As a culture, we love our super heroes, but it’s possible we love our super villains even more.
That isn’t to say that we root for them to succeed with whatever schemes they dream up. It’s simply an acknowledgement that without worthy foes, it’s difficult to get the true measure of a hero.
On top of that, they have a much wider range of motivations overall, and the truth is that some of them are more relatable. Not many of us (hopefully) have sworn to frighten criminals after seeing our parents murdered in front of us, but haven’t we all had little pangs of jealousy, greed or xenophobia?
There’s also simply more of them than there are heroes, because any established crimefighter ends up with a whole stable of enemies. That made it arguably trickier for the FanSided comics and super hero squad to finalize our top 50 list. Like we did for our 50 Greatest Super Heroes piece, we had the staff of Bam Smack Pow plus the editors of Caped Crusades and Whatever a Spider Can vote for their personal top 30, assigning 30 points to the top villain down to a single point for no. 30.
We also enlisted some friends of BSP in the voting, including Max Parker, the video games writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Dale Plummer, a longtime contributor to SLAM! Wrestling. Both of them are fans who were only bitten by the comic book bug as adults, giving us a slightly different perspective.
The voters were asked to consider popularity, longevity and overall cultural impact in making their selections, but ultimately they were left to define villain “greatness” for themselves. The only explicit guidelines were no votes for villain teams or groups (as in the Legion of Doom or Frightful Four, though we made a lone exception, as you’ll see) and no Catwoman, since she made our heroes list.
It’s a process that seems like it worked, because we feel like the resulting consensus list is a solid one. We hope you’ll agree, and are sure you’ll let us know if you don’t! With that said, bring on the bad guys and girls!
Next: No. 50: A multiversal menace
50. Anti-Monitor
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Despite a silly name and a so-so character design (which was actually even worse when he first appeared), the Anti-Monitor blew my mind as a kid. Here was a villain so powerful that even all the super heroes from worlds throughout the DC Multiverse were barely enough to stand up to him. And his scheme wasn’t something as mundane as taking over the world. No, the Anti-Monitor wanted to destroy everything, annihilating universe after universe with his seemingly unstoppable wave of anti-matter.
That was heady stuff for a young comics reader. It also helped that the story in which he played a central role, Crisis on Infinite Earths, was a tale told on a scale unheard of at the time of its 1985 publication. Not only did it tinker with the very fabric of DC continuity, which changed radically in its aftermath, it killed off several beloved characters in ways that were truly heroic. Both the Flash and Supergirl were among the casualties of the battle to stop the Anti-Monitor, and their deaths held up surprisingly long by today’s standards.
It’s true that Anti-Monitor was basically a zero in the personality department, and even his place in the cosmic pecking order took a drastic step downward when Blackest Night made him the pawn of another villain. That wasn’t really his fault, nor was the fact that he was basically a one-trick pony. You made your move to destroy the multiverse and insert yourself as the creator of a brand new universe, and you failed. What else you got?
I wouldn’t ever expect to see this guy pop up in any Warner Bros. movies, and he’s not likely to come up in conversation with more casual fans, but given his historical significance to super hero comics, I was glad to see Anti-Monitor squeeze onto the last spot on this list.
Next: No. 49: Gamma rays gone bad
49. Abomination
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
When you stop and think about it, the Marvel Universe is very fortunate that the accident that created the Hulk had Bruce Banner as a victim. Other people wouldn’t have shown as much restraint, or been as committed to battling the beast or trying to find a cure. Believe it or not, the Hulk is a best-case scenario.
Consider the Abomination the worst case. Emil Blonsky actually exposed himself to gamma radiation on purpose. Who does that?
As a result, he ended up a monster even bigger, uglier, and depending on who was writing him, sometimes even stronger than the Hulk (not a really, really mad Hulk though). The Abomination was created specifically by Stan Lee and Gil Kane to be a physical match for the Green Goliath, and let’s face it, he doesn’t have many.
The Leader might be the Hulk’s most persistent and enduring foe, but the Abomination is the one who can actually stand toe-to-toe with him. For that reason, he’s been hard to keep out of other forms of media, and his profile has received a boost from both film and animation appearances.
Even my 6-year old son has known who the Abomination was for quite some time. Like the rest of us, sometimes he just enjoys a good old-fashioned comic book slugfest — and this is a villain who can give you that. Blonsky’s intellect, which he retained after going green, might not have been able to pull off anything worthy of getting him further up this list, but being a self-made monster at least gets him recognized.
Next: No. 48: Quite the sparkplug
48. Electro
(Write-up by Daniel Wood, Whatever a Spider Can Editor)
Max Dillon was a quiet unassuming electrical engineer who was involved in a freak lightning accident whilst fixing a power-line, becoming the dangerous super villain Electro, with the ability to manipulate electricity and fly.
Since then, Electro has appeared frequently as a nemesis for Spider-Man — ever since his inception in Amazing Spider-Man #9 all the way back in 1964 — and has managed to remain a prominent part of the Spider-Man universe to this very day. He was even part of the original line-up for the Sinister Six, a super villain team intent on taking down Spidey.
Despite this, he’s always been seen as a peripheral character in Spider-Man’s world, not quite able to break into the ranks of the iconic Spider-Man villains like Doctor Octopus or Green Goblin. In fact, he’s quite often treated as a joke, or an easy opponent for Spidey and others.
Let’s not forget that in their first ever confrontation, Electro actually defeated Spider-Man using his electrically charged touch. There aren’t many villains in Spidey’s rogues gallery that can claim they beat Spidey in their first battle.
Max Dillon hasn’t just been a straight out-and-out villain though, as his storyline has always been tinged in tragedy. He was an immensely powerful villain hampered by a string of failures who just wanted to be normal. In fact, Spider-Man once managed to convince him to retire from criminal activities, and most recently he was de-powered by Spider-Man after destroying an entire prison and accidentally killing someone close to him.
It’s this tragic story that helps propel Electro from a standard comic book villain to a fully fleshed out character deserving a higher status than he currently has. His recent starring role in Amazing Spider-Man 2 has helped address the balance slightly but Max Dillon still hasn’t quite broken through as one of the iconic villains, and that’s why he finds himself way down the list in 48th place.
Next: No. 47: The fifth-dimensional court jester
47. Mr. Mxyzptlk
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Talk about a tough villain to sum up in just a few hundred words. Most of Superman’s enemies want to kill him, take over his world or do something equally terrible. Most of the time, Mr. Mxyzptlk just wants to have some fun, and the best way for an imp from the fifth dimension to do that is to find the perfect straight man. Unfortunately for the Man of Steel, it turned out to be him.
That’s better than the alternative, because this prankster’s powerful magic can be all kinds of trouble if it falls into the wrong hands. We learned that during the Emperor Joker event, because when the Joker got the power to remake all of reality according to his own twisted whims … well, the results weren’t pretty.
Joker was able to seize that power by tricking Mr. Mxyzptlk, something that has happened to him regularly over the years. Adults of a certain age will no doubt remember him from the Super Friends, which seemed to settle the debate over how to pronounce that over-consonanted name. Yes, I just made up a word. It seemed appropriate given who we’re talking about here.
Whether you call him “miks-ill-plik,” “mix-yez-pittle-ick” or something else entirely, you just can’t keep a good imp down forever. There’s no real way to stop Mr. Mxyzptlk, so you’re just going to have to put up with him and do your best to fool him into saying his name backwards or just gets bored enough to leave. He’s proof that simply being a consistently good pest is enough to get you into the discussion of the greatest comic book super villains, and he’s right about one thing: Superman could stand to loosen up a bit sometimes.
Next: No. 46: The totem hunter
46. Morlun
(Write-up by Daniel Wood, Whatever a Spider Can Editor)
The recent Spider-Verse storyline has been full of hilarious and brilliant cameos, tons and tons of different Spider-Men and Spider-Women, and jam-packed with tension, danger and drama as “Every Spider Ever” battles to survive. But it’s also transformed a relatively unused villain into one of Spider-Man’s most dangerous and perhaps iconic foes.
Naturally, when every single version of Spider-Man and Spider-Woman that has ever existed in the entire multiverse are joining together in a battle for survival in an ongoing story-arc, you’d expect the villain behind it to be a pretty dangerous, incredibly powerful adversary, and that’s exactly what Morlun is.
Sure, Spider-Man has already killed Morlun twice, but don’t let that take away from just how formidable he is. Let’s not forget that we’re dealing with a supernatural entity whose sole purpose is to kill and consume totems like Spider-Man. And to make matters worse, he has a whole family of Inheritors doing the same thing.
When Morlun and Spider-Man first came face-to-face, Morlun hit Spider-Man with what Peter described as the hardest punch he’d ever felt. This is insane when you consider that Spidey has battled Hulk, Thor and several of the Marvel Universe’s strongest characters.
Then, in “The Other,” Morlun savagely beats Spider-Man, leaving him on death’s door. It’s only thanks to the timely intervention of another other-worldly being that Peter survives. This makes Morlun one of a handful of people to actually kill the original standard universe Peter Parker.
Still doubtful of Morlun’s villain pedigree? Then you need to consider the sheer amount of other Spider-Men and Spider-Women from different universes that this badass vampire has slaughtered, some of them childhood favourites like the ones from Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends and Spider-Man Unlimited. Morlun has killed Spider-Men at such a scale that Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus would weep at his success.
That’s right, Morlun has done things that would make the biggest super villains in the Marvel universe jealous, and we’re still really in the early stages of the character’s inception. That’s why he isn’t any higher on the list, but don’t be surprised if he starts climbing up in the future.
Next: No. 45: With this magic word ...
45. Black Adam
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Can a character who once killed every citizen in an entire nation as an act of revenge really be considered a sympathetic one? If your answer is anything but “no,” I don’t think we can be friends.
