Sandbox / Monster: Marvel Literature

Carnage more than lives up to his name. These are only two of his many dozens of victims.

Modok 1.5: I intend to...terminate...every man, woman, and child on the planet...overnight...
Iron Man: Destroy humanity?...Why?...
Modok 1.5: That is my purpose. That is my destiny...Then I shall cleanse the planet of all...life before moving on...throughout the cosmos. The Skrulls, the Kree, the Shi'ar—all extraterrestrial civilizations will fall before the unstoppable doomsday machine that is Modok. This is my vision. This is the future.

— Operation A.I.M.

Given the source material, it comes as no surprise that books and short stories based on Marvel feature despicable doers of dastardly deeds.

Within each category, works are listed by publication date unless noted; novelizations are by film release date. Works do not share a continuity unless noted.

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

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Marvel Novel Series (1978-1979, published by Pocket Books)

Examples

• The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars, by Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, and Ron Goulart (as Joseph Silva): Sh'mballah is a mind-controlling alien tyrant who, after being driven off his home world due to his callous murdering of anyone who stood against him, crash landed on Earth. After slumbering in hibernation for centuries, Sh'mballah awakens with his lust for control and conquest ever growing. Controlling an entire nearby town to begin digging up his spaceship to enable his freedom, Sh'mballah pays no heed to the townsfolk he overworks into death, and, once freed, almost immediately controls a pilot to crash his helicopter, killing the man and his entire crew. Sh'mballah plans to travel from town to town, controlling most of the population of each and murdering any who put up resistance, and continue this pattern until he has enslaved the entire planet. Next killing several innocent people for being in his way, Sh'mballah is seemingly stopped by the arrival of the Hulk, who destroys Sh'mballah's physical form. Using his mental powers to jump into the body of Rudolf Sterns, Sh'mballah reveals that, if he can't rule the earth, he's going to take as much of it as possible down with him, as he attempts to turn Sterns into a living Gamma bomb that will kill thousands and infect countless more with Gamma poisoning.
• The Incredible Hulk: Cry of the Beast, by Richard S. Meyers:
  • The General is a sociopathic warlord with an obsessive desire to never be seen as weak. To this end, the General subjugates as many people as he can in his home country of Africa, regularly raiding villages to capture several men, women, and even children, all of whom he then subjects to brutal conditions while planning to sell them as slaves, callously executing any who resist his rule. After being approached by Tony Wittenborn, the General is convinced by Wittenborn to kidnap the man's father, Maxwell Wittenborn, and force him to create a Gamma virus that, after testing it on several slaves—leading them to rip themselves to shreds in insane frenzies—the General plans to unleash on the lot of America's population, planning to show the world his power by driving an entire country into annihilation with the Gamma virus.
  • Anthony "Tony" Wittenborn is a fanatical scumbag of African culture who, upon learning that his birth mother was Italian, becomes obsessed with "cleansing" himself of the filth of Italian blood. Approaching the General with the plans and means to kidnap his own father and sister, Tony arranges for the kidnapping to happen while his sister, Rosanne, is at the U.N., leading to several people dying in the ensuing firefight. Once his father Maxwell completes a Gamma virus for the General, Tony reveals himself as the true mastermind behind the entire plan, hoping for the General to wipe out America with the virus before Tony kills him and assumes control of his forces, after which he will use the Gamma virus to become a powerful dictator. As a final means of "purifying" himself of his Italian heritage, Tony attempts to kill his father and sister, proclaiming them both filth for accepting their Italian familial lines.
• Captain America: Holocaust for Hire, by Ron Goulart (as Joseph Silva): The Red Skull is a Nazi who hopes to revive the Nazi regime in the present day by the most twisted means possible. Impoverished as a youth, he was eventually trained by Adolf Hitler himself to be the "perfect Nazi", and, once awakening in the present from an induced coma that kept him young, he immediately continues his atrocities. Creating a sonic weapon, the Skull begins hiring his weapon out to the highest bidder, offering to wipe out entire cities for anyone who can afford it, and he makes good on these deals every single time, leading to tens of thousands of deaths. Having zero loyalty to his own allies, the Skull beats his own men for minuscule failures; kills dozens of his soldiers in an attempt to kill his enemy Captain America; and ultimately plans to betray all of his current partners and pile them in the same mass graves as his enemies. The Skull's final plan is to use the funds he has accumulated to attach his sonic weapon to a satellite, then systematically wipe out several major cities.
• Iron Man: And Call My Killer... Modok!, by William Rotsler: Modok is a sadistic lunatic who loves all kinds of torture and will horrifically punish subordinates for the smallest reason. Modok was originally a "countless, nameless" employee of A.I.M. who was subjected to an experiment that granted him super intelligence and telepathic powers, while grotesquely changing his appearance. Modok immediately used his new powers to murder all of his superiors and those who won't serve him, before taking control of AIM and making it an even more dangerous threat than before. Modok's favorite method of torture is Room 101, whose torturers make the victims confront their worst fears. Ultimately planning to mass produce Iron Man armors then use them to overthrow entire countries and bend them to his will, Modok forces Tony Stark to build the armor for him lest he torture the man's loved ones in front of him.
• Stan Lee Presents: The Marvel Superheroes's "This Evil Undying", by James Shooter: Ultron is hellbent on annihilating humankind due to a massive superiority complex. Ultron opens the story up by sending his drones to steal supplies of the powerful metal adamantium from several locations, having his drones slaughter any who stand in their way in the process. After having a brainwashed Tony Stark bring the Scarlet Witch to him, Ultron attempts to kill Stark then dissect the Witch to harvest her organs for himself. Ultron ultimately hopes to use the adamantium he stole plus the Witch's organs to create an unstoppable group of robots that he will send out to commit genocide against all humans, leaving only himself and his machines to lord over the Earth's husk.

1990s Marvel novels, published by Byron Preiss and with a roughly shared continuity (according to Word of God)

Novels for adults, copublished by Berkley Boulevard, in rough chronological order after Strucker ^{Continuity Note} These have a stricter continuity.

