Your every-day, run-of-the-mill brand-name supervillain is limited in his capacity for amok-running by the very thing that makes him a supervillain: his super-identity. The Riddler is only effective if the crime can be part of a riddle. He cannot apply all of his superpowers in combination with The Joker unless the riddle is also a joke. Mr. Freeze is great at frosting a victim, but he's not the one you're gonna call if you want the town burnt to the ground.

But The Henchman has no problem working with any of these supervillains. He is available to combine forces with the brand-name guys for any and every crime. And because the prima donnas insist on taking full credit, The Henchman always gets away with it. His rates are low, low, low, but his chaos is high, high, high. How does he do it? With his superpower: *volume!*

(The Henchman trademark is the property of Name Withheld by Request Enterprises, Inc., and is registered at the SHVNRO.)
-- beauxeault, May 24 2001

Henchman's Helper http://henchmanshelper.com/
[jaksplat, Jan 25 2009]

"No-one ever thinks of the henchman's family" or something like that from Austin Powers, great part of the film.

I've always wanted to be a right hand man, but I've never known how to hench properly... Think something similar was from Terry Pratchett but I could be (very) wrong.
-- CoolerKing, May 24 2001


...and his sidekick: ...ummm...er...ummm...<scratching head while deep in thought>
-- mihali, May 24 2001


Special credit to Soterios, for the annotation to "The Melanoma" that inspired this.
-- beauxeault, May 24 2001


"...and Sidekick Boy!!"
-- hippo, May 24 2001


I would have thought that 1 in 10 super-villains *would* have a left hand man
-- CoolerKing, May 24 2001


Actually, the proportion of lefties amongst supervillains should be higher than the population average.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 25 2009


That's a very dextrist remark.
-- FlyingToaster, Jan 25 2009


Au contraire - I myself am sinister. Lefties tend to be over- represented at either end of any bell-curve you can think of.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 25 2009



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