Yet it’s not a stretch to say that Black Adam, throughout his ever-changing history, has always been driven by relatable motivations. Originally, his was a simple tale of absolute power corrupting absolutely, and he’s hardly the only pop culture example of that particular weakness.
More recently, he’s been a man on a quest for vengeance, albeit one powered by the gifts of seven Egyptian gods. He’s angry because his family was murdered, and if he happens to kill some people who have it coming … well, Marvel’s Punisher has been doing the same thing with bullets that Black Adam does with magically-enhanced strength for years, and fans consider him a hero.
Whoops, there I go sliding toward sympathy myself. Prior to the whole wiping out of Bialya thing, even the members of the Justice Society felt Black Adam deserved a second chance. It didn’t take, but at least they had good company in the wizard Shazam in thinking maybe Adam could be steered toward the light.
It remains to be seen where the New 52 version of Black Adam falls on the sliding scale between villain and anti-hero, but you have to admire the complexity DC has given him over the years. With Earth’s Mightiest Mortal as his heroic counterpart, it’d be easy to have Adam conform to some cliched vision of evil, and he’s proven to be much, much more than that. He’ll also be appearing in film form soon, played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, making him an excellent candidate to rise up these rankings a few years from now.
Next: No. 44: A solution, or an even bigger problem?
44. Sentinels
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Lots of people in the real world have experienced being treated differently for some characteristic over which they have no control. The mutants of the Marvel Universe know that only too well, except the prejudice against them has often been enforced by 30-foot-tall killer robots.
The Sentinels are fueled by fear and misunderstanding, except those emotions are not their own, but those of their creators. They’re the powerful means to a horrifying end, and they’ve menaced the X-Men in many forms in comics, and more recently, in the movies as well.
They’ve got staying power, as they always seem to return in new forms packing terrifying new weapons and capabilities. There’s no question that in terms of pure visual impact, the Sentinels are right up there among the best villains in comics, which is why their popularity has carried over to things like toys and video games.
But there’s a psychological aspect to their effectiveness as well. The fact that the Sentinels are never going to stop coming — that there will always be more of them, one step ahead of everything else technologically — is a solid metaphor for the idea that some humans in the Marvel Universe are always going to want mutants eradicated.
As we’ve seen in the future posited by Days of Future Past, the problem is that when you let that particular genie out of the bottle, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to keep it under control. The Sentinels have turned on their masters more than once over the years, but people keep on building them. Such is the nature of anti-mutant fear and loathing.
Next: No. 43: Holder of a multi-generational grudge
43. Baron Zemo
(Write-up by Roger Lee, Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
Making the list of the 50 Top Super-Villains of all time at #43 is Baron Zemo! One of Captain America’s top enemies, Baron Heinrich Zemo was a Nazi scientist during World War Two. He served Hitler and was considered in the same league as the evil Red Skull, with whom Zemo competed against. Zemo is a key villain in the history of Captain America and of the Avengers.
Baron Zemo was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as one of the first truly retconned characters (inserted retroactively into Marvel continuity), when he was first mentioned in Avengers #4 as the bad guy whose evil plot put Captain America on ice (in the movies it was the Red Skull, but we all know the REAL story!), and supposedly killed Cap’s teen sidekick Bucky Barnes.
Zemo also survived World War Two, and upon learning of Captain America’s re-appearance, he brought together the first version of the infamous Masters of Evil, a band of super villains that form one of the primary villain groups to battle the Avengers.
Zemo-as-the-bad-guy stories dominated the first couple years of Captain America’s (and the Avengers) stories in the 1960s after Cap joined the Avengers. While Zemo died in Avengers #15, his legacy is significant. His actions during and after the war formed the basis for all of Captain America’s career from 1945 onward. Zemo was responsible for Cap being on ice until the modern day. He also caused Bucky’s presumed death (which greatly affected Cap emotionally), and indirectly led to the creation of Bucky as the Winter Soldier. And, of course, the Masters of Evil continue to this day and also led to the formation of the Thunderbolts.
That leads us to the other major legacy of Baron Heinrich Zemo: his son, Helmut Zemo, who took up the mantle of Baron Zemo and sought revenge on Captain America and the Avengers for his father’s death. The younger Zemo also formed the Thunderbolts, which was a very cleverly disguised iteration of his dad’s Masters of Evil masquerading as a team of super heroes.
For a guy who has been dead for a long time (and, despite occasional appearances as a zombie, living dead guy, or time-displaced Nazi, he has mostly stayed dead), the first Baron Zemo in Marvel Comics continuity has impacted the course of Marvel for decades.
Next: No. 42: Simply unstoppable
42. Juggernaut
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
This isn’t the only time you’ll see this in villains on this list, but the Juggernaut really is a perfectly twisted reflection of his stepbrother, Professor X. Cain Marko is a selfish bully, while the late Charles Xavier (mostly) put the needs of an entire race above his own. Professor X was physically frail but gifted with extraordinary powers of the mind, while the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak turned Marko into an almost literally unstoppable powerhouse.
Good costume, cool gimmick, smashes stuff … what’s not to like? He even comes with his own perfectly logical Achilles heel, though in his case, it’s actually his head. The Juggernaut’s helmet does more than just complete his look, it protects him from folks like his stepbrother who want to cheat and take him down by messing with his head.
Despite all that, it always seems like the Juggernaut is as close to being a joke (stuff like this doesn’t help) as he is to closing in on the greatest super villains of all time. Writers have had to go to great lengths to show that there’s more to him than just an easily fooled buffoon, even having him serve as a reluctant hero on occasion.
That’s all well and good, but to me, he’s best used as a foil that forces heroes to use their brains instead of charging right into a battle with him. You’re not going to stop the Juggernaut, but you might learn something about what it really takes to be a hero if you ever run up against him alone. Good luck!
Next: No. 41: Time is on his side
41. Kang
(Write-up by Roger Lee, Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
Kang the Conqueror stands as #41 in our list of 50 Greatest Super-villains. Kang is a unique villain in that he comes in so many different personas. Kang is a time-traveling warlord with a serious obsession with defeating the heroes of the present-day. He also has the distinction of having multiple personalities, each of which has proved a threat to Marvel’s finest.
Kang is/was a scholar named Nathaniel Richards, from the 30th Century who discovered the ability to travel through time. He ended up in ancient Egypt, setting himself up as Pharaoh Rama-Tut (first appearance in Fantastic Four #19 (Oct. 1963). He is foiled by the Fantastic Four (we later learn that he is a descendent of Reed Richards and also of Dr. Doom). He then (in his timeline) assumed the identity of the Scarlet Centurion (first appearance in Avengers King-Size Special #2 (Sep. 1968). After that, he appeared as the green-and-purple clad Kang the Conqueror (first appearance in Avengers #8 (Sep. 1964). Much later in his life, he started calling himself Immortus (first appearance in Avengers #10 (Nov 1964), and continued to cause trouble for the Avengers.
His constant trips through time (and his seeming disregard for creating time paradoxes) have led to the creation of multiple Kangs scattered throughout the Marvel multiverse. On more than one occasion, Kang has ended up battling both future and past versions of himself. The most recent (in real time) version of Kang was/is Iron Lad, who (first appearance in Young Avengers #1 (April, 2005). Iron Lad is/was the slightly less evil younger version of Kang/Rama-Tut/Immortus who kills the adult Kang and then has to re-enter the time stream to become Kang to avoid messing up the timeline. Confused yet?
For comic book fans who like a strong dose of science-fiction in their multiverses, Kang is a great villain. He pops up in many places and eras, and had a hand in many of the most significant Marvel storylines. Plus he has that rarest of commodities: all the time in the world.
Next: No. 40: What's cooler than being hot? Ice cold ...
40. Mr. Freeze
(Write-up by Eric Chrisman, Caped Crusades Editor)
Mr. Freeze comes in at #40 on this list, and he might have been much higher had he not spent the majority of his existence so far as mostly a joke. He was nothing more than a random dude who had a freeze gun. It wasn’t until a major revision in the seminal Batman: The Animated Series that he became Victor Fries, tragic villain. It was that show that gave him the origin story of a brilliant scientist, desperate to save his wife from a fatal disease, and stricken with his condition (he can only function in above freezing temperatures with his trademark cold suit) due to his boss’ callousness.
Though sometimes he falls prey to wanting revenge on those he feels has wronged him, his number one motive is helping to heal his wife. Freeze is also one of the few villains with a decent chance at redemption. In the Batman Beyond episode “Meltdown”, Fries is actually at least temporarily cured. Freed from his burden, Victor Fries tries to atone for his crimes, even creating a charitable organization. He’s only driven back to being a criminal after his treatment stop working, he tries to get help, and the very people that “cured” him try to kill him and he understandably wants revenge.
It’s the tragic element of Mr. Freeze that makes him more than a one-note bad guy, as well as one of the top 50 comic book villains ever.
Next: No. 39: Never misses, except for one guy
39. Deadshot
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Talk about getting a second chance at life. Deadshot started out as one of the lamest Batman villains imaginable: a dude with a tuxedo, a top hat, a domino mask and twin revolvers. Somehow, I don’t think he gave the Dark Knight any sleepless nights.
It’s amazing what a costume change and a more fully fleshed out personality will do for a guy. Sporting one of the more distinctive and just plain cool costumes in all of super hero comics, Floyd Lawson also went from wannabe mob boss to unfailing assassin. Plus he had some quirks that couldn’t help but set him apart; namely a death wish and an unexplained tendency to pull his shots around Batman, making him the one person he couldn’t kill.
That would probably be enough to get him on this list, but Lawton also ended up in the book that made it acceptable to root for the bad guys, Suicide Squad. He really came into his own there, proving that if written well, even a seemingly consciousless killer can be an effective protagonist. Casting typical good guy and mega-star Will Smith as Deadshot will likely only make Lawson more likable.
