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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 22, 2008 11:54:11 GMT -5
I'm back!!!! Now, let's continue this countdown. Here's number 10: 10. Emperor Palpatine Who is he: Former Senator of Chommell Sector, Former Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, Emperor of the Galactic Empire, and the Dark Lord of the Sith. What is from: The Star Wars Universe. What has he done: Started the Clone Wars, manipulating both sides, so that he could start the Galactic Empire with himself as the Emperor; killed his master, Darth Plagueis, and usurped his power; nearly wiped out the Jedi; tried to manipulate Luke Skywalker into killing his own father. Intelligence: His plan to become emperor is ingenious, and he was able to make it work; plus that Death Star wasn’t a bad idea either. Power: He’s the Emperor and the Dark Lord of the Sith. Vileness: Not only is he responsible for many deaths but he’s also an unsympathetic asshole. Sway: Manipulated two armies into war. Purity: Cares only about being the ultimate ruler of the Galaxy and the Dark Side. Physical Prowess: He’s an old man, but he possesses the powers of the Dark Side and is very good with a light saber. Name Coolness: “Palpatine” is pretty cool, especially with “Emperor” in front of it; also known by the equally cool names “The Emperor” and “Darth Sidious.” Created by: George Lucas. Portrayed by: When he first appeared in “The Empire Strikes Back,” Palpatine was played by an old woman, with the composite image of a chimpanzee for the eyes, and with the voice provided by Clive Revill. In “Return Of The Jedi,” the Prequel Trilogy, and the special edition DVD of “The Empire Strikes Back,” Ian McDiarmid played the Emperor. In the Clone Wars animated series, Nick Jameson voiced Palpatine. Episodes 1 and 2: In “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace,” set 32 years before “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,” Palpatine is introduced as the senior Galactic Senator from the planet Naboo. The Trade Federation blockades and invades Naboo under the influence and advice of Palpatine's alter ego Darth Sidious. Queen Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) flees to the galactic capital planet of Coruscant to receive counsel from the senator. After a plea for help from the senate results in bureaucratic delays, Palpatine persuades her to make a motion to have Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum (Terence Stamp) removed from office. Palpatine, as Sidious, sends his Sith apprentice Darth Maul (Ray Park) to Naboo to oversee the invasion and find the queen. The invasion, however, is thwarted by Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor); in the ensuing lightsaber duel, both Maul and Qui-Gon are killed. Palpatine returns to Naboo, having been elected the new Chancellor. He tells nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) that he will be "watching [his] career with great interest". In “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones,” set 10 years later, the galaxy is on the verge of civil war, as a growing Separatist movement of planets seeking to secede from the Republic to form the Confederacy of Independent Systems. They are led by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), a former Jedi and Darth Sidious' new apprentice. After Kenobi discovers that the Separatists are building a secret battle droid army, Palpatine uses the situation to have himself granted emergency powers. Palpatine feigns reluctance to accept this authority, promising to return it to the Senate once the crisis has ended. His first act is to create a Grand Army of the Republic of clones to counter the Separatist threat. The clones had recently been discovered by Kenobi as having been secretly ordered by deceased Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas many years earlier. Palpatine is also influential in having Anakin guard Padmé, which leads to their marriage at the end of the film. The Clone Wars miniseries: Palpatine is a central character in Genndy Tartakovsky's Star Wars: Clone Wars, an animated miniseries set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith that aired on Cartoon Network from 2003 to 2005. Palpatine and Darth Sidious are voiced by Nick Jameson. In the series, Palpatine is busy on Coruscant running the government, and Darth Sidious appears as a hologram giving orders to Count Dooku, General Grievous, and other Separatist leaders. The character is based on McDiarmid's likeness in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. In the first chapter, Obi-Wan informs Palpatine that the Jedi have discovered that the InterGalactic Banking Clan has established battle droid factories on the planet Muunilinst. Palpatine agrees to send a strike force that includes Obi-Wan and Anakin, but Palpatine suggests that Anakin be given "special command" of Obi-Wan's fighters. Yoda and Obi-Wan initially speak against it, but reluctantly concede to the Chancellor. In another chapter, Darth Sidious appears to Count Dooku as a holographic image shortly after Dooku trains Asajj Ventress, a Force-sensitive female alien adept in the dark side. Sidious orders her to track down and kill Anakin Skywalker. He remarks to Count Dooku that her failure is certain, but the point of her mission is to test Anakin. Chapter 22 features the training of General Grievous by Count Dooku. Darth Sidious appears as a hologram and orders Grievous to begin the special mission: an assault on the galactic capital. The Separatist invasion of Coruscant begins in the next episode, and Palpatine watches from the window in his private residence. He is protected by Jedi Shaak Ti, Roron Corobb, and Foul Moudama. Grievous breaks through the Chancellor's window and kidnaps him. Grievous kills Roron and Foul and captures Shaak Ti as Palpatine is taken to the Invisible Hand, Grievous' flagship. Episode 3: In “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” set three years later, Palpatine is captured by Separatist leader General Grievous (Matthew Wood). Palpatine is rescued by Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, but not before the Jedi confront Count Dooku; Skywalker decapitates the Sith apprentice in cold blood during the lightsaber duel, at Palpatine's urging. By this point, Palpatine has used the crisis to stay in power long after his term expired, and has acquired virtually dictatorial authority in the Senate. The Jedi Council, as well as a number of Senators, are troubled by Palpatine's power and fears he will not relinquish it when the Clone Wars end. Palpatine raises the Jedi's suspicions further when he has the Senate grant him direct control over the Jedi Council, and appoints Anakin as his personal representative, effectively granting him a vote in Jedi affairs. He begins to tempt Anakin towards the dark side, and tries to turn him against the Jedi by suggesting that he deserves the rank of Jedi Master, which the Council refuses him. The Council orders Anakin to spy on Palpatine, but he instead reveals the Jedi's plan to him. Palpatine tells Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis, a powerful Sith Lord who was able to manipulate life and death, but was killed by his apprentice (hinted to be Sidious himself). Palpatine reveals his secret identity to Anakin and tempts him with promises of power over life and death. Palpatine knows that Anakin has been having visions of Padmé, who is now pregnant with Anakin's child, dying in childbirth and offers to teach him the secrets of Darth Plagueis to save her life. Confused, Anakin informs Jedi Master Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) that Palpatine is a Sith Lord. Windu and a group of fellow Jedi Masters go to arrest Palpatine, but the Chancellor surprises them with a lightsaber and quickly dispatches all but Windu. In the ensuing duel, Windu gains the upper hand, deforming Palpatine's face by deflecting his own Force lightning back at him, and is poised to execute the Sith lord, when Anakin appears and intercedes in Palpatine's behalf, cutting off Windu's hand. Palpatine then kills Windu with another blast of lightning, and accepts Anakin as his new apprentice, Darth Vader. Palpatine then sets the destruction of the Jedi in motion: he sends Vader to destroy the Jedi Temple and instructs all of the clone troopers to kill their Jedi generals. He then sends Vader to Mustafar to wipe out the Separatist leaders. He announces to the Senate that the Jedi were planning to overthrow the Republic, and that the Republic will be reorganized into the Galactic Empire, with himself as Emperor for life. Jedi Master Yoda (Frank Oz) returns to Coruscant and confronts Palpatine in his Senate office. A lightsaber duel erupts between them which ends in stalemate, forcing Yoda to retreat into exile. Sensing his apprentice is in trouble, Palpatine travels to Mustafar, where he finds Vader maimed and burned almost to the point of death following a duel with Kenobi. Palpatine returns to Coruscant with Vader and provides him with a black armor suit and artificial limbs. When Vader regains consciousness, Palpatine tells him that he (Vader) killed his own wife in anger, breaking what remains of his spirit. Palpatine is last seen watching the first Death Star under construction with Vader at his side. Star Wars literature: Star Wars Expanded Universe literature elaborates on Palpatine's role in Star Wars fiction outside of the films. The first appearance of Palpatine in Star Wars literature was in of Alan Dean Foster's (writing as George Lucas) novelization of the script of A New Hope, published as Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker (1976). Foster characterizes Palpatine as a cunning Senator who "caused himself" to be elected president, and then declared himself Emperor before becoming controlled by his advisors. Palpatine made his first major appearance in the Expanded Universe in 1991 and 1992 with the Dark Empire series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. In the series, set six years after Return of the Jedi, Palpatine is resurrected as the Emperor Reborn or Palpatine the Undying. His spirit returns from the netherworld of the Force with the aid of Sith ghosts on Korriban and possesses the body of Jeng Droga, one of Palpatine's elite spies and assassins known as the Emperor's Hands. Droga flees to a secret Imperial base on the planet Byss, where the Emperor's advisor Sate Pestage exorcises Palpatine's spirit and channels it into one of many clones created by Palpatine before his death. Palpatine attempts to resume control of the galaxy, but his plans are sabotaged by Luke Skywalker, who is now a Jedi Master. He destroys most of Palpatine's cloning tanks, but is only able to defeat the Emperor with Princess Leia's help. Palpatine's ultimate fate is further chronicled in the Dark Empire II and Empire's End series of comics. The Dark Empire II series, published from 1994 to 1995, details how the Emperor is once again reborn on Byss into a clone body. Palpatine tries to rebuild the Empire as the Rebel Alliance grows weak. In Empire's End (1995), a traitorous Imperial guard bribes Palpatine's cloning supervisor to tamper with the Emperor's stored DNA samples. This causes the clones to deteriorate at a rapid rate. Palpatine attempts to possess the body of Anakin Solo, the infant son of Princess Leia and Han Solo, before the clone body dies, but is thwarted once again by Luke Skywalker. Palpatine is killed by a blaster shot fired by Han, and his spirit is captured by a wounded Jedi named Empatojayos Brand, who uses his remaining strength to prevent Palpatine's spirit from escaping. When Brand dies, he takes Palpatine's spirit to the netherworld with him, destroying the Sith Lord once and for all. Novels and comics published before 1999 focus on Palpatine's role as Galactic Emperor. Shadows of the Empire (1996) by Steve Perry and The Mandalorian Armor (1998) by K. W. Jeter, all set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, show how Palpatine uses crime lords such as Prince Xizor and bounty hunters like Boba Fett to fight his enemies. Barbara Hambly's novel Children of the Jedi (1995), set eight years after Return of the Jedi, features a woman named Roganda Ismaren who claims that Palpatine fathered her son Irek. The Jedi Prince series of novels introduces an insane, three-eyed mutant named Triclops as Palpatine's true son. Beginning in 1999 with Terry Brooks' novelization of The Phantom Menace, Star Wars writers chronicled the role of Palpatine prior to A New Hope as a politician and Sith Lord. The comic "Marked" by Rob Williams, printed in Star Wars Tales 24 (2005), and Michael Reaves's novel Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter (2001) explain Darth Sidious' relationship with his apprentice Darth Maul. Cloak of Deception (2001) by James Luceno follows Reaves' novel and details how Darth Sidious encourages the Trade Federation to build an army of battle droids in preparation for the invasion of Naboo. Cloak of Deception also focuses on Palpatine's early political career. It is revealed how he becomes a confidante of Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum and acquainted with Padmé Amidala, newly elected queen of Naboo. Palpatine's role during the Clone Wars as Supreme Chancellor and Darth Sidious is explained in novels such as Matthew Stover's Shatterpoint (2003), Steven Barnes' The Cestus Deception (2004), Sean Stewart's Yoda: Dark Rendezvous (2004), and Luceno's Labyrinth of Evil (2005). Following the theatrical release of Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars literature focused on Palpatine's role after the creation of the Empire. John Ostrander's comic Star Wars Republic 78: Loyalties (2005) chronicles how Emperor Palpatine sends Darth Vader to assassinate Sagoro Autem, an Imperial captain who wants nothing to do with the new government and plans to defect. In Luceno's novel Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (2005), set shortly after Revenge of the Sith, the Emperor sends Darth Vader to the planet Murkhana to discover why clone troopers there refused to carry out Order 66 against their Jedi generals. Palpatine hopes these early missions will teach Vader what it means to be a Sith and crush any remnants of Anakin Skywalker. The Original Trilogy: As the Emperor, Palpatine made his first appearance in “The Empire Strikes Back” as the leader of the Galactic Empire, and Sith master of Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones). The Emperor contacts Vader by holographic communication to tell him of a "great disturbance in the Force," and warn him that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is becoming a threat (he is identified only as the "offspring of Anakin Skywalker" in the modified scene in the Special Edition). Vader convinces the Emperor that Skywalker would be an asset if he could be turned to the dark side. In “Return of the Jedi,” the final episode of the original trilogy (and chronologically the entire Star Wars film saga), the Emperor arrives on the second Death Star to oversee the last stages of its construction. When a Rebel strike team that includes Skywalker lands on nearby Endor, Vader senses Skywalker's presence. Skywalker believes he can save Vader, his father, from the dark side, and the Emperor believes that this hope will lead to his downfall. Luke surrenders to Imperial forces on Endor and is delivered to the Emperor. The Emperor, who plans to replace Vader with Luke as his apprentice, tempts the young Jedi to the dark side by appealing to his fear for his friends. This leads to a lightsaber duel in which Skywalker defeats Vader. Skywalker, however, refuses to turn to the dark side, and the Emperor attacks him with Force lightning. At the last moment, Vader turns on his master and throws him into the Death Star's reactor shaft, killing him. There is one characteristic that many villains on this list seem to share: manipulation. A lot of them manipulate people into doing things that they normally wouldn’t do. However, there is one master manipulator who stands out: Palpatine. I mean, this evil mastermind manipulated an entire galaxy into making him its ruler. His reign of evil began when he killed his master Darth Plagueis, who could keep people from dying, and usurped his power. After that moment, Palpatine began his life of evil. He recruited new apprentices and allies: Darth Maul, Count Dooku, the Separatist Faction, General Grievous, and Darth Vader. Then, he began his plan to become emperor: he manipulated the Republic and the Separatists in dual role (Palpatine to the Republic and Sidious to the Separatists) and set off a chain of events that started the Clone Wars and made him Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. Basically, he was the ruler of the two armies that fought each other. Then, he manipulated Anakin Skywalker, the chosen one who will bring balance to the Force, into becoming Darth Vader. Then, he got rid of the Jedi, easily took out the Separatists, and set up the Galactic Empire, with himself as Emperor. It’s pretty amazing how he was able to make himself the most powerful man in that galaxy far, far away. Plus, he had a great look for a villain. He looked old and decrepit, but that hid the fact that he was a skilled fighter with the light saber and has that powerful Force lightning. Also, those cool robes help with the evil look, and that voice is down right chilling. However, Palpatine was quite arrogant and that led to his downfall. He thought that he could easily manipulate Luke like he did his father and nearly got the boy to kill his own father, but Luke was not sway. So, Palpatine tried to electrocute him. And, in that moment, all those years of manipulating Vader all disappeared as Vader picked up Palpatine and through him down the Death Star’s reactor shaft. But, for years, Palpatine was the all powerful fist that held an entire galaxy by its neck, squeezing the air out of it; and he nearly succeeded.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 22, 2008 13:49:17 GMT -5
9. Professor James Moriarty Who is he: A criminal mastermind What is he from: Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. What has he done: Was sort of like a Mafia Godfather in Victoria England who pretty much controls the organized crime structure of that time, kills Holmes during a fight atop Reichenbach Falls. Intelligence: Holmes calls him the “Napoleon of Crime.” Power: Usually perceived as a powerful figure in the organized crime scene of Victoria London. Vileness: Will kill if it suits his purposes. Sway: Usually portrayed as a master manipulator. Purity: Man was willing to kill himself in order to kill Holmes. Physical Prowess: Usually portrayed as a skinny man who prefers brains over brawns, but he will physically fight someone if he has to. Name Coolness: “Professor Moriarty” just sounds devilish and cool. Created by: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Portrayed by: Many actors have played Moriarty, including: George Zucco (“The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”), Vincent D'Onofrio (Sherlock (2002 film)), Lionel Atwill (“Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon”), Henry Daniell (“The Woman in Green”), Paul Freeman (the 1988 comedy Without a Clue, revolving around the premise that Holmes is a fictional creation of Watson's, and Watson is the real crime solving genius), Anthony Higgins (“Young Sherlock Holmes,” though he really plays Holmes' schoolmaster, Rathe, who turns out to be an evil mastermind; after the end credits, there's a brief scene in which Rathe enters an inn and signs the ledger as Moriarty), Richard Roxburgh (portrayed a villain named the Fantom, whose true identity was that of Professor James Moriarty, in the 2003 film “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”), Laurence Olivier (“The Seven-Per-Cent Solution), Viktor Yevgrafov (Igor Maslennikov's Sherlock Holmes Russian TV series), and Daniel Davis (two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation: "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Ship in a Bottle"). “The Final Problem”: This story, set in 1891, introduces Holmes' greatest opponent, the criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty. Holmes arrives at Dr. Watson's one evening in a somewhat agitated state and with abraded knuckles. He has apparently escaped three murder attempts that day after a visit from Professor Moriarty, who warned him to withdraw from his pursuit of justice against him to avoid any regrettable outcome. Holmes has been tracking Moriarty and his agents for months and is on the brink of snaring them all and delivering them to the dock. Moriarty is the nexus of a highly organized and amazingly secret criminal force and Holmes will consider it the crowning achievement of his career if only he can defeat Moriarty. Moriarty of course is out to thwart Holmes' plans and is well capable of doing so, for he is, as Holmes admits, the great detective's intellectual equal. Holmes asks Watson to come to the continent with him, giving him unusual instructions designed to hide his tracks to Victoria Station. Holmes is not quite sure where they will go; this seems rather odd to Watson. Holmes then leaves Watson's by climbing over the back wall in the garden, certain that he has been followed to his friend's. The next day Watson follows Holmes' instructions to the letter and finds himself waiting in the reserved first class coach for his friend, but only an elderly Italian priest is there. The cleric soon makes it apparent that he is Holmes in disguise. As the train pulls out of Victoria, Holmes spots Moriarty on the platform, apparently trying to get someone to stop the train. Holmes is forced to take action as Moriarty has obviously tracked Watson, despite extraordinary precautions. He and Watson alight at Canterbury, changing their route plan. As they are waiting for another train to Newhaven a special one coach train roars through Canterbury as Holmes suspected it would. It contains Moriarty who has hired the train in an effort to overtake Holmes. Holmes and Watson are forced to hide behind luggage. Holmes receives a message that most of Moriarty's gang have been arrested in England and Holmes recommends Watson return there now that Holmes will likely be a very dangerous companion. Watson however decides to stay with his friend. Moriarty himself has slipped out of the grasp of the English police and is obviously with them on the continent. Holmes' and Watson's journey take them to Switzerland where they stay at Meiringen. From there they fatefully decide to take a walk which will include a visit to Reichenbach Falls, a local natural wonder. Once there they find it is everything that has been said about it and more. A boy appears and hands Watson a note, saying that there is a sick Englishwoman back at the hotel who wants an English doctor. Holmes realizes at once it is a hoax although he does not say so. Watson goes to see about the patient, leaving Holmes alone. When he reaches the Englischer Hof the innkeeper has no idea about any sick Englishwoman. Realizing at last what has happened, Watson rushes back to Reichenbach Falls but finds no one there, although he does see two sets of footprints going out onto the muddy dead end path with none coming back. There is also a note from Holmes, explaining that he knew the report Watson was given to be a hoax and that he is about to fight Moriarty who has graciously given him enough time to pen this last letter. Watson sees that towards the end of the path there are signs that a violent struggle has taken place. It is all too clear Holmes and Moriarty have both died, falling to their deaths down the gorge whilst locked in mortal combat. Dr Watson returns to England with sorrow in his heart. “The Valley Of Fear”: Moriarty plays a direct role in only one other of Conan Doyle's Holmes stories: The Valley of Fear, which was set before The Final Problem, but published afterwards. In The Valley of Fear, Holmes attempts to prevent Moriarty's agents from committing a murder. Moriarty does not meet Holmes, but sends him a note of commiseration at the end. In an episode where Moriarty is interviewed by a policeman, a painting is described as hanging on the wall; its title, "La Jeune a l'Agneau" translated to "The young one has the lamb" is a witty pun upon the name of Thomas Agnew of the gallery Thomas Agnew and Sons, who had a famous painting stolen by Adam Worth, but was unable to prove the fact. Other Stories: Holmes mentions Moriarty reminiscently in five other stories: The Empty House (the immediate sequel to The Final Problem), The Norwood Builder, The Missing Three-Quarter, The Illustrious Client, and His Last Bow. More obliquely, a 1908 mystery by Doyle, The Lost Special, features a criminal genius who could be Moriarty (and a detective who could be Holmes), although neither is mentioned by name. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: An introduction states that two canonical Holmes adventures were fabrications. These are The Final Problem, in which Holmes apparently died at the hands of Prof. James Moriarty, and The Empty House, wherein Holmes reappeared after a three-year absence and revealed that he had not been killed after all. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution's Watson explains that they were published to conceal the truth concerning Holmes’ "Great Hiatus." The novel begins in 1891, when Holmes first informs Watson of his belief that Professor James Moriarty is a "Napoleon of Crime". The novel presents this view as nothing more than the fevered imagining of Holmes' cocaine-sodden mind; it further states that Moriarty was the childhood mathematics tutor of Sherlock and his brother Mycroft. Moriarty meets Watson, denies that he is a criminal and reluctantly threatens to sue Holmes for slander unless the latter's accusations cease. The heart of the novel consists of an account of Holmes’ recovery from his addiction. Watson and Holmes’ brother Mycroft induce Holmes to travel to Vienna, where Watson introduces him to Dr. Freud. Using a treatment consisting largely of hypnosis, Freud helps Holmes shake off his addiction and his delusions about Moriarty, but neither he nor Watson can revive Holmes’ dejected spirit. What finally does the job is a whiff of mystery: one of the doctor's patients is kidnapped and Holmes’ curiosity is sufficiently aroused. The case takes the three men on a breakneck train ride across Austria in pursuit of a foe who is about to launch a war involving all of Europe. Holmes remarks during the denouement that they have succeeded only in postponing such a conflict, not preventing it; Holmes would later become involved in a "European War" in 1914. One final hypnosis session reveals a key traumatic event in Holmes' childhood. His father murdered his mother and then committed suicide because she had a lover, the Holmes boys' mathematics tutor--Moriarty--who then became a dark and malignant figure in Sherlock Holmes's subconscious . Freud and Watson conclude that Holmes, consciously unable to face the emotional ramifications of this event, has pushed them deep into his unconscious while finding outlets in fighting evil, pursuing justice, and many of his famous eccentricities, including his cocaine habit. Watson returns to London, but Holmes decides to travel alone for a while, and the famed "Great Hiatus" is thus more or less preserved. It is during these travels that the events of Meyer's sequel The Canary Trainer occur. “The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes”: The film begins with Moriarty (Zucco) and Holmes (Basil Rathbone) verbally sparring on the steps outside the Old Bailey where Moriarty has just been acquitted on a charge of murder due to lack of evidence. Holmes remarks, "You've a magnificent brain, Moriarty. I admire it. I admire it so much I'd like to present it, pickled in alcohol, to the London Medical Society". "It would make an impressive exhibit" sneers Moriarty. Later Holmes and Watson (Nigel Bruce) are visited at 221b Baker Street by Ann Brandon (Ida Lupino). She tells him that her brother Lloyd has received a strange note, a drawing of a man with an albatross hanging around his neck, identical to one received by her father just before his brutal murder ten years before. Holmes deduces that the note is a warning and rushes to find Lloyd Brandon. However he is too late, as Lloyd has been murdered by being strangled and having his skull crushed. Holmes investigates and attends a garden party, disguised as a music-hall entertainer, where he correctly believes an attempt will be made on Ann's life. Hearing her cries from a nearby park he captures her assailant, who turns out to be Gabriel Mateo, out for revenge on the Brandons for the murder of his father, by Ann's father in a dispute over ownership of their South American mine. His murder weapon was a bolas. Mateo also reveals that it was Moriarty who urged him to seek revenge. Holmes realizes that Moriarty is using the case as a distraction from his real crime, a crime that will stir the British Empire - an attempt to steal the Crown Jewels. Holmes rushes to the Tower of London to prevent the crime, and during a struggle Moriarty falls, presumably to his death. “Sherlock Holmes And The Secret Weapon”: Holmes successfully removes Professor Tobel and his new invention, the "Tobel Bombsight" (analogous to the real-life Norden Bombsight), from Switzerland to safety in England under the noses of German agents. However, once in England, Tobel disappears, kidnapped by Holmes' arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty, now in league with the Nazis. However Tobel has left a cryptic message in code behind (taken from the Arthur Conan Doyle story “The Adventure of the Dancing Men”). Holmes cracks the code and tracks Tobel down, in the process utilizing his skill in disguises, appearing as a Swiss inventor, a criminal Lascar, and an elderly German bookseller. In the climax of the film Holmes is captured by Moriarty and given his choice of deaths. Holmes opines that it would be curious to have the blood drawn from his body and slowly fade away. Moriarty has a fully equipped operating theatre, so Holmes's idea is soon implemented. A large IV needle, a long rubber tube, and a five-gallon bottle are set up to siphon Holmes's blood out of his body. Fortunately for Holmes, it takes over an hour to die this way, which gives his friends time to find and rescue him: Dr Watson raises the blood bottle above Holmes and reverses the siphon flow. Colour returns to Holmes's face (barely visible in this black-and-white film), and he wakes up. Moriarty tries to escape, but falls to his death because of a trap door deliberately left open by Holmes. “The Woman In Green”: The plot revolves around a blackmail scheme hatched by Moriarty (Daniell) and Lydia Marlowe (Brooke), a beautiful female hypnotist. Several young women have been murdered, and all of them have had one of their fingers severed. The baffled police call in Holmes, who is eventually able to deduce that it is all part of a scheme to blackmail wealthy older men into believing that they have committed murder and mutilation while suffering mysterious mental blackouts (which the men mistakenly attribute to drunkenness). “Without A Clue”: The film's premise is that Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character created by Dr. John Watson (Ben Kingsley) to enable him to solve crimes incognito. To satisfy public demand to see Holmes in person, he hires alcoholic unemployed actor Reginald Kincaid (Michael Caine) to play him. But when "Holmes" begins hogging the spotlight, a jealous Watson fires him, only to have to call him back when the British Government wants Holmes and no one else to solve a mystery involving stolen Bank of England £5 banknote printing plates and a missing printing supervisor, Peter Giles. Inspector Lestrade (Jeffrey Jones) is jealous of Holmes' apparent sleuthing skills, and takes every opportunity to spy on Holmes and Watson and to steal their ideas. Just when Watson and "Holmes" discover that Professor Moriarty (Paul Freeman) is the mastermind behind the scheme, Watson is apparently killed in an attempt to capture Moriarty, forcing "Holmes" to solve the case on his own. “Young Sherlock Holmes”: A group of wealthy, well-established men in London become the target of a mysterious cloaked figure, who uses a blowpipe to shoot thorns into the targets' necks. The thorns, dipped into a solution of various botanical extracts, cause the victims to have violent and frightening hallucinations. These images ultimately result in the victims' deaths, but in such a way that they are written off as suicides or hysteric fits. John Watson (who, as his adult self, also provides the narrative in the film) transfers to a prestigious boarding school, where he encounters Sherlock Holmes, with whom he becomes friends. Holmes notices that his mentor and retired schoolmaster, Professor Waxflatter, is very curious about the mysterious deaths. When Waxflatter himself dies under similar circumstances, Holmes suspects foul play, and he, his girlfriend Elizabeth (Waxflatter's niece), and Watson begin to investigate. Clue by clue, Holmes traces the mysterious cloaked figure to a warehouse known as Froggit and Froggit, in the Wapping area of London. The trio proceeds to the warehouse, to find abandoned Egyptian figurines and a large wooden pyramid. They all enter and view, from a hiding place, an Ancient-Egyptian-themed cult, known as the Rame-Tep (also known as Rametep and Ramatep), performing a ceremony in which a young girl is hypnotized, wrapped in linen and killed with the pouring of boiling wax atop her body. The trio is spotted, and each one is hit by a thorn and experiences their own horrific hallucinations in a graveyard; but they eventually recover. Following more clues, Sherlock Holmes eventually tracks down the killers to be Rathe, his present schoolmaster, and the school nurse, Mrs. Dribb. From the last survivor of Waxflatter's circle of friends, Holmes learns that the two are siblings of Anglo-Egyptian descent who were angry at the uncovering of the graves of five Egyptian princesses at the hands of the aforementioned wealthy men and the deaths of their parents in a resulting uprising, which was brutally subdued by English troops. They vowed to kill off those responsible for the tombs' desecration and their parents' deaths and so performed the ceremony to "replace" the bodies of the princesses. So far, four girls were killed, leaving only one left. By this time, Elizabeth has been captured and the same ceremony the trio witnessed earlier is being performed on her. Holmes and Watson manage to stop the ceremony part way through, and the pyramid and the Rame-Tep are incinerated. Rathe and Holmes participate in a heated swordfight after Elizabeth is shot by the schoolmaster (throwing herself in front of the bullet to save Holmes) and Rathe apparently perishes under the ice cover of the frozen Thames. Holmes goes back to talk to Elizabeth for a little bit before her death. They talk as follows: Sherlock Holmes: Someday we'll be reunited. In another world, a much better world. Elizabeth Hardy: I'll be waiting. And you'll be late... as always. (This occurrence also tries to explain Holmes' bachelor life in the works of Arthur Conan Doyle.) The movie ends when Sherlock Holmes departs the school. After the credits, however, we find out that Rathe survived the swordfight and lived to be Professor James Moriarty, Holmes' future arch nemesis. Star Trek: The Next Generation: A computer simulation of Professor Moriarty, played by actor Daniel Davis, appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Ship in a Bottle". For a bet, Data, posing as Holmes on the holodeck, proposed to solve a Holmes-style mystery, but when Geordi La Forge asked the computer to create a foe, he requested one "capable of defeating Data" (as opposed to Holmes). The computer gave Moriarty self-awareness and the ability to manipulate the holodeck's controls. In doing so, Moriarty seized control of the Enterprise, but was convinced to release control and be stored in the ship's memory when he learned that he could not leave the holodeck. Freed from the ship's memory in the latter episode, he again took over the Enterprise. Trapping Picard, Data and Lieutenant Barclay in a holographic duplicate of the ship, Moriarty blackmailed the crew into figuring out a way of allowing him to leave the ship with his mistress Countess Regina Bartholomew. However, the three trapped crew members programmed the holodeck on the false holographic Enterprise to create a holographic simulation of the outside world, leaving Moriarty and the Countess unwittingly stored in a memory module with enough content to keep the couple amused for some time. