, who he constantly imagines as an innocent girl to be sheltered from his roguish life. She, in turn, easily exploits his intellect and engineering talents for her own gain.
- Power Armor: The Mock Turtle suit was originally intended for extreme environments (high altitudes, sea bottoms, etc.) but is readily put to use for thievery. When he's up against the Chessmen, whose suits he himself upgraded for combat, running is his only option.
- Shown Their Work: While Alice in Wonderland is a well-known story, the Mock Turtle is a pretty minor and obscure character within the mythos, and a common victim of being Adapted Out. The fact that Chefwick chose it as his villainous theme demonstrates that he knows the story very well.
- Unreliable Narrator: His narration when relating his backstory is very complimentary of Lucia, but it's clear to the reader that she's been a crook taking advantage of him from when they first met as children. He also completely misreads the situation when he finds himself in Keifer Square in the middle of Steeljack's first arc.
Glue-Gun
"You thought you could just throw me in jail and forget me, didn't you? You thought I was just some joke, someone anybody could beat!"
A small-time crook with his quick-drying epoxy sprayer, Glue-Gun is after two things: an easy job and the respect that's long eluded him.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Everyone tends to laugh at Glue-Gun, but he did once cause a man to have a seizure when he glued him to the ceiling.
- Butt-Monkey: If something embarrassing happens to a villain in Astro City, odds are good Glue-Gun will be the subject.
- Expy: Of Marvel Comics' Paste-Pot Pete.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Glue-Gun's only major appearance showed him invading a superheroes' dinner club, only to be taken out by the busboy he was holding hostage. And then all the incognito superheroes laughed.
- Would Hurt a Child: Or at least "Would Hold a Teenager Hostage".
Infidel
"Infidel? Aye, call me infidel. For you may fear it, but I do not!"
This time-traveling mage once conquered empires and shattered worlds, until a showdown with Samaritan left him boxed in a willing stalemate. Now he bides his time researching the mysteries of the universe and the limits of his foe.
- Appropriated Appellation: Infidel took his name from the cries of the ignorant masses who opposed his research on the grounds that it was "unnatural".
- Arch-Enemy: To Samaritan.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: He explains that his excellent brew of coffee doesn't taste good because of beetle-shells, the fingernails of dead virgins, or "that hellish stuff you call chicory."
- Bald of Evil: He's bald. He's evil.
- Beard of Evil: He's got a beard. He's evil.
- Expy: A less-physically inclined version of Black Adam, considering he is a magic-based superbeing who is a rival to the Superman-expy.
- Evil Sorcerer
- First-Name Basis: He calls Samaritan by his civilian name, Asa, during their yearly dinners.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Infidel is a time-lost villain whose own timeline was inadvertently destroyed by Samaritan's actions.
- Foil: He and Samaritan are equals in power, but opposites in just about everything else. Samaritan is from the future, his powers come from science (and mostly by accident), and he uses his abilities to tirelessly serve the greater good. Infidel comes from the past, his developed his powers by studying magic, and he prefers to subjugate and dominate people.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Was originally just another member in some nameless tribe in what was then Nubia in Africa. Unlike his family and tribe, he wanted to understand how the world worked, which led him to wander, eventually being sold as a slave and suffering all manner of abuse but finally gaining enough knowledge to set him down the path to becoming Infidel.
- It's All About Me: Infidel reflects more about the names hurled on him than one particular reason for them, namely, kidnapping people to perform experiments.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Previously, Infidel would time-travel to various historical crises and ask which of the victims were willing to survive as his slaves.
- Mad Scientist: Infidel combines this with the "Mad Alchemist" and "Mad Wizard" subtypes.
- Magic-Powered Pseudoscience: Infidel often uses magic to replicate technological functions, including audio/video recordings of events and artificial servants. He even takes offense at the implication that what he does is inherently different or worse than science; he gets annoyed at Samaritan for being perturbed by his homunculi, and says that he wouldn't mind them at all if they were robots.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Infidel takes no shame in indulging himself; being able to create anything with magic and having all of eternity to do it doesn't hurt, either.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Has become this with Samaritan after retiring. He notes that both of them are more similar to each other than they'd like to admit, and their frequent interactions have slowly begun to affect each other. Samaritan, exhausted from his role as protector of the world, is implied to sympathize more with Infidel's point of view, while Infidel, for the first time having someone to talk to who doesn't treat him like shit, has begun to understand the positive aspects of human interaction.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He grew up in medieval Africa and Arabia, and never bothered to change his social views despite his genius. He's incredibly sexist, and sees it as his right to kidnap women to be his sex slaves. He doesn't even seem to do it because he thinks women are inferior per se; many of his victims are very intelligent women who he takes to have someone who can talk to him on something close to his level even as he exploits them sexually. He genuinely seems to think that women exist to service men, or perhaps, to service him. Even after his retirement, he still insists on creating mindless female clones made from DNA of the women he actually wants to service him, much to Samaritan's frustration.
