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Evil Genius

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Spinnerette: Dr. Universe, wait! At least tell me something! You were a respected scientist, your work on the Cherenkovkirby Reactor was going to benefit all of mankind! Why would you turn into a supervillain? WHY?!
Dr. Universe: I read an Ayn Rand novel.
— Spinnerette
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The Evil Genius is obviously intelligent, and is the one building the Wave-Motion Gun or shipping the nukes into the country or resurrecting the Lost Superweapon or what have you. This character is usually the one that will demonstrate how to use a particular MacGuffin. They're usually a planner of some sort, a specialist in a particular field (such as computers or electronics), a fixer of some variety, (or a combination), so they're in the best position to deliver the goodies to the Evil Overlord. In medieval fantasy settings, this role is often played by an evil strategist, rogue/spymaster, or a dark wizard (provided they aren't also the Big Bad). The Evil Genius is the most likely person to be the Big Bad because they are the brains behind the Evil Plan.

Although they tend to be the most intelligent, that intelligence usually never translates into political savvy, business acumen or leadership ability all of which rely more on street smarts, people skills and charisma than just technical knowledge. As a result, the evil genius is usually never the top dog. But he's still closer to the top than most. An evil genius might occasionally be savvy enough to realize that being a "number two" or "number three" is a lot more secure and less stressful than being the top dog.

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Just like his Good Counterpart in the Five-Man Band (which is The Smart Guy), this character is very frequently described as physically unimposing.

Prone to being Bad Boss'd when the ridiculously circuitous plan inevitably fails or if they are no longer needed and viewed as a liability. Whether this leads to a Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal (and by proxy a Heel–Face Turn) is another matter.

An Evil Genius who is also the Big Bad will frequently be The Chessmaster and/or a Manipulative Bastard, maybe even to the point of Magnificent Bastardry. They can also show up as members of a Quirky Miniboss Squad, but then are usually made significantly less effective by virtue of their quirkiness. They often are also Morally Ambiguous Doctorate. Some even qualify as Four Eyes, Zero Soul. Compare Mad Scientist, another villainous and scientifically gifted character type that sometimes overlaps with this one.

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Not to be confused with the Diabolical Mastermind simulation game Evil Genius, nor the books by Catherine Jinks, which involve a Academy of Evil aimed at creating these, or the Netflix series about one of the most infamous bank heists in history.

