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By some definitions, the first supervillain was John Devil, a proto-Fantômas, created by Paul Féval, père in his eponymous 1860 novel, or Féval's nearly-immortal, machiavellian Colonel Bozzo-Corona, leader of Les Habits Noirs introduced in 1863.

Professor Moriarty, the archenemy of Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes, was introduced in 1893.

Dr. Fu Manchu, the antagonist of several popular novels of Sax Rohmer, is credited with popularizing many of the typical characteristics of the modern supervillain, including his sadistic personality, his desire for world domination, and his use of sinister lairs and themed crimes and henchmen.

Rohmer's work had a strong influence on Ian Fleming, whose James Bond novels and their film adaptations further popularized the image in popular culture, like Ernst Stavro Blofeld.