The Arrowverse has introduced several iconic villains, but who are the greatest of all-time?
When Arrow began in 2012, nobody could have possibly imagined the universe that stemmed from it. With The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow, we now have a huge connected universe known as the Arrowverse with a vast array of characters.
Across four different shows, the Arrowverse has showcased a huge number of heroes (we’ve ranked the 30 best). But, a hero is nothing without a good villain to do battle with and as such, we’ve also been introduced to some great foes for our heroes. We’ve already taken a look at the 30 greatest Arrowverse heroes, but now it’s time for the villains to take center stage.
From the humble beginnings of Arrow‘s crooked businessmen and gangsters (with the odd assassin thrown in for good measure), we’ve now encountered villains who range from metahumans to aliens; telepathic gorillas to time demons with each spin-off show introduced a new type of villain. The Flash introduced metahumans, Supergirl introduced aliens and Legends of Tomorrow introduced time demons (amongst others).
But which Arrowverse villains made the biggest impacts and who is the greatest villain in the Arrowverse? Read on and find out!
30. Red Tornado
Supergirl fought this android after General Sam Lane asked her to test its capabilities. While the android itself wasn’t evil, it was extremely dangerous. Red Tornado was created by Dr T.O. Morrow and was designed to kill Kryptonians. The android took over 11 years and billions of dollars to create.
When the battle began, it seemed that Red Tornado had the upper hand on Supergirl, but she was able to turn things around.
After Kara had caused internal damage to the android and removed one of its arms, its emergency protocols were activated and it flew away. When it resurfaced, Kara was filled with rage during the battle and began violently blasting it with heat vision. Eventually, the robot exploded, but it took such a toll on Supergirl that she had exhausted all of her solar energy and temporarily lost her powers.
The Earth-X version of Red Tornado appeared in Crisis on Earth-X Arrowverse crossover and battled with both the Flash and the Ray. It was the secret weapon of General Winn Schott against the Earth-X Nazis and was sent into action to destroy the portal to Earth-1. Because the Earth-1 heroes were trying to get home, this proved problematic, hence why the Flash and the Ray teamed up to stall the android.
29. The Dollmaker
Before there was ever thought to add “verse” to the end of the show’s title, early Arrow was a great place for more grounded villains to showcase their skills and the Dollmaker certainly made an impact. He was one of the more twisted villains who literally turned his victims into dolls by filling their bodies with a polymer and drowning them.
Barton Mathis escaped from prison thanks to the events of the Undertaking and decided to begin his killing spree once more. He took great pleasure in dressing his victims up as dolls before drowning them and would leave the lifeless dolls for the police to find. He seemed to have an obsession with their skin as he commented on this a number of times, often making note of how smooth it was.
The Dollmaker seems to have an obsession with Quentin Lance and decides to kill Laurel. He takes her prisoner and aims to kill her in front of Quentin. Luckily, the Arrow arrives just in time and manages to save both Lances. However, Barton manages to escape until he runs into the Canary who kills him because of what he did to Quentin and Laurel (the Canary, of course, being Sara Lance’s first alter-ego).
28. Konstantin Kovar
The final villain Oliver Queen faced before his return to Starling City, Konstantin Kovar was the governor of Krasnoyarsk and used his position to gain influence in his criminal empire. He wanted to take Anatoly’s place as head of the Bratva. Kovar had many followers and became an instrumental part in Oliver’s journey from playboy to vigilante.
It was quite a coup for Arrow to cast Dolph Lundgren as the villain and his stature was suitably imposing. Even Stephen Amell looked much smaller in comparison and Lundgren was adept at showing the arrogance of his character. Kovar would often taunt his prisoners and was completely ruthless.
Oliver defeated Kovar twice, first in a Russian casino and then after Kovar followed him to Lian Yu. The battle in the casino was one of the most brutal battles Arrow has shown. Oliver and Kovar fought each other to a standstill before Oliver eventually gained the upper hand. He seemingly killed him, before he returned to fight Oliver on Lian Yu.
Because of their battle, Oliver almost missed his chance to get on the boat back to Starling City. But, he was able to overpower Kovar and snap his neck, leaving his body on the island to decompose.
