Open on a dark city, towers spiked upwards, lighting, very minimal. Veer left, plunge over side of a single tall skyscraper to dip dramatically into the broken in window of [insert random abandoned building here]. [Preferably a warehouse]. Congrats. You have just found a Classic Villain Lair. Lairs are key to any bad guy in a graphic novel book, be it Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, or your own story of invention. The Joker has his creepy clown lair, Lex Luther has his mansion (or White House) – and although Tweety wasn’t a comic book, Sylvester had room 1002.
What all does one need to become a classic super villain, and how must they act to achieve glory in comic book history? Well, for starters, nearly every villain has their estranged minion. They need a crazy appearance. Now they don’t need psycho clown make-up, but grungy hair, awesome clothing – anything to make a superhero question his or her own sense of fashion is a good-to-go wardrobe. Confidence, charisma. And who has all of these things? I would say the most classic villain of super-villain history: Magneto, from X-Men. With his metal hat, and that luxurious cape of his, he puts the X-Men squad into question, with their full body leather pads.