Examples

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Johan Liebert from Monster. He's extremely smart, intellectual, and a sociopathic Serial Killer.
  • One Piece makes occasional mention of the World Government's top scientist, Dr. Vegapunk. He is one of the most speculated-upon characters in the manga. Apparently, he's an Omnidisciplinary Scientist, having created a cyborg with Devil fruit powers (Kuma), multiple copies of said cyborg armed with laser weaponry (the Pacifista), catalogued all known devil fruits, revolutionized the power of the sea as uses of Seastone, and figured out a way for inanimate objects to "eat" Devil fruits. For all this, events around the Time Skip have alluded to Vegapunk being morally ambiguous, and truly any statement of him being "evil" before then was an assumption. During the Time Skip, Franky, having burned off all of his skin, rebuilds his body using Vegapunk's technology
    • To a lesser extent, Gecko Moria's right hand man Dr Hogback, a surgeon of legendary skill who assisted Moria in creating a zombie army.
    • Vegapunk's rival, Ceasar Clown, is stated by all parties except his underlings as being evil and then, only because he shifted the blame for his own atrocities onto Vegapunk, and was arrested by the world government for sabotaging the science team's human experimentation. His arc shows that his reputation is fully deserved
  • Uno of Lyrical Nanoha, who is known as the second brain of Jail Scaglietti and acts as Mission Control for the Numbers. Jail himself easily qualifies as Big Bad variation.
  • John Smith (no, that's not an alias) from Mai-Otome, with a dash of Mad Scientist thrown in.
  • Solf J. Kimblee from Fullmetal Alchemist. On top of being a standout in a World of Badass, he's as sharp and devious as they come with photographic memory to boot.
  • Shader in Chrono Crusade serves as the Sinner's main techie. Aion, the Big Bad, has elements as this as well, considering he's a bit of a chessmaster.
  • Herr Doktor in Hellsing is the evil genius for Millennium.
  • Hakase in Negima! Magister Negi Magi probably would have played this part in Chao's evil army if not for the fact that Chao was also an Evil Genius of an even higher degree. Still, this was essentially her role in that she was the one overseeing the ritual to remove the world's Weirdness Censor, not actually taking part in the battle
  • Naruto has Orochimaru with Sasori for the Akatsuki after Pain's death Tobi the Big Bad takes the role until Kabuto joins and is this for Tobi's akatsuk army.
  • Professor Nanba (or is it Kimba?) is the Evil Genius who gives Butch and Cassidy orders in Pokémon.
  • Kururu from Sgt. Frog lives and breathes Evil Genius, though he's technically with the good guys.
  • Sosuke Aizen from Bleach combines this with Big Bad (as well as Manipulative Bastard, Magnificent Bastard, The Chessmaster, etc).
  • Koshiro Kokujo of Duel Masters was this, or so he said.
    Kokujo: I know everything!
    Shobu: How's that?
    Kokujo: Because I'm an evil genius!
  • The Doctor from Black Cat is an Evilutionary Biologist and psychopath who serves as Creed's go to guy for technology and weapons, while doing double duty as a villainous example of The Medic.
  • Hoji from Rurouni Kenshin is Shishio's Strategist, logistician, and all around Psycho Supporter.
  • Cassius from Kimba the White Lion tends to make the Evil Plans for his boss Claw.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Nicol, The Dark Chick, also took on this role to the Antivillainous Le Creuset team, relying on stealth, caution and an Invisibility Cloak. It only made him more of an outcast on a team of guys who wouldn't know subtle if it bit them in the ass. One could argue that Big Bad Rau Le Creuset also plays this role.
  • As the Only Sane Man among a group of Axe-Crazy Tykebombs, Sting Oakley fullfills this role for Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny's Extended, since he's the only one with any common sense. He leads the group in Neo's absence, does his best to keep Auel and Stella out of trouble, and is the one who usually has to call retreat. The ZAFT team lacked a specific Evil Genius; fortunately, Big Bad Gilbert Durandal was able to handle both positions.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Chief Engineer Tsubarov was this to the Romefeller Foundation. A brilliant technician, he invented the remote-controlled Mobile Dolls whose useage consumes much of the subsequent plot; he's also one of the few men at the OZ base who realises that using the captive Gundam pilots as test subjects might be a bad idea. Curiously, he had a personality that one would more typically associate with The Brute being a thuggish Jerkass and Smug Snake who loathed pacifism, had No Indoor Voice, dealt with problems by applying as much brute force as possible, and went out in the midst of a truly epic Villainous Breakdown, ranting about how he was invincible.
  • The original Evil Genius in a Gundam series was actually Princess Kycilia Zabi. She's one of the Principality of Zeon's better strategists and admirals, is in charge of Newtype research and the new mobile suits and mobile armours that come with it, and on top of it she's a Lady of War who's not afraid of getting her hands dirty if she has to.
  • Alister/Amalda was this to Dartz's group of henchmen in Yu-Gi-Oh!. Nesbitt plays this role to the Big 5, being their tech guy and weapons expert; oddly enough, he's perhaps their poorest duelist.
  • Eyeshield 21: Jerk Jock Clifford D. Louis is The Strategist and Evil Genius of the American Pentagram, in addition to being a member of the Big Bad Duumvirate alongside Mr. Don. Youichi Hiruma and Reiji Marco could also be considered evil geniuses, with the former being an Antiheroic Guile Hero and the latter his Evil Counterpart and the Big Bad of the Kantou Regionals Arc.
  • Fairy Tail gives a few examples.
  • The Phantom Troupe in Hunter × Hunter have Shalnark, the one guy in the team who's adept with computers, both how they work and how they're used. If the Phantom Troupe encounters a problem with computers or computerized technology such as video game systems, they turn to Shalnark, who, if he can't offer a solution or explanation immediately, will attempt some Hollywood Hacking to get the information they need. Fittingly, the superpowers unique to him derive entirely from his cell phone that he created along with his personal wireless network.

