When an alien invasion wipes out all of Earth?s superheroes, the planet?s most hated and feared Supervillain must make a stand, or be the invaders’ next target

A suggested tweak:

When invading aliens wipe out all of Earth?s superheroes, the planet?s most hated and feared Supervillain must take a stand for humanity, or be the aliens? next target.

I think the word "choose" is superfluous; that he will need to choose is implicit.

"Hated and feared" or "hated" instead of "feared". In the story, people could fear him for the trouble he makes, but the audience could admire his style and cunning. (That does happen.) Whereas if he's hated, if nobody anywhere likes him for any reason -- he's a universally despised character by both those in the story and those in the audience -- I suggest this would establish a more dramatic baseline for the arc of character transformation.

[But the subtext of my suggestion could be that I'm over psychoanalyzing -- again -- the nature of the relationship between humanity the protagonist.]

Thanks. As you can probably see took a little bit to nail a short, succinct logline that covered the inciting incident, protagonist and illustrated the stakes. With Dpg's help, and now yours, I haved changed it to all, I think I have finally got there..

Have not read the comments - just the logline.

Not bad! One small change. "most of" --> "all". It's him/her against oblivion. No cavalry to come charging in.

Could not help seeing a few words scrolling up and down. Aboslutely! Your logline told me your (anti)hero has some very hard choices to make.

Good luck moving it forward.

Lx

Thanks for your all your help, very much appreciated.

I think that it is defo a redemption type story, I want to explore his backstory and how he has always had good intentions, but as things just never seemed to go his way, and when he couldn't stop a tragedy he lost it, he started crossing lines got confused about what he was, thought only way to stop anything horrible happening is to simply rule with an iron fist.

So when Earth is taken over and he gets to see what a totalitarian rule is, he starts to realise he can redeem himself and once again become a force for good.

So at the start he is appears evil, but underneath he is a man who is lost, lacking purpose.

His motivation to help will come from what he perceives as getting what he wants, but he'll learn that he can inspire change rather than force change through fear.

What I found appealing in the logline, what prompted me to respond was the notion of the protagonist flipping from a bad guy to a good guy. In real life, sinners flip over to become saints all the time. In both religious and secular senses.

So such a radical arc of character transformation is possible. Without brain implants. I don't know what else to specifically suggest as I'm still not sure what direction you want to take your protagonist in -- hence, the story. Best wishes working out the pieces of the puzzle.

Good points. I guess it could be established that the 'Villains' only survived because they were contained , or imprisoned in a hidden or isolated area (Not Area51, but hidden) so the invaders were perhaps unaware of the their existence, also the humans may hold something over the villains. For example, if their abilities are controlled by the brain, maybe when a villain is caught a device is implanted in to the brain, that suppresses a certain brain wave frequency.

This way the humans actually have an element of control, a bargaining chip. This then leads to the deal with the devil, can they trust the villain enough to turn off his device, and not turn on them.

So when he is released and sees the devastation, and has his first confrontation he comes to realise that all those feelings he has had towards humans, another race is displaying those emotions towards him and his kind, which creates a realisation in him that perhaps he was wrong, plus as we learn about his past we will discover that his methods, desires may appear horrible, but they are born from a need to make sure what happened to him, never happens to another person.

Why would super villains have to make an offer to their inferiors, mere mortals? Why couldn't they decide to defeats the aliens, claims the fruits of victory (world domination) for themselves having cleared the field of all serious competition. (Human beings cannot compete in their league -- that's what being a super somebody is all about, right?)

So either they do it on their own initiative to (finally) achieve world domination OR humans make the offer, to get them to fight on their behalf (for a change) because initially they don't want to get involved.

Why wouldn't they get involved? Because they don't think they have a dog in the fight between humans and aliens. But, of course, they do have a dog in the fight; they do have a stake. Because if the aliens can beat the super heroes, the guys and gals who have heretofore bested them at the end of the day, then it means the aliens pose an existential threat to super villains as well.

And why would aliens conquer humans and not also eliminate the only credible threat left to their domination-- the super villains?

Which brings us back to the situation that the super villains must fight the aliens for their own survival. (The survival of humans being an ancillary benefit.)

I guess that will be the deal he offers at the start, and something he has always wanted. However, I would feel he not want it by the end, he has changed.

Throughout the story we will learn about him, and his past, what made him choose the path he did etc. The story could also show him seeing these invaders in a way accomplishing what he has always wished for - dominance and control over the people - and begins to see why it isn't all it is cracked up to be.

Perhaps when he starts winning, the invaders offer him the same deal, then that could be the moment we see if he has changed or not.

>>but only if he?s made Earth?s ruler if he succeeds.

If that is the way you want him to go, then I suggest having humanity offer him the title as a reward for saving him. A trade off, a Faustian bargain, to merely survive.

What is the way YOU prefer to have him go? What is the character transformation you have in mind?

When an alien invasion wipes out most of Earth?s superheroes, the planet?s most feared Supervillain is forced to unite with the remaining heroes or face being the invaders next target.

When an alien invasion wipes out most of Earth?s superheroes, the planet?s most feared Supervillain chooses to make a stand, but only if he's made Earth's ruler if he succeeds.

When an alien invasion wipes out most of Earth?s superheroes, the planet?s most feared Supervillain is given a choice: Face death row, or fight for humanity.

But what's the motivation for switching from super-bad to super-good? Why would a super-villain do a volte-face, suddenly decide to save the world whose interests and welfare he's been fighting against all his career?

Unless his own survival was also at stake...

So perhaps: When an alien invasion wipes out most of Earth's superheroes, the planet's most feared Supervillain is forced to unite with the remaining heroes in a battle to free the world.

When aliens wipe out all of earth?s super-heroes, the reigning super-villain must unite the other super-villains to save the earth before the aliens kill them too.

(IOW: establish a designated protagonist, the team leader, even if it's an ensemble effort. Just as in the "Avengers", Tony Stark/Iron Man is the protagonist/leader of a super-team.)

Good point.

Maybe could be tweaked too: When an alien invasion wipes the planet of its Superheroes, the world's deadliest Supervillains must unite to defend the Earth.

But if the deaths "are mysterious" how can anyone in the story (and a logline reader) know that the planet is under an invasion threat? (Maybe the mysterious deaths are result of a super-bug!) The logline needs to establish an unambiguous causal link between the inciting incident and the consequent action.

fwiw.

Tweaking that slightly:

When Earth's superheroes die mysteriously, a Supervillain must make a stand and defend Earth from an impending invasion.

Or

When Earth's superheroes die mysteriously, a team of supervillains must unite to defend the planet from imminent invasion.

I am leaning towards the second one here, feel maybe allows for more conflict, and the mysterious nature adds a mystery of what or who killed them, and how.

When aliens wipe out all of earth's super-heroes, the reigning super-villain must switch roles and become a super-hero before the aliens kill him, too.