Masked Mystery Villain

Last updated
A Masked Mystery Villain - The Hooded Claw from The Perils of Penelope Pitstop HoodedClaw.JPG
A Masked Mystery Villain - The Hooded Claw from The Perils of Penelope Pitstop

A Masked Mystery Villain is a stock character in genre fiction. The Masked Mystery Villain was frequently used in the adventure stories of Pulp magazines and Movie Serials in the early twentieth century. They can also appear in Crime fiction to add to the atmosphere of suspense and suspicion. The "Mask" need not be literal (although it often is), referring more to the subterfuge involved.

Contents

He or she is the often main antagonist of the story, often acting behind the scenes with henchmen confronting the protagonists directly. Usually, the protagonists must discover the villain's true identity before they can be defeated. Often the Masked Mystery Villain will turn out to be either one of the protagonists themselves or a significant member of the supporting cast. The author may give the viewer or reader clues, with many red herrings, as to the villain's identity - sometime as the characters find them and sometimes for the audience alone. However, the identity is not usually revealed to the audience before it is revealed to the characters of the story. Even the villain's henchmen rarely know the truth about their master.

The concept was reversed in the serials "The Lone Ranger" and "The Masked Marvel", where the true identity of the hero is unknown and a number of characters remain possible candidates until the end.

The archetype tends to be a popular one to be parodied, often using a literal mask and breaking into a stereotypical evil laugh.

Examples

Serials

Literature

Anime and comics

Television

Films

Computer and video games

Related Research Articles

Chameleon (Marvel Comics) fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics

Chameleon is a fictional character, a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Doctor Octopus Fictional character in the Marvel Universe

Doctor Octopus is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. A highly intelligent mad scientist, Doctor Octopus is typically portrayed as a stocky, myopic man who utilizes four powerful, mechanical appendages, and is a prominent enemy and ally of the superhero Spider-Man, respectively as Doctor Octopus and the Superior Spider-Man.

Shocker (comics) fictional supervillain

Shocker is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Herman Schultz is a career criminal who, after several prison terms for robbery, built a battle suit that sent out shock waves to quickly open safes as well as give him a significant advantage over the police. His criminal career as the self-styled "Shocker" put him in direct conflict with the superhero Spider-Man, belonging to his rogues gallery.

Sandman (Marvel Comics) Marvel Comics supervillain

Sandman is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. A shapeshifter endowed through an accident with the ability to turn himself into sand, he began as a villain and later became an ally of Spider-Man.

Spider (pulp fiction) Pulp magazine character

The Spider is an American pulp-magazine hero of the 1930s and 1940s.

Crimson Avenger

The Crimson Avenger is the name of three separate fictional characters, superheroes who exist in the DC Comics Universe. The character debuted in 1938 and is notable as the first masked hero in DC Comics.

The Scourge of the Underworld is the name of a series of fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Taskmaster (comics) Comic book character

Taskmaster is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in The Avengers #195, created by writer David Michelinie and artist George Pérez. Normally a supervillain but sometimes an antihero and a sleeper agent, Taskmaster went on to feature in numerous Marvel titles, most notably as a mercenary hired as a training instructor by various criminal organizations.

Thunderer (Marvel Comics)

The Thunderer is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Timely Comics.

Scarlet Spider character of Marvel Comics

Scarlet Spider is an alias used by several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. In Marvel's main universe, this includes Ben Reilly, Peter Parker, Joe Wade, a trio of clones known as Red Team, and Kaine Parker.

Skein (comics) Marvel Comics character

Skein is a fictional character, a mutant supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

<i>The Masked Marvel</i> 1943 film by Spencer Gordon Bennet

The Masked Marvel (1943) is a 12-chapter film serial created by Republic Pictures, who produced many of the best known of the serials. It was Republic's thirty-first serial, of the sixty-six they produced.

Puma (comics) fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe

Puma is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is depicted as a villain initially, although he gained a great respect for Spider-Man and became his occasional ally.

<i>Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man</i> comic book by Gerry Conway

Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle of the Century is a comic book jointly published by Marvel Comics and DC Comics in 1976. It was the second co-publishing effort between DC Comics and Marvel Comics following their collaboration on MGM's Marvelous Wizard of Oz, and the first modern superhero cross-company crossover.

The Scorpion is the name of multiple characters in Marvel Comics, almost all of them supervillains.

The Crime Master is a fictional character, a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is depicted of the professional-criminal type, and an enemy of Spider-Man. Created and designed by artist and plotter Steve Ditko with writer and editor Stan Lee, he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #26, published in July 1965. The character was most notable for having briefly been the partner of the Green Goblin. Both villains aspired to take over the criminal mobs of New York, and they formed an uneasy partnership. They were both aware of each other's secret identities, which kept them from outwardly betraying the other. The Crime-Master only lasted two issues, being killed at the conclusion of The Amazing Spider-Man #27; however, there was a second Crime Master in the 1970s, and new stories were written in the pages of Untold Tales of Spider-Man that featured the original character before his death.

<i>The Spiders Web</i> (serial) 1938 film by James W. Horne, Ray Taylor

The Spider's Web is a 1938 Columbia Pictures movie serial based on the popular pulp magazine character The Spider. The first episode of this 15-chapter serial was double-length and directed by serial and western specialist Ray Taylor and by comedy and serial veteran James W. Horne; it was the fifth of the 57 serials released by Columbia.

Green Goblin in other media Marvel Comics character Green Goblin in other media

The Green Goblin is a fictional Marvel Comics alias that has appeared in a range of media, usually by Norman Osborn and Harry Osborn.

The Secret Wars toyline was a short lived tie-in to Marvel Comics' Secret Wars comic book mini-series. The line was produced by Mattel and saw two series of action figures released in 1984 and 1985, as well as a third series of figures released outside North America. Several of the characters in the mini-series never appeared in the toyline, while characters and vehicles not appearing in the mini-series appeared in the toyline.

A serial film,film serial, movie serial or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, generally advancing weekly, until the series is completed. Generally, each serial involves a single set of characters, protagonistic and antagonistic, involved in a single story, which has been edited into chapters after the fashion of serial fiction and the episodes cannot be shown out of order or as a single or a random collection of short subjects.