27. Lillian Luthor
The head of the anti-alien organization CADMUS, Lillian Luthor first appeared during Supergirl Season 2. At first, Brenda Strong’s character remained a mystery but the plot thickened once her true identity was revealed. This opened up a whole line of questioning surrounding Lena’s true motives.
She was particularly cold towards Lena because of the fact she was the product of one of her husband’s affairs. However, when he brought Lena home to meet the family, she became impressed by the girl’s intellect.
Lillian insists that she tries to do what’s best for her family and always claims to have Lena’s best interests at heart. However, it’s clear that she also has a hatred of Supergirl that comes from her cousin’s battle with Lex Luthor. She even wore the famous “Lexo-suit” armor to battle Kara.
Luthor was responsible for creating Metallo and Cyborg Superman while she also supplied Chet Miner’s gang with alien weapons. She also turned Jeremiah Danvers into a cyborg and manipulated him into infiltrating the DEO. This cut particularly deeply with both Alex and Kara, after many years, they finally had their father back, only for him to betray them.
After Morgan Edge attempted to poison Lena, Lillian returned to National City to seek revenge on him.
26. Maxwell Lord
Before the Luthors made any sort of appearance on Supergirl, Maxwell Lord took on the role of pseudo-Lex Luthor. A billionaire who ran his own company, he was often at odds with the DEO and Supergirl. Peter Facinelli took great joy in playing the role, especially due to the ambiguity surrounding his true motives.
He often appeared at odds with Kara throughout Season 1, first appearing to condemn her for causing an environmental disaster in her attempts to save lives. Later, he appeared questioning Supergirl’s heroism when she failed to help during an earthquake (though she had temporarily lost her powers at the time).
Perhaps his biggest act of villainy was creating Bizarro, an evil clone of Kara. He found a brain-dead girl and experimented on her to give her the same abilities as Supergirl and then released her on National City. Lord was also responsible for the red Kryptonite that caused National City to lose faith in Kara.
He was last seen in the Season 1 finale holding the Omegahedron from Fort Rozz, it appears that Lord was a casualty of Supergirl’s move to The CW. It seems that we’ll never know just what he had planned with the alien technology.
25. Clock King
A man who planned everything down to the second, William Tockman became known as the Clock King. He first appeared overseeing the robbery of Kord Industries in search of the Skeleton Key, a piece of technology that could open any bank vault. When his cohorts veered away from his plans and killed a guard, Tockman became enraged and killed the man responsible for killing the guard.
Tockman was suffering from MacGregor’s Syndrome but, rather than using his ill-acquired gains to prolong his life, he instead took the money to help his sister who suffered from Cystic Fibrosis. But, after the Arrow and Canary foiled his plan, he was unable to send any money to his sister and she passed away without treatment.
Now a man with nothing to lose, Tockman became more dangerous than ever. While he was being transferred to Central City, a blackout occurred thanks to a metahuman attack. He took his chance and took the entire police station hostage. Over the course of the episode, he killed two police officers and almost managed to escape. However, the quick thinking of Eddie Thawne allowed Iris West to take his gun and shoot Tockman, thereby returning him to police custody.
24. Weather Wizard
Clyde and Mark Mardon were both struck by the particle accelerator explosion and granted the ability to manipulate the weather. Clyde was the first villain faced by the Flash who revealed himself by robbing a bank with his powers. He tried to destroy Central City with a tornado but the Flash was able to stop him by reversing it. Joe West then shot him dead.
Mark Mardon later returned to Central City seeking revenge on Joe. It seemed he had a much better grasp of his abilities than his brother did particularly when he used giant hailstones to kill the coroner who worked on his brother.
Interestingly, Mark Mardon holds the unique distinction of having one of his attempts to defeat the Flash erased from the timeline (dammit, Barry!). He created a tsunami that looked set to completely destroy Central City. However, Barry was able to stop this by (accidentally) traveling back 24 hours in time. Armed with the future knowledge, he decided to stop the elder Mardon brother before he had the chance to create the tsunami.
After Barry defeated and imprisoned Mark in the pipeline, he returned to team up with Leonard Snart and James Jesse. Forming the first Arrowverse incarnation of Rogues, they made a formidable team.
