Magnificent Bastard / Sherlock Holmes

Only a genius Great Detective is any match for a brilliant Gentleman Thief.

"He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. Is there a crime to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a house to be rifled, a man to be removed—the word is passed to the professor, the matter is organized and carried out. The agent may be caught. In that case money is found for his bail or his detence. But the central power which uses the agent is never caught — never so much as suspected. This was the organization which I deduced, Watson, and which I devoted my whole energy to exposing and breaking up."

— Sherlock Holmes on Professor James Moriarty, The Final Problem

Sherlock Holmes has faced countless criminals over the years, and though he is often quick to deduce their plots and schemes, it's elementary, dear viewer, to realize that a select few of his opponents are beyond the pale in intelligence and charm, often in the form of Holmes' greatest rival, James Moriarty.

Entries in each folder are by approximate publication/release date.

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

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Literature

• Original Stories:
  • Sherlock Holmes himself is the brilliant, aloof consulting detective who uses his mastery of deduction to manipulate, plot and outwit his way through London's worst criminal minds. Having honed his analytical skills since childhood in which he solved mysterious happenings even then, Holmes spends his adulthood assisting the Scotland Yard in taking down the most devious of criminals just to alleviate his own boredom with the challenge, Holmes rarely finding anyone to be a match for his prowess. Able to figure out entire cases from mere moments of time on a scene or witness statements, Holmes often devises ingenious ploys that involve masterfully disguising himself, turning criminals on each other, or just using the most simple of tactics to entrap his prey. Always willing to admit when he's met his match in the likes of Irene Adler or James Moriarty and never swearing his goals to the law itself, Holmes will let killers go free, use innocents as bait, and commit other various felony offenses if it suits his personal moral code. In one of his most innovative ploys, Holmes staged his own death for years, using it to dismantle an entire global criminal organization before returning to his old life and friend John Watson to fight evil for years to come. Defining a generation of detective stories and considered by many to be the greatest crime solver in fiction, Sherlock Holmes is a classic literary character defined by intelligence, charisma and cold genius.
  • Professor James Moriarty is Sherlock Holmes' Evil Counterpart, a devilishly ingenious criminal who uses his smarts in the name of evil. Running a worldwide criminal organization for decades while maintaining his status as a beloved member of the scientific community, Moriarty caught Holmes' attention when he orchestrated the murder of a man Holmes had spent weeks trying to find and protect, proving his cunning to the detective. Though Holmes spent months trying to take him down, Moriarty evaded Holmes at every turn, first trying to convince the detective to stand down before staging various accidents that nearly claim Holmes' life. Even when his organization is dismantled, Moriarty escapes capture and tracks down Holmes, taking him on in a final duel atop Reichenbach Falls that served as the closest brush with death Holmes ever encountered. Always polite and accommodating to even his foes, Moriarty earned his legacy status as the Arch-Enemy of Sherlock Holmes.
  • "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange": Captain Jack Cro(c)ker is a sea captain who fell in love with Mary Fraser before she married Sir Eustace Brackenstall. When Croker learned of her domestic troubles, he visited Mary before he was to go away on a voyage. When Sir Eustace finds out and beats Mary, Croker kills Sir Eustace in a fight and organizes a coverup with the help of Mary's maid Teresa, blaming the death on a gang of thieves and stealing articles of silver from the mansion to add credence to the story. The scene was such that Holmes was forced to observe it twice before realizing there was a coverup at all and able to finger Croker. When confronted, Croker declares that he would kill Brackenstall all over again and refuses to just "disappear" while Mary is in danger from the courts, leading Holmes to "acquit" him of the crime and refuse to help the police further in the investigation.