- Despite having been a slave himself, he sees absolutely nothing wrong with slavery and used to grab victims from various historical disasters because no one would miss them, enslaving them to build his projects in the far future.
- Saved to Enslave: He rescues survivors of disasters so he can force them into his service.
- Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Infidel seeks to understand existence by analyzing its alchemical underpinnings.
- Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: Infidel once destroyed the universe in a "fit of pique." After discovering even that wouldn't kill Samaritan (and Samaritan realizing the same for Infidel), they collaborated to put everything back together.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: As noted in Appropriated Appelation, he takes his name from people attacking him for his "unnatural" research. This wasn't just a few one-offs either, there were CRUSADES launched just to kill him, even though he didn't really do much other than sit in his tower and study.
- Worthy Opponent: Considers Samaritan to be this, especially now that they are no longer actively opposing each other.
Gloo
"Clowncar!"
A failed experiment to clone Jack-In-The-Box resulted in Gloo, a liquid monster who uses its twisted sense of humor to punish wrongdoers — or anyone else it thinks is a wrongdoer.
- Blob Monster: Gloo resembles a giant misshapen blob of green liquid.
- Clone Degeneration/Evil Counterpart: Gloo was originally created by criminals to clone the first Jack-in-the-Box and reform him into the ultimate henchman. They failed spectacularly.
- Expy: As a monstrous, more extreme version of Jack-in-the-Box (the expy of Spider-Man) with a viscous semi-liquid appearance, he is the Astro City equivalent of the Symbiotes.
- Making a Splash: Gloo can shoot acid and other toxins from his liquid body.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Gloo's preferred method of combat is to subject its targets to distorted and deranged pranks and jokes, such as jamming two dozen people into a small car or spraying acidic "seltzer" at victims.
Team Carnivore
"Roustabout! Think you smart — hide from the law, hide from us — !"
"When done with you, you wish cops found you!"
"When done with you, you wish cops found you!"
A team of genetically engineered villains who attacked the carnival in search of Roustabout. They admit to having been through the same process as him, less successfully, though they do not name those responsible.
- Beast Man: In appearance.
- Bus Full of Innocents: They overtly threaten the crowd to draw Roustabout out. This is also their undoing, as if they had managed to find and ambush Roustabout alone, they may have had a chance at subduing him. Instead, they're swarmed by the very bystanders they had threatened for a brief window in which Roustabout rallies and trounces them.
- Evil Gloating: They openly tell him that their bosses will take him apart, learn how he works, and fix them.
- LEGO Genetics: The source of their powers and appearance.
- Hulk Speak: None of them speak normally.
- Tragic Monster: Tweaked at the edges; although they are trying to kidnap Roustabout and expect him not to survive the experiments, they do it to get themselves fixed, as it went wrong applied to them.
- Villain Team-Up: Seems to have been organized as a team.
Jitterjack, the Divided Man
"Calm-Talking-Man and Man-With-Treats. They say you bad, not do what you told. They say kill you, bring back heart. Get treats."
Real name(s): Unknown
A top Pyramid assassin, Jitterjack is two men fused together and driven insane by the experience.
- Ax-Crazy: A violently unstable psychopath, kept under a degree of control by stun-sticks.
- Braids, Beads and Buckskins: Half of him is straight-up comic book Native American.
- The Dreaded: He's got a nasty reputation.
- Fusion Dance: The means are uncertain, but Jitterjack is two men fused together down the middle.
- Hulk Speak: As demonstrated above.
- Lightning Bruiser: His strength, speed, and reflexes have increased exponentially, well beyond simply being doubled as you might expect.
- Mad Oracle: Has supernatural insight, being able to divine the true nature of The Incarnate and sensing the darkness within Black Velvet. Dialogue ("Hound dog. Hound dog. Puppy dog.") also seems to imply that he saw the kirin within Hellhound, who doesn't look very canine.