23. Count Vertigo
Another example of an excellent villain from early Arrow. The Count got his name because he used a double syringe to administer Vertigo into his victim’s neck (and let’s be honest, it’s a lot cooler than Cecil Adams). In order to perfect the formula for Vertigo, the Count killed between 50 and 60 people, all of whom died of an overdose.
He came onto Oliver Queen’s radar after Thea had been given Vertigo and he decided to take a break from crossing names off his father’s list and instead, go on a personal vendetta. Because of the success of his drug, the Count gained a number of followers and when Oliver came looking, they all came to his aid.
Once Oliver came face to face with the Count, he decided that the best way to beat him was to give him an overdose of Vertigo. Somehow, the Count survived this, but he was declared insane and sent to a mental hospital.
He still managed to leave a legacy, even while receiving treatment in the mental hospital. One of his doctors, Doctor Webb, started selling Vertigo on the street and framed the Count for it. Oliver was able to defeat the doctor but he wasn’t the only person to take on the legacy of Count Vertigo. A drug dealer named Werner Zytle also took on the mantle and created his own Vertigo formula.
22. Toyman
Winslow Schott Sr. created deadly toys to kill his victims. He was the father of Kara’s best friend, Winn, though this wasn’t something that he advertised. After his incarceration, Winn did everything he could to separate himself from his father, but after his escape from prison, thanks to a deadly yo-yo, it became impossible.
Toyman sent his son messages as he wanted him to continue his legacy, but Winn didn’t want anything to do with his father. Eventually, Winn did meet with his dad after encouragement from Kara and the FBI. Unfortunately, it was a set-up and Toyman was never really there.
When Kara next went after him, Toyman had set up a number of traps for her. He managed to trap her in a giant alphabet block filled with thermite and quicksand. However, thanks to some quick thinking, she was able to escape.
His presence instigated one of Winn’s best episodes in Supergirl and allowed him to transition from a character obsessed with Kara into a three-dimensional character. Winn admitted his feelings to Kara in this episode and was able to move on after she rejected him. When Winn found out that his father had been killed in prison during Season 3, he was also able to reconnect with his estranged mother.
21. King Shark
A giant half-man, half-shark. Need I say more?
Okay, I’ll go on a little. Originally a marine biologist by the name of Shay Lamden, he mutated into his current form after Earth-2’s particle accelerator exploded. He was originally sent to Earth-1 by Zoom to defeat the Flash and he probably would have if not for Harry Wells’ intervention.
After this, he was captured by ARGUS and kept in a secure location. Amanda Waller planned to use King Shark as a weapon, but after her death, this plan died. However, King Shark was able to escape and wreak havoc upon Central City once more. The Flash was able to defeat him by luring him into some electrically charged water which allowed ARGUS to subdue him.
His last appearance was guarding the Dominator’s power core inside ARGUS. While trying to defeat Savitar, Barry had needed to get the power core to power the Speed Force Bazooka (long story). However, the power core was tremendously well guarded and there were metahuman power dampeners everywhere.
So, he teamed up with his old enemy Captain Cold to steal the core. This led to a brilliant scene that revealed that Snart was a huge fan of Shark Week.
20. Brother Blood
Sebastian Blood was a politician who gained a lot of respect in the Glades in Starling City. He started off as an alderman who wanted to pick up the pieces after the Undertaking. In order to do so, he allied himself with Slade Wilson who funded his efforts. Slade saw the potential in Blood and vowed to get him elected as mayor of Starling City.
However, at night, Sebastian Blood put on a skull mask and set about finding candidates for Slade’s Mirakuru army. As Brother Blood, the respected alderman set out to create as much mayhem as possible and cause panic on the streets. This was all to help his political campaign.
It was only once he actually became mayor that he saw Slade’s true colors. Though Slade had been driven mad, he betrayed Blood and started to lay waste to the city. It was then that Blood realized the error of his ways and gave Oliver Queen the cure for Mirakuru and a way to defeat Slade.
The scene in which Oliver reveals to Sebastian that he is the Arrow was filled with tension. Blood was celebrating his victory in the mayoral race at a restaurant when Oliver confronted him. Here, Oliver told him that he was merely a pawn in Slade Wilson’s plan. This conversation led to Blood giving Oliver the cure.
