Popeye: Coming in at numero tres is the man who coined the phrase, "Tha's all I can stands, 
and I can't stands no more!" Popeye the Sailor Man. Who wouldn't love a tobacco smoking, tattoo 
sporting, mumbling son of a gun with forearms the size of fire hydrants? And to top it all off he 
kicked some serious booty, while sending a message to children across the world: eat your 
spinach and be stong like me. How many of you fell for that one as a kid? What's astonishing 
about Popeye was that when he was first introduced as a character, the Nation's spinach 
producers enjoyed a 30% increase in spinach consumption. "Well, blow me down!"

Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget: To this day, the following Villain is probably the greatest 
mystery to arise out of the 1980s...greater than the whereabouts of Bubbles, Michael Jackson's 
chimp.  Dr. Claw was the faceless terrorist who spent his days plotting against Inspector 
Gadget from his surveillance  room, accompanied by his evil cat. In my book, anyone who 
spends his days petting his kitty must be up to no good.  Dr. Claw ranks number three on our 
countdown due to his elusiveness.  Nobody ever saw Dr. Claw's face.  Children would come 
back week after week with the false hope that the likeness of Dr. Claw would be revealed once 
and for all.  To tell you the truth, I still check in just in case. In the end, Gadget never caught Claw...so if you see 
a man with a silver glove and a spiked bracelet carrying a cat, take a picture, kids everywhere are waiting. 
[WARNING: THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN 5...4...3...2...1...]

Wordworth from Heathcliff:  Premiering, in 1984, "Cats & Co.," which aired 
immediately following the Heathcliff cartoon, featured Wordsworth as a member of 
a gang of felines called the Catillac Cats: Riff Raf, Hector and Mungo (hmmm...
latino cats?). Always speaking in rhyme and wearing his ear phones and roller 
skates, Wordsworth goes down in history as one of first mainstream cartoon 
characters inspired by the fledgling hip-hop movement of the early 80s. For his 
freshness he lands at number five.    

She-Ra Princess of Power - That's right...I said it, I said it!  She-Ra was evil, for a minute.  
People tend to forget that before she realized that He-Man was her twin brother, she tried to 
kill him.  That's right, she tried to kill He-Man.  In episose 84 of He-Man: Masters of the Universe, 
She-Ra captured He-Man and stuck him in a glass chamber meant to suck all his powers away.  
Luckily, He-Man was too strong for such tomfoolery and was able to escape, but only to realize 
that this hussy was his sister.  Anyone that tries to kill He-Man is a villain in my book.  So for that, 
she goes down as the number 5 villain on the Nicademiks Top 5 Heroes and Villains Countdown.  
But we'll give her brownie points for changing her ways.  

Mighty Mouse:  Coming in at number four is perhaps the second most famous rodent of 
all-time (second to Mickey, of course), none other than Mighty Mouse. Boasting a sharp 
yellow and red ensamble, with a chest to match that of Rane, Mighty always seemed to get 
the job done and saved his damsel in distress. With his catch phrase, "Here I come to save 
the day!!" Mighty is credited for inspiring Marvin Benard, Mugsy Bogues, and other members 
of the 5'8" and under club into finding success in life.  

Mumm-Ra from The Thundercats - Of all the planets in the universe available for 
colonization, the Thundercats chose to settle on one that housed a mummy obsessed with 
Thundercat artifacts and Thundercat murder.  Mumm-Ra was a worthy adversary.  For the 
most part, Mumm-Ra was a weak old mummy, but he had the ability to cast spells which 
would transform him into an enhanced muscular blue demon Mumm-Ra, fully capable of 
thundercide in the first degree.  Fortunately for the Thundercats, Mumm-Ra had an Achilles 
Heel...if he saw his reflection in a mirror, he would be transformed back into his weaker version. You would think 
the Thundercats would have wore reflective uniforms or discovered some obvious solution.  So for all his evilness, 
Mumm-Ra ranked number four on the villains list.  Bonus points, Mumm-Ra had a dog name "Ma-Mutt."  

He-Man: Coming in with authority at a solid number two is...He-Man. A self-proclaimed 
Master of the Universe, He-man was every kid's hero in the 80's and is still tucked within the 
hearts of many. From the moment when he first grasped hold of that magic sword as the 
prince of Eternia and transformed into a superhero, He-Man has been a part of all of us. 
(Matter of fact, he just celebrated 20 years this month.) The days of watching He-Man 
cartoons and trying to figure out what the heck Orko, a.k.a. that flying elf/alien that wore 
an outfit from Alvin and the Chipmunks, was will forever bring nostalgia to the heart of this 
nica (*eyes watering...sniff sniff). ahhh...back in the day, when I was just a little gallo pinto...

Skeletor: It is only fitting that on the day He-Man is recognized as the number 2 hero, Skeletor 
is recognized as the number 2 villain. Skeletor was He-Man's evil equivalent.  In fact, if you look 
closely at Skeletor, he pulled a Sean "Puffy" Combs, and remixed He-Man's style:  He-Man wore 
a sword-holder, Skeletor wore a sword-holder...He-Man walked around in his underwear, Skeletor 
walked around in his underwear...He-Man had a feline side-kick, Skeletor also had a feline side-
kick...do you see a pattern here?  In spite of that, Skeletor had nothing but disdain for the Prince 
of Eternia.  Backed by a gang of evil henchmen wearing fuzzy underwear, Skeletor's main goal 
was to infiltrate Castle Grey Skull.  But like the Detroit Tigers, Skeletor could never win. 
Regardless, anyone with a skull as a face should be considered evil, so for that and all the 
aforementioned reasons, Skeletor made number 2 on the Nicademiks Villains List.

Hong Kong Phooey: What do you get when you put a clumsy janitor named Penry together with 
some mean kung-fu fightin' skills? Pure cartoon genius, kid. That clever pairing brings us the 
number one hero to this list...Hong Kong Phooey. Working as a janitor at the police station by day, 
Penry would transform into his superhero alter-ego by diving into a filing cabinet to change into his 
karate fit. He would then bounce out the window backwards and hop into his Phooeymobile, 
completing the transformation into Hong Kong Phooey, a mean, crime fighting machine who never 
left home without his trusty handbook, The Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu. Give it up for the #1 dog 
with the kung-fu grip, who is perhaps this nica's favorite cartoon character of all-time.  

Gargamel: He was your basic poverty-stricken evil magician from South-central Smurf Village.  
Everyone is so sympathetic to those Smurfs, but Gargamel was the real victim…he lived in a shack, 
he owned one raggedy outfit which looks like a hand-me-down from his grandma, no friends, no 
hair, no nothing.  Gargamel had two main goals:  to turn Smurfs into gold or to catch and eat Smurfs.  
The gold was just his way out of poverty and the man has gotta eat.  Just because Smurfs could talk 
doesn't mean they can't taste like chicken.  It seems to me that Gargamel was just the victim of a 
empoverished upbringing. His repeated attempts at Smurf-murder put him number 1 on the 
Nicademiks Villains List...he's arguably the baddest cartoon mofo.