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Miss Wilhelmina Murray is recruited by Campion Bond to assemble the League. Bond dispatches Murray to Egypt along with an unnamed sea captain (who is later revealed to be Captain Nemo). In Cairo, Murray finds Allan Quatermain, who has become an opium addict. The duo are forced to flee to the docks after Quatermain defends Murray from a group of Arabs who attempt to rape her, killing two of their number. At the docks, Nemo emerges from the Nautilus and blasts the pursuing "Mohammedan rabble" with a large harpoon gun, rescuing Murray and Quatermain. Their next assignment is to head to Paris in order to rendezvous with C. Auguste Dupin (a detective from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue") and capture a beast-man who transpires to be Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde. He has been hiding in Paris after faking his own suicide, and preying on prostitutes. With Jekyll/Hyde successfully captured and handed over to MI5, the remaining trio head to a girl's school in Edmonton, run by the sado-masochistic Miss Rosa Coote (from The Pearl). Rumours abound that many of the female pupils have become impregnated by the Holy Spirit. After a single night's investigation, the trio discovers that the "Holy Spirit" is none other than Hawley Griffin, the Invisible Man, who has been hiding since faking his own death. At the time of his capture, he is raping Eleanor H. Porter's Pollyanna. The League is then convened at its headquarters in the "secret annexe" of the British Museum, where they are sent to recover a sample of cavorite from the clutches of Fu Manchu (who is not mentioned by name for trademark reasons, but is instead identified by his pseudonym of "The Doctor"). According to Agent Bond, under the supervision of Professor Selwyn Cavor, Britain was secretly planning a moon landing to coincide with the turn-of-the-century celebrations. Cavorite is the key in powering and levitating heavier-than-air machines. However, the Doctor has stolen the cavorite, and may use it in his own efforts to gain revenge on the British Empire. While Nemo decides to remain on board his submarine, the remaining quartet are dispatched to London's Limehouse district in order to discover more about the Chinese "devil-doctor". Murray and Griffin learn from an informant named Quong Lee (a storyteller from books by Thomas Burke) that Fu Manchu is indeed operating within the area and is planning something big; however, Lee only gives them information in the form of a cryptic riddle, stating, "The waters lap beneath the heavenly bridge. The dragon sleeps below it. My advice to you: do not awaken it." Although Griffin is skeptical, Murray concludes that Manchu's activities must be taking place beneath Rotherhithe Bridge. Meanwhile, Quatermain and Jekyll enter Manchu's lair, and Quatermain spots the doctor applying caustic paint to one of his victims. The duo are almost uncovered as spies, but they manage to escape. Back on board the Nautilus, the League convenes once more and Murray organizes the evidence. She believes Manchu has stolen the cavorite for some nefarious purpose, and states that there is an uncompleted tunnel beneath Rotherhithe Bridge, which would be a perfect place for him to craft some form of aerial war machine undiscovered. Four of the group plan to infiltrate his lair and steal back the cavorite, with Nemo remaining on board the Nautilus. It is Quatermain and Murray who first manage to infiltrate the Doctor's lair, and they discover a gigantic flying craft, heavily armed with guns and cannons (the "dragon" of Quong Lee's riddle). Although they are discovered by a guard, an unnoticed Griffin is able to kill the guard and Quatermain takes his uniform, allowing him a disguise so that he might get inside the Dragon and steal back the cavorite. Griffin heads back outside to fetch Jekyll in the hopes of creating a diversion. Once inside one of the entrances, Griffin infuriates Jekyll to such a degree that he becomes Hyde and begins slaughtering Manchu's henchmen. Having stolen the cavorite, Murray and Quatermain are re-united with Hyde and Griffin in an underwater glass tunnel, and although they lock themselves in they realize it will only be a matter of time before Manchu's men burst in and kill them. To escape, Hyde grabs Quatermain and Murray, with Griffin holding onto his neck. Quatermain blasts a hole in the glass roof with his elephant gun and Murray activates the cavorite, propelling the group upwards through the cascading water. Manchu's base is flooded, the Dragon is destroyed, and the Nautilus rescues the group as they fall back down into the Thames. Bond congratulates the group on their success, and leaves the Nautilus with the cavorite, telling them he will take it back to his superior M (another parallel to the James Bond mythos). However, Griffin is oddly absent from the group, having disguised a load of brooms as himself, using his own bandages, spectacles and clothing. He follows Bond back to the Military Intelligence Headquarters, and discovers that M is in fact Professor Moriarty, the arch-nemesis of Sherlock Holmes Moriarty has constructed his own aerial war machine, and with the cavorite he can now put it into action. Griffin returns to the Nautilus and informs the group of what he's discovered. Nemo realizes that M is Moriarty, and that he plans to bomb London's east end, destroying what is left of Manchu's criminal empire. After Murray and Quartermain try futilely to prevent Moriarty from launching his ship, and have a run in with The Artful Dodger from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, the League embark aboard the Victoria, a hot-air balloon on Nemo's ship that was once owned by Jules Verne's "Five Weeks in a Balloon's" Samuel Ferguson, and board Moriarty's ship. Hyde and Nemo launch an attack on the crew (Nemo using a minigun, Hyde using his fists), while Murray and Quatermain ascend to the top deck where Moriarty is waiting (Griffin has cowardly stripped and remains by the balloon, which is still anchored to the ship). Quatermain guns down Moriarty's guards using his own machine gun; however, the Professor disarms him and prepares to kill him. Murray smashes the case containing the cavorite and Moriarty rushes toward the device, grabs onto it, and is propelled into the night sky. The League leave the ship via the balloon, and once again are rescued by the Nautilus, this time manned by Nemo's first mate Ishmael (the narrator from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick). The series ends with Mycroft Holmes congratulating the League for their work, telling them to remain in London should there be additional need for them in the future. The comic ends with the scene of Martian ships falling towards Woking, and sets in motion the second volume. In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, it is suggested that Jack Kerouac's Dean Moriarty (from On the Road) is his great-grandson, and the rivalry between the two criminals is continued by the fact that The Doctor's great-grandson is Kerouac's other creation, Doctor Sachs. Other literature: In Neil Gaiman's Hugo Award winning short story "A Study in Emerald", the Moriarty and Holmes of an alternate history reverse roles. Moriarty (who, though never named as such in the story, is identified as the author of Dynamics of an Asteroid) is hired to investigate a murder. The murder has apparently been carried out by Sherlock Holmes (who signs his name Rache, an allusion to Doyle's first novella starring Holmes and Watson, A Study in Scarlet, in which the word Rache, German for revenge, is found written above the body of a murder victim) and Dr. Watson. The story is narrated by Colonel Sebastian Moran, given the rank of Major (Ret.) by Gaiman. In a 2006 comic book story featuring Lee Falk's The Phantom, the 19th Phantom has to fight Professor Moriarty. The climax of the story features the Phantom and Moriarty falling down a waterfall in the Bangalla jungles. At the end of the story, Moriarty is shown to be alive, as he returns to London to find "a detective named Sherlock Holmes". Michael Kurland has written a series of novels in which Moriarty is the hero: His organization of crime is the method by which he raises the money required for his experimental physics apparatus. In the first book of the series, The Infernal Device, he foils a plot against Queen Victoria, reluctantly allying with Sherlock Holmes. John Gardner has written two novels featuring the arch-villain, The Return of Moriarty, in which the Professor, like Holmes, is shown to have survived the meeting at the Reichenbach, and The Revenge of Moriarty. In these two novels, Moriarty is depicted as a Victorian-era Al Capone or Don Corleone, single-handedly controlling London's organized crime structure. Originally planned as a trilogy, the third book, The Revolt of Moriarty, has never been published, but there have been indications, since Gardner's death on 7 August 2007, that it may appear posthumously. A similar character appeared in the Solar Pons series, which was a pastiche of the Sherlock Holmes stories. The Moriarty figure was Baron Knoll, a German spy and a socialite who appeared in only two stories (much like Moriarty). Moriarty appears in Anne Lear's short story "The Adventure of the Global Traveller" (1978). Surviving the Falls via a net which in turn drops a dummy, he travels back in time, inadvertently creating the paradoxical lines of Third Murderer in Macbeth. The story is told in the form of a note addressed to Holmes, posing the question of where these lines came from. Professor Moriarty has been perceived over the years as a pretty icon of villainy. Amazingly, this has happened despite the fact that Moriarty only appeared in two of the sixty Sherlock Holmes tales by Conan Doyle. However, Sherlock Holmes's attitude to him in those two stories has gained him the popular impression of being Holmes's nemesis, and he has been frequently used in later stories by other authors, parodies, and in other media. In fact, among casual Holmes fans it is commonly assumed that the real overall plot arc of the Holmes stories is the war that the detective wages with Moriarty, who oversees the crimes that Holmes foils. Holmes described Moriarty as follows: "He is a man of good birth and excellent education, endowed by nature with a phenomenal mathematical faculty. At the age of twenty-one he wrote A Treatise on the Binomial Theorem, which has had a European vogue. On the strength of it he won the mathematical chair at one of our smaller universities, and had, to all appearances, a most brilliant career before him. But the man had hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind. A criminal strain ran in his blood, which, instead of being modified, was increased and rendered infinitely more dangerous by his extraordinary mental powers. Dark rumours gathered round him in the University town, and eventually he was compelled to resign his chair and come down to London..." —Holmes, "The Final Problem" Holmes also states that Moriarty has written the book The Dynamics of an Asteroid, describing it as "a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticizing it". However, this wasn’t Doyle’s intentions. Doyle's original motive in creating Moriarty was evidently his intention to kill Holmes off. As is well known, "The Final Problem" was intended to be exactly what its name says; Doyle sought to sweeten the pill a little bit by letting Holmes go in a blaze of glory, having rid the world of a criminal so powerful and dangerous that any further task would be trivial in comparison (as Holmes says in the story itself). Moriarty only appeared in one book because, quite simply, having him constantly escape would discredit Holmes, and would be less satisfying. Eventually, public pressure forced Doyle to bring Holmes back, and Moriarty grew into a legend of villainy. Doyle’s Moriarty end up launching the literary sub-genre of the supervillain and influenced countless later writers. I doubt there would many comic, movie, and/or TV supervillains if it hadn’t been for Moriarty. And, he has been built up in other stories and medias as such a great criminal mastermind. It’s amazing how a character who had so few original appearances ended up becoming such a great and influential villain.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 22, 2008 15:35:15 GMT -5
8. Count Dracula Who is he: A vampire. What is he from: Dracula (novel and movies) What has he done: Killed a lot of people. Intelligence: Wily and clever, the Count is a cunning warrior with animal instincts. Power: Is a bit of a loner, but can hold a mystical power over people. Vileness: He kills at will, will kill man, woman, or child, and is driven by passion and hunger. Sway: Incredible influence; can hypnotize and make people hallucinate while seducing women and ravaging them. Purity: He is a bloodthirsty animal and an undead monster, but love still beats in his chest (sort of). Physical Prowess: His strength surpasses any man, and regenerative powers give him a distinct edge, can transform into anything, given the chance and shadows to escape into; however, he does have weaknesses: wooden stakes to the heart, fire, garlic, and sunlight. Name Coolness: “Dracula” is pretty cool and evil. Created by: Bram Stroker. Portrayed by: Many actors have played Dracula: Bela Lugosi (in the 1931 “Dracula” film and usually considered the most famous actor to have played him; also played him in “Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein”), John Carradine (“House Of Frankenstein” and “House of Dracula”), Frank Langella (the 1979 “Dracula” film), Christopher Lee (in the Hammer Dracula films), Gary Oldman (“Bram Stroker’s Dracula”), Richard Roxburgh (“Van Helsing”), Leslie Neilsen (“Dracula: Dead And Loving It”), Gerald Butler (“Dracula 2000”), Max Schreck, Lon Chaney Jr., Denholm Elliott, Jack Palance, Udo Kier, Jonathan Massey, Frank Langella, Louis Jourdan, Klaus Kinski, Duncan Regehr, Patrick Bergin, Dominic Purcell, Marc Warren, and Keith-Lee Castle. Dracula (Bram Stroker’s novel): The novel is mainly composed of journal entries and letters written by several narrators who are also the novel's main protagonists; Stoker supplemented the story with occasional newspaper clippings to relate events not directly witnessed by the story's characters. The tale begins with Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, journeying by train and carriage from England to Count Dracula's crumbling, remote castle (situated in the Carpathian Mountains on the border of Transylvania and Moldavia). The purpose of his mission is to provide legal support to Dracula for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer, Peter Hawkins, of Exeter in England. At first seduced by Dracula's gracious manner, Harker soon discovers that he has become a prisoner in the castle. He also begins to see disquieting facets of Dracula's nocturnal life. One night, while searching for a way out of the castle, and against Dracula's strict admonition not to venture outside his room at night, Harker falls under the spell of three wanton female vampires, the Brides of Dracula. He is saved at the last second by the Count, however, who ostensibly wants to keep Harker alive just long enough because his legal advice and teachings about England and London (Dracula's planned travel destination was to be among the "teeming millions") are needed by Dracula. Harker barely escapes from the castle with his life. Not long afterward, a Russian ship, the Demeter, having weighed anchor at Varna, runs aground on the shores of Whitby, England, during a fierce tempest. All of the crew are missing and presumed dead, and only one body is found, that of the captain tied to the ship's helm. The captain's log is recovered and tells of strange events that had taken place during the ship's journey. These events led to the gradual disappearance of the entire crew apparently owing to a malevolent presence on board the ill-fated ship. An animal described as a large dog is seen on the ship leaping ashore. The ship's cargo is described as silver sand and boxes of "mould" or earth from Transylvania. Soon Dracula is menacing Harker's devoted fiancée, Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, and her vivacious friend, Lucy Westenra. Lucy receives three marriage proposals in one day, from an asylum psychiatrist, Dr. John Seward; an American, Quincey Morris; and the Hon. Arthur Holmwood (later Lord Godalming). Lucy accepts Holmwood's proposal while turning down Seward and Morris, but all remain friends. There is a notable encounter between Dracula and Seward's patient Renfield, an insane man who means to consume insects, spiders, birds, and other creatures, in ascending order of size, in order to absorb their "life force". Renfield acts as a kind of motion sensor, detecting Dracula's proximity and supplying clues accordingly. Lucy begins to waste away suspiciously. All her suitors fret, and Seward calls in his old teacher, Professor Abraham Van Helsing from Amsterdam. Van Helsing immediately determines the cause of Lucy's condition but refuses to disclose it, knowing that Seward's faith in him will be shaken if he starts to speak of vampires. Van Helsing tries multiple blood transfusions, but they are clearly losing ground. On a night when Van Helsing must return to Amsterdam (and his message to Seward asking him to watch the Westenra household is accidentally sent to the wrong address), Lucy and her mother are attacked by a wolf. Mrs Westenra, who has a heart condition, dies of fright, and Lucy apparently dies soon after. Lucy is buried, but soon afterward the newspapers report children being stalked in the night by a "bloofer lady" (as they describe it), i.e. "beautiful lady". Van Helsing, knowing that this means Lucy has become a vampire, confides in Seward, Lord Godalming, and Morris. The suitors and Van Helsing track her down, and after a disturbing confrontation between her vampiric self and Arthur, they stake her heart, behead her, and fill the mouth with garlic. Around the same time, Jonathan Harker arrives home from recuperation in Budapest (where Mina joined and married him after his escape from the castle); he and Mina also join the coalition, who turn their attentions to dealing with Dracula. After Dracula learns of Van Helsing and the others' plot against him, he takes revenge by visiting and biting Mina at least three times. Dracula also feeds Mina his blood, creating a spiritual bond between them to control her. The only way to forestall this is to kill Dracula first. Mina slowly succumbs to the blood of the vampire that flows through her veins, switching back and forth from a state of consciousness to a state of semi-trance during which she is telepathically connected with Dracula. It is this connection that they start to use to deduce Dracula's movements. It is only possible to detect Dracula's surroundings when Mina is put under hypnosis by Van Helsing. This ability gradually gets weaker as the group makes their way to Dracula's castle. Dracula flees back to his castle in Transylvania, followed by Van Helsing's group, who manage to track him down just before sundown and destroy him by shearing "through the throat" and stabbing him in the heart with a Bowie knife. Dracula crumbles to dust, his spell is lifted and Mina is freed from the marks. Quincey Morris is killed in the final battle, stabbed by Gypsies who had been charged with returning Dracula to his castle; the survivors return to England. The book closes with a note about Mina's and Jonathan's married life and the birth of their first-born son, whom they name Quincey in remembrance of their American friend. Other media: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_in_popular_culture Just click that. It’s too damn long to put down. Though, I will do a write-up of the three most popular Dracula movies: “Dracula”: Renfield (Dwight Frye), a British solicitor, travels through the Carpathian Mountains via stagecoach. The people in the stagecoach are in the fear that the coach won’t reach the local inn before sundown. Arriving there safely before sundown, Renfield refuses to stay at the inn and asks the driver to take him at Borgo Pass. The innkeeper and his wife seem to be afraid of Renfield’s destination, Castle Dracula, and warn him about vampires. The innkeeper's wife gives Renfield a cross for protection before leaving for Borgo Pass and then driven to the castle by Dracula's coach, which was awaiting him at Borgo Pass with Dracula disguised as the driver. Renfield enters the castle after his driver and his luggage disappear, and is bid welcomed by charming but weird nobleman Count Dracula (Béla Lugosi), who is a vampire, as seen him crawling from his coffin before Renfield left the inn. Dracula and Renfield discuss the purchase of Carfax Abbey in England, and afterwards Dracula departs. Renfield faints when opens a window and a bat comes in, and Dracula, morphed from bat, forces his wives to get away from Renfield and he bites him. Aboard the Vesta, bound for England, Renfield has now became a raving lunatic slave to Dracula, who is hidden in a coffin and gets out for feeding on the ship's crew. When the ship arrives in England, Renfield is discovered the only living person in it, the captain lashed on the wheel and none of the ship’s crew is discovered. Renfield is sent to Dr. Seward’s sanitarium. Some nights later, Dracula hypnotizes an usherette and tells her to inform Dr. Seward (Herbert Bunston) that is wanted on the telephone. Before leaving, Dracula meets with Dr. Seward who introduces him to his daughter Mina (Helen Chandler), her fiancé John Harker (David Manners) and the family friend Lucy Weston (Frances Dade). Lucy is fascinated by Count Dracula, and that night, after a talk with Mina and falling asleep in bed, Dracula enters her room as a bat and feasts on her blood. She dies in an autopsy theatre next day after a string of transfusions, and two tiny marks on her throat are discovered. Several days later, it is seen that Renfield is obsessed with eating flies and spiders, devouring their lives also. Professor Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) analyzes Renfield's blood discovering Renfield’s obsession. He starts talking about vampires, and that afternoon chats with Renfield, who begs Dr. Seward to send him away because his nightly cries may disturb Mina’s dreams. When Dracula awakes and calls Renfield with wolf howling, Renfield is disturbed when Van Helsing shows him a branch of wolfbane, that stops wolfs as Van Helsing says, and also is used for vampire protection. Dracula visits a sleeping Mina in her bedroom and bites her, leaving her the same marks Lucy had. She talks to the others about a dream of hers, when Dracula visited her. Then, Dracula enters for a night's visit at the Sewards. Van Helsing and Harker notice that Dracula does not have a reflection in the mirrored top of the cigarette case. When Van Helsing shows that "most amazing phenomenon" to Dracula, he smashes the mirror and excuses himself leaving. Van Helsing deducts that Dracula is the vampire. Meanwhile, Mina leaves her room and runs into Dracula’s hug in the garden, and is discovered there unconscious. The next day, newspapers write about a “beautiful lady” who lured little children playing in the park with chocolate and then biting them. Mina recognizes the beautiful lady as Lucy, who has risen as a vampire. Harker wants to take Mina at London for safety, but he is finally convinced to leave Mina with them. Van Helsing orders nurse Briggs (Joan Standing) to take care of Mina when she is sleeping, and not to remove the garland of wolfbane around her neck. Renfield again escapes from his cell and listens to the three men discussing vampires. Before Martin (Charles K. Gerrard), his attendant, arrives to take Renfield back to his cell, Renfield narratives to Van Helsing, Harker and Seward how Dracula convinced Renfield to allow him enter the sanitarium by promising him thousands of rats with blood and life in them. Dracula enters the Seward parlour and talks with Van Helsing. Dracula tells him that Mina is now his after fusing his blood with hers, and Van Helsing swears revenge by sterilizing Carfax Abbey and finding the box where he sleeps and stake him. Dracula tries to hypnotize Van Helsing, almost succeeding, but Van Helsing shows a crucifix to the vampire and turns away. Mina is visited in her bedroom by Harker, and they talk about the night. Harker notices Mina’s changes, as she now becomes step by step a vampire, and when a bat (Dracula) enters the room and squeaks to Mina, she answers trying to attack Harker but Van Helsing and Dr. Seward arrive just in time to save Harker. Mina confesses what Dracula has done to her, and tries to tell Harker that their love is finished. Later that night, Dracula hypnotizes Briggs into removing the wolfbane from Mina’s room so he can enter. Van Helsing and Harker see Renfield, having just escaped from his cell, heading for Carfax Abbey. They see Dracula with Mina in the abbey, and when Harker shouts to Mina, Dracula sees them and thinks Renfield had trailed them. He strangles Renfield tossing him from the staircase and is hunted by Van Helsing and Harker. Dracula sleeps in his coffin as sunrise has come, and is trapped. Van Helsing prepares a wooden stake while Harker searches for Mina. He finds her in a strange stasis, and when Dracula moans in pain when Van Helsing stakes him, Mina returns to her old self. Harker leaves with Mina and Van Helsing stays and the sound of church bells is heard. “The Horror Of Dracula”: Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) arrives at the Count's castle posing as a librarian. He is startled inside the castle by a young woman begging his aid and claiming she is a prisoner. The woman looks horrified at the sight of Dracula (Christopher Lee) on the stairs and runs out. Dracula then greets Jonathan and guides him to his room where he locks him in. Jonathan starts to write in his diary and his true intentions are revealed: he is here to kill Dracula. The woman begs Jonathan to help the next evening and clutches at him. She leans against him as if crying but then tries to bite him. Dracula arrives and yanks her off and fights with her. Jonathan tries to protect her but is overpowered by Dracula and bitten. The pair depart and Jonathan is worried he might become a vampire. Jonathan descends to the coffin room where he finds Dracula and the woman in their coffins for sunrise. Armed with a stake he impales the female first. Dracula awakes at her screams. When Jonathan turns to Dracula's coffin it is empty and Dracula is waiting by the door for him. Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing then arrives looking for his friend Jonathan. He is horrified when he discovers Jonathan lying in a coffin as a vampire. Staking his friend, he leaves to deliver the grim news in person to Jonathan's fiancée Lucy (Carol Marsh), her brother Arthur Holmwood (Michael Gough) and his wife Mina Holmwood (Melissa Stribling). Arthur is quick to dismiss Dr. Van Helsing but soon seeks his aid when Lucy falls ill. Van Helsing suggests that Dracula wishes to replace the woman Jonathan took from him with Lucy. Lucy becomes a vampire and tries to lure a young niece to her but the girl is saved by Van Helsing and Arthur. Van Helsing suggests using Lucy as a means to find Dracula but Arthur refuses and so Van Helsing stakes Lucy in her coffin. Dr. Van Helsing and Arthur try to track down the destination of Dracula's coffin (which had left the castle just as Van Helsing was arriving there), resorting to bribes. Meanwhile, Mina is called away from home by a message telling her to meet Arthur at a certain address. The next morning, they find Mina in a strange state. Determined to find the coffin they plan to leave again but not before Arthur begs Mina to take a cross. Mina is very reluctant and when Arthur presses it into her hand she screams, jumps up and faints. A cross-shaped burn mark is found on her hand. Arthur and Van Helsing then leave for the location they found out (the very same address Mina was called to, not by Arthur but Dracula) but when they arrive there the coffin has vanished. During the night, Van Helsing and Arthur guard both of Mina's windows against a return of Dracula, but he visits and bites her nonetheless. A remark by the maid leads Van Helsing to the coffin's location: the basement of the Holmwoods' house. He places a cross inside it, while Dracula locks him in the basement and takes Mina with him. Arthur frees Dr. Van Helsing. A chase then begins as Dracula rushes to return home before sunrise. He attempts to bury Mina in the soil and finds Dr. Van Helsing and Arthur close behind and dashes into his home. Inside Dr. Van Helsing and Dracula battle it out, Dracula almost strangling Dr. Van Helsing. Dr. Van Helsing fakes a faint and escapes from Dracula's clutches. He tears open the curtain to let in the sunlight and, forming a cross of candlesticks, he forces Dracula into it. Dracula crumbles into dust, as Van Helsing watches in horror. Mina regains her humanity, the cross-shaped scar fading from her hand as Dracula turns to ash and leaves only a ring behind. “Bram Stroker’s Dracula”: The film begins in a prologue, where Vlad III the Impaler defeats an overwhelming Turkish invasion in 1462. Upon returning home, he finds his beloved wife Elisabeta (Winona Ryder) dead, having committed suicide upon hearing the false reports of Vlad's death in battle. Enraged at his wife being eternally damned as a suicide, the former devout Christian Dracula desecrates his chapel and renounces God, declaring that he will rise from the grave to avenge Elisabeta with all the powers of darkness. Four centuries later, Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves), an assistant real estate agent, travels to Transylvania to arrange the transfer of Carfax Abbey in London, Count Dracula's (Gary Oldman) newest real estate acquisition. At the castle, full of bizarre, unnatural features and shadows that move by themselves, Harker meets Dracula, a wrinkled, pale old man in brilliant red robes. During the final signing of the real estate papers, the Count caresses a picture of Harker's fiancée Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray (also played by Ryder), the reincarnation of his long dead wife, Elisabeta, then Dracula sets sail on the ship Demeter to England, leaving Harker captive by Dracula's insatiable and bloodthirsty Brides, who systematically drink his blood, leaving him weak and unable to escape. Dracula arrives in London in a box of his native soil, which is transported to the Abbey, where Dracula emerges to ravish and drink the blood of Mina's best friend, Lucy Westenra (Sadie Frost). Dracula, now a young and handsome prince, meets and gradually charms Mina, but refuses to bite her, instead offering her absinthe to aid her recollection of her past life. As the two fall deeper in love, Lucy's deteriorating health and noticeable behavioral changes prompts suitors Quincey Morris (Bill Campbell), Dr. John Seward (Richard E. Grant), and Arthur Holmwood (Cary Elwes) to summon Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins), who during a blood transfusion recognizes Lucy as a vampire victim. In Transylvania, Harker escapes to a convent and writes to Mina, who is now overjoyed to marry him. Dracula, grief-stricken and enraged, kills Lucy. After Lucy's funeral, Van Helsing leads Arthur, Seward and Morris to the family crypt, where Lucy has risen as a vampire. Horrified, the group drives a metal stake through her heart and decapitates her. Newlyweds Harker and Mina return to London and join Van Helsing, Seward, Morris and Arthur in hunting Dracula. They arrive at Carfax Abbey and destroy his boxes of soil. The Count, who watches from the shadows, travels to Mina and confesses that he is dead, a hunted creature and the murderer of Lucy. Despite her rage, Mina still loves him and wants to be with him. As she begins drinking blood from Dracula's chest, the Vampire Hunters burst into the bedroom, with Dracula claiming Mina as his bride before disappearing into the shadows. As Mina begins changing the same way Lucy had, Van Helsing hypnotizes her and learns via her connection with Dracula that he is sailing home. The Hunters depart for the port of Varna via train to intercept him, but discover that Dracula has read Mina's mind and evades them. The Hunters split up, with Van Helsing and Mina traveling to the Borgo Pass and the Castle, while the others try to stop the Gypsies transporting Dracula. At night, encamped at the castle, Mina begins changing as the Brides hover nearby. After attempting to seduce Van Helsing she bares fangs, but is rebuffed with a piece of Holy Wafer. As she returns to her human form, Van Helsing surrounds them both with a ring of fire, warding off the Brides until morning, when he wearily infiltrates the castle and kills the Brides as they sleep. Hours later, as sunset approaches, Dracula's carriage appears on the horizon, driven by Gypsies and pursued by the Hunters. Dracula, sensing Mina's presence, telepathically commands her to summon a spell that casts harsh winds to impede the Hunters. The carriage finally arrives at Castle Dracula and a great fight that pits the Hunters vs the Gypsies. One Gypsy coated a knife with chloroform and stabs Morris but he shoots the Gypsy with his pistol. Another Gypsy almost kills Harker but the hunter stabs the Gypsy. But just as the Hunters kill the last gypsy, Dracula bursts from his box. He fights with supernatural strength, but cannot overpower Harker who slits the Count's throat with a kukri knife while Morris stabs him in the heart with a Bowie Knife. As the Count staggers, Mina rushes to his defense with a rifle. Arthur tries to attack but Van Helsing and Harker allow her to retreat with the Count, turning instead to Morris, who dies surrounded by his friends. In the castle, in the very chapel where he renounced God, Dracula lies dying. His appearance reflecting his ancient age, his face demonic, he rebuffs Mina's attempts to pull the knife from his heart. They share an intimate kiss, as the candles adorning the chapel miraculously light, and the desecrations he committed on the altar repair. God forgives Dracula, whose youthful appearance and humanity returns. As he asks Mina to give him peace, she shoves the knife through his heart and decapitates him. As I said with Professor Moriarty, it is amazing how one little appearance of a character can lead to a whole mythos. Dracula originally appeared in Bram Stroker’s book and has grown into one of the most famous villains of all time. He has been romanticized a little. This is probably due to the fact that Dracula is a seducer. He hypnotizes his victims, promising them a romantic life of immortality and love. However, that hides an ugly fact: he is a bloodthirsty killer, a vampire who must feed off the living in order to exist. Like a rabid wolf, the Count stalks and seduces his prey, including young Lucy, whom he curses with a neckbite. She begins to transform into an undead being as well; that is, until Dr. Abraham Van Helsing arrives to try and counteract the process. He is too late to save Lucy's life, but he restores her soul by driving a stake into her heart and chopping her head off. These practices are not easy for the uneducated Englishman civilians in his midst, but they must believe in order to defeat the advances of Dracula. He is a grotesque being but also a soulful, passionate, romantic individual. He is obsessed with Mina, hoping to turn the girl into a vampire and make her his eternal lover. And, the only thing that can stop him is death. However, one gets the sense that Dracula is so overcome with love for Mina that he cannot bring himself to commit this terrible act: to "condemn" her, as he puts it to a life as a vampire, especially in the 1992 movie “Bram Stroker’s Dracula.” And, this is what leads to his downfall. Though he does so some compassion, in the many works he has been portrayed in, Dracula is usually a ruthless and bloodthirsty monster that will stop at nothing to make a woman his beloved forever. Besides, the best villains are ones that aren’t easy to categorize as evil. I mean, yes, Dracula is an agent of evil; but he does have human qualities that we can relate to. And, in a way, this makes him much more of a villain because most people don’t really want to root for the bad guy. They feel guilty cheering for the character who commits horrible acts, but they can’t help but see a little bit of themselves in these characters. In a way, Count Dracula manages to seduce to audience as well as Mina.
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General Zod
Samurai Cop
KNEEL!
KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!
Posts: 2,163
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Post by General Zod on Jun 22, 2008 15:55:17 GMT -5
How dare you list *me*, General Zod so low on the list? Granted, if I had to be a low number, 69 is cool, but it's still not #1, is it?
You will pay for this defiance with your life. You *will* kneel before me. You - and one day - your heirs!!
