There are some characters who won't be happy with anything less than the entire world to control.
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00:00Now, as a rule, most heroes are reactionists. They wait for the bad guy to do something,
00:04and then they go to work. Most villains, on the other hand, are motivated purely by
00:08self-interest and greed. But a select few have had high aspirations towards total world domination,
00:13and an even smaller number, like the Joker, simply want to spread chaos to watch the world burn.
00:18So let's take a look at these big-picture thinkers, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:22and these are 10 Big Picture Manipulators in Comics.
00:2510. Dr. Doom
00:27Victor Von Doom was the king of Latveria and one of the most brilliant minds on the planet.
00:32He had long hoped to make the world a better place through conquest,
00:35and has been at the heart of nearly every major event in the history of the Marvel Universe.
00:38The only things that caused him to consistently fail are his crippling arrogance,
00:42his gargantuan ego, and his obsession with Reed Richards.
00:45After becoming Doom, he plagued the newly formed Fantastic Four to prove his superiority over
00:50Richards. He battled the team alone, or with the likes of Namor or the Terrible Trio,
00:54and in locales such as Sub-Atomica or the Edge of the Atmosphere, and he usually met
00:59defeat at every turn, usually due to his own arrogance. Doom even forced a group of villains
01:03to attack the wedding of Reed and Sue, but these rogues were repelled by other heroes like the
01:07Avengers. Dr. Doom has had several instances of achieving his dream of winning everything,
01:12but it slipped through his grasp. In the Secret Wars, he stole the powers of the Beyonder,
01:16but the powers were so vast that they crippled him with their sheer scope,
01:19and he ended up losing them. Doom used the powers of the Beyonder and the Molecule Man
01:23to reshape reality after the multiverse fell, but he grew bored of the utopia he created,
01:28and Reed Richards eventually returned reality to its proper place.
01:319. Amanda Waller
01:33Having lost her two eldest children and her husband to gun violence, Amanda Waller made
01:37the choice that she would never, ever lose again. She got her final three children through school
01:41and put herself through school as well, gaining a degree in political science.
01:45She then took over the campaign of Democratic Congregational hopeful Marvin Collins and got
01:49him elected, and while looking through the bills, she discovered the old OSS organization called
01:54Task Force X. When the monster Brimstone threatened Mount Rushmore, Waller recruited
01:59Rick Flagg and a team of villains as a new suicide squad. With their success,
02:03the president authorized the group to continue under Amanda's control.
02:06Waller set up the new team in Louisiana, and she argued against sending the squad
02:10on purely political missions and especially stupid ones. She came to blows with NSC,
02:14liaison Derek Tolliver, for sending the squad on a disastrous mission to Moscow,
02:18saying that even though they were expendable, they weren't garbage.
02:22Amanda Waller's inability to compromise with people, coupled with the recent public outing
02:26of the suicide squad and Checkmate, caused Waller to be put on trial for the death of a leader of
02:30an organized drug cartel. She was later pardoned after a year and reorganized the team as an
02:35independent group. She became part of Lex Luthor's cabinet as the Secretary of Meta-Human Affairs,
02:39and later as the White Queen of Checkmate.
02:428. Kang the Conqueror
02:44The man who would be Kang, Nathaniel Richards, was born in the 30th century on Earth-6311,
02:50a world that never suffered a Dark Age. His counterpart from Earth-616 brought
02:54peace to this war-torn world. At age 16, the Richards of this reality attempted to
02:58derail his eventual history as Kang and travel to 616 from the Young Avengers.
03:03He would then begin his eventual role that would define his entire life, that of a Conqueror.
03:07Richards traveled back to ancient Egypt of Earth-616 and assumed the guise of Pharaoh
03:12Ramatut. He ruled there until he was ousted by the time-traveling Fantastic Four. He attempted
03:17to return to his own time, but a time storm dropped him into the current era of 616,
03:21where he tried once again to return to his own 30th century, but overshot by 10 centuries.
03:26In the war-torn 40th century, Richards took up the name of Kang and conquered first the Earth
03:31and then other planets. He continued to reach back into time and spread his influence to the
03:36modern era. Kang and Immortus became regular foes of the Avengers as he attempted various
03:40times to conquer various time periods. Immortus and the Scarlet Centurion often ran afoul of the
03:45Fantastic Four, and various incarnations of Nathaniel Richards from different Earths and
03:50or different time periods would come into conflict with each other when their goals did not align.
03:547. Anti-Monitor
03:56When scientist Kroner used his science to look at the creation of the universe,
04:00he caused an explosion that created a positive-matter multiverse and an equal
04:04negative-matter universe. It also gave birth to the immensely powerful beings called the Monitor
04:09and the Anti-Monitor. When he later discovered his positive-universe brother,
04:13he began a million-year war against him that culminated in the pair losing consciousness.
