Reviews by Kyle Ellis

Nevermind that he looks like a really pissed off cockroach, this sentient organism made of fear is responsible for turning one of DC's most beloved heroes into an intergalactic mass murderer.

The original storyline to position Green Lantern Hal Jordan as a villain was so controversial (in a good way), that it was repurposed by writer Geoff Johns as means to re-invent Jordan's brief but bloody reign as Parallax.

Originally designed as a creature to be more monster than symbiotic threat, the thing evolved into a major player, especially in the events making up the Sinestro Corp's offensive. The evil fear monger's new license on life has continued to engage fans by contributing consistently satisfying drama to the epic universe that belongs to the Green Lantern Corps.

It's all about the 'stache. Omni-Man, the former premier superhero-turned-villain in Image Comics' Invincibleuniverse, is notable not only for his superhuman abilities (strength, speed, and invulnerability), but also for his sweet moustache. Moustaches, as it turns out, are customary among males of the Viltrumite race, an alien civilization from when Omni-Man (AKA Nolan Grayson) comes.

Arriving on Earth under the guise of helping our planet, Omni-Man took on the secret identity of a best-selling author named Nolan Grayson. He married a woman whose life he had saved, and had a son, Mark Grayson -- Mark would become Invincible, the series' protagonist.

Father and son came to cataclysmic blows when Omni-Man revealed his true intentions to his son -- he was sent as a conqueror by the Viltrumite Empire. Omni-Man flees when he realizes he is unable to kill his son, and takes refuge on another planet.

As a result of his failure on Earth, Omni-Man is captured by his own people and sentenced to death. But he is rescued just before execution by former foe Allen the Alien, to whom he reveals that the Viltrumite race is actually near extinction. The pair then set out on a crusade to destroy the Viltrumite Empire, moustaches and all.

Once upon a time, an advanced humanoid species was planting seeds with life spores. A meteor hit one of their ships and hurled it into the planet Arthros. Generations later, one of the spores evolved into an insect-like creature, which somehow was extremely intelligent and found a knowledge transference helmet to get even smarter. Thus is the story behind Annihilus. This same old story again?

Since he came from humble beginnings being a seed spore and all, Annihilus turned out to be somewhat paranoid about his survival and set out to destroy anything he saw as a threat - aka everyone. With help of the power of flight, an insectoid exoskeleton with armor that can withstand blasts from even Galactus, super strength and a guard of 100 aliens by his side it wasn't so hard.

Annihilus' most important tool though and the one which leads to much strife, since he won't share, is his Cosmic Control Rod. With it he can manipulate cosmic energy to change the molecular structure of matter and project gigantic amounts of destructive energy.

Annihilus wouldn't let the Fantastic Four borrow the Rod when Sue Storm had cosmic ray-related pregnancy complications. They just stole it. Annihilus even abducted the Richards' son Franklin to tap into his powers to further his own. Reed Richards had to shut down his own son's brain for a while just to protect the Earth's Solar System. Oh, and he would have killed Thor once if Odin hadn't intervened.

It depends on who you ask, but Omega Red, aka Arkady Rossovich, was just your average Russian soldier/serial killer/child rapist. One story says he was captured by Interpol agent and X-Man Banshee. Another tells that his fellow soldiers executed him for his child-related transgressions and he somehow survived. Either way, the KGB gets Rossovich and tries to make a super soldier out of him. Think Captain America but the opposite.

Scientists had the bright idea of giving Rossovich retractable carbonadium (a more malleable form of adamantium) tentacles instead of his less useful arms. Although quite practical for killing and probably not shaking hands, the carbonadium ended up being poisonous and he had to drain the life out of people just to survive. Besides that great quality which surely makes making new friends a breeze, Omega Red's body can also produce pheromones called Death Spores, which kill normal humans in seconds. He has superhuman everything normal that you have like strength and speed and reflexes and etc. and his body tissue is also harder than yours.

One flaw of Omega Red's is the need for the Carbonadium Synthesizer, which stabilizes his weakness for the alloy. Wolverine, with the help of Sabretooth and Maverick once stole this device, just to make his life a little harder.

Due to Omega Red's unpredictability, the Soviet government (who made him) once froze him in cryogenic animation. He's worked alongside The Hand, Neocommunists, Russian gangster Ivan Pushkin, drug lords like the General and has been the head of the Red Mafia posing as a businessman. He is still looking for the Carbonadium Synthesizer. So if you know of its whereabouts, please contact him. He'll probably kill instead of provide a ransom, though.

The number one cause of coulrophobia (the abnormal or exaggerated fear of clowns) is not, as you might initially think, a bad childhood experience at a birthday party or the circus. Mental health experts believe it may have more to do with children seeing sinister portrayals of clowns in the media. If true, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane may have psychologically damaged an entire generation with the Violator.

A Hell-born demon whose purpose is to groom Hellspawn's in the service of evil, the gruesome Violator's most iconic physical form is the Clown, a disgustingly overweight, short, balding man who wears blue face-paint. His demonic powers include super-strength, shape-shifting, healing, teleportation, and the ability to breathe fire... just to name a few. And if being a real bastard was a superpower, we'd have listed that, too.