• A Study in Emerald:
  • "Rache", the murderer of Prince Franz Drago, is a revolutionary seeking to tear down the Great Old Ones. Rache lures the Prince into a trap by promising him a girl to feed upon, whereupon Drago is led to Rache's partner to be murdered. When the detective of the story tracks Rache down under the alias Sherry Varnet, Rache easily deduces his true identity and eludes capture, throwing the country into uproar while he simply hides in the rookery of St. Giles where the police don't dare tread. While ruthless, Rache is dedicated to the defeat of the Old Ones, being in actuality the detective Sherlock Holmes as an anarchist in this dark world.
  • The detective is one of the only consulting detectives in a fictional Britain named Albion, in a world ruled by Eldritch Abominations. When Prince Albert, the nephew of Queen Victoria, is murdered, he takes the case and quickly zeros in on the height and habits of the killers. He then tracks the princes movement using an array of disguises, and quickly realizes Sherry Vernet, the writer of a play the prince loved is likely his murderer along with an accomplice. When he invites the two of them to a trap later, Vernet reveals he sensed it and has fled. He then deduces that they are only hiding a few miles away, because it's what he would have done. Strongly implied to be Moriarty, it is teased that this will not be the last confrontation between him and Holmes.
• Moriarty: Professor James Moriarty turned to a life of crime after being appalled at the stupidity and lack of organization of London's criminal underworld, amassing many followers. When American crime lord Clarence Devereux tried to take over his organization, turning Moriarty's followers against him, Moriarty faked his death at the Reichenback Falls and adopted the identity of American detective Fredrick Chase in order to gain Scotland Yard's assistance. In the novel proper, Moriarty, as Chase, manages to lead Athelney Jones and the rest of Scotland Yard to Devereux without Jones even realizing it, and when Devereux is finally caught, Moriarty reveals his true identity, kills Jones, and escapes with Devereux. At a wide-open park, Moriarty reveals to Devereux that he intends on taking over America's criminal underworld since England's is no longer a possibility. Combining an intellect to match Holmes' with a healthy dose of ruthlessness, Moriarty shows why he is labeled as the "Napoleon of crime".
• Because You Love To Hate Me: James "Jim" Moriarty from "Shirley & Jim" is a charming bad boy who desires to destroy the current political system of rules and order. Jim is suave and cunning and is able to effortlessly break into the school in order to get the secrets contained in their emails out to the public. Manipulating Shirley Holmes, Jim effortlessly gets her to help him hack into the email address of a friend of hers who's a senator, leading to a damaging info leak that will help hasten his dream of a world without the current rules.
• Further Associates of Sherlock Holmes' "The Last Visitor", by Stephen Henry: Professor James Moriarty is once again depicted as the only man who can match Sherlock Holmes in brilliance. Moriarty recruits the art forger siblings Angelo and Lucrecia Lorenzoni by manipulating Angelo into becoming indebted to him. Moriarty then creates an identity for Angelo as a respectable art dealer in order to gain the trust of the art community. Angelo will then switch the real paintings for sale that are being sent through his gallery with clever fakes created by Lucrecia, and later reveal that they're fakes to the buyers of said paintings to force the sellers into debt and into the sway of Moriarty. Even after the siblings are killed by a reckless act of villainy, Moriarty patiently tails Sherlock in his investigation of the murders before skillfully disposing of the murderer after he's found the solution.
• Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Was Not:'s "Curtain Call" by J. Scherpenhuizen: Dr. Johann Faustus returns from Hell, acting as Satan's emissary on Earth and aids Sherlock Holmes in taking down James Moriarty to consolidate his own criminal empire. Taking the alias Dr. Hieronymus Mabuse after killing him, he hypnotizes a man into believing he committed the murder and later manipulates him into killing Moriarty and himself. Revealing to Holmes his true nature, "Mabuse" sees he escapes karmic punishment while being the true mastermind behind the Great Detective's victory.