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 22, 2008 16:22:24 GMT -5
7. Pazuzu Who is he: An evil demon. What is he from: The Exorcist novel and movies. What has he done: Possesses Regan MacNeil and other people, kills some people, and psychologically tortures his exorcists. Intelligence: Near-omniscience. Power: Was once a Sumerian demigod and can possess anyone at anytime. Vileness: Has no remorse for anything. Sway: Knows just the right things to say to perfectly psychologically torture anyone around him. Purity: Is basically pure evil. Physical Prowess: Depends on whom the demon has possessed, but is often depicted as a combination of animal and human parts, with the body of a man, the head of a lion or dog, eagle-like taloned feet, two pairs of wings, a scorpion's tail, and a serpentine penis. Name Coolness: “Pazuzu” is pretty damn cool. Created by: William Peter Blatty. Portrayed by: Linda Blair played Regan MacNeil, the girl possessed by Pazuzu in “The Exorcist,” but, Blair’s stunt double Eileen Dietz played the demon in scenes in which Pazuzu’s face is shown. Mercedes McCambridge was the voice of the demon in “The Exorcist” as well. Karen Knapp voiced Pazuzu in “Exorcist II: The Heretic.” Colleen Dewhurst voiced the demon in “The Exorcist III.” And, Izabella Scorupco played Sarah, the possessed individual, while Rupert Degas voiced the demon in “Exorcist: The Beginning.” The Exorcist (novel): An elderly Jesuit priest named Lankester Merrin is leading an archaeological dig in northern Iraq and studying ancient relics. Following the discovery of a small statue of the demon Pazuzu (an actual ancient Sumerian demigod) and a modern-day St. Christopher medal curiously juxtaposed together at the site, a series of omens alerts him to a pending confrontation with a powerful evil, which unknown to the reader at this point, he has battled before in an exorcism in Africa. Meanwhile in Georgetown, a young girl named Regan MacNeil living with her famous actress mother, Chris MacNeil, becomes inexplicably ill. After a gradual series of poltergeist-like disturbances, she undergoes disturbing psychological and physical changes, appearing to become "possessed" by a demonic spirit. After several unsuccessful psychiatric and medical treatments, Regan's mother turns to a local Jesuit priest. Father Damien Karras, who is currently going through a personal crisis of faith after the loss of his mother, agrees to see Regan as a psychiatrist, but initially resists the notion that it is an actual demonic possession. After a few meetings with the child, now completely inhabited by a diabolical personality, he turns to the local bishop for permission to perform an exorcism on the child. After consultation with the Jesuit president of Georgetown, the bishop appoints the experienced Father Merrin, recently returned to the States, to perform the exorcism and allows the doubt-ridden Karras to assist him. The demon supposedly possessing Regan calls himself Pazuzu, the same demon whose statue was found earlier. The lengthy exorcism tests the priests, both physically and spiritually. After the death of Father Merrin, the task ultimately restores Father Karras' faith, leading him to give his own life to save Regan's. Legion: The story opens with the discovery of a twelve-year-old boy who has been murdered and crucified on a pair of rowing oars. Kinderman already sees that the boy is mutilated in a way identical to the victims of a serial killer known as the Gemini Killer, who was apparently shot to death by police twelve-years previously while climbing the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. A priest is later murdered in a confessional, once again bearing the mutilations distinctive of the apparently deceased killer. The fingerprints at the two crime scenes differ, however. Further victims soon follow, including one of Kinderman's friends, another priest, who is slain in a hospital, his body drained of blood before being decapitated. Yet again the Gemini Killer's mutilations are present. Investigations lead Kinderman to the psychiatric wing of the hospital where his friend was slain. Here he finds a number of suspects: Dr. Temple, a psychiatrist who has a dismissive and even contemptuous attitude towards his patients; Dr. Amfortas, another doctor at the hospital. He is very mysterious and not very talkative, and is seemingly apathetic towards everything since the recent death of his wife; there are a number of elderly people at the hospital suffering from senile dementia, and the fingerprints of different senile patients are found at murder scenes, but interviews with the patients make it clear they are seemingly incapable of carrying out the elaborate killings and mutilations; Sunlight, a mysterious patient, found wandering aimlessly eleven-years ago dressed as a priest, who brags of being the Gemini Killer reincarnated and who claims to have carried out the recent murders, even though he logically could not have done so, being secured in a locked cell in a straitjacket, at one point he claims the doctors and nurses let him out to kill and also looks identical to Damien Karras, a priest who supposedly died in The Exorcist by falling down a flight of stairs; James Venamun, the actual Gemini Killer himself, and his body was never found, suggesting he may have survived and is resuming his crimes. In the end, Dr. Temple is disabled by a stroke and ends up paralyzed, Dr. Amfortas dies in an accident (although was terminally ill anyway, suffering from a disease he refused to treat so he could join his deceased wife) and Sunlight abruptly dies from heart failure. It turns out Sunlight's death came just after the Gemini Killer's father passed away from natural causes. The implication is that the Gemini Killer possessed the body of Damien Karras and spent many years trying to gain control of the body, during which time Karras was held in a mental hospital. He lacked any identification and was nicknamed Sunlight because he sat in the sun's rays as it passed through the window of his cell. Upon finally gaining control of Karras' body, the Gemini occasionally left it to possess the bodies of the patients suffering from senile dementia, and as they were in an open ward with access to the outside world, he could use them to go forth and commit murders. This is why the fingerprints of several senility patients were found at the crime scenes; their bodies carried out the murders but the Gemini Killer was in control of them. The Gemini's motive originally was to shame his father, a preacher, whom he hated. When his father died of natural causes the Gemini Killer felt his mission was over and he had no reason to remain in possession of Karras' body. Feeling compelled to explain everything to Kinderman, he summoned the detective, explains all of this, successfully demands that Kinderman tells him he believes that he (Sunlight) really is the Gemini Killer, and then effectively wills himself to die from heart failure. The final chapter of the novel, an epilogue, has Kinderman at a burger-bar with his faithful partner, Atkins. Kinderman explains to Atkins his thoughts and musings of the whole case and how it relates to his problem of the concept of evil. Kinderman ends by concluding that he believes the Big Bang was Lucifer falling from heaven, and that the entire Universe, including humanity, are the broken parts of Lucifer, and that evolution is the process of Lucifer putting himself together back into an angel. “The Exorcist”: The movie starts with Father Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow) on an archaeological dig near Nineveh. He is then brought to a nearby hole where a small stone head is found, resembling some sort of creature. After talking to one of his supervisors, he then travels to a spot where a strange statue stands, specifically Pazuzu, with a head similar to the one he found earlier. He sees an ominous man up a bit away, and two dogs fight loudly nearby, setting the tone for the rest of the film. Meanwhile, Father Damian Karras, a young priest at Georgetown University, begins to doubt his faith while dealing with his mother's terminal sickness. In the central storyline, Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), an actress filming in Georgetown, notices dramatic and dangerous changes in the behavior and physical make-up of her twelve year-old daughter Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair). Regan exhibits strange, unnatural powers, including levitation and great strength. At first, Chris believes that Regan's rapid mental and physical changes are due to trauma from Chris's recent divorce. Regan is forced to endure a series of unpleasant medical tests as doctors try to find an explanation for her bizarre changes. Doctors retire the belief that Regan has brain abnormalities causing her bizarre behaviour when MRI Scans come back negative. Chris is advised by a doctor that Regan should see a psychiatrist and that her behaviour could possibly be a result of a chronic mental illness. Chris rejects their suggestion. During this time, several supernatural occurrences plague the household of the MacNeils, including violently shaking beds, strange noises and unexplained movement. When all medical possibilities of explaining Regan's worsening condition are exhausted, a doctor recommends an exorcism, explaining that if Regan's symptoms are a psychosomatic result of a belief in demonic possession, then an exorcism would likewise have the psychosomatic effect of ending such symptoms. Chris consults Father Karras, since he is both a priest and a psychiatrist. Despite an initial conclusion that Regan's problems are of a psychological nature, Damian is eventually convinced that Regan is possessed, after witnessing otherwise unexplainable events. Father Merrin, who in addition to being an archeologist is also experienced in exorcism, is summoned to Washington. He and Father Karras try to drive the spirit from Regan before she dies. Regan, or rather the spirit, claims she is not possessed by a simple demon, but by the Devil himself. At the climax of the exorcism, Father Merrin dies of heart failure and Father Karras shouts at the demon to enter him. The demon does enter Damian, but the priest immediately throws himself through Regan's bedroom window in order to stop the spirit from murdering her. He falls down the steps outside and is apparently killed. Regan is restored to her normal self, and according to Chris, claims she does not remember any of the experience. The film ends as the MacNeil mother and daughter leave Georgetown to move on from their ordeal. “Exorcist II: The Heretic”: Father Philip Lamont (Richard Burton), who is struggling with his faith, is assigned by the Cardinal (Paul Henreid) to investigate the death of Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow), who had been killed in the course of exorcising the Assyrian demon Pazuzu from Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair). While Lamont, who's had some experience at exorcism, thinks of Merrin as a saint, he is actually up on posthumous heresy charges. Some Church authorities are not sure the exorcism should have been performed (even though it was officially approved by the local Bishop). Merrin’s writings are considered very controversial. Apparently, Church authorities are trying to modernize and do not want to acknowledge that Satan (in terms of an actual evil entity) exists. Although now seemingly normal and staying with guardian Sharon Spencer (Kitty Winn) while her mother is on location, Regan continues to be monitored at a psychiatric institute by Dr. Gene Tuskin (Louise Fletcher). She claims she remembers nothing, but Tuskin believes her memories are only buried or repressed. In an attempt to plumb her memories of the exorcism, specifically the circumstances in which Merrin died, Dr. Tuskin has hypnotized the girl, to whom she is linked by a "synchronizer," apparently a kind of biofeedback device that is used by two people to synchronize their brainwaves. Tuskin finds herself telepathically "witnessing" Regan's memory of the event. She is attacked by Pazuzu and Father Lamont has to use the synchronizer to rescue her. After a guided tour by Sharon of the Georgetown house where the exorcism took place (wherein Sharon confesses to leaving the MacNeils for two years before coming back, claiming she is never at ease unless she remains near Regan), Lamont returns to be coupled with Regan by synchronizer. The priest is spirited to the past by Pazuzu to observe Father Merrin exorcising a young boy, Kokumo (Joey Green), in Africa. Learning that the boy developed special powers to fight Pazuzu, who appears as a swarm of locusts, Lamont journeys to Africa, defying his superior, to seek help from the adult Kokumo (James Earl Jones). Lamont learns that the reason Pazuzu attacks certain people is that those people all have some form of psychic healing ability. The exorcism he performed at the beginning of the film was for a South American lady who said she "healed the sick". Kokumo has since become a scientist, studying how to prevent locust swarms from attacking native crops. Regan, possibly taking a cue from her experience with the synchronizer, is able to reach telepathically inside the minds of others; she uses this to help an autistic girl to speak, for instance. Father Merrin belonged to a group of theologians who believed that psychic powers were a spiritual gift which would one day be shared by all humanity in a kind of global consciousness (akin to the ideas of Teilhard de Chardin, on whom Blatty originally based Merrin's character); he thought people like Kokumo and Regan were foreshadowers of this new type of humanity. In a vision, Merrin asks Lamont to watch over Regan. For some reason, this necessitates Lamont and Regan returning to the old house in Georgetown where she was possessed. The pair are followed by Tuskin and Sharon, concerned about Regan's safety. En route, Pazuzu tempts Lamont (and apparently Sharon) by offering them unlimited power. Lamont resists and continues with his original plan. In the house, a swarm of locusts deluge the pair and the entire house begins to crumble around them. Pazuzu appears as a kind of tarted-up version of Regan herself, and Lamont has to resist this temptation as well -- by beating open its chest and pulling out its heart. Once he's done this, Regan banishes the locusts (and, one assumes, Pazuzu) by enacting the same ritual used by Kokumo to get rid of locusts in Africa. Outside the house, Sharon is apparently possessed by Pazuzu, but kills herself. Tuskin tells Lamont to watch over Regan and the pair leave; Tuskin remains at the house to answer police questions. “The Exorcist III”: Set 15 years after the events of The Exorcist, Lieutenant Kinderman (George C. Scott) is a philosophical police detective who was briefly involved in the case of Regan's possession. He has to investigate a string of grisly murders that appear to have a satanic motive behind them, and furthermore have all the hallmarks of a serial-murderer known as the Gemini Killer. The most baffling thing is that the Gemini Killer was executed years ago. The evidence eventually leads Kinderman to the psychiatric ward of a mental asylum where an already disturbing case takes a shocking twist. “Exorcist: The Beginning”: The plot revolves around the crisis of faith suffered by Father Merrin (Stellan Skarsgård) following the horrific events he witnessed during World War II. Now an archeologist in Cairo, Merrin is approached by a collector of antiquities who asks him to come to a British excavation in the Turkana region of Kenya. This dig is excavating a Christian Byzantine church from the 5th century, long before Christianity had reached that region. Further, the church is in perfect condition, as though it had been buried immediately after the construction was completed. Merrin is asked to participate in the dig and find an ancient relic hidden in the ruins before the British do. Merrin takes the job, but soon discovers that all is not well, something evil lies in the church and is infecting the region. The local tribesman hired to dig refuse to enter the building, and there are stories of an epidemic that wiped out an entire village. However, when Merrin, growing suspicious of these rumors, digs up one of the graves of the supposed victims of this plague, he discovers it is empty. Meanwhile, the evil grows, turning people against each other and resulting in violence, atrocities, and more bloodshed. Beneath the church lies the ruins of an even older temple but not a Christian one. Rather, in the ruins under the church, Merrin and his allies find demonic icons, and other signs of evil and Satanism. This land is where he first encounters the demon that calls itself Pazuzu, which he will encounter again in The Exorcist. This demon is said to "brush" several people, including a child named Joseph, who falls ill because of it, and the former head of the dig who is driven insane by visions. At the end of the movie, the dig's doctor, Sarah (Izabella Scorupco), turns out to be the possessed individual and has the demon exorcised from her in the tunnels below the church but dies. Dr. Merrin and Joseph emerge from the church, (once again buried in sand) and history has repeated itself. 50 (and 1500 years ago) years ago everyone at the site was killed by an evil presence from the church except for one priest. Now, only Father Merrin and the little boy are left as the British soldiers and the local tribes have annihilated each other as well as themselves. “The Exorcist” scared practically everyone moviegoer who saw it when it hit theaters in 1973, and it was all because it captured one of the best and scariest manifestations of a demon on camera: Pazuzu. One of the main reasons for the movies impact was that you had an innocent little girl in danger, as Regan MacNeil is possessed by the demon. It was very scary to see what appeared to be a little girl committing such violent acts, and you had to constantly remind yourself that it was a demon that was doing all these evil deeds. And, Pazuzu did many evil deeds. He killed a partygoer at the MacNeil house by throwing him out a window. He attack and psychologically tortures anyone who comes near it. And, there was that infamous crucifix scene. Also, the demon wouldn’t leave Regan’s body without a fight, even giving Father Merrin a heart attack. And, yes, there were some crappy sequels, but those haven’t hurt the impact of Pazuzu’s first appearance in “The Exorcist.” The movie caused a huge controversy when it was released with people saying that it promoted the worship of Satan and had subliminal messages. Now, that is the mark of a good villain: capturing the imaginations of people who see it in such a way that they will make any kind of claim. And, Pazuzu definitely fits that bill.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 22, 2008 17:41:03 GMT -5
6. Lex Luthor Who is he: Mad scientist turned millionaire industrialist and former U.S. President. What is he from: DC Comics, most notably the Superman comics. What has he done: Tried to kill Superman on many occasions, abused his power as U.S. President, killed many heroes he gave superpowers by deactivating their powers, and too many more to be named here. Intelligence: He is a genius, a mastermind of crime and business. Power: Is very wealthy and founded LexCorp; was also President of the United States once. Vileness: Many lives are at stake whenever this guy puts another plan into action. Sway: Lex loves to talk and hear himself talk, can match wits with anyone, and is able to make Superman mad. Purity: Power has absolutely corrupted Luthor; he won't stop and will gleefully hurt more people in the process. Physical Prowess: Has no superpowers, but he has worn a special suit that allows him to fight superhumans like Superman. Name Coolness: “Lex Luthor” is just badass, with a nice alliteration to it. Created by: Jerry Seigel and Joes Schuster. Portrayed by: Lyle Talbot was the first man to play Luthor on film in the serial 1950 “Atom Man VS Superman.” Gene Hackman played Luthor in the Superman films. Kevin Spacey portrayed Lex in “Superman Returns” and will reprise the role in “The Man of Steel.” Scott James Wells played Lex in the Superboy TV series. John Shea played him in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman. Michael Rosenbaum plays Luthor on Smallville. Stan Jones voiced Luthor in the Superfriends animated series. Michael Bell did the voice in the Ruby Spears Superman animated series. Clancy Brown voiced Lex in the 1990s WB Superman animated series, the Cartoon Network Justice League animated series, and The Batman animated series. James Marsters voiced him in the animated movie “Superman: Doomsday.” Brian Dobson does the voice of him in the Krypto the Superdog animated series. Comic books: In his first appearance in Action Comics #23, Luthor (who is only referred to by his surname) is a self-professed genius who makes his home in a flying city suspended by an airship. He first tries to ignite a war between two fictional European nations as part of a larger plan for world domination. In Superman #4, he is later found hiding out in an underwater city, where he has been terrorizing the planet with man-made earthquakes. When confronted by Superman, Luthor challenges him to a contest of strength versus science. When the DC multiverse began to take hold in the 1960s, this "Golden Age" Luthor was rewritten as Alexei Luthor, Lex Luthor's counterpart from a parallel universe, specifically Earth-Two. In the lead-up to the multi-issue series Crisis on Infinite Earths, Alexei joins forces with his Earth-One counterpart, each attempting to defeat the other's version of Superman. When Alexei challenges Brainiac's partnership with Lex during the Crisis, Brainiac kills Alexei to settle the dispute. In his classic appearances, Lex Luthor is a mad scientist who typically plots to take over the world, or destroy it, through a number of diabolical schemes. In Adventure Comics #271 (1962), Jerry Siegel retroactively wrote an origin story that reveals that Luthor's hate for Superman stems from a past encounter: During his youth, Lex had been an aspiring scientist and a friend of Superboy. Lex begins experiments in creating an artificial new form of life, as well as a cure for Kryptonite poisoning. An accidental fire breaks out in Lex's lab; Superboy uses his super-breath to extinguish the flames, inadvertently spilling chemicals which cause Luthor to go prematurely bald. The botched rescue also destroys Lex's artificial lifeform, along with the Kryptonite cure. Believing that Superboy intentionally caused the accident, Lex attributes his actions to jealousy and vows revenge. He first tries to show Superboy up with grandiose inventions that will improve the lives of Smallville's residents, but each goes dangerously out of control and requires Superboy's intervention. Unwilling to accept responsibility for the catastrophes, Lex rationalizes that Superboy is out to humiliate him. He continues to seek revenge, and in the process devolves into a criminal; over time he becomes Superman's archenemy. Although he is routinely sent back to prison, Lex always manages to escape to threaten the world again (early Luthor stories often begin with him sitting in prison and wearing a gray uniform). This origin makes Luthor's fight with Superman a personal one, and suggests that if events had unfolded differently, Luthor might have been a nobler person; these elements were played up in various stories in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in Elliot S. Maggin's text novel Last Son of Krypton. Luthor's originally-stated goals were to kill Superman and to take over Earth as a stepping stone to dominating the universe. In addition to using his inventions to combat Superman's powers, Luthor also shows an affinity for wigs and disguises. Although none of his attempts to kill Superman work permanently (though a classic non-canonical story from 1961 entitled "The Death of Superman" has Luthor finally killing Superman after lulling him by pretending to go straight), Luthor's persistence makes him Superman's most troublesome foe. Though he is a notorious fugitive on Earth, Luthor is revered on the alien world of Lexor, renamed in honor of him, where he rediscovered the planet's lost technology and rebuilt society for its inhabitants' ruined civilization. As a result, he becomes a hero in the eyes of Lexor's people, whereas Superman is detested as a villain. He eventually marries a local woman named Ardora, with whom he fathers a son. After its debut, Lexor appears sporadically in various Superman comics as Luthor's base of operations, where he wages assaults on Superman. During one such battle, Lex flees Earth and returns to Lexor to draw Superman to his destruction. But when an energy salvo from Luthor's battlesuit accidentally overloads the "Neutrarod" (a spire Luthor had built to counter Lexor's geological instability), the result is the total destruction of the planet, killing all of its inhabitants, including Luthor's wife and son there. Superman initially assumes Luthor has also been killed in the blast, but this is due to his unfamiliarity with the rugged design of Luthor's battlesuit. Luthor eventually returns to Earth, unable to accept his own role in Lexor's destruction and blaming Superman for it. During the 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, Luthor allies himself with fellow Superman foe Brainiac to recruit an army of supervillains spanning the DC Multiverse, intending to take advantage of the confusion caused by the Crisis for their own benefit. However, once it becomes clear that it is as much in their interests to save the multiverse as anyone else's, Luthor and Brainiac reluctantly ally their faction with Superman and the other heroes. The Bronze Age Luthor is involved in a battle on Maltus with other super-villains to prevent Krona from beginning the experiment which created the multiverse in the first place; instead, reality is altered so that the different universes fall into their proper places, converging into one. Afterwards, Luthor is returned to prison with all his memories of the alliance forgotten. Luthor remains a foe of Superman until the DC Comics continuity is retconned in the months following the mini-series. Henceforth, the Silver Age Lex Luthor is referred to by readers as the "Pre-Crisis" Luthor. Luthor's trademark battlesuit from this era, a heavily-armored, flight-capable suit with kryptonite fixtures embedded in its gauntlets, has reappeared in the form of several redesigned homages in modern continuity, most notably during Infinite Crisis. After the Crisis On Infinite Earths, like many supervillains, the Lex Luthor envisioned in the six-issue Man of Steel comic series had an abusive childhood which warped his worldview. He was born to cruel parents in the Suicide Slum district of Metropolis, his only friend was a schoolmate named Perry White. In his teens, Lex takes out a large insurance policy on his parents without their knowledge, and then sabotages their car's brakes, killing them. Lex is sent to live with equally-brutal foster parents, Casey and Emily Griggs, where he will wait until he reaches legal age to collect the insurance money. His foster parents conspire to steal his money, forcing their daughter (and Lex's foster sibling), Lena, into seducing Lex so they can learn of its location. Because she has romantic feelings for Lex, Lena refuses to cooperate, and is beaten to death by her father. Lex is absent from the home at the time of the murder, having been talked into going to a football game by Perry. Following this event, Lex blames Perry for keeping him from Lena's side. \\Upon graduating from MIT, Lex builds the LexWing airplane, the basis of his own business, LexCorp, which grows to dominate much of Metropolis. Still harboring bitterness toward Perry White, Lex begins an affair with his wife, fathering a baby with her. The offspring Jerry White later learns of his true parentage during his late teens, shortly before being killed by a local street gang he was associated with. Decades later, on the day Lex's own daughter is born, he finally avenges himself on his foster father by hiring him to assassinate the Mayor of Metropolis. In the wake of the successful hit, Lex meets with Griggs in an alley (under the pretense of payment) and personally slays him with a handgun. Following this incident, he names his newborn daughter Lena. Luthor's presence is hinted at in issue #2 of Byrne's Man of Steel series, but he is not fully seen until issue #4, over a year after Superman's arrival in Metropolis. When Lois Lane and Clark Kent are invited to a society gala aboard Luthor's yacht, terrorists seize the ship without warning. Luthor observes Superman in action, and once the gunmen are dispatched, hands the hero a personal check. But when Luthor admits that he had not only anticipated the attack, but had arranged for it to occur in order to lure Superman out, Mayor Berkowitz deputizes Superman to arrest Luthor for reckless endangerment. Luthor's temporary incarceration leaves him seething, and he promises to make Superman pay for the humiliation. The rivalry escalates in Man of Steel #5, when Luthor attempts to clone Superman with the assistance of Dr. Teng. Upon completion, the clone proves itself to be flawed and dangerous, eventually degenerating into Bizarro. With Luthor's "Silver Age" origin gone, Man of Steel required the villain to hold a new motivation for opposing Superman, being that he had been the most powerful and respected man in Metropolis prior to the hero's arrival and was unseated from this position by the aforementioned humiliating arrest. Ego and jealousy became the primary cause behind his hatred of Superman, coupled with indignation that the Man of Steel was the only man he could not buy off, threaten or otherwise control. When Superman is apparently slain in battle with the alien monstrosity Doomsday, Luthor feels "cheated" that a "lifeless monster" had robbed him of his life's work, and sinks into a chronic depression until Superman debuts again. Luthor acquires his first prized sample of kryptonite from the cyborg Metallo, who is powered by a "heart" of kryptonite rock. Fashioning a ring from the alien ore deadly to Superman, Luthor wears it as a symbol that he was untouchable, even to the man of steel. He eventually suffers from a severe cancer in the 1990s, caused by long-term radiation exposure to his kryptonite ring. Before this, kryptonite was assumed to produce a 'clean' radiation that was harmless to normal humans. Luthor's hand requires amputation to prevent the cancer's spread, but by then it has already metastasized and his condition is terminal. While mulling over his fate, Luthor visits the grave of his deceased illegitimate son, Jerry White. He soon fakes his own death by taking a jet on a proposed trip around the world and crashing it in the Andes; this is merely a cover for the removal of his brain from his cancer-ridden body and the growing of a new cloned body around it, whereupon he passes himself off as his hitherto unknown, illegitimate 21-year-old son and heir, Lex Luthor II; This deception is helped by a vibrant new body with a beard and full head of red hair, as well as assuming an Australian accent as part of his fake backstory. Luthor II inherits control of LexCorp and seduces then-Supergirl the Supergirl (Matrix). However, after some time Luthor's new clone body eventually begins to deteriorate and age at a rapid rate (a side-effect of a disease that affects all clones). Meanwhile, Lois Lane discovers proof of Luthor's clone harvesting and false identity;[29] with help from Superman, she exposes the truth, and finally a despondent Supergirl (Matrix) brings him down violently. In the end, Luthor becomes a permanent prisoner in his cloned body, unable to even blink, and swearing vengeance on Superman. Aid comes in the form of the demon Neron; Luthor promptly sells his soul in exchange for Neron restoring his body to vibrant health, though he once more loses his hair and a return to an older age than his 21-year-old cloned form, albeit one that is apparently still younger than before his cancer, or at any rate in far better shape. Returning to Metropolis, Luthor freely turns himself over to the police and is put on trial. He is acquitted on all counts when Luthor claims to have been kidnapped by renegade scientists from Cadmus Labs, who replaced him with a violent clone that is allegedly responsible for all the crimes Luthor is charged with. Although Luthor holds a grudge toward Lois Lane for exposing his criminal dealings, he also has an unspoken love for her. On several occasions Luthor has commented that had Superman not arrived in Metropolis, he would have used his time and energy to win Lois instead; indeed, Luthor is actively pursuing her as early as Man of Steel #2. Marv Wolfman originally planned for the two to have been romantically involved, with Lois leaving him for Superman, giving Luthor another reason to hate his foe, but John Byrne modified the story when he wrote the actual issue. The post-Crisis Lex Luthor has been married eight times, though the first seven marriages occurred off-panel in Luthor's past. His eighth and final marriage to Contessa Erica Alexandra Del Portenza, (otherwise known simply as "The Contessa") is based on mutual greed. The Contessa buys controlling interest in LexCorp after Luthor is indicted, compelling Lex into marrying her in order to regain control of his company. The Contessa becomes pregnant and starts using the unborn child to dominate Lex into doing her bidding. Luthor's response is to imprison her while she is drugged during childbirth, then lock her up, keeping her in a permanently-unconscious state. The Contessa later escapes to an island mansion, but upon being elected President, Luthor targets her home with a barrage of missiles and destroys it. Deciding to turn to politics, Lex becomes President of the United States, winning the election on a platform of promoting technological progress. His first action as president was to take a proposed moratorium on fossil-based fuels to the U.S. Congress. Luthor is assisted by the extreme unpopularity of the previous administration's mishandling of the Gotham City earthquake crisis. After six months, Gotham is restored and rejoins America. Ironically, Batman ultimately learns that the entire debacle was the fault of Luthor alone, which results in Bruce Wayne severing all commercial ties between the U.S. government and his company, Wayne Enterprises, in protest of Luthor's election as President. Luthor responds in turn by ordering the murder of Wayne's lover Vesper Fairchild and framing Wayne for the murder. An early triumph of Luthor's first term is the Our Worlds At War crisis, in which he coordinates the U.S. Army, Earth's superheroes and a number of untrustworthy alien forces to battle the main villain of the story arc, Imperiex. However, as it is eventually revealed, Lex knew about the alien invasion in advance and did nothing to alert Earth's heroes to it, which led to Topeka, Kansas being destroyed by an Imperiex probe. A cadre of superheroes eventually break ranks from the Justice League to oppose Luthor. Batman, who had previously forbid any attempt to unseat Luthor from office by force, led the storming of the White House. This was predicated by an attempt on Luthor's part to link Superman to a kryptonite asteroid that is hurtling toward Earth. In a desperate gambit, Luthor uses a variant combination of the "super-steroid" Venom (a chemical associated with the Batman villain Bane), liquid synthetic Kryptonite, and an Apokoliptian battlesuit to fight Superman directly. The madness that is a side effect of Venom takes hold, and during the ensuing fight with Superman and Batman, Luthor admits he had traded the creature Doomsday to Darkseid in return for weapons during the Our Worlds at War crisis; this inadvertently provides a confession, which is captured on video by Batman. Returning to the LexCorp building to regroup, Luthor finds that the acting C.E.O., Talia Head, has sold the entirety of the company assets to the Wayne Foundation (owned by Bruce Wayne, the alter-ego of Talia's past love interest). Following Luthor's bankruptcy and total disgrace, Vice President Pete Ross briefly assumes his place as President. Based on the Timeline of the DC Universe, Luthor serves less than three years. The 2004 12-issue limited series Superman: Birthright provides an alternate look at Luthor's history, including his youth in Smallville and his first encounter with Superman, with a few elements lifted from the 2001 television series Smallville. Examples of the show's influence include Lex's problematic relationship with his wealthy father, Lionel Luthor. Birthright also reinvents the Silver Age notion of Lex originally befriending Clark Kent, who shares his interest in astronomy. During a failed experiment to communicate with a lost alien civilization (Krypton), an explosion erupts which singes off Lex's hair and kills his father. By the time Clark meets him again in Metropolis years later, Lex has launched a billion-dollar business and is the foremost astrobiologist in the world but has also become dangerously misanthropic. Alexander Luthor, Jr., the son of Earth-Three's Lex Luthor, returned to the DC Universe along with other survivors from Crisis on Infinite Earths as part of a scheme to create a perfect Earth, under the pretense of restoring Earth-Two. To this end, he assumed Lex Luthor's identity and created a new Secret Society of Super Villains. In response, the real Lex Luthor took on the identity of Mockingbird and formed a super-villain version of the Secret Six in order to counter Alexander's organization. Lex confronts his impostor In Infinite Crisis #3, but is intercepted by Superboy-Prime, who is allied with Alexander. Luthor later visits Conner Kent, who is in recovery at Titans Tower. Lex slips Conner a crystal shard which shows the location of Alexander's Arctic Fortress. At the end of Infinite Crisis #7, Lex oversees the Joker's execution of Alexander. Luthor has shown an unusual (at least by his standards) compassion for Conner Kent; it seems that by watching Superboy throughout the course of his short life, Lex came to see Conner as his son[citation needed]. At one point, Luthor is shown visiting a memorial statue of Superboy in Metropolis and placing flowers there. In the opening weeks of 52, the Gotham City Police Department finds what appears to be Luthor's body in an alley. John Henry Irons examines the body at S.T.A.R. Labs and notes that the corpse was altered postmortem to make it resemble Lex Luthor. During a press conference, the genuine Luthor publicly states that the body is that of an impostor from another Earth, and the man truly responsible for the crimes Luthor is being charged with. Though Alexander's body had a missing finger and a different appearance from Lex at the time of his death, 52 editor Stephen Wacker has confirmed that the body found in Gotham is indeed Alex, and that Luthor had it altered before the police discovered it. Lex strives to rebuild his fallen reputation; he becomes spokesman for a new procedure, created by the Everyman Project, that engineers ordinary citizens to develop superpowers. During the autopsy of Alex Luthor, Lex secretly exposes John to the chemicals involved in his creating his new army of super-heroes, turning John into a literal man of steel. When approached by John's niece Natasha Irons, Lex gladly allows her to be one of his first test subjects. Using Natasha and several other volunteers, Luthor forms his own team of superheroes which are introduced as the new Infinity Inc. In week #21, Infinity Inc. is in the midst of a battle with Blockbuster (which Luthor has created as well), when he demonstrates that he can 'shut off' the powers of each of his agents; this results in the death of his speedster, Trajectory. