Villainy

Has anyone noticed that the level of detail put into the villains and bad guys is surpassing the effort that goes into our superheroes and good guys lately? Our heros are hardly super anymore, and quite frankly, they are just cheesy and boring now.

Leave it up to the awesomeness that is Joss Whedon to make me notice how much better our villains are now.

Bad Horse approved.

I dont know what it is about villains who repeatedly fail that makes me love them, but that's what we've got going on here. Granted, Dr. Horrible does achieve his goal of joining

the ELE (Evil League of Evil) but not with his intended plan.

If you haven't seen 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog' - I highly suggest you go out and purchase it immediately. Or watch it on the interwebs. It was probably the best 45 minutes of anything I've watched in a long while. (Well, that, and the 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' Christmas special.) Combining the awesomeness that is NPH and Joss Whedon almost made my head a-splode.


Speaking of evildoers failing in comedic ways, if you're looking for something to watch, I recommend The Venture Brothers. It's one of the Adult Swim cartoons, but this one never seems to actually air on the Cartoon Network, but I've got the DVDs, so that doesn't matter.

The absurd villains add so much flavour to the show, and are a fantastical compliment to the Venture family. I mentioned failure earlier, and this show takes spectacular failure, and embraces it in a way that I absolutely love. It's a world of super-scientists and arch-villains who belong to a collective known as 'The Guild of Calamitous Intent' - which has rules and guidelines for arching your nemesis.

As awesome as these laughable villains are, it's also pretty kickace to see a bad guy that actually manages to cause some wide-scale havoc and do it in a stylish way.

Take a look at the Joker.

Not this one.

The Dark Knight is widely recognized as one of the best movies ever, which shouldn't be the case for a comic book movie. But the depth Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger put into that character made him a dynamic force in the film. When that force should have been Batman, it was in fact the bad guy who carried it. Yes, everyone else did a great job too, but I'd like to think that if he would've lived, Ledger still would've been a lock for his Oscar win, he was _that_ good.

This one.

Our heroes are snooze-fests right now. Peter Parker's a nerd. Superman's tired and played out. Nobody cares about Captain America, regardless of what movie studios think. Batman's pretty kickass, but there's only one more film in store for Nolan and Bale, so no doubt it will go back to sucking like it did when Joel Schumacher was ruining it.

I mean, hell, even Wil Wheaton made a great villain when he guest-starred on The Big Bang Theory. Heroes are on their way out and villainy is looking pretty awesome right about now. I just need some sort of themed costume and matching headquarters, and hopefully no horribly painful or disfiguring back-story. Oh, and a great song so I can fit in in the ELE...
Until then, it's Laundry Day.