More often than not, superheroes are faced with the threat of the world ending. These apocalyptic scenarios, whether natural, brought about by the antagonist, or humanity’s own shortcomings, are often the primary threat of the story and, although the nature of the threat varies, there is no more terrifying scenario than that of a disease wiping out the whole of humanity.

So, let’s imagine we are a budding archvillain. We have decided that we are going to bring about the end of humanity – as supervillains often do – with an infectious agent. ACME Diseases Inc. have a sale on, and are offering three infectious diseases at a very reasonable price:¹