04:17Nine billion years later, scientist Kel Mossa undertook the same forbidden experiment to witness
04:22creation, which resulted in another explosion that awoke the Anti-Monitor, who then began
04:27his singular quest to destroy the multiverse. Countless universes were destroyed by the
04:31Anti-Monitor's energy wave. The Monitor set up towers on Earths 1, 2, 4, S, and X,
04:37and his death at the hands of his assistant Harbinger powered them to save the final five
04:41Earths from destruction. Thanks to Alexander Luthor and the heroes of the five universes,
04:45the worlds were reborn at the dawn of time as a single universe. Earth-2's Superman
04:49pummeled the Anti-Monitor into atoms before departing this universe.
04:53With the recreation of the multiverse, the Anti-Monitor returned and became part of
04:57Sinestro's Yellow Lantern Corps. He traveled to Earth and used his power to siphon positive energy,
05:01but was attacked by the Green Lantern Corps. Then, Superboy Prime turned against him,
05:05badly damaging his armor and hurtling him into space, where he crashed on the planet Riut
05:10in Sector 666 and was imprisoned in the Black Lantern Battery.
05:146. The High Evolutionary
05:16Herbert Wyndham was a student in the late 1920s and was inspired by the work of geneticist
05:21Nathaniel Essex, the man who would become Mr. Sinister. Given the secrets of unlocking genetic
05:25codes by a disguised inhuman, Wyndham and fellow scientist Jonathan Drew set up a base on Wondergore
05:30Mountain to continue their work. Where Wyndham realized his dream of evolving animals into
05:35humanoid forms to become his New Men, he created a powerful suit of armor to protect himself and
05:40took on the name of the High Evolutionary. Wyndham's genetic influence did not stop with
05:44the New Men. Jonathan Drew's daughter had been treated with spider serums and Wyndham's
05:48technologies, and so emerged as a brand new Spider Woman. A woman named Magda gave birth
05:53to twins on the mountain, and they were touched as well by the demonic energies of the New Men's
05:57recent fight with C'Thun, and they grew up to be the mutants Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
06:01Wyndham created an exact copy of the Earth on the opposite side of the sun, which was meant to be
06:05free of evil that he called Counter-Earth, and attempts to take it from him occurred almost
06:10immediately. First, it was nearly consumed by Galactus, and later by the Prime Movers on behalf
06:14of the Beyonders. Realizing how incalculably advanced the Beyonders were, he fell into despair
06:19and de-evolved himself into protoplasmic goo.
06:225. Vandal Savage
06:24Vandal Savage has been alive for over 50,000 years and has literally seen the evolution of
06:29the human race. He's been an advisor to kings, to warlords, to chieftains, and has been in
06:34thousands of conflicts throughout the centuries, as well as manipulating the world towards his own
06:38image. Vandal has even claimed to have been famous historical conquerors such as Julius Caesar,
06:42Genghis Khan, and Vlad the Impaler, but Savage is far from an unimpeachable source.
06:46This rogue stepped from behind the curtain to directly engage the mystery men that emerged
06:51in the late 1940s. Either he saw them as an obstacle to his centuries-long plan of world
06:55domination, or he was simply curious to test himself against these new, stronger, and worthier
07:00opponents. Either way, Savage became a frequent problem for the Justice Society of America,
07:04and later, the Justice League. Vandal has had hundreds of offspring and even more
07:08descendants throughout history. He maintains his immortality in part by replacing failing
07:12body parts by taking them from his descendants. Most of his children do not know of their heritage,
07:17but one, Scandal Savage, is a villain in her own right and the leader of the Secret Six.
07:22Her complicated feelings about her father often bring them into conflict.
07:264. Apocalypse
07:27En-Sabah Nur was born more than 5,000 years ago in the Valley of Kings in Egypt. As Nur grew,
07:33he adopted the tribe's primary principle that only the strongest, best, fittest,
07:37toughest, and worthiest should survive, and hardened his heart to the world,
07:41and even his own tribesmen hated him for his appearance, intellect, and strength. He lived
07:45as a slave for a time until his mutant powers of immortality and shapeshifting emerged,
07:49and so he took on the name of Apocalypse. Soon after gaining his power, he forged his own clan
07:54and gathered the best human warriors in the world as Riders of the Dark. With these two armies,
07:59he transformed Egypt into a utopia for a time, but at some unknown point in the past,
08:03he traveled to the scientist island of Okara and took a wife who gave him two sons and two
08:08daughters, who became his first horsemen. Apocalypse battled Thor multiple times in
08:12the 11th century, losing his fourth set of horsemen to the Thunder God. In 1459,
08:17Nur personally beat Vlad the Impaler in single combat, which led to him directly becoming
08:21Dracula. In modern times, Apocalypse plagued the mutant community and turned the maimed
08:26angel into the blue-skinned and metal-winged archangel. However, when the new mutant nation
08:30of Krakoa was established, Nur was actually welcomed, as were all mutants. He was given
08:34a position on the Quiet Council, but later left after he was contacted by the grandchildren of
08:39his first horsemen on their own sentient island, now called Arako.
