10 'Big Picture' Manipulators In Comics

Now, as a rule, most heroes are reactionists. They wait for the bad guy to do something and

then they go to work. Most villains, on the other hand, are motivated purely by self-interest and

greed. But a select few have had higher aspirations towards total world domination

and an even smaller number, like the Joker, simply want to spread chaos to watch the world burn

So let's take a look at these big picture thinkers. As I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com

and these are 10 Big Picture Manipulators in Comics. 10. Dr. Doom

Victor Von Doom was the king of Latveria and one of the most brilliant minds on the planet

He had long hoped to make the world a better place through conquest, and has been at the heart of nearly every major event in the history of the Marvel Universe

The only things that caused him to consistently fail are his crippling arrogance, his gargantuan ego, and his obsession with Reed Richards

After becoming Doom, he plagued the newly formed Fantastic Four to prove his superiority over Richards

He battled the team alone or with the likes of Namor or the terrible trio

and in locales such as Sub-Atomica or the edge of the atmosphere

and he usually met defeated every turn, usually due to his own arrogance. Doom even forced a group of villains to attack the wedding of Reed and Sue

but these rogues were repelled by the other heroes like the Avengers. Doctor Doom has had several instances of achieving his dream of winning everything

but it slipped through his grasp. In the Secret Wars, he stole the powers of the Beyonder

but the powers were so vast that they crippled him with their sheer scope, and he ended up losing them

Doom used the powers of the Beyonder and the Molecule Man to reshape reality after the multiverse fell

but he grew bored of the utopia he created, and Reed Richards eventually returned reality to its proper place

9. Amanda Waller Having lost her two eldest children and her husband to gun violence

Amanda Waller made the choice that she would never, ever lose again. She got her final three children through school and put herself through school as well

gaining a degree in political science. She then took over the campaign of Democratic Congregational hopeful Marvin Collins and got him elected

and while looking through the bills, she discovered the old OSS organization called Task Force X

When the monster Brimstone threatened Mount Rushmore, Waller recruited Rick Flagg and a team of villains as a new suicide squad

With their success, the president authorized the group to continue under Amanda's control

Waller set up the new team in Louisiana, and she argued against sending the squad on purely political missions and especially stupid ones

She came to blows with NSC liaison Derek Tolliver for sending the squad on a disastrous mission to Moscow

saying that even though they were expendable, they weren't garbage. Amanda Waller's inability to compromise with people, coupled with the recent public outing

of the Suicide Squad and Checkmate, caused Waller to be put on trial for the death of

a leader of an organized drug cartel. She was later pardoned after a year and reorganized the

team as an independent group. She became part of Lex Luthor's cabinet as the Secretary of

Metahuman Affairs and later as the White Queen of Checkmate. 8. Kang the Conqueror

The man who would be Kang, Nathaniel Richards, was born in the 30th century on Earth-6311

a world that never suffered a dark age. His counterpart from Earth-616 brought peace to

this war-torn world. At age 16, the Richards of this reality attempted to derail his eventual

history as Kang and traveled to 616 from the Young Avengers He would then begin his eventual role that would define his entire life that of a conqueror Richard traveled back to ancient Egypt of Earth and assumed the guise of Pharaoh Ramatut

He ruled there until he was ousted by the time-traveling Fantastic Four. He attempted to return to his own time

but a time storm dropped him into the current era of 616, where he tried once again to return to his own 30th century

but overshot by 10 centuries. In the war-torn 40th century, Richard took up the name of Kang

and conquered first the Earth and then other planets. He continued to reach back into time and spread his influence to the modern era

Kang and Immortus became regular foes of the Avengers as he attempted various times to conquer various time periods

Immortus and the Scarlet Centurion often ran afoul of the Fantastic Four

and various incarnations of Nathaniel Richards from different Earths and or different time periods would come into conflict with each other

when their goals did not align. 7. Anti-Monitor When scientist Croner used his science to look at the creation of the universe

he caused an explosion that created a positive matter multiverse and an equal negative matter

universe. It also gave birth to the immensely powerful beings called the Monitor and the

