The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains Review

The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains Review
By Jon Morris

Review by Stephanie Cooke

Quirk Books has really been doing a lot within the geek realm for the last little while between Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy and Wonder Women both by Sam Maggs, Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen by Hope Nicholson, Geekerella and more, they’ve been making way as a publisher that will put out content for that awesome group of people who’ve been neglected for so long.

In the same realm of the books above, Jon Morris wrote a book that isn’t about superheroes, but rather he focuses on the supervillains. Even more specifically, he focuses on the worst supervillains… and not like the ULTIMATE baddies, like legitimately just the worst villains that have been around in the comic verse titled The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains.

The official synopsis is this: Every hero needs a villain. But not all villains are dangerous—some are incompetent, comical, or just . . . weird. In his follow-up to The League of Regrettable Superheroes, author Jon Morris presents over a hundred of the strangest, most stupefying supervillains to ever see print in comics. Meet D-list rogues like Brickbat (choice of weapon: poisonous bricks), Robbing Hood (steals from the poor to give to the rich), Swarm (a crook made of bees; Nazi bees), and many more. Drawing on the entire history of the medium, The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains affectionately and hilariously profiles oddball criminals from the history of comics.

Morris breaks down each of the villain and gives you a sort of Wikipedia style write up for each of them as he tells you their names, aliases, and what superhero they’re trying to thwart. There’s a snippet from a comic and some other stuff thrown in there, depending on the baddie.

This book is a LOT of fun and I laughed epic amounts going through it and reading about these so-called Regrettable Super Villains. Sure, there’s probably lists online and such that you could find but this is the perfect, fun coffee table book to keep your geeky guests amused while you run around and so host-like things or whatever.

Verdict:
Buy it! As I already said, this book is a lot of fun and is reaaaal silly but in the best possible way. Morris has researched and put together a wonderful project for Quirk Books and I’d love to see something similar done with superheroes, although that might already exist (I looked this up after the fact, and it does actually already exist: The League of Regrettable Superheroes). Focusing on ridiculous Super Villains definitely shines a light on some characters you’ve definitely never heard of before that’ll help up your geek cred and make you extra awesome at trivia nights. You know, if they happen to have an Obscure Super Villains category.

The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains will be out on March 28.