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, Luthor sets in motion a calculated plot to discredit Supernova, a new hero who has taken over defending Metropolis in Superman's absence: Luthor triggers a mass-shutdown of the powers of everyone who has undertaken the Everyman program, except for the members of Infinity Inc. (this was also done out of anger because Lex found out that he was not compatible for the process). As multiple flight-powered Everymen plummet to their deaths, underground gas mains rupture from the impact, which adds civilians to the death toll. Luthor's plot ultimately fails when Supernova is able to minimize the disaster with a spectacular rescue. While investigating Luthor in order to root out his motive, Natasha Irons discovers that Luthor has been testing himself to see if he is compatible with the artificial meta-gene treatment. John Henry Irons leads an assault on Luthor's building; despite the destruction of his armor during the fight, he confronts Luthor, only to find himself badly outclassed, as Luthor demonstrates nearly all of Superman's powers. However, Natasha uses her uncle's hammer to trigger an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down the synthetic metagene long enough for Steel to knock Lex unconscious. Lex is disgraced as a result, and later faces indictment when the members of the Everymen realize they have been used. One year after the events of Infinite Crisis, Luthor has been cleared of over 120 criminal counts ranging from malfeasance to first-degree murder relating to the New Years Eve massacre from "52." However, his role in the massacre has permanently ruined his public image and thanks to the machinations of Doctor Sivana, he has lost most of his wealth and all of his control over his newly reformed LexCorp, which is now being run by Lana Lang. He blames Clark Kent for writing several articles unraveling his schemes and pledges vengeance on Metropolis after an angry mob jeers him on the courthouse steps. After amassing large quantities of Kryptonite, including kidnapping the supervillains Metallo and the Kryptonite Man, Lex uses it to power a Kryptonian battleship controlled through a "sunstone" crystal. Superman manages to destroy the Kryptonite-powered ship and recover the crystal, but Lex manages to escape custody yet again. Lex later sends Bizarro after the newly arrived "Superboy" only for the creature to be defeated by Superman. Undaunted, Lex gathers together a "Revenge Squad," to fight against the invading Kryptonians led by General Zod. In JLA, Lex Luthor (alongside Joker and Cheetah III) gathers together a new "Injustice League" and, outfitted in a new version of his warsuit (although still green and purple, it no longer has clear design derivations from the pre-Crisis warsuit as the McGuinness design did), sets out to destroy the Justice League with them. On a related note during this section, he was responsible for creating the third Shaggy Man and the third Blockbuster. Lex plays a large role in the Countdown to Final Crisis tie-in event, Salvation Run. Having been sent to the prison planet after his Injustice League was defeated, Lex quickly assumes control of the amassed villains, receiving competition only from Joker and Gorilla Grodd, who convince half of the villains to join them. He does fight the Joker until the battle was interrupted by an attack by Desaad's Parademons. After the attack, Luthor manages to get the villains off the planet with a makeshift teleporter, secretly powered by Neutron, Heatmonger, Plasmus, Warp and Thunder and Lightning. When called a "monster" by Thunder, Lex claims it is the ones who sent them there who are the real monsters, and that he is the hero. He later sets the teleporter to self-destruct after he uses it, killing the attacking Parademons, and his living batteries. In Justice League of America #21 he can seen associating with Libra's Secret Society of Super Villains and placed in it's Inner Circle. Countdown #34 presents a concise origin page for Lex Luthor as a backup (part of a series which began in 52), representing the new continuity for the Superman mythos as primarily outlined in Action Comics #850, elaborating on the details of this new continuity as pertaining to Lex. His origin now seems to consist of aspects from pre-Crisis continuity, Man of Steel and Birthright, as well as the TV show Smallville. He is shown to be the son of business mogul Lionel Luthor and his socialite spouse Leticia. As in Birthright and the pre-Crisis DC, Lex spends part of his adolescence in Smallville, Kansas (under the care of his aunt, Lena), where he meets Clark Kent, Lana Lang, and Pete Ross. Lex is described as having left Smallville "under a cloud of rumor and suspicion." He later resurfaces in Metropolis, creates the company LexCorp, and becomes an enemy of Superman (who, ironically, and unknown to Lex, is his former acquaintance--Clark Kent). Luthor's rise to the Presidency and his removal from office are also recounted in the origin. This Lex is described as both a "shrewd businessman" and scientist, as well as a criminal mastermind. He is not shown losing his hair in Smallville (as in Birthright), instead it is shown as receding over time. The first Superman films: Lex Luthor is the primary villain of the first “Superman” film. He is mainly motivated by money, as well as a desire to swindle as big a fortune as possible to prove how smart he is. Although he is bald, he usually wears a variety of wigs to conceal it. In the first film, Luthor's high-tech hideout harkens back to the secret lairs of his "Golden Age" comic counterpart. It is located in an abandoned railway terminal deep beneath the Metropolis streets. Luthor's schemes are offset by a tendency to surround himself with unsatisfactory help; He is burdened by his bumbling henchman Otis, and his conscience-stricken girlfriend Eve Teschmacher. Luthor scheme in this film is to divert a nuclear missile into hitting the San Andreas fault, causing California to sink into the ocean, thereby turning its neighboring states into beach front property owned by Lex Luthor Incorporated. Although he nearly kills Superman using kryptonite, Superman eventually defeats him and sends him to prison. Luthor's role in “Superman II” is relegated to a supporting villain, beginning with a jailbreak organized with the help of Miss Teschmacher. After journeying to the Fortress of Solitude, Luthor learns of the existence of General Zod and the other Kryptonian criminals. Hoping to rule his own continent once the evil Kryptonians take over Earth, Luthor allies himself with Zod. Luthor reappears in “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace,” escaping from prison once more, this time with the aid of his nephew Lenny. Once again, Lex allies himself with other villains, in this instance a cadre of war profiteers and arms dealers who are worried about what Superman's efforts toward nuclear disarmament will do to their business. Lex uses his own DNA, combined with strand of Superman's hair that is stolen from a museum, to create a hybrid clone which he dubs "Nuclear Man." The radioactive villain possesses abilities similar to Superman, but receives his power from direct sunlight, whereas Superman can still operate in darkness. Superman exploits this weakness in the end, destroying Nuclear Man and returning Lex to prison. “Superman Returns”: In the 2006 film Superman Returns, Luthor is played by Kevin Spacey. In the film, Luthor has been released from prison bent on revenge against Superman. Luthor funds his criminal operations by seducing a wealthy, elderly benefactor. Luthor's machinations once again concern real estate, as they did in the first two films. He plans to use Kryptonian crystals, like the one Superman used to create the Fortress of Solitude, to form a new continent, owned by Luthor, off the East Coast of the United States, destroying all surrounding landmass in the process and killing untold numbers of people. The landmass also has the added effect of sapping Superman's powers when he is in proximity, as Luthor has laced it with Kryptonite. However, after putting several layers of earth between himself and New Krypton, Superman hurls the landmass into space. After his scheme fails, Luthor uses a helicopter to escape capture, but it runs out of fuel, stranding him on a deserted island. Luthor is confirmed to return for the 2009 sequel, with Spacey reprising the role. Superboy: In the syndicated television show Superboy, Luthor first appeared as a rich, scheming college student played by Scott James Wells. In early episodes, Luthor is preoccupied with showing up Superboy, rigging basketball games, and stealing priceless artifacts, among other small-time schemes. At the close of the first season, Superboy accidentally causes Luthor to go bald while saving him from a lab fire in an incident similar to Lex Luthor's classic origin. Convinced that Superboy intentionally caused the accident, Lex becomes deranged. He kills wealthy businessman Warren Eckworth and tries, unsuccessfully, to take his place via plastic surgery. Prematurely aged and bald-headed, Lex is played for the remainder of the series by actor Sherman Howard. In the Season Four two-parter, 'Know Thine Enemy' Luthor's childhood is explored when Superboy relives his life via the "psychodisk". Similar to his post-Crisis origin, Lex is raised by an abusive father and neglectful mother; Lex becomes rich when he takes out an insurance policy on his parents and then kills them both. His sister, Lena Luthor, holds the distinction of being the sole person Lex cares about. Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman: In the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993–1997), Lex Luthor is played by actor John Shea. In the eyes of the public, he appears to be a beloved humanitarian, but Superman knows the truth. During the show's first season Clark Kent/Superman spends a good deal of time trying to prove that Luthor is corrupt, while Luthor tests Superman to find his weakness. He also comes up with dangerous plots to turn the public against Superman. At the end of season one, he manages to acquire a rare piece of kryptonite; he then devises a trap for Superman that almost kills him, but Superman narrowly escapes when Luthor leaves him to his fate. Just as Luthor is about to marry Lois Lane, the truth about his evil nature is exposed and he takes his own life rather than face imprisonment. Ironically, due to exposure to Luthor's kryptonite, Superman's powers are too weak and he cannot save him. Following the season one finale, Lex's corpse disappears from the coroner's office. Later on, the body resurfaces in a lab where a devoted scientist (played by Denise Crosby) freezes Luthor's remains and labors to bring him back from the dead. She eventually succeeds, but as a side effect of his resurrection, Lex loses his hair (thus bringing him in line with Luthor's usual look). He is quickly disenchanted with the changes that have happened during his absence, particularly the emergence of Intergang, as well as the loss of his personal fortune. Lex hides underground, again seeking kryptonite. But after kidnapping Lois in an attempt to reclaim her, he is traced to his sewer lair by Superman. This time however, Superman prevents Lex from taking his own life again to "cheat justice" and sends him to prison. Luthor later escapes through an elaborate plot involving clones; first using a clone of the President to grant him a pardon, then kidnapping the real Lois Lane and replacing her with a clone just before her wedding to Clark. Luthor hopes to transfer the minds of himself and the genuine Lois into clone bodies so they may never be found. Although he tricks Lois' clone into divulging Superman's secret identity, he still fails in destroying Superman, and is killed in the destruction of his lab. Unbeknownst to anyone, Luthor has illegitimate sons, two of whom try to kill Superman over the course of the last two seasons. The first one entrapped Lois and Clark in a VIrtual reality before the two trick him into letting them out. The only way he could get back to the real world however would be to separate his mind from his body. The second one, played by Keith Brunsmann, is facially deformed and disowned by his father, reduced to living in a furnished sewer/transit station beneath Metropolis. Lex Luthor Jr. hires a handsome stand-in (played by Patrick Cassidy) to impersonate him; The impostor poses as Lex Jr.'s public persona as he murders the CEOs of his father's old companies and rebuilds LexCorp. While Lex Jr. and his impostor manage to get their hands on a recording of the elder Luthor (John Shea's voice) revealing Superman's secret identity, both men are later killed in an explosion that levels the crypt. Lois is initially skeptical that Lex could have fathered these adult men, but Clark insists that no one can be sure of Luthor's true age since he was "a master of deception". Smallville: The television series Smallville features a younger Lex Luthor, played by Michael Rosenbaum (who also voiced the Flash on the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited animated series.) Although his history echoes previous incarnations, this version of Lex did not begin as a bona fide villain. Lex's full name is Alexander Luthor, named after Alexander the Great. His father, ruthless business mogul Lionel Luthor, idolizes the legendary general, and applies Alexander's tactics to the world of modern business, believing himself to be the business world's Philip of Macedon. At the age of 9, a frail, asthmatic Lex accompanies his father on a business trip to Smallville, unwittingly getting caught in the meteor shower that brings Kal-El to Earth; he survives, but loses his asthma and his red hair as a result (Superman's indirect involvement in Lex's hair loss resembles the Silver Age comic mythos). Lex later believes that the exposure which left him bald also gave him a "super" immune system and was the reason that he had never been sick even once after the event. Lex is the heir to LuthorCorp, and lives in an ornate mansion (a rebuilt Scottish castle transported stone by stone to America) on the edge of Smallville. Lex first meets his future nemesis Clark Kent when he loses control of his Porsche, slamming into Clark and plummeting off a bridge. It is after Clark saves his life that the two bond and become friends. Smallville plays on his relationship with Clark and how that deteriorates into the mutual enmity that they will have in life. Lionel Luthor exhibits many of the same characteristics as Lex's comic-book counterpart, and it is through his dysfunctional relationship with Lex that Smallville attempts to characterize how Lex eventually succumbs to his evil leanings; early seasons focused on Lex's traumatic and love-starved upbringing, a bleak contrast to Clark's idyllic childhood. In the second episode of Season Five, Lex's friendship with Clark finally ends when he arranges for Clark, his parents, and Lana Lang to be taken hostage, in an effort to prove that Clark is hiding some secret abilities. He nearly manages to record evidence of Clark's superpowers, but Clark's powers were taken away by his father, Jor-El, and Lex's efforts come to nothing. As resentment between the former friends grows, Lex further alienates Clark by becoming romantically involved with Lana. At the end of season five, Milton Fine/Brainiac manipulates Lex into being possessed by the consciousness of General Zod. After recovery at the beginning of season six, Lex focuses on a secret project called 33.1 based around capturing and studying people who have been infected by kryptonite in order to recreate their abilities, ostensibly to protect the world against further alien threats. This puts him at odds with Clark and his new ally, billionaire vigilante Oliver Queen, aka the Green Arrow with whom he went to boarding school. The animosity between Luthor and Queen's clique is portrayed in flashbacks, in which the young Lex is portrayed by Lucas Grabeel. At the same time, Lex becomes engaged to Lana after she supposedly becomes pregnant with his child (it turned out that she had been drugged with a synthetic hormone to simulate pregnancy). At the end of season 6, Lex is arrested for the murder of his wife, Lana Lang, who appears to have been caught in an explosion triggered by a car bomb. However, at the beginning of Season 7, Lex is released when somebody paid by Lionel confesses the crime and it's later revealed Lana was alive and left a stand-in clone to forge her death. Lana had also stolen 10 million dollars from Lex, which he later allows her to keep for good as part of a divorce settlement. Since then, Lana's been obsessed with exposing anything bad about him. While searching for the truth about his past, Lex kills Lionel by pushing him out of his office window at LuthorCorp in season 7, saying no one will even remember his name. Lex then drags "Alexander" (a personification of himself as a child who acts as his conscience) to the fireplace and burns him, saying "You make me weak!" Lex later comes into possession of a strange object comprising various metal disks with star graphs on them, which turn to reveal a pair of rectangular slots. This device is somehow a necessity in controlling "The Traveler," Clark Kent. In the season seven finale, Lex learns of the Fortress of Solitude from Brainiac, who is posing as Kara. Lex travels to the Fortress, taking the device with him, under the belief that he is fulfilling his own destiny to save mankind from "The Traveler". After arriving in the Fortress, Lex learns that Clark is "The Traveler". A confrontation between the two ensues and Lex activates the device, causing the Fortress to collapse with Clark and Lex both inside. The New Adventures of Superman: His first non-comics appearance was in some episodes of Filmation's The New Adventures of Superman as: Luthor's Lethal Laser. Super Friends: Luthor was a recurring villain in Hanna-Barbara's Superfriends franchise that ran from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. He was voiced by Stan Jones. He makes his Super Friends debut in Challenge of the Superfriends. Luthor, was head of the Legion of Doom, a coalition of villains who plotted the downfall of the titular heroes. Luthor appeared a little slimmer than in his previous animated appearance and sported his pre-Crisis purple jumpsuit. In the episode History Of Doom depicts a portion of Lex Luthor's origin from Adventure Comics #271. In the series The World's Greatest Super Friends season the second episode 'Lex Luthor Strikes Back' features Luthor escaping from jail and challenging the Super Friends. He also appears in the series Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show season, in the opening and the episodes No Honor Among Super Thieves -in which acquires his power suit from the comics of then-, Case of the Shrinking Super Friends and The Mask of Mystery. In the series The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians season, appears in some episodes as The Seeds of Doom. Ruby-Spears animated series: In the short-lived 1988 animated series produced by Ruby-Spears Enterprises, Luthor was shown as an evil businessman for the first time in other media. He is voiced by Michael Bell. Superman: The Animated Series: In the 1990s cartoon Superman: The Animated Series and the subsequent Justice League animated series Luthor was voiced by actor Clancy Brown of Highlander and Buckaroo Banzai fame (Brown originally auditioned for the role of Superman/Clark Kent, but that part ultimately went to Tim Daly). The Animated Series' Luthor is a corrupt businessman like his comic book counterpart, and again his jealously and hatred of Superman ultimately brings down his empire. According to the DVD commentaries and interviews by the show's creators, the Animated Series Luthor was inspired by Telly Savalas' portrayal of James Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Justice League: It is revealed early in the series that Luthor is suffering from a rare blood cancer caused by long-term exposure to the Kryptonite Shard he carries. While in prison, he bribes the Ultra-Humanite to free him, and the two band together and ultimately form the Injustice Gang. Ultra-Humanite's technology allows Lex to wear an armored suit that will decrease the speed his cancer, as well as give him a fighting chance against Superman. However, Humanite betrays him when approached with an offer by Batman. After being exposed as a criminal and losing his business empire, Luthor's characterization turns more toward the original conception of a criminal genius obsessed with destroying Superman. He is eventually pardoned from his crimes after assisting the Justice League in defeating their alternate evil counterparts from a parallel universe, the Justice Lords. Afterwards, Luthor is interviewed by the press and implies that he is thinking of going into politics. Justice League Unlimited: In the first season of Justice League Unlimited, Luthor announces he is running for President of the United States; This is later revealed to be a ruse to enrage Superman. In reality, Luthor is financially backing Project Cadmus, a shadow government organization dedicated to eradicating the League if they ever turn on Earth's population. Luthor ultimately betrays them; hijacking the League's space-based laser to take out Cadmus leaving the impression the League had attacked the United States government. While attempting to place his mind in a duplicate of A.M.A.Z.O., he is thwarted by Amanda Waller of Cadmus. At this point, it was revealed that Brainiac had downloaded himself into Luthor long ago in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Ghost in the Machine", secretly manipulating his actions. After the two merge into a more complete being using alien nanotechnology, Luthor/Brainiac attempts to destroy the world, but they are halted by The Flash. Luthor returns later to join the Secret Society. Ironically this new Secret Society is based on the Legion of Doom and Luthor is not as their leader; that position is occupied by Gorilla Grodd. Luthor agreed to join in order to obtain the last remaining piece of Brainiac, which Grodd has in his possession. Luthor is obsessed with rebuilding Brainiac, as what is left of him is inhabiting Luthor's mind, giving him a sort of multiple personality disorder. Later, using the failure of Gorilla Grodd's silly master plan to turn all humans into apes as pretext, Lex shoots and imprisons him, then assumes Grodd's place as leader. After taking over as leader of the Secret Society, Luthor returns to trying to resurrect Brainiac. Using the power of the Secret Society headquarters, Luthor spends tireless hours trying to bring a fragment of Brainiac back online. With the help of Tala, Luthor tracks down Brainiac's base (seen in the Justice League episode "Twilight") and reconfigures the Secret Society headquarters into a starship with which to seek out the remnants Brainiac's base. During the journey, Tala frees Gorilla Grodd, who mounts an insurrection against Luthor with his fellow Secret Society members. Just as Grodd moves to use his telepathic power on Luthor, Luthor uses his belt to take over Grodd's mind. Afterward, Luthor forces Grodd into an airlock and jettisons him into space. The Secret Society, back under Luthor's power, returns to their task of resurrecting Brainiac. Luthor hooks Tala up to a machine, reminiscent of Brainiac's machine used against Superman, to transmutate remnants of Brainiac's base back into a working body of Brainiac. Before Luthor begins the process, Metron stops time and appears to him warning that he may be unleashing something that will affect the past, present and future. Luthor, still obsessed with becoming a god, ignores him, and the process begins. Although the process is seemingly successful, Luthor actually ends up resurrecting Darkseid, who attempts to destroy the super villains in the episode "Alive". Luthor's loses his link to Brainiac, perhaps permanently. The remnants of the Secret Society, under Luthor, go to the Justice League Watchtower to warn the superheroes of the threat and insist on a temporary alliance in the defense of the planet in the episode "Destroyer". With the aid of the New God Metron, Luthor manages to acquire the Anti-Life Equation long sought by Darkseid, and uses it on the lord of Apokolips, (apparently) sacrificing his own life in the process. Batman, however, suspects that either one or both of them survived and will likely return to challenge the League again. Superman: Brainiac Attacks: Lex Luthor was also featured in the direct-to-video animated movie Superman: Brainiac Attacks. Lex's character designs from Superman: The Animated Series, his job as a criminal businessman and his bodyguard Mercy Graves were used for this movie, but this version of Luthor acted similar to Gene Hackman's Luthor from Superman: The Movie. He constantly spouted one-liners and at one point threw a Tiki Torch Luau to celebrate Superman's presumed death. Lex Luthor was voiced by Powers Boothe in this movie. Luthor's role in this movie had him forming an alliance with Brainiac (this is also treated as the first meeting between the two). He placed Brainiac in a new robot body and sent him to destroy Superman. Afterwards Brainiac would pretend to be defeated by Luthor and then leave Earth to conquer a different planet, while Luthor would appear as a hero to a people and then continue his quest to rule Earth. Naturally this plan failed, Luthor was beaten by Brainiac in battle, and the plan ended with a usual "Luthor under investigation" ending. Superman: Doomsday: Lex Luthor is featured in the direct-to-video animated movie Superman: Doomsday. Lex's character design is similar to those seen in Superman: The Animated Series, albeit with a much slimmer profile and a white suit, and is voiced by James Marsters; Marsters also portrayed villain Milton Fine (Brainiac) in the fifth and seventh season of Smallville. Here he's shown as highly intelligent (able to cure such diseases as Muscular Dystrophy), but extremely amoral (has his scientists find ways to draw out such cures to make a higher profit). In the film, Luthor is indirectly responsible for the release of the creature Doomsday. Upon discovering that the latent radiation from the Earth's core can be harnessed for energy purposes, LexCorp has been illegally drilling into the earth. When Luthor's miners stumble upon Doomsday's alien spacecraft while digging, they accidentally damage it and awaken Doomsday from his long slumber. After the creature slaughters the mining team, Luthor orders his personal assistant, Mercy Graves, to cover up his involvement. Following Superman and Doomsday's epic battle, Superman lies dead, and Luthor is free of all culpability. Rather than be pleased, Luthor is incensed that the evidence crediting him to Superman's death has been destroyed; he lashes out by killing Mercy with a handgun, despite the fact she was only following his orders. Luthor then robs Superman's body from his grave with the intention of creating genetic clones of him. The cloned Superman is more violent than the original, killing crooks, threatening civilians, and generally behaving like a public menace. Meanwhile, the real Superman's corpse disappears from LexCorp during an electrical blackout. Luthor is visited in his office by Lois Lane, who says she feels distant from her relationship with Superman (not knowing that he is a clone). Luthor tries to seduce her and they kiss, but Lois uses a tranquilizer on Luthor and knocks him unconscious; Lois believes he is the one behind Superman's strange behavior. Lois and Jimmy Olsen uncover Luthor's cloning project, but Luthor reappears and tries to shoot them. Fortunately, the cloned Superman has freed himself from Luthor's control and steps in to rescue Lois and Jimmy. Luthor escapes to a room with red sun beams, similar to Krypton's Red Sun, which will neutalize Superman's powers; he also dons kryptonite gloves, with the intention of beating the insolent clone to death. Instead, the clone traps Luthor in the vault, rips its foundation out of the building, and throws the vault across Metropolis. At the end of movie, it is revealed that Luthor survived, but with severe injuries. Krypto the Superdog: In the animated series, Krypto the Superdog, a rather cartoonish version of the DCAU Luthor (who is also portrayed as a rich businessman in the series, played by Brian Dobson, though he is only rarely seen) has a pet iguana named Ignatius. Like Luthor, Ignatius is intelligent, vain, and morally ambivalent. Ignatius is voiced by Scott McNeil. The Batman: Luthor appeared in the fifth season of The Batman. Clancy Brown voices Luthor in this series. Clancy also voiced Luthor in the DC animated universe. Luthor hires Metallo and equips him with his only piece of Kryptonite he has to defeat Superman, but is defeated by Batman. Luthor hires Black Mask, Bane, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface (Basil Karlo) to kidnap Lois Lane while he leaves for Gotham with his right-hand assistant Mercy Graves. While Superman, Batman, and Robin fight Black Mask and his henchmen, Luthor captures Poison Ivy and mixes her mind controlling spores with the Kryptonite powder he already had . He uses it in Superman to become his personal slave. It is revealed also that Luthor had previously confiscated technology from the remains of the Joining, (considerably Brainiac's descendents), to create an army of robots to take over the world. However, after Batman frees Superman from his control, both of them subdue Mercy Graves, destroys Luthor's robots, overpower Luthor and defeat him. Justice League: The New Frontier: Lex Luthor appears briefly in the animated film Justice League: The New Frontier. He is shown in LexCorp, (referred to as LexCo, possibly supposed to be an earlier name for LexCorp) during the scene in which John F. Kennedy made his famous speech. Video games: Lex Luthor has appeared in every electronic game featuring Superman since the first Superman game released for the Atari 2600 with the exception of The Death and Return of Superman. He also appears as the main antagonist of the video game Justice League: Injustice for All. Most recently, he has appeared in the Superman Returns video game, but is only seen in cut scenes. Last Son of Krypton: Luthor plays a major role in the Elliot S! Maggin novel Last Son of Krypton. Lex is a childhood classmate of Clark Kent in Smallville, a scientific genius who blames the then-Superboy for ruining his greatest experiment: the creation of artificial life (in fact it is Lex, celebrating his achievement with a smoke, who starts the fire in his lab). It is at this time that his hair is also burned off. Lex is never again able to replicate his results and holds a lifelong grudge against Superman as a result. Lex as an adult spends much of his time in prison, but in this story it is described as largely by choice; Lex has the capacity to escape nearly at his leisure, but finds that solitude gives him time to work on his scientific theories and finds dodging manhunts tedious. He learns of a secret document written by his idol Albert Einstein, and breaks out for the express purpose of stealing it, using a hologram of himself as a distraction; however, when he cannot translate it (it is actually written in Kryptonese), turns to an expert linguist who turns out to be a disguised alien who also wishes to steal the documents. Luthor then forms a reluctant alliance with his archenemy Superman to chase the alien to a distant world, using Lex's one-man faster than light starship which he has kept hidden for years in plain sight as a modern art sculpture. When the mysterious alien's greater plans are revealed, Lex must work with, and even save the life of, Superman in order to protect the entire galaxy from the would-be warlord. Lex in this story combines aspects of the Silver Age, Bronze Age and film versions. During his robbery of the Einstein papers he uses a hologram of himself dressed in his purple bandoliered jumpsuit with jet-boots (the same Silver Age costume is also used on Superfriends), while he uses a disguise and wig to steal the document; he also holds property and front companies under various names and identities. Luthor is also seen in jail wearing the classic grey prison jumpsuit, and uses a museum hideout similar to the "Luthor's Lair" of the Silver Age comics, though he employs several scientists as underlings, as opposed to the solitary mad scientist of the comics. The novel delves into Lex's personality and viewpoint nearly as much as that of the Man of Steel. It's Superman!: Lex Luthor also appears in another novel titled It's Superman!, by Tom DeHaven. In the novel, Lex Luthor is alderman of 1930s New York City, used in place of Metropolis, and has a company called Lexco. Despite this, he still feels like something is missing. When he visits his dead mother's grave, he is attacked by hitmen. After he kills them, he feels excitement for the first time. Later in the story, much death and destruction is caused by his robotic "Lexbots". The fiasco leads to his first confrontation with Superman, and Lex believes the void he felt has been filled. By the end of the story, he becomes a wanted criminal, and even he says that he has never been more excited than he is at that moment. Lex Luthor is without a doubt one of the most iconic comic book supervillains of all time. It’s not that surprising; I mean, he is the archnemesis of Superman, the most famous superhero of all time. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Superman’s archnemesis would become as well know as Superman himself. Lex is the opposite of Superman. Where Superman is superpowered boy-scout, Lex is a ruthless individual who has no superpowers but desperately craves to have some. He has been a constant thorn in Superman’s side ever since he appeared and has gone through a big change since them. Before the Crisis On Infinite Earths, Lex was simply a mad scientist who invented machines to defeat Superman. Back then, he wasn’t as evil as he is today. Superman himself acknowledged that the Pre-Crisis Luthor is a man of his word who honors promises he has made. On occasion, he has come to the aid of innocents, even when doing so will lead to his capture and inevitable return to prison. However, his goals of killing Superman and becoming the most powerful man in the world lived on in his transformation after the Crisis. But, the Post-Crisis Luthor became much more ruthless and power hungry. In 1986, John Byrne's "reboot" of Superman's mythos in the limited series, The Man of Steel, rewrote the character of Lex Luthor from scratch, intending to make him a villain that the 1980s would recognize: a corporate white-collar criminal. Collaborator Marv Wolfman recalled: “I never believed the original Luthor. Every story would begin with him breaking out of prison, finding some giant robot in an old lab he hid somewhere, and then he'd be defeated. My view was if he could afford all those labs and giant robots he wouldn't need to rob banks. I also thought later that Luthor should not have super powers. Every other villain had super powers. Luthor's power was his mind. He needed to be smarter than Superman. Superman's powers had to be useless against him because they couldn't physically fight each other and Superman was simply not as smart as Luthor.” This created a whole new personality to Luthor that made the character much more interesting than his Pre-Crisis incarnation. His intelligence made him a perfect rival to Superman’s brawn. He also became a little insane: this Luthor believes that the dastardly deeds he does are for the greater good. He believes he has humanity’s best interest in mind in his attempts to stop Superman. He even became President in order to achieve his betterment of Earth by getting rid of Superman. And, he is very ruthless: ordering a military strike on his ex-wife, killing a bunch of people he gave superpowers to simply because he believed that he couldn’t obtain superpowers himself, and forming many supervillain teams. In fact, he is basically the de facto leader of the supervillains of the DC Universe, amazingly being able to do this without any superpowers. This is what makes Lex Luthor such a great villain: there may be people in his world that are smarter and physically more powerful than him, but no one is more ruthless, greedy, and power-hungry and can gain a lot of respect and fear as him.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 22, 2008 17:45:01 GMT -5
Tomorrow, the countdown ends with 5-1. I'm not going to have any hints for the last five. Figure them out yourselves.
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Post by Rorschach on Jun 22, 2008 19:49:23 GMT -5
31. Ozymandias Who is he: A costumed vigilante turned CEO. What is he from: Watchmen. What has he done: Faked an alien attack that killed millions of people. Intelligence: Very smart; in fact, he is known at the “Smartest Man In The World.” Power: CEO of his own company. Vileness: He’s not that vile; while he did kill a lot of people, it was to unite the world and stop a nuclear war. Sway: His good looks and calm voice could talk a nun into a one night stand. Purity: Was a vigilante who protected people and does his deeds to bring about world peace. Physical Prowess: The pinnacle of human physical ability; hell, he can catch a bullet. Name Coolness: “Ozymandias” is pretty cool, with a literary and historical quality to it. Created by: Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, though he was based on the Charlton Comics character Thunderbolt. Portrayed by: Matthew Goode will play Ozymandias in the upcoming Watchmen film. During earlier pre-production and attempts to make the film, Tom Cruise and Jude Law (a fan of the comic) both expressed interest in playing the role, but they left the project after several delays and budget costs. The son of rich immigrant parents, Adrian Veidt was found to be incredibly intelligent. After his parents and his teachers became suspicious of his grades, he successfully hid his intelligence by deliberately achieving average grades. After his parents' deaths, he inherited their substantial fortune at age 17, but chose to give it all to charity. Veidt then embarked on a vision quest, following the route of Alexander the Great, a childhood idol, throughout the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and former ancient Persia. It was during this journey that he consumed a ball of hashish and decided to become a superhero. Returning to America, he named himself "Ozymandias" and became a costumed vigilante, focusing particularly on organized crime and earning a reputation as "the smartest man on the planet." However, his own cases robbed him of the idealistic belief that battling crime would truly lessen evil and suffering in the world. This was brought to a head when an abortive attempt to organize a new superhero team was disrupted by the Comedian, who noted in his brutally apt way exactly how petty the doings of the costumed heroes were in a world where the threat of nuclear war hung overhead, and how powerless they were to stop it. Veidt was inspired to do just that. In 1975, two years before vigilante crimefighters (superheroes) are banned by the "Keene Act," he retires from superheroism, marketing his image for money. This helps bankroll his scheme of creating a catastrophic event and deceive the world into uniting against a common enemy: in Veidt's case, a horrific alien invasion. To that end, he employed geneticists to clone the stolen brain of a murdered psychic and use it to create such a creature with a group of artists and creative personnel to help create the illusion, and invents a limited form of teleportation based in part on the studies of (and studies by) Doctor Manhattan. Upon completion, he arranged the murder of all of his accomplices to maintain the illusion. To prevent Doctor Manhattan from interfering, he hired old associates of the superhero and secretly exposed them to radiation to induce terminal cancer in them, then engineered a rumor that Manhattan was responsible, causing Manhattan to exile himself to Mars. When the Comedian inadvertently learned of Veidt's plans, Veidt murdered him as well. The story of Watchmen begins several hours after the killing, with police detectives investigating the crime. The death of the Comedian caught the attention of Rorschach, who investigated the crime and mistakenly theorized that there existed a conspiracy to murder masked adventurers. Although Veidt arranged an assassination attempt on himself to throw off suspicion, he framed the wanted investigator on a murder charge to get him out of the way. Unknown to him, the current Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre grew to believe that Rorschach's investigation had merit and sprung him from prison to investigate the matter. In addition, Manhattan took Silk Spectre to Mars where she convinced him to return to Earth. Meanwhile, Rorschach and Nite-Owl figured out that Veidt might be involved in their conspiracy theory and traveled to his compound in Antarctica. Once there, Nite-Owl and Rorschach tried to subdue Ozymandias, but he got the better of the two heroes. Then, Veidt explains his plan to bring about world peace by faking an alien attack on New York. When Nite-Owl and Rorschach say that they will stop him, he tells the superheroes that they are unable to stop the fulfillment of Veidt's scheme as he already implemented it before they got there. The fake alien built by Veidt and his people is teleported to New York and causes the deaths of over three million people in New York City. The world governments fall for the ruse, and agree to a union to oppose this new menace. Seeing as how Veidt's plot had the desired effect of uniting the nations of the world and averting a possible nuclear war, Doctor Manhattan, Nite-Owl, and Silk Spectre agree to keep silent about what they know, as it would only plunge the world back to the brink of disaster. Rorschach refuses to keep silent, telling Doctor Manhattan that he must kill Rorschach before he can tell anybody what he knows, which Manhattan does. When Veidt asks the precognitive Manhattan for verification that he did the "right" thing and that his plans "worked out in the end", Manhattan can only reply that nothing ever ends, leaving Veidt once again in doubt as to whether or not his plan was successful. Many, hell, pretty much all of the villains on this list can be labeled as evil. However, if you were to ask the villains themselves (if they really existed or, in some cases, could speak), they would say that they aren’t evil. Most villains don’t see themselves as evil. In fact, a few of them would say that the things they do is for the greater good. Ozymandias is one of them. His actions are done to bring about world peace in a world where the USA and USSR have nuclear missiles pointed at each other and are ready to fire them at any minute. And, he believes the best way to do that is to unite them against a common enemy: aliens. He has many people create an alien by cloning the stolen brain of a murdered psychic to create the creature, has a group of artists and creative personnel to help create the illusion, and invents a limited form of teleportation based in part on the studies of (and studies by) Doctor Manhattan to teleport it into New York. To keep the conspiracy going, he kills all the people involved in the alien’s creation, kills The Comedian when he learns of his plans, and fabricates a cancer scare caused by Doctor Manhattan, figuring correctly that Manhattan will exile himself from Earth. Then, he implements his plan, which kills millions of people in New York. The man is responsible for the deaths of many people, but his plan works. The world is united in peace. Ozymandias has created the utopia he set out to create, but it still doesn’t excuse the fact that he killed many people to do it. He is also quite smart. To come up with this scheme shows a great deal of intellect. Plus, he brilliantly put a hit out on himself to through off suspicion. And, he doesn’t wait until after the heroes show up in his lair to push the button and start his evil plan; he does it 35 minutes before Rorschach and Nite-Owl and tells them so, saying “Dan, I’m not a republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I’d explain my masterstroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome?” Also, he is a great fighter, pretty much beating up Rorschach and Nite-Owl and catches the bullet from Silk Spectre’s gun after she shot at him. However, these actions and his intelligence and athletic ability aren’t the only thing that makes Ozymandias a great villain. His cool collectiveness is also a major factor. Most villains are loud and preachy, with the shouting, shooting, and/or strangling. But, the best way for a villain to be unsettling is when he or she is very calm as he or she delivers his or her unspeakable evil. That is what defines Adrian Veidt. Just look at the scene when he tells Rorschach and Nite-Owl of his plan: he delivers the speech as if he’s ordering a meal at a fancy restaurant. It isn’t just the fact that he killed so many people or that he’s super smart and athletic that makes Ozymandias a great villain: it’s the fact that he can do such evil things in the name of good and be so calm about it. My pick for number one, the son of a bitch. ;D
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 23, 2008 17:48:33 GMT -5