- Mysterious Past: Just how he got this way is unclear.
- Psycho for Hire: It's uncertain if Pyramid even pays him, or if they just feed him and point him at things they want dead.
- Psychopathic Manchild: A violent lunatic who talks like a small child and works for treats.
- Spare Body Parts: At the very least, he's got two hearts.
- Super-Senses: Another result of his transformation.
- Two-Faced: One half Native American, one half blonde soldier. Even his necklace switches from beads and claws to dog tags.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Had no way of knowing that mortally wounding Black Velvet would unleash a Hate Plague. That probably wouldn't have stopped him.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Last seen being taken away by an ambulance after Black Velvet roughed him up and stopped one of his hearts.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Incredibly powerful, but equally mad.
Mister Drama
"Jack-in-the-Box!? Nah, nah, I ain't got time for ingenues, kid! Come back when you get your equity card!"
A dock worker with dreams of acting on the stage, he snapped after being turned down for a role and became a brilliant criminal mastermind with a dramatic flair. Both he and Jack-in-the-Box met their end on Torres Island in 1983, and no one knew the details for decades.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- The theater he robbed had his address on file. Fortunately for him, he wasn't home when the cops came knocking.
- He planned to use the weirdies to record the explosion which killed him and Jack-in-the-Box and show the world his dramatic death, but forgot that they refuse to be too far apart from each other. None survived.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Get turned down for an acting role? Rob the theater!
- Driven to Suicide: Upon learning that he'd contracted a fast-acting cancer during one of his heists that would kill him in a matter of weeks.
- Duality Motif: Wears a comedy/tragedy mask with divided yellow and purple clothes.
- Flunky Boss: Made use of the Underlord's weirdies, a bunch of really bizarre creatures.
- It's All About Me: Enacted his Thanatos Gambit without one thought about how it would affect his wife and daughter.
- Laser-Guided Karma: His last plan not only didn't work out how he wished, but for decades everyone assumed the culprit was the Underlord. So he didn't even get the credit he wanted, which was the whole reason he did it.
- Nightmare Face: The aforementioned cancer acted so fast that by the time he confronted Jack-in-the-Box he was basically rotting alive.
- Practically Joker: With his penchant for fancy suits and flair for the dramatic, he seems like a clear expy of The Joker (the relatively less dangerous Silver Age version, at least).
- Rogues Gallery: Fought Silver Agent and Max O' Millions before becoming one of Jack-in-the-Box's first and most recurring foes.
- Taking You with Me: Successfully does this with Jack-in-the-Box I.
- Thanatos Gambit: Planned a dramatic suicide that would also kill the first Jack-in-the-Box and make him notorious. Unfortunately for him, the means he used ensured that no one would find the truth for decades.
The Drama Queen
"You killed him! You murdered him! And now, at long last, you'll suffer the vengeance of—THE DRAMA QUEEN!"
Raised on a diet of bitterness by her mother, the granddaughter of Frank Darman found a warehouse with his equipment and notes and sought to avenge her grandfather's death.
- Broken Pedestal: She spent her whole life believing that her grandfather was murdered by Jack-in-the-Box. She does not take it well when she learns that he was an egotistical prick who chose to blow himself up in an attempt to go out in a blaze of glory.
- Driven to Suicide: Upon learning the truth about her grandfather, she tries to self-immolate. Nice and dramatic.
- Duality Motif: Like her grandfather.
- Expy: Of the Green Goblin—specifically the Harry Osborn version. Both are supervillain Legacy Characters looking to avenge their respective predecessors. Drama Queen even flies around on a Goblin Glider-esque vehicle.
- Flunky Boss: Like her grandfather, but she treats the weirdies like beloved pets.
- Foil: To Ike Johnson as well as the Box and the Jackson, the two warped possible future versions of Ike who fought his father. The comparisons are admittedly stronger with the Jackson.
- She's the granddaughter of Mister Drama just as they were the grandsons of the original Jack-in-the-Box who fought Mister Drama.
- Like the Jackson, she's based her entire life on a misconception built around what happened to her grandfather and blames Jack-in-the-Box for destroying her family and does not react well to learning the truth about him. When she learns her grandfather planned his suicide as a form of final revenge against his hated foe, she becomes horrified at how the man she practically revered abandoned their family for his own ego and how she almost murdered someone who didn't deserve it.
