Submarine Chomper
Each villain could be based on an aspect of the hero which, when left unchecked, shows the reader why those aspects should be keep in check rather than run rampant.
What is the setting of your story?
When does it take place?
Edited by Trainbarrel on Jun 24th 2023 at 8:54:35 AM
"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."
They call me.... Prophet
Yea you generally want villains that have some sort of connection, similarity to, or mirroring element of your hero. Something that makes it clear why they'd fight.
Although to be honest, superheroes have rogue galleries because they spent 40 years writing stories and recycling and re-imagining stories to the point that the best of the best bubble up and become iconic.
If you've got a hero whose power is flexibility then why not have a villain who is overwhelmingly powerful. Like a discount superman but not as versatile.
Like reflections in the glass!
I'd second the option in the second post. Focus on Shadow Archetypes.
for example, Batman. He has a litany of weird adversaries from Professor Pyg to Clayface, yet his most iconic villains are Two-Face (a man that started out with similar goals to Batman only to degrade into a kind of Fatalist, using the flip of a coin to dictate his actions), the Joker (who generally has an apathetic nihilism or very Black comedy, both of which contrasts Batman's belief in change and general stoicism), Mr. Freeze (who is also motivated by the demise of his loved one, but actively tries to find a way to save her at the expense of all else, in contrast to Bruce never letting the death of his parents consume him) and the Penguin (who in this case represents the failure of Bruce's previous war on crime, as he is instead a mere mafioso who thrived when Bruce took down the rival gangs and can still keep up with more obvious supervillains). all of whom represents either a possible fare for Bruce had things changed, a response to his actions or the flaws of his ideology and philosophy.
Even allies can get in on this trend. Ghostmaker for example is a recent addition to Gotham's heroes who is motivated not by altruism, but artistry and a rivalry with Bruce. While Harley Quinn, a villainess that turned into an Anti-Hero is both an example of the the success Bruce had kinda gotten with redeeming his enemies...and how that doesn't prevent her from causing mayhem as collateral damage (and is not bereft of Shadows herself as Punchline and Marian Drews can attest)
The Dark Knights might also serve as an excellent example of Shadow Archetypes, but are a bit tricky as inspiration since their basis is centered on Batman's place in the wider DC universe (exceptions being He Who Laughs and the Grim Knight) and are obviously blatant Evil Counterparts of him. The same also applies to the Tales from the Dark Multiverse that center on Batman stories Knightfall and Hush.
Examples aside the general idea would be to create villains based on either (and using hypothetical and not so hypothetical takes on Batman for illustration)
- a flaw of our hero (Batman's paranoia for example), cranked Up To Eleven, or conversely a virtue taken to the point of vice (Bruce becoming obsessed with reviving his parents for exmaple)
- a deviation from his backstory or history (I don't really need to make fake examples, the Grim Knight will suffice, ebing a version of Bats that took vengance on Joe Chill and became a worse version of him as a result)
- their deepest fears (The Dark Knights exploring specific fears of Batman in addition to their other traits)
- a goal of theirs, but taken to obsessive and monomaniacal lengths (Batman as the Dark Knight Templar who turns Gotham into a Police State)
- and sometimes their friends, family and allies themselves, exploring their dynamics and how they would've turned out without the hero's influence (Let's say a version of Dick Grayson that was adopted by a different dude and had a worse outlook and no outlet to vent his feelings over his birth parents' deaths)
Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jun 25th 2023 at 2:30:30 AM
In creating a rogues gallery, you want to have no less than 10 enemies for your hero, and possibly no more than 15 or 20 that you can cycle through to keep things fresh and interesting.
Since your hero has stretching powers, why not have villains with a wide variety of skills or powers? You could have Playing with Fire or An Ice Person, since both of those affect elasticity; or someone who is either Nigh-Invulnerable, a Chrome Champion, or has Taken for Granite powers. There's also Time Stands Still, Making a Splash, Blow You Away, or Dishing Out Dirt. If you want to get really creative, you could have someone with Shock and Awe powers; while electricity usually doesn't work on rubber, maybe your villain could use that ability in outside-the-box ways that can still affect your hero.
Other options you can draw on include Badass Normal, Gadgeteer Genius, Mind Manipulation, and Psycho Knife Nut (blades can cut rubber).
Submarine Chomper
Or, if you want to make the rouge gallery REALLY interesting, give them all some rather unorthodox powers that comes off as underwhelming at first, but then in later appearances, they come back and having become MUCH better at using them, to the point they can become legit threats now unless the hero figures out how to stop them.
Because if their powers are bizarre, then the standard weaknesses won't apply to them and the hero needs to figure out what those are before the villains can be stopped.
Which prompts the villains to just keep practicing their powers to overcome the cause of their defeat last time and go at it again, forcing the hero to further improve to beat them this time around.
How does this sound?
...
Powers like:
"Monochrome": The ability to trap anything inside of a photo when making the camera-pose with one's hands. The Polaroid picture comes out from the user's mouth and is in monochrome.
"Fish & Chips": The power to multiply anything made of potatoes and turning potatoes into marine lifeforms. They still need water to breathe though.
"Workbench": The power to turn any toolbox the user holds into an infinite toolbox, which ignores the weight of anything that can be stuffed into the box and pulled out at a moment's notice.
"Sweet Cloud": The ability to create, generate and manipulate cotton-candy. 100% sugar. 100% edible. Will kill you if you eat too much of it too quickly. A pain to clean up after in a fight. Creativity in plenty with this one.
"Naked Feeline": The ability to fuse anything within their range of teleportation when using their powers. The results are never pretty and when using it on themselves, they MUST take off all of their clothes first or they will get the same fate. As a result, they wear as little and loose as possible. For example: If they bring an ordinary basic door to a museum wall and put it up against it and use their power, they can just walk right on in through the door without triggering any of the alarms and leave the same way, before using the powers again to turn the door into a wall again. Naked Cat-Burglar.
"Swipe Left": Basically, with a motion on their wrist, they can send anything and anyone flying left and out of their sight. Yes, anything. It just takes a bit of effort to move heavier things, that's all.
Things like these.
"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."
Build it one at a time. That is how the comics traditionally do it.
Okay, so I'm working on an original superhero, and have a bunch of villains to fight them, but I'm not sure how many to fit in.
Said hero has elastic/shapes shifting powers, possibly from a scientific origin (haven't figured it out yet). I know I should have science-based Villains too, but I do have some magic villains I want to implement too.
So, anyone got any tips?
Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?