19. Vandal Savage
An immortal man whose villainy reached across history. He was originally born in Ancient Egypt and lived alongside Prince Khufu and Princess Chay-ara (who would later become Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders). When a meteor shower struck their home, the three became intrinsically linked and imbued with powers.
While Khufu and Chay-ara became Hawk gods who would reincarnate after their death, Savage gained the ability to regenerate and became immortal because of this. However, in order to maintain his immortality, he had to kill both of the Hawks. This was especially hard for him as he was in love with Chay-ara.
Savage was later responsible for the murder of Rip Hunter’s wife and son. This was what ultimately drove him to travel back in time and form his own superhero team: the Legends. Selecting heroes whose absence caused the least damage to the timeline, Hunter’s team encountered Savage at various points throughout history. They eventually defeated him by simultaneously stopping him at three separate points in history.
Ultimately, Vandal Savage was a villain who was built up quite a lot but didn’t really deliver that much. He carried a threat because of his immortality and the difficulty in finally defeating him, but he wasn’t as threatening as some of the other villains that have yet to appear on this list.
18. Livewire
Initially, Leslie Willis was a shock-jock working at CatCo Worldwide Media, but after she began to badmouth Supergirl, Cat Grant canceled her show. Cat also placed Leslie on traffic duty. It was here that she gained her ability to control electricity.
On her first job in the traffic copter, there was a tremendous storm. Despite the pilot’s reservations, Leslie decided to fly anyway. That was when lightning hit the chopper and Supergirl arrived on the scene. Thanks to a twist of fate, lightning struck Supergirl just as she grabbed Leslie’s hand and thanks to some pseudo-science, Leslie gained electrical powers.
Livewire went on a vendetta against Cat Grant and wanted to kill the media mogul. But as Supergirl was secretly Cat’s assistant, she often got in Livewire’s way. This infuriated her as she felt that Supergirl was Cat’s personal bodyguard, which only increased her hatred of the Girl of Steel.
After her defeat, Silver Banshee freed her and teamed up with her to defeat the Girl of Steel. However, this coincided with the Flash being trapped on Earth-38, and the two heroes teamed up to defeat the two villains. Livewire was significant as it was the first time that Supergirl did battle with a human enemy. Before this, all of her previous villains were aliens and it was only when the Flash arrived that the term metahuman was introduced to Earth-38.
17. Pied Piper
Hartley Rathaway was the former protegé of Harrison Wells who developed sound manipulating gauntlets to do battle with the Flash. He fell out with Wells when he tried to stop the particle accelerator being activated after realizing it was at risk of exploding.
Because Wells was secretly Eobard Thawne and needed the accelerator to explode so he could create the Flash, he promptly fired his protegé. Rathaway was affected by the particle accelerator and gained superhuman hearing. However, it also caused him great pain. His scientific acumen allowed him to create a device that dampened the pain and he set about his revenge.
He created sonic gauntlets that allowed him to weaponize sound. The Flash may have been fast, but he was still human and hurt when Rathaway first attacked. Even when he was captured, he proved himself to be very manipulative, convincing Cisco to release him in exchange for the location of Ronnie Raymond.
Thanks to Barry’s meddling with the timeline (dammit, Barry… again!), Rathaway was able to gain some redemption. After Barry had traveled back in time to learn from Doctor Wells, he was followed by a Time Wraith. Rathaway was involved in helping the team defeat it and made amends in the altered timeline.
16. The Trickster
When it was announced that the Trickster would appear in The Flash, there was only one man for the job. Mark Hamill reprised his role from the ’90s series and brought to life James Jesse once more. This time, however, he played an older version of the character who was broken out of prison by his son, Axel.
Jesse was considered the most dangerous person in Central City before the particle accelerator explosion created metahumans. After his escape, it turned out he was still amongst the most dangerous when he tried to rob Central City’s richest at a charity event. Spiking the champagne with slow-release poison, Jesse threatened to kill them all unless they transferred all of their money to him.
He had the antidote, but wouldn’t administer it until he had all of the money. Luckily, Barry appeared and managed to stop the Trickster and cure all of the victims. After this, he was sent to prison.