- Legacy Character: To Mister Drama.
- Misplaced Retribution: Blames Jack-in-the-Box for murdering her grandfather and ruining her mother's life, only to learn that he'd committed suicide.
- The Resenter: She nurses a huge grudge against Jack-in-the-Box for the role he supposedly played in ruining her family.
- Sky Surfing: Flies around on a big comedy/tragedy mask.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: Uses grenades shaped like comedy/tragedy masks in combat.
The Box and The Jackson
The Box: "You must be judged, father. Judged for failing your son. For failing your world."
The Jackson: "You are a heretic and false prophet, blind to your own teachings. You will be cleansed."
Two sons of Zachary Johnson aka Jack-in-the-Box, each from a discrete Bad Future where he was killed while his wife was pregnant.
- '90s Anti-Hero: They approach this from different directions, right down to their designs (clunky overbuilt cyborg/twisted biological horror).
- All Crimes Are Equal: Both are willing to kill for even minor infractions.
- Alternate Self: Both come from alternate futures where Zachary Johnson was killed, but from differing timelines.
- Bad Future:
- The Jackson comes from a post-apocalyptic one.
- In The Box's case it's not clear if his future's that bad or if he just bit off more than he could chew.
- Bio-Augmentation: The Jackson has been altered to have superhuman physical abilities, claws, and can emit acidic blood. It's unclear how much of his costume is a costume and how much is, well, him.
- Body Horror:
- The Box has mutilated himself, having several limbs and an eye removed and replaced with garish cybernetics.
- The Jackson has been altered into a feral monstrosity.
- Calling the Old Man Out:
- The Box blames Jack-in-the-Box for not taking the proper steps to eliminate crime in his time.
- The Jackson literally worships his father, but when Jack-in-the-Box tried to correct his misconceptions he immediately turns on him, decrying him as an impostor.
- Cult: The Jackson was raised by the Brothers of Trouble, an alternate future version of the Trouble Boys who worship Jack-in-the-Box.
- Cyborg: The Box had himself cybernetically altered to make up for the training and preparation he felt he'd missed out on, and kept enhancing himself over his career.
- Disappeared Dad: In their timelines Zachary Johnson was killed while his wife was still pregnant.
- Electronic Eyes: The Box's right eye has been replaced by one on a stalk, though any special abilities it has are unclear.
- Energy Absorption: The Box absorbs electricity.
- Extendable Arms: The Box's legs extend, allowing him to take superhuman strides.
- Eye on a Stalk: The Box has a cybernetic one.
- The Fundamentalist: The Jackson worships his father as a religious figure.
- Future Imperfect: The Brothers of Trouble take every one of Jack-in-the-Box's offhand jokes and references as literal gospel truth.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Jackson has these when enraged.
- Hollywood Acid: The Jackson's blood can burn through Jack-in-the-Box's streamers.
- Knight Templar:
- The Box waged a one-man war with the intention of wiping out crime itself, and unsurprisingly proved unequal to the task of eliminating it.
- The Jackson's war on crime is a holy crusade in his father's name.
- Legacy Character: Anti Hero Substitutes for Jack-in-the-Box II.
- Monochromatic Eyes: The Jackson's solid yellow eyes aren't part of a mask.
- Monster Clown: Both the Jackson and the Box give off that vibe.
- Natural Weapon: The Jackson's claws.
- Sequel Hook: Averted. They both threaten to come back right before they're sent back to their respective timelines. Twenty years later, they still haven't returned.
- Sketchy Successor: They're both nightmarish distortions of their father's legacy.
- Spell My Name with a "The": They both do this.
- Super-Senses: The Jackson has at least a heightened sense of smell.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: The Box's left arm has been replaced by a semi-autonomous puppet named "Justice Jacky", which can produce and use a number of weapons and tools.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: They avert this with a vengeance.
- Time Travel:
- The Box goes back in time to kill Jack-in-the-Box.
- The Jackson was taken from his mother as an infant and brought into the future in order to save him from The Wasting, and after receiving training and alteration went back in time to save his father...but changed his mind.
- Would Hurt a Child: Willing to harm one of the Trouble Boys to draw Jack out.
The Assemblyman I
A mad scientist operating in the 70's, El Hombre approached him with a plan to get popular, only to get stabbed in the back.