We’ve even seen Deadshot on Arrow, but even though his costume is looking more like what we’ve grown to love in print, it’s still not exactly the same. This is one villain who no longer needs the clothes to make the man, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still wish for that silver mask and red targeting eyepiece to someday make the jump to the screen.
And remember, for all you writers still coming up with new super villains, wrist guns and metal mask good, tuxedo and top hat bad.
Next: No. 38: The true watcher of the Watchmen
38. Ozymandias
(Write-up by Matt Conner, Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
Putting Ozymandias on a “Greatest Villains” list is a spoiler for an amazing piece of fiction, but Watchmen finished in 1987, and you’ll love reading it even if you do know the twist. In short, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons put together a forceful creative project about the nature of super hero comics, a story about a group of retired adventurers investigating the murder of one of their own. The death is tied to a secret project, led by Adrian Veidt, to teleport a psychic monster into New York City, immediately killing millions of innocent people.
Adrian Veidt is a great villain for three reasons.
First, he was originally Ozymandias, a hero and teammate of the Watchmen, and his only superpower was intelligence. Throughout most of the book, he’s seen as a trustworthy friend, and the revelation of his plan comes across as a painful betrayal.
Second, and this is huge, he wins. On a list of fifty great villains, Ozymandias is the only one who ends his story in the winner’s circle. One of the best pages in comic history has his reaction to the confrontation by his former teammates about when he plans to enact his evil plot. “Do you seriously think I’d explain my masterstroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.” As much as readers want to believe the heroes can lose, it never happens. The bad guy may kill a sidekick or something, but the good guy is going to stop the worst of it. And Ozymandias breaks that rule.
Finally, in the context of the story, Ozymandias is right. Throughout the book, the background hums with news reports of ongoing global conflict. His terrorist attack on New York City is a callous way to unite the world governments against the threat of an alien invasion. And within minutes of the action, the surviving Watchmen are inundated with reports that war has ground to a halt everywhere.
As a result, the heroes are forced to let Ozymandias get away with it out of concern for the greater good. Watchmen challenges the convention that heroes follow the same moral compass, and the fact that Ozymandias is despicable because of calculation rather than sadism — combined with the notion that his enemies accept this because it has led to world peace — earns a spot on the Greatest Villains list for a man with only a dozen issues of exposure.
Next: No. 37: Insanely symbiotic
37. Carnage
(Write-up by Daniel Wood, Whatever a Spider Can Editor)
How do you make one of the scariest, most vicious, blood-thirsty comic book super-villains of all time? Well, you get the already iconic Venom symbiote and you attach it to a deranged serial killer named Cletus Kasady. Congrats — you’ve got yourself absolute carnage.
Carnage was created to be a darker, more psychopathic, version of the Venom symbiote, and Marvel hit the nail on the head. Before Cletus had even become a super villain, he’d murdered his grandmother, attempted to kill his mother, murdered the disciplinarian of an orphanage, pushed a girl in front of a bus and then burnt the orphanage down. When he became Carnage, he turned into a fully-fledged serial killer, murdering people and leaving “Carnage” written on the walls. It really doesn’t get much darker and messed up than that.
Carnage isn’t just a psychopathic killer, though, he’s also a formidable foe for Spider-Man and any other hero that crosses his path. In fact, Spidey himself could only defeat Carnage by making a desperate truce with Venom. But like every good comic book villain, he didn’t stay defeated for long.
The Carnage symbiote would then go on to find itself controlling a wide range of hosts, wreaking all manner of havoc. It took control of most of the Avengers in the Carnage USA storyline, it became Spider-Carnage when it took over Ben Reilly, and perhaps most famously, it controlled Gwen Stacy in the Ultimate universe. Regardless of the host, Carnage has always caused problems for Spider-Man, S.H.I.E.L.D and the Avengers alike.
He’s given birth to two more symbiotes, Toxin and Scorn. He’s done battle with Deadpool in a highly memorable miniseries, and most recently, he’s sacrificed himself to stop the inverted X-Men’s Gene Bomb that would’ve killed all humans in an act that Spider-Man described as “the worst man he ever met doing the most noble thing he’d ever seen.”
I know it’s easy to lose sight of all of the horrific things that Carnage has ever done in light of such a noble self-sacrifice, but I feel it’s important to state that despite that, Spider-Man still described Cletus as “the worst man he ever met.” This is despite having met the Green Goblin, who killed his first love, and Doctor Octopus, who literally stole his body and pretended to be him. It’s for that reason that Carnage will always be one of the greatest villains of all time.
Next: No. 36: Me am more misunderstood than evil?
36. Bizarro
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Apparently trying to make a copy of Superman sounds like a good idea, because people keep trying to do it. There’s only one Man of Steel, of course, so duplicates usually end up turning out all wrong, or if you’re really unlucky, they turn out as Bizarro.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as Bizarro has often been silly and harmless, especially during the Silver Age, and he’s definitely more misguided than evil. We had some internal debate over whether we should even count him as a villain, ultimately allowing each voter to decide. Enough people decided he should count as a bad guy, so here he am … er, is.
It’s actually a great concept, giving the powers of Superman to someone mentally and physically flawed. It works even without the backwards gimmick, though that has its place too.
Plus, if we’re talking about cultural impact, you could easily argue that Bizarro belongs much higher up this list. We’ve been using his name as an adjective for a long time, and you don’t need to explain it to most people for them to know you mean something opposite or much weirder than you’d normally expect. The term even made a prominent appearance on an episode of Seinfeld back in the day.
I have a feeling that at least the Silver Age Bizarro would probably be sad that he ended up on a list of the greatest super villains because he doesn’t consider himself one. Or wait, maybe he’d be happy, because normal people would be sad in that situation. That backwards thing does get confusing after a while.
Next: No. 35: She'll do more than make you itch
35. Poison Ivy
(Write-up by Amanda Chrisman, Caped Crusades and Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
Poison Ivy was originally designed by creators Robert Kanigher and Sheldon Moldoff after pin-up star Betty Page, and in her first appearance, she was a mysterious temptress who had no origin story. When she was given a backstory, she became Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley, a botanist and environmentalist who turned eco-terrorist. A freak accident in the lab makes her immune to toxins and poisons and gives her control over plant life.
She is one of the only Batman villains with anything akin to super powers. Ivy uses her affinity for plant toxins and pheromones, as well as her control of plants, in her acts of eco-terrorism. She often partners with her best friend Harley Quinn, and during their partnerships, her crimes take on a more mundane nature — more robbery and burglary, less conquering humanity in the name of Mother Nature.
When feminists made it clear that there was a need for more strong female villains, Poison Ivy was used to replace Catwoman (who we know has a history as a hero) as Batman’s most antagonistic female supervillain.
More recently, on Gotham, we’ve seen yet another origin unfolding, proving that Poison Ivy is trouble no matter what her beginnings. She’s not as popular a villain as Harley Quinn or Catwoman, but has made an important impact in comics and deserves her spot on our list of the 50 greatest super villains.
Next: No. 34: Like Wolverine, only evil
34. Sabretooth
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Many super heroes have super villains who are like flip sides of the same coin. With Wolverine and Sabretooth, it’s more like they’re two bananas in the same bunch, except that one of them turned out rotten.
If we’re being honest, there’s not much that Sabretooth brings to the table that Wolverine doesn’t already have. Enhanced senses, a mutant healing factor and deadly claws? Check, check and double check. Victor Creed was even shaped by the same forces as Logan since he was also tangled up in the Weapon X program.
So if Wolverine is popular, that must mean that Sabretooth is popular too. That’s undoubtedly the case, and it’s been proven by how often he shows up in movies, animation and video games. When fans want to see Wolverine pushed to his limits, the first thing they think of is a scrap with Creed.
To its credit, Marvel has resisted the urge to turn Sabretooth into a good guy, though he has been forced into alliances of convenience or necessity at times. He’s currently a member of the Avengers Unity Squad, but it took a permanent (wink, wink) inversion of his moral axis to turn him good. Under normal circumstances, he simply enjoys what he does too much to be redeemed — and what he does is kill people, usually.
As a result, we’ll never have to wonder what an inverted Wolverine would be like. If you want to see what a guy with virtually the same powers but none of the moral code is like, just check out Sabretooth. There’s your answer.
Next: No. 33: Keeping other villains honest
33. Captain Cold
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Baseball players and other athletes sometimes talk about playing a sport “the right way.” For Captain Cold, there’s a right way to handle yourself as a super villain too, and it’s that quality, as much as his gimmick or his instantly recognizable costume, that got him onto this list.
Make no mistake, Leonard Snart is a bad guy. He’s no stranger to theft, violence, and even murder when he feels it’s justified. Cold just feels there is a time and a place for those things, and through sheer force of will, he’s historically been able to get the rest of Flash’s Rogues to come around to his way of thinking. The occasional threat from his cold gun also helps.
If it wasn’t for his vicious streak popping up from time to time and the fact that he still wants to kill the Flash one day, you could almost call Captain Cold a gentlemanly super villain. That shouldn’t detract from the danger his cold-based powers have posed to the Fastest Man Alive time and time again, with or without backup from other Rogues.
As iconic looks go, the fur-lined hood and rectangular glasses rank right up there. The Flash has teased us with parts of it on TV, but we need the entire package. With apologies to Mr. Freeze (who Captain Cold is sometimes mistaken for, granted), Captain Cold is the premier ice-themed villain around, and one whose unique outlook on super-powered crime is deserving of respect.
Next: No. 32: The man in yellow
32. Reverse-Flash
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
There’s holding a grudge, and then there’s traveling back in time to actually mess with a super hero’s origin to make it more tragic.
The original Reverse-Flash, also known as Professor Zoom, actually did that. He’s mucked around with the timestream on other occasions too, all because of his jealousy of the Fastest Man Alive, but few things could top his central role in Flashpoint. Even after Barry Allen managed to get reality back on the right track, he still had to deal with the fact that his best friend no longer existed and his mother was dead, with his father framed as the killer.