He later returned after the Weather Wizard freed him and Captain Cold from Iron Heights hoping they’d both help him kill the Flash. His current whereabouts are unknown, though we were treated to Earth-3’s version of the villain in Season 3’s “The Present.”
15. Ricardo Diaz
The main villain of Arrow Season 6. He’d be placed much higher up this list but he didn’t really make an impact until it was revealed that he was the man pulling the strings. Initially, it seemed that Cayden James was the brains of the operation and Diaz was merely a thug for hire, but once Diaz killed James, he became a lot more interesting.
Diaz was a calm, calculated businessman who wormed his way into all aspects of Star City. He managed to take control of the police force and take over all of the criminal elements as well. He even gained a place on the Quadrant, a high-ranking criminal operation that had links all across the country.
As the season progressed, Diaz became much more sinister and gradually more unhinged. He planted seeds of doubt within Team Arrow and caused the team to disband for a period of time. He’d also bugged the bunker and managed to stay one step ahead of them. His final confrontation with Oliver led to him being blasted into the river by Black Siren. As a result, Diaz is still alive and continues to haunt Star City in Season 7.
14. The Dominators
If a villain requires the entire Arrowverse to team up, they have to be good. The Dominators were the villains behind the first four-way (well, three-and-a-half-way) crossover of the Arrowverse. When a spaceship crash-lands in Central City, Barry Allen recruits all of his friends to battle the invaders.
Ironically, it’s because of Barry’s actions in creating Flashpoint that the Dominators came to Earth. They sought out to destroy all metahumans due to their unpredictability. The Dominators tried to maintain order throughout the universe, and metahumans were a variable that they couldn’t control; particularly when they had the ability to create whole new timelines and completely alter history.
They were memorable because it was the first time we’d seen Team Arrow, Team Flash, the Legends and Supergirl all unite together on-screen. The crossover also featured the 100th episode of Arrow and the Dominators allowed for a number of characters to return for the episode. Oliver was trapped in a fantasy world created by the aliens and this wouldn’t have been possible without them.
And then there was the final battle. It truly was a sight to behold to see all of our favorite superheroes battling an army of aliens. The battle was filled with memorable moments, from the group shots of all the heroes to smaller moments like Oliver’s little nod to Kara after she saved him.
13. Ra’s al-Ghul
The main villain of Arrow Season 3 and head of the League of Assassins. At the age of 11, Ra’s (whose true name was never revealed in Arrow) killed for the first time in order to defend his family. Initially, he was ashamed of his actions but was able to justify them as he’d done so to protect his family.
He gained the title of Demon’s Head sometime later and ruled over the League of Assassins for centuries; prolonging his life thanks to the Lazarus Pits in Nanda Parbat. He wasn’t without challenges though, as he was first challenged to trial by combat in 1947.
He learned of Oliver Queen after sending assassins to find Sara Lance’s killer. Sara was a former member of the League and Ra’s was furious that someone had killed his protegé. He then became interested in Oliver, especially after the two met in combat. Though Ra’s was victorious the first time, killing Oliver, he knew that he wanted the Arrow to succeed him as Demon’s Head.
Ra’s al Ghul’s legacy lives on as Oliver has encountered both of his daughters, Talia and Nyssa, neither of whom are particularly pleased that he killed their father.
12. Overgirl
The first true four-way crossover featured an invasion of Nazis from Earth-X. This was a world where the Nazis had won the second world war and, as a result, all of the counterparts of our heroes were evil. Of course, this meant that Supergirl didn’t crash-land in America, but instead landed into the Nazi regime.
All of the values the Danvers family had placed on Earth-1’s Kara were missing from Overgirl. Instead, she was a no-nonsense ruler who cared only about the Fatherland and her husband. The fact that she was blonde with blue eyes was not lost on the Earth-X Nazis either as she arrogantly described herself as Aryan perfection.
The Earth-X Nazis first made themselves known at the wedding of Barry Allen and Iris West. Overgirl’s first action was to kill the priest overseeing the ceremony before doing battle with her doppelgänger high in the sky above Central City. It was clear that the two Kryptonians were equally matched.