- Ambiguous Robots: Maybe. His hair and skin are very metallic looking, suggesting he could be a robot or cyborg.
- Gadgeteer Genius: His schtick.
- Humongous Mecha: Sent one on a robbery spree so El Hombre could "fight" it, but sabotaged the remote that would have stopped it.
The Mad Maharajah
- Actually A Doom Bot: He actually wasn't killed; he brainwashed the Agent into shooting a clone.
- Alliterative Name
- The Bad Guy Wins: The Silver Agent was executed, just as he presumably expected, and he came out of hiding years later. The full story didn't even come out until after his death.
- Expy: Of Doctor Doom. They're both supervillain rulers of small countries with a fondness for faking their deaths.
The Pale Horseman
"The Pale Horseman rides. You have called for me and I ride. And not before time, I say, for I smell it. This place, this land is rich, rotting and fecund with it. I smell it. I smell—TRANGRESSION."
An entity summoned into our reality through the crack opened by the Innocent Gun.
- All Crimes Are Equal: All transgressors, from murderers, to safe-crackers, to jaywalkers, to, oh, children swiping shopping carts, are punished by incineration.
- Antiquated Linguistics: Speaks in a very formal fashion.
- Berserk Button: Having his faith in his mission shaken puts him into even more of a rage than usual. As Street Angel learns.
- Detect Evil: Can sense and identify transgressions.
- Eldritch Abomination: Punishment itself given form and brought into our world from...somewhere else.
- Evil Laugh: It sounds like "ash and bone and the grave".
- Evil Smells Bad: Preceded by a hot, dry wind that smells of sulfur.
- Expy: Of Ghost Rider, as a flaming skeletal figure that embodies vengeance. Although he lacks the motorcycle, a flaming skeleton horse was the transportation of choice for earlier Ghost Riders in-universe.
- Hellish Horse: Rides a flaming skeletal stallion.
- Hell Is That Noise: His presence is said to make a sound like night itself, and not a good one.
- Hypocrite: Calls Street Angel a killer even though he's racked up an incredible body count himself. Pointing this out is the last thing Street Angel ever does.
- I Am the Noun: "I am retribution! I am vengeance!"
- Knight Templar: Very probably the living embodiment of this.
- Large Ham: Given what he is, it would be surprising if he weren't.
- Paranoia Fuel: In-universe. Since he's not exactly discerning, he could literally show up to kill anyone at any time for the slightest misdeed. This doesn't do a lot of favors for the morale of Astro City.
- Playing with Fire: Projects flames.
- The Power of Hate: Called into our world by Astro City's hatred for criminals and desire for retribution, and is attracted to scenes of such.
- Wreathed in Flames: A vaguely humanoid being of flame with a cloak and wrappings around its limbs.
Lord Saampa
A Polish-American man who, in the 60s, found a snake cult hidden in the middle of the Himalayas, and something else, something worse.
- Anti-Villain: He becomes very determined to thwart the Coiled One, willing to commit robbery and assault, but he's talked down without violence.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Introduced early on in the Vertigo series, but the Broken Man shoos us away before the story can go further. He doesn't reappear until issue 43.
- Determinator: Guy manages to fight off the influence of an Eldritch Abomination, though not without some difficulty. But the fact he did it at all is pretty impressive.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: His first thought on finding an Eldritch Abomination was to try and use it for profit somehow. He very quickly realized this was a bad move, and started doing what he could to thwart it.
- Internalized Categorism: Ben gives himself a lot of grief for being, in his words, "a Polskie Willie boy from Chi-town".
- Mighty Whitey: He takes over a snake cult, who seem to think he's their god's prophet.
- Unwitting Pawn: The Oubor played him, making him think the artifact he was trying to steal would weaken it, when it was the other way around.
Ned Carraway
A burglar and robber with a fondness for expensive suits, Nick Carraway has a long and tumultuous rap sheet as one of Astro City's many "clotheshorses."
- Animal Motifs: Wolves. Throughout the story, he compares his criminal self to a wolf, being a big dangerous predator. He also has a fondness for Little Red Riding Hood, in large part because he identifies with the Big Bad Wolf—even down to the wolf being willing to dress up. At the end of the issue, he admits his criminal self is like a wolf in a different way: it's pursued him his whole life.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Intends to project this image, with him wearing high-class tailored tuxedoes or themed garb to every criminal outing.