That part of Flash’s backstory has followed him to the TV series, so Reverse-Flash gets bonus points for that. Other men besides Eobard Thawne would also take up the Zoom mantle, like Hunter Zolomon, whose strange desire to make Wally West a “better hero” led to some heinous deeds of his own — like attempting to kill Linda Park, causing her twin babies with West to miscarry (later fixed through time travel, but still).
Then there’s that costume. As iconic as the Flash suit, and even gaudier to boot, it’s as instantly recognizable as any outfit around. Even on television, where the tendency is to go for costumes that are more realistic and subdued, Reverse-Flash is known as the “man in yellow.”
Even in the New 52 continuity, where we’ve seen no signs of Thawne or Zolomon yet, there’s another Reverse-Flash. Flash is simply stuck with his evil double, and while that’s truly unfortunate for him, it’s great for us.
Next: No. 31: Great story, great costume
31. Dark Phoenix
(Write-up by Matt Conner, Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
I want to say that Dark Phoenix is one of the greatest villains because of the excellence of her story. The marked oversimplification is that Jean Grey, founding member of the X-Men, was believed to be possessed by a cosmic force called The Phoenix as the only way to save her friends from a crashing space shuttle. Imbued with grand power, she fell under the psychic manipulation of the Hellfire Club’s creepy Mastermind, betrayed and tried to kill her teammates, then left the planet.
She ate a star, leading to the death of an entire planet populated by broccoli people. (Keep in mind, fifty issues previously, she was on the same power level as Shannen Doherty’s first episode of Charmed.) This earned her the condemnation of the Shi’Ar empire, and she regained her sanity just in time to stand trial for her actions. Judgment was to involve a fight between the X-Men and the heroes of the Shi’Ar, and during the battle, Jean Grey committed suicide right in front of her lover, Cyclops.
This story had so much. Marvel Girl had been the heart of the team for decades, and Dark Phoenix was a perversion of that character into an uncontrollable nightmare. Some of this was a scary monster possessing a teenage sweetheart, but there was clearly an element of Jean’s repressed sexuality and empowerment expressing themselves through this visceral release. It would be hard to imagine this story ending without one of the X-Men’s greatest losses. The Phoenix Force has returned several times, most recently in the Avengers vs. X-Men crossover, but it never shows up without a pause to remember how hard it was to say goodbye to Jean.
And I wish that was why I voted for her when BamSmackPow.com was seeking our rankings.
It’s the costume.
Seriously. It’s amazing. Dramatic primary colors of red and yellow, awesome flame effects in the background, an iconic logo across the chest, long gloves and boots, and the best sash in comics. When I started reading comics in the early 90s, she had been dead for years, and every time I read an X-Men comic, I crossed my fingers to a flashback of that amazing Phoenix icon clasp resting on a hip as flaps of fabric waved in some cosmic fiery winds.
Dark Phoenix qualifies for Greatest Villain status because she’s a genocidal monster who took out a founding X-Men member. I just appreciate that she also left an indelible mark on the visual glossary of the Marvel Universe.
Next: No. 30: Truly immortal evil
30. Vandal Savage
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Plenty of villains have rap sheets a mile long. Only Vandal Savage has a list of vile deeds that could fill a whole library.
Then again, no other bad guy is 50,000 years old. His evil is truly as old as humanity itself, and it’s even been suggested that Vandal Savage is the DC Comics equivalent to the biblical Cain, actually introducing the concept of murder.
Naturally, that makes him the perfect character for use in any story, set in any era. Savage has crossed paths with nearly every hero on the DC roster, and while his powers may not seem that impressive — enhanced strength, reflexes and healing — 50 millennia of experience can make someone a pretty formidable threat. It’s also just not smart to make an enemy of someone who’s going to be around long after you’re gone. It could be your children or your children’s children who end up suffering the consequences.
It’s kind of surprising that even more writers haven’t caught on to the fact that Savage can be the skeleton key of super villainy. If you’ve got the makings of a great plot and some worthy henchmen who can challenge the heroes who try to stop it on a physical level, all you need is a mastermind. That’s this guy’s stock in trade, as he’s been doing it forever.
Maybe it will take a featured turn on TV or in a Warner Bros. movie for Vandal Savage to enter the public consciousness in a major way. Until then, he’s going to keep playing the long game like no one else. Believe that.
Next: No. 29: A cruel Kryptonian
29. Zod
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Is it nature or nurture that makes us who we are? It’s a question we’ve been struggling with as humans for as long as we’ve been around, and it even applies to comic book characters. For instance, if Superman wasn’t raised by Ma and Pa Kent, there’s a good chance he could have turned out like Zod.
As we’ve seen in both comics and movies, that wouldn’t have turned out well for the people of Earth. Whether writers have explained him as a native of the same Krypton as Superman or one from another reality, Zod is the answer to the question of what would happen if someone had the same powers as the Man of Steel but felt like ruling the planet instead of protecting it. A legit general back before his world was destroyed, Zod is able to think in ways Superman doesn’t, looking at situations from a military perspective rather than one of a typical super criminal.
That makes him a match for Clark Kent in more ways than one, and also explains why he’s stood the test of time even when DC changed the rules for having other Kryptonians appear in stories. Superman will always be the “last son,” but Zod and his compatriots have a habit of returning to show Kal-El that the less pleasant aspects of his homeworld aren’t going to leave him alone.
Also helping Zod’s case for greatness: Terrence Stamp’s powerhouse performance in Superman II. Even now, you can say, “Kneel before Zod,” and fans will know exactly what you’re talking about.
Lex Luthor has an ironclad claim as Superman’s archenemy, and Doomsday struck a chord by actually killing the Man of Tomorrow (sort of), but Zod has a very personal spot in his rogues gallery that would be nearly possible to usurp. Kneel before him, indeed.
Next: No. 28: Ten rings to rule them all
28. The Mandarin
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Is it possible for a villain to become one of the greats even though he doesn’t have a definitive version? I’d submit that the Mandarin is proof that it is.
Almost Iron Man’s archenemy by default, it’s tough to say exactly who the Mandarin really is. He could be the half-Chinese, half-English descendant of Genghis Khan. In more recent stories, it’s been suggested that he was actually the son of a prostitute who got his start as a vicious yet garden variety crime lord before he discovered the ten alien rings that give him his powers. He’s been portrayed in different stories as a criminal mastermind using others to do his fighting, as a master of martial arts powerful enough to survive on chi alone, and as a brilliant technologist.
Whatever take on Mandarin you prefer (unless it’s the red herring we got in Iron Man 3), his ten rings make him the functional equivalent to all the surprises Tony Stark always has in any suit of Iron Man armor. A different power in each ring is a great gimmick, one that always manages to survive no matter how writers tinker with the character’s backstory.
And maybe that’s really all we need to appreciate the Mandarin. He’s made so many appearances in animation, video games and other media that it’s obvious that fans accept him, regardless of how he’s presented. It’s not quite style over substance, but maybe an example of how if the core concept of a character is strong enough, everything else simply falls into place.
Next: No. 27: Root for the bad guy
27. Deathstroke
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
I think it was as a professional wrestling fan in the late 90s that I first encountered the idea of the “cool heel,” someone you cheered for even though you knew you were supposed to be backing the person fighting him.
For much of his existence, Slade Wilson was like that. Here was a guy who was an assassin and a mercenary, willing to do some pretty terrible things simply for his own profit and benefit. Despite that, fans kept eating up his appearances, to the point where he’s had his own comic book series on more than one occasion. It’s been established that Wilson has a code of ethics, off-kilter as it might be, and even a team like the Teen Titans — who he nearly destroyed with the help of a mole in the classic “The Judas Contract” arc — ended up fighting beside him when the circumstances dictated it.
What makes Deathstroke the Terminator so appealing? His name is part of it (he was the Terminator before Arnold), as is his easily identifiable costume. His powers are also intriguing, giving him access to 90 percent of his brain and greatly boosted strength and reflexes. Using both in concert, Slade can be a handful even for heroes who seem much stronger, like the time in Identity Crisis when he took out the Justice League singlehandedly.
Even on Arrow, where his early role as a bloodthirsty but honorable mentor to Oliver Queen gave way to a more standard super villain stance, it was explained as a byproduct of the loss of his true love and the influence of a powerful drug. That gives me some hope that he’ll continue to be DC’s cool heel, a role he fits to a tee.
Next: No. 26: Something to fear besides fear itself
26. Scarecrow
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
If you’re looking for a villain who’s received a big boost in stature from mediums outside of comics, look no further than Dr. Jonathan Crane. Thanks to his star turn in Batman Begins and memorable roles in some of the Arkham video games, the Scarecrow has gone from just another member of Batman’s rogues gallery to a household name in the first part of the 21st Century.
It’s not like he doesn’t deserve it. Along with providing a great visual element no matter how artists change up his character design, the Scarecrow allows artists to cut loose thanks to the hallucinations caused by his fear toxins. Want to see nightmare fuel come to life? This is your guy.
Crane also has a yin-yang relationship with Batman unmatched by anyone else besides the Joker. He wants to find out what makes the Dark Knight afraid, no easy task considering the insanity that Bruce Wayne has seen. At the same time, the Scarecrow needs the rush that fear gives him, and the only thing that can provide it at this point is Batman himself.
A lot of people claim to enjoy being scared, but generally only when they have some say in when and how it will happen. Scarecrow lives for bringing that sensation to people on his own terms, and that makes him truly worthy of inclusion here even if it took methods other than comics to pull it off. His recent inclusion on Gotham means his legend should only continue to grow.
Next: No. 25: A physical match for the Man of Steel
25. Doomsday
(Write-up by Steve Lam, Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
Let’s just put this out there: Doomsday was specifically created by DC to kill the greatest and one of the most powerful superheroes in the universe — Superman. How else would such a relatively young super villain climb to #25 on this esteemed list? Originally known as “The Ultimate” on Krypton, the super hero Booster Gold would later give him the moniker Doomsday in regards to the creature’s path of destruction resembling “the arrival of Doomsday.”