This is it. The Final 5. Let's start with number 5: 5. Darth Vader Who is he: A former Jedi knight turn formidable Dark Lord of the Sith and the brutal head enforcer of the Galactic Empire's rule across the galaxy. What is he from: The Star Wars Universe. What has he done: Turned to the Dark Side, killed the Younglings and Jedi inside the Jedi Temple, cut off the hand of his own son, and much more. Intelligence: Very smart with excellent command and strategic ability, and usually always a step ahead of the good guys. Power: He is a very high-ranking official in the Empire, but he’s usually taking orders from the Emperor or Gran Moff Tarkin. Vileness: Tortured just about everyone in those movies at least once in a number of tasty ways. Sway: That deep booming voice says it all, literally; not to mention the ability The Force has to cloud minds. Purity: Was good but become thoroughly consumed by evil...until that fateful day when he had enough of his boss, Palpatine. Physical Prowess: He can choke people from ten feet away, toss things at people from across a room with his mind, is very good with a lightsaber, and looks cool with the helmet, black costume, and cape. Name Coolness: “Darth Vader” is very cool; and “Anakin Skywalker” is a little cool as well. Created by: George Lucas. Portrayed by: Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen played Anakin Skywalker, who became Darth Vader, in the Prequel Trilogy (Lloyd in “The Phantom Menace” and Christensen in “Attack Of The Clones” and “Revenge Of The Sith”). Mat Lucas did the voice of Anakin in the Clone Wars animated series. In the Original Trilogy, David Prowse portrayed Vader in the suit, as did a number of stunt men, most notably Bob Anderson (he was the one who did the lightsaber duels). Sebastian Shaw played Vader at the end of “Return Of The Jedi.” And, James Earl Jones did the voice of Vader in original trilogy and at the end of “Revenge Of The Sith.” “Episode I: The Phantom Menace”: It is the year 32 BBY, and a trade dispute between the Trade Federation and the outlying systems of the Galactic Republic has led to a blockade of the small planet of Naboo. Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum, leader of the Galactic Senate, has secretly dispatched two Jedi, Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, as ambassadors to the Federation flagship, Saak'ak, in order to meet with Viceroy Nute Gunray and resolve the dispute. Unknown to them, the Trade Federation is in league with the mysterious Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith, who secretly orders Gunray to invade Naboo and kill the two Jedi upon their arrival. Their ship, Radiant VII, is destroyed and the two Jedi escape the assassination attempt by stowing themselves aboard two separate Federation landing craft leaving for the surface of Naboo. On the planet's surface, Qui-Gon Jinn saves local native outcast Jar Jar Binks from being trampled by a MTT. Later, STAPs attack but are destroyed by the two Jedi. Jar Jar Binks shows the two Jedi the way to an underwater Gungan settlement, Otoh Gunga, escaping the Trade Federation army. Meanwhile, the Trade Federation invades Naboo and captures their leader, Queen Padmé Amidala. The Jedi meet the Gungan leader, Boss Rugor Nass, and ask him to help the people of Naboo, but Nass refuses and sends them off in a bongo submarine. They are attacked by an opee sea killer but the fish is eaten by a sando aqua monster. The Jedi, with Binks in tow, reach Theed, the capital city of Naboo, and rescue Queen Amidala from the Trade Defense Force. They depart for Coruscant, the Galactic Republic's capital planet, to ask for help from the Senate. An astromech droid named R2-D2 manages to repair the Queen's starship and they narrowly escape an attack from Federation battleships. Due to the damage the ship's hyperdrive sustained in the attack, the Queen's party is forced to land on the desert planet of Tatooine for repairs. While searching for a new hyperdrive generator, they befriend young Anakin Skywalker, a slave boy, whose master is Watto, a Toydarian junk dealer. Anakin is gifted with piloting and mechanics, and has built an almost-complete droid named C-3PO. Qui-Gon Jinn senses a strong presence of the Force in Anakin, and feels that he may be the Chosen One who will fulfill a prophecy by bringing balance to the Force. By entering Anakin into a podrace, Qui-Gon orchestrates a gamble in which the boy (alone, since Qui-Gon was unable to include the youth's mother in the bargain) will be released from slavery and they will win the parts needed for their ship. Anakin wins the race and joins the team as they head for Coruscant, where Qui-Gon plans to seek permission from the Jedi High Council to train Anakin to be a Jedi. Meanwhile, Darth Sidious sends his apprentice, Darth Maul, to kill the two Jedi and capture the Queen. Maul appears just as the group is leaving the planet, and duels with Qui-Gon. The fight is cut short when Qui-Gon manages to escape his black-robed assailant by jumping onboard the Naboo Royal Starship as it takes off. On Coruscant, Qui-Gon Jinn informs the Jedi Council of the mysterious attacker he encountered on Tatooine. Because of that being's obvious mastery of the Jedi arts, the Council becomes concerned that this development may indicate the reappearance of the Sith, a religious order who were followers of the dark side of the Force and thought to be long gone. Qui-Gon also informs the Council about Anakin, hoping that he can be trained as a Jedi. After testing the boy and deliberating with one another, the Council refuses, deeming him too old for training according to the Jedi Code. They are also concerned due to their sense a seemingly clouded future and a strong presence of fear in the boy. Meanwhile, Senator Palpatine (of Naboo), warning of the corruption in the Senate, advises Queen Amidala to call for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum. Seeing no alternative, the Queen takes this advice when she addresses the Senate. Palpatine is among the candidates to replace the Supreme Chancellor, and the Queen later announces to Palpatine that she herself will return to their home planet to repel the invasion of her people. She is frustrated by the Senate's deliberation and lack of action, and feels that even if Palpatine is elected Chancellor, it will be too late. The Jedi Council sends the two Jedi to accompany the Queen back to Naboo, hoping to shed light on any Sith involvement. Queen Amidala, back on Naboo, forms an alliance with the Gungan people, uniting in battle against the Trade Federation. Nute Gunray is ordered by Darth Sidious to wipe out the Gungans and the Naboo as the Trade Federation prepares for battle. Captain Roos Tarpals orders the Gungan Grand Army to start up their shield, to protect them from ranged attack. OOM-9 has his tanks fire first, but seeing them fail to penetrate the powerful shield, orders them to cease fire. Daultay Dofine gives the command to activate the battle droids. These droids march through the shield, and its generator is destroyed. After much fighting against the Federation's droid army, defeat for the alliance seems imminent. However, victory comes when young Anakin Skywalker accidentally takes control of a starfighter and goes on to destroy the Federation's Droid Control Ship, killing Daultay Dofine and rendering the droid army useless. Meanwhile, Queen Amidala and her force fight their way back into the royal palace and capture Nute Gunray. At the same time, in a Theed hangar bay, Darth Maul has been engaging in combat with the two Jedi, using a double-bladed lightsaber. The battle moves from the hangar, across a series of catwalks, to the Theed Generator Room. During the fight, Obi-Wan is separated from his master when he is kicked off of a catwalk and falls. He grabs the edge of another catwalk below and jumps back up to where Qui-Gon and Maul continue to fight. By this time, Qui-Gon and Maul have become separated by a force field in the entrance to the Generator Room. Obi-Wan catches up to them, but is divided from his master by several force fields. When the force fields deactivate, Jinn and the Sith continue their battle while Kenobi remains divided from the battle when the force fields reactivate. Maul suddenly hits Qui-Gon Jinn on the chin with his lightsaber handle, stunning him, then rams his lightsaber straight into Qui-Gon's chest, mortally wounding him. Enraged, Obi-Wan redoubles his assault upon Darth Maul and chops Maul's lightsaber in half, but the Sith almost kills Kenobi when he Force pushes him to the edge of a melting pit. Obi-Wan saves himself from falling when he manages to grab onto a pipe protruding from the wall of the pit. Darth Maul kicks the Jedi's lightsaber into the pit and prepares to finish him off. The Padawan calms himself, using the Force to jump out of the pit and summons his fallen Master's lightsaber to his hand. Within an instant he lands behind the surprised Maul and cuts him in half, the Sith's body falling into the pit. Just before passing away, Qui-Gon instructs Obi-Wan to train Anakin to become a Jedi. Obi-Wan gives his word that he will. The newly-elected Chancellor Palpatine arrives to congratulate Queen Amidala on her victory, as Nute Gunray is sent to stand trial for his crimes. After the battle, the Jedi Council names Obi-Wan a Jedi Knight. Kenobi conveys his Master's wish regarding Anakin Skywalker to Yoda, who reluctantly allows him to become Obi-Wan's apprentice. Qui-Gon's body is cremated, and Mace Windu and Yoda agree that the Sith are definitely to blame for the tragedy. Being that there are only ever two Sith at any given time (a Master and an apprentice), both Masters believe that one must still remain. The Naboo and Gungans organize a great victory celebration on the streets of Theed, in front on the palace. Obi-Wan and Anakin are present, the younger now wearing in his hair a special braid: the mark of a Jedi Padawan. Queen Amidala presents a gift of appreciation and friendship to Boss Nass and the Gungan people. “Episode II: Attack Of The Clones”: The opening crawl reveals that the Galactic Republic is in crisis. A separatist movement, led by former Jedi Master Count Dooku, has threatened the peace. Senator Padmé Amidala, former Queen of Naboo, returns to the Galactic Senate to vote against the creation of an Army of the Republic. Upon her arrival at Coruscant, she narrowly escapes an assassination attempt, a bomb placed on her ship. As a result, Chancellor Palpatine requests that she be put under the protection of Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker. That night, Zam Wesell, a bounty hunter, makes another attempt on Padmé's life, but Wesell is herself killed (to silence her) just after Obi-Wan and Anakin capture her. The Jedi Council sends Obi-Wan to investigate the murder, while Anakin is to protect Padmé by escorting her to Naboo. Anakin welcomes the opportunity; he often becomes angry at and frustrated with Obi-Wan's criticism, and is glad to have an opportunity to be alone with Padmé. Representative Jar Jar Binks assumes the Senator's duties in her absence. The investigation leads Obi-Wan to the planet of Kamino, where he discovers that a secret clone army is being developed for the Republic. The Kaminoan Prime Minister tells him that this army was ordered some ten years ago by a Jedi Master named Sifo-Dyas, whom the Jedi Council believes to have been killed around the same time. A bounty hunter named Jango Fett had been hired to be the template for the clone. Obi-Wan meets Jango on Kamino, and believes that he is the killer he has been tracking. After unsuccessfully trying to capture Jango Fett, Obi-Wan places a tracking device on his ship and follows him to the planet of Geonosis. Meanwhile, Anakin and Padmé spend time together on Naboo, and Anakin reveals his love for her. Padmé resists, explaining that it would be impossible for the two of them to be together; she is a respected Senator, and the Jedi Code forbids marriage or any other form of attachment. Anakin is soon troubled by dreams in which his mother, Shmi, is in danger and dying. He asks Padmé to accompany him to Tatooine. Upon arriving, he learns that his mother had been kidnapped one month earlier by local Tusken Raiders. Anakin tracks her to a Tusken camp, where he finds her in poor condition, and within moments she dies in his arms. In a fit of rage, he slaughters the entire Tusken community, (Master Yoda hears the voice of the deceased Qui-Gon Jinn trying vainly to dissuade Anakin from the slaughter). Anakin brings his mother's body back to her home, where her funeral is held. On Geonosis, Obi-Wan learns that Count Dooku and Nute Gunray have built a new droid army and that Gunray has ordered the assassination of Padmé. Just before being captured, Obi-Wan relays this information to Anakin so that he can relay it to the Jedi Council on Coruscant. Once the Jedi learn of Dooku's army, Jedi Master Mace Windu leads a team to Geonosis. Meanwhile, Jar Jar Binks calls for Chancellor Palpatine to be given emergency military powers, with which he can call the recently discovered clone army into battle. Back on Geonosis, Count Dooku tries to persuade Obi-Wan to join him, warning him that the Senate is secretly under the control of a mysterious Sith Lord by the name of Darth Sidious. Obi-Wan refuses to believe him, saying that the Jedi would have known if that was the case. Upon learning that Obi-Wan is in trouble, Anakin and Padmé go to Geonosis, but they are captured during their infiltration of a droid factory, despite Anakin's valiant efforts. Alone and doomed to execution, the pair admit their feelings for each other and share (what they believe to be) one last kiss. They join Obi-Wan in an arena-like complex where three monstrous creatures (a Reek, a Nexu and an Acklay) are unleashed on them for their execution. During their struggle against the beasts, Mace Windu arrives with the Jedi, and they battle the droid army. Within the chaos, Windu and Jango Fett combat each other, resulting in Fett being beheaded. Just as defeat for the Jedi seems imminent, Yoda arrives with the Republic's new clone army. A large battle erupts between the Republic's clone forces and the Separatists' droid army. Count Dooku attempts to escape, but Obi-Wan and Anakin track him to a secret hangar, where they engage him in combat. Dooku quickly injures Obi-Wan and cuts off Anakin's right arm. Yoda arrives and engages Dooku in lightsaber combat. Dooku, realizing he may be outmatched, causes a support pylon to nearly fall on Anakin and Obi-Wan; Yoda uses the Force to stop this, allowing Dooku to escape with the plans for a new weapon, the Death Star. In a desolate industrial district on Coruscant, he meets with his master, Darth Sidious, who is pleased that the war has begun "as planned". Dooku is revealed to be the apprentice Sith Lord, Darth Tyranus. On Coruscant, Obi-Wan informs the Jedi Council of Dooku's warning that Darth Sidious is controlling the Senate. All of them, including Yoda, are hesitant to believe this, stating that the Sith's traits have them creating fear and mistrust. Yoda and Windu also agree that the Dark Side is now clouding everything, and that they should closely monitor the Senate. Meanwhile, Palpatine oversees the launching of a massive clone trooper force. On Naboo, Anakin (with a new mechanical hand) and Padmé hold a secret wedding, to which only the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 are witnesses. “Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith”: The opening crawl reveals that the galaxy is in the midst of the Clone Wars. Chancellor Palpatine has been kidnapped by the Separatists' second-in-command, General Grievous. Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi lead a mission to rescue him. After Anakin kills Sith Lord Count Dooku and the two Jedi free the Chancellor, they attempt to escape, but are captured by Grievous. Anakin and Obi-Wan manage to break free with Palpatine, but Grievous escapes and traps them inside the severely damaged cruiser. Anakin is forced to crash-land the ship on one of Coruscant's landing tracks. Upon his return, Anakin is reunited with his wife, Padmé Amidala, who tells him that she is pregnant. Despite Padmé's worries over their secret marriage, Anakin is overjoyed at this news, and the couple makes plans to raise their child on the planet Naboo. However, Anakin is troubled by visions of Padmé dying during childbirth, visions similar to those he had of his mother just before she died. Palpatine then appoints Anakin to be his representative on the Jedi council. The council reluctantly accepts Anakin but refuses to grant him the rank of "Master", which outrages him. He also resents Obi-Wan when he delivers the council's order to spy on the Chancellor. Subsequently, Anakin develops a close relationship with Palpatine, who subtly manipulates him in their conversations, making him distrust the Jedi and raising his interest in the powers of the Sith. While Obi-Wan is on Utapau, where he engages and kills General Grievous, Palpatine reveals himself to Anakin as the Sith Lord Darth Sidious who has been controlling the Separatist movement. He fails to tempt Anakin with the power to save his wife Padmé from death, and Anakin leaves to expose him to the Jedi Council. Jedi Master Mace Windu arrives at the Chancellor's office shortly thereafter to arrest the Palpatine. The two duel and Sidious eventually feigns defeat, just as Anakin arrives. Anakin pleads with Windu to spare Palpatine and allow him to stand trial, but Windu insists on killing the Chancellor, who is too great a threat. Anakin, believing Palpatine alone can save his wife, cuts off Windu's hand, which gives Palpatine the chance to use Force lightning to propel Windu out the window to his death. Emotionally drained, Anakin submits to the dark side of the Force and becomes the Sith apprentice Darth Vader. Palpatine orders Vader to kill all Jedi inside the Jedi Temple, and then eliminate the Separatist leaders in the Mustafar system. Meanwhile, Palpatine informs the Senate of a Jedi plot to overthrow the Republic, and announces that the Republic will be reorganized into the Galactic Empire. He also orders clone troopers across the galaxy to turn against their Jedi Generals by enacting a pre-programmed directive, Order 66. Numerous Jedi across the galaxy are ambushed and killed, although both Yoda and Obi-Wan survive and are rescued by Senator Bail Organa. He brings them to the Jedi Temple before heading to the Senate building. Obi-Wan is horrified to see Anakin killing other Jedi in Temple's security recordings. Obi-Wan meets with Padmé, who refuses to believe his claims about Anakin's fall to the dark side: Obi-Wan deduces her reluctance to help him is a result of Anakin being the father of her child. When she departs to find her husband on Mustafar, Obi-Wan secretly stows away onboard. When the couple is reunited, a tearful Padmé begs Anakin to settle privately with her, but he refuses, believing that he can overthrow Sidious so that he and Padmé can rule the galaxy together. Obi-Wan then emerges from Padmé's ship, and Anakin accuses her of betraying him. Enraged, he chokes her into unconsciousness using the Force. Obi-Wan and Anakin break into a vicious lightsaber duel. The duel brings them out of the facility to unprotected areas of the volcano planet. Back on Coruscant, Yoda confronts Palpatine and they engage in their own lightsaber duel in the Senate building. Yoda is forced to retreat when Palpatine's soldiers arrive. Obi-Wan, meanwhile, eventually gains the advantage of higher ground, and when the enraged Anakin attempts to attack again, Obi-Wan slices off both of his legs and his left arm. Anakin rolls down the bank to the edge of the lava. He is immolated, sustaining near-fatal burns. Obi-Wan leaves Mustafar with Padmé, reluctantly leaving Anakin to die. However, Palpatine arrives and rescues his apprentice. Padmé is given medical assistance, but she dies shortly after delivering twins; a boy and a girl, naming them Luke and Leia respectively. On Coruscant, Anakin's missing limbs and damaged body parts are replaced by cybernetic prostheses and implants. He is put into a full suit of black armor and is sealed in a respirator mask, which will allow him to survive his injuries. When he inquires about Padmé, Palpatine tells him that he killed her in his anger. Vader unleashes a furious scream of mournful rage and destroys droids and equipment throughout the room with the Force while Palpatine looks on with an evil grin. Later, Vader and Palpatine oversee the construction of the first Death Star. Aboard the Tantive IV, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Bail Organa agree to keep the children hidden and separated. Obi-Wan and Yoda will watch and wait until the time is ready for the Skywalker children to do their part in the battle against the Sith. Leia is taken to Alderaan to live with the Queen and Bail Organa, and Luke is brought to Tatooine to live with Owen and Beru, his closest living relatives. “Episode IV: A New Hope”: An opening crawl reveals that the galaxy is in a state of civil war. The Rebel Alliance has stolen plans to the Galactic Empire's Death Star: a space station capable of annihilating a planet. Rebel leader Princess Leia Organa has possession of the plans, but her ship is captured by Imperial forces under the command of Darth Vader. Before she is captured, Leia hides the plans in a droid named R2-D2, along with a holographic recording. The small droid escapes to the surface of the desert planet Tatooine with fellow droid C-3PO. The two droids are quickly captured by Jawa traders, who sell the pair to moisture farmer Owen Lars and his nephew, Luke Skywalker. While Luke is cleaning R2-D2, he accidentally triggers part of Leia's holographic message, in which she requests help from General Obi-Wan Kenobi. The only Kenobi Luke knows of is an old hermet named Ben Kenobi who lives in the nearby hills; but Owen dismisses any connection, suggesting that Obi-Wan is dead. During dinner, R2-D2 escapes to seek Obi-Wan. Luke and C-3PO go out after him, and are met by Ben Kenobi. Kenobi reveals himself to be Obi-Wan, and takes Luke and the droids back to his hut. He tells Luke of his days as a Jedi Knight, and explains to Luke about a mysterious energy field called the Force. He also tells Luke about his association with Luke's father, also a Jedi, who he says was betrayed and murdered by Darth Vader, Kenobi's former pupil who turned to evil. Kenobi then views Leia's message, in which she begs him to take R2-D2 and the Death Star plans to her home planet of Alderaan, where her father will be able to retrieve and analyze them. Kenobi asks Luke to accompany him to Alderaan and to learn the ways of the Force. After initially refusing, Luke discovers that his home has been destroyed and his aunt and uncle killed by Imperial stormtroopers in search of the droids. Luke agrees to go with Kenobi to Alderaan, and the two hire smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca to transport them on their ship, the Millennium Falcon. Meanwhile, Leia has been imprisoned on the Death Star and has resisted interrogation. Grand Moff Tarkin, the Death Star's commanding officer, tries to coax information out of her by threatening to destroy Alderaan, and proceeds to do so even after she appears to cooperate, as a means of demonstrating the power of the Empire's new weapon. The planet's destruction is felt by Kenobi aboard the Millennium Falcon while he is instructing Luke about the Force. When the Falcon arrives at the Alderaan's coordinates, they arrive instead in a field of rubble. They follow a TIE Fighter towards the Death Star, which they mistake for a moon, and are captured by the station's tractor beam and brought into its hangar bay. The group takes refuge in one a command room on the station while Kenobi goes off on his own to disable the tractor beam. While they are waiting, R2-D2 discovers in the stations computer that Princess Leia is onboard and is scheduled for termination. Han, Luke and Chewbacca stage a rescue and free the princess. Making their way back to the Millennium Falcon, their path is cleared by the spectacle of a lightsaber duel between Darth Vader and his former master, Kenobi. Kenobi allows himself to be struck down as the others race onto the ship and escape. The Falcon journeys to the rebel base at Yavin IV where the Death Star plans are analyzed by the rebels and a potential weakness is found. The weakness will require the use of one-man fighters to slip past the Death Star's formidable defenses and attack a vulnerable exhaust port. Luke joins the assault team while Han collects his reward for the rescue and leaves, despite Luke's request for him to stay. The attack proceeds when the Death Star arrives in the system, having followed the Falcon to the rebel base. The rebel fighters suffer heavy losses and after several failed attack runs, Luke remains piloting one of the few remaining ships. Darth Vader appears with his own group of fighters and begins attacking the rebel ships. Luke begins his attack run with Vader in pursuit, as the Death Star approaches firing range of Yavin IV. During his run, Luke hears Kenobi's voice telling him to use the Force, and he turns off his targeting computer. As Vader is about to fire at Luke's ship, the Millennium Falcon appears and attacks Vader and his wingmen, sending Vader's ship careening off into space. Luke fires a successful shot which destroys the Death Star seconds before it fires on the rebel base. Later, at a grand ceremony, Princess Leia awards medals to Luke and Han for their heroism in the battle. “Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back”: The opening crawl reveals that, despite the Rebel success in destroying the Death Star, the Galactic Empire has pursued the Rebel Alliance across the galaxy, forcing them to establish a secret base on the remote ice planet Hoth. The Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader sends robotic probes in search of Luke Skywalker, who has been promoted to the rank of Commander. While Luke is patrolling near the base, he is knocked unconscious by an indigenous predator, the Wampa. Back at the base, the smuggler-pilot Han Solo announces his intention to leave the Rebels and pay the debt he owes to the gangster Jabba the Hutt, much to the displeasure of Princess Leia Organa. After Han discovers that Luke has not returned from patrol, he delays his departure and leaves the base to search for him. After escaping the creature's lair, Luke is overcome by the cold and has a vision of his late mentor, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, who instructs him to receive training from Jedi Master Yoda on the planet Dagobah. Han finds Luke, and provides him shelter until they are rescued the following morning. Meanwhile, an Imperial Probe Droid transmits the location of the base to the Imperial fleet. Darth Vader orders an attack while the Rebels, who have discovered the Imperial Probe Droid, prepare to evacuate. The Rebels set up infantry trenches and an energy shield to protect them from the Empire's orbital bombardment while they can get transports ready. The Imperial forces land their ground assault walkers beyond the energy shield and Luke leads his squadron of flying speeders into battle. However, the Imperial forces eventually overpower the Rebels and destroy the generator powering the energy shield, capturing the Rebel base. Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and their droid C-3PO flee on board the Millennium Falcon. However, the Falcon's hyperdrive is damaged and it cannot escape the Imperial blockade in space. To evade pursuit, Han Solo enters an asteroid field and lands inside an asteroid crater. Furious at the loss of his prey, Darth Vader turns to several notorious bounty hunters to assist the Empire in finding the Millennium Falcon. Meanwhile, Luke and his astro-droid R2-D2 escape Hoth in Luke's X-wing fighter. After a crash landing on Dagobah, Luke meets a wizened, green little creature who reveals himself to be Yoda. Meanwhile, inside the asteroid cave, Han Solo and Princess Leia argue while repairing the ship, eventually leading to a tender kiss. However, they are forced to escape what they thought was a "cave," which is actually the belly of a gigantic space slug. When they are revealed themselves to the imperial armada, Solo makes a mock attack-run and attaches the Millennium Falcon to the superstructure of a Star Destroyer, hiding from detection until they are able to mingle with its space-dumped garbage. Solo sets course for Cloud City, a mining colony in the Bespin system run by Han's former friend, Lando Calrissian, but the Falcon is followed stealthily by bounty-hunter Boba Fett, who has anticipated their escape strategy. On Dagobah, Luke undergoes a crash course on Yoda's rigorous lessons about the metaphysical nature of the Force. Luke has a vision of Han and Leia in danger and agony, and wants to rescue them, but Yoda and the vision of Obi-Wan warn of the dangers of leaving rashly, because Luke is still susceptible to the powerful temptation of the Dark Side. Nevertheless, Luke departs from Dagobah and promises Yoda he will return to complete his training. Upon arrival at Cloud City, Han's party is welcomed by Lando Calrissian. After agreeing to help Han repair his ship, Lando invites him and the others to a meal. When they enter the dining room, they are captured by Darth Vader. Lando insists he was forced to conspire with the Empire to prevent them from invading and occupying the city. In captivity, Luke's friends are used as bait to lure Luke to the city. Vader orders a carbon-freezing chamber prepared to freeze Luke, which will hold him in suspended animation for transport to the Emperor. The process is tested on Han Solo. As Han is lowered into the machine, Leia declares her love for him. He is frozen in carbonite and handed over to bounty hunter Boba Fett, who intends to return his quarry to Jabba the Hutt for a large reward. Meanwhile, Luke lands at Cloud City and is tricked into entering the carbon-freezing chamber. He meets Vader and engages him in combat. While escorting their prisoners, Vader's Imperial troopers are captured by Lando's private security force, who set Leia and the others free. Lando, despite nearly being killed by a furious Chewbacca, insists that there is still a chance to save Han, and along the way they find R2-D2. The group pursues Boba Fett and Han's frozen form through Cloud City, but arrive just as the bounty hunter's ship flies away. After a desperate chase, Leia, Chewbacca, Lando, and the two droids make their escape on the Millennium Falcon. Meanwhile, Vader and Luke's fierce lightsaber duel brings them to a narrow platform above the city's central air shaft. After gaining the advantage, Vader cuts off Luke's dueling hand along with his lightsaber. With Luke cornered and defenseless, Vader informs Luke that he does not yet know the truth about his father. Luke claims that Vader killed him. Vader answers: “No. I am your father.” A horrified Luke screams in denial. Vader tries to persuade Luke to join him, embrace the Dark Side of the Force, and overthrow the Emperor with him. Luke refuses, lets go, and falls off the platform into the abyss, signifying that he would rather die than join him. In freefall, Luke is sucked into an air vent, shoots out of the underbelly of the floating city, and lands on an antenna hanging beneath. In desperation, Luke calls out to Leia, who senses Luke's distress aboard the Millennium Falcon and orders Lando to pilot them back to Cloud City. After saving Luke and leaving the planet, they are pursued by Darth Vader's flagship. R2-D2, who discovered that the hyperdrive was merely de-activated while searching the city's central computer, reactivates it and the Falcon escapes into hyperspace. Aboard a Rebel medical frigate, Luke is fitted with an artificial hand as Lando and Chewbacca set out in the Falcon to locate Han Solo. “Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi”: The opening crawl reveals that the Galactic Empire has been working on the construction of a new armored space station which is to be even larger and more powerful than the first Death Star. Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, Princess Leia Organa, C-3PO, and R2-D2 return to Tatooine in an attempt to rescue Han Solo from the gangster Jabba the Hutt. The slave girl Oola falls to her untimely death in the rancor pit. Leia, disguised as a bounty hunter, attempts to secretly free Solo, who is still encased in carbonite. She succeeds, only to be discovered and captured by Jabba, who makes her his personal slave to replace the deceased Oola. Several days later Luke arrives to make one final plea to Jabba to release Solo. Luke is then captured by Jabba's guards and dropped into a dungeon to battle a rancor. After defeating the rancor he is sent along with Han Solo and Chewbacca to the Great Pit of Carkoon to be slowly consumed by the Sarlacc. With the help of R2-D2, Luke escapes and a large battle erupts; during the chaos, Leia strangles Jabba to death with her slave chains, and Han accidentally knocks Boba Fett, the bounty hunter who brought him to Jabba, into the pit where he is swallowed alive by the Sarlacc. Following this, Luke blasts Jabba's sail barge with its own deck cannon, and all of the heroes manage to escape before it explodes. Luke then returns to Dagobah to complete his Jedi training. However, upon arriving, he finds Yoda is dying. Yoda tells Luke that no other training is required, but that he will not truly be a Jedi until he confronts Darth Vader who, Yoda confirms, is Luke's father. Yoda then dies, but not before telling Luke that "there is another Skywalker". The spirit form of Obi-Wan Kenobi then appears and confirms that Vader was once Anakin Skywalker, a former Jedi who was turned to the dark side of the Force. Though he initially seemed to imply that Vader was merely another Jedi who betrayed and murdered Anakin, Obi-Wan explains that Vader truly did this in the sense of the dark side consuming Anakin's mind, apparently destroying the good man who was Luke's father and replacing him as Vader. Luke asks Obi-Wan about the "other" Skywalker Yoda mentioned: Obi-Wan reveals that this "other" is his twin sister, hidden from Anakin and separated at birth to protect them both from the Emperor. Using his intuition, Luke quickly deduces that, to Obi-Wan's confirmation, his sister is Leia. Meanwhile, the entire Rebel Alliance is meeting to devise an attack strategy. As part of the attack, Han is elected to lead a strike team to deactivate the shield generator on the forest moon of Endor which is projecting a protective shield up to the orbiting and incomplete Death Star. Luke, having returned from Dagobah, joins him and Leia for this mission; however, he soon fears that, after sensing Vader's presence within the nearby Imperial Fleet, his own presence may endanger the mission. On Endor, Luke and his companions encounter a tribe of Ewoks, primitive yet intelligent indigenous forest creatures of Endor. With the help of C-3PO, whom the Ewoks believe is a god, they are able to forge an alliance with the forest creatures. Later, Luke decides that the time has come for him to face Vader. He confesses to Leia the truth about her and Vader, and that he has to try to save the man who was once their father. He surrenders peacefully to Vader and unsuccessfully tries to convince his father to abandon the dark side. They go to the Death Star and meet the Emperor, who reveals that he knew of the attack before, and that the Rebel Alliance is walking into a trap. On the forest moon, the Rebels, led by Solo and Leia, enter the shield generator control facility only to be taken prisoner by waiting Imperial forces. Once they are led out of the bunker, however, the Ewoks spring a surprise counterattack. A desperate ground battle begins with the Rebels and Ewoks fighting the Imperial forces. The Rebels eventually gain the upper hand, due in large part to a stolen Imperial AT-ST Walker. During the strike team's assault, the Rebel fleet, led by Lando, emerges from hyperspace for the battle over Endor, only to discover that the shield of the Death Star is still functioning. An intense space battle takes place as the Rebel fleet battles to give the surface party more time to complete their mission of deactivating the Death Star's shield. During the battle, the Death Star is revealed to be operational; its superlaser is fired at the Rebel fleet and obliterates two Rebel star cruisers. This forces a rethinking of strategy and the fleet closes with the Imperial star destroyers to prevent the superlaser from firing on the Rebel fleet. On the Death Star, the Emperor tempts Luke to give in to his anger. A ferocious lightsaber duel erupts between Luke and his father. In the midst of combat, Vader reads Luke's feelings and learns that Luke has a twin sister. When Vader toys with the notion of turning Leia to the dark side, Luke gives in to his anger and brutally overpowers his father, eventually slicing off Vader's robotic right hand. However, despite the Emperor's goading, Luke refuses to kill his father, realizing that he is traveling down his father's path towards the dark side. He declares himself a Jedi, like his father before him. Upon realizing that Luke cannot be turned, the Emperor tortures and slowly tries to kill him with Force lightning; in unspeakable pain, Luke begs his father for help. Unable to bear the sight of his son's torture, and refusing to lose him as he lost his beloved wife (Padmé), Vader finally repents in return of his former self, Anakin Skywalker, and turns on the Emperor, grabbing him over his shoulder and throwing him down a reactor shaft to his death, thus fulfilling the ancient Jedi prophecy; restoring balance to the Force by destroying the greatest evil the galaxy had ever known. At the same time, however, the life support system in his suit is damaged beyond repair by the Emperor's lightning spreaded randomly. Moments from death, he begs Luke to take off his breath mask to see him with his own eyes. Luke does so, and finally sees his father's true face: that of a pale, withered man ravaged by the dark side. He entreats Luke to leave him and save himself, and to tell Leia that there was some good left in him after all. With those last words, Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker dies, finally at peace. Back on Endor, the strike team finally destroys the shield generator. The Rebel fleet seizes the opportunity to launch a final assault on the Death Star in space. Lando leads Wedge Antilles and his fighter group into the interior of the Death Star and they fire at the main reactor, causing its collapse. Luke escapes the Death Star with his father's body in an Imperial shuttle. Moments later, Wedge in his X-Wing and Lando in the Millennium Falcon emerge from the Death Star as well, just as it explodes. Back on Endor, Leia senses that Luke had escaped the station before it exploded. Han believes that she loves Luke and is prepared to let her go, but Leia reassures Han of her love for him and reveals (to his surprise and relief) that Luke is actually her brother. That evening, Luke cremates the remains of his father in his black armor on a funeral pyre on Endor. The entire galaxy celebrates the fall of the Empire and the Rebellion's victory. On Endor, Luke, Leia, Han, Lando, and the rest of the Rebellion, along with the Ewoks, celebrate the victory as well. During the celebration, Luke catches sight of the spirit figures of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and the redeemed Anakin Skywalker, who watch over them with pride. Expanded Universe: In the animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars, Anakin (voiced by Mat Lucas) is made a full Jedi Knight despite the Council's reservations. During the next three years of fighting in the Clone Wars, Anakin becomes a legend throughout the galaxy, renowned as "The Hero With No Fear." The final episodes of both Clone Wars seasons depict Anakin dueling Asajj Ventress (Grey DeLisle) and liberating the Nelvaanians. Anakin's adventures in the Clone Wars are also chronicled in the Star Wars: Republic comic series. In the series, Anakin learns to use the Force to choke someone, fights another duel with Ventress (this one leaving him with a scar on his right temple), and commands his first few missions. In the novelization of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin is described as a master of the Djem So form of lightsaber combat. At his best, Anakin is almost like "a droid with a lightsaber . . . every step a blow and every blow a step." As chronicled in James Luceno's book Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, Vader sheds his identity as Anakin Skywalker shortly after incurring his injuries on Mustafar; in the months afterward, he systematically pursues and kills the survivors of Palpatine's order to kill the Jedi; in the process, he fully embraces his new identity as a Sith lord and disavows any connection to his former Jedi self. The novel also reveals that Vader plans to eventually overthrow Palpatine, and that he betrayed the Jedi because he resented their supposed failure to recognize his power. The redeemed spirit of Anakin Skywalker appears in the novel The Truce at Bakura, set a few days after the ending of Return of the Jedi. He appears to his daughter Leia, imploring her forgiveness. Leia condemns him for his crimes and banishes him from her life. He promises that he will be there for her when she needs him, and disappears. In Tatooine Ghost, Leia learns to forgive her father after learning about his childhood as a slave and the death of her paternal grandmother. In the novel The Unifying Force of the New Jedi Order series, set 30 years after A New Hope, Anakin's voice speaks to his grandson, Jacen Solo, telling him to "stand firm" in his battle with the Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong. In the Dark Nest Trilogy, Luke and Leia uncover old recordings of their parents in R2-D2's memory drive. For the first time, they see their own birth and their mother's death, as well as their father's corruption to the dark side. In Bloodlines, the second novel in the Legacy of the Force series, Jacen uses the Force to "watch" Anakin slaughter the children at the Jedi Temple. Vader appears numerous times in Marvel Comics' Star Wars series. As chronicled in James Luceno's book Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, Vader sheds his identity as Anakin Skywalker shortly after the events of Episode III. In the months afterward, he systematically pursues and kills the survivors of the Great Jedi Purge (except Obi-Wan and Yoda); in the process, he fully embraces his new identity as a Sith lord and disavows any connection to his former Jedi self. The novel also reveals Vader's plan to eventually overthrow Palpatine and rule the Empire himself, and that his primary motivation for betraying the Jedi Order was that he resented their supposed failure to recognize his power. In the comic book Vader's Quest, he hires bounty hunters to bring him information about the pilot who destroyed the Death Star, ultimately meeting his son Luke for the first time. Later, in the Alan Dean Foster novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye (which takes place shortly after the events in A New Hope), Vader meets Luke for the second time and fights him in a lightsaber duel on Mimban. On Mimban, Vader is nearly defeated by Luke, who severs his right arm. In The Star Wars Holiday Special, Vader searches for the Rebels responsible for the Death Star's destruction, almost thwarting Han and Chewbacca's goal of reaching Kashyyyk in order for Chewie to reach his family for Life Day. Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy explains that Darth Vader is the first representative of the Empire to find the Noghri, a race with exceptional combat skills, whom he manipulated into serving as his personal commandos and revering him as their master. Vader later transferred their services to Grand Admiral Thrawn. Ever since he first appeared on Leia’s ship in the first Star Wars film back in 1977, Darth Vader has inspired awe and fear in fans. It helped that he looked so badass. Thanks to storyboard artist Ralph McQuarrie, Vader has had the most intimidating look in cinema history, with the black cape and emotionless helmet. That voice also played a key role in his evilness. James Earl Jones’s deep was the perfect tone for this ruthless Sith Lord. And, he has a pretty impressive resume of evil: he killed Obi-Wan Kenobi when he was an old man (though it can be said that Obi-Wan sacrificed himself so that Luke could stand up to the challenge, Vader still did the deed); he choked the life out of some subordinates who didn’t please him; he threatened to blow up Cloud City, forcing Lando Calrissian to betray Han Solo; he froze Solo into carbonite; he sliced off Luke’s hand and then told him that he was his son; and he kept trying to get Luke to join the Dark Side. Vader’s presence in the Original Trilogy was so amazing that people flocked to see three less-than-stellar prequels just to see how he became that way. And, as Anakin, he did some pretty bad things himself: slaughtering those Tuskin Raiders who killed his mother, slicing off Mace Windu’s hands, slaughtering the Younglings in the Jedi Temple, and killing his own wife, Padmé, even though it was an accident. And, yes, he did redeem himself at the end of the Original Trilogy; and he may have technically been a henchman, following the orders of people like Gran Moff Tarkin or the Emperor. But, the reason Vader is the best villain in the Star Wars Universe is the fact that he is the most important character in the Star Wars Universe. Hell, he is the heart and soul of the Star Wars movies. Without him, the whole thing isn’t that interesting. So, all those things that were done to have tarnished his mystique don’t matter because Darth Vader is hardcore evil.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 23, 2008 18:17:29 GMT -5
