NOTE: Since this trope reveals a villain being responsible for other events in the series (potentially even after their own demise), expect spoilers.
Villainous Legacies in Comic Books.
- In DC One Million, there are future versions of practically every member of Batman's Rogues Gallery on the prison at Pluto; the android version of Robin explains to "our" Batman (who switches places with the future one) that a few were simply inspired by the originals, while others came about through cloning, DNA splicing, and other scientific methods. (One of them, Catwoman's future counterpart, gets her own issue in the series.)
- The Flash:
- Flash's Evil Counterpart Eobard Thawne/Professor Zoom was killed by Barry, but his legacy lived on in Impulse's evil counterpart Thaddeus Thawne/Inertia, while Hunter Zolomon was at least inspired to take a similar identity, even apart from the many times Eobard himself has returned due to time travel.
- The other Thawne legacy was Cobalt Blue. Malcom Thawne was consumed by his own power in his first encounter with Barry, but his Power Gem was wielded by many others over the next thousand years, imbuing them all with a hatred of the Flash legacy and Barry in particular, as seen in the "Chain Lightning" storyline.
- My Little Pony Generations: Grackle and Dyre, the primary antagonists, are the daughters of the My Little Pony 'n Friends witches Draggle and Reeka. With their grandmother Hydia deceased and their mothers still trying to find a way to undo their magic-nullifying curse, the legacy of the witches' villainy falls on Grackle and Dyre to extract revenge on the ponies of Dream Valley.
- Pathfinder: Worldscape:
- The titular demi-plane was created by Nex the Archmage of Golarion, who used the souls of those trapped in it as fuel to become a god. He died before achieving his goal, but his creation was left behind displacing warriors from three separate worlds and its many, many different versions of it. Its revealed that the Hyborian sorcerer Kulan Gath wants to finish Nex's work.
- The Cult of Issus is the state religion of the Worldscape, thanks to the White Martians' influence, even though Issus was not truly a goddess herself, and has been long dead after John Carter exposed her fraud.
- Two examples from the Shang-Chi comics:
- Shang-Chi's father Zheng Zu built a secret society that spans the world, and his family and followers are still feuding over it long after his death (before the Soft Reboot, this was also true of Shang-Chi's original father, Fu Manchu - with the added complication that some antagonists wanted to find his Elixir Vitae and become Long-Lived).
- In the original Master of Kung Fu series, the assassin and Wicked Toymaker Mordillo dies in his first appearance. But his creations and his Robot Buddy endure and threaten Shang-Chi and his allies for a very long time.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- Mammoth Mogul. Thousands of years ago, he founded the Order of Ixis, which eventually led to the creation of Ixis Naugus, whose actions, which may include starting the Great War, in turn led to Dr. Robotnik's rise to power, whose death ultimately led to nearly every villain in the book today, with Naugus responsible for the ones that aren't Mogul. Naugus and Robotnik are still quite active (and are top two villains of the series), whereas Mogul has semi-retired from active villainy, running a casino and deciding to use his immortality to outlive the heroes and make his move then. Too bad he didn't take into account The Genesis Waves.
- The Knuckles spin off comics has Menniker who founded the Dark Legion, which led to the threat of his descendants continuing his work in the present day. This makes him responsible for Moritori Rex, Kragok, and Lien-Da's actions.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Dr. Starline was a Big Bad Wannabe of the highest order and was ultimately killed by his own mistakes, but his habit of releasing and aiding other villains allows Dr. Eggman, the Deadly Six, Mimic the Octopus, and Rough and Tumble to terrorize the the world again and again. His torturous methods of turning Surge and Kit into Sonic and Tails' Evil Counterparts caused the two to snap and plot to kill not only the heroes but Starline himself and eventually everyone. He was also one of Clutch the Opossum's clients, and Clutch's offer to reveal the pasts that Starline erased convinces Surge and Kit to join Clean Sweep Inc., thus combining the series' side villains into a unified force. In the end, Dr. Starline is the series' Greater-Scope Villain, but not in the way he intended, and due to his death he can't enjoy it. Sonic, Tails, and Dr. Eggman all note the Irony when they piece everything together.
- Spider-Man: Norman Osborn had this role for decades after he "died". Initially, he was limited to the Spider-Man characters. He had killed Spider-Man's girlfriend and created a supervillain legacy that not only included his own son, but several goblin-based villains that plagued Spidey for years. Of course, since Death Is Cheap, Osborn is back these days.
- In Star Wars Legends, the Sith Order had two major progenitors; King Adas and Darth Andeddu.
- Originating from Tales of the Jedi, King Adas was The Chosen One for the Sith species and united their homeworld of Korriban into a Planetary Nation before dying in a Heroic Sacrifice protecting the planet from the Infinite Empire. Using Rakatan technology he made the first Sith holocron, with his legacy inspiring the Dark Jedi founders of the Sith Order and their Chosen One prophecy being named after him.
- Darth Andeddu from Star Wars: Republic was believed to have been the one who coined the "Darth" title, and his legacy inspired many successors including Freedon Nadd, Darth Bane, Darth Tyranus/Count Dooku, and finally Darth Krayt. His influence was so fearsome, the Jedi in Darth Bane's era even tried to unperson him to prevent him from causing even more damage from beyond the grave.
- Superman: Early on in the storyline Reign of Doomsday, Lex Luthor suffers an uncertain doom which takes him off the board possibly permanently (since his universe was destroyed shortly afterwards); but his evolved creation, Doomslayer, nearly succeeds in killing the Supers and destroying Earth.
- In The Transformers (IDW), Shockwave has caused an incredible amount of troubles in the present day by performing callous, large-scale experiments and departing without bothering to clean up. In fact, thanks to a Stable Time Loop, literally the entire setting came about because of his deranged experiment to understand how civilizations work.
- Ultimate X Men: Magneto died in Ultimatum, but Quicksilver and Mystique tried to follow his steps after that.
- Wonder Woman: Earth One: Hercules is a large part of why Themysciran society is dangerously misandrist in this universe, though he was killed long ago by Hippolyta for his attack and rape of her people.
- In X-Men, after Stryfe is defeated, it turns out that he has left behind a virus that spreads through humans and kills those with the x-gene, devastating mutantkind for years. Appropriately, it is referred to as the Legacy virus, as before his death Stryfe was constantly ranting about legacies.
