Everyone knows nothing makes a good hero like a great villain. Sherlock Holmes needed Moriarty, G.I. Joe needed Cobra, the rebels needed Darth Vader, etc. Nothing makes a story better quite like an interesting, intriguing, and yet hated adversary. Readers tend to flock to the villains they love to hate. The best villains bring something out of the hero that nobody else does or force the hero to push themselves further than before to find a way to win.

We wanted to make a top 10 list, but that’s impossible. There are just too many good choices, and we couldn’t agree on any of it. So we increased the list, and increased it, and increased it (honestly we probably could have kept going, too). So, before it gets too out of hand, here are our choices for the 100 best villains in comics.

(Click here for our Top 100 Heroes List!)

(If you missed them, read parts 1 and 2 of this list first!)

80. Anti-Monitor

Real Name: Mobius
First Appearance: Crisis on Infinite Earths #6
Enemies: The Monitors, the Guardians, Superman, Green Lantern Corps

“No hope. No mercy. The universe you knew is nothing but a memory and I have no intention of leaving anyone alive to honor it.”

This fuckin’ guy. Powered by the Anti-Matter universe, this big blowhard is focused on nothing less than the annihilation of pretty much all that there is. Most famous for his role in Crisis on Infinite Earths, he was responsible for wiping out hundreds, maybe thousands of universes and every single person in each one of them. He was responsible for the murder of the Monitor, the death of Supergirl, and the death of the Barry Allen Flash before he was finally killed by the Golden Age Superman. Or so it seemed. He was brought back for the excellent Sinestro Corps War, and the universe crapped their collective pants.

 

79. Absorbing Man

Real Name: Carl “Crusher” Creel
First Appearance: Journey Into Mystery #114 (1965)
Enemies: Thor, Avengers

“You know what that felt like? Carl Creel from the Bronx, standing over the God of Thunder? I couldn’t explain it if I tried.”

Capable of becoming any substance he makes contact with, the Absorbing Man is easily one of the most terrifying villains Marvel has to offer. This guy is straight up scary; he has beaten down Thor, the Hulk and it normally takes multiple Avengers to take him down. His biggest weakness is that he’s just not all that bright; if he were a bit more clever he could come up with some truly terrifying uses of his power (nobody let him touch adamantium). He has a soft spot, thankfully, and isn’t just some psycho killer. He’s got love in his life in the form of his long-term relationship with fellow villain Titania, which has probably gone a long way from keeping him from really cutting loose. He’s even worked on the side of the angels recently in an attempt to help coral the Immortal Hulk!

 

78. Wrecking Crew

Real Names: Henry Camp (Bulldozer), Brian Calusky (Piledriver), Dr. Eliot Franklin (Thunderball), Dirk Garthwaite (Wrecker)
First Appearance: The Defenders #17 (1974)
Enemies: Defenders, Avengers, Thor

“Your explodin’ arrows are like love taps to the Wrecker, Cupid. I’ve gone one-on-one with Thor! You’re just dead meat waitin’ to be tenderized!”- The Wrecker

It’s a shame these guys aren’t taken more seriously, because they are awesome. Too often used as cannon fodder to have a hero’s ‘overcoming the odds’ moment, the Wrecking Crew are an immensely powerful group of criminals that can stand toe to toe with Thor himself! The Wrecker was given his powers by Asgardian magic, and shared the power with his gang, and the Wrecking Crew was born. Here’s hoping they get some time to shine in the near future; maybe make them responsible for taking a big-time hero off the board, much like the U-Foes (another really awesome, underused villain group from Marvel) did when they recently hospitalized Peter Parker in the Amazing Spider-Man: Beyond story. The Wrecking Crew have been involved in some big moments, but the biggest to date was probably being part of Zemo’s Masters of Evil team that crashed Avengers mansion.

 

77. Magus

Real Name: Adam Warlock
First Appearance: Strange Tales #178 (1975)
Enemies: Adam Warlock, the Goddess

“I am the new order! I am that which the forces of chaos and order have decreed you shall become!”

The evil version of Adam Warlock from an alternate future, the Magus is straight up scary. The founder and leader of the Universal Church of Truth, this mad man has slaughtered millions across different universes, alternate dimensions, different levels of reality, you name it. He scares the shit out of pretty much anyone that knows anything about him. He even makes freaking Thanos uncomfortable! Thanos! To date, his biggest feat was assembling the Infinity gems in the sequel to Infinity Gauntlet: Infinity War (not to be confused with the film of the same name) and nearly conquering the entirety of existence!

 

76. Electro

Real Name: Maxwell Dillon
First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #9 (1964)
Enemies: Spider-Man, Daredevil

“Jewels! Money! No matter how much I take, I want more- much more! And with my great power, nothing can stop me from getting it!” 

Like all of the Spider-Man villains designed by the legendary Steve Ditko, Electro is an all-time classic Marvel villain. He is able to overcome a ridiculous costume (that actually grows on you; personally, I love it now) because of his immense, nearly bottomless power. He is able to control and generate electricity at God-like levels, and his control over his abilities has been honed over the years to the point that he can become electricity himself and travel nearly instantaneously, or even create electromagnetism and throw electrically charged metal all over the place like a jerk. A powerhouse on his own, he is most often found in the company of his fellow members of the Sinister Six, of which he is a founder!

 

75. Court of Owls

Real Name: N/A
First Appearance: Batman #3 (2011)
Enemies: Batman

“To eradicate us fully, you’d need to rip apart the foundation of the city. You would need to tear Gotham to the ground.”