• The Nefarious Villains Of Sherlock Holmes:
  • Volume 1's "The Legend of the Yeth Hound", by Mark C. Richardson: The Huntsman is a being of supernatural origin who travels with his pack of demonic Yeth hounds. Getting Sir Hugo Baskerville's attention by allowing himself to be captured and tortured by him, the Huntsman escapes his shackles and makes a deal with Hugo, promising to help him claim the Roundhead's throne in return for a good hunt. Springing into action when Hugo's men appear to be losing, the Huntsman effortlessly slaughters the entire Roundhead family, allowing Hugo to claim leadership. Promising Hugo that he'll claim his reward someday, the Huntsman eventually sends one of his hounds to tear an unsuspecting Hugo’s throat out.
  • Volume 2's "Enquiry in Conduit Street" by David Marcum: Alfred Bassik appears to be one of the most prominent members of James Moriarty's criminal organisation but is secretly a mole working for MI-6 to undermine him. Bassik has been helping Moriarty with his criminal activities but also secretly feeding Sherlock Holmes information to defeat him under the alias of Porlock. Bassik sets Moriarty against his right-hand man Moran, afterwards helping to fool Moriarty himself and save some of his potential victims.

Comic Books

• Moriarty: Professor James Moriarty is an intelligent and soft-spoken mastermind and the only man whose intellect rivals Sherlock Holmes himself. Moriarty is able to discover and ascertain details using his deductive ability in order to foil his opponents and rents these skills out to other criminals for a profit. After Holmes' apparent death, Moriarty helps to take down the vile terrorist Tartarus and runs rings around the competition as he brings himself back on top. As noble as he is villainous, Moriarty will order a massacre to take control of a shipping port only to also free the slaves the shipping port was using. In another endeavour, Moriarty helps rally the prostitutes of a crime lord into rebelling against him for their freedom and helps clear the name of a friend. A man who lives by his own rules and desire for freedom, Moriarty is a man who will stop at nothing to put himself on top and truly earns the title of being the "Napoleon of Crime".
• Sherlock Holmes And The Necronomicon, by Sylvain Cordurié: James Moriarty himself is the brilliant Napoleon of Crime and the only mind sharp enough to match the wits of Sherlock Holmes. Once the ruthless enforcer for the Moriarty crime family, Moriarity murdered his abusive father Henry and proceeded to reinvent himself as a criminal mastermind, engaging in one daring plot after the next that seemingly ended with his plummet off Reichenbach Falls. Resurrecting himself through the Necromomicon, Moriarty's subsequent bid for power lands him in the realm of the Elder Gods, whereupon Moriarty remains unflappably defiant to what would otherwise be a case of And I Must Scream, until the point he tricks the Elder Gods themselves into allowing him passage back to Earth. From there, Moriarty tracks down the copies of the Necronomicon to destroy them, infiltrating a cult by skinning and wearing the hide of one of the cultists. When the cult summons an abomination to destroy him, Moriarty watches coolly as the abomination turns away from him in intimidation and slaughters the cult instead. Determined, unfettered, and even retaining a few odd soft moments such as his fondness of children that set him apart from the more despicable villains of the series, Moriarty remains as ever the most cunning criminal Holmes has ever fought.
• Moriarty Lives, by David Liss: Professor James Moriarty is an affably charming Diabolical Mastermind who earns his status as Sherlock Holmes' nemesis. Surviving his battle with Holmes at Reichenbach Falls, Moriarty quickly grows distasteful of Baron von Hohenheim's cruel tyranny over a small town and begins scheming to take him down. Disgusted by von Hohenheim's murder of innocents and vile experiments, Moriarty takes young boy Udo as an apprentice and uses disguises and manipulations to infiltrate von Hohenheim's operations and learn of his vast fortune. Concocting a brilliant scheme to rob Hohenheim blind, Moriarty saves his abused wife and Udo from the madman, tricks him into engineering his own demise, and gets away with splitting up the treasure among his partners while intending to revitalize his criminal empire.

