So my Main Villain he's a Left Wing Terrorist but I'm debating on whether to give him super powers or not. My MC is something of a super hero whose powers are magic based and he's very powerful like he rules his own dimension. Now at first I thought about giving my Main Villain powers to even the playing field but at the same time I feel it takes away from how much of a threat he is. An idea I've got for my Main Villain is for him to be possessed by the spirit of an old enemy of the MC (whose got just as personal a grudge against the MC) but I feel this would be two confusing since it's not really one or the other but rather both at same time. I at the same time considered going the Lex Luthor route with my Main Villain. I mean on one hand making my MC and my MV equals in terms of power has promise but a Lex Luthor type villain also just as much potential. What would be the best direction?
One of the villains I have in mind is a left-wing terrorist who doesn't even know that magic exists, let alone that the hero of that book can use it I think "rules his own dimension" could be tricky to make compelling from a character standpoint, but I think the Lex Luthor angle could absolutely work. If you were going to write your villain as having superpowers, what kind do you think would make for the most interesting story?
Honestly, a Lex Luthor type villain is more interesting and more grounded than making him a generic magic-type villain (who has his own dimension). And since the villain is a terrorist, it would be terrifying to see how he plots against the hero. It's difficult to say anything further, considering the political bait one could easily make out of this. My two cents.
I would definitely give him super powers. My suggestion would be to give the terrorist duplicating powers. With the ability to make disposable duplicates of himself he could become a re-useable suicide bomber, not to mention the advantages of being able to alibi for yourself as long as no one finds out that you have that power. You can literally be a respected pillar of the community while simultaneously having another you running around terrorizing the populace.
If I were to way in, I would say to not give him powers. This opens up some interesting story paths. Path 1: MV starts accusing MC of prejudice against normal people, managing to sway public opinion against the hero. (Kind of like what Lex did to Superman in the Justice League show [the good one]. That did a lot to put doubt of Superman in everyone, including Superman himself.) Path 2: Forces the MC to acknowledge that he can't just use his full power against the MV, as that might kill him. Killing him would do a lot to turn political leaders and activists against the MC, as those types like to put others down for not following their own ideals. The leaders/activists would then use the media to sway public opinion against the MC, so your MC would have to choose to either use his full power, win easily, and face the very likely possibility of having the public turned against them, or going easy on the MV and risk more deaths. Path 3: Super smarts vs. super powers (Always a fun one). I thought I had more, but I guess that's it.
I think not giving him superpowers is way more interesting. It makes him less generic. I find that just going with the magic vs. magic is kind of boring. I personally would prefer the characters trying to outsmart each other over just comparing powerlevels. It creates more of an interesting dynamic if the characters are strong in diferent ways like in the example you mentioned (Lex Luther) rather than just having them both have superpowers and ending up with Dragonball.
Superpowers can be tricky. The reason many people find Superman to be less compelling than Batman is that Superman is too powerful and nothing really poses a threat to him. You said you want your main character to be a kind of god who rules his own dimension. I am having a hard time following why a left-wing terrorist would pose any kind of threat to your protagonist. Without a threat or a credible challenge, you lack any sort of tension. This is why superheroes usually fall into three categories: Street-Level (Daredevil, Punisher, Spiderman), Superhero (Superman, wonder woman, Green Lantern) and Cosmic (The Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Doctor Fate). These categories roughly describe the levels of threat that the hero faces. Superman might dip into a street level fracas, but it is a trivial matter for him that he does on the way home from picking up groceries. You should make sure that whatever threat you pose as the main inciting action for your hero is something that will test him or her.
I'd just like to take this moment to poke fun at Superman as he was portrayed in the Justice League cartoon, the good one from a couple of years back. It really made me happy that Superman, canonically the most powerful hero of the Justice League, continually either gets his superhuman butt handed to him or fails to resolve the conflict. It's just fun to see that Superman isn't a strong as he thinks he is in the show about the team that he leads. Like, remember the episode where he got a hypno-plant stuck on him? Isn't he supposed to have super hearing and super sight? How did that guy, who was quite large, sneak up on him in the first place? Or how about that time that Lex got literally everyone, except maybe Louis, to either distrust him, disapprove of him, or outright hate him? Also, when fighting Lex and Brainiac, both of which are Superman's villains, he couldn't do anything and the Flash had to take care of it? Seriously man, can't beat your own bad guys? It's just, so many people hype up Superman's overwhelming power but really enjoy how that show made him really quite a mundane superhero, it's refreshing.
That's where Lex Luthor earns his keep as Superman's archvillain. His superpower is his intelligence and his cunning. He is a master manipulator above all that though. I forget which comic it was, maybe Red Sun, but one of the moments that made me realize why Lex Luthor was a match for Superman was when Brainiac told Superman not to speak to Luther for more than five (I think) minutes because in that amount of time Luthor could convince Superman to commit suicide. That's what makes him a good foil for Superman. Superman is strong and invulnerable, but also gullible and naive. Luthor is cunning and intelligent but weak and mortal.
