What do comic book villains want to do? Well, in general, they want to take over the world. Sure, some of them only want to rob banks. Even those bad guys are looking for power, though, and most wouldn't turn down the opportunity to control everything. While big names like Lex Luthor, Ultron or Doctor Doom are constantly seeking world domination, others, like Magneto, simply want to shape the world into a better place. Of course, being villains, their image for a better place is usually pretty messed up, and only for one specific group. For everyone else, it's a nightmare.
While "taking over the world" is typically a villain's plan, heroes aren't immune to it. Granted, taking over the world is hard, so it's almost never happens, right? Actually, in comic books, it happens all the time. Comic books love to show dystopian futures where the wrong person won. They also love to show alternate realities where the same thing happened. Also, with time travel and magic, reality is constantly being rewritten to have one person or another placed in charge, before being changed back. Here are all of the heroes and villains that have taken over the world (at least temporarily).
20 APOCALYPSE
In the Marvel Universe, it's never a good sign when a time traveler shows up. That's because the vast majority of possible futures are complete nightmares. While Age of Apocalypse (1995) gave readers a glimpse of what would happen if the villain rose to power in the modern timeline, Apocalypse's reign was mostly limited to North America. In the future, however, his reach will spread across the globe. This future has been referenced several times, often by Cable, who grew up under the villain's rule.
There have been plenty of glimpses into this horrific future, and Cable's frequent battles.
The best look at this world occurred in The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix (1994) by Scott Lobdell and Gene Ha. While on their honeymoon, Scott Summers and Jean Grey's minds are transported to the future by Mother Askani. Nathan Summers had previously been transported to the future. Scott and Jean spend 12 years raising Nathan. Meanwhile, Apocalypse seeks Nathan (or his clone, Stryfe), hoping to transfer his essence into the powerful body of the young mutant. The series ends with the heroes defeating Apocalypse, which unfortunately only sets the stage for Stryfe and his forces to eventually take over the world. It's not a fun timeline at all.
19 SUPERMAN
It's a good thing that Superman is such a nice guy, considering that he's the strongest being on the planet (or at least in the top 10). If he ever snaps, though, things could get pretty bad fairly quickly. That is exactly what happened in the video game Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013). At the start of the game's story mode, it's revealed that the Joker finally did the unthinkable. First, he uses Scarecrow's fear toxin to trick Superman into thinking that Doomsday is attacking. Superman succeeds in defeating the beast, only to discover that he was fighting Lois Lane the whole time. She dies from her wounds, along with her and Clark's unborn child.
Joker also uses a nuclear bomb to destroy Metropolis. So, not a good day for Superman. He snaps and kills the Clown Prince with his bare hands. A tie-in comic book series by Tom Taylor revealed that over the following years, Superman became a ruthless dictator, while Batman formed an underground resistance. Both heroes and villains were forced to pick a side, creating some unusual team-ups. Eventually, Batman calls in reinforcements from an alternate universe to help defeat Superman (including a not evil Superman). The Man of Steel's regime falls, at least until the sequel (depending on which ending the player achieves).
18 ULTRON
Spider-Man's never had the best luck, so it makes sense that the world would come to an end while he took a nap. When Ultron attacked in Age of Ultron (2013) by Brian Michael Bendis, he swept across the world like a plague. The heroes, taken by surprise, were barely able to escape with their own lives as they watched everything around them crumble. What was left of the Avengers eventually discovered that Ultron had won by attacking from the future. When they attempted to launch a counter strike through time, they found an Earth completely dominated by the robot.
That's the problem with attacking the future, the people there already know what the people from the past did.
Luckily, Wolverine decided to act like a maniac and travel to the past and kill Hank Pym before he could invent Ultron. Of course, doing this created another alternate reality where the Kree/Skrull war had come to Earth and that Morgan le Fey had risen to power. So Wolverine has to go back in time again, and stop himself from killing Pym. They then convince Pym to write a hack into Ultron's code that they can use to disable him when he attacks in the future (without destroying the timeline).
17 MAESTRO
In The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect (1992) by Peter David and George Perez, Bruce Banner learned how bad things could get when it comes to the Hulk. After a nuclear war kills off most of the life on Earth, along with almost all of the superheroes, an insane version of the Hulk seizes control. Due to the radiation, along with the general bleakness of the situation, this Hulk is nothing like the version fans have to come to know. Not only is he completely evil, he also has Banner's intelligence along with enhanced strength. Obviously, he is not a benevolent leader. He also starts calling himself Maestro, which only adds a level to his generally evil attitude.
