Ink Pen by Phil Dunlap for June 29, 2012

I don’t know about that first line about “a bunch of villians but none are much of a challenge.” Seems most heroes have a decent list of super villians who offer them some kind of serious challenge and then face a bunch of henchmen or everday criminals who offer little in the way of a challenge to them.

I had a sound-based villain who had a lot of henchmen. So many that the other villains complained they couldn’t find good help these days, because of the henchman shortage.He retired in shame when even the media started calling him Sonic the Hench-hog.

Please, the preferred term is “People of Hench.”

By the way, this inspired me to look up the etymology.

“Henchman” comes from the Middle English hengestman or “groom” (like in a stable; it’s a “bridle term”, not a “bridal term”), which comes from the Old English hengest, “stallion.” So literally a henchman is a guy who holds his boss’s horse, and it isn’t necessarily a pejorative term. Its non-obsolete meanings include “trusted follower” or “right-hand man.”

Yes, I have been bonked with a hench. It’s less painful than a wrench and not as appealing as a wench.

And henchmen aren’t supervillians. Their the red shirts of the villian world.