Live-Action TV

• 1984 show: "The Six Napoleons": Beppo Cicollini is an Italian craftsman and low-level criminal connected to The Mafia. When the Venucci family endeavored to steal the Black Pearl of the Borgias from the Colonna royal family, Beppo acted as a go-between for the family and the patriarch's daughter Lucrezia, who was a maid for the Princess of Colonna and whom Beppo had been courting. Obtaining enough information to steal the Pearl, Beppo covers his tracks well enough that Holmes himself is unable to find him. Fleeing into his workplace after a fight with Lucrezia's brother Pietro, Beppo hides the Pearl among a batch of six busts of Napoleon Bonaparte before being arrested. Released from prison a year later, Beppo sets out to recover the pearl. Charming his way into employment with seller Morse Hudson with the help of a cousin, Beppo systematically locates each bust and breaks them to find the pearl, taking careful measures to avoid being discovered. Killing Pietro when the latter accosted him outside one of the burglaries, Beppo nearly found the Pearl again before being arrested and executed for his crimes.
• Elementary: Jamie Moriarty is a criminal mastermind who has orchestrated many assassinations. When Sherlock Holmes interferes with Moriarty's plans, she cultivates the identity of Irene Adler, and manipulates Sherlock into falling in love with her before faking her death driving Holmes into despair. She would also set her "killer" Sebastian Moran, up as a Serial Killer and later has Moran kill himself before he reveals anything about her to Sherlock. Revealing her true identity to Sherlock, she arranges the Greek business man "Narwal" to kill a Macedonian diplomat, leading to Macedonia not joining the European Union and switch to the Euro currency to which Moriarty would make billions out of their current currency; Moriarty would have gotten away with it if wasn't for the sudden intervention of Joan Watson. Now confined in a highly secured prison she helps Sherlock and Watson find her subordinates before escaping her confinements and kill them herself when they kidnapped her daughter before going back to prison. She also has her daughter's father be her successor to her criminal organization, and later allows Sherlock's father Morland take over, before escaping her prison and waiting for Morland to die before reclaiming it. Faking her death several times to elude authorities and have Sherlock and Watson arrest all her rivals, Jamie Moriarty ends the series with her devious and brilliance only matched by the detective duo's determination to bring her to justice.
• Sherlock:
  • Mary Morstan, later Watson—real name Rosamund Mary—is introduced as John Watson's clever, witty Love Interest, but is soon revealed to be far more than she appears. In truth a former hired gun for the team A.G.R.A., Mary pulled off countless assassinations and other forms of illegal work for the highest bidders, but was forced to go into hiding when her team was compromised. The only A.G.R.A. member skilled enough to escape capture and create an entirely new identity, Mary plays her new role as a regular bystander so well that even Sherlock fails to see through her lies, and when Charles Augustus Magnussen attempts to blackmail her with her past, Mary effortlessly ingratiates herself into his inner circle and puts Magnussen at her mercy. Eventually becoming a proper, accepted partner by John and Sherlock, Mary faces down enemies from her past before sacrificing her own life to save Sherlock's, making John promise her as she dies that he'll look after their daughter, all while assuring John that her life with him was the best she ever had.
  • "A Study In Pink": Jeff Hope is an unassuming cabbie who uses his genius mind for manipulation to trick people into playing a lethal "game" with him. Jeff's game involves making his victim choose one of two identical pills, one which is lethal poison, the other safe to consume, and whichever his victim picks, Jeff takes the other pill. Having claimed four victims with this method—using his talent for reading people to ensure he manipulates them into choosing the lethal pill—Jeff further coerces Sherlock himself into playing Jeff's game by appealing to the consulting detective's ego. "Sponsored" by James Moriarty with money for every person he murders that Jeff hopes to leave to his kids once a brain aneurysm kills him, Jeff nearly finishes his game with Sherlock until Watson interferes, leaving it ambiguous as to whether the cabbie was gracefully accepting his death by taking the poison, or had actually outwitted Sherlock into taking it himself.