Melissa Benoist clearly enjoyed playing the evil mirror of her character and took great delight in emphasizing how the two Karas were different. While Supergirl is caring and compassionate, Overgirl is arrogant and selfish and Benoist was able to effectively portray this.
11. Dark Arrow
This leads us onto the Fuhrer of the Earth-X Nazis: Oliver Queen. Unlike his heroic Earth-1 counterpart, this version of Oliver Queen ruled over his people with an iron fist and sought to expand the Earth-X Nazi’s rule across the multiverse.
But he had an ulterior motive for invading the wedding of Barry Allen and Iris West. The Dark Arrow was married to Overgirl who was dying, she’d absorbed too much radiation from the sun and her heart was failing. So, the Earth-Xers traveled to Earth-1 in order to take Supergirl’s heart.
He teamed up with Earth-1’s Reverse Flash, taking the form of Harrison Wells once more, and took his army to Earth-1. Much as Melissa Benoist enjoyed playing a twisted version of her character, Stephen Amell took great delight in playing an evil Oliver Queen. This was particularly evident in the scene when the Earth-Xers revealed their identities to Barry, Kara and Oliver.
While Earth-X Oliver was just as skilled as Earth-1’s Oliver, the two men had completely different values. Oliver-1 was told to save his city and right his father’s wrongs and as such, has a strong sense of justice. Conversely, Oliver-X is a cold and ruthless man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, hence his plan to steal Supergirl’s heart.
10. The Thinker
Season 4 of The Flash delivered something that was long overdue: a big bad who wasn’t an evil speedster. Clifford DeVoe was not the fastest man alive, but he had the fastest MIND. DeVoe was a different kind of threat to Team Flash as he was able to plan for any eventuality and always seemed to be one step ahead of them.
His supreme intellect allowed him to completely discredit Barry Allen at work and even managed to get Barry sent to prison, although briefly. DeVoe’s body was deteriorating; while his mind was expanding, his body was failing. As such, he devised a plan involving 12 newly created metahumans to allow himself to continue existing and gain a multitude of powers in the process.
After discovering Dominic Lanse’s whereabouts, DeVoe was able to use his abilities to transfer his mind into the other “bus metas” bodies, thereby prolonging his life. As his plan moved on, he eventually took the body of Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man, and was able to return to his natural form.
Unfortunately, towards the end, it seemed as though DeVoe’s meticulously thought out plan became a lot simpler. He intended to reduce the intellect of everyone on Earth and rule over them in something called The Enlightenment. He believed that intelligence was one of the key factors behind wars and removing it would allow him to also remove the free will of the people. After a highly detailed plan, it all just seemed a bit too supervillain-y.
9. Savitar
The Future Flash, Savitar was a time remnant of Barry Allen’s who was shunned by the team; cast aside because he wasn’t the “real” Barry. As the main villain of The Flash Season 3, he was a formidable foe, and arguably the fastest speedster Barry has ever faced.
The truly interesting thing about him was the fact that he shared all of Barry’s memories, so he literally knew what was coming. Even when Team Flash tried to change the future, his memory altered to match the new timeline. He bided his time trapped in the speed force until he was able to put his plan into action.
A master manipulator, he recruited a number of acolytes and turned Julian Albert into Alchemy to restore powers to metahumans from Flashpoint. He finally freed himself from his prison by tricking Wally West into throwing the Philosopher’s Stone into the Speed Force.
The main problem with Savitar was viewers were tired of Barry always facing speedsters as his main villains. This was the third evil speedster in a row and this meant that essentially, Barry would go through the same journey this season: to become faster. Also, it took so long to reveal the twist that Savitar was actually the Future Flash, that audiences had already guessed his identity. There were a number of interesting storytelling possibilities that were missed by waiting so long.
8. Reign
Supergirl Season 3’s main villain was unlike any she had faced before. We met her in the season premiere as Sam Arias, the new CEO of L Corp, and followed her journey along every step of the way. It was really interesting to see how this caring single-mother became a truly formidable foe.
At first, it didn’t seem that there was anything villainous about Sam at all until she started to look into her origins. She discovered that she was an alien and she had arrived on Earth as a child. It was only after she discovered a Kryptonian crystal and made her own Fortress in the desert that she fully learned the truth.