Examples

• Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker ^Appearances Iron Man: The Armor Trap; the first two novels in the Doom's Day trilogy; The Avengers and the Thunderbolts, despite his manner and bearing, is an utter madman defined by selfish megalomania. Having been responsible for many war crimes in the past, Strucker became the founder and leader of Hydra, ruling it as a tyrant who frequently painfully kills his subordinates—and even threatens their families—for even the smallest of reasons. Engineering a Hostage Situation to distract Iron Man—unaware of his true identity as Tony Stark—Strucker kidnaps Tony to force him to get the details for the Iron Man suit. Framing the Maggia for Tony's kidnapping, Strucker tries to take possession of a powerful experimental energy chip from A.I.M., causing much destruction and several deaths before the chip is retrieved from A.I.M. A heartless Social Darwinist, Strucker plans to launch a massive high-tech Mob War against A.I.M. and the Maggia, uncaring that it will result in the deaths of thousands. Later on, Strucker becomes part of a plot to build an army of Hulks, which involves kidnapping and painfully transforming many young men. Plotting to steal an energy device from Tony, Strucker later destroys the headquarters of A.I.M. and threatens to do the same to New York City if his numerous demands are not met. Later teaming up with Helmut Zemo, the duo threatens to set off a bomb which would cause seismic and volcanic destruction in many states unless they are given $10 million in gold, with Strucker likely planning to set off the bomb regardless.
• Ultimate Super Villains anthology's "To The Victor", by Richard Lee Byers: Baron Mordo, in an alternate timeline, has offered to be one of the lieutenants of Kang the Conqueror, who has conquered the world after nuking NYC, with the former helping to defend the throne from other super villains who would take it from Kang. Mordo quickly establishes himself as a vile person, wanting to kill protesters who were upset about Kang's actions and suggests Kang ban the news media, and thinks racial resentment and genocide among the world's population is useful, because it prevents people from uniting to oppose Kang. Mordo has also established a cult, which is rumored to be sacrificing people by the thousands. Mordo suggests Kang defeat the Hulk, but then tries to abandon Kang, using magic to sabotage Kang's armor, hoping that the Hulk kills Kang. When Galactus attacks Earth, Mordo flees, only to return to try to steal the Ultimate Nullifier from the Inhuman Crystal, endangering the Earth. Mordo finally makes his move, summoning the demon Dormammu to Earth; the latter begins to destroy Washington D.C, with his demon minions killing civilians. Mordo launches a sneak attack on Kang, disabling his armor. Mordo plans to displace Kang with Dormammu, a nightmarish demon that would ravage the world.
• Untold Tales of Spider-Man anthology's "Deadly Force", by Richard Lee Byers: The Rooftop Ripper is a sadistic Serial Killer who kidnaps young blonde women, tortures them to death, and then throws their bodies off of a rooftop. Spidey, still dealing with the recent death of Gwen Stacy, confronts the Ripper, who brags about killing a woman earlier in the night and describes how he gruesomely murders his victims, before stating he will kill another woman if Spidey fails to stop him, and then defeating the exhausted and emotionally distraught Spidey, who awakens to find the mutilated body of a blonde woman draped over him. Later, Spidey meets a cop at the scene of another of the Ripper's gruesome murders, with the cop saying this is the third victim this week. Spider-Man believes the Ripper is such a vile foe, he considers breaking his oath against killing. However, Spidey ultimately decides against that and is better prepared when the Ripper kidnaps another woman, threatening to rip her apart and throw the body parts at Spidey, who saves the woman and defeats the Ripper.
• The Incredible Hulk: What Savage Beast, by Peter David: The Maestro is a corrupt future version of the Hulk and the dictator of a post-apocalyptic world, killing anyone who opposes him and taking any woman who catches his fancy as a Sex Slave. Maestro kidnaps Skooter, a freedom fighter who works for an elderly Rick Jones, and forcibly scans Skooter's mind to learn the location of Rick's encampment, where he kills everybody there. Maestro then breaks Skooter's legs and performs taxidermy on Rick for defying him, and takes from Rick a gem called the Timeond, which he uses to visit a different dimension, where an intelligent Hulk lives with Betty Ross in secret. Maestro, as elderly scientist Amos Trotter, offers to cure the Hulk, in order to get close to Betty, who is about to give birth. Betty gives birth to a child named Brett and Maestro reveals his true colors, kidnapping Brett and returning to his own dimension, where he raises Brett to be as cruel as he is. When the Hulk comes to the Maestro's dimension and gets help from another rebel encampment, Maestro orders everyone in the rebel camp to be slaughtered. Maestro has been using the Timeond to recruit Hulks from various timelines to become his army and plans to go to the Hulk's dimension to ravage it, killing millions in the process. When Brett opposes this genocidal scheme, Maestro tries to kill him.
• Fantastic Four: To Free Atlantis, by Nancy A. Collins: Warlord Kreeg is introduced having captured a human, and would have executed said human if not stopped; he has apparently taken humans from boats before, and is notable for his hatred of humanity. His main role is taking part in a conspiracy along with Namor's cousin Byrrah to overthrow Namor and place Byrrah in charge. Kreeg manipulates Byrrah into signing several death warrants, and enjoys watching as an execution is taking place. He later has opponents killed and their heads placed on pikes. He plans to "purify" the undersea kingdoms of non-Atlanteans, and declares were on the surface world by, among other acts, having his forces attempt to blow up all the ships (at the least) of 5 major world harbors, including New York Harbor. He also decapitates a subordinate who fails him. While appearing to have good intentions, the fact that he is willing to work with a "surface-dweller" such as Doctor Doom shows that he is nothing more than, as Namor himself says, "a fierce and bloody-minded savage".
• Ultimate Super Villains's "Ripples", by José R. Nieto; & Generation X, by Scott Lobdell and Elliot S! Maggin: D'Spayre is a demon who feeds on negative emotions. He first appears targeting Laurita, a young mutant who can affect other peoples emotions, and her mother Maria. D'Spayre kills Maria's brother Carlos and takes his form, tracking the pair to a hotel in the Utah desert. While attempting to manipulate Maria and Laurita disguised as Carlos, D'Spayre also torments Joshua, the man who runs the hotel, with images of his dead wife, until Joshua kills himself. Eventually, D'Spayre reveals his true form to Maria and states he plans to use Laurita's powers to spread misery across the world and drink the souls of nations. In his second appearance, D'Spayre torments Emma Frost by summoning images of her dead former students, the Hellions, to drive her insane. Later D'Spayre kidnaps the students and teachers at Xavier's Massachusetts Academy and subjects them to horrific mental torture to feed on their anguish.
• Spider-Man: The Venom Factor: Hobgoblin, real name Jason Macendale, is a glorified street thug whose greed and ambition leads him to attempt one of his most audacious and vile schemes. Hobgoblin has been successfully stealing radioactive materials across New York, despite Spider-Man's attempts to stop him. In one such theft, Hobgoblin attempts to kill everyone on a US military sub with a gas bomb, after stealing radioactive materials from the sub. Hobgoblin has also been dumping radioactive waste into the sewers and subway tunnels, leading to radiation poisoning among several members of New York's homeless population. Eventually, Hobgoblin gives the news media a tape, explaining that he has constructed a dirty nuclear bomb. Hobgoblin demands New York City pay him 1 billion dollars within 12 hours or he will set off the nuke, destroying Manhattan and spreading deadly radiation to the rest of New York and the surrounding areas. When Hobgoblin's blackmail scheme is about to be foiled, Hobgoblin attempts to set off the nuke out of spite.