Anti-Monitor. When he later discovered his positive universe brother, he began a million-year

war against him that culminated in the pair losing consciousness. Nine billion years later

scientist Kel Mossa undertook the same forbidden experiment to witness creation, which resulted in

another explosion that awoke the Anti-Monitor, who then began his singular quest to destroy the

multiverse. Countless universes were destroyed by the anti-monitor's energy wave. The Monitor

set up towers on Earths 1, 2, 4, S, and X, and his death at the hands of his assistant Harbinger

powered them to save the final five Earths from destruction. Thanks to Alexander Luthor and the

heroes of the five universes, the worlds were reborn at the dawn of time as a single universe

Earth-2 Superman pummeled the anti-monitor into atoms before departing this universe. With the recreation of the multiverse, the anti-monitor returned and became part of Sinestro's

Yellow Lantern Corps. He traveled to Earth and used his power to siphon positive energy

but was attacked by the Green Lantern Corps. Then, Superboy Prime turned against him

badly damaging his armor and hurtling him into space, where he crashed on the planet

Riot in Sector 666 and was imprisoned in the Black Lantern Battery

6. The High Evolutionary Herbert Wyndham was a student in the late 1920s and was inspired by the work of geneticist Nathaniel

Essex, the man who would become Mr. Sinister. Given the secrets of unlocking genetic codes by

disguised in human, Wyndham and fellow scientist Jonathan Drew set up a base on Wundergore Mountain

to continue their work, where Wyndham realized his dream of evolving animals into humanoid forms

to become his new men. He created a powerful suit of armor to protect himself and took on the name

of the High Evolutionary. Wyndham's genetic influence did not stop with the new men

Jonathan Drew's daughter had been treated with spider serums and Wyndham's technologies

and so emerged as a brand new spider woman. A woman named Magda gave birth to twins on the

mountain, and they were touched as well by the demonic energies of the new men's recent fight

with Chthon, and they grew up to be the mutants Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Wyndham created

an exact copy of the Earth on the opposite side of the sun which was meant to be free of evil that he called Counter and attempts to take it from him occurred almost immediately First it was nearly consumed by Galactus and later by the Prime Movers on behalf of the Beyonders Realizing how incalculably advanced the Beyonders were

he fell into despair and de-evolved himself into protoplasmic goo. 5. Vandal Savage

Vandal Savage has been alive for over 50,000 years, and has literally seen the evolution of the human race

He has been an advisor to kings, to warlords, to chieftains, and has been in thousands of conflicts throughout the centuries

as well as manipulating the world towards his own image. Vandal has even claimed to have been famous historical conquerors

such as Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, and Vlad the Impaler, but Savage is far from an unimpeachable source

This rogue stepped from behind the curtain to directly engage the mystery men

that emerged in the late 1940s. Either he saw them as an obstacle to his centuries-long plan of world domination

or he was simply curious to test himself against these new stronger and worthier opponents

Either way, Savage became a frequent problem for the Justice Society of America

and later the Justice League. Vandalus had hundreds of offspring and even more descendants

throughout history. He maintains his immortality in part by replacing failing body parts by taking

them from his descendants. Most of his children do not know of their heritage, but one

Scandal Savage, is a villain in her own right and the leader of the Secret Six

Her complicated feelings about her father often bring them into conflict. 4. Apocalypse En-Sabah Nur was born more than 5,000 years ago in the Valley of Kings in Egypt

As Nerg grew, he adopted the tribe's primary principle that only the strongest, best, fittest

toughest, and worthiest should survive, and hardened his heart to the world, and even

his own tribesmen hated him for his appearance, intellect, and strength. He lived as a slave for a time until his mutant powers of immortality and shape-shifting emerged

and so he took on the name of Apocalypse. Soon after gaining his power, he forged his own clan and gathered the best human warriors

in the world as riders of the dark. With these two armies, he transformed Egypt into a utopia for a time

but at some unknown point in the past, he traveled to the scientist island of Okara

and took a wife who gave him two sons and two daughters, who became his first horsemen

Apocalypse battled Thor multiple times in the 11th century, losing his fourth set of horsemen to the Thunder God