Created by Dan Jurgens, Doomsday would make his first appearance in a cameo in Superman: The Man of Steel #17 (November 1992), and his full appearance in Superman: The Man of Steel #18 (December 1992). A creature whose creator “evolved” him to hate all life, Doomsday is the moral antithesis of Superman — a being who holds all life sacred. With the abilities to live without air, absorb solar energy as sustenance, and withstand the harshest of environments and temperatures, Doomsday gave Superman a run for his money.
Even before meeting Superman, Doomsday destroyed Bylan 5 (the planet where Darkseid was to marry a princess), killed hundreds of Green Lanterns, and defeated the Justice League within minutes. You read that correctly: minutes! In the time it takes for John Williams’ Superman March to play, Doomsday had pummeled the whole JL.
So it should be no surprise that in order to stop the ultimate killing machine, you need to make the ultimate sacrifice. In Superman #75 (January 1993), Superman would give his life to kill Doomsday — or so we thought. Later issues would clarify that Superman never really died. Instead, he went into a state of deep Kryptonian hibernation to heal. But still, who gets to say they put the Man of Steel to sleep?
Coming in at #25, it’s poetically fitting that a super villain who enjoys death so much is ranked almost “dead “ center within a list of fifty of his peers.
Next: No. 24: Beware his power
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?
23. Harley Quinn
(Write-up by Amanda Chrisman, Caped Crusades and Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
Harley Quinn deserves her spot on this list as the character created for Batman: the Animated Series who has had the biggest and longest lasting impact. Regardless of her status as a villain, I’ve long felt that Harley Quinn is a strong female role model. She is a very important and influential character in the comic book world, and one of the biggest female villains out there.
Despite her ditzy traits, she is actually quite smart; she was, after all, well on her way to being a psychiatrist (or in some cases, she was a psychiatrist) when she met the Joker and started her life of villainy. Harley spends most of her villainous career toadying for her boyfriend, but I’ve always felt that she really comes into her own when she leaves his side to team with Poison Ivy or when she’s on the Suicide Squad.
Admittedly, her work on the Suicide Squad blurs the line between hero and villain, but she really shows her strengths as a character when she is out of the Joker’s shadow. Just like her more famous sometime boyfriend, Harley started as a one-off villain created for a single story, but the fans and the writers loved her, so much she was made a major Batman character. She’s also been in some stories that were fairly important to comic book history, like Mad Love, and now has her own comic book where she has left the Joker’s company and is trying to be a better person.
Next: No. 22: Looks can be deceiving
22. Mystique
(Write-up by Roger Lee, Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
The beautiful, blue-skinned, but decidedly dangerous mutant Raven Darkholme, a.k.a. Mystique, is #22 on our list of 50 greatest villains. Her abilities include the ability to shape-shift, enabling Mystique to assume any identity, male or female, that she wants. She has been portrayed in the X-Men movies by both Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and the very popular Jennifer Lawrence.
This ability, along with a strong dose of selfish amorality, makes Mystique the perfect spy, saboteur, and assassin. With her ability to literally manipulate and control the cells of her body, Mystique is able to heal her wounds quickly, and she does not age.
Gee, those last two parts sound a lot like powers associated with other mutants like Wolverine and Sabretooth. No surprise then, that among the “ageless healing factor mutants,” Mystique’s long history (she is well over 100 years old, perhaps much older), is intertwined with the histories of both Logan and Sabretooth.
Mystique’s role in the Marvel Universe, especially in the mutant-laden X-Men world, is pretty important. She is one of the X-Men’s most persistent foes, and has been in Wolverine’s hair since the 1920s.
The relationships that connect Mystique to other characters are also central to who she is and to her importance in the shared universe of Marvel comics. She is the adoptive mother of the X-Men’s Rogue, the birth mother of Nightcrawler, lover of future-seeing Destiny, wife of the late Professor Xavier, lover of Sabretooth (they had a kid together named Graydon Creed), and former lover and travelling companion to … Wolverine. Let’s just say that Mystique has enjoyed a complicated life.
Mystique is as a character is as malleable as her body’s cells. She often shows hints of doing the right thing, but in almost every key storyline, she shows that her top priorities are herself and those she truly loves. Much of her motivation for her actions was her relationship with the late Irene Adler (Destiny), as she constantly tried to steal, manipulate, and/or conquer a place in the world for them to share. Since Destiny’s death, Mystique has been obsessed with finding and acting upon a series of diaries that Destiny wrote as she foresaw the future. This quest brings Mystique into both alliance and conflict with many other heroes and villains in the Marvel Universe.
Next: No. 21: The top Marvel crime boss
21. Kingpin
(Write-up by Matt Conner, Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
Wilson Fisk has been running organized crime in the Marvel Universe since the early days of The Amazing Spider-Man, and this led to plenty of trouble for the teenaged Peter Parker, but his character is now most intimately tied to Daredevil. Many of the great villains on this list have a lot of scary powers. The Mandarin’s got a few rings, Sinestro leads a space army, Doomsday killed Superman in the face. Many of the villains have killed a ton of people. Carnage went on a spree through New York with his stabby alien costume, while Ozymandias took out millions of Manhattan residents in an instant.
The Kingpin is a different kind of villain. He’s uncomfortably realistic in a way that we don’t talk about. Yes, we enjoy Tony Soprano when he’s a funny family man. But when we consider that our innocence will not protect us from the theft and violence stemming from the secret economy of weapons, drugs, and human trafficking … chills. The Kingpin doesn’t have magic rings. He has a keen mind for strategy, an intimidating physical presence, and a cool tolerance for vice. He is indirectly linked to most of the mundane crimes occurring just off-panel in most of Marvel’s New York comics, but what makes him a terrifying foe is not the breadth of his reach.
It’s that when The Kingpin wants to hurt you, he doesn’t stop until your world is ash.
He destroyed Matt Murdock’s world, including his professional life as a lawyer and his social life. He employed assassins like Elektra and Bullseye, targeting the friends and lovers who kept Murdock sane. He gave Spider-Man’s girlfriend powers to fit her Black Cat identity and used them to rope her into a crime spree. As much as heroes talk about needing secret identities to protect those around them, this is one of the only times someone resourceful and ruthless made use of the trope.
I don’t walk to my car across a dark, empty lot and worry that Carnage is behind that dumpster or that Sinestro is in the sky. But the idea that I might get mugged, that it may be intentional because my brother has offended someone really important, and it’ll look like an accident … Tell me that idea doesn’t scare you from time to time? Then try to make a case that the Kingpin isn’t one of the greatest villains ever.
Next: No. 20: The Demon's Head
20. Ra’s al Ghul
(Write-up by FanSided CEO Adam Best)
Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight was no Baby Boomer Batman or Campy Crusader. The filmmaker’s hyperreal version of the caped vigilante led to the best comic book trilogy in film history. One character made that transformation possible, and, no, it wasn’t Lucius Fox. To rescue Batman from the pop culture purgatory it was sentenced to by Joel Schumacher and Warner Bros., the legend needed a Lazarus pit-like restoration. Who better to help pull that off than Ra’s al Ghul?
Ra’s isn’t as old as most of the Rogue’s Gallery. Well, actually, he’s somewhere between 450 and 700 years old, but as far as longevity is concerned, he was first drawn in 1971. Unlike the older Batman villains, Ra’s is a more global threat. While his aura and theatrics are relics of the past, his genocidal strategies are also very modern. Whether using biological or economic warfare to attempt to wipe out entire major metropolitan areas, the Demon’s Head and his League of Assassins/Shadows really resonate today. There’s a timelessness to the man’s throwback tactics — he’d be just as dangerous in 2066 as he likely was in 1666 (Great Fire of London).
Beyond Batman Begins, Ra’s appearances in Batman: The Animated Series and now Arrow have brought a different dimension to the DC Film/TV Universe. In print, the eco-terrorist (with some help from his daughter Talia) almost instantly became an iconic foe for the Caped Crusader. A refined villain for a different era of comics. “Birth of a Demon” is among my favorite Batman reads of all-time (“JLA: Tower of Babel” is also a favorite).
This antagonist hasn’t just threatened the lives of just Batman and Robin — “same bat time, same bat channel” — he’s often left the fate of the entire human race hanging in the balance. In an age where terrorism is such a global threat, he is one of the most realistic comic book villains we currently have. That might be the greatest trick this sorcerer of sorts ever pulled off. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he plays a major role in some of the upcoming Justice League movies.
Next: No. 19: The breaker of the Bat
19. Bane
(Write-up by Eric Chrisman, Caped Crusades Editor)
I think a big reason Batman is so popular is because he’s human. Yet he’s often seen as unbeatable. Joker has never beaten Batman. Ra’s Al Ghul has never beaten Batman
Bane reminds us the Batman is truly human, and can be beaten and broken. Quite literally in his case, as Bane’s iconic moment is snapping the Dark Knight’s spine in half, putting Bruce Wayne out of action for months. Bane accomplished this with a rare mix of brawn and and a brain nearly equal to Batman, breaking out the most infamous residents of Arkham Asylum to exhaust Batman. Then, being one of a select few who actually figured out Batman’s secret identity as Bruce Wayne, Bane attacked him when we was at his most vulnerable, becoming the rare individual to claim a total victory in such a confrontation.
Sure, Batman gets his ass kicked all the time, but whether through resourcefulness, sheer ingenuity or just pure dumb luck, he always manages to win out the day. He didn’t win out against Bane; who simply set a plan in motion, picked his moment, and completely dominated the Dark Knight in way that hadn’t been done before and hasn’t been done since.