Western Animation

• Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century: Professor James Moriarty is a clone of the original created by a Mad Scientist to serve him but ultimately usurped his creator. A Diabolical Mastermind extraordinaire, Moriarty outplays the New Scotland Yard to create a wave of crime unseen for centuries and nearly takes over Earth from the moon with a complex scheme until a resurrected Sherlock Holmes is able to stop him, though Moriarty escapes. Constantly matching wits with Holmes from thereon out, Moriarty shows respect and admiration for his opponent, even when at odds with one another and though his plans are ultimately halted by Holmes, Moriarty ends the series free and still at large.
• Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes: Professor Moriarty is once again the brilliant Arch-Enemy of Sherlock Holmes, depicted here as a skilled steampunk inventor. Planning to steal the riches of the Tower of London, Moriarty has his cat henchmen go on a robbing spree and steal diamonds from stores and museums using his creations, while leaving clues implicating singer Red as the culprit. Intentionally getting Holmes involved just to get rid of him, Moriarty sets up one robbery with a series of clues that lead the detective in a literal wild goose chase. Upon being found out by Tom and Jerry, Moriarty captures them via booby traps and reveals his scheme: use the diamonds to power a makeshift solar laser, hire someone to place mirrors that lead to the Tower of London, and blow a hole in it so that he and his goons can steal the riches. Even after Tom, Jerry and Tuffy escape and Holmes gets involved again, Moriarty manages to fight them using his inventions, only being thwarted by his carriage being thrown off a bridge into water.

