Psychology of Supervillains Club - Meta Madhouse Special Edition

Meta Madhouse is back and this year it’s better than ever and it’s the all Villain edition.

How to participate in Meta Madhouse:
Check out the news article here Presenting DC Universe's Meta Madhouse: Tournament of Terror
Go to https://dcmetamadhouse.com to sign up and get your bracket filled out by March 5, 2020 at 8:59PM PST

How to participate in this thread.
Anything and everybody is welcome.
Posts must follow DC Universe Community Guidelines

From hot takes to in depth analysis and plenty of amusing but respectful smack talk. :sunglasses:

Take any match up, from one of them to all of them, and let us know who you think has the edge and feel free to include the specifically the psychological edge

Resources:
With 64 characters, it’s kinda up to you.
Maybe it’s just your “gut reaction”.
Your personal knowledge of a character(s).
You just read some comics and there are some villains fresh in your memory.

Use the DCU search function to find comics book, animated content, or a character’s encyclopedia entry.

The Legion of Doom has a lot of villains. For them, a couple of resources do spring to mind:
Justice League Unlimited:Season 2
Harley Quinn animated series
Super Friends season 8
Super Friends season 9

A non-DCU resource: Necessary Evil (A documentary on villainy using DC villains.)

Feel free to add on comics and animation recommendations to the club.

Some things to consider:
Sheer power is not always the best measure of a villain.
Who is more ruthless?
Who is more cunning?
Who is the better strategist?
Who is the better tactician?
Who is more committed to their villainous plans?
Who is more capable of playing “head games” and who is more likely to “lose it” and be susceptible to psychological manipulation?

Have fun and I look forward to seeing all the posts and what our members think.

The old axiom is true…villains have all the fun. :smiling_imp:

(A special thanks to @Applejack and the entire team, for the all villains theme this year. This system is more than I could have hoped for and I didn’t even have to bribe anybody either.)

It’s a great time to be a villain!!

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For further background on Condiment King you can read Birds of Prey (1999) #38.

A huge thank you to @Applejack and everyone else involved for making this bracket and contest.

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A few key matchups I see where the psychology really comes into play. Joker and Luthor Brackets first.
Joker Bracket:

Mr. Nobody over Mr. Freeze in the second round (Joker bracket). I thhink Mr. Nobody can really mess with Mr. Freeze’s head. Especially by using his failure to save his wife’s life. That will crush Freeze and give Nobody the advantage.

Star Sapphire over Scarecrow in round 2 as well. Carol has learned from Hal on how to overcome her own fears as well. One thing that can drive away fear is love.

That then brought up Mr Nobody vs Star Sapphire in the sweet 16 match up. I had to give that to Star over Nobody, because we know what Nobody’s Achilles wheel is. That he lost the woman he loves. That is an advantage Star Sapphire can exploit. But, Reverse-Flash takes her out in second in that bracket final.

Luthor Bracket:

Brainiac vs Vandal Savage was a tough second round call. I gave it to the immortal if just fir there cunning and force of will.
Took a flyer on Brother Blood over Bane in round one, knowing that Deathstroke will take out either in round 2.
Same with Riddler over Dr. Sivana in the first round. Ra’s is going to advance over Mr. Mind and Ra’s will take down Riddler or Sivana with easy.
Waller over Black Mask. She is one tough lady. But, not tough enough to takedown Shiva in round 2.

It was the sweet 16 round of this bracket that was really tough. Had to take Vandal over Deathstroke. Immortality beats healing factor every time, and while slate’s fast reflexes are usually a problem for many, Vandal has faced off with all 3 Flashes at one point or another, and could probably up th stakes by injecting himself with some variant of Velocity 9. I think strategy out maneuvers tactics in this match up.

Ra’s vs Shiva in the other sweet 16 match up. Again a hard one to call, Shiva is a greater hand to hand combatant, but, Ra’s can take her off her game by the slight psychological edge. He knows more about her mental weaknesses than she his.

Leading to the Author bracket final Vandal vs Ra’s. This comes down to swordsmanship but Vandal always has an extra knife on him for the stab that wins the match.

