In every comic book, there is always the hero of the story. Heroes are often called the protagonists. Protagonists are the people who fight for a good and logical cause. They are mostly centered by a story and in every end of a story, the protagonist wins. But in every story, there will always be an enemy. This enemy is commonly known as the antagonist. Antagonists are the people who will do anything to gain their most devious goals. They will prevent the protagonist from ever becoming victorious. Today, we will talk about villains, how they think of their schemes, what do they usually do to win and most importantly, what makes them tick.

1. The Origins

Of course a villain may not become who he or she is today unless they have a reason to become one. Origin is the certain event where in something important will happen and this event will further be discussed in future events and may even become a startling effect to a story. A single villain's origin must be dark, cruel, sinister and even at some point, disturbing. Here is a basic example of a villainous origin. The psychotic Green Goblin used to be an innocent child named Norman Osborn. He and his mother are often abused by his father, Amberson Osborn. Amberson used to be a wealthy and prosperous man who founded a company. He lost all of his earnings after it became bankrupt. Because of this, Amberson became extremely cruel to his family, blaming them for his failure. From these encounters, he initially believes that he needs to gain power in order to survive.Norman attended Empire State University, where he met Emily, who then became his wife. Norman returned to his insane ego when Emily passed away. He then founded OsCorp, alongside him is his former professor, Professor Mendel Stromm. Norman turned Stromm to the authorities for he realized he was committing embezzlement, thus making him the only owner of the company. He tried to continue Stromm's work by perfecting his strength gaining serum. One of his test subjects tried to kill him, but some scientists protected him. He later found more notes concerning about the formula his perfecting. At the moment he was finishing the perfected formula, the serum exploded and sent him to the hospital. Realizing that the serum gave him powers, Norman became the Green Goblin, a man who will stop at nothing to gain true power. Like you have read before, Norman's origin was as dark as the villain's origin is. Reasons are the things that fuels one's fire and they could certainly make a good villain.

2. The Costumes

Costumes are the villain's uniform. These suits can prevent victims or witnesses from figuring out one's identity. Not only that, costumes can carry various deadly devices such as bombs or anything. Costumes are strongly important to villains because their basic everyday wear can instill fear into their opponents hearts and can even give in people to the side of evil. Take a look at Joker's signature clown suit, accompanied by his terrifying smile, his chalk white skin and his green hairstyle. His costume is like a mask that frightens innocents, young and old alike. Even so, his classy persona matches his colorful and crazy suit. Costumes are really handy to be a great villain.

3. The Gadgets

Even villains wants to have fun. Gadgets can always come in handy a lot times. From fear gas to battle armor, gadgets are villains best friend. Gadgets are usually built by the villain who uses it, but sometimes he or she buys or steal it from somebody to fulfill his mission. Here we have the very first Crimson Dynamo Armor. This doomsday device has always been rebuilt by a lot of people who went on to take the mantle. This weapon could nearly destroy Iron Man. Did I mention that a gadget must never have a self-destruct switch?

4. The Secret Bases

Let's not forget about these questions, "Where do these guys even live?", Where do they plan their schemes?" and "Where do they keep their twisted stuff?". The answer my friend is The Secret Base. Secret Bases are the only places where he or she can get away from your enemies, the place where no one can interrupt him or her while planning. Secret Bases must be literally secret so that nobody could even find a villain's base. One example is the Lexcorp Tower. Though entirely not secret, nobody would possibly suspect that a giant laboratory tower could be a possible hideout. It even has one of the most comfortable facilities for a sinister man to do his evil things. It must also have a self-destruct switch to destroy the evidence. Did I also mention that a hideout must never have a villain's name on it?

5. The Team

One villain could not possibly handle on job, but when a large number of villains unite, more than job can be accomplished and everything in plan will commence. Like all villains, they always get beaten up by the heroes and get thrown into jail. A team must always have at least one specific goal in mind. From world domination to destruction of enemies, a team can most of the time be invulnerable. Besides, it can even make a villain social life better. A great example of a villain team is the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, lead by the nefarious Magneto. This team is one of the most feared of all villain teams. Nothing can stop them from destroying humanity and saving mutants, according to their beliefs.

6. The Henchmen

If there's one thing a villain needs it's a good and sometimes funny henchmen. Henchmen are the people paid by the villain to do their dirty work. Often times they get killed for no apparent reason. The henchmen are apparently seen during heists, attacks and guard duties. Apart from being killed by the boss, henchmen are the first people to be arrested and interrogated. It really is a bad idea to be a henchman.

7. The Plan

Finally, the most important thing in a role of a villain and that is, the plan. The plan is the attempt to complete his or her main objective. These usually end in failure, but we've seen few successful ones. Plans are thought off by the one who wants to earn it badly. Sometimes plans are made by their partners or the people they hired to do so. A best example of a master plan is the story arc, Rotworld, a different type of world domination.