been busy collecting some potential PEs lately but never truly put any up for debate, today I change that and propose a character from DC comics - which is a relatively new one for me.. since I normally do Marvel stuff.. this one caught my attention however and I figured that it earned a place amidst the growing list of particularly nasty one-shot characters readers can encounter in comics books, even before the explosion of exploitation and similar from 90s onwards..
so who are we looking at today?
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Slapper_Soames
Who is He / What Has He Done?[]
Slapper Soames is a ruthless criminal who has gained control over a rural mining community with the aid of hired thugs, he takes great pride in abusing the workers and lives in luxury while forcing the miners to slave away - only giving them rights if it suits him and having his men regularly beat and intimidate them on the slightest whim.
His tyranny begins to grow out of control and he rigs a court into sentencing an innocent man to hanging simply because he was singing songs that encouraged the miner's to stand up to Slapper - however this same man was informed by Slapper himself that the true reason Slapper wanted him hung was so that it would provoke the other workers into rioting, which would give him an excuse to kill a significant number of them and send a strong message about future revolts.
His plans almost work but a travelling Green Arrow and Green Lantern manage to overpower his army and eventually Slapper is punched out by Green Lantern - after the dust settles both he and his thugs are stated to of been convicted of their crimes and sent to jail.
Reasoning?[]
none - he was a sadistic, greedy criminal and thus his motivations were purely self-serving and he had no tragic backstory.. he was also sadistic and gloated over his actions, it was very clear you were not meant to feel sympathy for him at all.
Setting[]
Green Arrow / Green Lantern series was set in wider DC multiverse but focused largely on smaller-scale events on Earth, it was unique for its time in tackling real-world issues - for example Slapper is symbolic of real world greed and worker's rights.. this also meant that villains were usually smaller in motives and resources, while super-villains were around they didn't play as huge a role as they do in other series.
Heinous Standards[]
since this story is largely self-contained he is the heinous standards.
Verdict[]
I say he counts, I'll leave the final vote to you guys.