As any comics fan knows, a Super Hero is nothing without a worthy foe to battle. For every Batman there has to be a super-villain like The Joker, and for every Superman a Lex Luthor. This deluxe book celebrates nearly eighty years of compellingly corrupt characters from the DC Universe’s remarkable gallery of super-villains. From the Penguin to Harley Quinn and Doomsday to General Zod, DC Comics: Super-Villains explores the story of these beloved baddies through new interviews with acclaimed writers and artists, including Jim Lee, Mike Carlin, Dan DiDio, and Chuck Dixon. Charting the dynamic way in which DC Comics evildoers have evolved throughout the years, the book brings together the very best super-villain art from the DC Comics archives. Also featuring a foreword by filmmaker and comic book writer Kevin Smith, and an exclusive cover illustrated by acclaimed artist Phil Jimenez, DC Comics: Super-Villains is the ultimate celebration of the nefarious DC Comics characters that fans love to hate.

Contributions by Jerold J. Abrams, José Alaniz, John Carey, Maurice Charney, Peter Coogan, Joe Cruz, Phillip Lamarr Cunningham, Stefan Danter, Adam Davidson-Harden, Randy Duncan, Richard Hall, Richard Heldenfels, Alberto Hermida, Víctor Hernández-Santaolalla, A. G. Holdier, Tiffany Hong, Stephen Graham Jones, Siegfried Kracauer, Naja Later, Ryan Litsey, Tara Lomax, Tony Magistrale, Matthew McEniry, Cait Mongrain, Grant Morrison, Robert Moses Peaslee, David D. Perlmutter, W. D. Phillips, Jared Poon, Duncan Prettyman, Vladimir Propp, Noriko T. Reider, Robin S. Rosenberg, Hannah Ryan, Lennart Soberon, J. Richard Stevens, Lars Stoltzfus-Brown, John N. Thompson, Dan Vena, and Robert G. Weiner The Supervillain Reader, featuring both reprinted and original essays, reveals why we are so fascinated with the villain. The obsession with the villain is not a new phenomenon, and, in fact, one finds villains who are “super” going as far back as ancient religious and mythological texts. This innovative collection brings together essays, book excerpts, and original content from a wide variety of scholars and writers, weaving a rich tapestry of thought regarding villains in all their manifestations, including film, literature, television, games, and, of course, comics and sequential art. While The Supervillain Reader focuses on the latter, it moves beyond comics to show how the vital concept of the supervillain is part of our larger consciousness. Editors Robert Moses Peaslee and Robert G. Weiner collect pieces that explore how the villain is a complex part of narratives regardless of the original source. The Joker, Lex Luthor, Harley Quinn, Darth Vader, and Magneto must be compelling, stimulating, and proactive, whereas the superhero (or protagonist) is most often reactive. Indeed, whether in comics, films, novels, religious tomes, or video games, the eternal struggle between villain and hero keeps us coming back to these stories over and over again.

Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane is a staple of the Batman universe, evolving into a franchise comprised of comic books, graphic novels, video games, films, television series and more. The Arkham franchise, supposedly light-weight entertainment, has tackled weighty issues in contemporary psychiatry. Its plotlines reference clinical and ethical controversies that perplex even the most up-to-date professionals. The 25 essays in this collection explore the significance of Arkham's sinister psychiatrists, murderous mental patients, and unethical geneticists. It invites debates about the criminalization of the mentally ill, mental patients who move from defunct state hospitals into expanding prisons, madness versus badness, sociopathy versus psychosis, the "insanity defense" and more. Invoking literary figures from Lovecraft to Poe to Caligari, the 25 essays in this collection are a broad-ranging and thorough assessment of the franchise and its relationship to contemporary psychiatry.

"This study provides some of the first empirical information about the self-reported crimes of adults with genius-level IQ scores. The study combines quantitative data about 72 different offenses with qualitative data from 44 follow-up interviews to describe nine different types of offending: violent crime, property crime, sex crime, drug crime, white-collar crime, professional misconduct, vehicular crime, justice system crime, and miscellaneous crime"--Provided by publisher.

*The Library Edition does not include the LEGO® Minifigure. Celebrate the epic journey of the LEGO® minifigure. Enter the world of minifigures with this fully updated edition. The first minifigure was created in 1978, and today the entire minifigure population could circle the globe more than five times! Starring more than 2,000 of the most popular and rarest minifigures from the LEGO® Minifigure Series and themes including LEGO® NINJAGO®, THE LEGO® MOVIE™, LEGO® Star Wars™, LEGO® City, LEGO® Harry Potter™, and many more. From astronauts and vampires to Super Heroes and movie characters, feast your eyes on the most awesome minifigures of every decade! ©2020 The LEGO Group.