Sent to Earth by Malebolgia, the powerful ruler of the Eighth Circle of Hell, Violator is tasked with monitoring Al Simmons. But the foul-mouthed Clown harasses and taunts Simmons, feeling that he is far superior to this newest Spawn. And while he cannot kill any Spawn without an order from his superiors, that hasn't stopped him from making Simmons life a (literal) living Hell.He has been killed numerous times, only to be sent back to Hell and restored to life by his master.

Violator first appeared Spawn #1 (May 1992), he was prominently featured in the popular HBO miniseries, and was main antagonist in the oft-maligned 1997 live-action movie (played by John Leguizamo). The Violator has also made an appearance in every Spawn videogame ever released.

Jason Wyngarde, better known as Mastermind, was one of the more important members of Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The only thing known about his past, though, is that he was a mentalist at carnivals. Carnies are pretty screwed up, right?

Mastermind's powers include casting illusions causing people to psionically see, hear and even touch things that don't really exist. He can make people believe that he is another person or even invisible for that matter. He can even do this to mutants as strong as Professor Xavier and Jean Grey. Being somewhat older with graying hair, he uses these powers to appear younger and better looking.

Mastermind once helped the Brotherhood take over a whole South American country, by creating the illusion of thousands of soldiers. He was part of the Hellfire Club during the "Dark Phoenix Saga," and is basically the main person responsible for turning Phoenix into Dark Phoenix. He manipulated her into believing she was a Victorian aristocrat, married to Jason Wyngarde, and that she was Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. He then basically killed Cyclops in battle. This pissed her off and got her out of Mastermind's control. She then turned him catatonic. When he came back to his senses, he manipulated Rogue into leaving her foster mother Mystique while giving Mystique horrible nightmares. He made the X-Men think Cyclops' fianc Madelyne Pryor was the Dark Phoenix and also compelled Mariko Yashida to reject Wolverine on their wedding day.

Although Mastermind is dead, his powers live on through his daughters Martinique Jason and Regan Wyngarde who are apparently stronger than he ever was. Be afraid.

Fin Fang Foom, by all superficial accounts, is a dragon. He came to earth from his alien world of Kakaranathara, aka Maklu IV in the Maklu system of the Greater Magellanic Cloud, whatever that means, to conquer planets with the help of other members of his race. So where's the best place to go to strike fear in the hearts of people if you're a dragon that's the size of a house? How about China! Is that Godzilla? No, it's Fin Fang Foom.

Some people would argue that hatred is the worst characteristic of the human race, but others swear that it's laziness or apathy. Fin Fang Foom though, has it all wrapped in one. With the help of a mystical herb, Foom can go into hibernation quicker than he can destroy a small village, which is pretty fast, actually.

But don't let his idle exterior fool you; he can be evil too. In one particular story after his body was destroyed, his spirit flew into a statue to reside. Through his power of telepathy, he then willed a small child into bonding with thousands of lizards in a New York sewer to create a new body for him. It's what fairytales are made out of.

Besides his powers of telepathy, he is stronger than the average lizard, can fly, regenerate and has access to advanced alien technology. Oh, and he can project an acidic mist from his mouth. He also can cook a mean General Tso's Chicken since after becoming a follower of Buddhism, he took up a job as head chef at a Chinese restaurant in the Baxter Building. Fin Fang Foom first appeared in Strange Tales #89 (Oct. 1961).

How can you not love a villain whose name is an acronym for Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing? One of the more bizarre looking characters in the Marvel Universe (and that's saying something), AIM technician George Tarleton found himself transformed into a living computer by the group he worked for--with a giant, mutated head, and the need to be fitted into a hover-chair in order to stay mobile.

With mental abilities, comprehension and memory skills far beyond normal men, MODOK quickly proved to be a powerful presence, whose own goals caused him to kill his AIM masters and take control himself. In the process, he became a notable supervillain threat, though one not as strictly tied to a single hero or team as most. Indeed, MODOK has fought everyone from Captain America to Iron Man to Hulk and even Namor and Dr. Doom along the way.

MODOK has returned from the dead more than once and rebelled against subsequent attempts by AIM to once more gain control of him. While his physical nature makes him easy to mock, his mental powers have proven to be deadly for many who have dared cross him. Recently he's been more pro-active than ever, gathering "MODOK's 11" in a scheme that ultimately gave him a new base of operations and followers.

The threat of Thanos lingered in the background of the MCU for years as the Mad Titan journeyed to find each of the six Infinity Stones. What could/would this galactic ghoul want with the Stones, you might ask? Well, he sought to save life... from itself. Knowing firsthand the dangers of overpopulation, waste, and greed, Thanos, and his many lethal "children," were determined to cull the universe and eliminate half of all life. As quick as a snap.

And he did it. Mercifully (if you ask him), half of all life was erased from the cosmos. It took the Avengers, a Time Heist, and Doctor Strange's one-in-14 million outcomes to win the day and return everyone back to existence. But not before our heroes had to face down a past version of Thanos who, thanks to the Avengers meddling with time, now knew erasing half of all life wasn't enough.

Thanos was the savage storm on the horizon. The callous calamity that arrived and shattered the entire universe. And it took the full force of Earth, and even those beyond, to take him down... twice. His actions continue to be felt in the MCU to this day.