The Mekon

"He was a splendid creation. Emotionless, capable of any villainy." - C.N. Hill

A mean, green, evil-machine. Oh, and lean. With a huge head. Smart? Very. The Mekon may have begun as just a figurehead of evil in a 1950s British boy's comic, but he came to represent evil incarnate to a generation of people growing up in a changing world.

He was "born" in The Eagle comic on the 2nd November, 1950, pitched against the future hero Dan Dare. As the erstwhile leader and Chief Scientist of the Treens (which as we all know are the race inhbiting North Venus), his large brain-pan and spindly limbs are testament to the fact that he's a sheer genius. Specially bred for his intellectual capacity, his atrophied limbs mean that he was forced to travel around on a personal "flying saucer" (controlled by the power of thought, naturally).

From his Treen base of Mekonta, and the initial battle with Dare, he was removed from his position as Treen leader, but continued a personal bloody vengeance against our hero. From Venus he escaped to Mercury, and later, launched a direct attack on Earth. Finally, he appeared to vanish, but in an inevitable plot turn, will materialise somewhere, sooner or later...

...as of course he did, resurfacing in the 2000 AD comic, with a radical makeover, but still the sworn enemy of good, and still on his levitating chair, so as a villain, he's been around a long time.

The Dastard

His inventiveness knew no bounds; he was forever devising new weapons, and strategies for deploying them against his mortal enemies, the Therons (South Venusians, and the peaceful allies of Earth). This put him into conflict with space pilot Dan Dare on many occasions, and yet despite his dizzying intellect, he continued to make the classic Evil Overlord mistake of not killing Dare at the first available opportunity.

The Mekon is a driven man creature, determined to control the whole planet, and dominate all, which brought him into conflict with the Interplanet Spacefleet pretty much all the time. A classic villain, he appears both malevolent and determined, with no savings graces whatsoever - he is heartless, soulless, dishonest and cruel. Unafraid to build and use terrible weapons, including chemical weapons to commit genocide or win a battle, he is a formidable enemy. A comparison with Doctor Who's Davros and Star Wars' Darth Vader is not out of the question - both in appearance and action, he was indeed, evil incarnate.

In the British Media, he is still frequently identified with many public figures, from Margaret Thatcher and William Hague to the football referee Pierluigi Collina and many others, due to the resemblence either physically, morally or ethically. Finally (though possibly not quite fittingly), of course, the band Mekons was named after him.

Palpz points out that Darth Vader becomes good, the Mekon probably won't. Point taken.

Sources: memory and a host of internet fan sites.
http://members.aol.com/cnhill/fh.htm