Nazis Make Great Villains

A Case Study

Those evil bastards, usually but not always necessarily German, make an easy villain for your story. Whether your story takes place from 1933 to 1945 or really anytime after that, making your villain a Nazi gives your viewers an instant rooting interest in your heroes and a hate for that villain. Here are four examples where this works:

A) Red Skull

Captain America's archenemy, Johann Schmidt was a Nazi general and confidant of Hitler who originally wore a red skull mask while coming into conflict with his adversary in publications during World War II. Both characters were put into suspended animation/publication limbo, though, with Red Skull being revived by and later head of terrorist organization HYDRA. Later, after rapidly aging, dying of old age, having his brain placed in a cloned body of Captain America, and abandoning his Nazi philosophy, he was exposed to his favourite poison, the Dust of Death, and his face was turned into the literal version of his once-mask, the Red Skull. Skull, is still pretty much a Nazi, though, once and forever, and is even shunned by other villains such as Magneto (a Jewish Holocaust Survivor).




B) Tyrannosaurus Reich

Tyrannosaurus Reich is a villain of short-lived superhero, Major Bummer, a slacker mistakenly imbued with superpowers by a pair of aliens. T. Reich was pulled to Earth through an interdimensional portal. His dimension: one of Nazi dinosaurs. His abilities include human-level intelligence, tyrannosaurus-level strength, the ability to manipulate firearms, and being epic.




C) Swarm

Swarm is a Marvel comics villain who most often fights Spider-Man. He's no ordinary man, though. No, he's composed of bees. He has a body of bees. Bees. But not just any ordinary bees. No, Nazi bees. Let this sink in. Bees. With Nazi sympathies. Nazi bees.




D) Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

These B-movie-style films are both globetrotting and set in that period of action & adventure film strips, the 1930s. What perfect adversaries for our Dr. Jones then, then our beloved Nazi villains? Who else would you rather see than Nazi interrogator Toht have their face melt off? Austrian collaborating scientist Elsa Schneider, maybe, but she would have to settle to falling into her death down a chasm. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom said, Nazis, no time for love, and instead featured a Thugee death cult.