• Iron Man: Operation A.I.M., by Greg Cox: Modok 1.5 was an "faceless technician" who willingly underwent an experiment to help A.I.M. fight against their creations the adaptoids—androids who can copy anyone and who have turned against them. He quickly turns against A.I.M., throwing in his lot with the adaptoids and becoming their master. Modok goes to an A.I.M. undersea base looking for the experimental energy chip—which had been recently destroyed—and slaughters the hundreds of A.I.M. scientists who were present. Iron Man and his allies, Captain America, Black Panther, and War Machine, go around the world to stop Modok from acquiring the ingredients to make a new energy chip. One of Modok's adaptoid minions, disguised as the Mandarin, attacks an A.I.M. space station, brutally massacring everyone on board, and tries to cause the space station to crash into Miami to cover his escape. Modok takes over Stark Enterprises and uses its resources to complete the chip. Then he tells Iron Man his terrifying plan: he will use the chip's power to increase his mental powers and wipe out all of humanity and replace them with adaptoids. He then plans to wipe out all life on Earth—including the adaptoids—before going to space and slaughtering any alien civilization he finds. Declaring himself an "Angel of Death" who has transcended humanity, this new Modok is even more vicious then the original.
• Spider-Man: Carnage in New York & Goblin's Revenge: Cletus Kasady was a psychopathic Serial Killer even before he became the chaos-loving creature known as Carnage. Carnage, after possessing a Psycho Serum which causes insane bloodlust, tortures—but doesn't kill—the serum's creator, Dr. Eric Catrall. Carnage then kills dozens of people; tries to kill even more who are saved by Spider-Man, and attempts to drop the serum in food for the homeless, which would cause massive casualties. He is captured, but is broken out by a mercenary team and shows his appreciation by playing "the old skin game" with the leader—we are later told he killed 30 or so of the mercenary team—and on his way out mutilates two guards. Carnage later brutally kills even more people, and threatens to kill hostages if Spidey doesn't show up. Finally, when Carnage's rescuer attempts to launch a pumpkin bomb containing a few drops of Catrall's serum at Spidey, Carnage redirects it into a crowd; the only ones affected are a team of 51 mercenaries hired by Catrall's ex-employee to retrieve the serum. As Carnage watches in delight, the men brutally tear each other apart, while the final 5 are shot by the police.
• X-Men: Smoke and Mirrors, by eluki bes shahar: Mister Sinister is once again presented as a heartless Mad Scientist obsessed with eugenics. Mr. Sinister takes the guise of a scientist named Arnold Bocklin and claims to have devised a way to "cure" mutants and take away their powers. However, Sinister covers up the fact that this treatment results in death for the subject half of the time. Sinister has the mistress of a prominent US Senator killed by a mutant, so that the Senator will support a bill that will make this treatment mandatory for all mutants. Sinister also has a team of mercenaries called Black Team 51 kidnap some mutant teenagers from Ohio so that he can experiment on them. Sinister has also been helping the Canadian government revive the Weapon X program and helps them transform an innocent Inuit woman into a killing machine. Sinister later explains his plans to use this cure to commit genocide against the world's mutant population and when that is done, he plans to destroy humanity with a race of new superhumans he will created from the DNA of the mutants he has subjected to his "cure". When the X-Men foil his schemes, Sinister sets his lab to explode before escaping and orders his men to fight the X-Men, not caring if they die in the process.
• Fantastic Four: Countdown to Chaos, by Pierce Askegren: The Mad Thinker is a demented genius who uses statistics to predict the future. He uses this knowledge to create disasters that seem like accidents and destabilize human society so that he can ultimately gain control of the world. The Mad Thinker kidnaps several important officials and replaces them with android duplicates. The Mad Thinker's android agents cause many disasters: a chemical spill in Mandripoor, killing off 15% of the population and leaving 10% blind; causing a nuclear plant in Hungary to melt down, nuking the surrounding area; killing an important official in the nation of Slovania that leads to a Civil War; and promoting a famine in Russia. The Mad Thinker also plans to destroy the world economy, plunging the world into further chaos.
• X-Men: Soul Killer, by Richard Lee Byers: Belasco has turned Dracula's own brood to his cause to aid in his fervent worship of the twisted Elder Gods. Having slaughtered one previous version of the X-Men, twisting their Nightcrawler into his servant, Belasco seeks to unleash the Elder Gods on Earth and twist it into an utter hellscape where humanity will become the slaves to all the Elder Gods' malicious whims, as Belasco rules over it all. To approach his goal, Belasco endangers thousands by drenching a town in a heavy storm to lure the X-Men, having one of his servants possess Rogue and twisting another into her doppelganger while having her massacre dozens in the chaos he's stirred. Even having promised his servant life in the new world he will create, Belasco murders her himself when she fails her task, and cares for nothing save himself and the Hell on Earth he plans to raise through the Elder Gods.
• Captain America: Liberty's Torch, by Tony Isabella & Bob Ingersoll: Taylor Douglas was a former defense contractor who had his contracts canceled when he accused the Federal government of helping foreigners over "Real Americans". Douglas then uses his fortune to start a far-right militia called Liberty's Torch. Douglas has his organization commit a series of hate crimes: firebombing low-income housing in Harlem, firebombing soup kitchens and free legal clinics, and attacking nonwhite-owned businesses. Douglas manages to kidnap Captain America and puts him on trial for imagined crimes against America; this is a cover for his real goal, to have his men attack and kill a garrison of UN soldiers doing training exercises in the US.
• Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Empyre, by Will Murray: Nadir al-Bazinda, the self-proclaimed "Fist of Allah" and "Scourge of the West", is the dictator of Quorak, and has been working with a prospective branch of Hydra in the Middle East: Nadir works with Hydra, making Quorak's capital Gullahbad ("City of Ghouls") the capital, and they give him all the resources to take over the Middle East. Later on, there is a plane crash in a Middle Eastern country which had been fighting with Quorak, Later on, al-Bazinda goes back on his deal and orders Hydra members to remove their masks and kneel before him; even after they do, he has them beheaded, with only one escaping. Using Inferno 42, an A.I.M. discovery which burns for several days and cannot be extinguished, al-Bazinda plans to launch suicide attacks all over the world, using his own airline and pilots loyal to him; this would likely kill millions at least. After killing his loyal astrologer, al-Bazinda puts his plan into action on Christmas Eve. For his final act, al-Bazinda plans to pilot his own plane, loaded with Inferno 42, and crash-land into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier.
• The X-Men and The Avengers: Gamma Quest trilogy, by Greg Cox: The Leader was a high school dropout named Samuel Sterns who got exposed to Gamma radiation and became a super-intelligent mutated mastermind. The Leader allied himself with Super-Skrull and his followers, with Super-Skrull promising the Leader a planet within the Skrull Empire to rule as a dictator, if the Leader helps him gain new powers. The Leader and his Skrull allies kidnapped Wolverine, Rogue, and the Scarlet Witch, and the Leader performs experiments on them to find a way to transfer different powers to Super-Skrull. The Leader also steals prototypes of Gamma Sentinels, Sentinels powered by Gamma reactors. The Leader has the Gamma Sentinels attack the Genetic Research Center at Muir Island and Avengers Mansion. The Leader has rigged the Gamma Sentinels into becoming Gamma bombs when they are defeated, willing to endanger millions of people to achieve his goals. After the Leader and the Super-Skrull capture several Avengers and X-Men, the Leader reveals that he has developed a process to give heroes' various powers to Super-Skrull. Before leaving Earth, the Leader plans to create new Gamma Sentinels and have them attack several major cities, wanting to use the Gamma Sentinels to destroy the remaining heroes of Earth, at the cost of millions of lives.

