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| source// DC Comics |
Being bad is all the rage these days, and when it comes to great comic book villains, DC is the perfect place to turn (though Marvel obviously has their fair share too). This is after all the company who are looking to launch a new movie franchise based around the Suicide Squad, and the depth of their roster of evildoers is big enough that they can take a bunch of B-List baddies to effortlessly create an A-List team.
Going back to the comic books though, and while pretty much every superhero has their own respective rogues gallery which is easy enough to rank, what happens when you throw all of those together and attempt to pick the greatest?! That’s what you’ll find here, though with literally thousands to choose from, zeroing in on the villains who stand out as being the best at being bad is no easy feat.
All of those featured have very different motivations; some want to take over the world (or even the entire universe) and others just enjoy making the lives of the heroes they despise a living hell. There’s no denying that they’re all delightfully evil though, and regardless of their very different plans, these twisted men and women are definitely the most awesome bad guys you’ll find in the pages of DC’s comic books.
15. Harley Quinn
Harley Quinn was actually introduced in Batman: The Animated series, and later made the leap from screen to page due to her massive popularity. A few DC Comics characters have a similar origin story, but Harley stands out as having found the most success in the years which have followed.
Sure, she may have started out as the Clown Prince of Crime’s sidekick, but Harley now has her own series and a number of spinoffs to go with it, falling more into the anti-hero category rather than full on villain. Make no mistake about it though, this insane former psychiatrist is still just as twisted, and almost as sadistic, as her beloved puddin’, The Joker.
14. Captain Cold
Everyone always seems to point to the likes of Spider-Man and Batman as having the best villains, but The Flash’s Rogues are right up there with many of the baddies those heroes square off with on a regular basis.
Captain Cold is the leader of that team, and while The Fastest Man Alive has frequently found a way to outsmart him and his band of crooks, Leonard Snart is street smart enough to find ways of making The Flash’s life as difficult as possible, pulling off some daring heists in the process. He’s also one of only a handful of villains with the ability to slow Barry Allen down with his freeze gun, so Mr. Freeze has nothing on this guy.
13. Black Manta
For a very long time, Aquaman was considered a joke by many comic book fans despite numerous attempts by DC to get their readers to take him seriously. However, that all changed during The New 52 reboot, and one of his cheesier villains also got an awesome makeover when Geoff Johns pitted Aquaman against Black Manta.
Aquaman actually killed the his father by mistake years earlier, and desperate for revenge, Black Manta made it his aim to wipe out all of the hero’s friends and family.
Proving to be more than a match for Aquaman in battle, this unique and fearsome looking character has since established himself as one of his greatest foes and has taken on a much bigger role in the DC Universe after refusing to join the Suicide Squad, but taking on Earth-3’s Crime Syndicate alongside Lex Luthor and Bizarro.
12. General Zod
The way Man of Steel handled General Zod (and particularly his death) has made him infamous, but make no mistake about it, his comic book counterpart is every big as formidable and evil.
Obsessed with conquering Earth and turning it into a new Krypton, Zod has clashed with Superman many times over the years and is determined to make the hero kneel before him.
While his big screen appearances have arguably portrayed Zod as a much greater threat than the comics have, this Phantom Zone escapee is someone who Superman has no other choice than to take very seriously, especially as he’s vastly superior in terms of fighting ability.
11. Bizarro
The whole concept of Bizarro is admittedly pretty ridiculous, but that makes this backwards talking villain no less awesome.
Superman’s duplicate, he’ll wish you a “Bad Morning!” on a good afternoon and has freeze ray instead of heat vision! As I said, it’s pretty silly, but the character has a large fan following and has pushed the Man of Steel to his limit on many occasions.
While The New 52 reboot means we’ve seen a much more grounded take on Bizarro in recent years (he’s been transformed into an unfinished clone of Superman), he remains every bit as interesting, and has earned his icon status through his misadventures over the years.
10. Gorilla Grodd
A psychic gorilla taking on the Fastest Man Alive may sound ridiculous on paper, but Grodd has shown himself to be a very real threat to Central City on a number of occasions now.
Recently he’s invaded Barry Allen’s home with a whole army of gorillas, and he was a significant enough threat that The Rogues were willing to put their differences with The Flash aside in order to team up and attempt to stop the villain. Making him even more frightening is the fact that Grodd recently managed to tap into the Speed Force, and he’s now just as fast as the Scarlet Speedster.
Psychic, fast, and super strong? Grodd is truly a force to be reckoned with.
9. Bane
After Batman and Robin turned him into a cartoon and The Dark Knight Rises grounded him in reality, it’s the comic books where Bane truly gets to rule. Brought up in an underground prison where he was forced to serve his father’s life sentence, he ultimately managed to escape and found his way to Gotham City.
