Privacy. It’s something we come to appreciate even in our early childhood, don’t we. Forming our own little secret club in a tree house we keep in a remote spot in someones backyard somewhere, for which only our closest friends, and schoolmates of common interests and preferences, may enter. Even more so it is appreciated by villains, in reality and particularly in fiction.
It’s not an easy job being a big villain after all. You gotta work hard, long and tirelessly on your projects to overthrow the status quo and/or terrorize the public. You gotta have your back covered, making sure that your goons are incentivized properly, or terrified of you properly, to keep rolling with your evil program.
And on top of that you got enemies to keep at bay, be it law enforcement or secret agents or superheroes or other villains. What you of course need is a secret den of evil. A place that only you and those within your innermost circle know off, where you can plot and scheme and do your naughty stuff in peace.
We’ve witnessed many different secret dens of evil throughout fiction. Most commonly in spy fiction and superhero comics. From hidden nightclubs, laboratories and dungeons to deep jungle- or -remote island complexes. From bases of operations underwater, and in outer space, to mobile fortresses lurking underground (such as the Technodrome in the old TMNT Cartoon franchise).
Sometimes these hidden lairs may be cost efficient and located in a place no one would ever think of looking. Other times they may be something really massive and perhaps a little bit too on the nose to be kept secret for that long, or vice versa.
Supervillains have a rather funny habit of choosing and/or building their secret den of evil in a way that really, really goes in lockstep with their personality and their motif. The Joker tends to always hang out in a theme park or a toy factory somewhere (though let’s face it, it’s probably intentional in his case. He probably really just wants Batman to find him so they can have their playtime together in there. No pun intended).
Doctor Octopus, being the incredibly resourceful and ambitious scientist and inventor that he is, likes to build these massive secret underwater lairs a couple of hundred feet underneath the New York harbour, with electrified floors and walls AND laser turrets.
Man! Crime must really pay if you can afford that kind of crib:P I don’t even wanna think about the electrical bill you’d have to pay to run the place - As a certain friendly neighbourhood Spiderman might say jokishly.
I’m gonna be frank with you readers. If I was a supervillain I’d probably do the same mistake of making my secret den of evil a bit TOO Helixfinger-ish to be kept secret for too long. Being able to scheme and build death machines in privacy is one thing, but you gotta show people how cool and devil-icous your secret dungeon is, you know^^ Especially when you’ve been stuck in it for too long due to a certain global pandemic, am i right?:P
So what are your thoughts on secret dens of evil? What would your hidden base of operations be if you were a villain that can afford one of those? Is there anyone in particular you’d let in to your secret den, or anyone you’d definitely keep out of your secret den?
Let me know in the comments. And I assure you that the location of your secret den of evil will remain secret with me—I promise (Holding my fingers crossed behind my back. Which where I’m from means I just lied to you^^).
Helixfinger out!
Secret Dens of Evil
Andreas_Helixfinger at 12:00AM, Feb. 13, 2022
6 likes!
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Andreas_Helixfinger at 5:40AM, Feb. 15, 2022
@Cdmalcolm1 - Well, cyberspace is a world that is hidden to the naked eye so I'd say it counts. That would be a really cool way to have a secret lair I think. Your lair would basically be your own personal version of the Matrix, from which your weapons and stuff can be downloaded into and rematerialized out of on command^^
cdmalcolm1 at 1:33AM, Feb. 15, 2022
Abandon buildings mean while there is massive secret base underneath it. Or hide in plane view and take up several floors of an office building to operate from. Or a space base…. My favorite one is the slip pocket universe or a Charmed wall leading to an invisible world. Does it count if the hidden base is a digital world or VR?
Andreas_Helixfinger at 9:36AM, Feb. 14, 2022
@Hushicho - Sometimes a need for privacy can be reason enough. Superman has his fortress of solitude after all, to be left alone from all the evil of the world, if we look at the other side of the hero/villain spectrum. And oooh do I love the Technodrome (Tipping my hat to overlord Krang of Dimension X)! It looks amazing and it sounds amazing. The name "Technodrome" just bounces off the tounge so elegantly.
Andreas_Helixfinger at 8:18AM, Feb. 14, 2022
@Coydog - Undersea bases are my favourite kind of bad guy lairs also. And laser sharks to patrol your secret underwater premises is a must!
Andreas_Helixfinger at 8:15AM, Feb. 14, 2022
@Oceanozone - Now that's how a true bond villain would have gone about it^^ All that's missing is an evil cat to stroke^^ Or maybe in your case an evil duckX)
Andreas_Helixfinger at 8:12AM, Feb. 14, 2022
@Jason Moon - So basically Eeve's den of evil then^^ Or Cthulu's:P
hushicho at 10:42PM, Feb. 13, 2022
I love them. Even with some of my stories, where the "evil" warlock is misunderstood but wants to be left alone, they live underground and typically far away from any of the hints of civilization. I think a character like that is a hero/villain? for our age! I love that you used the Technodrome there!
Coydog at 7:33PM, Feb. 13, 2022
For me, a secret undersea base in the most desolate reaches of the Pacific would be my ideal "FU World" place, with subs to resupply and transport me to whatever deviltry I'm up to that week, and plenty of sharks armed with laser beams, hah.
Ozoneocean at 7:07PM, Feb. 13, 2022
https://jamesbond.fandom.com/wiki/Liparus
Ozoneocean at 7:01PM, Feb. 13, 2022
I think I'd go for a submarine if I wanted to be secret. One of the huge missile silo ones. If you got rid of most of the missiles and crew you could probably stay down for a very long time... maybe a year or more. Secret repair and resupply stations or even secret vessels to do that at sea would probably make it even better. Set up your secret resupply base under an uninhabited volcanic atoll in the Pacific. One of my FAVE lairs from fiction was the supertanker from the James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me.
Ozoneocean at 6:54PM, Feb. 13, 2022
It's funny but there haven't been many real secret dens of evil... Only sort of. I like say the fancy Apple, Google and Facebook headquarters. Trump Tower (New York), and Mar a Largo. Hitler's Eagle's Nest. In a military sense there's NORAD built inside a whole mountain. There are the underground Russian missile silos. The underground submarine bases the Nazis built in Norway are the closets to real life secret evil lairs I know of. But there are also the mobile bases: massive spy ships and huge deep water nuclear submarines. The compounds of crazy cults and militias are usually pretty pathetic.
Jason Moon at 12:10PM, Feb. 13, 2022
Great topic. Love it* I like the whole monster idea of dwelling in the underground waiting to eat. Hide all of your tools and weapons/minions down with you until you find the right moment.