Syndrome

Appearance

Syndrome stands six feet and one inch tall, not including the height of his hair. He is barrel-chested and weighs 185 lb. His red hair extends straight up in a manner reminiscent of flames. Syndrome is supposedly "not a super," but he demonstrates exceptional ingenuity, technical knowledge and planning skill far beyond the science of his time.

History

Early years

Syndrome's real name is Buddy Pine. As a boy, he considered himself to be Mr. Incredible's greatest fan, top of his fan club and for all of a few minutes his self-appointed sidekick, "Incredi-Boy." His idol initially humored Buddy with autographs and similar considerations, but did not approve of a child showing up uninvited to announce that they're partners to begin with, much less repeatedly. Although Mr. Incredible eventually resorted to bluntly telling him that he would not tolerate such harassment, the boy was not deterred. Buddy even went as far as to interrupt Mr. Incredible's impending showdown with the supervillain Bomb Voyage, placing himself in danger, forcing Mr. Incredible into a dangerous rescue and allowing Voyage to escape. The rescue ended up causing one of the two lawsuits that Mr. Incredible faced and lost thus opening a floodgate of other lawsuits against supers and thus abolishing Supers altogether.

Incredi-Boy showed advanced mechanical skill by creating his own rocket-boots, but they weren't nearly enough to convince Mr. Incredible, whose callous dismissals ("I can fly". "Can you fly?" "Fly home, Buddy. I work alone.") left Buddy's fantasies crushed. This blow and his skewed interpretation of the event, shown in a later flashback where Bomb Voyage wasn't even present, drove him to a venomous hatred and then to revenge.

Later years

Buddy used his skill with inventions to become a highly successful and wealthy weapons designer, abandoning his conscience in the process. No matter how rich and powerful he became, Buddy never forgot about Mr. Incredible, and formulated his plans for vengeance. Using his best inventions to simulate super powers, he took on the costumed identity of Syndrome and set up Operation Kronos, aimed at eliminating other supers and then portraying himself as their successor. He also explains that he also plans to sell his inventions in the future, reasoning that, "When everyone's super, no one will be."

Operating through his agent Mirage, he contacted various retired superheroes, tasking them with the destruction of various prototypes of the enormous Omnidroid battle robots, leading to the demise of many of the old supers. Deciding that the robot was now good enough to fight his old idol, he had Mirage recruit Mr. Incredible, who was able to defeat the Omnidroid.

After repairing and improving the machine, Syndrome sent to fight Incredible. When the hero was outmatched, Syndrome revealed himself and declared that he would be his nemesis. Using his zero-point technology to throw Mr. Incredible over a waterfall, he tried to finish him off with an explosive device. He sees the explosion in the water, but anyway sends his life-detector to see if Mr. Incredible survived. Mr. Incredible however used a former super's skeletal remains to convince Syndrome that he had been killed by the bomb. Syndrome unfortunately was able to capture Mr. Incredible when the hero tried to infiltrate his base however.

When the rest of the Incredible family followed, Syndrome assumed his prisoner had sent for reinforcements and ordered the plane to by shot down with missiles, taking cruel pleasure in the knowledge that he had killed his enemy's family, taunting, "You'll get over it, I seem to recall you prefer to work alone?". Incredible retaliated by threatening to kill Mirage; Syndrome was unimpressed and refused to save her life, knowing that even with nothing to lose, Mr. Incredible would not kill an enemy. Mr. Incredible let her go realizing that would not make things better. This eventually makes Mirage infuriated and concerned telling him afterword, "Next time you gamble, Bet your own life!" and leading her to free Mr. Incredible from captivity, inform him of his family's survival and help him to escape and reunite with them despite Syndrome's excuses.

Syndrome managed to recapture the super family and re-imprison them, taking the opportunity to elaborate on his plan. He intends to set the Omnidroid on Metroville and then stop it himself, taking the credit and setting himself up as the city's new hero. However, this plan failed, as the Omnidroid's ability to learn allowed it to identify Syndrome as a threat, disabling his remote control wristband and sending him flying into a building. He remained unconscious during the Incredibles and Frozone's battle with his Omnidroid, and was thus robbed of his victory.

With his assets frozen by the secret service, Syndrome made one final attempt at revenge by breaking into the Incredibles' house and abducting their baby, Jack-Jack. This effort too failed, when Jack-Jack's previously unforeseen transforming superpower manifested and allowed him to escape Syndrome's clutches. Finally realizing that he had lost, Syndrome leaned from the side door of his jet plane, vowing revenge and promising to return. However, Mr. Incredible threw his car at the plan, knocking Syndrome off balance. Echoing an earlier scene in the movie regarding the dangers of wearing a cape, Syndrome's cape gets caught in the jet engine, resulting in the apparent death of Syndrome (similar to what happened to Stratogale).

Weapons and Inventions

Syndrome's list of super-weapons he created is extensive, but several notable ones include:

• Rocket-boots
• Zero-point energy ray (traps and paralyzes victim in energy beam)
• Omnidroid robots
• Tracking/scanning devices
• Miniature explosives
• Velocipods