The Hulk from the modern era of the Marvel Universe (in his Professor Hulk persona) ends up being transported to this horrific future. Horrified by what he sees, he comes to blows with Maestro. After an initial defeat, Hulk is able to kill Maestro using a time machine. He transports Maestro back to the gamma explosion that originally created him. Since Maestro is a future version of himself, this means that the Hulk died and was created in the very same moment. Time travel is confusing.
16 THE FRATERNITY
Sometimes, letting the bad guys win doesn't seem so bad. In Wanted (2003) by Mark Millar and JG Jones, the world has been taken over by a group of supervillains known as The Fraternity. While most worlds run by villains are shown to be dystopias, the world in Wanted is relatively similar to the real one we inhabit. The only difference is that a secret society of supervillains will sometimes do something like murder everyone in a coffee shop and not get in any trouble for it.
Sure, it has its negatives, but it's definitely not as bad as an Injustice world or one of Marvel's nightmarish Age of (insert villain name here).
The story centers around a man named Wesley Gibson. Unaware of the Fraternity, he's a generally meek individual leading a fairly boring life. He eventually learns that his absentee father was actually a supervillain known as the Killer. Wesley is taken in by the Fraternity and begins a rigorous (and extremely dangerous) training regime, until he builds up enough skill to take up the mantle of the Killer. After stopping a revolt within the Fraternity, he learns that his father secretly had him trained so that Wesley could kill the original Killer. Apparently, the elder villain felt that no one else would truly be worthy of the honor.
15 WANDA MAXIMOFF
The Avengers have faced some of the greatest threats in the universe, but nothing could fully tear the team apart like of their own. In Avengers: Disassembled by Brian Bendis and David Finch, the Scarlet Witch goes crazy and uses her powers to alter reality and attack the Avengers. They eventually defeat her, after which Magneto takes her to Genosha. He and Professor X spend the following months unsuccessfully trying to heal her broken psyche. The Avengers eventually reform and travel to Genosha with the X-Men to figure out how to handle her. Wanda responds by unleashing her powers again, this time rewriting all of reality and subtly ruling its very fabric.
The story occurred in the pages of House of M (2005) by Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel. Wanda changes the world to be more friendly for mutants. It wasn't a dystopia, but it also wasn't a great place to live for non-mutant humans. She also makes most of the heroes' deepest desires come true, which restores Wolverine's long missing memory. This ends up being her downfall, as he remembers the real world and begins "waking up" other heroes. They eventually set the world straight, but only at the cost of most of Earth's mutants being depowered.
14 GOD AND SATAN
Since his earliest appearances, it was clear that Spawn was meant to play an important role in the battle between Heaven and Hell. It also quickly became clear that things were more complicated than Hell being bad and Heaven being good. Angels (and other agents of Heaven) were shown to have little regard for human life. Likewise, while Hell had plenty of evil denizens, it seemed like plenty of innocent people ended up there as well. Spawn basically decided that he wasn't interested in helping either side, and mostly tried to do what was best for him and those he cared for.
When they regained their full memories, both called forth their armies and humanity is wiped out.
That became a problem when Wanda became pregnant with twins, who ended up being the reincarnation of both God and Satan. A higher power, known as the mother of creation, hoped that being born as humans would help them gain a new appreciation for life. Instead, it drove them insane. When they regained their full memories, both called forth their armies and humanity is wiped out. Granted, they only did this to clear the battlefield for their own fight. Luckily, Spawn was able to use powers granted to him by the mother to create a new Earth and reincarnate life there, safe from God and Satan's eternal fight.
13 SAVAGE DRAGON
Never trust someone with a mysterious origin. Take, for example, Erik Larson's Savage Dragon, who first appeared as part of the Image universe in 1992, was first discovered in a burning field with no memory of how he got there. No one else seemed to know where he came from, either. Naturally, he joined the local police force and helped keep Chicago safe from various supervillains. He spent years working as one of the good guys, completely unaware of the horrifying truth. It turned out, Savage Dragon was actually an alien named Kurr, and he definitely wasn't one of the good guys.
