How far will real people go to ensure a place in the comic book lexicon? It’s not enough for one fellow Austinite Alex Gray to be the best superhero he can be. No, no, he’d rather be living the life of a super-villain, and he’s currently shooting a documentary about his adventures over the next year in the pursuit of such nefarious plans. You can follow his progress at his Web site, aptly named Villain 101…

“The documentary will include interviews but will focus on exploring whether or not it is possible to live the villainous lifestyle in the real world. I will not be breaking any laws but I want to see what it is like to have a base, henchmen and a notorious persona.”

DON’T WE ALL?

Yep, it sounds a bit over the top — it is Austin after all — but the money, time and effort being exerted is all real, with focus groups and such. And, there’s that recruitment drive too (want to be a henchman, lieutenant, agent, soldier or just a minion?). My only contention: The name of our super-villain in the making is The Anachronist, not nearly as groovy or bone-shaking as Lord Vile, Baron Blight or my fav of the bunch, The Necromentor (sounds like an expensive medical device), but I guess it’ll work.

And, in the “no bad deed goes unpunished category,” even villainous neophytes in the making like The Anachronist, still face their just desserts at the end of the day: Mr. Gray couldn’t get out of jury duty.

This sounds like fun! I’ll be keeping you posted on this one…

This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2007 at 9:30 am and is filed under Comic Books, Industry, Internet, Movies, News & Views, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.