Dan Liebke's Astonishing Tales

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When people ask me who, of all the pop artists in history, would make the ideal supervillain, I immediately respond with one (1) name:

Rick James.

My reasons are fivefold:

1. He’s SuperFreaky! As far as villainous identities go, The Superfreak is perfectly acceptable. It’s no Doctor Doom or Sinestro. But it still works. He might have to deal with some Warner Bros. lawyers to keep the ‘Super’ prefix, but, hell, real supervillains don’t get hung up on blatant trademark violations.
2. The jail time. The man has spent his time in the calaboose. No doubt he has potential henchmen champing at the bit. Whatever the hell that means.
3. The mind-control of Motown singing groups. We all know of his terrible mental hold over The Temptations. After all, he closes SuperFreak ordering them to do his infernal bidding. (“Temptations sing!” he commands. And they do.) But this control is not limited to the one group of vocalists. No, The Superfreak also holds hypnotic sway over such dread forces as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Contours and The Pips (although not the mentally indomitable Gladys Knight).
4. He’s dead. Nothing spookier than an undead, mind-controlling supervillain.
5. The private nuclear arsenal.

So, y’see, there is really no competition. If Rick James wants to rise from the dead and enter the supervillain business, I fear there would be little to stop him. Sure, Stevie Wonder’s got that Daredevil costume in his back closet, but would he find it in time??

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