Wow, a '2000 AD thread not started by me!
Anyway, choosing just one villain is tricky, so I'm going to go for three.
- Greatest crimes: Killing who knows how many people in interesting and creative ways, identity fraud, stealing the mayoral election.
- Why he's great: PJ Maybe is the exact opposite of Dredd. He's weak and not a good fighter, so he has to rely on intelligence and sneakiness both to make his kills and evade capture. And even when he is caught, he's always able to weasel out of it.
Furthermore, Maybe has complexity to him, as we saw during his tenure as mayor. In order to maintain the illusion that he really was Byron Ambrose, he had to do good deeds - and found he actually enjoyed it, thus starting a trend of him making an honest and sincere effort to improve the city.
But this was no simple 'realise his inherent goodness' plot. Oh no. Maybe is still a sick and twisted individual, and while he was improving things for everyone, he also kept right on killing people in interesting and unusual ways.
This came to a particular head during "Tour of Duty", when he tried to assassinate Sinfield for the good of the city, thus combining his love of helping people with his love of hurting people.
Also, as of a couple of weeks ago, he has three of the Dark Judges imprisoned in bottles.
- Greatest crimes: Institutionalisation of racism in the British government, genocide, spousal abuse. Basically, he was Hitler II.
- Why he's great: He's a complete monster that isn't so over the top as to become unbelievable. Indeed, what Kreelman did is chillingly close to what far too many of us would do if given half a chance, and the fact that everyone just went along with it clearly echoes the historical treatment of most immediately Jews, but also blacks, Slavs, gypsies, Native Americans, Mesoamericans, Incas, Ainu, Aborigines, and Kurds. While Kreelman was certainly more relevant back when Apartheid was still officially in force, the lesson he shows is still important to bear in mind today.
- Greatest crimes: Tyranny, mass murder, rape, child abuse, incest (I think... I'm actually a little unclear on his relationship with Jocasta)
- Why he's great: My God. This man is messed up. He's the sort of tremendously evil overlord you love to hate, and yet his crimes are for the most part down-to-Earth and plausible, for the most part lacking even the brutality that characterises Nelson Bunker Kreelman.
Through all his impossible feats, Dmitri maintains a smarmy, cocksure attitude which means that the reader really wants to see him go down in flames.
Ukrainian Red CrossTomás de Torquemada
Greatest Crimes: Oh boy where do we start. racist hatred of Aliens,Genocide, infanticide, legalised torture. leader of fanatics. Instigator of holy wars. brainwashing....I could go on all day...
Why he's great: if Kreelman is hitler 2 then torquemada is almost every evil racist bastard rolled into one...come to think of it. it was revealed that he WAS every bastard in existence most likely even kreelman!
He wanted you to have no truck with the extra terristrial and ordered you to be pure, be vigilent, behave!
He is one of the most evil disgusting monsters in 2000ad history and he is human!
" I did the right thing, didn't I? It all worked out in the end." "In the end? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends."To be honest, having only recently started reading 2000AD, it's hard to make a choice. If I absolutely had to pick, I would say Judge Death. I've got the Dark Judges mini-collection-thing, and the stories in there are pretty good.
Direct all enquiries to Jamie B Good

I haven't seen many threads on the UK's number 1 source of thrill-power, so I've started one. What's your favourite villain from a 2000AD strip? You need to name them, list their biggest atrocities, and explain why you love them.
I'll start with somebody I'd actually argue is one of the best comic villains full stop:
Judge Death
Greatest Crimes: Bringing Mega City 1 to its knees more than once, mass-murder, the destruction of Las Vegas, walking everywhere barefoot.
Reasons he's great: I would argue that Judge Death is the quintessential embodiment of evil, possibly in anything. He's a skeletal, hissing maniac that just cannot be bargained with, and won't stop until everyone on the planet is dead. But what makes him truly great is that he's probably the best foil for the Justice Department you could ask for. On his own world, the Judges eventually decided that since crime is commited by the living, life itself is a crime. Now that's a Knight Templar to the extreme. This adds a rather interesting (and hilarious) layer to him, in that he can't quite understand why all these ssssssssinnnerssss are trying to stop him from purifying them of guilt. What's more, if it wasn't for Judge Death, Cassandra Anderson would never have been introduced into the Dreddverse. 'Nuff said really.
edited 21st Jun '12 1:23:12 AM by SlendidSuit
Gimme yer lunch money, dweeb.