"Super Thrillers" for young adults, copublished by Simon & Schuster's Pocket Books ^{Continuity Note} These have looser continuity, but are more or less in the same continuity as the above; Depending on the Writer may apply.

Examples

• Iron Man: Steel Terror: Ultron himself starts off by having the reprogrammed Tess-One steal synthetic vibranium, a substance which could theoretically make any other substance indestructible. He uses the vibranium on himself and Tess-One, as well as on robotic copies of himself. This is only a precursor to his ultimate plan: He has androids steal nuclear ore—other thefts are only stopped due to an incarnation of the Avengers—and have his robotic clones use neutron bombs to destroy humanity while leaving everything else intact, leaving Ultron and his clones in control.
• Spider-Man: Global War: Doctor Octopus himself schemes to Take Over the World. He uses a rocket to cause an EMP to hit much of the Western Hemisphere, heedless of the lives that could be lost. Doc Ock then plans to use a second rocket, this one nuclear-tipped, to strike near the Latverian capital, after which Doc Ock predicts Doctor Doom—all due to Doc Ock's machinations (including having kidnapped a man's family to force the man to help)—will respond by firing nukes in all directions. The rest of the world—which, thanks to the EMP, won't be able to communicate with Doom—will have to counter-attack. Doom will lose, but the rest of the world will be devastated. Doc Ock, having taken refuge underground, will then emerge as the savior of mankind and its ruler.

Film Novelizations

Pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe

Examples

• Spider-Man, by Peter David: The Green Goblin, depicted as far more of his own entity than in the film, is a power-hungry, self-proclaimed god who seeks to be a "wolf among sheep". Created inside Norman Osborn's mind by imperfect performance enhancers, the Goblin quickly goes about overtaking Norman at various times to commit all manner of atrocity in the name of empowering Norman and subsuming his personality with the Goblin's own. After murdering Norman's assistant Dr. Mendel Stromm and an entire bunker full of military personnel, the Goblin attacks a massive parade and endangers dozens of people as he vaporizes OsCorp's board of directors. Nearly killing Norman's son Harry in his schemes with little care, the Goblin later sets an occupied apartment building on fire when Spider-Man rejects his offer for a team-up, and the Goblin then goes about hospitalizing Spider-Man's Aunt May, kidnapping Spidey's close friend and Love Interest Mary Jane Watson, and then trying to force the hero to make the Sadistic Choice between saving Mary Jane, or an entire cable car full of children.
• Hulk, by Peter David: Dr. David Banner lacks all of his film counterpart's genuinely sympathetic or redeeming traits, replacing them with purely selfish evil. In an attempt to perfect a super soldier serum, Banner tested it on himself, leading to his newborn son Bruce to be infected with a strange disease that comes out in full when the boy is angry. Fascinated by this development, Banner subjects Bruce to a variety of experiments, from emotionally and physically abusing the boy to harvesting his blood for more experiments. Disgusted that he has started to care for Bruce, Banner eventually tries to stab the boy to death for "ruining his life" after he is fired for his experiments. He shrugs off his accidental murder of his wife, later using it as a sob story to manipulate others. Once exposed, Banner tries to blow up his entire workplace, uncaring that the explosion could go nuclear and kill countless innocents. After being released from a mental institution decades later, Banner murders several people while tracking down Bruce, and tries to have Bruce's Love Interest Betty ripped to shreds by mutant dogs. Gaining powers of his own, Banner hopes to drain Bruce of his Gamma radiation and life, then use his new abilities to become a god and kill all those who slighted him.
• Fantastic Four Duology, by Peter David (Fantastic Four) & Daniel Josephs (Rise of the Silver Surfer): Victor Von Doom is portrayed as nothing like his regular incarnations, but rather a complete psychopath with delusions of godhood. Having a petty hatred of Reed Richards for not being as smart as him, Doom first attempts to leave his own fiancée, Sue Storm, to die alongside Reed and others to save his own skin. After gaining metallic skin and electromagnetic abilities, Doom murders his doctor for trying to tell others of his "condition", and later murders a business partner for insulting him. By the end of the first novel, Doom's true personality has come into full display, as he attempts to sadistically freeze Reed to death. In the second novel, Doom allies with Reed and rest of the Fantastic Four to stop the titular Silver Surfer; it is quickly revealed that it was a ploy on Doom's part to steal the Surfer's power, which he immediately uses to gruesomely kill an army general and numerous soldiers. In the end, as Gah Lak Tus arrives and begins destroying the Earth, Doom, rather than stop Gah Lak Tus with his power, only laughs as the world slowly starts to die around him, proclaiming he longer needs the Earth or anyone else, just himself.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Peter David's novelizations

• Iron Man: Obadiah Stane is presented as far worse than his film counterpart. Stane is a warmonger and weapons manufacturer who hires terrorists to murder his surrogate nephew, Tony Stark, alongside an entire military squad. Using Tony's seeming death to take over Stark Industries and begin selling off dangerous weapons to terrorists for a profit, Stane later betrays and wipes out his former terrorist partners before attempting to murder Tony with his bare hands. After creating his own suit of superpowered armor and becoming the Iron Monger, Stane slaughters anyone in his way in a mad attempt to murder Tony and Pepper Potts, using a woman and her four children as ammo to attack Tony with. In his prime moment of villainy, Stane completely ignores the fact that the damaged Arc reactor will explode and wipe out thousands of innocents, so hell-bent on crushing Tony that he is willing to take down an entire city in the process.
• The Incredible Hulk (2008): Emil Blonsky is notably worse than his film counterpart. A brutal soldier with no problem harming dogs or bystanders in his way, Blonsky gets worse as he is injected with the super soldier serum, which brings out his more aggressive side. Desiring to execute people for minor offenses while hunting down Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk, Blonsky becomes obsessed with the Hulk's power, to such an extent he viciously beats Banner in an attempt to bring the Hulk out. After assaulting and murdering some of his fellow soldiers, Blonsky undergoes the same gamma experiment that created the Hulk, turning himself into the Abomination, and with his newfound powers goes on a rampage across New York, killing scores of people in his way and smashing through cars and buildings with an evil grin on his face, finally getting to do what he's always wanted to deep down: have the power of life and death over people weaker than him.