Kurr was the leader of a nomadic alien species that had targeted Earth. He was betrayed, however, and was left on the planet with no memories while his race moved to other parts of the galaxy. When he finally regains his memories, he reclaims his true identity. He slowly started acting more and more aggressive, until it was clear to his loved ones that something was wrong. He then proceeds to unleash a virus across the planet, killing humanity and leaving the planet for his own species. The Earth was only saved when a body containing the heroic Savage Dragon persona travelled back in time to prevent Kurr from killing humanity.
12 THE JUSTICE LORDS
Sometimes, it seems like there's a pattern in the DC Universe. When one of their heroes goes bad, it has huge consequences. So, what happens when all of the heroes go bad? The Justice League (2001) episode "A Better World" answers that question. The League is discovered by an alternate reality version of themselves, calling themselves the Justice Lords. Their world diverged when Lex Luthor wins the presidency and the Flash is killed. When Luthor threatens the world with nuclear war, Superman snaps.
As the President rants about how he'll always come back, Superman ends it by using his heat vision to kill him.
The League, having finally crossed that line, seize power across the entire world. They impose their will, forcing the population to behave. Of course, they claim this is for the good of the people, but they basically destroy freedom across the globe. When the Lords pull the Justice League into their world, they're eventually defeated by the actual good guys. The heroes team up with their version of Lex Luthor, who uses a device to strip the Lords of their powers. Seeing this world, however, had a lasting impact on the heroes. Mainly, it helps fuel Amanda Waller's paranoia against the metahuman population.
11 KANG THE CONQUEROR
Once again, the future sucks in the Marvel Universe. One of the Avengers' most chronologically confusing villains is Kang the Conqueror. He first appeared in Fantastic Four #19 (1963) by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, although he was ruling ancient Egypt under the guise of Pharaoh Rama-Tut. He had travelled there from the future, before adopting the Kang persona. After a battle with the Fantastic Four, he would bounce around the timestream for a bit, ending up in different eras. He eventually ends up in the 40th century, where he ultimately conquers the world. He doesn't stop there, however.
Not content to conquer the world in one time period, he plans on conquering all of time. It's not really clear how this world work, since there are clearly plenty of eras that he doesn't rule over. Also, due to all of the time travel, there are multiple versions of Kang running around, and they often come into conflict with each other. Eventually, Kang turns into Immortus, an agent of the time keepers. Even more confusingly, Kang and Immortus don't necessarily get along, meaning that Kang fights himself from time to time (pun intended). Both Kang and Immortus have been killed multiple times, but due to their time travelling lifestyles, it's never the last time either one is seen.
10 DOCTOR DOOM
Out of all the villains in the Marvel Universe, Doctor Doom is the most dangerous. While he's come close to (or temporarily succeeded in) conquering the world, Doom's greatest triumph occurred during Secret Wars (2015) by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic. After the multiverse started collapsing, with each reality crashing into each other, Earth's greatest minds desperately searched for the cause. It was discovered that the Beyonders, an ancient race of powerful beings, had caused the mass destruction. With all of reality on the line, Doom teamed up with Dr Strange and confronted the beings. Amazingly, he successfully overpowered them, making himself the most powerful being in what was left of reality.
Doom, calling himself God, then recreated a single universe, made up of parts of each alternate Earth.
Ruling over the new planet, called Battleworld, Doom reigned supreme for an astonishing eight years. The new world was far from perfect, with a giant wall separating the livable areas from the dangerous parts of the planets (which were infested with zombies or Ultron-bots). Using an army of Thors, Doom kept the various populations in check, and wasn't afraid to use lethal force. Luckily, Reed Richards and several other heroes survived the original destruction and returned reality to its proper place.
9 DOCTOR DOOM (WITH PURPLE MAN)
Of course, Secret Wars (2015) wasn't the only time Doom "won." He also successfully took over the world in Marvel Graphic Novel #27 (1987) by David Michelinie, Mark Gruenwald, Jim Shooter and Bob Hall. To be fair though, Doom was only able to do this with a huge assist by Purple Man, so he can't take all the credit. The storyline, Emperor Doom, sees the majority of the world brainwashed into believing that Doom is their leader. This is done by amplifying Purple Man's mind controlling powers. Of course, some people are immune to the villain's power, so Doom's control isn't one hundred percent.
Under Doom's control, however, are the Avengers, who he uses as his enforcers. The problem is that Doom's world isn't a complete dystopia. In fact, there are plenty of positive aspects, such as world peace and the eradication of crime. Of course, this is accomplished by also eliminating freedom. Wonder Man, immune to Purple Man's control, is able to free several of the Avengers from Doom's grasp. Together, they're able to bring the madman down, but the heroes are left wondering if they actually did the right thing, trading all of humanity's safety for freedom.