    Comic Books 
  • In Superman comics, Lex Luthor was originally this trope with shades of Big Bad. Post-Crisis the roles were inverted: Luthor was a Big Bad with shades of Evil Genius. He also has some other more conventional Evil Geniuses on his payroll, e.g. Dr. Teng, Sydney Happersen, Dabney Donovan, and occasionally the Toyman.
    • The Intergang mob had Dabney Donovan himself as their Evil Genius.
    • The Cyborg Superman builds all of the technology used by the Sinestro Corps, including the Manhunter robots who recharge yellow rings and the space station they used as a base.
  • Captain Marvel a.k.a. SHAZAM's enemy Dr Sivana is another early textbook example of this. He's the guy in the picture above. When he's in teams, he finds himself here.
  • Captain America foe Red Skull is often depicted this way.
  • Spider-Man has described Doctor Octopus as one, and seeing as Ock is a brilliant engineer and inventor, he fits, although unlike most, whenever he's part of a group, he's usually the one in charge.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles baddie Baxter Stockman can be viewed as a kind-of failed evil genius in most versions.
  • Darth Maladi from Star Wars: Legacy is both a Sith alchemist and the head of Sith Intelligence. She's generally portrayed as one of the most cunning Sith characters in the comic, but seems to enjoy her schemes and experiments more for their own sake than from the hope of doing anything constructive with them.
    • Also Vul Isen as he is believed to be a scientist. He never accepts anything without a proof.
  • In All Fall Down, IQ is VERY bitter about not being one of these anymore.
  • Batman has The Riddler, who proves to the biggest mental challenge out of his Rogues Gallery.
  • Wonder Woman:
    • Wonder Woman (1942): Byrna was a genius Mad Scientist and Robot Master who sees human worth only in terms of what she can get/take from them and is the only known character to find a way to subvert the Venus Girdles' imposed happiness in subjugation and spent her time on Reformation Island secretly rebuilding and improving her arsenal.
    • Doctor Cyber was a Mad Scientist Diabolical Mastermind, and all around evil intellectual set on world domination pre-Crisis. Her threat and intelligence level took a major hit Post-Crisis.
  • Zodon from PS238 is a five-year old version of this. His metahuman super-intelligence has given him an adult vocabulary (not to mention sense of cynicism), an encyclopedic knowledge of American law and an ability to build a doom laser out of some tinfoil and scaffolding, though on many levels he's still a five-year-old mentally.
  • The Phantom Blot counfounds the law with his mixture of criminal and Gadgeteer Genius, committing impossible crimes with unheard-of technology or hatching such a complicated plot it takes most of the story for Mickey Mouse to figure out what the real Evil Plan is and who's behind it. He's also been shown to be proficient in hypnosis, hacking, and even levitation, Depending on the Writer.

    Fan Works 
  • Izuku Midoriya in Mastermind: Strategist for Hire operates as the titular Mastermind who sells plans for thefts and murders to anyone who can pay his fee. He has some fighting skill but he learned mostly so he's not helpless if confronted by heroes or doublecrossed.
  • The Secret Return of Alex Mack: Maggie Walsh is quite possibly the smartest person in history, able to achieve miracles of Mad Science, and judging by her recent efforts, she's apparently trying to wipe out humanity.