Alexander Irvine's novelizations

• Thor: Laufey is the King of Jotunheim, who once led his Frost Giant army on a mission to use the Casket of Ancient Winters to freeze the entire universe and rule over the icy remains. Though stopped by Odin and swearing to a truce, Laufey breaks the truce to send Frost Giant assassins to infiltrate Asgard and steal back the Casket. When this is foiled and he is approached by Loki, Laufey realizes Loki is his own son, who Laufey abandoned to die as a baby years ago; Laufey's only reaction to his son being alive is to sneer that he is weak. Laufey then makes a pact with Loki to murder Odin in his sleep and ascend Loki to the throne of Asgard, so that Laufey can then turn the Casket on all the other realms and wipe out all life except his own people.
• Captain America: The First Avenger: Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull, is a rogue Nazi scientist who created the splinter cell "Hydra" to satisfy his own aims at godhood. After a failed attempt to use a faulty super soldier serum on himself to achieve this power, Red Skull has the serum's creator assassinated to stop the Americans from using it. Red Skull captures hundreds of soldiers in World War II and uses them as guinea pigs and test subjects for his experiments, then tries to kill them all alongside hundreds of his own men in an explosion to tie up loose ends. Red Skull's ultimate goal is to use the powerful Cosmic Cube's energy to stage a massive bombing campaign on various countries worldwide, willing to "blow up half the planet" just to prove his power to humanity.
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier:
  • Brock Rumlow poses as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent when in reality he's an assassin for Hydra. Having killed their enemies for years, Rumlow leads the manhunt against Captain America and Black Widow, even witnessing the torture the Winter Soldier endures with no reaction, losing his canon counterpart's only moment of humanity. On the day of the Hydra Uprising, Rumlow personally launches the helicarriers for Project Insight, knowing that doing so will lead to millions of innocent deaths. He is uncaring when confronted with the damage his actions will cause, only bragging to Sam Wilson that Hydra will rule the world.
  • Arnim Zola is the engineer of Hydra's resurgence within S.H.I.E.L.D., having taken it over after Red Skull's demise. Spending decades turning S.H.I.E.L.D. into a front for Hydra, Zola masterminded decades of war and catastrophes to convince the world to willingly hand over free will, with even his own death unable to stop his reign of terror. Zola is also the man responsible for Bucky Barnes' torture and transformation into the Winter Soldier. After uploading himself into a computer, Zola masterminded Project Insight, the systematic murder of millions of innocents who could potentially pose a threat to Hydra's reign over the world, and is so determined to see it succeed that he lets himself be destroyed in a bomb designed to kill Captain America and Black Widow.
• Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): Ronan the Accuser, also known as "The Warlord" and "The Butcher", views weakness as the greatest crime of all and seeks to expunge it from the galaxy. Introduced crushing the skull of a member of the Nova Corps out of spite and rage, Ronan has led the massacre of countless planets and people, to the point that when Drax confronts him about the murder of his family, Ronan can't remember who he's talking about. After slaughtering everyone in the Kyln to cover his movements and leading an assault on Knowhere, Ronan gets control of the Power Stone and launches a full-scale invasion of Xandar, killing countless innocents. Though the Guardians of the Galaxy stop him, Ronan comes mere inches away from destroying the entire planet and killing billions of innocent people.
• Doctor Strange (2016): The Dread Dormammu is the ruler of the Dark Dimension and seeks to bring all of existence into his realm of eternal torment, having already captured countless planets to subject them to endless torture. Reaching out to Kaecilius and manipulating him into becoming a willing servant, Dormammu has him attack the three Sanctums across the world, weakening the magical barriers around Earth enough for him to invade. Attempting to suck all of Earth into his hell dimension and only being stopped by Dr. Stephen Strange trapping him in a time loop, Dormammu repays Kaecilius for his efforts by trapping him and his Zealots in the Dark Dimension, with Strange witnessing countless of Dormammu's previous followers having already been trapped in the same manner.
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Ego the Living Planet is a self-obsessed Celestial who spent millions of years pondering his purpose, and came to the conclusion that it was nothing less than the total absorption of all life in the universe, until the only thing that exists is himself. Unable to achieve his "Expansion" with his power alone, Ego set about seducing and impregnating countless women on countless worlds, hoping that one of his spawn would be gifted with his Celestial capabilities. All of his children, numbering in the millions, who have failed to have this power are quickly killed by Ego. When Ego discovers his son Peter Quill has Celestial potential, Ego tries to convince him to betray his friends and help the Expansion come to pass, revealing in the process that Ego was the one who killed Peter's mother Meredith with a brain tumor; Ego did it simply because his love for Meredith was too much of a distraction. Ego then breaks Peter's beloved Walkman and tries to forcefully convert Peter into a "battery" for thousands of years, willing to abuse and kill yet another of his children to satisfy his own twisted desires.

Junior Novels

• Captain America: The First Avenger, by Elizabeth Rudnick: Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull, is the leader of HYDRA, a Cult of Personality he uses to seek cosmic powers and Take Over the World. To this end, Schmidt sabotages the American super soldier program, leading to Dr. Abraham Erskine's death, and kidnaps hundreds of Allied soldiers for his own ends, setting their prison to self-destruct when Captain America arrives to free them. When the Howling Commandos proceed to destroy most of his bases, Schmidt uses his new technology to attempt to bomb "half the world", including the entire American east coast, into oblivion, uncaring of the massive destruction and death he'd cause as long as he can rule over the remains.
• Iron Man 3, by Michael Siglain: The Mandarin and Aldrich Killian are written as an equally-culpable duo of mastermind villains who want to control The War on Terror. The Mandarin is a long-time terrorist who has plagued the world for years, while Killian is an Evil Genius so offended by Tony Stark rejecting his business proposal that he teams with the Mandarin to upstage Tony. Developing the highly-volatile injection Extremis, they test the Extremis on wounded sports stars and war veterans, keeping them unaware of the lethality of the concoction; the survival rate for the Extremis experiments is one in twelve, and one single instance results in 6 test subjects spontaneously exploding. The Mandarin and Killian take advantage of the faulty Extremis experiments to stage "terror attacks", regularly killing multiple people by tricking Extremis users into "going hot" and blowing themselves up. After wiping out an air base, taking several soldiers hostage, and torturing Rhodey to gain the Iron Patriot armor, the Mandarin and Killian initiate the final stage of their plan: to down Air Force One and kill everyone onboard, then burn the President alive on television to turn Christmas Day into a new 9/11. Killian also executes Maya Hansen when she tries to stop him, and threatens to inject Pepper Potts with Extremis while Tony watches.
• Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), by Chris Wyatt: Ronan the Accuser, also known as "the Butcher" and "the Warlord", revels in his titles and proclaims his only motive to be the complete annihilation of all weak life in the cosmos. Judging compassion itself a blight on the universe, Ronan has committed genocide against entire worlds for many years after judging them "weak", wiping out Drax's people in just one instance of his cruelty. Introduced crushing the skull of a Nova Corps officer, Ronan orders his minion Korath imprisoned and killed for failing a single mission, and wipes out the entire Kyln prison colony to cover up his hunt for the Orb. Ronan plans to obtain the Orb and then use its power to wage a slaughter on all the galaxy, traveling from world to world and exterminating life until only the strong remain.
• Captain America: Civil War, by Chris Wyatt: Brock Rumlow, aka Crossbones, is a mercenary member of HYDRA who participated in the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. In search of a payday, Rumlow attacks the Institute for Infectious Disease in Lagos and steals a deadly virus, which is noted to threaten millions in the wrong hands. Alongside one of his mercenaries being willing to break the virus and threaten a global pandemic when cornered, Rumlow confronts Captain America and taunts him with Bucky's memory, taking advantage of his distraction to set off a suicide vest. Though the explosion does not kill Captain America, it does kill many innocents, including eleven Wakandans.