Reign was a Worldkiller created by a cult of dark Kryptonians that was sent to Earth to execute justice. After Sam discovered this, Reign was able to take control of her body and confront Supergirl. She was a formidable foe to the Girl of Steel and basically a dark mirror of the character. She even put Supergirl out of action for a significant period when she broke her back.
Eventually, Kara was able to reach through to Sam’s personality and make her realize that she was stronger than Reign. But it was interesting to see the two sides of Sam battling for control, particularly as Reign seemed to have all of the power.
7. Zoom
The main villain of The Flash Season 2 was a dark mirror of Barry Allen. A reminder of just how easily things could have turned out differently for our hero. On Earth-2, the young villain watched as his father murdered his mother.
Where Barry was surrounded by a loving family unit after the murder of his mother, Hunter Zoloman was sent to an orphanage as none of his surviving family wanted to take him in. Eventually, his traumas caught up with him and he became a serial killer. After 23 victims, he was finally sentenced to death by the electric chair. Unfortunately, this coincided with the STAR Labs particle accelerator explosion and imbued him with incredible speed.
He used his abilities to take over Earth-2 but once Barry opened the singularity, he discovered that there was an entire multiverse to conquer. He traveled to Earth-1 and introduced himself to Team Flash as Jay Garrick, the Flash from Earth-2, and warned them of Zoom. When Zoom first encountered Barry, he broke his back.
Once his true identity was revealed, Zoom became even more deadly. He no longer needed to hide from Team Flash and instead chose to torture them. When Barry finally beat him, Zoom became the Black Flash, doomed to hunt anomalies in the timeline forever.
6. Malcolm Merlyn
The Arrowverse’s first-ever big bad. Merlyn was the father of Oliver’s best friend, Tommy. He was driven mad after his wife’s death and aimed to destroy the Glades as revenge. This plot, known as the Undertaking, was the brainchild of a number of high-ranking Starling City businesspeople including Oliver’s mother, Moira.
When we first meet Malcolm, he is simply a well-dressed man having a clandestine meeting with Moira in the back of his limo. But quickly, we learn there’s much more to this man than meets the eye. When he first meets Oliver, he defeats the younger archer easily, demonstrating that this well-dressed man is much more dangerous than he seems.
He seemingly perishes on the night of the Undertaking, but it doesn’t take too long before he resurfaces in Season 2. He even reveals to Thea that he is her biological father, not Robert Queen. From then on, he trains her and hypnotizes her to kill Sara Lance.
After Oliver kills R’as al-Ghul, Malcolm takes over the role of Demon’s Head, much to the chagrin of Nyssa. Though he eventually loses this position, he does return as both an enemy and a friend to Oliver Queen. He seemingly sacrifices himself to save Thea in the Season 5 finale, though John Barrowman has recently hinted that Merlyn may return to the Arrowverse.
5. Damien Darhk
Single-handily the best thing to come out of Arrow Season 4, Darhk was a former member of the League of Assassins who had gained magical powers. Neil McDonough played him with such charm that it was impossible not to like him. Even though Season 4 was definitely the weakest season of Arrow, Darhk’s charisma managed to keep you watching.
Darhk teamed up with HIVE to build his ark; an underground facility designed to protect him from a global nuclear disaster. His plan, Genesis, planned to wipe out all but a select few lives on Earth. The chosen few would retreat to the ark and then begin life anew after the apocalypse.
Though he was partially successful (the town of Havenrock was destroyed by a nuclear warhead), ultimately, the Green Arrow thwarted his plans. When the two characters next met, Oliver decided that the only way to save his city was to kill Darhk (for the first time).
However, even death couldn’t keep Darhk away from the Arrowverse. He returned to battle the Legends in both Season 2 and 3. His charm and charisma shone through as he became part of his own supervillain team: the Legion of Doom. In Season 3, he was even able to find some redemption when he sacrificed himself to save his daughter, Nora.
4. Captain Cold
While there’s an argument that he should be a hero thanks to his time on Legends of Tomorrow, I’m looking at his impact as an Arrowverse villain here. Leonard Snart was a man who acquired a cold gun that was able to kill the Flash and became a constant thorn in Barry Allen’s side. Played brilliantly by Wentworth Miller, he enjoyed toying with the Scarlet Speedster and proved a match for him on a number of occasions.