    Films — Animated 
  • Despicable Me: Dr. Nefario to the anti-villainous Gru, designing the various gadgets and vehicles used by Gru (and also pulls double-duty as The Dragon). A cameo in Minions reveals he created Gru's Weapon of Choice, the Freeze Ray.
  • The Great Mouse Detective:
    • Hiram Flaversham is of the Reluctant Mad Scientist variety, as a toymaker kidnapped by Professor Ratigan and forced to build a robotic decoy of the Mouse Queen (an analogue to Queen Victoria) to help Ratigan usurp the throne of England because Ratigan has threatened his daughter.
    • Professor Ratigan is of the Big Bad variety, as he's the mastermind of a complex scheme to usurp the throne of England via killing and replacing the Mouse Queen and ultimately force everyone in Mousedom to submit to his rule.
  • Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2 doubles as this and the Big Bad.
  • Jumba Jookiba from Lilo & Stitch likes to call himself this, although the "evil" part is eventually subverted. He was even smarter as an "evil genius child prodigy!" And adorable.
    Baby!Jumba: "Haha! Ewil! Ewil!"
  • Sir Hiss to Prince John in Robin Hood. He is Prince John's main advisor, and enabled John to take the throne by hypnotizing his elder brother King Richard into going off on a crusade. When he isn't advising Prince John he's counting taxes.
  • In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Kingpin serves as the Big Bad, but the genius behind the collider is Doctor Olivia Octavius, aka. Doctor Octopus, who remains an unrepentant villain throughout the film.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter. He discovered and implemented the Horcrux system himself to a horrifying degree. Though he does carry the Villain Ball occasionally.
    • Barty Crouch Jr. is a better example. He replaces a teacher, kills his father, and lures Harry away from potential protectors, and no one realizes until nearly the last moment what he's up to.
  • Professor Moriarty, the Arch-Enemy of Sherlock Holmes, is described by Holmes himself as "a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker." Moriarty uses his brilliant mind to run his criminal organization,and, unlike many other evil geniuses, he is clearly the boss.
  • In The Elenium, by David Eddings, Krager is this to Annias and Martel. Annias himself is this to Azash.
  • Among the villains in Eddings' The Redemption of Althalus we have Argan, a Smug Snake and Sinister Minister who does most of Daeva's talking for him, and has a distinctive rivalry with Ghend.
  • In The Witcher, we have Vilgefortz. He is easily the most smart and powerful wizard in the North, and he let it get into his head.
  • Tyrion Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire, an educated, smart, and calculating dwarf sort of qualifies. However, he wasn't really an ally of House Lannister and he was enemies with Tywin. He embodies this trope in his own organization, in which he is also the Big Bad. He isn't really that evil though.
  • The Artemis Fowl series is full of these, which makes sense, since the protagonist himself is a Teen Genius, and that requires antagonists to match. We have Artemis himself in book 1 (in his status as Villain Protagonist), Opal Koboi in book 2, Jon Spiro in book 3, Opal Koboi again in book 4, Minerva in book 5, Opal Koboi AGAIN in book 6. Turnball Root in book 7, and Opal yet AGAIN in book 8.
  • Transformers: TransTech Shockwave, master of Playing with Syringes, is a self-proclaimed "morally ambiguous" genius.
  • The Star Wars Expanded Universe gives us Bevel Lemelisk, chief designer of the Death Star, although the actual designers were superintelligent alien children whose planet was being held hostage.
  • Trapped on Draconica: Lucia's the one with the magical know-how for the evil beasts and teleportation spells and other magic to power Gothon's army.
  • Several members of the Forsaken in The Wheel of Time, including Ishamael (specializes in philosophy, theology, and metaphysics), Graendal (specializes in personal manipulation) and Demandred (specializes in millitary strategy).
  • The main character of Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain is a Mad Scientist who comes up with both most of the technology and most of the plans her team uses.
  • In Agatha Christie's story "The Face of Helen", the villain is a brilliant chemist who specialized in poison gas during World War I, and attempts to murder the object of his unrequited love with an elaborate death trap involving a glass sphere full of gas and a Glass-Shattering Sound.
  • In the Malazan Book of the Fallen, Iskaral Pust's competence is the only reason Shadowthrone keeps him around. His results reinforce this decision: if something needs to be done, Pust will somehow manage to do it, obstacles notwithstanding. He even manages to become The Magus of High House Shadow, personally appointed to the task by Shadowthrone himself, by merit alone.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: A rather common henchman type for villains.
    • Ian Quinn for the Centipede Group, as the man responsible for creating a number of supervillains with the tech his company gets its hands on.
    • Toshiro Mori, a HYDRA scientist who designed the Splinter bombs synthesized from the Inhumans' obilisk that can turn a man to ash.
    • Wendell Levi is a Techno Wizard broken out of prison by Dr. Calvin Zabo to help get revenge on Agnet Coulson for killing Daniel Whitehall (Zabo wanted to kill Whitehall himself).
    • Holden Radcliffe for Hive as a scientist who is coerced into creating a method of empowering normal people into Inhumans that Hive can control.