08:433. Darkseid
08:44Uxas, the god of tyranny known as Darkseid, began making plans at a very young age to
08:49take the throne of Apocalypse, pushing past his peaceful brother Drax and mother Hegra.
08:54He interrupted Drax's connection to the Omega Realm and achieved the godhood that was meant
08:58for him. Thus transformed, he took the name Darkseid. Darkseid started a long war with
09:03neighboring New Genesis, in part to eliminate the potential threat and to keep his uncle
09:07Steppenwolf occupied. He put the brutal and loyal hunger dog named Goodness in charge of
09:12the orphanages to produce obedient soldiers who would give their lives for Darkseid.
09:16When Darkseid encountered the Green Martians, he learned in their belief in the will as an
09:20all-powerful force that they called the Life Equation. He surmised that there must be an
09:24equally powerful force called the Anti-Life Equation, and it became the focus of his
09:28existence. Darkseid believed that the people of Earth had fragments of the Anti-Life Equations
09:33locked within their brains, and he made elaborate plans and schemes that brought him into conflict
09:37with Earth's heroes, especially Superman. Darkseid actually took over the Earth on a few occasions,
09:41but was ultimately thwarted each time, and has yet to achieve his ultimate goal.
09:452. Thanos
09:47For most of his life, Thanos has had a single goal – winning the love of the personification
09:51of Death. She was his confidante as a small boy to help him get over his fear of killing.
09:56Later, he began pursuing her, even though the realization that she was actually Death
10:00drove the young Titan mad. It did not dissuade him from decimating his home planet and begin
10:05moving the pieces in place so that he could achieve universal power. First, Thanos misused
10:10the Cosmic Cube on Earth, but had to relinquish that power and be saved by his ship. Later,
10:15he gathered all of the Soul Gems, aka the Infinity Stones, having taken the stones from
10:18the six Elders of the universe and assembled them on a golden gauntlet. Using that gauntlet,
10:23Thanos killed half the beings in the universe in an attempt to impress Death and earn her love.
10:28The remaining heroes of Earth and Adam Warlock were able to reverse this action.
10:32Despite his megalomania and homicidal nature, Thanos wasn't actually without reason. In fact,
10:36he would even aid others against threats that were greater than himself. He helped
10:40Adam Warlock against the Magus, worked with the Guardians of the Galaxy to halt the invasion of
10:44the Cancerverse, and worked with Deadpool to release Death from Eternity's prison.
10:48All of these things benefited Thanos personally, but also ended up benefiting others as well.
10:531. Lex Luthor
10:54There is probably no more purely manipulative person in the DC universe than Alexander
10:59Lex Luthor. From a very young age, and despite his dirt-poor upbringing, he began to judge people by
11:04what use they were to him. Luthor arranged to have his parents killed in an auto accident in
11:09order to collect the hefty insurance policy that they had. And with that money, he created LexCorp.
11:13Lex has long seen Metropolis as his own personal fiefdom, having bought, taken over,
11:18or built nearly every business in the city. Nearly every person in the town owed their
11:22livelihood to Lex, and he made sure that they knew it. He owned every media outlet in town,
11:26except the Daily Planet, and used that power to shape the image of a benevolent philanthropist.
11:30This all came crashing down with the arrival of Superman. A deliberate attack on the Man of Steel
11:35led Luthor to be jailed for the first time, and this humiliation was simply more than Lex could
11:39abide. Lex Luthor is one of the most brilliant people on the planet, and he uses his intellect
11:43as both a superpower and a weapon. It has made him an insanely wealthy man, given him the ability to
11:48design and create any weapon or machine virtually any situation might call for, and has given him
11:53the leadership skills to head several villain teams at once and achieve the office of President
11:58of the United States. Not bad, right? Well, technically it's all bad, but you know what I mean.
12:02And there we go, my friends. Those were 10 big picture manipulators in comics. I hope
12:06that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments
12:09section below. As always, I've been Jules, and you can go follow me over on Instagram
12:13at RetroJ, but the O is a zero. I hope to see you over there. As always, I've been Jules,
12:17you have been awesome. Never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.