Despite not actually having powers, Snart was able to outwit the Flash and his team a number of times. When he was first introduced, he was a meticulous thief who carefully researched all of his jobs. When he came into contact with the cold gun, he used it to gain respect amongst the rogues of Central City.
He was one of the first Flash villains the reappear in the series and teamed up with both Heatwave and his sister, Lisa, also known as Golden Glider. His redemption in Legends of Tomorrow was an interesting story for the character as, at first, he was clearly reluctant to do good. He only looked out for himself, but his heroic sacrifice to save the Legends came from an organic place as his story developed over the season.
3. Prometheus
The main villain of Arrow Season 5. Adrian Chase was able to achieve something no other villain had managed to do before: completely break Oliver Queen. At first, it seemed Prometheus was randomly terrorizing the citizens of Star City by brutally murdering a number of people. However, it soon became apparent that there was more to it than met the eye.
His victims all had connections to the list Oliver’s father had given him shortly before his death. He was driven to revenge after Oliver killed his father during his time as The Hood. Since that day, Chase made it his mission to shatter Oliver Queen’s mind and utterly defeat him.
One of the best elements of Prometheus was the reveal of his identity. After months of speculation that Adrian Chase was Vigilante (as he was in the comics), the audience was thrown a curveball when he removed his mask and revealed his face. From that moment on, Josh Segarra played all of Chase’s scenes with twisted glee, enjoying the fact that he had Oliver right where he wanted him.
Chase’s journey ended where Oliver’s began: on Lian Yu. It was fitting that Oliver’s story came full circle and Chase almost won in the end. He’d rigged the island with explosives that would go off in the event of his death. This led to the amazing cliffhanger at the end of Season 5 which left all of Team Arrow in jeopardy.
2. Reverse Flash
Eobard Thawne was a man from the future who wanted to be the Flash. It was only after meeting Barry Allen that he realized that he was destined to be his greatest foe. Thawne killed Barry’s mother and then became stuck in the past, leading to him being responsible for the hero’s creation.
He took over the life of Harrison Wells and hid his abilities from the world. All the while, he helped train the fledgling Flash to become the hero he was destined to become. Of course, Thawne had an ulterior motive: he needed Barry’s speed to help him return to the future. Just at the point when it seemed he’d achieve his goals, his ancestor, Eddie, shot himself, seemingly wiping Thawne from existence.
However, the Reverse Flash is not an easy man to keep away. Thanks to the numerous time remnants he created, he was able to return to fight Barry Allen again. He even returned to battle the Legends and form his own supervillain team: the Legion of Doom.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of The Flash was convincing the audience Harrison Wells wasn’t the Reverse Flash despite actually showing that he was.
1. Deathstroke
Who else was it going to be? Slade Wilson was the one-time friend and mentor of Oliver Queen who was driven mad by his exposure to Mirakuru. After Oliver defeated him on Lian Yu, he was presumed dead, but the Mirakuru in his system kept him alive and he resurfaced in Starling City.
Haunted by the ghost of Shado, Slade believed that Oliver was the reason that he wasn’t able to be with the woman he loved. Actually, Oliver was given an impossible choice, but Slade’s mental state deteriorated and he wouldn’t listen to reason. He wouldn’t rest until he had shown Oliver true despair and this all culminated when he killed Moira Queen in front of both of her children.
Manu Bennett’s portrayal was both menacing and sympathetic. The relationship between the two characters was brilliant as well. It had been nurtured as Slade gained respect for his young protegé before being driven mad. It was fitting, then, that when Oliver was backed into a corner by Prometheus, he turned to his former mentor for help.
Seeing the Green Arrow and Deathstroke fight together was truly a sight to behold. Sadly, because of the potential Deathstroke film, it looks like we’ve seen the end of Slade Wilson for now. But, his send-off in Season 6 was certainly a high-point for the season.
So, there you have it. Maybe your favorite Arrowverse villain has been left off this list, or maybe you think some Arrowverse villains deserve placing higher? Whatever you think, air your thoughts in the comments below.