User blog:Red Chevalier/PE Proposal: Van Vogt

Time for the next Cyborg 009 PE. Please make sure to also read Skull's proposal.

What is the work?
Cyborg 009, a landmark manga series written by Shotaro Ishinomori, the creator of numerous other popular superheroes and manga series, including Kamen Rider and Super Sentai.

Cyborg 009 originally ran in the 1960s, and follows a multi-ethnic team of nine cyborgs each with a different superhuman power, led by the titular Cyborg 009, as they do battle against the nefarious Black Ghost organization and other evil-doers looking to start wars and conflict. The manga has had many anime adaptions along with books and movies over the years, but for the purposes of this proposal I will be mainly referring to the manga itself and the 2001 anime adaptation, The Cyborg Soldier, which (loosely) follows the plot of the manga.

Who is the villain?
Van Vogt (also known as Von Vogt, Von Bogoot in the English dub of the 2001 anime and Van Bogart in the Tokyopop English translation of the manga), the second-in-command of Black Ghost under Skull and one of the main antagonists of the "Underground Kingdom of Yomi" arc of Cyborg 009. Van Vogt is a Black Ghost executive who poses as a businessman to provide cover for his exploits and also the one behind the construction of Black Ghost's ultimate weapon, the Demon Statue.

His name is also, fun fact, a tribute to science fiction author A.E. von Vogt.

What does he do?
Van Vogt's first notable action is to invade the underground Yomi civilization and drive out its current rulers, a race of lizard people known as the Zattan. While liberating the Pu'Awak people from the Zattan's oppressive rule, Van Vogt's rule proves to be not much better, as he enslaves the Pu'Awak people to work on the Demon Statue and takes the five Pu'Awak princesses as his servants, with the princess Vena acting as his secretary.

At some point, Van Vogt was assigned to deal with the 00 Cyborgs before they could uncover Black Ghost's operations in the underground. To do this, Van Vogt first abducted three childhood friends of Joe Shimamura/Cyborg 009 and forcibly converted them into cyborg assassins before assigning them to go and kill their old friend. When the three cannot bring themselves to snuff out Joe, Van Vogt executes them all in front of Joe by detonating the bombs he placed inside of them.

Later, Van Vogt erased the memory of the Pu'Awak princess Helen and arranged for the 00 Cyborgs to stumble across her and take her in so she could be a sleeper agent inside their residence. After having found the 00 Cyborgs' home by using the psychic link the five princesses all share with each other to find Helen's location, Van Vogt sends his cyborg men to destroy the home and kill the 00 Cyborgs and leaves Helen for dead. Vogt's callous betrayal of her sister causes Vena to turn against him and to guide the 00 Cyborgs into the underground so they can stop Van Vogt.

However, through the princess Daphne Van Vogt discovers Vena betrayed him and attacks the 00 Cyborgs as they are venturing into the underground, causing them to become separated from each other. After his cycloptic robots capture Cyborg 004 and Vena, Vogt has them tied up in an arena and sends robotic animals to maim them. Before his robot creatures can reach them though, they are saved by Cyborgs 007 and 008.

Later on, Van Vogt discovers the other Pu'Awak princesses have betrayed them as well and takes them hostage. After Skull uses the Demon Statue to kill the remaining rebelling Zattan and completely level the Yomi kingdom, Van Vogt goes out to confront the 00 Cyborgs and threatens to kill the three Pu'Awak princesses unless they hand over Vena and Helen. Not wanting their sisters to be harmed, Vena and Helen give themselves over to Van Vogt. However, as soon as all five of them are within his grasp, Van Vogt guns the five princesses down as punishment for their "treason". This act leads to a confrontation with the 00 Cyborgs where Van Vogt is killed by a very angry 004.

Heinous Standard
Van Vogt is responsible for almost as many atrocities as his boss, including forcibly converting three innocent people into cyborg assassins and sending them out to kill their childhood friend, the slavery and eventual genocide of an underground race, and mercilessly abusing five princesses before killing them when they reject his rule. He's one of the most vile villains in the manga, possibly more than Skull since his actions leave a personal impact on the 00 cyborgs, and his actions definitely stack up their with Skull's.

Mitigating Factors
None. He's just a dick.

Final Verdict
Big yes. Let him accompany Skull into the Pure Evil realm.