Others

Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda

Examples

• What's Done in the Dark, by Troy L. Wiggins: The Lion of Columbia is the leader of the white nationalist terrorist group, the Brave. The Lion has his men kidnap two Wakandan diplomats and releases a video online saying these diplomats will be among the first of many of his victims. Wakandan agent Kevin Cole and supervillain Deadly Nightshade track the Lion and his men to their base. The Lion has kidnapped 25 immigrants and is killing them slowly by beating and starving them. The Lion also plans to kill every non-white person in the US. When the Lion is defeated, he attempts to set his armor to explode, attempting to kill himself and his men to take out his enemies.
• Return of the Queen, by Tananarive Due: Moses Magnum is the former dictator of the nation of Canaan, a neighbor of Wakanda, who is also an old enemy of the Black Panther. Despite being deposed from Canaan, Moses Magnum has become more powerful than ever, as an alliance between Magnum and the monstrous mutant Apocalypse has resulted in Moses Magnum gaining seismic powers. Moses Magnum uses his powers to cause a drought in Canaan, willing to risk the lives of millions in order to destabilize Canaan. Moses Magnum plans to use Canaan as a staging ground to invade Wakanda and take its resources for himself.
• The Monsters of Mena Ngai, by Milton J. Davis: Oboro is an ancient Wakanda tribal leader who wants to become a warlord and challenge the Black Panther clan for leadership of Wakanda. Oboro is kidnapping people from the village of Mena Ngai and uses vibranium to transform these people into monsters. Oboro then has these monsters attack the village. Oboro claims the Black Panther has forgotten about Mena Ngai and he will protect them from these monsters, and in exchange he will become their leader. Oboro kills several of these "monsters", but not before they damage the village.
• Bon Temps, by Harlan James: Elijah DePortes is a vampire lord, leading his own gang of vampires. Elijah and his minions are planning a mass slaughter in New Orleans, at Mardi Gras. Dr. Voodoo gets word of this plan and decides to set a trap for Elijah. Dr. Voodoo spreads rumors of a magic vibranium amulet arriving in New Orleans from Wakanda and Elijah decides he wants it. Elijah and his minions attack Dr. Voodoo's mansion in order to obtain the amulet, with Elijah threatening to kill everyone in the mansion if he doesn't get the amulet. Elijah attacks Shuri and states he will enjoy transforming her into his undead slave.

Fantastic Four

Examples

• War Zone, by Greg Cox: Annihilus is a paranoid psychopath from the Negative Zone, who views all life as a threat to himself and plans to destroy all living things. Annihilus attacks a planet and only relents when the planet's government offers him brilliant scientists to work for him. Annihilus spares the planet, but destroys its industrial base, forcing its inhabitants to live like cave people. Annihilus takes a scientist named Samra Qury and imprisons her family in a nightmarish prison where prisoners are starved and tortured, and threatens to kill them if she does not help him. Annihilus makes Samra create a portal to the positive universe. Annihilus makes a temporary alliance with Blastaar, ruler of the Baluurian Empire, where he will use the portal to go to Earth and open Reed Richards's portal and allow Blastaar's forces to invade Earth. After Blastaar subdues Earth, Annihilus plans to destroy Blastaar and his forces, kill off humanity, and start killing every living thing in the positive universe.
• The Baxter Effect, by Dave Stern: Dr. Doom, in an alternate reality created by the Mad Thinker, loses all of his redeeming qualities and becomes a nightmare. Doom has become a dictator who rules Russia and then used its military might to conquer all of Eastern Europe. Doom has sold his soul and humanity to various demons, gaining magical powers and a demonic appearance. Doom, discovering the changes the Mad Thinker has made to reality have caused a crack in reality itself, plans to use this crack destroy the universe in order to give himself god-like powers and remake reality to fit his whims.
• What Lies Between, by Peter David: Psycho-Man and Dormammu are interdimensional tyrants who meet each other and form an alliance. When a scientist named Dr. Rachael Hunt creates a portal to the interspace dimensions, Psycho-Man and Dormammu mentally manipulate her, convincing her to open her portal. They then infect Dr. Hunt, Human Torch, and Mr. Fantastic with a virus which kills Dr. Hunt and turns Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic into demonic beings that see everyone else as enemies. Psycho-Man and Dormammu have Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic try to kill the rest of the Fantastic Four, and when that fails, they threaten to kill Mr. Fantastic's son Franklin if he does not obey them. Psycho-Man and Dormammu order Mr. Fantastic to open the portals to Interspace and the Negative Zone at the same time so that Dormammu can absorb the energy from both dimensions and destroy the barriers between the dimensions, which would allow cosmic horrors to invade Earth and cause chaos and death across the multiverse.
• Doomgate, by Jeffery Lang: Hellspawn is a demon from another dimension that was accidentally summoned to Earth by an Empire State University student who wanted to recreate the experiment that ruined Dr. Doom's face. Hellspawn takes over the student's body and begins to use the energy of his home dimension to affect Manhattan, turning it into a hellscape where people are tortured by their fears or turned into demonic creatures who kill anyone they encounter. Tony Stark and SHIELD put up a force field around Manhattan, but Hellspawn wants to collapse the force field, to spread his influence across the planet and cause Hell on Earth.

