Working Too Hard For Their Money: 3 Easy Business Venture Villains

Welcome to Funding the Kryptonite, where we will look at the plans of comic book super villains and discuss them from a business perspective.

Today's post will spotlight a list of 3 super villains who, as they are usually portrayed, are in it for the money and the easy life and maybe some revenge against their chosen superhero for foiling all their plots so often. However, if we remove the revenge aspect, their choice of a life of crime seems kind of foolish given their ability to make a huge buck legitly. In no particular order, my top three are:

1. Mysterio

Source: google.ca via David on Pinterest

Mysterio is a master hypnotist and special effects man, being able to create extremely impressive 3D illusions through his use of technology. This man could make an absolute fortune in the entertainment sector by opening up his own company and using his already perfected techniques to offer customized simulations to people (Star Trek holodeck anyone?). The entertainment industry is continuously growing and he could make a mint.

2. Weather Wizard

Source: google.ca via David on Pinterest

A man with elemental control, first through a technological wand and later on his own (after being brought to realize that his weather control was only focused through the wand and generated internally), you'd think he would have better things to do with his life than try to steal money and get beat up by the Flash. Offering farms perfect weather conditions, electricity generation through lightning, or just running an always-sunny resort would all provide significantly more money at less jail risk.

3. Chemistro

Source: google.ca via David on Pinterest

A man with a gun who can use it to transmute anything to anything, albeit with the caveat that it disintegrates after a short time or exposure to significant heat. This limits the upside of what he can create over the long-term, though there would be significant benefits to the disintegration aspect of his gun. Imagine the amount of money one could charge to transmute radioactive/hazardous waste into something perfectly innocuous until it fell apart a few hours later into completely harmless dust!

Final Comments

The conceit of super villains is that, by and large, they're not able to function within normal society or are otherwise driven to the fringes by their initial actions. Chemistro likes to be "the big man around town" and waste disposal doesn't allow him to flex his muscle in quite the same way. Weather Wizard and Mysterio enjoy the grandeur/ease of what they do as criminals, rather than the honest man's life. There's a thrill to exercising power illegally that is unmatched by going down the straight path.

Thank you for reading and please hit me up with your comments.