Unfortunately, when your first major accomplishment is putting Batman out of action for months, you might have nowhere to go but down. Bane has remained an important figure in the DC Universe, joining and eventually leading the Secret Six and being Ra’s Al Ghul successor for a time (until Batman beat him in a solo encounter), but nothing near the level of his first big accomplishment. Bane may never reach the peak of breaking the Bat again, but he’s accomplished a feat no other villain really has, and that earns him a pretty high spot on the all-time villains list.
Next: No. 18: Riddle me this ...
18. The Riddler
(Write-up by Amanda Chrisman, Caped Crusades and Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
Edward Nygma — an intelligent man completely obsessed with riddles, puzzles and other word games — is one of Batman’s most challenging foes, as he nearly matches the Dark Knight detective in intellect. He is currently being excellently portrayed (during a time before becoming the villainous Riddler) by Cory Michael Smith on the Fox TV show Gotham.
Created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang, the Riddler is most often depicted wearing a green suit with a green bowler hat, a domino mask, carrying a cane topped with a question mark. He is an important villain in Batman: the Animated Series as well as The Batman, and has a special place in the hearts of the fans of the Arkham video games series because of his challenges and the puzzles within them.
He might actually be one of the few villains capable of carrying out his crimes successfully without interference from Batman,if not for his crippling need to leave riddles and puzzles cluing Batman into his plans. In recent history, Nygma went legitimate, mended his ways after psychological treatment and became a private detective. He might have ended up on our list of 50 heroes if not for the events in Life After Death, where a head injury that results from a bomb reawakens his psychosis and he returns to his life of villainy.
Truth be told, we like him better that way.
Next: No. 17: Born better, at least in his mind
17. Apocalypse
(Write-up by Christina Roberts, Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
As the after-credits scene rolled on X-Men: Days of Future Past, I felt a chill run down my spine, and my eyes welled up with tears of disbelief as I saw familiar grey skin and blue lips.
Of course, I knew X-Men: Apocalypse will be the follow-up to DOFP, but to actually see the character somehow portrayed in a non-cartoon, non-comic form, even for a hot second filled me with such intense happiness that I wondered if it was actually happening or if it was a mere hallucination. Apocalypse has been my favorite villain since I was five years old. Why?
In the X-Men universe, Apocalypse never ceases to mess everything up. By everything, I mean everything. He screws up the past, which screws up the present, which screws up the future. He screws up the future, which makes people from the future screw up the past to screw up the future, but properly this time.
His powers cover the spectrum of mutantkind. You name it, he probably has it: telekinesis, telepathy, super healing, projecting and absorbing energy, and molecular control over his body, just to keep it brief. His blood heals mutants but kills humans. He merges himself with Celestial technology to basically make himself immortal — and he’s been around since Egyptian times, some 5000 years ago. These powers all come out stronger than ever when he’s angry, and he rebrands as Apocalypse.
What makes him the most intimidating is that he’s neither pro-mutant nor pro-human, but pro-survival of the fittest. If it benefits him, great; if not, destroy it/make it better/make it obsolete, and move on.
Apocalypse has his own agenda. He doesn’t care if Magneto is off building Asteroid M, or if Cable is making a fruitless attempt to kill him for the nth time. With his Four Horsemen to do his dirty work, Apocalypse rules the space-time continuum, the Axis of Time, providing anything he needs in order to create a beautiful world run on that survival of the fittest he learned from the Sandstormers. Portraying him in a movie is going to be a heck of a challenge.
He wasn’t named En Sabah Nur for nothing — he is “The First One,” the original mutant.
Next: No. 16: Not to be underestimated
16. The Penguin
(Write-up by Amanda Chrisman, Caped Crusades and Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, better known as The Penguin, is a character I think of as the gentleman of crime — much like the Joker is the Clown Prince of Crime. One of Batman’s oldest villains, Cobblepot gained the title Penguin due to deformities that cause him to look similar to and waddle like the flightless bird. He is often depicted as obsessed with birds of all kinds, and his crimes usually reflect that.
The villain was portrayed by Burgess Meredith in the 1966 Batman TV series, by Danny DeVito in Batman Returns, and is currently being played by Robin Lord Taylor on Fox’s Gotham. Penguin has been a crime boss, a corrupt mayor of Gotham, a “legitimate” business owner and many other unscrupulous things. He is the owner of the Iceberg Lounge, which is a front for his illegal business activities, and a club mostly frequented by the criminal element of Gotham.
Penguin is making quite the comeback as a popular villain these days due to Robin Taylor’s excellent portrayal and the new insights we fans are getting into his ruthless mind. The Penguin is an important villain in story lines like Batman: Earth One, where he is the corrupt mayor of Gotham, attempting to have the Waynes killed the very same night they are shot in Crime Alley. He is also a major character in the video games Batman: Arkham City and Arkham Origins.
He’s earned his place on this list over the years with stories spread across all media, and while the Joker is Batman’s archenemy, you can be sure that as long as there’s a Dark Knight, there’s going to be a Penguin lurking somewhere in the seediest shadows.
Next: No. 15: A man with a plan -- and a whole bunch of arms
15. Doctor Octopus
(Write-up by Daniel Wood, Whatever a Spider Can Editor)
When it comes to great super villains, certain things are needed – a unique appearance/gimmick, a brilliant mind, eight arms and a career defining moment when you actually beat your arch-nemesis and take over his body for an entire comic book series.
Okay, so a great super-villain doesn’t need all of those things, but Otto Octavius, a.k.a. Dr. Octopus, has all of those qualities. He is undeniably one of the Marvel Universe’s greatest villains, hence why the eight-armed enemy of Spider-Man is number 15 on our list.
Doctor Octopus has been behind many genius schemes to take out Spider-Man or take over the world, such as founding the Sinister Six (and reforming it several times), posing as a criminal mastermind called “The Master Planner” and attempting to poison New York city with printer ink.
But Octavius’ crowning glory and greatest scheme cannot be ignored. He actually managed to swap bodies with Peter Parker, thus becoming Spider-Man and beating his arch-enemy, all whilst he himself was on his deathbed. How’s that for true villainy?
What was even better was reading a whole series where Spider-Man fought crime with the mind of a super villain. Many people didn’t like the self-proclaimed “Superior Spider-Man,” but seeing Otto’s personality manifested in Spidey was fantastic. There’s a reason why he’s one of the front-runners in the Spider-Verse storyline – because he gets results.
Not only has Doctor Octopus become one of Spider-Man’s most enduring and recurring villains over the years — with his incredible intellect but arrogance-based fatal flaw — but he is one of the few comic book villains to truly execute a master plan and really beat Spider-Man. Not even the Green Goblin can claim to have done something like that (in the 616 universe anyway).
Currently, Otto Octavius is dead after giving Peter Parker’s body back to him, but thanks to some timey-wimey stuff, he’s in Superior Spider-Man being as arrogant as ever. We know that his story ends with his death, but we also know that it won’t be long until another one of Otto’s master plans comes to fruition and the eight-armed genius returns!
Next: No. 14: An accidental icon
14. Venom
(Write-up by Daniel Wood, Whatever a Spider Can Editor)
It’s crazy to think that number 14 on our list wouldn’t exist if Marvel weren’t intent on pushing merchandise for a specific storyline. I’m sure that when Spider-Man found the black suit during Secret Wars, no one could have imagined that the end result would be one of the most iconic and enduring villains/anti-heroes of all time.
Yes, it’s true. Venom started out as a simple costume change for Spider-Man, but soon developed into a sentient alien symbiote that would become one of Spider-Man’s greatest nemeses when it bonded with humiliated ex-journalist Eddie Brock, after it was rejected by Peter himself.
Since then, S.H.I.E.L.D has declared the Venom symbiote as one of the greatest threats to mankind even saying he’s on the same par as Magneto, Doctor Doom and Red Skull. High villainy praise indeed, although it’s hardly surprising. This is a self-healing, shape-shifting alien symbiote that can take over any living thing as a host (as evidenced most recently by the Guardians of the Galaxy storyline where he takes over Groot, Drax and Rocket Racoon) and is solely responsible for the creation of the equally dangerous and more psychopathic symbiote Carnage.
But the most interesting thing about Venom, apart from his awesome black and white design, is the fact that he’s fairly conflicted as a character. Both he and Brock were driven by a shared desire to hurt and kill Spider-Man, but Venom also has a set of morals that drive it to want to protect and save people and do good.
Hence, Venom has become more of an anti-hero than an out and out villain and is actually a fairly relatable character. The latest and current host of the symbiote, Flash Thompson, goes by the name of Agent Venom, and is currently a part of the super hero team Guardians of the Galaxy.
However, whilst it’s great to see Venom on the side of the angels, there’s absolutely no denying that Venom is at his maniacal best when he’s trying to achieve his first goal– to hurt and kill Spider-Man. And the best part about Venom is that fans know he’s a time bomb. It’s only a matter of time before Venom’s human host loses control and the symbiote wreaks havoc again.
Next: No. 13: Kill all the humans
13. Ultron
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Even aside from the fact that he’s a killer robot, Ultron is a villain who was truly ahead of his time. It’s amazing to think that he was created in the 1960s, before computers were all around us and well before the idea of artificial intelligence graduated from science fiction to science fact.
His constant upgrading foretold the way we do the same thing with the technology in our daily lives, and his goal of eradicating all organic life is more relevant than ever in an era where some people believe we run the risk of a technological singularity in this century. We can’t guarantee that machine life, it if comes about, will be compatible with us organics, and Ultron is Exhibit A in comic book form.
The fact that he is more than pure logic and has what for lack of a better term is a personality, complete with emotions (though he’d never admit to them) actually just makes him scarier. Think of an unstoppable killing machine like the Terminator, who Ultron predated by quite a bit. Now picture him with a body that’s nearly impossible to damage, the ability to transfer his consciousness to other machines even if you do, and with a personal grudge against you. Like I said, scary.
