Characters / The Villains of Valley View

The Madden Family/The Mayhems

General

• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: As Amy admits to Hartley at the end of the first episode, the reason they're on the run from Onyx is that she attacked him after he called her whole family "weak".
• Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: The attitude of all the Maddens except Jake. Amy especially starts off not caring much about keeping her villainous instincts under wraps, and while her parents and Colby are more subtle they'd also rather not have to pretend to be nice. In particular, Eva and Vic are disappointed rather than proud when Jake is in the running to be Student of the Month.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Maddens as a whole are like this with each other, but Amy particularly stands out: The whole reason they're in hiding in the first place is that she attacked the Big Bad, Onyx, in a fit of anger when he denied her mother a promotion and dismissed her family as weak. Outside of her family, she also comes to care about Hartley in spite of her villainous instincts.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: A recurring theme as the Maddens, being supervillains, have a difficult time understanding people who aren't like them. The first big example is how they try to blackmail Hartley into keeping their secret as the idea someone would actually keep quiet out of friendship and honoring their word is a foreign concept to them.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Their hair gets some color added to them when in uniform. For instance, Havoc's hair darkens with red highlights, Surge's hair turns mostly metallic green, and Chaos's hair becomes partially bleach-blond.
• Secret Identity: The Maddens must keep their identities as the Mayhems a secret to avoid being spotted and sent into custody.
• Villain Protagonist: The series focuses on a family of villains, with the daughter as the main protagonist.

Amy Madden/Havoc

Portrayed by: Isabella Pappas

• Berserk Button: Messing with her friends or her family is the fastest way to get on her bad side. It ends up being the last mistake Onyx ever makes.
• Compelling Voice: She can hypnotize people with her voice, though she rarely does.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Is the impulsive and self-centered Foolish Sibling to Jake’s academically and ethically Responsible.
• Make Some Noise: Her power lets her create sonic blasts and booms, and also project imitations of any sound (like the bell ringing early, or the principal's voice calling Jake to his office on the PA).
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Her and Jake’s spree in "Unleash the Chaos", specifically bringing down the powerline, allows Onyx to track the Maddens to Valley View and sending in another villain to find them.
• Pet the Dog: She saves Gem from a falling chandelier, even though Gem is her enemy and they were just fighting.
• Properly Paranoid: She takes an instant dislike to Declan, but tries to put aside her mistrust of him for Hartley's sake. She eventually learns that she was right about him.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Played with. She's the Red to Hartley's Blue, being more mischievous and rebellious (red) while Hartley's more well-behaved and responsible (blue). However, she's also more calm and reserved (blue), while Hartley's more excitable and loud (red). She is also the Red to Jake's Blue.

Jake Madden/Chaos

Portrayed by: Reed Horstmann

• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Is the academically and ethically Responsible to Amy’s impulsive and self-centered Foolishness.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His and Amy's spree in "Unleash the Chaos", specifically bringing down the powerline, allows Onyx to track the Maddens to Valley View and sending in another villain to find them.
• Genius Bruiser: With Super-Strength being his power, you might expect him to be Dumb Muscle, but in fact he seems to be almost as smart as his father. His project for science class was a green energy source that powered the school for days.
• I Owe You My Life: It turns out this is why Jake has been the only one to voluntarily make a Heel–Face Turn; the superheroine Starling saved his life months ago in his supervillain identity when she could easily have let him fall off a building to his doom, and since then he's been trying to follow her example. Jake later goes to ColossaCon with Hartley to get Starling's autograph so he can clandestinely thank her without her recognizing him. After Starling figures out who he is and learns why he's there, she nonetheless feels she has no choice but to alert the other superheroes to the fact the Maddens are hiding out in Valley View, until he returns the favor by saving her from a falling set piece.
• White Sheep: Jake is the only member of the family who adjusts well to ordinary life and repeatedly insists that he's made a Heel–Face Turn and is a good person now. He quickly gets the approval of all his teachers and becomes Student of the Month after less than a month at school, while cautioning the rest of his family not to expose themselves by using their powers or engaging in mischief. They soon come to see him as a drag. It turns out this is because the superheroine Starling saved his life not long before the series started and it inspired him to want to be a better person.

Colby Madden/Flashform

Portrayed by: Malachi Barton

• The Chosen One: In episode 12, when Colby finds out he has other powers besides shapeshifting, Vic tells him he is the chosen one. Since then, he likes to brag about it.
• Invisibility: Gains this power after learning he is the chosen one.
• Power Incontinence: He stays stuck on one form or uncontrollably shifting between forms for the second half of season one, Vic finally addressing and resolving the issue by the end of the season finale.
• Super-Speed: Also another one of his chosen one powers.

Eva Madden/Surge

Portrayed by: Lucy Davis

• Psycho Electro: She has the power to generate electric surges and was one of two candidates for a promotion to be field commander of Onyx's evil legions.