4. Dr. Hannibal Lecter Who is he: A brilliant psychiatrist/cannibalistic serial killer. What is he from: Red Dragon (novel and film), “Manhunter,” Silence Of The Lambs (novel and film), Hannibal (novel and film), and “Hannibal Rising.” What has he done: Killed and ate a lot of people. Intelligence: An absolute genius; his mind is often sharper than the knives he uses to dine on people with. Power: He’s a bit of a loner. Vileness: He ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice kainite. Sway: His genius allows him to control conversations and influence even the steadiest individuals. Purity: The Doctor passed the point of no return long ago; he is a severe danger to society. Physical Prowess: Deceptive strength for a man his age; good stamina and dexterity; always remains incredibly calm, even during a struggle; and has one fantastic stare. Name Coolness: “Hannibal Lecter” is very cool. Created by: Thomas Harris. Portrayed by: Brian Cox first played Hannibal in “Manhunter.” However, it was Sir Anthony Hopkins who is most famous for playing Dr. Lecter in “Silence Of The Lambs,” “Hannibal,” and “Red Dragon.” In “Hannibal Rising,” Gaspard Ulliel played a young Hannibal. Harris’s books: Hannibal Lecter is introduced in the 1981 novel Red Dragon. He is a brilliant psychiatrist who is incarcerated after he is revealed to be a cannibalistic serial killer. Lecter spends his time during his incarceration writing articles for medical journals. Red Dragon depicts Special Agent Will Graham consulting Lecter to catch serial killer Francis Dolarhyde, known only to law enforcement and media by the pseudonyms "The Tooth Fairy" and later, "The Dragon." It is revealed that Graham was the investigator who captured Lecter, and that Lecter had nearly killed him before being arrested. After receiving a letter from Dolarhyde, Lecter manages to send Graham's home address to the murderer via a coded letter. Dolarhyde later attacks Graham and his family at home, badly disfiguring Graham before being shot dead by Graham's wife. Lecter appears in the 1988 sequel to Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, where he assists a rookie FBI agent named Clarice Starling in catching a serial killer known only as "Buffalo Bill". Lecter and Starling form an unusual relationship in which he provides her with a profile of the killer and his M.O. in exchange for details about her unhappy childhood. Lecter later stages a dramatic, bloody escape from prison and disappears. Following the success of The Silence of the Lambs and the immense popularity of the character, Harris spent seven years writing a third Lecter novel titled Hannibal, which was released in 1999 and took place seven years after the end of Silence of the Lambs. At the start of the novel, Lecter is found to be residing in Florence, Italy, while Mason Verger, one of Lecter's two surviving victims, is attempting to capture Lecter, planning to feed Lecter to his pigs. Fleeing Verger, Lecter returns to the United States but is subsequently captured by Verger's henchmen, only to be rescued by Starling. Lecter overpowers Starling and using drugs and hypnosis, attempts to transform her into the living image of his long-dead sister; Starling resists, however, and instead becomes his lover. They then elope to Argentina. In 2006, Harris wrote a prequel to the Lecter books entitled Hannibal Rising. Harris undertook the project after Dino De Laurentiis (owner of the cinematic rights to the Lecter character since Manhunter) announced that he was going to make a film depicting Lecter's childhood and development into a serial killer. Harris also wrote the film's screenplay. The story explains that Lecter was born into an aristocratic family in Lithuania in 1933, and that he and his little sister Mischa were orphaned in 1944 when invading Soviet forces stormed the family estate. Shortly thereafter, Lecter and Mischa were captured by a band of Nazi deserters, who murdered and cannibalized Mischa before her brother's eyes. The death of his sister was extremely traumatic to Lecter, causing him to become temporarily mute and sparking his fixation with cannibalism. Lecter escaped from the deserters and took up residence in an orphanage until he was adopted by his uncle Robert and his Japanese wife, Lady Murasaki. As Lecter grew into a young man he formed a close, pseudo-romantic relationship with Murasaki and showed great intellectual aptitude, entering medical school at a relatively young age. Despite his seemingly comfortable life, Lecter was consumed by a savage obsession with the horrific events of his childhood. After gaining his first taste of murder (through eviscerating a rude butcher who had previously insulted Murasaki), Lecter methodically tracked down, murdered and partially cannibalized all of the men responsible for his sister's death, forsaking his relationship with Murasaki and losing all traces of his humanity in the process. The novel ends with Lecter being accepted into the Johns Hopkins Medical Center and moving to the United States. “Manhunter”: Petersen plays Will Graham, a former FBI agent who captured the infamous Dr. Hannibal Lecktor and was almost killed in the process; he is so traumatized by the event that he retires from the FBI. His former boss, Jack Crawford, calls him out of retirement to help find a killer called "The Tooth Fairy" who is murdering entire families. Graham is a profiler who has an uncanny ability to enter the mind of a killer and think and feel as he does. Some would say that what Graham really does is to insert the serial killer into his own mind at a much greater risk to his own mental health. Doctor Lecktor confronts him about this knack during a trolling visit from Graham and points out something that Will already knows but doesn't like to admit: The reason Graham caught Lecktor is that they are just alike. "If you want to get the old scent back", Lecktor says, "Smell yourself!" There is a subplot about the Tooth Fairy himself, a tortured soul named Francis Dollarhyde (Dolarhyde in the novel), played by Noonan, falling in love with a blind coworker named Reba McClane. This ecstatically novel experience for Dollarhyde temporarily quells his murderous urges. It is then through a simple tragic misunderstanding that his rage returns and he reverts to his old psychotic self. The tragedy here is brought out more fully in the novel when Graham tells Reba that she fell in love not with a freak but rather with an unfortunate man who happened to have a "freak on his back". “Silence Of The Lambs”: Promising FBI Academy student Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is pulled from her training at the FBI Training Facility at Quantico, Virginia by Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, who asks her to present a VICAP questionnaire to the notorious Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), brilliant forensic psychiatrist and incarcerated cannibalistic serial murderer. After learning the assignment relates to the pursuit of vicious serial killer Buffalo Bill, Starling travels to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and is led by Dr. Frederick Chilton to Hannibal Lecter, the sophisticated and cultured man restrained behind thick glass panels and windowless stone walls. Initially pleasant and courteous, Lecter grows impatient with Starling's attempts at "dissecting" him and viciously rebuffs her. As she departs, another patient flings fresh semen onto her face, enraging Lecter who calls Starling back and suggests she checks up on one of his former patients. The name he gives turns out to be a riddle which leads Starling to a rent-a-storage lot where she discovers the severed head of a man. Starling returns to Lecter who offers her a towel to dry her rain-soaked hair; she uses it, though she was told that "if he attempts to pass you anything, do not accept it". Lecter claims that the man is Benjamin Raspail, a former patient. He states that Raspail was not killed by himself, but hints to a connection with Buffalo Bill and offers to profile the killer if he is transferred to a facility away from the venomous, careerist Dr. Chilton. Miles away, Buffalo Bill abducts Catherine Martin, daughter of United States Senator Ruth Martin. Starling accompanies Crawford to West Virginia and attends the autopsy being conducted on the body of another of Bill's recently-discovered victims. She observes something in the victim's throat, and a chrysalis of a Death's-head Hawkmoth is extracted. When news of Catherine Martin's abduction sweeps the country, Crawford authorizes Starling to offer Hannibal Lecter a fake deal promising a prison transfer if he provides information that helps profile Buffalo Bill and rescue Catherine Martin. Once a year, Lecter will even be allowed to stay for a week at a secluded location: Plum Island, where animal diseases are tested. Instead, Lecter begins a game of quid pro quo with Starling, offering comprehensive clues and insights about Buffalo Bill in exchange for events from Starling's traumatic childhood, specifically those following the death of her father, a small-town policeman killed when she was ten, leaving her an orphan. Starling thus breaks more of the rules: don't let "Hannibal Lecter inside your head." Unbeknown to both Starling and Lecter, Dr. Frederick Chilton tapes the conversation and, after revealing Starling's deal as a sham, offers to transfer Lecter in exchange for a deal of his own making. Lecter agrees and following a flight to Tennessee meets Senator Martin and her entourage of FBI agents and Justice Department officials. He goads her over her relationship with her daughter but also claims that Buffalo Bill is the late Raspail's gay lover Louis Friend, who Lecter met after Friend had killed a vagrant and "done things with the skin". (Raspail was the man whose head Starling found in the warehouse.) Meanwhile, Catherine Martin is held prisoner in a dry well with Buffalo Bill and his poodle "Precious" looking down on her. Bill orders her to rub herself with oil, contemptuously referring to Catherine as "it".: "It rubs the lotion on its skin, it does this whenever it's told". The terrified Catherine begs to go home and see her mother, telling her captor that her family will pay any ransom he demands. He tells her to put the lotion in the basket, pulls it up and walks away. Starling travels to Lecter's special cell located on the third floor of the Shelby County Courthouse in Memphis, Tennessee, where she confronts him about the false information he gave the Senator: "Louis Friend" is an anagram for iron sulfide also known as fool's gold, to which Lecter simply says "Oh, Clarice, your problem is you need to get more fun out of life." He mocks the false offer she and Crawford made, especially since it is costing Catherine valuable time. Lecter refuses Starling's pleas for Buffalo Bill's real name and demands she finish her story surrounding her worst childhood memory. She recounts her arrival at a relative's farm, the horror of discovering their lamb slaughterhouse and her fruitless attempts at rescuing the lambs. Lecter rebuffs her pleas for a name, simply giving a few pointers and claiming that everything she needs to find Bill is in the case files. He hands them back, and touches her finger, before she is escorted out of the building by security guards. Hours later, Lecter escapes from his cell, attacking his two guards. Police storm the room and discover one guard barely alive and the other disemboweled and strung up on the walls. Paramedics transport the survivor to an ambulance and speed off while a SWAT team searches the building for Lecter. As the team discover a body in the elevator shaft, the survivor in the ambulance peels off a mask of skin covering his face (carved off the second guard whose body was found in the elevator shaft), revealing Lecter in disguise. He kills the paramedics, later murders a tourist and disappears. After being notified of Lecter's escape, Starling pores over the case files, analyzing Lecter's annotations and realizes that the first victim, Frederica Bimmel, knew Bill in real life before he killed her. Starling travels to Bimmel's hometown, meets her father and searches her room. She discovers that Bimmel was a tailor and had dresses with templates identical to the patches of skin removed from Buffalo Bill's victims. Starling concludes that Buffalo Bill is a tailor fashioning a "woman suit" of real skin; Lecter had suggested that Bill had applied for sex change operations and had been turned down. Starling telephones Crawford, who is already on the way to make an arrest, having cross-referenced Lecter's notes with Johns Hopkins Hospital, where Buffalo Bill may have applied for a sex change operation, and finding a man named Jame Gumb, who also had a passion for the sort of moths found in the throat of the victim he and Starling examined together. Crawford instructs Starling to continue interviewing Bimmel's friends while he leads a SWAT team to Gumb's business address in Calumet City, Illinois. The raid proves to be a dead-end, however, when the cops break into what turns out to be an empty house. Starling's interviews lead to the house of "Jack Gordon", who Starling soon realizes is actually Jame Gumb, and draws her weapon just as Gumb disappears into his basement. Starling pursues him, discovering a screaming Catherine Martin in the dry well just before the lights in the basement go out, leaving her in complete darkness. Gumb stalks Starling in the dark with night vision goggles and prepares to shoot her when Starling, hearing the mechanism of his revolver, swivels around and shoots Gumb, killing him. Days later at the FBI Academy graduation party, Starling receives a phone call from Hannibal Lecter, now in the Bahamas. Lecter assures Starling that he has no plans to pursue her, and has the gall to ask her to "extend me the same courtesy". He then excuses himself from the phone call, remarking that he's "having an old friend for dinner", before hanging up and following his former jailer Dr. Frederick Chilton through the streets of the village. “Hannibal”: The film takes place ten years after the events depicted in The Silence of the Lambs. Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) has taken up residence in Florence, Italy under the pseudonym 'Dr. Fell'. Meanwhile, FBI Agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore) is disgraced after a botched stakeout/drug raid that resulted in the death of five people, including drug dealer Evelda Drumgo (Hazelle Goodman) who was shot by Starling while holding a baby and a machine pistol. Even though she tried to call the raid off, her co-worker went ahead and resulted in the massacre, and Starling is unjustly given the blame for the mess by Department of Justice employee Paul Krendler (Ray Liotta), whose advances Starling has rejected. As a result of the failed drug raid, Starling is temporarily taken out of the field and assigned to office work on Lecter's case. Starling is sent to the mansion of billionaire Mason Verger (Gary Oldman), who was mutilated and paralyzed after an encounter with Lecter years earlier. Verger, who specifically asked for Starling, claims he has new information (which turns out to be an X-ray) which he is willing to disclose only to Starling. Upon her arrival, Verger tells Starling about his history with Lecter. He first met Dr. Lecter due to a court order to undergo heavy therapy after being convicted on multiple counts of child sex abuse. Lecter, fascinated and disgusted by his evil new patient, chose him as his next victim. Verger, uniquely, survives his encounter with Lecter, although in a reduced condition: he is paralyzed and bedridden in the hospital wing of his mansion; he's fed intravenously; his remaining eye is irrigated by a saline drip, in lieu of natural tears. He can move around in a motorized wheelchair after muscular attendants and his verbally-abused physician Cordell lift him into it. He is surrounded by experts and minions to help him in various ways, and uses them to track down his old enemy. He has created a Website offering a $3 million reward for the whereabouts of Lecter, mediated by a Swiss bank. Starling later receives a letter from Lecter expressing sympathy for the drug raid fiasco, but also taunting her into tracking him down. Lecter was very careful not to leave anything on the letter that could provide a clue to his whereabouts, but it is also covered with some particular type of perfume which is sold in only a handful of shops throughout the world. In Florence, Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini) is investigating the disappearance of a library curator, and meets with his replacement: Dr Fell. At the same time, Pazzi's department is contacted by Starling, who wants to have the surveillance videos of all perfume stores that sell the particular perfume, including one in Florence. After spotting Fell in the requested surveillance tape, Pazzi finds out Fell's true identity and, hoping to get the $3 million reward, contacts Mason Verger via the bank. Pazzi decides to apprehend Lecter, with the help of Verger's men, ignoring Starling's urgent advice to be careful and leave Lecter alone. Lecter, however, has guessed Pazzi's intentions, and kills him by disemboweling and hanging him from the Palazzo Vecchio, a fate shared by his ancestor Francesco Pazzi. Lecter then heads to the United States to find Starling. In order to exact his revenge on Lecter and draw him out of hiding, Verger recruits a corrupt Department of Justice employee, who happens to be the very Paul Krendler who disgraced Starling. Krendler, tempted by Verger's money, delivers falsified love letters from Lecter to the head of the FBI, claiming he found them in Starling's office. As a result, Starling is temporarily put on administrative leave, and she is thus unable to stop Verger's men from capturing Lecter and bringing him to his estate, where he is to be eaten by a herd of specially trained giant forest hogs. Nonetheless, Starling heads to Verger's mansion, where she manages to kill Verger's men and free Lecter just before the herd of hogs is unleashed. Lecter subsequently saves the wounded Starling from the animals and, while doing so, also persuades Verger's assistant Cordell (Zeljko Ivanek) to let Verger roll into the pit with the hogs, thus giving him the satisfaction of watching Verger die. He promises to take the blame for Verger's death and leaves with Starling. Lecter takes Starling to Krendler's lake-front house and performs surgery on her to remove the bullet. After awakening, she discovers her whereabouts and calls the police before heading downstairs, where Lecter has performed a craniotomy on Krendler. Starling watches in horror as Lecter feeds the severely drugged Krendler a small part of his own brain, sautéed in butter and herbs. Starling tries to attack Lecter, and in the ensuing struggle, he traps her by her hair in the fridge. While trapped there, Lecter asks Starling if she would beg for him to spare her, asking if she would ask "if you love me, would you spare me"? Starling tells him "Not in a thousand years". He replies "that's my girl", and kisses her. As he tries to withdraw it is to find that Starling has handcuffed herself to him and the police are closing in. Lecter threatens to chop off Starling's hand to make his escape, but it is later shown he chose to remove his own hand instead. Lecter manages to escape, leaving Starling behind alive. He is later shown on a plane eating the meal he packed, Krendler's brain among it. A very young boy asks him what it is, and says it 'looks good.' Lecter responds, 'Oh, it is good.' The boy says that he would like to try it, to which Lecter responds: "As your mother tells you, and my mother certainly told me, it is important, she always used to say, always to try new things." Lecter is then shown feeding the boy something, presumably, Krendler's brain. “Red Dragon”: In his Baltimore townhouse, after hosting a dinner party, famous local psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter is approached by Will Graham, a young gifted FBI agent tracking a local serial killer whose victims have all been cannibalized. During the consultation and brainstorming session, Graham discovers evidence implicating Dr. Lecter in the murders, shortly before Lecter returns and attacks Graham, wounding and nearly killing him before Graham resists and subdues him. Lecter is subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment in an institution for the criminally insane while Graham, severely traumatized by the experience, retires from the FBI. Years later, another serial killer, nicknamed the Tooth Fairy, who stalks and murders seemingly random families during sequential full moons. Displeased with his current team of inexperienced agents, Special Agent Jack Crawford seeks out Graham and pleads for his assistance. Graham, believing the death of another family to be an unbearable burden on his conscience, reluctantly agrees. Graham, coming to the realization that most of his previous success was achieved due to the insightful collaborations of Dr. Lecter, concludes that he must once again visit Lecter and seek his help in capturing the Tooth Fairy, a disturbed man named Francis Dolarhyde who worships Lecter after learning of his crimes. Calling himself The Great Red Dragon (because of his obsession with the William Blake painting, "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun"), Dolarhyde is unable to control his violent and sexual urges, which turns him into a dangerous serial killer. These conditions were born from the systematic child abuse he suffered at the hands of his grandmother. (For more psychoanalysis of Graham and Dolarhyde, see their individual pages.) Graham continues to run into complications, the first being Freddy Lounds, a tabloid reporter whom Graham despises from the days following the conviction of Dr. Lecter and who now follows Graham relentlessly for leads on the Tooth Fairy story. Further complicating the investigation is the correspondence between Lecter and Dolarhyde, where Lecter provides Dolarhyde with Graham's home address, endangering Graham's wife and child. Fortunately, both complications are solved: the first because Dolarhyde kills Lounds after the latter writes unfavorably about him in the newspapers; the second because Graham manages to evacuate his family from their house before any harm can come to them. In the meantime, Dolarhyde falls in love with a blind co-worker named Reba McClane. Dolarhyde's newfound love conflicts with his homicidal urges, which manifest themselves in his mind as 'The Great Red Dragon'. After his association with Reba, Dolarhyde attempts to stop the Dragon's "possession" of him. In order to stop killing, he believes that he must dominate the dragon by consuming the original painting. Dolarhyde goes to the Brooklyn Museum, beats a museum secretary unconscious, and eats the original Blake watercolor of The Red Dragon. Graham eventually realizes that the killer knew the layout of his victims' houses from their home videos, which he only could have seen if he worked for a home video editing company, the company that transfers the home videos to video cassette. Dolarhyde's job gives him access to all home movies that pass through the company. Sensing that he is about to be caught, Dolarhyde goes to see Reba one last time, but he finds her talking to a co-worker, Ralph Mandy. Enraged, Dolorhyde kills Ralph Mandy, kidnaps McClane and, having taken her to his house, sets the place on fire. He intends to kill her and then himself, but finds himself unable to shoot her. After he apparently shoots himself, McClane escapes. Graham is given Dolarhyde's scrapbook, saved from the wreckage of the house, which details the killer's tragic childhood and obsessions with murder. Despite himself, Graham feels pity for Dolarhyde, who he realizes was made a monster, not born one. However, it turns out Dolarhyde did not shoot himself but instead the body of Ralph Mandy in order to stage his own death. Dolarhyde pursues Graham to his home and attacks Graham's son. In order to save his son, Graham subsequently uses the same terms that Dolarhyde's grandmother had used against him, on his own son. This enrages Dolarhyde, who attacks Graham, allowing his son to escape to safety. Graham's wife, Molly, ends the horrific ordeal by shooting and killing Dolarhyde. After recovering, Graham receives a letter from Lecter, which bids him well and hopes that he isn't too disfigured. The film ends with Dr. Frederick Chilton informing Lecter that there is a young woman from the FBI waiting to speak with him; presumably beginning The Silence of the Lambs. “Hannibal Rising”: This prequel shows Hannibal Lecter from childhood in Lithuania, to his teen and young adulthood years in France, and up to his arrival in North America. The film begins in 1944, when Lecter is eight years old, living in Lecter Castle; constructed by his paternal ancestor, Hannibal the Grim, in the Lithuanian countryside. Lecter, his younger sister Mischa, and his parents escape to the family's hunting lodge in the woods to elude the advancing German troops. Back at Lecter Castle, six Lithuanian militiamen (Grutas, Dortlich, Grentz, Kolnas, Milko, and Pot Watcher) request to join the Waffen-SS. The SS commander orders them to kill the Lecters' Jewish cook who was left behind, to which they gleefully comply. A Soviet tank stops at the Lecters' lodge looking for water, and forces everyone out of the house. However, the tank is then spotted by a German Stuka bomber, which sparks a firefight. The bomber is shot down by the tank, but subsequently crashes into it, and the ensuing explosion kills everyone except Hannibal and Mischa. The SS militiamen then loot Lecter Castle. Seeing their wounded SS commander, Grutas shoots him and takes his Iron Cross. However, the impending Russian advance forces them to hide out in the woods, where they locate the Lecter lodge. The SS militiamen storm and take over the lodge. Finding no other food in the bitterly cold Baltic winter, the men look menacingly at Hannibal and Mischa. The movie then cuts to a scene eight years later inside Lecter Castle, which has been turned into a Soviet orphanage. A bully harasses Lecter, who has been rendered mute by his experiences, about not singing the orphanage anthem. The bully attacks his head, but Lecter blocks his swing with a fork, impaling the bully's hand. That evening, Lecter experiences a flashback about Mischa screaming in his sleep, which angers the youth commander, who locks him in a dungeon. However, Lecter escapes from the castle orphanage to Paris to live with his widowed aunt, the Lady Murasaki-Lecter. She gets him to speak for the first time since his childhood, and instructs him about flower arrangement, martial arts, and ancestor worship. At a local market, a butcher makes a crude remark about Lady Murasaki. Lecter then attacks him. Later, while the butcher is fishing, Lecter requests an apology from him, and is denied. He then slices the butcher's stomach, arm, and back with a katana, then decapitates him. He is suspected of the butcher's murder by Inspector Popil, a French detective who had also lost his family to the war. Thanks in great part to the intervention of his aunt, who places the butcher's disembodied head outside police headquarters while Hannibal is being interrogated inside, Lecter escapes responsibility for the crime. Eventually, Lecter becomes the youngest person ever admitted to medical school in France. He receives a working scholarship, where he is given a job preparing cadavers. One day, Lecter witnesses a condemned war criminal receiving a sodium thiopental injection to force him to recall details about his war crimes. In an attempt to recall the names of those responsible for his sister's death, Lecter injects himself with the solution. His subsequent flashback reveals that the pot watcher was killed when the Russians bombed the lodge, and the dogtags were still left in the ruins of the lodge. Lecter then returns to Lithuania in search of the dogtags, as well as his sister's remains. While crossing the Soviet border, he draws the attention of Dortlich, who is now a Soviet border patrol officer. Lecter excavates the ruins of the lodge where his family died, and also unearths the dogtags of the group of deserters who had killed his sister. Dortlich attempts to kill him, but Lecter gets the upper hand and incapacitates him. After he buries Mischa's remains, Lecter ties Dortlich to a tree and forces him to reveal the whereabouts of the rest of his gang. When he refuses to reveal enough details, Lecter decapitates Dortlich with a horse-drawn pulley. Dortlich's blood splashes on Lecter's face, and he wipes it off and licks it. Later, the Soviet police arrive on the scene, only to discover Dortlich's head, its cheeks carved off, apparently made into a brochette. Lecter then visits Kolnas' restaurant in Fontainebleau. He finds Kolnas' young daughter, whom he notices is wearing Mischa's bracelet. He then gives Kolnas' dogtag to her. Kolnas enters the restaurant, but Lady Murasaki persuades Lecter not to kill him, for the sake of Kolnas' children. Dortlich's murder, along with Kolnas' dogtag, puts the rest of the group in alert. Grutas, now a sex trafficker, dispatches a second member of the group, Zigmas Milko, to kill Lecter. Milko sneaks into Lecter's laboratory at night with a gun, but Lecter senses his presence, and knocks him out with an injection. Just as Popil is entering the lab, Lecter drowns Milko in the cadaver tank. Popil questions Lecter about Dortlich's murder, but is again unable to establish Lecter's guilt. Popil then tries to dissuade him from hunting the gang, and offers to let him go free if he helps locate Grutas. After Lecter leaves, Popil remarks to his assistant that Lecter lost all of his humanity when Mischa died, and has become a monster. Lady Murasaki begs Lecter not to complete his revenge, but Lecter says that he made a promise to Mischa. Lecter then sets up a time bomb in Grutas' home, and attacks him in the bath. However, a maid alerts Grutas' bodyguards, who then rush in. Just as Grutas' bodyguards are about to slit his throat, Lecter's time bomb goes off and he escapes. Grutas kidnaps Lady Murasaki and calls Lecter, using her as bait. Lecter recognizes the sounds of Kolnas' ortolans from his restaurant in the background. Lecter goes there and plays on Kolnas' emotions by threatening his children, forcing him to give up the location of Grutas' boat. Lecter then says he will leave Kolnas alone for the sake of his family, and places his gun on the hot stove. As Kolnas goes for the gun, Lecter impales him through the head with his Tantô. He then hides the tantô behind his back. Lecter goes to the houseboat. Just as he is about to untie Lady Murasaki, Grutas shoots him in the back. Grutas then proceeds to molest Lady Murasaki. Lecter takes out the tanto, which was broken by the force of the bullet, and slashes Grutas's Achilles' tendons with it, crippling him. In a final confrontation, Grutas claims that Lecter too had consumed his sister in broth fed to him by the soldiers, and he was killing them to keep this fact secret. Enraged, Lecter carves his sister's initial, M, into Grutas's chest. Lady Murasaki, disturbed by his behavior, flees from him even after he tells her that he loves her. As she leaves, Hannibal bites off Grutas's cheeks in what will become his signature attack. The houseboat is then incinerated, but Lecter, assumed to be dead, emerges from the woods. The film then concludes with Lecter hunting down the last member of the group, Grentz, in Canada. Dr. Hannibal Lector wasn't famous for his mind or his taste in food, but rather for the combination of both. How could a man so brilliant be so blatantly evil? If we could answer that question, then we would probably be as sick and twisted as Hannibal himself. His acts of cruelty from “The Silence of the Lambs” rank right up there with some of the worst ever, amazing considering that the character only appears in a few scenes. A sample: he cuts off the face of a guard and wears it as a disguise during an escape. He has absolutely no remorse while slicing and dicing his victims and his taste for vengeance seems to be unending. Meanwhile, in Hannibal, the doc displayed his love for carnage all over the world. And the climactic scene with Starling and Krendler is about as surreal and disturbing as you will ever see on the big screen. He remains one of the scariest villains of all time, and amazingly, the character has become the standard by which real like killers are compared to. Watching the Machiavellian menace that is Dr. Hannibal Lecter on film gives the viewer a very unsettling feeling: finding a serial killer incredibly creepy but at the same time charming as hell.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 23, 2008 19:04:48 GMT -5
3. Dr. Doom Who is he: Ruler of Latveria. What is he from: Marvel Comics, most notably the Fantastic Four comics. What has he done: Pretty done just about anything and everything to Reed Richards without killing the man. Intelligence: Has extensive knowledge of all sciences, and is an expert in robotics, genetic engineering, weapons technology, bio-chemistry, and other fields; and possesses some magical knowledge. Power: He rules an entire country; it’s a small country but still. Vileness: Sent Franklin Richards to Hell; you have to be one evil son-of-a-bitch to send a little boy to Hell. Sway: Can get a lot of things done, but does talk too much. Purity: He cares for his country and its people, but he cares more about making Reed Richards’s life a living hell. Physical Prowess: Scarred body hidden behind some impressive looking metallic armor that can deliver a massive electric shock, disabling anyone who might come in contact with him; is highly resistant to damage; has the additional defense of a force field generated by the armor; is self-supporting, equipped with internal stores and recycling systems for air, food, water, and energy, allowing the wearer to survive lengthy periods of exposure underwater or in outer space; and utilizes blasts of energy from gauntlets; he also has some mystical powers like the ability to cast bolts of electric energy. Name Coolness: “Dr. Doom” is very cool. Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Portrayed by: Joseph Sirola voiced Doom in the Hanna-Barbera Fantastic Four animated series. In DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' The New Fantastic Four, he was voiced by John Stephenson. Ralph Jones voiced him in the 1981 Spider-Man animated series. In Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends, Shepard Menkin did the voice. Neil Ross voiced Doom in the first season of 1990s Fantastic Four animated series, and Simon Templeman did the voice in the second season, as well as in the Incredible Hulk animated series. Tom Kane was Doom’s voice in the last season of the 1990s FOX Spider-Man animated series. In the current Fantastic Four animated series, Paul Dobson does the voice. In the unreleased 1994 “Fantastic Four” movie, Joseph Culp played Dr. Doom. Julian McMahon played Doom in “Fantastic Four” and “Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer.” Comics: Victor von Doom was born to the Zefiro travelers (Gypsies) Werner and Cynthia in Latveria, a small European country which grew out of Hungary and was ruled by King Vladimir Vassily Gonereo Tristian Mangegi Fortunov, Baron of Sabbat, Baron of Haasen, Baron of Krozi. Victor barely knew his mother, a witch who had invoked the demon Mephisto for power, which raged out of control before she was finally slain by a soldier. Before dying, she asked Werner to protect young Victor from Mephisto. Victor's father, a doctor, was forced to treat King Vladimir's wife. When Werner could not cure her cancer, Vladimir blamed him for his wife's death, and Werner fled with Victor. Werner died from exposure to the cold while protecting his son. Before dying, Werner placed Victor into the care of his best friend, Boris, and tried to warn his son of the fearful life he foresaw him falling into, but he died before he could make Victor understand. Discovering his mother's mystical artifacts, Victor schooled himself in sorcery. He began an annual contest against the might of Mephisto, attempting to set his mother's soul free. By the time he was a teenager, he had also become a scientific genius and used his inventions to wage a one-man war against the monarchy of Latveria, always a step ahead of them. His genius was heard of even in America, and he was invited to New York's Empire State University on a scholarship. Victor had been in love with Boris' granddaughter Valeria, but he left her behind as his desire to acquire knowledge and the means to seek revenge on others consumed him. Arriving at State, Doom was greeted by Reed Richards, a fellow student who was interested in rooming with him, but Doom rejected his offer of friendship. Throughout his university days, Doom pursued a rivalry with Richards, convinced of his own superior intellect. Doom's greatest invention was a machine designed to rescue his mother's soul from the netherworld. Richards tried to warn him of a flaw in his calculations, but Doom was too proud to listen. He activated the machine and it exploded in his face. Expelled for the explosion, Doom sustained only a few facial scars, but believed his looks had been ruined. Filled with self-loathing he left America for Tibet, seeking new enlightenment. There he found the Aged Genghis, one of the enigmatic Immortal Nine. The now senile sorcerer directed him to seek out a long-lost order of monks. Doom made them his servants and had them forge his first suit of armor, designed to hide his features from the world. Doom had them press the mask to his face before it had cooled, ensuring that if his face had not been hideous before, it was now. Dr. Doom then conquered Latveria, slaying King Vladimir, imprisoning his son Rudolfo, and having a robot duplicate of Rudolfo surrenders the Latverian crown to him, after which he renamed the capital city, Haasenstadt, as Doomstadt. He used his genius and technology to transform Latveria into a paradise where no citizen wants, no one is threatened by war, and all praise Doom-- or face the consequences. While Doom maintained a puppet prime minister, the outside world was largely unaware of Doom's status as ruler, tending to dismiss his existence as a myth. Doom stepped up his scientific prowess, designing a time machine and robotic duplicates of himself: his Doombots. In one of his earliest time travels he journeyed back to World War II and considered killing Adolf Hitler for the crimes his Nazi regime had inflicted upon the Zefiro and other travelers, but ultimately decided to leave him to his own fate. Armed with his genius and the might of Latveria, Victor set for himself three goals: to rescue his mother, to prove his superiority over Reed Richards, and to conquer the world. By this time, Reed and his friends had become the Fantastic Four, so Dr. Doom sought them out and abducted the Invisible Girl. He forced the other members to journey back in time to recover the gems of the legendary sorcerer Merlin for him; but Mr. Fantastic tricked him, bringing back a chest full of chains instead. Although the FF survived Doom's attacks, Doom escaped them by using a Doombot as a decoy. Dr. Doom next formed an alliance with the Sub-Mariner, believing that their mutual hatred of the FF made for a natural partnership. Doom nearly cast the Baxter Building into the sun, but the Sub-Mariner turned on him and Doom was cast adrift into space. He was saved by the alien Ovoids who taught him how to exchange bodies with others. With this new power, he had Marvel Comics creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby lure Mr. Fantastic into a trap so that he could take over his body. However, the Fantastic Four saw through Doom's facade and he was forced back into his own body, and then accidentally cast into the microverse. But the microverse proved to be merely a new challenge for Dr. Doom's genius rather than a prison. Doom conquered Mirwood, the kingdom of Princess Pearla, and brought the Fantastic Four there as prisoners. Aided by Ant-Man (Hank Pym), the Fantastic Four escaped and followed Doom back to Earth, where they battled him aboard his Flying Fortress, from which he threatened to unleash chaos throughout the globe--when the FF thwarted his plan, he escaped again. Doom soon attempted to reclaim his abandoned Flying Fortress from military custody, but the newly-formed Avengers intervened and he was forced to destroy it. Dr. Doom next empowered and sent the Terrible Trio (Bull Brogin, Yogi Dakor, and Harry Phillips) against the Fantastic Four, but this plot also failed and ended with Doom cast into space by a Solar Wave, a fate he had meant for the FF. He was rescued by the time traveler Rama-Tut, who was so impressed with Doom that upon his return to his own time, he created for himself the masked identity of Kang the Conqueror. Rama-Tut had suggested to Dr. Doom at the time that they might actually be the same person, though this eventually proved false. Doom next engaged Reed in a mental battle at the Latverian Embassy to determine who had the greater intellect. They employed an encephalo-gun which would cast the loser into Limbo, and Doom seemed to win the contest; but Reed had actually hypnotized Doom into believing Reed was cast into Limbo. When Doom was freed from the mesmerism by a Latverian hypnotist, he again targeted the Fantastic Four, who had temporarily lost their powers. But Doom was humiliated in the ensuing battle when the Thing regained his powers and angrily crushed Doom's hands inside his gauntlets then allowed him to slink away, furious that he had been forced to become the Thing in order to stop Doom. Doom, in turn, never forgot what the Thing had done. When Reed Richards was wed to Sue Storm, a spiteful Doom used an Emotion Charger to send scores of super-villains to the wedding site, but they were defeated by the FF and their super-heroic wedding guests. Reed ultimately undid the assault with a sub-atronic time displacer which sent all of the villains back to before Doom summoned them with no memory of what had occurred. Reed and Sue's wedding took place without further incident. Doom engaged in new schemes, once stealing the Silver Surfer's powers, which he lost by challenging the barrier Galactus had placed around the Earth. He also swapped bodies with Daredevil, but this farce was foiled by the FF. Doom's obsession with the FF once nearly led him to sacrifice an entire Latverian village to kill them. Doom has also played deadly games with his robot, the Prime-Mover, games which have manipulated Nick Fury and Shang-Chi into battling robot duplicates of enemies such as the Yellow Claw and Razor-Fist. Diablo once tried to force Doom into a partnership by holding his long-lost love Valeria hostage, but Doom used his time machine to cast Diablo into the future. He saved Valeria, but then lost her again--Valeria was ashamed of Doom's gloating over Diablo's fate. Doom's throne was threatened by its rightful heir, Prince Rudolfo, who was assisted by the extraterrestrial Faceless One. Doom also had to contend with his rogue creation the Doomsman, and with the Red Skull, who attempted to claim Latveria for himself. The Black Panther, ruler of Wakanda, foiled Doom's attempt to steal Wakanda's Vibranium, but Doom intended to make an ally of T'Challa one day. Doom also accumulated various power objects, culminating in his using the Cosmic Cube to usurp Galactus' power, but Reed stole the Cube, reversed its effects, and erased the events from everyone's memory. Doom also fought side-by-side with the FF to save the Earth from the Overmind, acknowledging that while he had no love for them, he would not allow anyone to threaten Latveria. When the Faceless One sponsored another Latverian revolt, Doom hired Luke Cage to spy on them in the United States; however, he then refused to pay Cage for his services, so Cage tracked Doom down in Latveria and fought him to a standstill until Doom finally agreed to pay Cage what he was due. After rejecting Doom's offer of a new alliance, Namor reluctantly sought Doom's aid when the people of Atlantis were rendered comatose and Mr. Fantastic could not revive them. Namor aided Doom against Andro, formerly the Doomsman, who had brought many of Doom's robots under his control through a self-created religion; Doom in turn aided Namor against his enemies Dr. Dorcas, Tiger Shark, Krang, and Attuma. Still, Namor could not bring himself to fully trust Doom, so Doom ruined the water rebreather suit Namor needed to survive at that time and threatened to destroy Atlantis unless Namor pledged his allegiance to him. Namor was forced to comply. Learning of Namor's fate, the FF came to Latveria to aid him, only to discover that the United States had signed a non-aggression pact with Latveria, forcing them to depart. Surviving an assassination attempt by the vigilante Shroud, Doom subsequently mind-controlled the Avengers into fighting Attuma for him. Finally, after receiving Namor's aid against the Red Skull, who had slain Rudolfo and briefly usurped control of Latveria, Doom made good on his bargain, restoring the Atlanteans to consciousness; Namor then ended their partnership. Following this, Doom spread a neuro-gas into Earth's atmosphere to bind the entire world's population to his will. His authority was challenged by the mutant Magneto, and they fought, manipulating the Champions, Avengers and Hulk into fighting for their sides. When Doom was attacked by the Ghost Rider, his mask overheated and he was forced to remove it, inhaling his own neuro-gas; this rendered him unable to control anyone affected by the gas. Via power gained from the Negative Zone, Doom accessed the netherworld, only to be overwhelmed by spirits posing as his parents. Realizing that his villainous actions had injured Latveria's reputation, Doom planned to abdicate the throne to his "son", actually a clone of himself named Victor von Doom II; but his son's true origins were exposed, and Doom was forced to slay the clone when it turned against him. However, this plot had merely been a ruse for Doom to take mental control of the United Nations using his Solartron Complex. After he was exposed to multiple images of his own face projected by the Solartron, Doom went completely insane and was imprisoned. Prince Zorba, Rudolfo’s younger brother, reclaimed his family's throne from Doom, but Doom was freed by Boris and regained his sanity. Aided by the Puppet Master, Doom had the Fantastic Four's minds placed into miniature synthetic bodies, living a mostly-idyllic life in the miniature town of "Liddleville" within his Adirondack castle. Doom hoped this would prevent the FF from interfering with his attempts to regain the throne, but the FF managed to turn the tables on him and he wound up imprisoned within a synthetic body in Liddleville. The Puppet Master, furious at how his stepdaughter Alicia had been treated by Doom's world, led an army against him there. Doom sought aid from the alien Microns when they passed through, but was finally rescued when his Doombots activated a contingency