In 1459, Nerv personally beat Vlad the Impaler in single combat, which led him to directly becoming Dracula

In modern times, Apocalypse plagued the mutant community, and turned the maimed angel into the blue-skinned and metal-winged archangel

However, when the new mutant nation of Krakoa was established, Nr was actually welcomed, as were all mutants

He was given a position on the Quiet Council, but later left after he was contacted by the grandchildren of his first horsemen

on their own sentient island, now called Arako. 3. Darkseid Uxas, the god of tyranny known as Darkseid

began making plans at a very young age to take the throne of Apocalypse, pushing past his peaceful brother Drax and mother Hegra

He interrupted Drax's connection to the Omega Realm and achieved the godhood that was meant for him

Thus transformed, he took the name Darkseid. Darkseid started a long war with neighboring New Genesis, in part to eliminate the potential

threat and to keep his uncle Steppenwolf occupied. He put the brutal and loyal hunger dog named Goodness in charge of the orphanages to produce obedient soldiers who would give their lives for Darkseid When Darkseid encountered the Green Martians he learned in their belief in the Will as an all force that they called the Life Equation He surmised that there must be an

equally powerful force called the Anti-Life Equation, and it became the focus of his existence

Darkseid believed that the people of Earth had fragments of the Anti-Life Equations locked

within their brains, and he made elaborate plans and schemes that brought him into conflict with

Earth's heroes, especially Superman. Darkseid actually took over the Earth on a few occasions

but was ultimately thwarted each time and has yet to achieve his ultimate goal

2. Thanos For most of his life, Thanos has had a single goal, winning the love of the personification of death

She was his confidant as a small boy to help him get over his fear of killing

Later, he began pursuing her, even though the realization that she was actually death

drove the young Titan mad. It did not dissuade him from decimating his home planet and begin moving the pieces in place

so that he could achieve universal power. First, Thanos misused the cosmic cube on Earth, but had to relinquish that power and be saved by his ship

Later, he gathered all of the soul gems, aka the Infinity Stones, having taken the stones from the six elders of the universe and assembled them on a golden gauntlet

Using that gauntlet, Thanos killed half the beings in the universe in an attempt to impress death and earn her love

The remaining heroes of Earth and Adam Warlock were able to reverse this action. Despite his megalomania and homicidal nature, Thanos wasn't actually without reason

In fact, he would even aid others against threats that were greater than himself

He helped Adam Warlock against the Magus, worked with the Guardians of the Galaxy to halt the invasion of the Cancerverse

and worked with Deadpool to release Death from Eternity's prison. All of these things benefited Thanos personally, but also ended up benefiting others as well

1. Lex Luthor There is probably no more purely manipulative person in the DC Universe than Alexander Lex Luthor

From a very young age, and despite his dirt-poor upbringing, he began to judge people by what use they were to him

Luther arranged to have his parents killed in an auto accident in order to collect the hefty

insurance policy that they had. And with that money, he created LexCorp. Lex has long seen

Metropolis as his own personal fiefdom, having bought, taken over, or built nearly every business

in the city. Nearly every person in the town owed their livelihood to Lex, and he made sure that

they knew it. He owned every media outlet in town except the Daily Planet, and used that power to

shape the image of a benevolent philanthropist. This all came crashing down with the arrival

of Superman. A deliberate attack on the Man of Steel led Luther to be jailed for the first time

and this humiliation was simply more than Lex could abide. Lex Luther is one of the most brilliant

people on the planet, and he uses his intellect as both a superpower and a weapon. It has made him

an insanely wealthy man, given him the ability to design and create any weapon or machine virtually

any situation might call for, and has given him the leadership skills to head several villain

teams at once and achieve the office of President of the United States. Not bad, right? Well

Technically, it's all bad, but you know what I mean. And there we go, my friends. Those were 10 big picture manipulators in comics

I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section below

As always, I've been Jules, and you can go follow me over on Instagram at RetroJ, but the O is a zero

Hope to see you over there. As always, I've been Jules. You have been awesome. Never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon

Bye