Sustainable Dude LORE #2 - Core 7 Villains

In our previous post entailing Sustainable Dude lore, we discussed the daily life and powers of the titular protagonist. But what type of monsters does he actually fight, what are their powers, and why are they acting evil anyway? Let's find out!

(Note that I'm always coming up with more villains and characters, so there's a good chance I'll have to make an update post discussing more of the lore. This is for the main ~7 recurring villains and my favorites.)

[Also sorry if some of the art's kinda inconsistent, you can kinda tell which ones I made more recently)

 Zeno ze Zap Zap - A power hungry electricity beast. ⚡

• AGE: Young Adult (20 - 30)
• PRONOUNS: He/him
• HEIGHT: 16'+
• POWERS: Electricity-bending, Energy stealing, Possessing people (temporarily)

Zeno originated from a distant planet of many electricity beasts (including magnet men), but he stood out as being one of the biggest of them all, and having a loud, cocky attitude. He would always transport across cables, and try to intimidate the people of the planet, but they were often annoyed by his behavior.

He was the son of the Negative Namco and Positive Pamo, both more well-respected. He always dreamed to prove how powerful he could become, but his parents were concerned by his out of control behavior, and tried to discourage him.

He eventually got fed up with them, and left his planet on his own accord to prove them wrong. When Zeno made it to Earth, he knew he would make it his mission to prove to his parents- and his planet, how powerful he could become. And that started by taking over planet Earth. He took control of a small abandoned power plant, where he began his endless plans to steal energy. (He just has to stay clear of water though!)

(Note: I retconned him having a "gray base" he spawns from, as you see in the image. Now he just slides around on his fiery...bottom)

Dr. Pillbody - A mad pathologist (sick in the head). 💊

• FULL NAME: Staphen Fection Pillbody
• AGE: Middle-aged (35 - 45)
• HEIGHT: 5'6
• ETHNICITY: German-American
• POWERS: Super-grows germs, commits medical malpractice, plans pandemics

Mr. Pillbody was a man who had a lot of potential as he grew up in the science field, and graduated from university. However, he was also mocked for some of his ridiculous or downright dangerous ideas relating to pathology. Not helping was people making fun of his nose. (The nickname “snozman” keeps haunting him.)

Pilbody himself was rather resentful and petty, and eventually, this culminated in one of his reckless projects nearly destroying the lab. He was kicked out shortly after (with his scientist registration ripped). After he got home, in an angry fit, he ended up exposing himself to mutated bacteria DNA, causing him to grow some of his freaky features he has now. 

When he looked at who he became…he knew his true calling as a villain. He rented his own private lab, and has since sworn vengeance against the world…he wanted to show how germs are underestimated, and how people have always underestimated HIM! DOCTOR PILLBODY!

**Doctor Pillbody is as far as we aware, not an actual licensed doctor. You may be liable for compensation if you were ‘treated’ by him.

Carmen Footprint - An elderly factory worker. 🚭

• AGE: 68
  
• HEIGHT: 5'1
• ETHNICITY: Afro-Latina
• POWERS: Quick coal-mining, controls smoke and carbon, extremely

Carmen grew up in a rather busy, old-fashioned household, and was the youngest of many children. Her parents worked as coal-miners and factory workers, meaning their family made a whole bunch of waste. She didn’t mind this, especially as she had already lived in a rather polluted neighborhood. Eventually, she entered the coal mining business once she was 18.

However, while her family stayed stagnant, the world was evolving. Her neighborhood was slowly becoming more eco-friendly. Her family was shunned by new residents for never changing their ways. Eventually, their factory lost most of its sales, and each of the family members were forced to leave their old residence due to debt. 

Carmen, now 68, decided to move to a modest suburban area, and was brainstorming how she would quickly restore her family’s legacy, regardless of what the world thought of her. One night, as she was searching through a coal mind, her hair got stuck on a statically charged piece of coal. She managed to pull it out, but she felt a strange shock throughout her body. 

She soon realized she could now control large masses of coal and smoke. She quickly took advantage of this, and managed to rebuild a large, far away factory. She’s now planning to make it bigger and better than any other factory the Footprint family had made, using her powers!

When she’s not in the factory, she lives her days in the town as an inconspicuous woman who makes cookies for the children of the neighborhood. Just an ordinary senior citizen…(who also has a serious smoking problem)

Nersha Joule (Inersha) + Fred Newton (Friction) - The forces of evil. (And complete nerds) 🤓

• AGE: 13 (N), 18-20 (F)
• HEIGHT: 5'3 (N), 5'7 (F)
• EDUCATION: WeldAndMeld Junior High (N), (F is alumni)
• POWERS: Hoverboards, archery (F), excellent teamwork (the terrible 2!)