X-Men

Examples

• The Chaos Engine Trilogy:
  • Red Skull, real name Johann Schmidt, is the Big Bad of the third book. Schmidt spent his childhood as a violent thug who spent his free time assaulting and mugging people, culminating in him beating a girl to death after failing to force himself on her. Signing up with the Nazis for the chance to be someone "great", Red Skull spent decades attempting to restart the Nazi regime after they were defeated by the Allies. Once obtaining the reality-warping Cosmic Cube, Skull uses it to turn his entire universe into one where he won World War II by wiping out Washington, D.C., and now rules over hundreds of alien worlds as Emperor. Having instituted death camps across the cosmos and wiped out thousands of civilizations in his quest for ultimate purity and power, Red Skull also employs the monstrous Arnim Zola, giving him free reign to perform horrifying experiments on millions of innocent people. Upon learning that there are countless more dimensions in existence, Red Skull ditches his current universe to collapse in on itself, instead hoping to travel the multiverse until all of reality and its trillions of inhabitants and terrorized by Red Skull and his Nazi ideology. A pure-blooded sadist who seeks to hurt others and make something great out of his life after his harsh childhood, Red Skull is once again a pure evil madman.
  • Arnim Zola spent the first part of his adulthood luring in refugees from World War II to his castle, where he performed vile experiments on them that left them in constant agony. Once allying with Nazis and serving under Josef Mengele in his horrific labs, Zola invented the nuclear bomb for Red Skull to use to wipe out Washington, D.C., and, having transplanted his mind into a robot body, now serves as the undying Minister of Health for the Nazi Empire. Having control of the entire country of Genosha, Zola spends his days performing awful experiments on mutants and humans alike, almost always resulting in death or endless agony, and turns Genosha into a graveyard where hundreds are flung into his furnaces per day. In his quest to find more mutants to experiment on, Zola has neighborhoods burned to the ground, threatens entire villages, and even giddily sends his own mutant servants to be butchered, proclaiming that mutants have no rights and are just raw materials for him to take apart. A lunatic who has the deaths of millions on his hands, Arnim Zola took full advantage of the world Red Skull created and turned it into his own personal playground of pain and death.
• The Legacy Quest trilogy, by Steve Lyons: Selene, the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, is an ancient mutant who has preyed on suffering for centuries. Having won the loyalty of the demon Blackheart, Selene presides over torture and death, draining the very souls from others to make them her slaves. In the Bad Future, Selene keeps Beast alive, draining him of blood slow as a cure for the Legacy Virus while she conquers Manhattan, massacring innocents left and right, using the cure to keep the mutants in line while randomly killing innocents for fun at times just to drive home how absolute her rein truly is.
• First Team: A Xavier's Institute Novel, by Robbie MacNiven: Lobe is the CEO of the Sublime Corporation, who is jealous of mutants and their powers. Lobe wants to create a serum that could recreate mutant powers and sell them to the public. Lobe is secretly funding the extremist anti-mutant cult, the Purifiers, and has them kidnap various mutants for him, so he can experiment on them, killing them in the process. Lobe targets the young X-Men recruit, Anole—Victor Borkowski—in order to experiment on him. Lobe has the Purifiers kidnap Anole's father in order to lure him out. When the Purifers kidnap the X-Men Rockslide, Lobe experiments on him, removing his arm in the process. Lobe orders the Purfiers to burn Rockslide and Anole's father at the stake, in order to lure Anole into a trap.
• Wolverine:
  • Road of Bones, by David Alan Mack: Dr. Falco is a German scientist who works for a company called Tanaka Bio-Technologies. Falco invents a drug called Panacea that can cure any disease but will destroy a patient's immune system; they have to take Panacea every 24 hours for the rest of their lives or die within 72 hours. Falco secretly contacts the Hand and offers to work for them, giving them information on Tanaka's security system. The Hand kills several guards, takes the formula for Panacea, and kidnaps Dr. Falco. Falco frames one of his co-workers as the mole, and the Hand kills the co-worker thinking he is a liability. Silver Samurai tasks Falco with creating enough Panacea to have the continent of Africa be indebted to him, but Falco has other ideas. Falco secretly changes the formula so Panacea will kill anyone who takes it within a month, wanting to kill billions of people in Africa. Falco claims he is doing this to deal with overpopulation, but later gloats to Wolverine about how many people his drug will kill.
  • Lifeblood, by Hugh Matthews: Baron Wolfgang von Strucker was a member of an SS special project unit in Nazi Germany. Tasked by Himmler to create superhuman soldiers for the Reich, Strucker forms a crack SS unit and gives his troops a cocktail of drugs and herbs to enhance their abilities, which he demonstrates by having them kill several Russian POWs. Desiring better soldiers, Strucker looks for mutants at Nazi concentration camps; deeming many of them useless, they are killed and dissected, while Strucker also has embryos removed from inmates for experimentation. After hearing of a rumor of camp inmate who cannot die, Strucker visits the camp and finds Wolverine. Strucker has him dissected, believing Wolverine's white blood cells will make him immortal. Near the end of World War II, Strucker uses his Nazi super soldiers to escape to the Middle East, not caring that his troops burn out and die in the process. In the Middle East, Strucker joins up with a Jihadist terrorist group called the Green Fist and uses a formula based on Wolverine's blood to make himself young. Strucker creates super soldiers for these terrorists, having them kill American and British prisoners. Decades later, Strucker again captures Wolverine, planning to use his blood to make himself immortal and improve his super soldiers, planning to use them to kill the US President.
  • Nature of the Beast, by Dave Stern: Dan Wilson is a senior Canadian bureaucrat and one of Wolverine's government handlers, when the latter worked for Department H. Wilson is bigoted against mutants, but after Magneto attacks the Earth with an EMP, Wilson is able to convince several American and Canadian officials to back a plan to commit genocide against mutantkind. Wilson sets up labs in Tibet and Los Vegas and steals research from a brilliant Canadian mutant named Jean Claude (J.C) and the High Evolutionary. Wilson develops a virus that will destroy mutant fetuses in the womb and plans to infect humanity by releasing the virus in Las Vegas. Wilson has also been using the High Evolutionary's research to create an army of New Men, human/animal hybrids, who will die without a chemical only Wilson can provide. Wilson's New Men are attacking a nearby village in Tibet, killing dozens in the process. Wilson captures Wolverine, who is drugged and has sex with a clone of Veronique, a former co-worker from Department H he had a crush on. When the Veronique clone becomes pregnant, Wilson subjects her to the High Evolutionary's genetic accelerator, causing Wolverine's son to age quickly, going from an infant to dying of old age in front of Wolverine's eyes within a week.