  • The campy 60's Batman (1966) series had lots of villains who were Canon Foreigners but one of the few who was entertaining enough to make return appearances was the Evil Genius Egghead, played by Vincent Price (who often commented publically how much he enjoyed playing the role).
  • Breaking Bad is a Deconstruction of this in a more realistic setting.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel:
    • Pretty much all of the Big Bads both the Scoobies and Angel Investigations go up against - though definitely except Glory. Much straighter variations though are Warren Mears and Angelus. While both are Manipulative Bastards Warren is a more straight-up Mad Scientist, while Angelus is The Chessmaster.
    • Toru especially - he builds a device capable of projecting a hologram, a giant Mecha-Dawn, and a device capable of casting a spell worldwide to Depower the Slayers.
  • Doctor Who: Davros, creator of the Daleks. Though crippled with only one working arm, he created the most dangerous life form the universe has ever seen and set them on a path of genocide against all other forms of life in existence. His intellect is so great that the Daleks often will refuse to kill him, despite him being an "inferior" creature by their doctrine, simply because his intelligence is too useful to them. Even the Doctor readily admits Davros' genius, and he is not one inclined to praise other's mental capabilities (at least not without stating how much smarter he is). As for why he's doing any of this? If the Daleks win, and all life is wiped out save for them... it would be his hand that set it all in motion. He would be the one who killed the universe.
    Davros: That power would set me above the gods! And through the Daleks, I shall have that power!
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Even by the high standards of Westeros' top schemers, Tywin is regarded as The Ace. Littlefinger, Varys and Olenna Tyrell all have high respect for his intelligence and ruthlessness. His son Tyrion even allows that "father has a good mind for strategy".
    • Qyburn for Queen Cersei Lannister. A disgraced Maester, he is skilled in a number of fields, serving as a medic (his first significant action in the series is to treat an amputee), spymaster (Cersei originally appointed him to fill Varys' post as Master of Whisperers), conducting a necromantic experiment to reanimate Ser Gregor Clegane, brewed poison, and implemented the construction of ballistae on an near-industrial scale.
  • Gotham: Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot has a tendency to outsmart his enemies, as, eventually, does Edward “The Riddler” Nygma.
    • Jeremiah Valeska, at the age of twenty-one, has already been a highly successful engineer for at least four years, is an expert at making extremely difficult-to-disarm explosives, and is a formidable enough chessmaster that he has outsmarted both the Penguin and the Riddler at various points. Considering who he's going to become, this is hardly surprising. Like in the comics, the last episode of the series shows that the only one truly capable of stopping his plans through intelligence, rather than a mixture of intelligence and a generous amount of luck, is Batman.
  • Ryoma Sengoku from Kamen Rider Gaim is an amoral scientist and the creator of the Sengoku Driver. Ryoma gladly sacrifices human lives For Science! and doesn't even care one bit that humanity could potentially go extinct. Another unique trait of his is that he completely loses it whenever one of his inventions is placed in a bad light.
  • Giller from Legend of the Seeker is both Mad Scientist and Evil Sorcerer; the two most typical archtypes that fall under this trope.
  • Depending on whether you see them as Antiheroes or Antivillains, Hardison of Leverage Consulting & Associates is either The Smart Guy or Evil Genius. His Evil Counterpart, Colin "Chaos" Mason is a non-ambiguous example being an Insufferable Genius and Jerkass extraordinaire who seems to view committing crimes as a way to stroke his own ego, and constantly betrays his own allies.
  • Most incarnations of Power Rangers and Super Sentai have one of these among the villains, with responsibilities commonly including mass-producing Mooks and the Monster of the Week, making monsters grow, and generally being the one who knows the most about the finer points of the magic/technology of the season. In Power Rangers, the first and probably the most iconic among fans was Finster from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, the series' first monster maker.
  • Revenge: If you go by Alternate Character Interpretation, Mason Treadwell seems to take this role later in the first season, although he isn't fully aware of his role in Emily's scheming.
  • Smallville had plenty of Evil Geniuses, with Lionel Luthor, Lex Luthor, Brainiac, and Winslow "The Toyman" Schott running around. One interesting example was Tess Mercer, who started out as a villain, but eventually pulled a Heel–Face Turn. She became one of two Smart Guys on the heroic side, but still in traditionally evil areas, being The Chessmaster, a Manipulative Bastard, and The Cracker to Emil Hamilton's Medic and Gadgeteer Genius.
  • Elizabeth from Wicked Science becomes a genius and she uses her new intelligence as a way to try to get money, fame and Toby's affections. The evil part is that she has little morals when it comes to use her inventions, including using a teleporter to sneak in Toby's laboratory so her goon can destroy/steal/sabotage whatever Toby is creating in the episode, or trapping him in a "Groundhog Day" Loop so he accepts the new universe in which he's trapped, where they are a couple and his friends hate him.