Nersha Joule always had a forlorn life. Her parents were rarely home and she spent most of her childhood studying far away from the foul children outside. She was dedicated to her studies, but had a lazy attitude towards most social stuff. And deep inside, she wished she could just show them off without being made fun of.

Fred Newton was also rather aloof as he grew up, being bullied by most of his former classmates for his triangle head. However, he also had an uptight attitude, which is why he aspired to be motivational and push people to do what they wanted.

One day, after Nersha got a B-, she was distraught and wanted to amp up her studies. Coincidentally at the time, Mr. Newton (having recently graduated), became a tutor in hopes to “influence the new generation”, so she signed up for his daily classes immediately.

As soon as the two of them met, Fred knew Miss Joule had potential. He always pushed her to not stand down- to fight back and to think proudly of herself. And even though she was annoyed by his uptight attitude, she viewed him as her first true friend. (She also ended up being his only student because no one else wanted to be taught by local "isosceles man".)

A few weeks into their tutoring, Nersha was complaining about how jealous she was of Devon for their skateboarding abilities. Fred then proposed a crazy idea on how they can truly prove themselves in this world-…by becoming supervillains. 

They then began building on their own special outfits and hoverboards to reign over the town, with Fred equipping himself with an arrow. They dubbed themselves Inertia and Friction, two unstoppable forces that will always get what they want! Everyone will bow down to them, and they'll always get their way!...Always, always, ALWAYS!

The Recyclops - A gluttonous cyclops who loves trash. ♻️

• AGE: ??? 
• PRONOUNS: It/its
• HEIGHT: ~1ft (first form) ~16ft (final form)
• POWERS: Insane appetite; uses tentacles to reach food

The Recyclops' origin isn't truly known, but it's mainly suspected to be a foreign alien. It was discovered in an abandoned recycling plant. In it's first form, it really small, a bit slimy, but rather meek and cute. It grips people in with it's big ol' yellow eye. However, people also found out it has a rather voracious appetite- not for anything typical, like food or plants. No, this fella liked...trash. All types of trash, plastic, batteries, compost, the list is endless.

Initially, humans adored how the creature could consume all their trash, like a bottomless landfill. They thought they'd never have to worry about waste management again!...but they were soon mistaken. Eventually, the Recyclops grew in both girth and anger. It got even hungrier, and began terrorizing the people of the town. What was once an answer had become a problem.

Thankfully, before the apocalypse could begin, S.D. found that what shrunk the creature was feeding it sorted, recycled trash instead of clunky, random trash. It liked routines and being clean, so it gradually calmed down. It's still residing on Earth, but Sean makes it his goal to deter the humans from overfeeding it again, and to not always rely on it for waste management overall. So as long as it doesn't break out of its' cage or someone messes with it...everything will be fine.

Mitchell Imperious / Rich Mitch - An entitled wealthy boy who likes to lie.💲

• AGE: 14
• HEIGHT: 5'7
• EDUCATION: WeldAndMeld Junior High
• POWERS: Illusions, scams, flying, manipulation

Mitchell Imperious was an affluent teen, enjoying his spoiled life. Everyone at school respected him, and he felt like a king! That was until his indulgent father was arrested for a scam. Once he was bailed out, his mom realized that she didn't want her son following his footprints, so she divorced his dad, and transferred Mitch from his private school to public school for a "fresh beginning". He viewed the switch as unfair, but was at least glad to be in the 8th grade above all the “little kiddies”.

However, when he expected to instantly become the most popular kid on the block again, he instead faded in the background as his classmates ignored him. He was APPALLED! How dare the students of WeldAndMeld Junior High ignore him! (Peasants.) Soon enough, he desperately begged for attention by bullying and acting like a bigshot. It was to no success, and actually landed him in detention multiple times. Everyone found him annoying, a stark contrast to his life at private school. His teacher told him repeatedly if he wanted to get noticed, he’d have to actually be a “somebody” in the classroom.

One night, while it was raining hard, and he was walking home from detention (because he was too vain to be seen on the bus), he began ranting to himself about how he just wanted people to bow down to him, without any hard work on his part. He picked up a metal pipe, and with all the resentment in him, yelled for people to JUST NOTICE HIM! That’s when he was struck by lightning...a special type of lightning.

