Animated Evil Villains – Are They Still TV Worthy?

Cartoons have been a great source of education and entertainment since my childhood days of watching Thundercats and Rainbow Brite but they’ve gotten a bad rep as frivolous and only for children. After watching hundreds of hours of animation, the biggest concept I’ve learned is the difference between good and evil. Not an easy thing to teach a six year old mind you, but cartoons have served as a way for the littlest members of the human race to understand and develop a moral compass that they’ll need to survive in this world.

While the good guys have gotten most of the good press over the years, I also have to thank the villains who have played their parts superbly. It’s not easy after all to come up with plan after plan only to be foiled by their nemesis at the last second. It takes a lot of courage, risk taking, and boldness to be undaunted by their failures and to continue their quests for power.

In today’s cartoon world, are villains still seeking the same thing? What is their agenda and is it still able to help children learn right from wrong? I attempt to answer this by looking at a few animated evil-doers from some of the most notable cartoon series from my childhood to more contemporary ones airing today.

My favorite evil villain of all time has to be Cobra Commander from G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero that aired from 1985-1986. Cobra Commander was a terrorist, though that word wasn’t really a common vocabulary word back then. He was the head of the evil organization known as Cobra whose aim was world domination. He rallied people to his cause by promising them power, money, and revenge. What I appreciate about Cobra as an evil villain is that he had to deal with more realistic situations within his organization such as underlings trying to usurp his power, bankruptcy, having to borrow money from the mob, and incompetence from his minions. Working with other villains and criminal characters isn’t easy as he has to deal with trying to maintain order amongst his people while achieving his agenda at the same time. Yet episode after episode he remains vigilant in his plans to defeat the Joes and capture control and power over the world.

Another 80s villain to look at is the powerful Megatron, leader of the Decepticons from the series The Transformers (1984-1987). This evil leader, like Cobra Commander, faced similar issues with personnel. Megatron had to deal with usurpers like Starscream, who desired to be the one controlling the Decepticons. Realistically thinking, you would think Megatron would have Starscream destroyed for treachery and yet he remains Megatron’s second in command. Is that mercy? Or does this leader recognize this underling’s uses? In any case, Megatron’s motives were to defeat his rivals the Autobots, harvest the energy resources of planet Earth and then gain universal dominance. Like Cobra Commander the agenda is control and power – whether over their home planet of Cybertron, the Earth, or the universe.

Moving on to the nineties, I examine a group of villains from the series Captain Planet and the Planeteers that ran from 1990-1995. It was in this decade where environmental issues were getting a lot more attention from the press with much of the Amazon rainforest being cut down and the Kyoto Protocol (lowering greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels) being adopted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (note: the UNFCCC was a treaty produced at the first ever UN Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro on June 1992). With environmental matters taking a much bigger stage in popular culture, the villains of Captain Planet were eco related and their collective goals were to destroy earth via pollution, over consumption, poor waste management, uncontrolled technology, ignorance, crime, nuclear power, excessive capitalism, and war/destruction. The main motivation behind their actions appeared to be self-gratification and profit. This perhaps makes sense as there is no main villain in this series that fits the mold that outright wants to rule the world. The closest  was Zarm, a former spirit of the Earth who is more concerned about using his power to destroy Captain Planet and Gaia thereby destroying the planet. He appears to want anarchy and destruction for the sake of it, which also makes this evil villain different from Cobra Commander and Megatron.

A much more conventional super villain comes in the form of Magneto from the X-Men, which aired from 1992-1997. You could also categorize this character as a terrorist, though more of a super powered terrorist in comparison to Cobra Commander (since he didn’t have mutant powers at his disposal). His main motivation was world domination for his kind against humans whom he considered beneath him. What was interesting about Magneto though is that he wasn’t two dimensional as an evil villain. He was certainly driven by hatred and vengeance to carry out his plans to start a war between mutants and humans, but he is able to ally himself with the X-Men to destroy a common enemy. You also learn about his past as a child during the Holocaust, which gives viewers a better understanding of how he came to be Magneto and why he holds such contempt for mankind.

The villains from these four animated series are all cunning, driven, and dedicated to their causes. A majority of their agendas happen to be gaining power and control to rule the world or the universe. The big lesson is that trying to attain domination over others never works out. While you have to admire their gusto for never giving up, it reinforces this message episode after episode.

So have villains of today learned from their elder counterparts? At least the Highbreed of Ben 10: Alien Force have gotten the message. These aliens arrive on Earth bent on exterminating mankind because they consider humans as an impure race. This group though is also bent on self-destruction and they plan on taking the entire universe down with them. It’s a combination of pride, arrogance and desperation that motivates their actions. They were the main bad guys of seasons one and two, relentlessly building a portal to get more of their ships to Earth to fully exterminate the race. Viewers learn though that the Highbreed were also dying out due to sterility caused by inbreeding. Hero Ben Tennyson reconstructs their DNA including DNA from his set of aliens kept within the Omnitrix (a watch-like device that contains the DNA of different aliens that allows the wearer to transform into those aliens) and saves their race from extinction. After that they end the war against other life forms.

Not all evil villains of today have learned their lesson and this can be seen through Fire Lord Ozai from Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008). He was motivated by greed and power to control all the known lands in their world. A treacherous figure, he was willing to do anything to become the fire lord instead of his older brother Iroh. He was relentless in his plans to destroy anything that got in his way of ruling the world, including killing his own son Prince Zuko if necessary. This villain was unrepentant to the bitter end even after being defeated by Zuko, Aang the Avatar, and the rest of their friends.

Evil villains of the past and present are a colorful group of people that are full of determination, diligence, and tenacity. It is only fitting that they be relentless in fulfilling their agendas to be worthy opponents to our protagonists. They serve as the balancing force in teaching children of all ages that lusting for power is never a good thing and that even bad guys have problems. Are their agendas still applicable in today’s society? I say yes. More cartoons are showing a variety of villains from the complex, to the repentant, and those who are still dead set on their nefarious plans. It parallels reality as a complicated and mostly grey world.

So to all those animated evil villains out there, my gratitude for playing the role. It’s not always fun but someone’s gotta do it!

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Photographs courtesy of Marvel, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and IMDbPro.