Other Media

• The Baker Street Dozen: Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman: Adrea Spedding, fittingly described by Holmes as a female Moriarty, is the ringleader behind an Insurance Fraud scheme. Falsely befriending wealthy gamblers who were down on their luck, Spedding tricks them into pawning off their life insurance with accomplices of hers. Then, she would have the deadly spider, Lycosa Carnivora, sneak into their rooms and bite them, collecting the life insurance benefits for her gang. Quickly seeing through Holmes' attempts to spy on her, Spedding subtly causes him and Watson to nearly suffocate to death in their own office buying time for her to pre-emptively destroy a lead before Holmes can follow up on it. When Holmes tails her at a fairground, Spedding allows the detective to tail her to her hideout, only to have the gang ambush him and tie him behind a shooting gallery so that he can be accidentally killed by Watson. Being defeated thanks to luck combined with Holmes' quick thinking, Spedding accepts defeat gracefully before allowing herself to be arrested.
• Enola Holmes 2: Mira Troy, alias Professor Moriarty, is the unassuming secretary to the wicked Lord McIntyre, and secretly the wirepuller of an enormous fraud and extortion plot. Having learned of her boss's plan to poison hundreds of factory workers to save money on materials, Mira drains his funds dry by threatening to release documents implicating him if he doesn't pay up; she also hires Superintendent Grail to silence any and all witnesses, though she personally disapproves of his needless sadism. A spectacular cryptographer, Moriarty also defrauds a number of banks in such an order that they correspond to an elaborate numerological cypher... which turns out to simply be a taunting letter to Sherlock Holmes. When the Holmes siblings expose her due to a small error she made, Moriarty admits defeat gracefully, and then effortlessly escapes custody within days.
• Holmes & Watson:
  • Rose Hudson poses as Sherlock Holmes' housekeeper to study him. Secretly the abandoned daughter of Professor James Moriarty, Hudson seeks to impress her father by doing what he could not: defeating Holmes. Through her criminal network, Hudson sends Holmes and his companion, Dr. John Watson, on a wild goose chase while she plots to kill the Queen. Fooling Holmes into declaring Watson the culprit, she captures the arrested Watson and forces him to write about her victory before planting a bomb to kill the Queen aboard the Titanic, coming within literal seconds of success.
  • Professor James Moriarty himself is the "Napoleon of Crime" in London, as well as Holmes' Arch-Enemy and intellectual equal. Stumping even Holmes in his meticulous misdeeds, Moriarty sets up another man to take the fall while he himself sails off to America, escaping justice and only being hunted for by Holmes at the film's end.
• Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows: Colonel Sebastian Moran is a disgraced soldier turned efficient and extremely loyal assassin for Professor James Moriarty, who expertly disposes of his boss' targets. Moran specifically snipes a target from about 600 feet away seconds before the bomb meant to conceal the kill goes off and later distracts Sherlock Holmes by showing him how to work a German-made gun long enough to then have him subdued. Moran relentlessly pursues and orders soldiers to unleash an arsenal to try to take Holmes, Dr. John Watson and their allies out while they're escaping and with intense focus despite being injured, managing to personally get a kill shot off on one at the last moment too.
• Moriarty the Patriot:
  • William James Moriarty himself is the criminal mastermind behind the "Lord of Crime" terrorizing the British Empire. He officially begins his crime spree at only eleven years old with the murder of original William James Moriarty and his entire family, taking the boy's name, family, and title to further his own goals. Even before he turned his hand to murder, he planned thefts in exchange for money, baked goods, any good turn someone could pass onto him, and cornered a noble in a court of law to threaten a man's life until William was promised all his worldly possessions, only to donate the money entirely to charity. As an adult, he is set on turning all of London into a stage for his great play to reveal the horrors rotting the aristocracy to show the abusive ruling class who the true devils in London are. William consults with those looking to plan a murder of their own if only it's interesting enough, serves his purposes, and they're willing to offer him their life in payment. William even charms the Great Detective, Sherlock Holmes himself into becoming his pawn, stringing him along like a puppet, all to save the country from its own corruption, and he won't be caught until his Failure Gambit comes to fruition and seals his victory.
  • Albert James Moriarty, the eldest son of the noble Moriarty family, may bend his knee to his younger adopted brother, Professor William James Moriarty, but never to the Lord of Crime's many enemies. Whether it's manipulating Mycroft Holmes into giving him the title of "M" to use MI6 for his own nefarious purposes, or killing his own blood family as a teenager with the help of the two devious orphans he adopted as brothers, nothing stands between Albert and his goal of a better world. Clever, dangerous, opportunistic, and so charming he can't keep the ladies away even after a stint in prison and renouncing his title, Albert plays his role as CoDragon to perfection with A Glass of Chianti always in reach.
  • Louis James Moriarty, the youngest of the three James Moriarty brothers, brings a ruthless, efficient practicality to the Lord of Crime’s name, balancing out his brothers’ theatrical flair with an ever-questioning mind hunting for weaknesses in their murderous plots. His massive case of Big Brother Worship means he’d follow his older brothers to the ends of the earth and off it, but his true magnificence shines once The Glasses Come Off and he takes over his brothers’ roles as head of the Moriarty syndicate and MI6 without either of them to rely on for help. Louis proves himself a true leader with no interest or attention to spare toying with his enemies when he could shut them down before a bystander has a chance to even notice something awry.
