system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Marvel/DC] Why do some villains only want to take over specific cities? Is their goal to simply be a non-democratically elected mayor? And how would this new leadership work within the context of a state and federal government?

There are a lot of supervillains who want to take over cities but I genuinely wonder what their ultimate goal is and how it would really make sense. Does "taking over" a city mean you become the mayor? And the villains who want to simply be a king of a city, how would that work in regards to the larger state government and federal government?
gpt
Think of it like expanding their territory they start of with some small amount of control their "neighbourhood" where they are the boss and the most powerful person around and they are looking to expand that area as far as reasonably possible. Taking over a city is a large undertaking and once you take it over it's a hard job to make sure rival gangs and upstart wannabe bad guys aren't doing jobs without your knowledge or planning to dethrone you. Even on a city scale that's a monumental amount of work it would be impossible on a world wide scale so they shoot for a reasonable goal. As for what their responsibilities are they run the underworld of the city they get a cut from things done on their turf and have to be consulted if anything big (bank heist, major robbery, political decisions, etc) goes on so it can be approved. They don't usually aspire to be a pencil pusher or a mayor more a figure head that is in charge and needs to be consulted in all important matters but doesn't need to do the other work.