We all love a good twist.
When a story sets our expectations about who the bad guy is and then completely flips them
and surprises it’s audiences, it usually makes for a more complex story.
It it’s well written, that is.
Regardless of quality, we wanted to take a look at some of these moments when the villain
we expected to be the head honcho turned out to be an underling instead, with our list
of the top 10 super villains who turned out to be minions.
Let’s jump in.
Also, heads up – spoilers abound.
You’ve been warned.
10 Steppenwolf Steppenwolf may not have been an overly prominent
character since his creation back in 1971 via Jack Kirby, but in Zack Synders recent
Justice League film, he’s the primary antagonist.
Which is unfortunate, considering this is how he looks in the comics, and this is the
CGI hack job he became.
And no, the real villain at this number is not the CGI, but damnit, it really should
be.
Anyway, as the DC cinematic universe has been hinting to for quite some time, especially
in Batman v Superman, the villain that Steppenwolf works for is an inevitable threat for the
franchise.
Aka Darkseid.
Which is why Steppenwolf is on Earth now – after failing to conquer Earth in the past, he’s
now trying to take over the planet in order to regain Darkseid’s favour.
9 The Madarin Trevor Slattery aka The Mandarin from the
2013 Iron Man 3 film was the leader of the Ten Rings terrorist group.
Little did they know that Trevor was actually an actor, hired to play The Mandarin, who
was hired by a scientist named Aldrich Killian, who was merely a fabricated persona thrown
into television broadcasts.
It’s worth noting that this version of the character is a loose adaptation of the Madarin
who appears in the comics, who is considered to be one of Iron Man’s greatest foes.
8 Kylo Ren Star Wars has a habit of deceiving us with
it’s sith hierarchy, and the latest trilogy instalment so far is no different.
When we first met Kylo Ren in the Force Awakens, it’s revealed that he is the commander of
the First Order, hunting for the map with the coordinates of Luke Skywalker’s location.
Shortly after, we learn that Ren is actually the son of Han and Leia, and was once a pupil
of Luke’s prior to being drawn to the dark side by another villainous force, the First
Order’s Supreme Leader Snoke.
While we don’t know much about Snoke just yet,
7 Maggie Walsh – Buffy the Vampire slayer While the top secret military installation
known as the Initiative in Season 4 of Buffy may be one of the more lacking threats that
the Scoobies encountered throughout the series’ entirety, Initiative leader Maggie Walsh does
make for an excellent curve ball.
Buffy and co find out that they’ve been working on a demonic cyborg named Adam, who
upon coming to life, murders Walsh, who everyone suspected to be the primary antagonist of
the season.
Adam’s character may have posed an interesting threat to Buffy considering his strength and
physical capabilities, but his overall lack of a plan made his narratives weak, even though
fans appreciated the efforts the Scoobies took at the end of the season to defeat him.
6 Silver Surfer Most of us probably wish we could forget the
2007 Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer film.
But it does do one interesting thing that the Silver Surfer’s introduction in the
comics didn’t; it built up some hype for Galactus.
Even though the film had turned him into a massive cloud rather than, you know, Galactus.
So for those of you not too familiar with the character, Silver Surfer is the herald
of Galactus, a cosmic entity, the first ‘god’ character to appear in the marvel universe,
who is known as the destroyer of worlds.
He feeds on planets to sustain himself.
Silver Surfer scopes out those planets.
And in the case of this film, he prepares Earth to be devoured.
But Galactus isn’t revealed until much later in the film, with the Silver Surfer turning
on him by the end.
5 Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
He who must not be named was a lingering threat for Harry from the very first time he entered
the wizarding world.
But when the book first came out, readers didn’t expect that Professor Quirrell, the
fidgety, nervous Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts from 1991-1992, was
hunting down the Philosopher’s Stone for Voldemort, let alone had the Dark Lord had
latched on to the back of his head, using him for sustenance and transportation.
4 Bane - Dark Knight Rises Jumping into Christopher Nolan’s Batman
film franchise for this number, let’s take a look at Bane, portrayed by Tom Hardy, in
The Dark Knight Rises.
While for most of the film, Bane seems to be the ringleader of the terrorist attacks
on Gotham and the attacks on Batman.
He has a working relationship with John Daggett, the owner of Daggett Industries who tries
to take over Wayne Enterprises, but it soon becomes obvious that Daggett is rather disposal
in Bane’s eyes, who served his purpose of getting the members of the League of Assassins
into Gotham covertly.
By the end of the film, it’s revealed that the real threat is Talia Al Ghul, the new
leader of the League of Assassins, who had manipulated Bruce as Miranda Tate during the
entirety of the film.
3 Mister Sinister Created by Chris Claremont and Marc Silvestri,
Mister Sinister aka Nathaniel Essex was revealed after the fact to have originally been a lackey
of Apocalypse’s, despite being the one to have Apocalypse awoken in the first place.
In exchange for Essex to work for him and create a massive plague, Apocalypse transformed
him into an ageless being with telekinetic powers, he took on the name Sinister, and
aligned himself with the class 5 mutant.
In the future though, he would be the one responsible for Cable being born, since Sinister
cloned Madeline Pryor out of Jean Grey so she and Scott could have a child, making a
whole lot of trouble for Apocalypse.
2 Talon William Cobb The Talons were introduced during the Night
of the Owls story arc during the New 52 in 2012.
Bruce meets the first of many Talons, who we find out is a man named William Cobb, while
meeting with Lincoln March, a man running for Gotham’s mayor, and tracks the Talons
back to an old nursery rhyme called the Court of Owls.
Turns out its no nursery rhyme – the Court of Owls turns out to be real, a secret society
and organized crime group, heavily linked to his family.
Upon investigating, Bruce is attacked by Cobb, who drops him into a massive underground maze
for 8 days that tortures him psychologically.
Cobb is essentially a minion of the Court of Owls, and Bruce would discover afterwards
that Lincoln March was a member of the Court, with March even claiming that he’s Thomas
Wayne Jr, Bruce’s brother.
1 Darth Vader The most iconic villain on this list, with
one hell of an epic story, Anakin Skywalker aka Darth Vader is one of the faces that immediately
comes to mind when you hear the name Star Wars.
Let alone think of the sci fi genre.
Vader was assumed to be the head honcho from the start of George Lucas’ initial Star
Wars trilogy beginning with A New Hope in 1977.
In the Empire Strikes Back, matters are complicated, not only when he tells Luke that he is his
father, but when its revealed there is a more sinister power at work; Emperor Palpatine,
Vader’s Sith master, also known as Darth Sidious, first appears as a hologram, expressing
his worries about Luke becoming a growing threat, and later appears in the flesh in
Return of the Jedi, with the intention of turning Luke to the dark side and making him
his apprentice, replacing Vader.
There we have it friends!
What other underlings did you think were main villains?
Let us know in those comments below!
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I’ve been Kelly Paoli and this has been top ten nerd.
Catch you all in the next one!