    Mythology 

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Manager turned wrestler turned manager "Pretty Boy" Bobby Heenan, while perhaps not thinking of himself as "evil", is insufferable on anything he believes to be correct and almost completely immoral. In WCW it turned out he didn't approve of the new World order though but true to the trope, was the only one to suggest Hulk Hogan might be a part of it, though he had been critical of Hogan since the AWA. Another irony is that Heenan had to drop out of school as a child due to a lack of money got his first managerial role after carrying wrestler bags to support his family. His loud mouth "Brain" persona may have been a front.
  • Lightning Hernandez was described as "an evil genius" on the Dominican Republic television program "International Wrestling" and was implied to be directing all the bad wrestlers and managers(but then, Jack Veneno was implied to be behind all the tecnicos.
  • When Samoa Joe was Ring of Honor's World Champion he was always preceded by "The Evil Genius" when his music hit. This was a bit of a misnomer though, as Joe won the belt well after his Heel–Face Turn had set in, and even when Joe was hired by Christopher Daniels's evil Power Stable The Prophecy and a part of Steve Corino's money grubbing Group Joe was the Token Good Teammate because he followed the code. On the other hand, Daniels and Corino themselves qualified well for this trope, as they often employed shady code defying strategies to win matches well after their own face turns.
  • In the remnants of the National Wrestling Alliance, "The Mastermind" Dave DuPont is an expy of Heenan, shifting between wrestler and manager.
  • In what would sadly be his final match, on the November 11th (taped November 8th), 2005 WWESmackDown, Eddie Guerrero defeated Mr. Kennedy by disqualification with his "chair fake" routine.note 
    Tazz: "Mr. Kennedy just found out that Latino Heat is an evil genius."