- Barbershop Quartets Are Funny: One of his many themed gangs was "the Sweet Adelines", a bank-robbing barbershop quartet. They ordered people to get on the ground and not bother call for help in A Cappella (one of their members was a bit off-key, though).
- Big Bad Wannabe: For all his claims of being "the wolf", he's a very small fish in Astro City: he isn't much more skilled or dangerous than a common bank robber, and every encounter he has with actual superheroes (most of whom are only Badass Normal-level) ends with him either running away or tossed in prison.
- Camp Straight: He admits that he and his fellow clotheshorses are often Mistaken for Gay, given their foppish demeanors and obsession with fashion and appearances. He defends this by saying that some of them were indeed gay, "but maybe not as many as you'd think." He himself was involved in a fairly long and loving heterosexual relationship that he clearly enjoyed, until she found out about his continued criminality.
- Evil Feels Good: His big struggle; he likes being the Big Bad Wolf, a terrifying predator dripping with style and feared by everyone. Even when he got a job that allowed him to live out his dreams of being a cultured gentleman (headwaiter at a fancy restaurant), he still felt empty because it lacked the danger and dominance of his old job.
- Expy: His gimmick bears a striking resemblance to the C-list Batman villains the Terrible Trio, with one of his outfits (his time in the Menagerie Gang, which graces the cover of the issue) being nearly identical to theirs.
- Gentleman Thief: He tries to give off this vibe; his first villainous identity was outright called "the Gentleman Bandit." However, he lacks a lot of the romantic charm and class often associated with the archetype, with him having started his criminal career by beating a man to death for no reason.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Exploited heavily. In Astro City, this is considered an entire category of criminal, being referred to as "clotheshorses", "Dapper Dans", and "fashion plates." Ned became a criminal in large part because he just loved the sense of being a stylish criminal and killer.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: His biggest point of pride.
- This Is Your Brain on Evil: After being let on parole a second time, he makes a very real effort to go straight. During this period, his criminal urges unmistakeably read like an addiction, with him outright fleeing the scene in horror when someone tries to talk to him about going back in.
- Wicked Cultured: Despite coming from a lower-class background, he is genuinely able to walk the walk when it comes to manners and decorum. He was able to rise to a pretty high position as a headwaiter in a fairly short time, despite having a criminal record.
Mister Manta
"No. No, I'm ready. I have to be ready! I'll take the ship. I'll take the ship and loot it, and return to civilization victorious!"
A one-time enemy of the superheroine Mermaid who made use of his powered suit to rob ocean traffic, until a fight with Mermaid critically damaged his suit and a storm washed him up on a Deserted Island. He spends the next three decades trying to repair his suit, seeking to return to the glory days of his supervillain career, but when he gets the chance, he discovers a lot of things have changed, including him...
- Accidental Hero: He was set to rob a cruise ship in order to make his comeback, but after he ended up fighting off the criminals who were already attacking it he was hailed as a hero.
- Alliterative Name: Both his civilian and supervillain names.
- The Aloner: Having been isolated from civilization for almost three decades, he's unable to cope with the Sensory Overload when he tries to make a comeback. When he returns to the island, he focuses on making himself more at home, having accepted this is where he's comfortable.
- Animal-Themed Superbeing: Animal abilities variant, courtesy of his suit.
- Arch-Enemy: Mermaid, of the Honor Guard.
- Bamboo Technology: Downplayed; he's making use of available resources to repair and replace his existing tech.
- Beard of Evil: A small, thin one in his villain days.
- Clothes Make the Superman: His suit looks to give him flight and Super-Strength, and allows him to operate underwater for long periods.
- Expy: Of Aquaman villain Black Manta.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Created his own arsenal back in his villain days, and manages to get his suit into a functional condition with salvage and the island's resources.
- Goggles Do Something Unusual: They light up, allowing him to see in the dark.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Not insane, per se, but his time alone has left him unable to function in society.
- Retired Outlaw: Accepts he's this after his comeback fails.
- Robinsonade: Spends thirty years making a nice life for himself on his island.
- The Speechless: When he finally tries to talk to someone after thirty years, the only thing that comes out is a croak.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: Martin Mantel becomes Mister Manta.
- Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: He wasn't satisfied with the condition of his rebuilt suit, and had a battery of tests and improvements he wanted to make, but when he heard the cruise ship's mayday on the radio he decided he couldn't wait any longer. It does eventually fall apart, but it also gets the job done.