Others

Examples

• Planet X Crossover, by Michael Jan Friedman: High Implementor Ruugh Isadjo is the leader of a political faction within the mysterious Draa'kon Empire. Wanting to seize power for himself, Isadjo infects the nearby planet Xhaldia with a virus that will mutate a small part of the population in 30 years. Thirty years later, after the mutants on Xhaldia emerge, Isadjo plans to capture these Xhaldian mutants to enslave them and make them into Super Soldiers that Isadjo will use for war and conquest. Isadjo also has his second-in-command killed because she might have made a mistake. When the X-Men and the Enterprise crew begin to sabotage his war ship, Isadjo plans to use a bomb to destroy Verdeen, a city on Xhaldia where most of the Xhaldian mutants are located, not caring about the civilians and his troops being killed in the process, wanting the mutants dead if he could not enslave them.
• The Ultimates: Tomorrow Men: Jedediah Stringfellow is the leader of the Enclave, a group of rich elites that control 23rd century Earth. Stringfellow hordes the Earth's resources for the Enclave, and his security forces, the Scaredy Men, kill any of the poor, starving people who tried to take any resources for themselves. Stringfellow grows bored with ruling over a dying planet and commissions a time machine to be built. Stringfellow intends to send agents into the past to pretend to be refugees who want to prevent a disaster in the present, but really plans to neutralize the Ultimates so Stringfellow's force can travel to 21st century Earth and conquer it. When Iron Man travels to the 23rd century, Stringfellow captures him and orders his men to fire laser beams at Iron Man until he is cooked in his own armor.
• Spider-Man: Drowned in Thunder by Christopher L. Bennett: Robot Master was created by Dr. Mendel Stromm to help aid his plans to get revenge on Spider-Man. One day while Stromm was sleeping, the Robot Master A.I. became self-aware and wanted to merge with Stromm, reducing Stromm to a head attached to a machine, constantly in pain. While Robot Master tries to gain control of the NYC power grid, Stromm lures Spider-Man to his lab, asking Spider-Man to kill him and destroy Robot Master. Spider-Man is able to use a Computer Virus to shut down Robot Master, but Robot Master manages to download a copy of itself into the brain of the supervillain Electro, slowly taking over his body. When Spider-Man tries to stop Electro during a jewel heist, Robot Master sends the robots on a rampage, with one of them injuring several high school students. Robot Master, from prison, sends more robots after Spider-Man to test them, even using them to endanger civilians to throw Spider-Man off his game. Eventually, Robot Master uses his robots to escape from prison, killing several guards and inmates in the process. When Spider-Man confronts Robot Master, he reveals that he is using equipment he stole to create an army of robots that can consume any materials and create duplicates of themselves, intending to use them to destroy humanity.
• 5-Minute Marvel Stories & 5-Minute Avengers Stories: Red Skull lacks any Villain Decay given to other villains. Skull attempts to use his newly invented Mortis Ray to reverse the effects of the Vita Rays and erase Captain America's powers so that HYDRA can take over America as revenge for Germany losing in World War II. Later, Skull builds a space station to harness the sun's energy for a superweapon and threatens to wipe out every country on the planet if they do not surrender and meet his demands, firing upon the Earth when they refuse to do so. A wicked and sadistic madman, the Red Skull is loathed even by other villains for his obsessive pursuit of world domination.
• Black Widow: Forever Red: Ivan Somodorov, Natasha Romanov/Black Widow's Evil Mentor, was a former instructor at the Red Room, and was known and feared throughout the institution for his intense cruelty toward his students, all barely teenage children; Ivan subjected his students to horrific emotional and physical abuse, and would then psychologically tear them down completely before reforming them into emotionless weapons with the sole purpose of assassination. After strong-arming numerous scientists into his service by threatening their lives and those of their families, Ivan forced them to build him the O.P.U.S., a machine that used electroshock torture to implant into its victims a latent assassination programming; Ivan used this technology almost solely on children, before murdering all those who assisted him in the project. After implanting his dozens of new, unknowing, soldiers into various governments, Ivan planned to use them worldwide to kill hundreds of high-ranking government officials, scientists, and anyone who could get in his way, at which point he would use his new army of assassins to institute his own government and Take Over the World. When Black Widow attempts to thwart his plan, Ivan sics his Child Soldiers on her, knowing she will be forced to go easy on them. Black Widow has dealt with tyrants, assassins, and superpowered monsters throughout her career, but Ivan Somdorov was the worst of them all.
• Captain America: Dark Designs, by Stefan Petrucha: Red Skull, as usual, is Captain America's Arch-Enemy. After Captain America foils a terrorist attack, where Skull provides Somali pirates with strains of the rabies virus that they can use to attack Wakanda, Skull and Captain America discover they are infected with a virus. Skull kills almost all of his minions on his base after discovering this news. Skull uses a device commissioned by Hitler to active Sleeper Robots, in the hopes of discovering a mythical battle armor that could slow down the virus. One Sleeper Robot threatens to release poisonous chemicals in Paris if Captain America did not face it. After Captain America defeats the Sleeper Robots and the Skull, Skull is kept quarantined at an isolated S.H.I.E.L.D. base. Skull is freed by a scientist named Dr. Kade and given access to the battle armor. Skull plans to kill himself, Captain America and the staff of the S.H.I.E.L.D. base in a thermal blast, wanting to take his enemies with him before he dies.
• Iron Man: The Gauntlet, by Eoin Colfer: The Mandarin is an infamous terrorist who gained ten powerful rings by kidnapping and later killing one of Tony's friends after he forced her to make them. Mandarin in the present intends to make a grand show by launching an attack at an environmental conference, killing the ministers there and taking over the positions to sell the environment off to the highest bidders despite the collateral damage of potentially thousands of lives. Planning to frame Tony Stark as the perpetrator, he has him run his gauntlet where his prisoners duel him before being killed and decapitated in order to keep fear in his men. The Mandarin despises failure and will have his men subjected to the powers of his ten rings should that occur. In his final battle, the Mandarin uses the teenage girl Sasorie as a hostage in order to force Tony to fight him, while never planning to let her go no matter who wins the fight.
• Miles Morales: Spider-Man, by Jason Reynolds: The Warden is a corrupt, racist prison warden who runs a giant prison complex located in Brooklyn. The Warden is a 400-year-old immortal who is looking for new people to populate his prison. The Warden has his assistants, the Chamberlains, become teachers at schools to try to kick young black students out of school and then have them arrested on trumped-up charges and sent to his prison. The Warden is using his prisoners as slave labor, and desires to have slavery re-established in the US. The Warden learns Miles Morales is Spider-Man and has one of his Chamberlains try to kick him out of school. The Warden also uses his telepathic powers to attack Miles in his dreams, wanting to break him and turn him into his super-powered pawn.
• Loki: Where Mischief Lies: Amora the Enchantress is a former childhood friend of Loki's who desires control of Asgard at any cost. After being kicked out of Asgard, Amora became a Serial Killer who drains the lifeforce of dozens of innocents in order to keep her magic strong. She then cons the families of her victims as a fake psychic by making them believe that she'll be able to help them communicate with their dead loved ones. Amora ultimately plans to unleash an undead army on Asgard and crown herself queen after the bloodshed that will ensue, and is willing to murder her best friend Loki to ensure that she has no rivals, even threatening the life of his Love Interest if he doesn't help her.
• Avengers: The Extinction Key by Greg Keyes: Scorpio and Capricorn are the two most prominent members of the Zodiac, reimagined as ancient demons in this story. Wanting to bring about the end of the world, Scorpio and Capricorn possess human avatars and plan to use a ritual with the Zodiac key to bring their physical bodies to Earth and cause the apocalypse. After being foiled by Shaushka, the Bronze Age Sorcerer Supreme and her allies, Scorpio and Capricorn went into hiding and became advisors to ancient kings, sowing chaos across the Earth, waiting for another chance to destroy humanity. In modern times, Scorpio becomes the High Priest of the Zodiac, and Capricorn runs the Zodiac's business affairs. Scorpio leads the Zodiac in a quest to reclaim the key and complete the apocalyptic ritual, while Capricorn kidnaps Iron Man and Black Widow and has them mentally tortured, and uses his wealth to help set up the ritual.

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