50 Greatest Super Villains In Comic Book History

24. Sinestro

(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)

Call Sinestro the Lucifer of super villains. Instead of falling from grace among the ranks of the angels, he did it from the Green Lantern Corps, where he was once one of its most highly regarded members.

That makes him unique among our 50 greatest villains. Others have tried to reform or use their abilities for good, but only Sinestro was once actually a hero, albeit one who always had a tendency to take things a bit too far in the name of order. He’s now diametrically opposed to the Green Lanterns, both in terms of power and philosophy, but he started down this road by simply perverting their ideals.

As Hal Jordan’s one-time mentor, there probably isn’t another character around who knows his archenemy better. Making their relationship even more complicated is the idea that Sinestro has a (very) grudging respect for some parts of Jordan’s personality, like the way he can act instinctively instead of planning every move and still find the right course of action.

Yet nothing could convince Sinestro that his way isn’t right. Many villains are self-assured, but perhaps none are as fanatical about the way they accomplish their goals. Even among like-minded beings in the Sinestro Corps, he suffers no fools and no rebellion. Yellow ring-bearers either come around to his way of thinking, or their rings soon end up needing new wearers.

Forget his depictions in older cartoons and the regrettable live action Green Lantern movie. Stick to the source material — especially anything from the time Geoff Johns started his epic GL run on — and you’ll discover a multi-faceted and fascinating character that is the perfect foil to Green Lantern in more ways than one.

Next: No. 23: The clown princess of crime?