Discover the origins, secrets, and nefarious schemes of the most powerful and corrupt villains in the DC Universe in this lavishly illustrated visual history, now available in paperback for the first time. As any comics fan knows, a Super Hero is nothing without a worthy foe to battle. For every Batman there has to be a super-villain like the Joker, and for every Superman a Lex Luthor. This deluxe book celebrates nearly eighty years of compellingly corrupt characters from the DC Universe’s remarkable gallery of super-villains. From the Penguin to Harley Quinn and Doomsday to General Zod, DC Comics: Super-Villains explores the story of these beloved baddies through new interviews with acclaimed writers and artists, including Jim Lee, Mike Carlin, Dan DiDio, and Chuck Dixon. Charting the dynamic way in which DC Comics evildoers have evolved throughout the years, the book brings together the very best super-villain art from the DC Comics archives. Also featuring a foreword by filmmaker and comic book writer Kevin Smith, and an exclusive cover illustrated by acclaimed artist Frank Cho, DC Comics: Super-Villains is the ultimate celebration of the nefarious DC Comics characters that fans love to hate. DC Comics: Super-Villains is now available in paperback.

As any comics fan knows, a Super Hero is nothing without a worthy foe to battle. For every Batman there has to be a villain like the Joker, and for every Superman a Lex Luthor. This deluxe book celebrates nearly eighty years of compellingly corrupt characters from the DC Universe's remarkable gallery of super-villains. From the Penguin to Harley Quinn, and Doomsday to General Zod, DC Comics: Super-Villains will track the creation of each of these beloved baddies and the dynamic way in which they have evolved throughout the years. The book will feature the very best super-villain art from the DC Comics archives. Visually arresting, comprehensive, and insightful, DC Comics: Super-Villains will be the last word on the DC Comics characters that fans love to hate. All related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC Comics.

Along with Batman, Spider-Man, and Superman, the Joker stands out as one of the most recognizable comics characters in popular culture. While there has been a great deal of scholarly attention on superheroes, very little has been done to understand supervillains. This is the first academic work to provide a comprehensive study of this villain, illustrating why the Joker appears so relevant to audiences today. Batman's foe has cropped up in thousands of comics, numerous animated series, and three major blockbuster feature films since 1966. Actually, the Joker debuted in DC comics Batman 1 (1940) as the typical gangster, but the character evolved steadily into one of the most ominous in the history of sequential art. Batman and the Joker almost seemed to define each other as opposites, hero and nemesis, in a kind of psychological duality. Scholars from a wide array of disciplines look at the Joker through the lens of feature films, video games, comics, politics, magic and mysticism, psychology, animation, television, performance studies, and philosophy. As the first volume that examines the Joker as complex cultural and cross-media phenomenon, this collection adds to our understanding of the role comic book and cinematic villains play in the world and the ways various media affect their interpretation. Connecting the Clown Prince of Crime to bodies of thought as divergent as Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche, contributors demonstrate the frightening ways in which we get the monsters we need.

Embark on an amazing adventure through more than 80 years of DC Comics history! Explore the evolution of DC Comics from Superman first taking to the skies in 1938 to the Rebirth of the DC multiverse and the final countdown of the Doomsday Clock. Comics, characters, and storylines are presented alongside background information and real-world events to give readers unique insights into the DC Universe. Now fully updated, this spectacular visual chronicle is written by DC Comics experts and includes comic book art from legendary artists such as Bob Kane and C.C. Beck to latter-day superstars like Jim Lee and Tony Daniel, and many more of DC's finest talents. TM & © DC Comics. (s19)

DC Comics has created some of the most twisted and complex villainous characters in the world of comics. The third installment in the popular 100 Greatest Moments of DC Comics series, DC Comics Super-Villains features the pivotal acts that shaped the characters of 74 of these bad guys in over 200 pages of art. Every hero needs a villain. In fighting them, the extreme superiority of our heroes is revealed. The methods and morals of villains are usually the key difference between them and the heroes. Batman, for instance, is a vigilante who cleans up the streets while never stooping so low as to kill the deplorable criminals he battles. What makes him truly good is that he upholds these standards even when he's faced with a villain like the Joker, an entity that would arguably be better off dead. Many bad guys cause mayhem for mayhem's sake, with sometimes no apparent reason other than simply being bad. What makes a villain great, however, is the complexity of their character. The truly terrible villains of DC Comics have depths of cruelty that grow with them, and specific motivations driving them. In these pages, you will see these super-villains at the peak of their achievements; committing heinous acts of death and destruction, all to achieve a specific goal. They challenge the heroes and their ideals, seeing the caped and cowled figures as obstacles to be overcome. Compiled by several groups of hardcore fans, these 100 moments are the greatest (worst?) villainous acts in DC Comic book history. A summary of each super-villain brings new fans up to speed, from their origins to their most dastardly revivals. Classic and modern comic book art are shown throughout. Enjoy the most important parts of your favorite story arcs. It's a great starting point for new readers or a nostalgic look for hardcore fans through the villains old and new. An extension of the DC Comics 100 Greatest Moments series for the most dedicated and curious DC comics fan.