    Tabletop Games 

    Video Games 
  • Murzhor in Hero's Realm. He's got a bit of Masterof Illusion to boot.
  • Dr. Elvin Atombender from the Impossible Mission games is a genius computer programmer and former university professor. Although he has been unstable his whole life, he officially became criminally insane when a power failure caused the deletion of an artificial intelligence program that he had nearly finished. The player must stop him from hacking into the defense networks of the world's superpowers and starting a nuclear holocaust.
  • Dr. Vu in the SimCity and The Sims series.
  • Lunar: The Silver Star has Taben, who creates a mechanical army for the Vile Tribe and Magic Emperor.
  • Strider"
    • Herzog Schlange in ''Strider 2'''' and Professor Schlange in the [[VideoGame/Strider2014 HD ''Strider'' remake. Both are (mad) geniuses in charge of building the bizarre mechanical monsters and weapons used by the Grandmaster's army. In the latter's case, he's charged over the Grandmaster's entire research complex, and seems to be only below Juroung in terms of ranks. Though this didn't save him from being offed in the end.
    • The Grandmaster himself has shades of this, though he leans more toward genetic engineering instead of robotics, in his quest to create a new race to which replace "the sons of old gods" and rule Earth as a true God.
  • Dr. Kimaira in Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven, notably because he's a Mad Scientist who creates wooden automatons with hidden machine-guns in medieval Japan.
  • Crow from Nefarious, who doubles as the playable Villain Protagonist.
  • Though most of Umbrella's scientists in Resident Evil counted as this, the most developed and well-known of them all was William Birkin. Not only was he one of the few scientists to not be completely unstable and insane, as he managed to have a (relatively) normal family life with a wife and child, but he was also responsible for creating both the T and G viruses which drove the entire plot up to Resident Evil 4. Albert Wesker's also pretty darned intelligent too, though his skills are more of the Chess Master / Magnificent Bastard variety rather than lab worknote .
  • Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag has Julien du Casse playing this role for the Templars, serving as the Order's main supplier of weaponry and ammunition.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Agahnim's knowledge of sorcery is the key to his power and his plan to imprison the Maidens in the Dark World does succeed despite Link's efforts to stop him.

    Visual Novels 

    Web Comics 
  • Dr Nonami has Dr. Mechano, an eccentric yet dangerous evil mastermind.
  • In El Goonish Shive, "Scarf" the aberration is the smartest and most cunning of the aberration mercenaries and displays his intelligence by avoiding easily countered brute force or pure magic attacks in favour of a magic augmented sneak attack. He's the one who set up the plan to kill Raven.
  • Folly and Innovation uses this trope here speculating Facebook's origins
  • Girl Genius is crawling with them. Even some protagonists, on a few occasions.
  • The Order of the Stick: General Tarquin is sort of this to his own team of aging adventurers (nicknamed "The Vector Legion"). According to Word of the Giant, the other team members see him as the 'ideas guy', who comes up with plans that a group of very powerful evil adventurers can all join in on for their mutual benefit without backstabbing each other. Tarquin himself thinks this makes him their leader. The others don't, but think he's useful enough not to press the issue. They also have two actual evil geniuses who takes care of all the actual planning and minutiae.
  • Elia of True Villains takes over most Evil Genius duties. Just replace technology with magic.
  • Wayward Sons: Doctor Chu, who very much enjoys performing torturous experiments on live subjects.
  • Donald Na from Weak Hero. It wasn't just his fighting and leadership skills that landed him as head of the Union, but also his unmatched business savvy that brought order to an otherwise chaotic group (back in middle school, no less).