When he got back up, he found himself in new clothes, and the pipe he was holding now charged with power. He now had the ability to conjure up easy illusions, like a magician. He also found out he could lie extremely easily now, and everyone would believe him without a seconds' thought. …and not only could he lie, he could FLY! With his new powers, his attention-seeking mission was accelerated, as he could now had the confidence to deceive or scam people easily and sway them in by flaunting his wealth. Watch out for him...blond, skinny, Rich Mitch.

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Those are all the main villains I came up with for the Sustainable Dude universe. There's still some various other ideas I have for creatures and allies Sean may have. Some quick examples (and what could be coming up):

• The Box-Ox is a concept I have involving an Ox-...shaped like a box. I imagined him having a story relating to animal farming.
• The Chemquad is an idea involving a team of microscopic elements, namely Adam (an atom), Ian (an ion), Iso Tope (an isotope), and Elle E. Mental (an element). Genius names, I know.
• Gegnomes, a species of alien gnomes who know nothing about hereditary, so they constantly get into wars on who is related to who.

The Sustainable Dude universe is always expanding, in order to touch on more science topics and give Sean more battles to fight! I'm looking forward to sharing more of these stories, where we get to see a pre-teen superhero save the world...and learn middle-grade science!

- ninesevenpotatoes, 2026

The Science World of Sustainable Dude - #1: Who IS Sean Labolg? (& PWUFY)

Imagine a world plagued by science supervillains. Energy beasts that take as much electricity as possible. Mad pathologists who try to spread destructive pandemics. Old factory-working ladies who significantly contribute to climate change. And...lazy nerds who want their way.

In short, imagine our world but a lot of environmental issues are dramatized like an action comic.

So, who exactly is to protect that world from the science based disasters it faces nearly daily?

Of course, it’d be none other than a seemingly average middle school boy, who goes by the superhero alias…

SUSTAINABLE DUDE!

But who exactly is this super kid, and what are some of these monsters he fights with his brain? Let’s take a deep dive into his world!

OUR PROTAGONIST

• FULL NAME: Sean Ramone Labolg
• AGE: 12
• PPRONOUNS: he/him
• ETHNICITY: Japanese-Irish
• NATIONALITY: American
• EDUCATION: WeldAndMeld Junior High
• HEIGHT: 5'4

Meet 7th grader Sean Labolg. (I usually pronounce his name as "Sheen"). On the surface, Sean appears to be a relatively ordinary middle school student that usually blends into the background. But he’s not too generic either.

Sean is described by most people as "gung-ho", as he is very bold and not too afraid to fight for what's right. He's into typical "middle-school boy" stuff like video games, exploring, and avoiding his schoolwork. Speaking of his schoolwork, what is there to say about his life at school?

Sean is by all accounts, an average student, but that doesn't mean Cs and Bs...in most classes. He's pretty smart in fact, especially in science (jee who'd guess), but he just does his work with the past of least-resistance, so the final result does seem average. Many of his teachers say he's not putting his full potential.

Sean does not like to admit he's a bit of dork, which is why he mainly looks up to his older friend and local "cool kid", Devon Mettgold (they/them). We'll learn more about their relationship in a later post, but for now, know that Devon is even more confident and rebellious compared to Sean, and they know how to skateboard amazingly! So Sean tries to imitate that, to...varying results.

His family and friends are even more vast than I'm describing, and once again, I'll get into the nitty-gritty of his siblings/parents when its' important.

So in all, Sean Labolg is typical. He's somewhat impulsive, but not truly a troublemaker, just trying to be himself, with his clearly uncombed hair and bright shirt. Just your normal boy.

Well...that's what most people would think. But what they don't know is beyond the surface, Sean is far from ordinary. In fact, he is extraordinary. This is where his super science ego of Sustainable Dude enters the picture.

HIS SUPERHERO LIFE

When Sean becomes Sustainable Dude, that perky, confident bold boy takes his skills to the new level.

First of all, in order to activate his persona, he presses his finger against his chest and yells his superhero catchphrase..."RETAIN AND SUSTAIN!"

As a superhero, he has your typical "Superman Parody" powers, such as flight, speed, and increased strength. He also has tools that can help him. His goggles can magnify things like a pair of binoculars. And as you can see, he has a super-powered pencil named P.W.U.F.Y, which stands for "Perfect Writing Utensil For You". What a mouthful. PWUFY may look like an ordinary #2, but he's is also a super-powered tool. We'll learn what he does in a bit.

