Greatest comic book characters – 16. Lex Luthor
First comic book appearance: Action Comics No. 23
If you’re going to have the strongest hero in the world, then he has to have a nemesis that can match him. They don’t have to match him physically. It’s actually better if they can’t. That’s where Lex Luthor comes in. A person that has found a way to challenge Superman and the rest of the world by using his intellect.
Lex has managed to be one of DC Comics’ most dangerous people in comic books for decades. He still has his obsession with Superman and proving to the world that he’s the best and their only hope, a compulsion that usually ends with his defeat. It almost cost the multiverse to be reformed by Perpetua (Year of the Villain and then Dark Knights Death Metal). Thankfully, Lex was there in the end to fix his mistakes.
Greatest comic book characters – 15. Joker
First comic book appearance: Batman No. 1
Joker is easily the best villain in comic books. It’s easy to get distracted by his homicidal tendencies to see how smart he is. Batman is known as the world’s greatest detective and he has issues figuring out the Joker. What seems like randomness and chaos is actually well thought out. That’s a secret that Jason Todd figured out. Joker isn’t as crazy as he wants people to believe.
Think about it. Everything Joker does has a reason. If he did everything at random, he’d be no better than the rest of the villains in the world. Instead, he’s constantly a thorn in the side of every hero he’s encountered.