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My vote is for the Anti-Monitor, he will win for sure

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I’ve got Anti-Monitor in the Sweet 16 of the Darkseid bracket, and I think he actually goes down to Trigon. They both have the power to destroy entire universes, so I have to give the edge to Trigon because he’s more cunning than the Anti-Monitor. The strange thing is I think Sinestro could take Trigon, as we’ve seen Trigon experience fear. But, they wouldn’t meet up until the bracket final.

If they swapped Granny Goodness and Trigon’s locations in the bracket. It would be the Anti-Monitor taking the bracket easily. But the tournament is all about matchups and when those matchups occur.

I see your rationale, but, I’m going the other way.

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Yeah Mr. Nobody made it pretty far in my brackets. He IS a reality warper, after all… Plus, he has the power of breaking the fourth wall. He can just step outside of his bracket and run to the champion’s spot before voting even begins! And knowing his personality, that’s exactly something he’d do.

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Thanks for the redirect, bro. So, my guys were Owlman, Nobody, Sinestro, and Deathstroke. My winner was Owlman.
So, whenever we start eval-ing these guys, I’ll be there.

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Just posted my breakdown of the Joker’s Maniac’s first round.
This is certainly a bracket where character psychology comes into play.

Let the club know your thoughts, might be a good idea to cross-post a reference to both this thread and the Watchtower thread. Just my opinion.

Villainy has begun!!!

In general, I’m surprised how many female villains made it deep into my brackets. Star Sapphire makes my final four. I have Sinestro winning. It’s a combo of power level, intelligence, drive and experience.

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I think we are really at a time where female villains have really come into their own and have shown the ability to kick butt and take names, just as well as they guys.

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HQ vs Poison Ivy second round breakdown.
(since thus really seems like the tight contest, I’m focusing on this specific match.)

In a head to head matchup, this is where familiarity breeds contempt. If anybody knows Ivy’s attack strategy and style is HQ. HQ is fast and can , move in a quick, chaotic, random fashion. She can bob & weave to get close enough to Ivy to get in the damage she needs. if Pam has two weaknesses, its quick random movement and she doesn’t take punches well.

Not to mention HQ May have already spoken to her and convinced Pam to take a dive perhaps.Pam (as an eco-terrorist) is less obsessed with a completion like this, where as HQ is a supervillain and always wanting to improve her rep.

Physically HQ/Ivy is pretty close, but HQ has the clear advantage from a mental/psychological perspective.

Idk, she has a pretty big ego… And I could see her using this tournament to spread awareness on pro-plant life.

I don’t know that she has an ego big enough to overcome her desire to always help Harley. Which I would think would also cause Ivy to hold back if the fight was serious.

Who take their round two match?

  • Harley Quinn
  • Poison Ivy

0 voters

Feel free to give your thoughts on why below.

So HQ was saved and advances via the Lazarus Pit by Echo Kellum. Ivy crying in chloroform.

I can kinda see it, the vote was close. And there were a few possible extenuating circumstances. Like “The Nuclear Option”.

Plus, I won’t lie, I had HQ over Ivy. So the LP save helped my bracket.

We’ve seen our first LP save of the tournament.
Did it help or hurt your bracket. Do you feel Ivy got cheated? Do you think Echo used the LP save appropriately?

What are your thoughts?

I don’t know about saving my bracket overall, but I had HQ over Ivy, also.

It’s interesting seeing those who think he wasted the save because she’s already a popular character when her popularity had her actually losing this round. Sure, it would have been more entertaining if he had saved Condiment King, but I’m okay with his pick.

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The downside of saving a really unpopular character like Condi King is that he’ll almost definitely be taken out in the next round anyway. So the save might be entertaining right there and then when it happens, but it’ll mean little in the long run of the tournament.

Still not happy about Harley’s revival though. Hoping Reverse Flash absolutely wrecks her, as he would in an actual fight.

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That the thing, an LP save also knocks out somebody. If CK got saved in his first round match. That match was against Reverse-Flash, so Reverse-Flash would be out.

HQ is gonna go down against RF, and this time no LP to save her.

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Not a lot of psychological edges in this round of 16, but depending how the brackets play out, psychology has its place to play in the rounds of 8 & 4.

This round I see Sinestro having the huge psychological advantage over Lady Bleez.

Post up any opinions, views or analysis you want.

The Masterminds bracket has begun.