Vic Madden/Kraniac

Portrayed by: James Patrick Stuart

• Dating Catwoman: He was a superhero until he fell in love with Surge. When forced to choose between being with her and keeping his powers, he chose to give up his powers.
• Dirty Coward: He'll act all confident and superior when he believes he's got the advantage, but the second he realizes the tables have turned, expect him to instantly crack and be completely defenseless. He's also perfectly willing to throw his wife and kids under the bus if it means saving his own skin.
• Ditzy Genius: Very. One time, Amy had to teach him about passwords because he locked himself out many times.
• Fallen Hero: He was originally a superhero named Silver Flame who was kicked out of his family because he fell in love with supervillain Surge and stripped of his Playing with Fire power.
• Given Name Reveal: His real name is Jack Thomas.
• It's All About Me: Is quite egotistical.
• Mad Scientist: He is an evil scientist and inventor whose power is apparently Super-Intelligence. Although that's just what he and Eva told the kids to stop them asking questions about why he didn't have a superpower. His skills with science and invention are really just natural intelligence.
• Smug Snake: There's hardly ever a time where he isn't smug and arrogant, regardless of whether he actually has the skills and know-how to back it up.

Allies

Hartley

Portrayed by: Kayden Muller-Janssen

• Ambiguously Bi: Her behavior when she meets Starling is very much that of a crush. She also feels attracted to a young adult version of Colby.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She did not take Declan's betrayal well at all. She blasts him with a Fusion Blaster while rescuing the Maddens and ultimately finishes him off with a Vaporizer.
• Genki Girl: She is a perpetually sunny girl (who's literally in the Sunshine Club) who takes it upon herself to be the villainous Amy's friend and good influence.
• Loony Fan: She acts a bit too excited when she and Jake get to meet Starling at a convention, putting her off. When Starling later gives Jake her number, she makes it clear she's not going to give it to Hartley.
• Only One Name: Her last name has not been given.
• The Not-Love Interest: Due to Amy lacking any real romance in the show, Hartley ends up fulfilling a lot of roles that would go to a love interest in another show. Hartley is constantly trying to help Amy be a better person and is the only non-family member that Amy shows regular care for. When Shadow replaces Amy, Hartley is the only person who can tell that she is not Amy. Amy also repeatedly says how Hartley has helped make her life better and is the reason that she is becoming a better person.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Played with. Amy's the Red to Hartley's Blue, being more mischievous and rebellious (red) while Hartley's more well-behaved and responsible (blue). However, she's also more calm and reserved (blue), while Hartley's more excitable and loud (red).
• Royalties Heir: It's not clear how rich her family became as a result, but one of her ancestors invented the turtleneck.
• Secret-Keeper: She learns the Maddens' secret during the first episode. The second episode revolves around their unnecessary attempts to blackmail her into keeping it.
• Unwitting Pawn: She is this to Oculon aka Declan, who uses her friendship with Amy to lure him to the Maddens and strike them down.

Celia

Portrayed by: Patricia Belcher

Hartley's irascible grandmother, who is the Maddens’ landlady.

• Cool Old Lady: She can bench-press her granddaughter Hartley.
• Expy: She is very similar to Patricia Belcher's character Mrs Dabney in Good Luck Charlie. Both are stone-faced senior ladies who take no nonsense and invite themselves over at will.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Celia is not aware that her tenants are retired villains, and some of the hi-jinks revolve around making sure it stays that way.
• Only One Name: Her last name has not been given.

Starling

^{Click here to see her as Judith.}

Portrayed by: Mariah Iman Wilson

A superhero who is the arch-enemy and later “frenemy” to Havoc.

• Being Good Sucks: Once it gets out that she helped hide the Maddens from the superhero community, she gets stripped of her rank and cast out of the superhero community. Amy, of all people, ends up helping rectify this.
• Celebrity Superhero: She is part of a reality show with other superheroes, has many online followers and sponsors her own product line. However, she doesn't display the insincerity usually associated with this trope and is a genuinely Nice Girl who sometimes acts Spoiled Sweet at worst. She saved Chaos from falling off a building for no other reason than it being the right thing to do and later breaks up with Jake because she doesn't want to come between him and his family.
• Secret-Keeper: She learns that the Maddens are undercover in Valley View after figuring out that Jake is Chaos, but decides not to tell other superheroes about it.

Villains

Onyx

Portrayed by: Steve Blum

The mysterious hooded figure who is the leader of the League of Villains.

• Big Bad: He's the leader of the villains in Season 1.
• Knight of Cerebus: The show's tone becomes significantly less comedic whenever he's involved. Him fighting the Maddens in the Season 1 finale is treated as a serious threat and nearly ends with him killing Colby.

Declan/Oculon

Portrayed by: Kainalu Moya

A supervillain secretly working for Onyx to hunt down the Madden Family, while posing as a new student.

• Arc Villain: He is the recurring villain appearing in the second half of Season 1.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Oculon is Onyx's top sidekick, who serves as the Arc Villain of Season 1 and happens to trace Surge's electrical output all the way to Valley View and find out where the Mayhems are, thus he poses as an exchange student named Declan to woo Hartley into giving him access to the Madden household and strike at them when they least expect it.
• Master Actor: He puts on a perfect act of being a friendly, well-meaning student who's befriended Hartley and wants to be on good terms with the Maddens, to point where nearly everyone falls for it, including the Maddens — sans Amy. Heck, if the show wasn't about villains undercover and trying to blend in, you probably wouldn't suspect a thing either.

Shadow (Unmarked Spoilers)

Portrayed by: Dora Dolphin

A supervillain and the daughter of Onyx who wanted to get revenge on the Madden Family for defeating him.

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• Arch-Enemy: She becomes one to Havoc once she revealed her true colors.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: She wanted to get revenge on the Madden Family because Amy killed Onyx, her father.
• Evil Counterpart: She serves as this to Amy/Havoc on what she would’ve become if she become a leader for the villains.

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