It’s that one-of-a-kind combination of technological horror and human foibles that make Ultron so compelling, and we have a feeling James Spader is going to bring both sides of the character to the big screen in a big way. The Avengers are never going to rid themselves of this particular villain, so expect him to go nowhere but up the rankings in the future — a future that hopefully is full of much more friendly sentient machines.
Next: No. 12: Coldly calculating
12. Brainiac
(Write-up by Steve Lam, Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
Talk about a coincidence. The 12th-greatest super villain has a 12th-level intellect. Yep, Brainiac, the Collector of Worlds, an antagonist whose complex mind can only be rivaled by his equally complex history and characterization.
Created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino, Brainiac made his first appearance in Action Comics #242 (July 1958). The character was initially portrayed as a bald, green-skinned humanoid who shrank Kandor, the capital city of Krypton. With his physical appearance still in heavy development during this era, the famous red diodes on top of his head didn’t even make an in-story appearance until Action Comics #275 (April 1961).
Being reimagined many times throughout DC’s history, the one concept that has persisted in many depictions is him being a great alien scientist named Vril Dox — regardless if he originally merged his consciousness with human psychic Milton Fine, or created C.O.M.P.U.T.O. on Yod-Colu. However, what makes him such a great villain is his ability to rival the greatest super hero of them all — Superman.
Whenever Brainiac is seemingly killed or destroyed, it’s always revealed why he’s considered a 12th-level intellect — the Brainiac that was defeated was never him, which makes perfect sense. Why do the dirty work yourself when you’re able to see the big picture? Not only is he smart, but he’s got the strength to rival the Man of Steel and has telekinesis and a range of other mental powers.
Brainiac’s convictions are just as deadly as his abilities. Seeing himself as someone whose sole mission is to preserve worlds, his determination is almost unmatched. A master strategist, he studies his opponents well and plans every possible scenario. With almost no arrogance, Brainiac’s motivations are carried out by logic and careful assessment, making him a deadly antagonist.
To add to his greatness, here’s a testament to Brainiac’s effect on our real world culture. Even people who have never picked up a comic book know what it means when someone is described as being a “brainiac.”
Next: No. 11: Believe in Harvey
11. Two-Face
(Write-up by Skip Harvey, Caped Crusades Editor)
I believe in Harvey Dent. I really do. Of all the villains in Batman’s Rogues Gallery, Two-Face is the one I find the most compelling.
The perfect example of the complex, nuanced characters that make the Batman universe the richest in all of Comicdom, Harvey Dent is as intriguing as the Caped Crusader himself. To call Two-Face a villain may be an accurate description, but it falls far short of what makes him the brilliant foil he is. Instead of the flat, hand-wringing, Snidely Whiplash-type villain that Joel Schumacher strained out of Tommy Lee Jones, the real Harvey Dent is comprised of layer upon layer of internal turmoil. A man so tortured by his deeply repressed rage that the incident that scarred his face birthed a wholly new entity. His personality split, psychologically and even aesthetically, kept in check only through his dependence on a physical artifact.
Two-Face’s doubled-sided Liberty Dollar represents the raw power of his psychosis. With the random chance of the coin flip, Dent clings desperately to reality, keeping at bay the compulsive identities dueling for control. Without the coin, Two-Face would undoubtedly spiral into a complete psychotic break.
As with all good villains, Dent is hard to blame for who and what he is. A crusader for justice, he fought against the evil that men do — that he knew he was capable of doing. Being mutilated by one such man destroyed the last remaining threads of his faith in the law or the pursuit of righteousness. Harvey Dent had become Two-Face: the living embodiment of man’s struggle with chaos and order.
His duality, the persona born out of being wronged by man’s cruelty, mirrors Batman’s tumultuous motivations. While Bruce Wayne chose to wield his pain as a weapon against evil, Two-Face used his to gain revenge on a society he blames for being evil itself. Nothing else matters, in his mind, besides getting what he wants at any costs.
In that way, more than almost any character, Two-Face is the scarred side of Batman’s coin, and thus one of the greatest, most enduring villains of all time.
Next: No. 10: The anti-life crusader
10. Darkseid
(Write-up by Aaron Speight, Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
He may not be the most recognisable villain in the DC universe, but remember, he is one of the most powerful and evil — so don’t let the fact that he is #10 on our list fool you.
His birth name is Prince Uxas, son to King Yuga Khan and Queen Heggra. He killed his brother Drax to claim the fabled “Omega Force,” which transformed him into a rock-like creature before taking the new name Darkseid.
His main goal in life is to eliminate all free will in the universe, and in turn, mold everything into the image of his home planet Apokolips. That’s an important distinction, because unlike other, more classically nihilistic villains, Darkseid doesn’t want to wipe out or subjugate other beings, he wants them completely broken in mind and spirit, existing for nothing else but to worship him. He’s gotten close to pulling it off more than once, usually with the help of the Anti-Life Equation.
Along the way, he inevitably encounters the Justice League, but he more than holds his own. This is due to the fact he is deemed among the most powerful of the New Gods. With his Omega Beam, super strength, agility, speed, telekinesis and telepathy, he can almost be too much for Superman and company. When Darkseid shows up, it usually requires an all hands on deck approach to stopping him, especially when he unleashes the hordes of Apokolips to aid him.
So be warned, Justice League lovers, they may be sworn to protect the Earth against the greatest of enemies, but the almighty Darkseid could one day have his way. You’ll remember the face, even if you can’t do the same for the name.
Next: No. 9: A universal force of nature
9. Galactus
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Galactus is not a super villain. There, I said it.
By that I mean he’s got nothing in common with the motivations of any other character on this list, and he definitely doesn’t think of himself as one. Galactus would say he is beyond such things, and that he exists solely to fulfill his role in the nature of the Marvel Universe itself. If he’s a super villain, then we might as well call a hurricane a super villain in real life, because he’s best thought of as a cosmic force of nature. He hungers, and he feeds, and when he does, entire worlds perish.
The truth, as is often the case, is a matter of perspective. Denizens of the planets he’s destroyed would certainly call him the greatest of all villains, were they still around to make any claims. The Beyonder memorably grouped him with Earth’s bad guys during the original Secret Wars, though true to form, Galactus immediately broke away and began seeing if he could figure out how to eat the Battleworld. He’s a little single-minded that way.
Only he’s not always so focused, and during those times, we’ve seen Galactus get tangled up in the same kinds of pettiness as mere mortals. He’s been angry, he’s been jealous, and more than once, he’s sought out revenge. If he were truly as far above the fray as he maintains, those things wouldn’t happen — or at least they wouldn’t pop up on a regular basis.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby certainly outdid themselves with Galactus’ design, which is one of the most distinctive around. A literal giant with headgear like no other, it’s proven impossible to translate to film even though fans still clamor to see it.
That’s a fitting dilemma for such an enigmatic character. Though he’d scoff at his placement here if you could somehow make him take notice, the sheer size of the threat Galactus always brings to the table when he’s against Earth’s heroes make him deserving of his ranking here — whether he’s actually a super villain or not.
Next: No. 8: In love with Death itself ... enough said
8. Thanos
(Write-up by Matt Conner, Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
Many of the villains on this list killed some very important people. Several of the villains even wiped out cities, countries, even planets. Thanos looks at these accomplishments and chuckles.
Because he killed one out of every two living beings in the entire universe.
Instantly.
He was already a cosmic badass in the Marvel Universe before the Infinity Gauntlet miniseries, but in these books, he reached his peak. The way the story goes, he’s a powerful Eternal from the moon Titan who is in love with Death. This is not a Goth phase he’s going through as teenage hormones surge. This man is honestly in love with the concept of Death, condensed into an avatar of a sexy woman in a hooded robe with a skull for a head.
Thanos goes around the universe on this evil treasure hunt to unite the most powerful artifacts ever, the Infinity Gems, and stick them all on a Gauntlet. Putting that glove on turns him into God, and his first act is to kill half of anyone, anywhere, as a way to impress his beloved. Over the next few issues, he takes out all the remaining heroes of Earth and most of the ancient embodiments of cosmic concepts like Order and Chaos. In a sense, this was God punching God in the nose. Because he thought it might impress a girl.
Since then, he has stirred up all kinds of trouble, including taking Main Villain role in crossovers like The Thanos Imperative and Infinity — where he generally looks at armies, sneers, and takes everybody out. He’s so great that even the Marvel movies have been slowly introducing him one cameo at a time, and his role in Avengers: Infinity War is going to take two movies to tell.
But yes, I’m sure it really hurt Batman’s feelings that you killed his little buddy.
Next: No. 8: Hatred, personified
7. Red Skull
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
One of my friends is fond of saying that Nazis make the perfect bad guys when writers are stuck for more creative antagonists, because everyone dislikes them. It’s very true for the Red Skull, as even other villains usually have a distaste for working with someone so associated with a very specific brand of hatred.
As much as Marvel can try to dress it up or explain it away using Hydra as a stand-in for the Nazis, as is the case in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it doesn’t change the fact that the Skull is never going to stop trying to institute his ideas of a world by and for a master race. That’s chilling enough on its own, but it takes on an even deeper dimension in comics thanks to the lengths to which he’s willing to go to pull it off.
You certainly want to keep your cosmic artifacts locked up around Johann Schmidt, because he’s going to try to get his hands on them to remake the world or the entire universe in his own image. For a villain with no super powers, he’s certainly managed to become a serious threat and a frightening number of occasions, most recently by grafting part of the late Professor X’s brain onto his own to benefit from his unmatched mental powers.
To emphasize the timeless nature of his evil, the Red Skull has been killed off only to be resurrected or cloned too many times to count. Captain America would no doubt rest a lot easier knowing his archenemy was gone for good, but that’s unlikely to ever happen. There’s never been a cure for hatred in the human heart, and as long as that remains the case, the most literally named super villain ever is going to persist.