8 THE THANAGARIANS
During the first two seasons of Justice League (2001), Hawkgirl was the most mysterious member of the team. She claimed to be an alien that was stranded on Earth when she was accidentally transported to the planet while chasing intergalactic criminals. Despite her mysterious past, she was a loyal and valuable member of the team, and began a romantic relationship with Green Lantern. That all changed, however, when the rest of her race, the Thanagarians, arrived on Earth. The planet had come under attack by another race, the Gordanians, who were mortal enemies of the Thanagarians.
The Thanagarians overwhelm Earth's forces, and even send the Justice League into hiding.
Hawkgirl revealed herself to be an advanced scout for her race. Unbeknownst to her, however, the Thanagarians planned on destroying Earth to build a hyperspace bypass. The Thanagarians overwhelm Earth's forces, and even send the Justice League into hiding. Hawkgirl learns of her race's true plans for Earth and betrays them, helping the League. While the League is able to reclaim Earth and drive off the Thanagarians, Hawkgirl is still left in an awkward position. Both the human heroes and her home race feel betrayed by her, and nobody is sure they can trust her. The League votes on whether to keep her, but before they can reveal their decision, she steps down herself.
7 THE APOCALYPSE TWINS
Despite their namesake, the Apocalypse Twins are actually the children of Archangel and another one of Apocalypse's horsemen. Shortly after birth, they were kidnapped by Kang the Conqueror, who raised them to conquer the world. The twins returned to the modern era during Rick Remender's run on Uncanny Avengers (2012), fully grown and full of anger. Using Thor's axe, Jarnbjorn, they murder a celestial and pin it on Earth. This causes the ancient race to send Exitar to kill all life on Earth. At the same time, the twins launch a plan to remove all of the mutants from Earth, so they can be transplanted to a new planet.
Amazingly, the twins successfully defeated the Avengers Unity Squad (although one of the twins, Uriel, was killed in the process). The surviving twin, Eimin, led the mutants to a world known as Planet X. She ruled there for several years, until the surviving Avengers struck a deal with Kang to travel back in time and stop the initial destruction. Of course, Kang betrayed the heroes and attempted to conquer the world for himself before being defeated. While the twins' victory was eventually undone, at least one of them successfully ruled an Earth for a pretty long time.
6 THE SENTINELS
Building an army of giant robots to hunt down mutants seems like an obviously bad idea, but that didn't stop Bolivar Trask. Anytime humanity's protection is put in the hand of robots or any other sort of artificial intelligence, things go terribly wrong. In the present, the X-Men have always been able to handle the Sentinels. In the future, however, things may not necessarily work out as well. In Days of Future Past (1981) by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, it's revealed that the Sentinels will eventually conquer North America. After hunting down a majority of the mutants, the giant robots turn their attentions towards the rest of the world. While an adult Kitty Pryde is able to travel to the past to keep this world from existing, several future timelines have been shown to be ruled by the Sentinels.
This story served as inspiration for a 2014 film, which showed an even darker future than the one from the comics.
In this world, the Sentinels reach seems to extend across the entire globe. The future X-Men are essentially powerless to defend themselves, and only survive by using constant time travel. Luckily, this future is actually erased when Wolverine travels to the past and prevents Mystique from assassinating Bolivar Trask, thus causing the Sentinel program to be scrapped.
5 THE MARVEL ZOMBIES
During Mark Millar's run on Ultimate Fantastic Four (2005), that universe's Reed Richards made contact with an alternate reality version of himself. At first, it seemed as if he had contacted the 616 Reed Richards, but it was all a trap. Convinced to build a device to open a doorway between realities, Reed discovers that he's actually been communicating with a zombie version of himself. Even worse, he finds a world ravaged by superpowered zombies. All of humanity has been wiped out, except for a small handful of survivors. The zombies have run out of food, and their plan is to jump to the Ultimate Universe and eat the humans there.
Ultimate Reed learns that the virus originated from another alternate reality (which might be connected to the Evil Dead franchise). When an infected being crashed onto Earth, it only took a matter of days for the virus to spread across the globe. After Ultimate Reed escapes the zombie world, that universe's version of Galactus arrives. The zombies defeat him and gain cosmic powers, leading them to eat all life across the universe. While a small handful of humans hide from the zombie plague on Asteroid M, they're only able to regain control of the Earth after the zombies leave to feed on life across the cosmos.