Utilising a substance known as Venom to make himself even stronger, Bane has the brains to go with his brute strength, and that makes him particularly dangerous.
Unfortunately, not much has been done with him since he “Broke the Bat”, but that remains one of the most iconic moments in the Caped Crusader’s history.
9. Doomsday
He’s been watered down a little in the years which have followed, but when Doomsday was first introduced in the pages of Superman, he was a truly terrifying beast. Even more powerful than the Man of Steel, their epic battle raged across the whole of Metropolis, and only ended when they both delivered a killing blow to the other.
As a result, Doomsday stands out as the only villain to have actually killed Superman, and that has cemented his place in comic book history as not necessarily the all-time greatest, but certainly the most memorable.
Now, he’s set to make his presence felt on the big screen in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
7. The Riddler
For years, The Riddler didn’t really pose much of a threat to Batman, but everything changed when he became one of the Caped Crusader’s only foes to figure out his secret identity. Using that information to try and destroy the hero’s life (during the famous “Hush” storyline), Edward Nygma found himself propelled to the big leagues, something which has carried over into the rebooted New 52 Universe.
There, he was revealed to be one of the first bad guys Batman ever faced, taking over Gotham City and plunging it into chaos until the Dark Knight finally managed to outwit him. Despite his silly appearance, he’s definitely not to be trifled with.
6. Brainiac
Brainiac has taken many forms over the years in the ever changing DC Universe, but regardless of his different origin stories, this Superman villain has always pushed the Man of Steel to his limits. Obsessed with shrinking and collecting parts of different worlds, the villain has set his sights on Metropolis on multiple occasions, and even has a piece of Superman’s home planet.
When that was restored to its full size, the hero finally found a home with his people on Earth, but rather than lose it from his collection, Brainiac didn’t hesitate in destroying it and every Kryptonian who lived there. As a alien villains go, he’s one of the worst.
5. Reverse-Flash
The Reverse-Flash has made one hell of an impact on the small screen in The Flash’s TV series, but his comic book counterpart is every bit as impressive. Eobard Thawne may not have posed as a mentor to Barry Allen in the source material, but he did manipulate the Scarlet Speedster into travelling back in time where his actions – saving his mother’s life – broke the timeline and ultimately led to the controversial New 52 reboot.
When he’s not basically destroying entire realities, the Reverse-Flash makes it his mission to torture The Flash and prove that he’s the real Fastest Man Alive. Oh, and it goes without saying that he’s totally insane!
4. Sinestro
Originally a member of the Green Lantern Corps, everything changed for Sinestro when Hal Jordan became Green Lantern and exposed the brutal way his mentor was keeping his home planet in check. That led to his dismissal from the Corps, and so began a rivalry which has spanned decades.
Sinestro’s hatred for Hal would ultimately lead to the formation of the Sinestro Corps, and the war which followed remains one of the most epic and far reaching DC Comics events to date. In recent years, Sinestro has acted a little more heroically, but his feelings toward Green Lantern haven’t altered all that much and likely never will in all honesty!
3. Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor’s hatred for Superman is so great that he will do anything to bring down the Man of Steel, but other members of the Justice League also aren’t immune from his schemes. In fact, the villain has recently blackmailed his way into the ranks of the Justice League after figuring out Batman’s secret identity and using that information against the Caped Crusader.
Luthor is such a master manipulator that he even managed to become the President of the United States for a short time, and as soon as he steps into that iconic green and purple power suit of his, Lex becomes powerful enough to go toe to toe with Superman in battle.
2. Darkseid
The villain who Marvel basically ripped off to create Thanos, Darkseid could take The Mad Titan out in a heartbeat.
This is after all an alien dictator who rules over his own planet (rather ominously known as Apokolips) and spends his free time travelling between alternative Earths and brutally murdering the different versions of Superman he comes across until he can get his hands on the real deal.
Darkseid is also responsible for killing Batman, and even when a team of Godlike beings such as the Justice League come together to face him, they only ever really seem to succeed if luck is on their side. He’s a true force to be reckoned with!
1. The Joker
He may not have taken over the world and it’s true that he couldn’t hack it in a battle against someone like Superman, but when it comes to sheer villainy, who better personifies that than The Joker?
Whether it’s Death in the Family, The Killing Joke, or even his recent appearances in The New 52, the Clown Prince of Crime has committed a long list of twisted and despicable acts, singling himself out as Batman’s greatest enemy and a bad guy who is perhaps more evil than every other character listed here combined.
The Joker may be insane, but when it comes to making the Dark Knight’s life a living hell, he knows exactly what he’s doing.
Which other DC villains deserve to be on this list? Share your favourites below in the comments thread.
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