The secret society to end all secret societies, the Court of Owls were content to stay waaaay behind the scenes, running Gotham from the shadows’ shadows for centuries, undiscovered. Well, that is until they were discovered by Batman, and then everything went to hell for them, as these things often go. Not just absurdly wealthy and influential politically, they have an actual army of absurdly dangerous assassins knows as Talons, and they are not to be messed with under any circumstances. The Court’s history and influence runs deep; Batman and his allies have won every time they’ve crossed, and dismantled parts of their operation, but can’t ever find the rest of them. They’re too good at remaining hidden, from where they do their best work and remain at their most dangerous. They’re rumored to be appearing in the sequel to Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman’!

 

74. Parallax

Real Name: Parallax (the Fear entity)
First Appearance: Green Lantern #50 (1994)
Enemies: Guardians, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)

“All of you will empower me with his fear, to spread the destruction across the whole universe!”

The physical embodiment of the fear end of the emotional light spectrum, Parallax now powers the Sinestro Corps’ rings. However, before this parasitic piece of crap was the gas in the engine of the universe’s biggest asshole parade, he spent years corrupting, ruining, and torturing one Hal Jordan, the greatest of the Green Lanterns! Due to manipulation by Sinestro and the destruction of his hometown by the Cyborg Superman, Jordan was made susceptible to the influence and possession of Parallax, who immediately took the Justice League founder and dragged him through the dirt- sending him on a rampage against his fellow Green Lanterns corpsmen, killing dozens of heroes and ultimately crippling the Corps. Jerk ass.

 

73. Barracuda

Real Name: Jonathan Richardson
First Appearance: Punisher MAX #31 (2006)
Enemies: The Punisher, Nick Fury

“So you go ahead an’ scream, homes. You beg. You plead. Music to my muthafuckin’ ears…”

It’s rare that you get a villain so despicable, so over the top violent and irredeemable, so all around horrible, as Barracuda… and yet… he’s somehow one of the most likeable characters in the MAX corner of Marvel publishing. First appearing in Garth Ennis’ legendary run on the Punisher MAX and then again in a prequel of sorts in Ennis’ excellent Fury MAX mini-series, the Barracuda immediately made a huge splash, and actually survived his first encounter with the Punisher! Minus some body parts, but still… not many can say that. And then, to put the cherry on top of things, he discovered Frank Castle had a baby daughter he was unaware of and kidnapped the girl. 

I cannot possibly overstate how much of a mistake this was.

While everyone eventually loses when they go up against the Punisher, the Barracuda gave him as good a run for his money as anyone ever has and had a blast doing so. That’s probably his biggest appeal: while the things he’s doing and saying are repulsive, he’s just having so much goddamn fun that it’s contagious. Too bad he’s super dead now.

 

72. Jody & TC (Preacher)

Real Names: Jody & TC
First Appearance: Preacher #8
Enemies: Jesse Custer

“You can go take a big ol’ suck on the devil’s pecker, fat boy.” -Jody

Speaking of pieces of pure trash written by Garth Ennis, let’s talk about this pair of psycho white trash animals. Working for Jesse Custer’s grandmother in ‘Preacher’, they are sadists of the highest order. TC (pictured on the right) has a predilection for screwing literally anything that moves (including chickens, fish… literally anything), and Jody is frighteningly evil: he knows everything he is doing is awful, but he does it anyway with such conviction and that extra dash of sadism that it makes him that much worse. These two scumbags are kidnappers, murderers, rapists and torturers and are both highly unpredictable. So, of course they murdered Jesse Custer’s father in front of him before he was forced to be raised by them. 

These two are so awful that even though their ends are pretty brutal it’s incredibly satisfying to see them be on the receiving end of some suffering, for a change.

 

71. Alpha/The Whisperers

Real Name: Unknown
First Appearance: The Walking Dead #132
Enemies: Rick Grimes, Negan, the communities at Alexandria, the Hilltop, the Kingdom

“”We are animals, Negan. Civilization is a myth. That is the truth this world has taught us. We have not risen above our baser instincts… that is what always has and always will drive us. That… ugliness you saw back there? Don’t look away… stare into it… see what we are. That is the only way to free yourself.“

The Walking Dead had some really excellent villains- Shane, The Governor, the Hunters, the shitheads scattered around the Commonwealth, and of course that bat-swinging asshat Negan… but nobody was more unpredictable than the Whisperers, and it’s arguable nobody was scarier, and a huge part of that was their leader, Alpha. The Whisperers were survivors of the zombie apocalypse that killed and skinned the dead (although not always the dead) then wore their skins as camouflage: they could then walk among the dead without detection, communicating with each other rarely and discretely, and only in whispers. This caused the first of the survivors from Alexandria that encountered them to believe the zombies were, in fact, speaking!

Probably their most infamous act was the kidnapping and murder of several members of each of the ‘main’ communities and put their zombified heads on sticks at the property demarcation, including several fan favorites. When Alpha was murdered by Negan, of all people, the Whisperer command was taken up by her second: the massive Beta, who then sent a horde of zombies thousands deep at Alexandria!

 

 

That’ll do it for today; be sure to check out part 4 when we will talk about such disappointments to their mothers as Poison Ivy, Sebastian Shaw, and the Hood!

If you missed them you can read part one of our countdown here and part two here, and you should also check out our Top 100 Heroes List!