With all those typical powers aside, you can guess what his best power is. Yes, as cheesy as it sounds, his strong scientific inquiry is his most prominent super-power! Sean is quite clever and a quick-thinker, so he tends to analyze situations and can easily find science-based solutions to his problems. Of course, he can mess up because...he's literally a child, but he does learn through trial and error.

While this one doesn't come up much, another science-related ability he has is his ability to talk to animals of all sorts! He's had some...interesting conversations with squirrels and fish to say the least. Then comes Sean's responsibility as a superhero. There's the everyday things like a cat stuck in a tree or a runaway robber, but for the most part, Sean's main adventures have to do with science-based villains.

 

While we'll explore this more in the next post, Sean faces enemies that are small and large. For example, his first ever (and most powerful) enemy is that of Zeno ze Zap Zap, a beast of personified electricity that hopes to take over the world. Or maybe he's butting heads with the plague-filled mind of Dr. Pillbody, a mad pathologist who...is also trying to take over the world.

Overall, Sean's duties as a superhero are mainly to protect the world and it's people using his brain. For the most part, I try to integrate basic science themes relating to sustainability with his missions. Like if Zeno's trying to take over energy again, Sean must find ways to conserve energy. Or if Pillbody's planning another pandemic, Sean must use his knowledge of epidemiology. It's awesome...and kind of corny that this middle-school student can outdo supervillains using middle-grade science. Sustainable Dude aims to be both entertaining...and educational! 

(If your curious on when and why I started this series specifically, I'll probably discuss that in a future post!)

P.W.U.F.Y'S POWERS

PWUFY by all definitions is a multi-purpose tool, except with INFINITE amount of purposes! Usually he can shift into whatever tool Sean decides he needs for the situation. Like above (even though it's small), PWUFY transformed into a makeshift syringe for Sean to guide the super-sized shigella...because why not?

Another example of  PWUFY coming in clutch would be this sketch panel, where Sean is fighting against the triangle-headed villain Friction. Sean, using his goggles and knowledge of sweat, figures that he can defeat Friction by overheating him. So, he commands PWUFY to become a mirror, reflecting the sunlight and stopping the villain!

Here's a lightning round of more of PWUFY's abilities:

• His lead tip can shoot beams of energy.
• He can turn into a compass/magnet.
• He can turn into a magnifying glass.
• He can become a makeshift watch that can briefly shift time.
• He can turn into a thermometer.

The list is endless! Of course, there is a limit to his power. Depending on how much energy the transformation requires, PWUFY can only stay in some of these forms for a temporary amount of time. After that, he must spend a good amount of time recharging his powers. What, do you think I'd give Sean an infinitely powered pencil with no drawbacks?

And as a foot-note, it's important to consider PWUFY is not just a tool; he's still sentient, and he has a personality. I'd describe him as relatively supportive and curious, but he can also be a bit a jokester and come across as condescending with Sean. I'd also say mentally, he's about 9 to 11 years old, a little younger than Sean.

P.S. I've also considered some concept art of what PWUFY would be like as a human, who I named Pen Pen Sil! While there's nothing final yet, I imagine PWUFY would sometimes take this form for safety. After all, which would Sean be less likely to lose in public and someone be less likely to take if it was left behind? A ordinary pencil, or a human child?

ENDING

(This is a WordGirl parody)

This raps up today's post looking into Sustainable Dude lore. I kept simple today, exploring some of Sean's powers, his personality, his role in the world, and don't forget PWUFY! However, this is the mere tip of the iceberg relating to Sean, because there's still a lot to be answered.

What villains does he actually fight? Who are Sean's family and friends? What happens at school? Does anyone else know about his secret identity? Did any superheroes come before him?

All of those will be answered in the future, as I hopefully expand the S.D. Universe, where this science-themed boy continues to the save the day and teach science at the same time. Here's some specific ideas I have:

• Villains in SD (Zeno, Dr. Pillbody, Carmen, etc.)
• Sean's family & friends
• Other misc. allies
• Full lore on his origin (More on Shawn)
  
• Some story ideas & scripts
• Why I made Sustainable Dude (aka 7th grade flashbacks)

If you'd like to see any of these, let me know! Thank you for reading through, and I hoped you liked it. If you want to ask any clarifying questions or have feedback on my worldbuilding and how I could improve it, please do so.

And remember...RETAIN AND SUSTAIN!

- ninesevenpotatoes, 2026