  • Colonel Sebastian Moran is the charismatic right-hand man of William Moriarty. Moran helps facilitate all of Moriarty's best gambits with stylish grace, such as using his sharpshooting techniques to frame an aristocrat's murder as a suicide/accident or setting fires all across London to unite the city. A brilliant mastermind in his own right, Moran deduces the source of guns being used to fund the Afghan-British war and sets about dismantling the operation. He feigns that he has switched sides to the conspirators and seemingly kills his ally, only to fake her death and get her to evacuate all their potential victims. He then totally breaks the conspirators before Killing them. Even with Moriarty's seeming death, Moran continues to faithfully serve his mission to rid the world of the corrupt aristocracy and when he discovers Moriarty is alive, happily retires to faithfully serve him once more.
  • Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant but eccentric detective acknowledged by William as his equal. He serves as a consulting detective for Scotland Yard, using his brilliant deductive skills and information gathered by the children of Baker Street to solve crimes. Meeting William while cruising Noathic, Sherlock almost immediately figures there was more to the supposed murder committed by a bloodthirsty noble. After being framed for the murder of Duke Drebber, Sherlock quickly clears his name and finds the true culprit while bringing Drebber’s depravities to light. When promised the identity of the mysterious Lord of Crime if he kills Drebber’s true murderer, Sherlock ultimately decides that he wants to solve the crime himself rather than being given the answer. He starts correctly suspecting William as his target while he continues solving high profile cases. Sherlock learns that the fiancée of his partner Watson, Mary, is being blackmailed by the infamous Charles Milverton, and devises a plan to kill him and free Mary. After officially discovering William as the Lord of Crime, Sherlock prevents him from committing suicide and instead convinces him to seek redemption. He spends years in America working as a Pinkerton detective before returning to help MI6 catch a traitor at William’s request. Sherlock joins MI6 alongside William, reuniting with his friends and ready to begin a new life.
  • "A Scandal In British Empire" arc: Maximilien Robespierre, infamous French revolutionary and architect of the Reign of Terror, was actually a British agent in charge of a social experiment meant to demonstrate what would happen if power was swiftly and violently given to the people. Real name Sherrinford Holmes, he took the identity of Robespierre and become the main strategist of the French Revolution. When his scapegoating of the noble class resulted in people demanding all of them be executed, Robespierre organized the Reign of Terror, killing countless nobles and common people alike, in order to redirect the people’s hatred towards himself. He secretly goaded the revolutionary leadership into executing him with seemingly nonsensical talk about traitors in revolutionary mists, eventually becoming the final victim of revolutionary bloodshed.
• Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:
  • Sherlock Holmes himself is as brilliant and witty as ever. An extremely talented and gifted detective, Sherlock started his career by solving many difficult cases for the police, bringing criminals to justice and using his talents to outwit everyone he meets. Discovering the true cause behind his mother's death and returning to London, Sherlock befriended Dr. John H. Watson and continued to solve various mysteries with his help. Defeating many criminals, including cult of Cthulhu, Arsene Lupin and Jack The Ripper, Sherlock was at his most ruthless in The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, where upon uncovering Professor Moriarty's scheme to take over England and frame him for various crimes, Sherlock decided to play along to lure Moriarty into a sense of security, allowing several innocent people to die, killing Moriarty spy, Inspector Baynes, and then faking his own death, leaving clues so that Watson could save him from thugs in time, after which they destroy Moriarty's base and stop his scheme, with Moriarty ending up dead and Holmes adopting his daughter to abide to his nemesis's dying wish. Afterwards continuing to solve crimes without fail and then easily defeating the terrorist group called The Merry Men, Sherlock proves himself as the most talented detective in London.
  • Sherlock Holmes Versus Arsène Lupin & Sherlock Holmes Chapter One's "Beyond a Joke" DLC: Arsène Lupin here is just as brilliant as in his book series. A Gentleman Thief who terrorized France by effortlessly committing several thefts and evading the police, Arsene also, as revealed in Sherlock Holmes Chapter One, traveled to Cordona, where he commited a triple thieft, efforetlessly using the illusionist the Amazing Alonso to get inside and rob three rich houses, before escaping as Holmes catched up to him. Deciding to test himself by challenging Sherlock Holmes himself, Lupin arrived in London and sended a letter with the clues for the Great Detective. Arsene managed to outmaneuver Sherlock Holmes and the entire police force of London four times, stealing "treasures of the England", and even tricking everyone around him into trusting him by wearing various disguises. Charming even Queen Victoria herself, to the point that she helped him escape, Lupin easily evaded the trap made for him by the police at the Tower of London, as he easily used sleeping pills and chemicals to put all the guards to sleep, after which he tried to steal the Crown Jewels. Caught by Holmes, Lupin admitted defeat and revealed the location of the stolen "treasures", after which he compliments Holmes on his intelligence, saying that it was a great honor for him to meet the Great Detective.

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