Next: No. 6: The monarch
6. Doctor Doom
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
Some villains are so classic, you just need to say their names and anyone can conjure up a mental image. Doctor Doom belongs in that category, as even non-comics fans know about the main in the metal mask.
If you do enjoy reading comics, you also know that Doom is one of the most compelling, most complicated characters ever to grace a page. Primarily the main thorn in the sides of the Fantastic Four, Victor von Doom’s thirst for power has put him up against nearly every Marvel hero at one time or another — and he’s been a handful for most thanks to his blend of science and sorcery.
Of course, Doom doesn’t always lower himself to physical confrontations unless he finds them necessary. Heroes can very easily find themselves up against one of his many Doombots or other pawns he chooses to throw at them. He is a monarch, after all, ruling the land of Latveria with an iron gauntlet. You do get the feeling that it’s not that bad a place to live, so he can’t be all bad, right?
Except that his other actions suggest that he is. Doom’s desire for power is so great, he flew fearlessly into a crack in space to steal the power from the Beyonder. He also tried to make a play for the Infinity Gauntlet while it was in the possession of Thanos. Even when it seems like Doom might be on your side, rest assured that he’s only cooperating until he finds a way to turn a situation in his own favor.
As smart as he is arrogant, the only thing that’s holding him back on this list is a “What have you done for me lately?” deal. Doctor Doom hasn’t been treated kindly on film (and the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot looks unlikely to change that) and you can’t point to an animated or video game appearance and say that you’ve seen a memorable or definitive take.
It’s a shame to think Doom hasn’t kept up with the times, though also a testament to his iconic nature that he’s still this high on our list. Unless Marvel someday gets rid of the mask or his imperious attitude, he should be just fine.
Next: No. 5: Spider-Man's true archenemy
5. Green Goblin
(Write-up by Daniel Wood, Whatever a Spider Can Editor)
Every super hero has an archenemy. One true villain that is a constant thorn in their side. Batman has the Joker, Superman has Lex Luthor and Spider-Man has Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin, who is number five on our list.
There’s absolutely no denying that Norman Osborn and his super villain alter ego is one of the greatest villains Marvel ever create. As the Green Goblin, he’s more than a fitting match for Spider-Man for several different reasons.
First, as Norman Osborn, he’s the head of a shady company that, depending on which universe you’re in, is responsible for creating most of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery — with Norman himself having a deliberate hand in many new super villain inceptions.
However, it’s Norman’s unhinged alter ego that has truly earned him a place in the top five. As the Green Goblin, Osborn finds out Spider-Man’s secret identity, becomes mob boss of New York several times, and constantly battles Spidey and other heroes.
He also has a propensity for faking his own death or outright coming back from the dead. The Goblin has also revealed himself as the mastermind behind most of Spider-Man’s worst moments, such as the “Clone Saga.” During that time, Osborn killed fan favourite Ben Reilly and may or may not have killed Peter’s newborn daughter.
As evil as all of that is, none of that really matters compared to the one action that made the Green Goblin famous, the one thing the villain did that made him synonymous with Spider-Man and will forever make the Green Goblin Spider-Man’s greatest ever opponent. To talk about it, we need to go back to the night Gwen Stacy died.
It was a truly shocking, genre-defining moment that had comic book fans in uproar. The Green Goblin abducted Gwen Stacy, and ultimately caused her death during a confrontation with Spider-Man on a bridge. It’s a moment that propels the Green Goblin head and shoulders above most other super villains, and it’s for that reason why he deserves his place in the top five.
Next: No. 4: The ultimate trickster
4. Loki
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
When a super villain goes over his or her list of accomplishments, inspiring the creation of one of the premier super hero teams in existence is not a good look. Fortunately, Loki is above such things as resumes, so he gets a pass on that little matter of inspiring the creation of the Avengers.
Not that other bad guys could do much about it even if they got upset. With all due respect to the sci-fi twist to Asgard presented in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Loki is an actual god, one with both power and cunning in equal amounts.
At the same time, he remains a character with motivations that most people can understand. His unusual parentage makes him a god without a home. It also rankles him that his adopted brother Thor is literally getting the keys to the kingdom one day. As a person with seven brothers and sisters, I can tell you that anyone who says they never felt a sibling is getting preferential treatment is lying.
Where other villains are straightforward about their plans, Loki is harder to read. Everything with him is deception and lies, like smoke and mirrors on a cosmic scale. You’ve stopped him for today, but you’ll never know if his long game is still going strong.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Loki’s profile got a huge boost from his role as the villain at the center of the first Avengers movie, as comic book appropriate as it was. That Tom Hiddleston guy who plays him is also pretty popular.
In any case, Loki is going to keep on scheming. He’s not on top of this list yet, and you just know that doesn’t sit well with him.
Next: No. 3: Powerful and persuasive?
3. Magneto
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
You have to pity the X-Men just a bit. Most super heroes can defeat their foes, lock them up and feel good about what they’ve done without thinking twice about it. With Magneto, not only is he difficult to vanquish and imprison, he also possesses an extra power that few others have: the ability to make a nagging voice in the back of your head ask, “What if he’s right?”
Magneto isn’t the only villain to pose a philosophical challenge as well as a physical one, but he’s unique in the sense that the answer to that question still isn’t known. Professor X started the X-Men because he was convinced the team could help humans and mutants coexist peacefully. His former friend Erik Lehnsherr felt the only way to defend mutantkind was by force. He’s tried to walk Xavier’s path, but each time, he’s come away unconvinced.
It’s that glimmer of potential open-mindedness that makes Magneto so difficult to pigeonhole as a straight-up super villain. He’s doing what he thinks is right, by any means necessary. What we call evil, he sees as an unwillingness to compromise on the truth.
And that truth is a complicated one. Magneto knows true hate and oppression in a way no hero or villain can quite relate to, having survived the atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jews in World War II. If he sees the same mindset arising with regards to mutants, it’s hard for us to argue, even as we condemn his actions.
Not that Magneto would care what we think; as humans, we’re part of the problem. His ridiculously strong powers of magnetism allow him to take the “might makes right” approach in response to anyone who disagrees with him. He offers a singular viewpoint in an art form often ruled by barely distinguishable copies — and in the movies, where he’s been portrayed by Sir Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender — and that makes him likely to remain near the top of this list for as long as there are super hero comics.
Next: No. 2: Keeping the world safe from Superman
2. Lex Luthor
(Write-up by Steve Lam, Bam Smack Pow Staff Writer)
Lex Luthor may not be Superman’s first arch-nemesis (that honor goes to the Ultra-Humanite, who I vowed to at least sneak a mention in this post in some way or another), but he is the most well-known. Some may say that his popularity is due to his association with the Man of Steel himself, but I beg to differ. A diabolical genius with the ability to manipulate almost any situation, Lex Luthor has been evaluated by both Superman and Batman to be one of the most dangerous men on Earth. If the World’s Finest think he’s bad news, then that’s good enough for me … or would that be “bad enough for me?”
Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Lex Luthor made his first appearance in Action Comics #23 (April 1940). Readers comparing the original Luthor to modern interpretations will find the character to have vastly evolved. Even his physical appearance has changed. The character started out with a full head of red hair, but soon lost it when an artist made a mistake. Explanations for his hair loss would later be explained in different storylines (although an alternate universe Luthor still retains his red hair).
Appearances aside, Luthor has gone from a James Bond-type genius villain to a multi-billionaire corporate magnate. At one point, he also became President of the United States. In the most recent stories, Luthor actually joins the Justice League.
It’s always been said that the Devil’s greatest trick was convincing the world he didn’t exist. Lex Luthor pulls this off with aplomb. With endless resources, high influence, genius-level intellect, and a skewed morality where he sees himself as a savior against “alien threats” (Superman), Lex Luthor will always be at the top of any super villain list.
On an ending note, I’m calling shenanigans on Lex Luthor not being the #1 super villain. Why? On a previous list, Superman was also ranked at #2. I think there’s a Luthor-like conspiracy of not allowing any Superman-centric characters to be above the rest.
Next: No. 1: Why so serious?
1. The Joker
(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)
If you could ask other super villains what scares them, what keeps them up at night, it’s probably not a run-in with any super hero. Chances are, it’s the Joker.
At the very least, most of his fellow costumed criminals would likely keep a respectable distance from the Joker unless absolutely necessary. Such is the unpredictable lunacy of the most enduring and popular villain ever created.
Though he’s undergone almost as many shifts in tone as his archenemy through the decades, there’s something primal at the heart of the Joker’s particular brand of evil. It forms a perfect opposition to Batman’s quest to clean up Gotham City. The Dark Knight operates outside the law, but he’s still all about his rules: no guns, no killing, and so on. The Joker would rather show us why it’s absurd to even have rules in the first place.
That’s probably why when you think about unthinkable acts in mainstream super hero comics, the Joker has committed most of them. From crippling Barbara Gordon in front of her father, to killing Robin (though he got better) and Gordon’s second wife, to cutting off his own face, there’s no line he won’t cross, because he simply doesn’t acknowledge there are any lines there.
As for his ultimate goal, it’s probably unknowable, because we can’t get inside his head. Many fans believe he’d “beat” Batman for good if he could get the Dark Knight to kill him. He certainly lives for the battle of wits between them. Maybe, as Christopher Nolan’s version of Alfred commented, he just wants to watch the world burn.
Speaking of The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger’s interpretation of the Joker was amazing. But so was Jack Nicholson’s performance 20-some years earlier; Mark Hamill’s voice work in the animated series; and, in its own campy way, Cesar Romero’s clowning around in the 60s. No super villain has ever had pop culture in his grip quite like the Joker.
Knowing that would probably elicit a laugh from him, but thankfully, he doesn’t exist in real life for us to find out. The Joker is Batman’s problem, from here until eternity, and he’s also the greatest super villain in comic book history.
Next: 50 Greatest Super Heroes in Comic Book History
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