Smug Snakes in the Marvel Universe.
- The Wizard from Fantastic Four thinks very highly of himself, but really he is just a 4th rate Doctor Doom wannabe with lamer motives, lamer tech and way fewer accomplishments. He is dumb enough to attack the Fantastic Four, a group that defeats Dr. Doom and Galactus on a regular basis, by forming a group called the Frightful Four and having the Trapster, a loser villain with a glue gun who used to be called "Paste Pot Pete", as a member.
- One of his later appearances involves him breaking into the Baxter Building with a new Frightful Four during a period where the Fantastic Four are suffering a downturn in their public fortunes and aren't expecting him, giving them a beat-down, and then broadcasting it all over the world to gloat about it. Yes, that's correct — his 'greatest triumph' is essentially a case of kicking someone when they're already down. And then Reed essentially lets him do it so that he'll leave without threatening Reed's children, and so that the Four can deal with him later.
- The Incredible Hulk: The Leader is a textbook Insufferable Genius with an ego the size of a planet. Unlike many of the villains on this list he is capable of learning from his mistakes, and has been the Big Bad of multiple arcs, but his arrogance and obsession with the Hulk continue to undermine his plans, no matter how hard he tries to rectify that.
- Ro has quite the Distaff Counterpart (only you know, good looking) in Marvel Comics with fellow space pirate Nebula, self proclaimed granddaughter of certified Magnificent Bastard Thanos, who has taken great pleasure by making her his personal punching bag... More than once.
- The Punisher MAX.
- Rawlins
- To some extent, Nicky Cavella as well.
- Normally The Kingpin is above this as Wilson Fisk is usually always in control and often able to outthink and run rings out of rivals. A 1991 storyline has Fisk riding high creating his own TV network and dominant in running the mobs. At which point, Daredevil learns Fisk's "partners" are really Hydra and spreads the word so the underworld thinks the Kingpin has become a Hydra stooge. Capturing agent Garrotte, Fisk lets the man see how he's prepping for this like any other gang war. Garrotte tells Fisk to check his computer with Fisk stunned to realize Hydra's hackers have emptied out his bank accounts. At which point, a helicopter gunship blasts his office to pieces with Garrotte telling Fisk the explosions across New York are all his businesses (both legitimate and criminal fronts) being bombed. He lifts off in the copter with Fisk cowering behind his desk.Garrotte: You are merely a criminal, Mr. Fisk. And we...we are conquerers.
- During their brief visit to 1907, the Runaways encountered The Swell, a self-aggrandizing slumlord with a "lucky" walking stick and a small group of rogues called the Street Arabs. His reign came to an abrupt end when he plotted to sell the Runaways to local supervillain group The Sinners. Unfortunately for him, the Sinners were actually run by the Yorkes, the parents of late Runaway Gertrude Yorkes. A fight ensued, and the Sinners decided to punish The Swell by laying waste to his Street Arabs and then blasting off the head of his walking stick, which presumably stripped him of whatever power he actually had.
- Secret Wars (2015):
- The ENTIRE Cabal. Needless to say, they all perish in relatively anticlimactic ways, including the Maker/Ultimate Reed, arguably the worst out of the bunch.
- Mr Sinister thought he would be a new power in New York with his army of succubus/Boom Boom hybrid clones. Madeleine Pryor mind-controls one of them into reducing him into a stump on two legs.
- Spider-Man:
- Norman Osborn, particularly in Dark Reign. He's a successful Chessmaster and Manipulative Bastard, yet cannot roll with the unexpected, and is—thanks to his Green Goblin persona—his own worst enemy. He may have successfully capitalised on his Villain with Good Publicity status, but that doesn't change the fact that he's still irrational, hugely arrogant, misogynistic, and prone to Villainous Breakdowns at the worst possible moments. He's able to effectively displace the real Avengers and replace them with his own team, but simply cannot hold it together for long. He fails to control Doctor Doom, is used by Loki for his own ends, relies increasingly on brute force to keep his team intact, and is ultimately humiliatingly defeated by Captain America and Iron Man.
- The 4th Hobgoblin was a B-rate villain who stole the costume and gear of one of the more formidable foes in Spider-Man history, and thought that made him a big shot. Eventually the original Hobgoblin came out of retirement just to kill the guy for being an embarrassment to the title.
- The Ultimates: Ultimate Abomination considers himself to be a superior Hulk because he retains his genius intellect. The Hulk very quickly demonstrates to him how mistaken he is. Hurricane also gets in on the smuggery in her one-sided fight with Hawkeye. She stops gloating in very short order once Quicksilver gets in on the action.
- X-Men: In the regular continuity Fabian Cortez, while having his moments as a Manipulative Bastard, often overestimates his own abilities and pays the price for it.