4 THE RED SKULL
What would happen if all of the villains banded together? Well, according to Mark Millar, they would decimate heroes and take over the Earth. A future where this occurred was explored in the storyline Old Man Logan (2008) by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. A flashback reveals that Wolverine was tricked into thinking that the X-Men were under attack. Believing himself to be fighting off villains like Sabertooth and Omega Red, Wolverine tore through his foes.
Only too late did he realize that Mysterio had tricked him, and he had just butchered all of his teammates.
It's also revealed that similar events occurred across the globe, and the entire thing was orchestrated by the Red Skull. Old Man Logan picks up years later, where the world has been divided into different territories, each run by a villain (or group of villains). Some are the classic variety, others are new versions. For average people, the world is a nightmare. Various gangs roam the countryside, and the average life expectancy is pretty low. From what is shown of the world, it seems like the vast majority of people are barely scraping by, while the Red Skull lives in luxury. At least, he did until Wolverine killed him, but he still had a pretty good run.
3 THE JOKER
For most of his history, the Joker has never really seemed interested in taking over the world. He's mostly just focused on creating chaos, especially when it comes to Batman. He's never shied away from robbing a bank, but his schemes are mostly centered around proving some sort of point. That's not to say that he wouldn't conquer the world if he could, he just doesn't have the power. Unfortunately, that all changed when Mister Mxyzptlk encounter the clown prince of crime. The interdimensional being accidentally revealed his true name to the madman, granting Joker 99.9% of his reality altering powers.
The storyline ran through the Superman comics, starting with Superman #160 (2000) by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness. Joker's reshaped reality is as insane as one would imagine. Countless people are murdered in brutal and bizarre ways. Batman gets it worst of all, being murdered and resurrected over and over again. Eventually, Superman teams up with Mxyzptlk and the Spectre to trick the Joker into giving up his power. It turns out, the Joker's weakness was his relationship to Batman, as being the hero's opposite is how he defines himself. Reality is eventually restored, although Batman is left scarred by his horrific experiences.
2 THE AVENGERS
The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010) never got the credit it deserved. Debuting after the release of the first Iron Man (2008) movie, but before the Marvel Cinematic Universe went into full swing, the show was the perfect balance between the film universe and the cartoons. It was a modernized take on the team, but also wasn't afraid to adapt classic storylines and characters. During the second season, Ultron creates the Vision and attempts to replace the Avengers. Vision betrays his creator and saves the heroes, but is heavily damaged in the process. He spends a month in stasis being repaired, only to awaken to find a changed world.
Based on the Emperor Doom (1987) graphic novel, Emperor Stark puts a different spin on the story.
Purple Man is still the engine for change, but this time the villain is manipulating Tony Stark. His motivation is personal revenge, as opposed to being forced into servitude by Dr Doom. Vision, unaffected by Purple Man's power, is forced to take on the Avengers himself, freeing them from the villain's control one at a time. After all is said and done, Tony is troubled by his role in the chaos. Even though he wasn't in control, he was able to take over the planet fairly quickly, and it leaves him wondering about who he really is on the inside.
1 MORGAN LE FEY
After the events of Onslaught (1996), the Avengers were transported to an alternate Earth, and were assumed dead. Then, during Heroes Reborn: The Return (1997) by Peter David and Salvador Larocca, the Avengers are returned to their proper home. This launched a new Avengers series by Kurt Busiek and George Perez. The returned heroes find themselves immediately under attack by mythic creatures. Every single Avenger ever answers the call, and one of the largest Avengers rosters ever is formed. They discover that Morgan Le Fey is behind the attacks, and is using the Norn stones in combination with the Scarlet Witch's power to rewrite all of reality.
Captain America wakes up in a world where everything has gone medieval. While he's able to break free of Morgan's spell, the rest of the world is still under her control. Cap attempts to wake up the rest of the Avengers, but is only partially successful. Meanwhile, Wanda Maximoff is being held prisoner by Morgan. Wanda uses her power to resurrect Wonder Man. Cap's forces confront Morgan, and with Wonder Man's unexpected help, they're able to weaken the villain enough to return the world to as it should be. As a bonus, Wonder Man remains alive after this encounter, although it takes him several months to fully return to the land of the living.