plan to return his consciousness to his own body. Learning that Latveria had fallen into anarchy without him, Doom convinced the Fantastic Four to assist him in overthrowing the now-insane Zorba and retaking his throne. Doom himself slew Zorba. In the aftermath, a young Latverian boy named Kristoff Vernard was orphaned by Zorba's forces and Doom took the child under his protection, making him his heir. Another man, Alexander Flynn, claimed to be Doom's true son, but that was later shown to be a falsehood created by the mutant telepath Shadow King. Unleashing Terrax against the Fantastic Four, Doom was disintegrated when Terrax exploded in a blast of cosmic energy. Using the Ovoid technique, Doom transferred his mind into the body of an onlooker, Norman McArthur, an instant before his death. He eventually regained his original body from the Beyonder, who sent him back a short distance in time to participate in the “Secret Wars” on his artificially created Battleworld. There Doom briefly usurped the immense power of not only Galactus, but the Beyonder himself, though he eventually lost all of his stolen power. Back on Earth, Doom once more achieved world domination, using the Purple Man's mind control powers to subjugate the global population. Although Doom was able to solve most of the world's problems by using his work in Latveria as a model, he found the mindless obedience of humanity unsatisfying, and ultimately allowed the Purple Man to slip from his grasp during a conflict with the Avengers and Namor. After Terrax seemingly killed Doom, his Doombots had activated a contingency plan whereby Doom's past experiences were implanted within Kristoff's mind so that he could assume Doom's role. Kristoff went mad, believing he was Doom trapped in the body of a child. While Kristoff ruled Latveria, one of the Doombots, believing itself to be the true Doom, made a weak attempt to overthrow him. Finally, the true Dr. Doom returned to Latveria following a time travel adventure, and he retook the throne from Kristoff. Soon after this he helped cure Ms. Marvel (Sharon Ventura), a new member of the FF who had become a grotesque "She-Thing". Doom used her to spy on the FF, but she eventually gave in to her conscience and turned against him. He transformed her into an even more grotesque creature as punishment. Doom often attributes his many defeats to his Doombots; perhaps the most humiliating case is when Squirrel Girl defeated a Doombot by sending her squirrels to chew apart the wiring in its armor. Another Doombot participated in the “Acts of Vengeance” teaming up with the other prime movers, who were unknowingly pawns of the Asgardian trickster-god Loki, against new foes. Other Doombots, such as Mechadoom, have even turned against Doom and pursued their own goals, though such betrayal rarely long survives Doom's discovery. Doom has seen to it that Latveria's history is constantly revised to suit his needs, employing the mysterious Editor to affect all such changes. Doom tends to blame failures on underlings, such as Gustav and Gert Hauptmann, who seldom live to fail again. Doom claims to have a contingency plan for every situation, and regards the FF's victories over him as mere setbacks. Doom's greatest victory came when, after years of combating Mephisto, he and Dr. Strange finally rescued the soul of Cynthia von Doom from Hell, allowing her to pass on to a better afterlife. After briefly usurping the cosmic energies of Aron the Watcher, Doom was severely wounded while seeking the power of the alien Hunger. Doom attempted to take Reed with him and the pair were seemingly disintegrated in a powerful energy blast; however, the immensely powerful Hyperstorm had teleported them away. Long believed dead, Doom was freed from his extra-dimensional prison by the Fantastic Four and Kristoff, and aided them against Hyperstorm. Returning to Earth, Doom seemingly died yet again, this time alongside Earth's heroes battling Onslaught; but Doom and the others were preserved in the new Counter-Earth, created by Franklin Richards, and Doom lived out a new life in which he was an old friend of Bruce Banner, Reed Richards and Tony Stark, who had all been members of a fraternity called "Knights of the Atomic Table." But history repeated itself, and Doom became a villain on this Earth as well. When the heroes regained their memories, Doom helped them return to their own Earth via the Negative Zone, but when he attempted to abscond with Franklin, Doom was assaulted by Thor and cast back to Counter-Earth. With no super heroes to oppose him, Doom soon became ruler of Counter-Earth. He recruited Divinity, Dorma, Lancer, Shakti and Technarx as lieutenants, and won a decisive victory over the powerful Dreaming Celestial, which had attempted to claim Counter-Earth for itself. For a while, Doom ruled both Counter-Earth and Latveria simultaneously by projecting holograms back to Earth, but he ultimately found that Counter-Earth could never equal the utopia of his Latveria, so he returned to Earth to resume his duties in Latveria, leaving Lancer to rule Counter-Earth in his stead. Doom has also shown an infatuation with the X-Men's Storm (Ororo Munroe). Via the powers of a defective Cosmic Cube, Doom once merged two realities, creating one in which he ruled Earth as emperor, with Storm as his queen. Like all of such efforts to achieve supreme power, however, the power was eventually usurped from him, and normal reality restored. When Thor led an unauthorized invasion of Slokovia, a country neighboring Latveria, Doom aided the Avengers in fighting their rogue ally-manipulating events so that when Slokovia's government collapsed, Doom moved in and annexed the country, adding it to Latveria. Dr. Doom assisted in the birth of Reed and Susan's daughter Valeria Richards, who was named after Doom's childhood love, but Doom only performed this act of kindness as part of a grander scheme. Having recognized that it was in magic that he was truly Reed's superior, Doom forged an alliance with the demon Haazareth and sacrificed to them his greatest love, Valeria. The Haazareth increased his mystical might to the point where he was a threat to even Dr. Strange. Dr. Doom fashioned for himself new armor from his former lover's body and made Valeria Richards his familiar. He wielded his new mystical power against the Fantastic Four, attempting to break them as he never had before, sending Franklin Richards to Hell and torturing the FF. Once again, Reed defeated him by both mastering some magic himself and turning Doom's own pride against him by having him claim to acknowledge no superior in front of the Haazareth. The Haazareth took Doom into Hell with them, but he left "parting gifts"-- a traumatized Franklin and a scar down the left side of Reed's face. Determined to devise a final solution to Doom, Reed created an infinitely large Mobius dimension to serve as Doom's prison, and had all of Doom's backup equipment in Latveria destroyed. Doom briefly escaped the prison by taking mental possession of the FF, but was ultimately forced back into his own body. Recently, Doom escaped from the Mobius dimension while chasing after the Mjolnir (Thor's hammer) which was flying through the dimensions following the fall of Asgard. Returning to Latveria, Doom assumed that he was worthy of the hammer since it appeared for him and went with a troupe of robots to obtain it. He was met by the FF, who wished to stop him. Doom reached the hammer, but found he was not worthy of lifting it. Angered, Doom returned to Latveria, where he currently resides. Television: Dr. Doom's first animated appearance was in 1966 on the Sub-Mariner's segment of The Marvel Superheroes. Doom subsequently appeared in several episodes of Hanna-Barbera's Fantastic Four series from 1967, where he was voiced by Joseph Sirola. In 1978, Dr. Doom appeared in two episodes of DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' The New Fantastic Four, and was voiced by John Stephenson. Perhaps most significantly, Dr. Doom appeared in no less than six episodes of the 1981 Spider-Man series produced by Marvel Productions. Voiced by Ralph James (with heavy modulation akin to Darth Vader), the latter five episodes, written by Larry Parr, comprised a complete story arc, and four of them were at one point edited together into an animated feature. Dr. Doom's final 1980s animated appearance was in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends voiced by Shepard Menkin. He appeared in an episode entitled "The Fantastic Mr. Frump!" In The Fantastic Four (1994-1996), he was voiced by Neil Ross in season one, retelling his classic origin and his theft of the Silver Surfer's power, and by Simon Templeman in season two, as he struck at a powerless FF, had his hand crushed by the Thing, directed the Hulk to attack the team, and once again acquired the Power Cosmic in the series finale. Templeman reprised his role for guest appearances in two episodes of The Incredible Hulk (1996-1997), in which Doom held Washington, D.C. captive, only to be defeated by She-Hulk, whom he later attempted to claim revenge upon. With his appearance on this show, it can be assumed that Doom survived the fate he met on the Fantastic Four series, if both shows are to be considered within the same continuity. Tom Kane took over the character for a three-part guest spot in the final season of Spider-Man (1994-1998), re-imagining Doom's role in the Secret Wars. In the third part of the episode, Doom turned part of the alien world he was on into "New Latveria" after overthrowing Doctor Octopus and renaming Octavia to New Latveria. However, he did not use his ruling powers to oppress, and allowed the aliens in his country to live in peace and harmony, protecting them from the other villains. He even kidnapped the Thing only to cure him of his deformity, turning him back to Ben Grimm, and healed his own face as an afterthought. With Ben's cooperation, he then stole the powers of the Beyonder, and with this newfound power, Doctor Doom sent the other villains back to Earth and almost killed the superheroes that Ben fought along with. However, the Thing turned Doom's weapon on him, and the powers of the Beyonder were returned to the mystic figure himself. Doom was then returned to Earth with no memory of these events (as well as, presumably, his scarred face), along with every other villain and superhero apart from Spider-Man. Doom is the main villain in the current Fantastic Four animated series, voiced by Paul Dobson. In the pilot, "Doomsday", he is revealed to have diplomatic immunity as a head of state, which means the American police cannot place him under arrest. In one episode where in one of his experiments his mind gets put into Reed Richards, and vice versa, more is revealed about Doom's life and ruling attitude. Doom (with Richards' mind) is now considerably more polite and respectful of others. Reed also commands the Doombots to destroy themselves as "word of Doom is law," and releases the face mask. Though the viewer is not shown Doom's face, when Reed and Doom return to their proper bodies, Richards tells Doom that Doom's insecurity, in particular about his personal appearance is his greatest adversary. “Fantastic Four” (1994): The film begins with Reed Richards (Alex Hyde-White) and Victor Von Doom (Joseph Culp) as University friends who decide to use the opportunity of a passing comet to try an experiment; however, the experiment goes wrong, leaving Victor horribly scarred. Sue and Johnny Storm are two children living with their mother, who has a boarding house where Reed lives. Ben Grimm (Michael Bailey Smith) is a family friend and college friend to Reed. The film then fast forwards to the early 1990s, where Reed, Sue (Rebecca Staab), Johnny (Jay Underwood), and Ben go up into an experimental space craft as again the same comet would pass by the Earth. They are hit by cosmic rays by the same passing comet due to a necessary diamond being exchanged for an imitation of itself. Reed would dedicate this mission for his friend Victor, believing he was dead years before. Upon crash-landing back to Earth, the four of them soon discover that the cosmic rays gave them special powers: Reed's bodily structure has become elastic; Sue can become invisible; Johnny can generate fire on demand; and Ben has transformed into the Thing. They are later captured by Victor's men, who pose as soldiers of the Marine Corps. After escaping from Doom's men, the four scientists regroup at the Baxter Building, trying to decide what to do now that they gained superpowers. An angry Ben leaves the group to go out on his own, feeling that he has become a horrible freak of nature. Ben would be found by homeless men and join them in an illicit Jeweler's underground lair. It is revealed that Victor von Doom had needed the diamond necessary to capture the comet's powers. The Jeweler would then give the real diamond to the blind artist Alicia (Kat Green) who was also kidnapped by homeless henchmen working for the Jeweler. The Jeweler wants Alicia to be his bride, with the diamond as his wedding present to her. However, Doctor Doom and his henchmen locate the Jeweler's lair. Doom's henchmen first try to make a deal with him; but with no luck. Doom, displeased, seizes the diamond by force. Doom threatens to kill Alicia, whereupon Ben, as the Thing, comes into the room – only to revert to human form. Pursued by Doom, Ben runs out onto the city streets, frustrated at his helplessness. He is therefore changed into the Thing, whereupon he rescues Alicia. A gun fight ensues between Doom and the Jeweler’s men. Doom takes the diamond to power a laser cannon that will destroy New York City. Ben returns to his friends; by now, Reed has learned that Victor was the mastermind behind their kidnapping. Realizing that they are the only ones that can stop Doom, the protagonists don costumes and travel to Doom's castle. At the castle, the Fantastic Four battle a series of Doom's military. Reed has a final battle with Doom. Doom is defeated and possibly killed. Johnny becomes the Human Torch (shown via computerized animation) to stand between the laser cannon's shot and the city. He survives this, as does the city he wishes to protect. Thereafter, the Four dedicate themselves to fighting evil, and the film ends with Reed and Sue marrying. “Fantastic Four” (2005): Dr. Reed Richards, a brilliant but timid and bankrupt scientist, is convinced that evolution is triggered by clouds of cosmic energy in space, and has calculated that one of these clouds is soon going to pass near Earth. Together with his friend, the gruff yet gentle astronaut Ben Grimm, Reed convinces his equally brilliant but conceited MIT classmate Dr. Victor von Doom, now CEO of his own enterprise, to allow him access to his privately-owned space station. Von Doom agrees, in exchange for control over the experiment and a majority of the profits from whatever benefits it brings. He brings aboard his chief genetics researcher (and Reed's ex-girlfriend) Susan Storm, and her brother Johnny, his private astronaut, who was Ben's subordinate at NASA but is his superior on the mission, much to Ben's disgust. The quintet travels to space to observe the cosmic energy clouds, but Reed has miscalculated and the clouds materialize well ahead of schedule. Victor refuses Reed's plea to abort the mission, knowing he must produce results to justify his expenditure, no matter the human cost involved. Knowing Ben is space-walking to set up equipment, Reed, Susan and Johnny leave the shielded inner area of the station to rescue him, and Victor closes the shield behind them. Whilst Victor is seemingly safe, the others are exposed to the cloud. Ben receives full exposure out in space, while the others receive a more limited dose within the station. The astronauts make it home intact; however, before long they begin to mutate, developing strange powers. Reed is able to stretch like rubber; Susan can become invisible (by bending light around objects) and create force fields, especially when angered; Johnny can engulf himself in fire at up to supernova-like temperatures, and is able to fly; and Ben is transformed into "The Thing", a large, rock-like creature with superhuman strength. After Ben, brooding about his situation on the Brooklyn Bridge, inadvertently causes a major traffic pile-up whilst attempting to stop a man from committing suicide, the four use their powers to prevent any loss of life and to rescue a fire truck and its crew from falling off the bridge. The media dubs the team the 'Fantastic Four'; whilst Johnny eagerly embraces his powers and new life, Ben - the only one whose transformed appearance is permanent - suffers. His disfigurement has caused his fiancée, Debbie, to abandon him and has seen him shunned and feared by much of New York. Blaming himself, Reed vows to return Ben to his human form. Therefore he, Susan and Ben work on a cure, constructing a healing chamber in Reed's high tech Baxter Building loft-turned-laboratory. During this time, Reed and Susan begin to rekindle their attraction to one another. Susan admits that she is not interested in Victor, but had turned away from Reed because he feared to make a binding vow, thinking only in terms of variables. His excessive caution was hard for Susan to deal with, and now it begins to test Ben's patience, as he is eager to return to his human form while Reed is taking his time on the machine. Unknown to the others, however, Victor's body is also mutating; he is turning into organic metal capable of absorbing and manipulating electrical energy. As a result of the disastrous expedition, his company is going bankrupt and he is losing public stature; blaming Reed for his misfortunes, Victor swears revenge. After killing a bank chairman who had pulled investment out of his company, Victor sees the opportunity to finish off his rival once and for all. Manipulating Ben's insecurity and anguish, Victor tricks Ben into thinking that his teammates are not working on a cure with due diligence; after a vicious argument between himself and Reed, Ben storms out of the Baxter Building. Reed experiments with the curative machine on himself and nearly dies in the process, but learns that the machine only needs more power to fully succeed. Victor, who has been spying on Reed, tricks Ben into entering the machine and provides the extra power. Ben becomes normal again, while Victor's own mutation increases exponentially, increasing his power but also physically disfiguring him. When Ben realizes that Victor merely wanted the super-strong Thing out of the way so that no one could stop him, Victor immobilizes Ben and attacks Reed after Reed discovers them, taking him prisoner and freezing him to prevent him using his powers of distention. When Susan and Johnny realize what has happened, Victor, now calling himself 'Doom,' fires a heat-seeker missile at the Baxter Building, intending it to target and kill Johnny. Johnny uses his powers of heat and flight to lead the missile to open water, where he ignites a garbage scow to dispose of the missile. However, he is thrown into the water, and whether he is alright is not shown. Meanwhile, Susan attempts to rescue Reed and confronts Doom. She soon proves no match for the powerful Doom, and he is on the verge of killing her when Ben - having activated Reed's machine and used it upon himself to restore his mutation - bursts into the room. Doom and Ben fight, until the battle spills onto the street below. But no matter how hard Ben attacks him, he is unable to overpower Doom, and Doom knocks him flat on his back. He is about to deal the finishing strike, when a recovered Reed and Susan arrive to save Ben. Doom begins to scorn them, when he is blasted from behind with fire from none other than Johnny, who survived his encounter with the missile unharmed. Doom absorbs all the electricity in the area that he can to begin the final showdown. At first, it seems that Doom has the advantage, as the team struggles under his onslaught of electric blasts. Reed manages to use his elastic body to temporarily restrain Doom, and then coordinates the team for an offensive attack, trusting his initial judgment for the first time. He starts by telling Johnny to unleash his supernova heat on Doom, despite the fact that even Johnny agreed this was dangerous. Johnny uses this to surround Doom in a vortex of fire, while Reed gets Susan to try to contain it (and its dangerous amount of heat) within a force field. She manages to do so while Doom makes futile attempts to break free with his electric blasts. When Johnny and Susan give out, it looks as if Doom is just starting to melt, but he is still on his feet and merely sneers "Is that the best you can do? A little heat?". Reed responds "What happens when you rapidly cool hot metal?". Ben then kicks the top off of a fire hydrant, and he and Reed direct the water shooting out of it at Doom. The steam created as the water hits Doom forms a thick cloud, and when it settles, Doom is seemingly left as a statue of inert metal. Ben informs Reed that he has accepted his condition with the help of Alicia Masters, a blind artist for whom he has developed feelings, and the team decides to embrace their roles as superheroes and unite officially as the Fantastic Four. Reed proposes marriage to Susan, who accepts. Doom's remains are being transported back to his homeland of Latveria when the ship carrying them experiences unusual electronic interference. “Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer”: Set two years after the first film, Reed Richards and Sue Storm are preparing for their wedding. A silver object enters Earth's atmosphere, radiating cosmic energy that creates massive molecular fluctuations and causes deep craters at locations across the Earth. The government approaches Reed to build a sensor to track the movements of the object. As the wedding begins, Reed's systems detect the phenomenon approaching New York City, causing a massive power blackout. The object destroys the sensors while the Fantastic Four protect the crowd. The Human Torch pursues the object, discovering that it is a humanoid, a "Silver Surfer." He confronts the Surfer, only to be dragged into the upper atmosphere where the Surfer snuffs his flame out, then drops him back toward Earth. Johnny reactivates his powers and survives the fall. Later on when Sue tries to comfort Johnny, she touches his shoulders and their powers switch - he becomes invisible, and she is set on fire; when they touch again their powers revert back. Reed's examination of Johnny reveals that exposure to the Surfer has set Johnny's molecular structure in flux, allowing him to switch powers with his teammates through physical contact. Tracing the cosmic energy of the Surfer, Reed discovers that a series of planets the alien had visited before Earth have all been destroyed. The Surfer's movements around the globe bring him past Latveria, where the cosmic energy affects Victor von Doom, freeing him from two years as a metal statue. Doom, able to move again and returned to a human, but scarred, traces the Surfer to the Arctic and makes him an offer to join forces. When the Surfer rebuffs him, Doom attacks. The Surfer returns fire, blasting Doom through the ice. The cosmic energy of the Surfer's blast heals Doom's body, reversing the changes seen in the first film. Doom leverages his experience into a deal with the American military, who force the Fantastic Four to work with Doom. Deducing that the Surfer's board is the source of his power, the group develops a pulse generator that will separate him from it. While setting up the device, Sue is confronted by the Surfer, during which he reveals he is a servant to the destroyer of worlds. The military opens fire on the Surfer, which distracts him and allows the four to fire the pulse, separating the Surfer from his board. The military imprisons the Surfer in Siberia and forbids the Fantastic Four from interacting with him, while they torture him for information. Sue uses her powers to sneak into his cell, where she learns more information from the Surfer. He tells her his master was known by the people of his world as Galactus, a massive cloud-like cosmic entity which must feed on life-bearing planets to survive, and that his board is a homing beacon which even now summons him to the planet. Doom, pursuing the power in the board, steals it from the compound, using a device to gain control of the board and its powers. The Fantastic Four rescue the Surfer, and pursue Doom in the Fantasticar, confronting him in Shanghai. During the battle, Sue is mortally wounded. With the Surfer powerless, Johnny absorbs the combined powers of the entire team in order to battle the cosmic energy-empowered Doom. Johnny succeeds in breaking Doom's control over the Surfer's board, while Ben Grimm uses a nearby crane to knock Doom into the harbor where he is last seen sinking; however, Galactus has already arrived. The Surfer regains the control of his board, and his power is restored. He revives Sue and chooses to defend Earth, flying into Galactus and confronting him. The conflict results in a massive blast of energy, apparently destroying Galactus. The film ends with Reed and Sue marrying in Japan, but they are again interrupted when Venice is threatened. The credits cut back to a shot of the Silver Surfer's seemingly lifeless body floating through space. Just as he drifts off the edge of the screen his eyes open and his board races towards him. There are other villains on this list who are obsessed with the destruction and/or death of one human being. But, they don’t hold a candle to the obsessive rage of Dr. Doom. Never has a supervillain possessed such an unadulterated hatred from a single person as Victor Von Doom has possessed towards Reed Richards. You know, Doom could have been an unstoppable force in the Marvel Universe with his complex mind. But, that raging ego of his killed all that. He could have developed his genius-level intellect and indomitable will could have made him led him to world domination. Hell, he had conquered the world on a number of occasions, but he relinquished it just out of sheer boredom. Doom keeps getting into his own way. The man doesn’t know the meaning of the words “failure” or “responsibility.” It is always someone else’s fault, that someone else is usually Reed Richards. Hell, he blames Richards so much that it has become a joke, to the point where Doom could milk while fixing himself a bowl of cereal and somehow blame Reed Richards for it. And, the lengths Doom as gone to in order to seek revenge on Richards is amazing: blasted Richards’s skyscraper into outer space with him in it, kidnapped and tortured the Fantastic Four and Richards’s kids and sent Franklin to hell, and even killing Richards once by blowing him up. And, Doom does all this for revenge on a lab accident that he believes Richards caused but was technically Doom’s own fault. This obsession with Richards hurts Doom’s chances of being the greatest villain of all time, but at the same time, it is so fascinating that one man would be obsessed with the downfall of another that it puts him so high on the list. Plus, Doom is a grandiose villain in the oldest storytelling form. He is a monarch who lives by a noble code of honor and always keeps his word. But, those who don’t read the fine print of Dr. Doom’s deal will probably end up disintegrated.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 23, 2008 20:19:22 GMT -5
2. The Joker Who is he: Failed stand-up comedian/mob enforcer turned violent sociopath. What is he from: DC Comics, most notably the Batman comics. What has he done: Killed a lot of people, most notably Jason Todd and Commissioner Gordon’s wife; stole Mr. Mxyzptlk’s powers and remade the DC Universe in his own image; shot Barbara Gordon, paralyzing her; nearly drove Gordon to insanity; and too many more to mention. Intelligence: Skilled in a number of scientific fields (i.e. chemistry) and has an extremely creative mind. Power: Usually has some henchmen to do his tough stuff. Vileness: Kills people for laughs. Sway: Most people in the DC Universe are scared, even those with superpowers. Purity: He's been pretty insane ever since the dip in the chemicals pool, way past the point of no return. Physical Prowess: Not physically powerful, but that white skin, green hair, and devilish grin are pretty damn scary. Name Coolness: “The Joker” is pretty cool. Created by: Jerry Robinson, Bill Finger, and Bob Kane. Portrayed by: Cesar Romero played the Joker in the 1960s Batman TV show. Curtis Armstrong played him in an OnStar Commercial. Roger Stoneburner played him in a cameo on the show Birds Of Prey. Lennie Weinrib did the voice of the Joker in Filmation’s 1977 The New Adventures of Batman animated series. Frank Welker did the voice on one of the Superfriends show. Mark Hamill played the voice of the Joker in the FOX 1990s Batman animated series, as well as the WB version, “Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm,” and “Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker.” Michael McKean voiced the Joker in The New Batman Adventures episode "Legends of the Dark Knight." Kevin Michael Richardson does the voice of the Joker on The Batman animated series. In the 1989 “Batman” movie, Jack Nicholson played the Joker. In “The Dark Knight,” Heath Ledger will play the Joker. Comics: In his initial dozen or so appearances, starting with Batman #1 (1940), the Joker was a straightforward mass murderer, with a bizarre appearance modeled after the symbol of the Joker known from playing cards. He was slated to be killed in his second appearance, but editor Whitney Ellsworth suggested that the character be spared. A hastily drawn panel, demonstrating that the Joker was still alive, was subsequently added to the comic. For the next several appearances, the Joker often escaped capture but suffered an apparent death (falling off a cliff, being caught in a burning building, etc.), from which his body was not recovered. In these first dozen adventures, the Joker killed close to three dozen people. In the 1950s and 1960s, following the imposition of the Comics Code Authority censorship board, the Joker shifted toward becoming a harmless, cackling nuisance. He disappeared from Batman stories almost entirely when Julius Schwartz took over editorship of the Batman comics in 1964. In 1973, the character was revived and profoundly revised in Batman stories by writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams. Beginning in Batman #251, with "The Joker's Five Way Revenge", the Joker returns to his roots as a homicidal maniac who casually murders people on a whim, while enjoying battles of wits with Batman. O'Neil said his idea was "simply to take it back to where it started. I went to the DC library and read some of the early stories. I tried to get a sense of what Kane and Finger were after." Writer Steve Englehart and penciler Marshall Rogers, in an acclaimed run in Detective Comics #471-476 (Aug. 1977 - April 1978), which went on to influence the 1989 movie Batman and be adapted for the 1990s animated series, added elements deepening the severity of the Joker's insanity. In the story "The Laughing Fish", the Joker is brazen enough to disfigure fish with a rictus grin, then expect to be granted a federal trademark on them, only to start threatening and murdering bureaucrats who try to explain that obtaining such a claim on a natural resource is a legal impossibility. The Joker had his own nine-issue series during the 1970s in which he faces off against a variety of both superheroes and supervillains. Although he was the protagonist of the series, certain issues feature just as much murder as those in which he was the antagonist; of the nine issues, he commits murder in seven. A major addition to the character was the introduction of Harley Quinn. Originally introduced in Batman: The Animated Series, Quinn is a clinical psychiatrist who falls hopelessly in love with the Joker in Arkham Asylum and now serves as his loyal, if daffy, sidekick, costumed in a skintight harlequin suit. Their partnership often resembles an abusive domestic relationship, with the Joker insulting, hurting, or even attempting to kill Quinn, who remains undaunted in her devotion. She was popular enough to be integrated into the comics in 1999 and a modified version of the character (less goofy, but still criminally insane and utterly committed to the Joker) was also featured on the short-lived live-action TV series Birds of Prey. The development of the Joker as a sociopath continues with the issues "A Death in the Family" (in which readers voted for the character to kill off Jason Todd) and The Killing Joke in 1988, redefining the character for DC's Modern Age after the company wide reboot following Crisis on Infinite Earths. Though many have been related, a definitive backstory has never been established for the Joker in the comics, and his real name has never been confirmed. He has been portrayed as lying so often about his former life that he himself is confused as to what actually happened. As he says in The Killing Joke: "Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another... if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!" In Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth written by Grant Morrison, it is said that the Joker may not be insane, but have some sort of "super-sanity" in which he creates himself each day to cope with the chaotic flow of modern urban life. The first origin account, Detective Comics #168 (February 1951), revealed that the Joker had once been a criminal known as the Red Hood. In the story, he was a scientist looking to steal from the company that employs him and adopts the persona of Red Hood. After committing the theft, which Batman thwarts, Red Hood falls into a vat of chemical waste. He emerges with bleached white skin, red lips, green hair, and a permanent grin. The most widely cited backstory can be seen in The Killing Joke. It depicts him as originally being an engineer at a chemical plant who quits his job to become a stand-up comedian, only to fail miserably. Desperate to support his pregnant wife, Jennie, the man agrees to help two criminals break into the plant where he was formerly employed. In this version of the story, the Red Hood persona is given to the inside man of every job (thus it is never the same man twice); this makes the man appear to be the ringleader, allowing the two criminals to escape. During the planning, police contact him and inform him that his wife and unborn child have died in a household accident. Stricken with grief, he attempts to back out of the plan, but the criminals strong-arm him into keeping his promise. As soon as they enter the plant, however, they are immediately caught by security and a shoot-out ensues, in which the two criminals are killed. As the engineer tries to escape, he is confronted by Batman, who is investigating the disturbance. Terrified, the engineer leaps over a rail and plummets into a vat of chemicals. When he surfaces in the nearby reservoir, he removes the hood and sees his reflection: bleached chalk-white skin, ruby-red lips, and green hair. These events, coupled with his other misfortunes that day, drive the engineer completely insane, resulting in the birth of the Joker. The story "Pushback" (Batman: Gotham Knights # 50-55), supports part of this version of the Joker's origin story. In it, a witness (who coincidentally turns out to be Edward Nigma, a.k.a. the Riddler) recounts that the Joker's wife was kidnapped and murdered by the criminals in order to force the engineer into performing the crime. In this version, the pre-accident Joker is called Jack. The Paul Dini-Alex Ross story "Case Study" proposes a far different theory. This story suggests that the Joker was a sadistic gangster who worked his way up Gotham's criminal food chain until he was the leader of a powerful mob. Still seeking the thrills that dirty work allowed, he created the Red Hood identity for himself so that he could commit small-time crimes. Eventually, he had his fateful first meeting with Batman, resulting in his disfigurement. However, the story suggests that the Joker retained his sanity, and researched his crimes to look like the work of a sick mind in order to pursue his vendetta against Batman. The Joker as a mob enforcer origin is featured in the second arc of Batman Confidential (#7-12). This origin once more states his name as Jack, and eliminates the Red Hood identity. Becoming obsessed with Batman due to the sheer boredom of his work, Jack crashes a museum ball to attract Batman's attention and badly injures Lorna Shore (whom Bruce Wayne is dating). An enraged Batman disfigures his face with a batarang as he escapes. In retaliation, a furious Batman sells Jack out to mobsters who he had crossed and they severely torture Jack in a disused chemical plant. Turning the tables, Jack kills several, but falls into an empty vat. Wild gunfire punctures the chemical tanks above him, and the resultant flood of toxins drives him mad and alters his appearance to that of the Joker. In the 1990s Batman: The Animated Series, the Joker's origin is only hinted at in the spin-off movie, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. In a flashback, a pre-accident Joker is seen as a driver/enforcer for Sal Valestra, one of Gotham City's crime lords. However, in the episode "Dreams In Darkness", an Arkham Asylum doctor says that the Joker's name is Jack Napier, the same name used in the 1989 film. The name of Jack Napier also appears in the episode "Joker's Wild", as Batman was looking through confidential files, one page had the Joker's rap sheet, including the Jack Napier identity. From the Joker's first appearance in Batman #1, he has committed crimes both whimsical and inhumanly brutal, all with a logic and reasoning that, in Batman's words, "make sense to him alone." In Batman: The Killing Joke, the Joker shoots Barbara Gordon (then known as Batgirl and in later comics as Oracle), paralyzing her. He then kidnaps Commissioner Gordon and taunts him with enlarged photographs of his wounded daughter being undressed, in an attempt to prove that any emotionally and morally stable man can become insane after having "one really bad day." The Joker ridicules him as an example of "the average man", a naïve weakling doomed to insanity; but fails in his attempts to drive Gordon insane as Batman saves the commissioner and even though distressed, Gordon keeps a sound mind. After this Batman tries one final time to reach the Joker, offering to rehabilitate him. The Joker refuses, but shows his appreciation by sharing a joke with Batman and allowing himself to be taken back to Arkham. The Joker murders Jason Todd, the second Robin, in the story "A Death in the Family". Jason Todd discovers that a woman who may be his birth mother is being blackmailed by the Joker. She betrays her son to keep from having her medical supply thefts exposed, leading to Jason's brutal beating by the Joker with a crowbar. The Joker locks Jason and his mother in the warehouse where the assault took place and blows it up just as Batman arrives. Readers could vote on whether they wanted Jason Todd to survive the blast. They voted for him to die, hence Batman finds Jason's lifeless body. Jason's death has haunted Batman ever since and has intensified his obsession with his archenemy. In the one-shot comic Mad Love, Arkham psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel ponders whether the Joker may in fact be faking insanity so as to avoid the death penalty. As she tries to treat the Joker, he recounts a tale of an abusive father and runaway mother to gain her sympathy. She falls hopelessly in love with him and allows him to escape Arkham several times before she is eventually exposed. Driven over the edge with obsession, she becomes Harley Quinn, Joker's accomplice and on-and-off girlfriend. During the events of the No Man's Land storyline, the Joker murders Sarah Essen Gordon, Commissioner Gordon's second wife, by shooting her in the head as she tries to protect the infants that he has kidnapped. He surrenders to Batman, but continues to taunt Gordon, provoking the Commissioner to shoot him in the kneecap. The Joker laments that he may never walk again, and then collapses with laughter as he "gets the joke" that Gordon has just avenged his daughter's paralysis. In a company-wide crossover, Last Laugh, the Joker believes himself to be dying and plans one last historic crime spree, infecting the inmates of 'The Slab,' a prison for super criminals, with Joker venom to escape. With plans to infect the entire world, he sets the super-powered inmates loose to cause mass chaos in their 'jokerized' forms. Meanwhile, he tries to ensure his "legacy" by defacing statues in his image. The entire United States declares war on the Joker under the orders of President Lex Luthor; in response, Joker sends his minions to kill the President. Black Canary discovers that Joker's doctor modified his CAT scan to make it appear that he had a fatal tumor in an attempt to subdue him with the threat of death. Harley Quinn, angry at the Joker's attempt to get her pregnant without marrying her, helps the heroes create an antidote to the Joker poison and return the super villains to their normal state. Believing Robin had been eaten by Killer Croc in the ensuing madness, Nightwing eventually catches up with the Joker and beats him to death. To keep Nightwing from having blood on his hands, Batman resuscitates the Joker. In "Emperor Joker", a multipart story throughout the Superman titles, the Joker steals Mister Mxyzptlk's reality altering power, remaking the entire world into a twisted caricature, with everyone in it stuck in a loop, repeating the same patterns over and over. The conflict focuses on the fate of Batman in this world, with the Joker torturing and killing his adversary every day, only to bring him back to life and do it over and over again. Superman's powerful will allows him to fight off the Joker's influence enough to make contact with the weakened Mxyzptlk, who along with a less-powerful Spectre, encourages Superman to work out the Joker's weakness before reality is destroyed by the Joker's misuse of Mxyzptlk's power. As time runs out, Superman realizes that the Joker still cannot erase Batman from existence, as the Joker totally defines himself by his opposition to the Dark Knight; if the Joker can't even erase one man, how can he destroy the universe? The Joker's control shattered, Mxyzptlk and the Spectre manage to reconstruct reality from the moment the Joker disrupted everything, but Batman is left broken from experiencing multiple deaths. Superman has to steal Batman's memories so that he can go on, transferring them to the Joker and leaving him catatonic. In the Under The Hood arc (Batman #635-650), Jason Todd returns to life. Angry at Batman for failing to avenge his death, he takes over his killer's old Red Hood identity, abducts the Joker and attempts to force Batman to shoot him. At the conclusion of Infinite Crisis the Joker kills Alexander Luthor, hero of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths and villain of Infinite Crisis. In current continuity as of January 2008, the Joker is involved in the Salvation Run miniseries, leading one of two factions of supervillains who have been exiled from Earth to a distant prison planet. In issue six of the series, Joker engages Lex Luthor in an all-out brawl. Just as he gains the upper hand, however, the planet is invaded by Parademons, he helps fight off the invasion and later escapes along with the rest of the surviving villains in the teleportation machine. Batman (TV series): With the success of the 1960s television series, the character was brought to the forefront along with the rest of the classic rogues gallery. During that period the Joker, as portrayed by Cesar Romero in 18 episodes, was a crazy, but less murderous character than his comics persona up to that point. The Joker of this series is characterized by a cackling laugh and comedy-themed crimes that were silly in nature, such as turning the city's water supply into jelly, beating Batman in a surfing competition, and bank robberies based on stand-up routines. The only reference to his early life is a remark by Batman that, in his youth, the Joker had once been a successful hypnotist. Romero refused to shave his mustache for the role, and it was partially visible beneath his white face makeup. OnStar commercial: During the OnStar "Batman" ad campaign, the Joker appeared in one commercial, played by Curtis Armstrong. In the commercial, Joker attempts to escape from the Batmobile in his Jokermobile. He uses a remote system to activate a steel wall. Batman crashes into the wall and his airbag deploys. When the OnStar representative calls him, Batman instructs her to get the police to set up a blockade. Batman then arrives at the scene and apprehends the Joker. Birds of Prey (television series): Roger Stoneburner made a cameo appearance as the character in an episode of Birds of Prey in which Barbara Gordon is caught in the crossfire between Batman and the Joker. In the series, the Joker not only paralyzes Barbara, but hires a thug (who later turns out to be Clayface) to kill Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman. Joker is said in another episode to be locked up in a prison far from New Gotham, but his old partner Harley Quinn intends to take over the city and avenge him. Mark Hamill, who voiced the Joker in various animated shows throughout the 1990s, provided the Joker's voice in the scene, and he was the only one of the two actors to be credited. Early Animation: The Joker appeared as a recurring adversary in the 1968-1969 Filmation series The Adventures of Batman. Two episodes of the 1972 series The New Scooby-Doo Movies featured a meeting with Batman; the Joker was one of the villains, voiced by Larry Storch. The Joker was featured in five episodes of Filmation's 1977 series The New Adventures of Batman, where he was voiced by Lennie Weinrib. His only Super Friends appearance was in the show's final incarnation, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, where he appeared in both the intro and the episode "The Wild Cards", which featured a version of the Royal Flush Gang. The leader of the group, Ace, turned out to be a disguised Joker (voiced by Frank Welker). Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures: Batman: The Animated Series offers another version of the Joker's history, primarily in the episode "Beware the Creeper" and in the spin-off movie Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Here he is a former anonymous hit man for a Mafia gang known as the Valestra mob with ties to the Beaumont family. His boss is crime lord Sal Valestra, who is owed ransom money by Beaumont. The gangster never speaks in his original form, and later it is implied that he killed Carl Beaumont. Years later, as the Joker, he murders Valestra, who dies with a strained grin on his face. As in the 1989 movie, he is not wearing any disguise when he makes his fateful attempt to rob the chemical factory. In both this animated series and the comic-book series based on it, the Joker believes Batman intentionally pushed him into the chemicals. Unlike in the 1989 movie, however, no attempt is made to connect the Joker with the death of Bruce Wayne's parents, although, to homage the movie, Jack Napier is listed as one of his aliases, and is believed to be his real name by several officials. As in his comic-book persona, the Joker in this series is obsessed with Batman; he often says he is the only one who "deserves" to take out Batman, halting those who try or punishing those who he thinks beat him to it. This version of the Joker combined past elements of his characterization from the comics, in which some episodes show him performing comical, less aggressive aspects, while others show him as a sociopath willing (and eager) to murder dozens of people. As in previous depictions, The Joker is shown as a mass murderer although due to children's television restrictions, the killings are never depicted onscreen but subtly alluded to; perhaps most notably in "Mad Love" in which Harley is examining a newspaper with text that reads "Joker still at large, Body count rises." Near the headline a picture shows at least 20 corpses, each with the signature Joker smile. Much like the Joker of the comics, the Animated Series Joker cheats death multiple times. He has fallen into a smokestack, been attacked by a shark, fallen from a roller coaster, and is caught in an aircraft crash, among numerous other fates, yet still emerges unharmed. In the episodes "Joker's Wild" and "Dreams in Darkness", the Joker's identity is revealed as "Jack Napier", although "Beware the Creeper" reconnects this as a alias. In Batman: The Animated Series, the Joker made the most appearances of any villain in Batman's rogues' gallery. He is also the only character aside from the Penguin to not receive an origin episode, suggesting he has been a thorn in Batman's side for some time before the series' storyline picks up. The Animated Series version of the Joker also appears in the Static Shock episode "The Big Leagues". The Joker in this series up to Justice League was voiced by Mark Hamill, a role that received praise from fans and critics. In the New Batman Adventures episode "Mad Love", the Joker tells Arkham psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel that he was abused by his alcoholic father, though Batman offers the possibility that the Joker's version of his childhood is a lie used for gaining sympathy. Later in life, he joins Sal Valestra's mafia and serves as a hitman. One night, during a break-in at the Ace Chemical Plant, Batman attempts to knock him out with a blow to the face. Stumbling, the man falls into a vat of green chemicals and, losing his mind in the face of death, emerges as the Joker. In one episode, a receptionist at a hotel where he is staying calls him "Mr. Kerr", a reference to Joker's alias "Joseph "Joe" Kerr". The New Batman Adventures episode "Legends of the Dark Knight" is about three teenagers telling often contradictory stories of Batman's exploits. One story features the Joker in a tale inspired by the Dick Sprang comics of the 1950s. This segment's Joker was voiced by Michael McKean. The Joker was also featured in the Batman/Superman crossover World's Finest. Having lost everything thanks to Batman, he makes a deal with Lex Luthor, for $1 billion, to kill Superman with a large Kryptonite dragon statue he stole. After the deal goes sour, Joker goes on a rampage while flying through the skies of Metropolis in Luthor's Lexwing aircraft. He is last seen laughing maniacally as the aircraft falls into the sea and explodes, having been damaged by his own bombs which are accidentally set off. His body is not found, but later episodes of the show reveal that he cheated death once again, and escaped alive. Justice League: In the Justice League episode "Injustice for All", the Joker becomes a member of the Injustice Gang after Copperhead is arrested, much to Lex Luthor's annoyance. In these episodes, his knowledge of Batman's methods prove useful in helping the Injustice Gang capture him. Indeed, when Luthor at first rebuffs the Joker, the Joker points out how he's needed by plucking a homing device off of Luthor and telling him "I know how the Bat thinks." Much to Joker's annoyance, Luthor elects to keep Batman alive so that they can further interrogate him. During the ensuing battle between the Justice League and Luthor's group, Joker is the last one to be captured during the episode, even deterring The Flash with explosives and escaping Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth by tossing an explosive doll at her. He returns to kill Batman with a gun, but the Caped Crusader escapes and easily defeats him. He had cameos in two other episodes, "Only a Dream" in Doctor Destiny's dream sequence, and an alternate reality counter-part in the episode "A Better World" who had been lobotomized (along with other members of Batman's rogues gallery) by the Justice Lords version of Superman. In the episode "Wild Cards", the Joker places a series of bombs all over Las Vegas, and challenges the Justice League to defuse all of them in less than 30 minutes, all while on national television. Joker then sends the Royal Flush Gang (Ace, Ten, Jack, Queen, and King) to stop the League. When all but one of the Royal Flush Gang are defeated and all of the bombs are disposed of, the Joker reveals his true plan: to use Ace's powers to drive people crazy just by looking at them on the millions of people watching the broadcast. When Batman arrives, however, he pulls the headband that controls Ace's powers from Joker's coat. Ace, angered by Joker's betrayal, uses her powers on him and renders him in a catatonic state. While the ban on Batman villains did not allow him to appear in Justice League Unlimited, he was mentioned several times throughout the course of the series. It is revealed that Joker rescued the Royal Flush Gang from Project Cadmus, and it is also mentioned that he stole technology from the government as well. Batman Beyond: In Batman Beyond, which is set 40 years in the future, the Joker has not been seen in several decades. There are now street gangs known as Jokerz, some of whom emulate his appearance and others who simply use some sort of clown motif. In the episode "Joyride", a skeleton wearing the Joker's suit is seen in a cave where the Jokerz go for initiations. The Joker appears in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, both in flashback sequences, in his Justice League attire, opposing the original Batman and in the "present" of Batman Beyond. It is revealed that the Joker kidnaps Tim Drake (the second Robin in the "Animated Series" continuity). Over the course of three weeks, he tortures Robin by electric shocks and through the use of a mysterious microchip, mutilates the boy into a mindless replica of himself known as "J.J." (Joker Junior). In the course of the ordeal, the Joker learns of Batman's secret identity from Tim. He then reveals Tim to Batman and Batgirl as his "son". In the ensuing showdown, the Joker incapacitates Batman and orders Tim to shoot him with a speargun. At the last second, however, Tim turns the gun on the Joker and kills his tormentor, Joker's final words being "That's not funny. That's not..." (in the edited version, Joker is pushed by Tim into a sparking area, slips on a puddle of water and lands in an electric chair, accidentally killing himself off-screen). Batman and Batgirl, in conjunction with Commissioner Gordon, bury the Joker's body beneath Arkham Asylum. Forty years later, the Joker unexpectedly returns to Gotham. Quickly taking control of the Jokerz, he wreaks havoc on the city. It is eventually revealed that the Joker is actually the now-adult Tim Drake, whose body is possessed by the Joker's memories and physical appearance. The Joker had used stolen Project Cadmus technology to implant the same chip encoded with his DNA and personality during the time he held Tim captive, revealing why Tim was transformed into Joker Junior in the first place. The Joker's stored personality is eventually destroyed when Terry McGinnis uses the Joker's own electrocuting joy buzzer to overload and destroy the chip, destroying the greatest match that Batman had ever faced. The Batman: A very different interpretation of the Joker appears in the animated series The Batman, voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson. In his first few episodes, he sports a purple and yellow straitjacket, fingerless gloves, bare feet (which are white with green toenails), wild green hair, red eyes, harsher voice, athletic prowess, and martial arts skill that mark him as different from his predecessors. Later in the series, he regresses back the more traditional garb of a purple suit and spats, but still has wild hair and wears no shoes, save one episode. The Joker also moves and fights with a monkey-like style, using his feet as dexterously as his hands, and often hangs from the walls and ceilings (as the series progresses, these abilities do not appear as much). He employs the signature Joker venom in the form of a laughing gas. This version is also a skilled chemist responsible for the Joker venom and "Joker putty" which is responsible for Ethan Bennett turning into "Clayface." This version of the Clown Prince of Crime more resembles the campy, comic relief character featured in the comics of the 1950s and '60s. While this interpretation is generally lighter in tone, however, it still exhibits hints of a darker side. One episode in particular closely resembled The Killing Joke: during "The Rubberface of Comedy", he tortures police detective Ethan Bennett to prove a point, quoting the comic: "All it takes is one bad day to make a normal man go insane". Joker also takes Bennett to an abandoned amusement park, like in the book. The episode also implies the building hatred and jealousy that the Joker feels towards Batman as the police focus more on capturing Batman than him ("You mean to tell me you consider this vigilante more dangerous than ME? The Clown Prince of Crime?") In the episode "Strange Minds" viewers learn that this version of the Joker fell into a chemical vat sometime earlier and get to see what he looked like prior to his accident; in the form of what's left of his sanity. Also like the 1989 movie and the animated series, he is not wearing a disguise when the accident happens. There's also a hint that the man who became the Joker was a worker in the chemical plant.Hugo Strange was also seen talking to a young version of the Joker, and noted that the man who would become the Joker was often left alone by his parents, while dreaming of making people laugh. In the film The Batman vs. Dracula, which takes place during the events of The Batman, the Joker escapes from Arkham having learned of the location of buried treasure and runs into the Penguin on the way, whom he disposes of with electric joy buzzers. Towards the end of the ensuing battle, the Joker plummets into the river where he is electrocuted and apparently killed by his own buzzers. However, he is later revealed to have survived, having apparently been accidentally rescued by a fisherman. He heads towards Gotham Cemetery, where the treasure is hidden, and encounters the Penguin again, unaware he has now been made a servant of Count Dracula. Despite Penguin's warnings, Joker ventures into his master's crypt, running into the count himself. His blood promptly drained, and the Joker turns into a vampire. Vampire Joker robs a blood bank to sustain himself. He encounters the Batman yet again and the two fight. Joker is captured in the end and taken to the Batcave, where Batman experiments on ways to treat his undead state and tries to make him reveal Dracula's hiding place. Joker is unable to give him any information, for he is under Dracula's control. Batman eventually develops an antidote and cures Joker, who seems to have lost his memory of being a vampire. Nonetheless, Joker inadvertently reveals the location of Dracula's crypt and is sent back to Arkham. Vampire Joker has pale-blue eyes, lighter hair color, fangs, and an overall more demonic appearance. His jumping abilities and strength have also been enhanced, and he can also scale walls. Other than his constant craving for blood, Vampire Joker seems to have retained most of his willpower. He is also apparently the only vampire slave with the ability to speak, whereas the other vampires merely snarl and growl. Justice League: The New Frontier: In the animated film Justice League: The New Frontier, the Joker makes a small cameo appearance during U.S. President John F. Kennedy's speech at the end of the film. “Batman” (1989): The 1989 Batman film, directed by Tim Burton, offered a somewhat different origin for the Joker, portrayed by Jack Nicholson, while making him part of Batman's origin. Newsweek's review of the film stated that the best scenes in the movie are due to the surreal black comedy portrayed in this character. Unlike the comics, the film gives The Joker a real name: Jack Napier. Nicholson's Joker ranks #45 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 50 film villains of all time. Napier, portrayed as the narcissistic right-hand man of Boss Carl Grissom, is having an affair with Grissom's girlfriend, Alicia Hunt. This prompts the jealous crime lord to have Napier killed by corrupt Lt. Max Eckhardt. Napier kills Eckhardt, and a subsequent bullet fired by Napier to kill Batman ricochets off Batman's armor and goes through his cheeks. Napier tumbles off a catwalk due to the shot, and despite an attempt by Batman to save him, he falls into a vat of chemicals. Napier survives both the chemical bath and being flushed into the harbor via the sewers, but the accident leaves him deformed. His hair is stained green, his skin is bleached a chalky white, his lips are dyed red, and a botched attempt at reconstructive surgery leaves him with a permanent rictus grin. He goes completely insane, and dubs himself the Joker. He kills Grissom, takes over the gangster's empire, and begins a violent, chaotic crime spree. His crimes center on uses of 'Smylex', a potent neurotoxin that causes its victims to die laughing, their faces eventually freezing in a grin identical to his own. The Joker also tries to woo Gotham Globe reporter Vicki Vale, and in the process, attempts to kill Bruce Wayne, who is dating her (although Bruce plays dead after using a tray as a bulletproof vest). When Wayne learns about the Joker, he recalls that his parents were murdered by Jack Napier, realizing that the Joker is indirectly responsible for the origin of Batman. In the climax of the film, the Joker meets his demise during an attempted helicopter escape from Gotham Cathedral. Batman uses a grappling hook to tie Joker's ankle to a large, heavy gargoyle. The gargoyle comes loose of the structure, sending him falling to his death. In the flashback scene showing Jack Napier's murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Napier was played by Hugo E. Blick. In the original script of Batman, Joker was also originally supposed to be responsible for the origin of Robin, at which he kills Dick Grayson's parents during a high speed chase with Batman. Although this sub-plot was removed, the Batman DVD shows a storyboard animatic sequence of the scene, voiced by the actors of the animated series. While the third film in the series does not make direct mention of the Joker, the murders of the Waynes are shown during a flashback sequence. This new flashback portrayed Ramsey Ellis as the young Wayne, Michael Scranton as Thomas Wayne, Eileen Seeley as Martha Wayne, and David U. Hodges as the shooter. The Dark Knight (2008): A Joker playing card is shown at the end of Batman Begins, where it had been used as a calling card by a criminal who was not explicitly named. Screenwriter David S. Goyer explained in Premiere magazine that he planned to use the Joker as the main villain for the sequel, The Dark Knight. Warner Bros. officially announced on July 31, 2006 that Heath Ledger would portray the Joker. Director Christopher Nolan has said that this portrayal will be inspired by the character's first two appearances in the comics, as well as The Killing Joke, an Alan Moore-penned graphic novel that has been called "the definitive Joker story," which notably garnered praise from Tim Burton, director of the first Batman movie. According to Nolan, there will not be an origin story for the character in the movie, because he "just is the Joker". It will rather be, according to the prologue in the film, the "Rise of the Joker." In the trailer released in May, it is shown that the Joker is somehow involved with the mob, and is shown advising them that by killing Batman they may regain their status in Gotham. It is suggested in an earlier teaser trailer that the Joker may have motives that are unknown to the mob, as Alfred Pennyworth claims that "... in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn't fully understand. Some men aren't looking for anything logical - they can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn." The Joker is also heard saying "This city deserves a better class of criminal - and I'm gonna give it to them." According to co-star Christian Bale, Ledger's portrayal deviates notably from previous interpretations. “It’s a much more anarchic, punk rock, almost junkie version of it... He’s that kind of psycho kid that just will do anything and has absolutely no conscience and morals – I think they’ve done a real nice job with his look. It’s certainly a whole lot more dangerous; there’s a bit of Clockwork Orange there, a bit of Sid Vicious, a whole lot of great, anarchic personalities blended within The Joker.” Chris Nolan says that the Joker's design was based on Johnny Rotten. In a New York Times article, Ledger stated that his Joker is a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy”. Costume designer Lindy Hemming described the Joker's look as being based around his personality, in which "he doesn't care about himself at all." She avoided his design being vagrant, but nonetheless it is "scruffier, grungier and therefore when you see him move, he's slightly twitchier or edgy." Unlike other incarnations, where his appearance is a result of chemical bleaching, the Joker's facial scarring is more in the style of a Glasgow smile and accentuates it through white and red make-up. During the course of the film it worsens, resembling an infection. The Melbourne Herald Sun and The Mercury quotes Michael Caine, who portrays Alfred Pennyworth, as saying that Ledger topped Jack Nicholson's performance as the Joker in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman. "He's gone in a completely different direction to Jack. Jack was like a clown figure, benign but wicked, maybe a killer old uncle. He could be funny and make you laugh... Heath is like a really scary psychopath. I did one scene with him and he was ready to go and had to come up in a lift and raid our place... I didn't see him for rehearsal and when he came out of the lift he was so incredible I forgot my lines. He frightened the life out of me. ... I'd never met him before. He's a lovely guy and his Joker is going to be a hell of a revelation in this picture." Video games: Joker appears in the video game Batman: Vengeance. As the main villain of the game, Joker orchestrates a murderous plot to burn Gotham City to the ground with his own Joker toxin and promethium, a wonder drug that is highly flammable when broken down. Joker funded the research to make sure plenty would be made for his schemes. The Joker begins his plans by making a false kidnapping to set up his fake demise, which will allow him to reside in the shadows and make his plans without the police looking for him. Joker and Harley indirectly gets the game's other villains involved to further his plot, although they believe they are serving only their own needs. His ultimate plot is to pump his Joker toxin and promethium through the sprinkling system of the city and burn it down while he escapes on a blimp he stole and used to store the substance to pump through the pipes. His plans ultimately fail and he decides to attempt suicide by jumping off the blimp rather than be sent back to Arkham Asylum. Batman both saves and defeats Joker and sends him back to Arkham. In addition to the above game, Joker has appeared in most of the Batman video games. He has appeared in the various video game adaptations of 1989's Batman. He is the final boss in the Batman: Return of the Joker game and has appeared as a boss character in Batman: Dark Tomorrow, Batman: The Caped Crusader, Batman: The Animated Series, The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the SNES, The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega Genesis and the Sega CD and Batman: Chaos in Gotham. In Batman: Vengeance and the Sega CD game Mark Hamill reprised the role of the Joker. Other appearances: There are a few theme park attractions themed to the Joker. The Joker's Jinx, a twisting steel roller coaster in Six Flags America, follows the Joker's dominantly purple and green color scheme, and his mad laughter is played during the ride queue. The current version of the motion simulator ride Batman Adventure - The Ride at Warner Bros. Movie World revolves around the Dark Knight attempting to foil the Joker's plan of spreading his deadly Joker Gas throughout Gotham from an airship. Published in 1990, The Further Adventures of The Joker (edited by Martin H. Greenberg) assembled 20 short stories about the Clown Prince of Crime. The content of its material ranged from macabre to campy. All of the stories featured in the book are considered non-canon in relation to mainstream DC Comics continuity. All these villains on the list are motivated by something, but these motivations are the typical villain motivations: greed, power, hunger, bloodlust, corruption of good, the death of one person, etc. However, there is one who had a completely original motivation: the Joker. His motivation is laughter. The man is psychopath. An unholy serial killer who kills people just laughs. He finds death funny. He is a standup comedian whose comedy is murder. And, he has committed some of the worst acts in Batman’s war on crime. While in the Middle East, the Clown Prince of Crime trapped then Robin Jason Todd in a warehouse, beat the kid to near death with his mom watching, and detonated a bomb that killed Todd and his mom. Not only did Batman fail to save the boy, but he couldn’t even avenge Todd because the Joker has obtained diplomatic immunity by becoming an Iranian ambassador. Joker upped the ante very quickly by shooting Barbara Gordon, AKA Batgirl, paralyzing her, as well as kidnapping her father, GCPD Commissioner Jim Gordon, and forced him to view nude pictures of his bleeding daughter in order to drive him crazy. That wouldn’t be the last time Joker terrorized Gordon, as he killed his wife Sarah, who was protecting a room full of infants. But, Joker proved that he was more than a simple serial killer when he tricked Mr. Mxyztplk into giving up his powers to him and recreated the DC universe in his own twisted image, like making Superman a criminal, turning Lois Lane into an evil billionaire like Lex Luthor, and killing and resurrecting Batman each day he had his powers. And, that’s just a few samples of the evil the Joker has unleashed on the world, all done for a laugh. The Joker is truly one twisted, evil individual in a purple suit.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 23, 2008 20:20:42 GMT -5
Before I revealed number 1, here's a recap of the previous 99:
100. Walter Peck 99. Sideshow Bob 98. Dean Vernon Wormer 97. Bill Lumbergh 96. The French Taunter 95. Col. Kurtz 94. Baby Jane Hudson 93. Auric Goldfinger 92. The Nosferatu 91. M. Bison 90. Luther 89. The Wicked Witch of the West 88. Frank Booth 87. Bullseye 86. R.J. Fletcher 85. Alonzo Harris 84. Sephiroth 83. Norman Bates 82. Black Adam 81. Herr Starr 80. Annie Wilkes 79. Mr. Blonde 78. Principal Ed Rooney 77. Ivan Drago 76. Cigarette Smoking Man 75. Leatherface 74. Angel Eyes 73. Bob 72. Tony Montana 71. Thanos 70. Daniel Plainview 69. General Zod 68. J.J. Hunsecker 67. Megatron 66. Two-Face 65. Kevin 64. Big Brother 63. Johnny Lawrence 62. Vince McMahon 61. Clubber Lang 60. Mr. Burns 59. Biff Tannen 58. Kid Miracleman 57. Bill The Butcher 56. Venom 55. Max Cady 54. John Doe 53. Predator 52. Dark Phoenix 51. Patrick Bateman 50. Dr. Christian Szell 49. Jason Voorhees 48. Godzilla 47. Eric Cartman 46. HAL 9000 45. Starscream 44. Cobra Commander 43. Randall Flagg 42. Keyser Söze 41. Jabba The Hutt 40. Deathstroke 39. Angelus 38. Anton Chigurh 37. Tony Soprano 36. Nurse Ratched 35. Alex Forrest 34. The Green Goblin 33. Iago 32. The Velociraptors 31. Ozymandias 30. Rowdy Roddy Piper 29. Hans Gruber 28. Grand Moff Tarkin 27. The Xenomorphs 26. Freddy Krueger 25. Gordon Gekko 24. J.R. Ewing 23. Noah Cross 22. Galactus 21. Michael Corleone 20. The Four Horsemen 19. The Red Skull 18. Maleficent 17. The Borg 16. Pennywise 15. Magneto 14. Sauron 13. Khan 12. The Shark 11. Darkseid 10. Emperor Palpatine 9. Professor James Moriarty 8. Count Dracula 7. Pazuzu 6. Lex Luthor 5. Darth Vader 4. Dr. Hannibal Lecter 3. Dr. Doom 2. The Joker
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Lupin the Third
Patti Mayonnaise
I'm sorry.....I love you. *boot to the head*--3rd most culpable in the jixing of NXT, D'oh!
Join the Dark Order....
Posts: 36,327
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Post by Lupin the Third on Jun 23, 2008 20:53:21 GMT -5
Holy crap! The Joker at No.2?! Who is more vile, evil, and greater than the Joker?!
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Bobeddy
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Made a Terrible Mistake
Posts: 15,151
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Post by Bobeddy on Jun 23, 2008 20:59:40 GMT -5
Holy crap! The Joker at No.2?! Who is more vile, evil, and greater than the Joker?! Dakota Fanning?
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 23, 2008 21:00:09 GMT -5
And, now the Greatest Villain of All Time: 1. Satan Who is he: A fallen angel, ruler of Hell. What is he from: Paradise Lost. What has he done: Rebels against God and is banished to Hell, where he becomes its’ ruler, creates Sin, causes Adam and Eve to get kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Intelligence: Practically omniscient. Power: Rules Hell. Vileness: They don’t call him the Prince Of Darkness because he’s nice. Sway: He’s also called the Prince Of Lies. Purity: Cares for the angels who joined in on his rebellion and has some good qualities, but becomes corrupted by evil by the time the poem is over. Physical Prowess: Judging by that photo, he looks very physically fit, and those wings look cool. Name Coolness: “Satan” is very cool. Created by: Well, this characterization of Satan was created by John Milton. Portrayed by: Paradise Lost hasn’t filmed for anything. But, Satan has been portrayed by many actors. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan_in_popular_culture Just look at this. Milton’s speaker begins Paradise Lost by stating that his subject will be Adam and Eve’s disobedience and fall from grace. He invokes a heavenly muse and asks for help in relating his ambitious story and God’s plan for humankind. The action begins with Satan and his fellow rebel angels who are found chained to a lake of fire in Hell. They quickly free themselves and fly to land, where they discover minerals and construct Pandemonium, which will be their meeting place. Inside Pandemonium, the rebel angels, who are now devils, debate whether they should begin another war with God. Beezlebub suggests that they attempt to corrupt God’s beloved new creation, humankind. Satan agrees, and volunteers to go himself. As he prepares to leave Hell, he is met at the gates by his children, Sin and Death, who follow him and build a bridge between Hell and Earth. In Heaven, God orders the angels together for a council of their own. He tells them of Satan’s intentions, and the Son volunteers himself to make the sacrifice for humankind. Meanwhile, Satan travels through Night and Chaos and finds Earth. He disguises himself as a cherub to get past the Archangel Uriel, who stands guard at the sun. He tells Uriel that he wishes to see and praise God’s glorious creation, and Uriel assents. Satan then lands on Earth and takes a moment to reflect. Seeing the splendor of Paradise brings him pain rather than pleasure. He reaffirms his decision to make evil his good, and continue to commit crimes against God. Satan leaps over Paradise’s wall, takes the form of a cormorant (a large bird), and perches himself atop the Tree of Life. Looking down at Satan from his post, Uriel notices the volatile emotions reflected in the face of this so-called cherub and warns the other angels that an impostor is in their midst. The other angels agree to search the Garden for intruders. Meanwhile, Adam and Eve tend the Garden, carefully obeying God’s supreme order not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. After a long day of work, they return to their bower and rest. There, Satan takes the form of a toad and whispers into Eve’s ear. Gabriel, the angel set to guard Paradise, finds Satan there and orders him to leave. Satan prepares to battle Gabriel, but God makes a sign appear in the sky, the golden scales of justice, and Satan scurries away. Eve awakes and tells Adam about a dream she had, in which an angel tempted her to eat from the forbidden tree. Worried about his creation, God sends Raphael down to Earth to teach Adam and Eve of the dangers they face with Satan. Raphael arrives on Earth and eats a meal with Adam and Eve. After the meal, Eve retires, allowing Raphael and Adam to speak alone. Raphael relates the story of Satan’s envy over the Son’s appointment as God’s second-in-command. Satan gathered other angels together who were also angry to hear this news, and together they plotted a war against God. Abdiel decides not to join Satan’s army and returns to God. The angels then begin to fight, with Michael and Gabriel serving as co-leaders for Heaven’s army. The battle lasts two days, when God sends the Son to end the war and deliver Satan and his rebel angels to Hell. Raphael tells Adam about Satan’s evil motives to corrupt them, and warns Adam to watch out for Satan. Adam asks Raphael to tell him the story of creation. Raphael tells Adam that God sent the Son into Chaos to create the universe. He created the earth and stars and other planets. Curious, Adam asks Raphael about the movement of the stars and planets. Raphael promptly warns Adam about his seemingly unquenchable search for knowledge. Raphael tells Adam that he will learn all he needs to know, and that any other knowledge is not meant for humans to comprehend. Adam tells Raphael about his first memories, of waking up and wondering who he was, what he was, and where he was. Adam says that God spoke to him and told him many things, including his order not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. After the story, Adam confesses to Raphael his intense physical attraction to Eve. Raphael reminds Adam that he must love Eve more purely and spiritually. With this final bit of advice, Raphael leaves Earth and returns to Heaven. Eight days after his banishment, Satan returns to Paradise. After closely studying the animals of Paradise, he chooses to take the form of the serpent. Meanwhile, Eve suggests to Adam that they work separately for awhile, so they can get more work done. Adam is hesitant but then assents. Satan searches for Eve and is delighted to find her alone. In the form of a serpent, he talks to Eve and compliments her on her beauty and godliness. She is amazed to find an animal that can speak. She asks how he learned to speak, and he tells her that it was by eating from the Tree of Knowledge. He tells Eve that God actually wants her and Adam to eat from the tree, and that his order is merely a test of their courage. She is hesitant at first but then reaches for a fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and eats. She becomes distraught and searches for Adam. Adam has been busy making a wreath of flowers for Eve. When Eve finds Adam, he drops the wreath and is horrified to find that Eve has eaten from the forbidden tree. Knowing that she has fallen, he decides that he would rather be fallen with her than remain pure and lose her. So he eats from the fruit as well. Adam looks at Eve in a new way, and together they turn to lust. God immediately knows of their disobedience. He tells the angels in Heaven that Adam and Eve must be punished, but with a display of both justice and mercy. He sends the Son to give out the punishments. The Son first punishes the serpent whose body Satan took, and condemns it never to walk upright again. Then the Son tells Adam and Eve that they must now suffer pain and death. Eve and all women must suffer the pain of childbirth and must submit to their husbands, and Adam and all men must hunt and grow their own food on a depleted Earth. Meanwhile, Satan returns to Hell where he is greeted with cheers. He speaks to the devils in Pandemonium, and everyone believes that he has beaten God. Sin and Death travel the bridge they built on their way to Earth. Shortly thereafter, the devils unwillingly transform into snakes and try to reach fruit from imaginary trees that shrivel and turn to dust as they reach them. God tells the angels to transform the Earth. After the fall, humankind must suffer hot and cold seasons instead of the consistent temperatures before the fall. On Earth, Adam and Eve fear their approaching doom. They blame each other for their disobedience and become increasingly angry at one another. In a fit of rage, Adam wonders why God ever created Eve. Eve begs Adam not to abandon her. She tells him that they can survive by loving each other. She accepts the blame because she has disobeyed both God and Adam. She ponders suicide. Adam, moved by her speech, forbids her from taking her own life. He remembers their punishment and believes that they can enact revenge on Satan by remaining obedient to God. Together they pray to God and repent. God hears their prayers, and sends Michael down to Earth. Michael arrives on Earth, and tells them that they must leave Paradise. But before they leave, Michael puts Eve to sleep and takes Adam up onto the highest hill, where he shows him a vision of humankind’s future. Adam sees the sins of his children, and his children’s children, and his first vision of death. Horrified, he asks Michael if there is any alternative to death. Generations to follow continue to sin by lust, greed, envy, and pride. They kill each other selfishly and live only for pleasure. Then Michael shows him the vision of Enoch, who is saved by God as his warring peers attempt to kill him. Adam also sees the story of Noah and his family, whose virtue allows them to be chosen to survive the flood that kills all other humans. Adam feels remorse for death and happiness for humankind’s redemption. Next is the vision of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel. This story explains the perversion of pure language into the many languages that are spoken on Earth today. Adam sees the triumph of Moses and the Israelites, and then glimpses the Son’s sacrifice to save humankind. After this vision, it is time for Adam and Eve to leave Paradise. Eve awakes and tells Adam that she had a very interesting and educating dream. Led by Michael, Adam and Eve slowly and woefully leave Paradise hand in hand into a new world. There is something I have to make abundantly clear: this has nothing to do with religion. I’m not going to make some rant that Satan is the greatest villain of all time because he will tempt you into evil, and you should all accept Jesus Christ all your personal lord and savior. Nor is this any atheistic rant that there is no Satan and that he was just created by religions around the world to scare people into repenting. This is an examination of Milton’s characterization of Satan, which has to be the most interesting interpretation of Satan ever created. Some readers consider Satan to be the hero, or protagonist, of the story, because he struggles to overcome his own doubts and weaknesses and accomplishes his goal of corrupting humankind. However, this goal is evil, and Adam and Eve are the moral heroes at the end of the story, as they help to begin humankind’s slow process of redemption and salvation. Satan is far from being the story’s object of admiration, as most heroes are, nor does it make sense for readers to celebrate or emulate him, as they might with a true hero. Yet there are many compelling qualities to his character that make him intriguing to readers. One source of Satan’s fascination for us is that he is an extremely complex and subtle character. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, for Milton to make perfect, infallible characters such as God the Father, God the Son, and the angels as interesting to read about as the flawed characters, such as Satan, Adam, and Eve. Satan, moreover, strikes a grand and majestic figure, apparently unafraid of being damned eternally, and uncowed by such terrifying figures as Chaos or Death. Many readers have argued that Milton deliberately makes Satan seem heroic and appealing early in the poem to draw us into sympathizing with him against our will, so that we may see how seductive evil is and learn to be more vigilant in resisting its appeal. Milton devotes much of the poem’s early books to developing Satan’s character. One of Satan’s best qualities is his rebelliousness. With his great line, “Better to reign in hell, than serve in heav'n,” he appeals to people’s sense of freedom and opposition to oppression. It is one of the very reasons many readers look up to him with questionable admiration. Satan’s greatest fault is his pride. He casts himself as an innocent victim, overlooked for an important promotion, but his ability to think so selfishly in Heaven, where all angels are equal and loved and happy, is surprising. His confidence in thinking that he could ever overthrow God displays tremendous vanity and pride. When Satan shares his pain and alienation as he reaches Earth in Book IV, we may feel somewhat sympathetic to him or even identify with him. However, Satan continues to devote himself to evil. Every speech he gives is fraudulent and every story he tells is a lie. He works diligently to trick his fellow devils in Hell by having Beelzebub present Satan’s own plan of action. Satan’s character changes significantly from Book I to his final appearance in Book X. In Book I he is a strong, imposing figure with great abilities as a leader and public statesmen, whereas by the poem’s end he slinks back to Hell in serpent form. Satan’s gradual degradation is dramatized by the sequence of different shapes he assumes. He begins the poem as a just-fallen angel of enormous stature, looks like a comet or meteor as he leaves Hell, then disguises himself as a more humble cherub, then as a cormorant, a toad, and finally a snake. His ability to reason and argue also deteriorates. In Book I, he persuades the devils to agree to his plan. In Book IV, however, he reasons to himself that the Hell he feels inside of him is reason to do more evil. When he returns to Earth again, he believes that Earth is more beautiful than Heaven, and that he may be able to live on Earth after all. Satan, removed from Heaven long enough to forget its unparalleled grandeur, is completely demented, coming to believe in his own lies. He is a picture of incessant intellectual activity without the ability to think morally. Once a powerful angel, he has become blinded to God’s grace, forever unable to reconcile his past with his eternal punishment. But, it isn’t just Milton’s work that makes Satan such the greatest villain of all time; it’s us. Milton’s Paradise Lost has pretty much influence most people and popular culture’s idea of hell and Satan. His characterization of Satan has pretty much become the benchmark of evil. He is the litmus test in which people use to determine just how evil a person is: “He would scare Satan himself,” “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist,” etc. Hell, most people believe that Pazuzu in “The Exorcist” is Satan himself. And, I know this might look like one big cop-out, but I don’t care. Satan from Paradise Lost is the greatest villain of all time.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 23, 2008 21:02:47 GMT -5
Here's the whole list:
100. Walter Peck 99. Sideshow Bob 98. Dean Vernon Wormer 97. Bill Lumbergh 96. The French Taunter 95. Col. Kurtz 94. Baby Jane Hudson 93. Auric Goldfinger 92. The Nosferatu 91. M. Bison 90. Luther 89. The Wicked Witch of the West 88. Frank Booth 87. Bullseye 86. R.J. Fletcher 85. Alonzo Harris 84. Sephiroth 83. Norman Bates 82. Black Adam 81. Herr Starr 80. Annie Wilkes 79. Mr. Blonde 78. Principal Ed Rooney 77. Ivan Drago 76. Cigarette Smoking Man 75. Leatherface 74. Angel Eyes 73. Bob 72. Tony Montana 71. Thanos 70. Daniel Plainview 69. General Zod 68. J.J. Hunsecker 67. Megatron 66. Two-Face 65. Kevin 64. Big Brother 63. Johnny Lawrence 62. Vince McMahon 61. Clubber Lang 60. Mr. Burns 59. Biff Tannen 58. Kid Miracleman 57. Bill The Butcher 56. Venom 55. Max Cady 54. John Doe 53. Predator 52. Dark Phoenix 51. Patrick Bateman 50. Dr. Christian Szell 49. Jason Voorhees 48. Godzilla 47. Eric Cartman 46. HAL 9000 45. Starscream 44. Cobra Commander 43. Randall Flagg 42. Keyser Söze 41. Jabba The Hutt 40. Deathstroke 39. Angelus 38. Anton Chigurh 37. Tony Soprano 36. Nurse Ratched 35. Alex Forrest 34. The Green Goblin 33. Iago 32. The Velociraptors 31. Ozymandias 30. Rowdy Roddy Piper 29. Hans Gruber 28. Grand Moff Tarkin 27. The Xenomorphs 26. Freddy Krueger 25. Gordon Gekko 24. J.R. Ewing 23. Noah Cross 22. Galactus 21. Michael Corleone 20. The Four Horsemen 19. The Red Skull 18. Maleficent 17. The Borg 16. Pennywise 15. Magneto 14. Sauron 13. Khan 12. The Shark 11. Darkseid 10. Emperor Palpatine 9. Professor James Moriarty 8. Count Dracula 7. Pazuzu 6. Lex Luthor 5. Darth Vader 4. Dr. Hannibal Lecter 3. Dr. Doom 2. The Joker 1. Satan
And, that's that. Goodnight, everybody!
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