    Web Original 
  • Arby 'n' the Chief
    • Brian in Season 5, on account of being an OMN Administrator, though he's not really evil and he's only an antagonist because he's associated with Trent Donnovich.
    • Justin "SniperDeathAngel00" in Season 6 plays this more straight, being the creator of the Fragban hacks used by Chaos Theosis and the Underground Hackers.
    • Season 7 has Colin Hunt, the inventor of the Fragban 2.0 hacks.
  • Führer Katrina Seran from v2 of Open Blue was a strategist, Chess Master, and ship captain who became ruler of her country at the age of 20, possibly due to her own machinations.
  • Belial in The Salvation War is one of these, and is the one Baldrick who actually inflicts serious damage on the humans.
  • Doctor Steel. Naturally.
  • In the Whateley Universe, there are lots of Mad Scientist types. The ones who work for other supervillains tend to be characters like Chessmaster or Nimbus. The two of them nearly destroyed Whateley Academy on Halloween.
  • Dr. Spectre from The Tyrannosaur Chronicles.
  • Tattletale fills this role in Worm, though it should be noted that she's not supersmart, instead her power makes her a master of the Sherlock Scan, which she uses to great effect in social, combat, and political situations.

    Western Animation 
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender has two for the Fire Nation. One is Princess Azula, The Dragon to Fire Lord Ozai, who is one of the greatest strategists in the series as she single-handedly masterminds a plan to take over the Earth Kingdom's capital, dealing the heroes a crushing defeat at the end of Book 2. The other is War Minister Qin, who is responsible for developing whatever military innovations the Fire Nation comes up with, including the Drill and the airships.
  • Tarantulas of Beast Wars is this all over the place.
  • Darkwing Duck gives as Bushroot, a member of the Fearsome Five group.
  • Mandark from Dexter's Laboratory.
  • Exo Squad has a race of Evil Geniuses called Neo Megas.
  • In Iron Man: Armored Adventures, there is Rhona Edwin, who was the best student at the Tomorrow Academy before Tony Stark showed up. After becoming convinced that Tony has been cheating, she takes the entire school hostage and forces Tony into a sort of game show from hell to prove his intelligence.
  • Heloise on Jimmy Two-Shoes, whenever it suits her to work for Lucius.
  • Kaeloo: Both Mr. Cat and Olaf fit this trope.
  • In The Legend of Korra, both Varrick and Baatar Jr. (who's also The Dragon and Doctor Boyfriend) could be considered this for Kuvira's army, being Mad Scientists; when Varrick defects, Baatar takes the role full-time. Of course, it's more or less clear Baatar is much better than Varrick, a fact the latter is loathe to put up with.
  • Wraith in Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series, distinguished for mainly using magic when the Big Bad prefers technology.
  • Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb. A Ditzy Genius to be sure, but like the title characters, he's nevertheless smart enough to invent anything in only a few hours, even to the point of flagrantly defying the laws of physics.
  • Brain in Pinky and the Brain'... kinda; despite attempting to Take Over the World every night, he's not really evil.
  • Cartman himself from South Park is this in "Scott Tenorman Must Die", where he tricks Scott Tenorman into eating his parents after calculating a painstaking amount of detail, up to Cartman's friends betraying him.
  • As per usual, Doctor Octopus is a super villain who is also a brilliant engineer and inventor. He goes the extra mile by having "Evil Genius" printed on the side of his coffee mug in The Spectacular Spider Man. Although he is subordinate to no one.
  • Alistair Smythe works as an evil genius for the Kingpin in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
  • Dr. Stinger from Super Duper Sumos is an interesting example because, while none of the other villains show him any respect at all, he's really the only one on the villains' side who ever actually does anything.
  • Two examples from Teen Titans.
  • Several villains from WordGirl.
  • Xiaolin Showdown: Though he doesn't fit all of the character tropes, Jack Spicer (himself a self-proclaimed Evil Genius, with emphasis on self-proclaimed) calls Chase Young "the greatest Evil Genius in the world" and there's no denying that it's true. As for Jack himself - there's no denying that he is a genius, it's just whether or not he's actually, you know, evil.

Alternative Title(s): The Evil Genius

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