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!)

Here we are, the end of the list! Thanks so much for reading! For those just joining us, you can catch up before the final entries here:

Part 1- 100-91
Part 2- 90-81
Part 3- 80-71
Part 4- 70-61
Part 5- 60-51
Part 6- 50-41
Part 7- 40-31
Part 8- 30-21
Part 9- 20-11
Part 10- 10-6

And now, without further ado, our top 5 villains!

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5. Darkseid

Real Name: Uxas
First Appearance: Cameo- Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #134 (1970), Full- Forever People #1 (1971)
Enemies: Superman, Orion, Mister Miracle, Big Barda, New Gods, JLA

“Nothing like Darkseid has ever come among you: Nothing will again. I will take you to a hell without exit or end. And there I will murder your souls! And make you crawl and beg! And die! Die! DIE FOR DARKSEID!”

This fucking guy here.

There is not a name anywhere in the DC universe that inspires more spine-tingling, hair raising, pants-crapping terror than Darkseid. By himself he is the single most dangerous being in the universe. Unfortunately for everyone but him, he’s not by himself. Darkseid travels around on Apokalips, a planet that he has completely enslaved that has been turned into an industrial nightmare world that has long since been removed from any orbit; it now travels where Darkseid wishes, often through the use of New God technology called Boom Tubes, which are capable of instantaneous teleportation of almost impossible distances.

He’s also got a menagerie of total freaks completely devoted to him, whether they be Parademons, or the Furies, or the freakish Granny Goodness, Kalibak, Steppenwolf (star of the ‘hit’ Justice League movie!) or the psychotic sadist, Desaad. Each and any of these are opponents worthy of Superman on his best day. So, yeah, he’s bad news.

Driven by his insatiable need to conquer and prove he is the greatest force in the universe, Darkseid seeks the Anti-Life Equation, which is a mathematical equation that erases free will. He will use this to enslave the entirety of existence. In short, fuck this guy.

Here’s a laundry list of why Darkseid sucks, in addition to everything mentioned above:

-He owns a shit-ton of slaves who have had their wills broken so thoroughly that they exist only for him
-Once crushed a Green Lantern ring in his bare fist
-Murdered his own brother
-“Killed” Batman after enslaving the Earth
-Had Wonder Woman tortured then massacred half of the Amazons
-Once one-shotted Supergirl into unconsciousness, also beat up TWO Supermen at the same time!!! (multiverse stuff)
-Once brainwashed the entire planet of Daxam (think Krypton) into serving him and then teleported their planet from under a red sun to under a yellow sun, giving them all Superman-level powers and him an unstoppable army
-Tried to destroy the entire multiverse

Long story short, it’s hard to argue that there’s ever been a bigger sack of assholes than Darkseid.

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4. Magneto

Real Name: Max Eisenhardt AKA Erik Lensherr AKA Magnus
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #1 (1963)
Enemies: Charles Xavier, X-Men, humanity at large

“Who am I? I am power. Men call me Magneto.”

Magneto is such a great villain that he makes the top 5 despite spending more time with the X-Men than against over the last 20 years. He and Cyclops have even become… friends? He’s gone through a hell of a lot of changes since his ‘declare war on the entire human world’ days. But he was so scary, so powerful, and so awesome of a villain that it would be a crime to put him any lower than this.

Along with the likes of Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, the Juggernaut, Loki, and the Mole Man, Magneto has been around since the dawn of the Marvel Age of comics. Originally a creation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he was quickly established as a tremendous threat not only to the X-Men, but to the world at large, and when he formed his own Brotherhood to be the yin to Xavier and his X-Men’s yang, he only became that much more dangerous. Suddenly your villains isn’t just bananas strong, but others like him are starting to listen. 

Magneto always had his followers, whether they be the Brotherhood, the New Mutants, the Hellfire Club, his Acolytes (mutants slavishly devoted to him as a Messianic figure) or even the X-Men, themselves. (I’m trying very hard not to make a ‘magnetic personality’ joke.) This is why the humans fear him so much; he’s become one of the most recognizable figureheads for revolution the world has ever seen. His mere existence terrifies every nation on earth.

Weirdly, the only guy that doesn’t even seem to have a healthy level of respect for how dangerous Magneto can be is the mutant with metal lacing his entire skeleton: Wolverine. Surely that never resulted in any consequences…

Oh. Oh, my gosh.

Another guy that disrespected the level of not giving a fuck Magneto often displays was in another reality; in the ‘Age of Apocalypse’, as the entire world was on the brink of ending, the two archenemies Magneto and Apocalypse (the supposedly all-powerful Apocalypse) faced off. How’d that go for the big A again?

Oh, my God. Oh, no. Oh, that’s bad.

Well, surely when the time-traveling badass mercenary Cable confronted Magneto in the now infamous “Fatal Attractions” storyline (the same story he showed Wolverine what’s up, shown above) it went better than those two instances. After all, Cable is a crazy powerful mutant in his own right who is every bit as dangerous as Wolverine or Apocalypse. Hell, I bet-

Stop! Stooooppp! He’s already dead!!!

Poor Cable. Poor, poor Cable. He had just come back from everyone believing he was dead earlier in that same issue.

There are dozens of other examples like these. Like an early Avengers story where Magneto deflected a hurled Mjolnir, stunning Thor. Or in the Avengers vs X-Men story when Magneto defeats none other than the Red Hulk! Or the multiple times he has completely owned the Red Skull (Magneto doesn’t like nazis). He’s one of those guys, like Dr. Doom, that when he shows up in a character’s book they’re usually going to lose, often badly. In their own book!

Magneto’s popularity obviously extends far beyond the comic book pages. He’s been in nearly every adaptation of the X-Men in any form of media for over 60 years! Hell, X-Men: First Class was essentially (and was originally intended to be) a Magneto origin movie. Like I said, even though he’s been a good friend to the X-Men for close to 20 years now (hell, he was the Headmaster of the Xavier school and mentor to the New Mutans like 40 years ago) he’s still the king of the evil mutants whenever he wants to be.

Only one other Marvel villain inspires the kind of awe-struck terror that Magneto does, and we’ll check in with him in a couple of spots.

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3. Lex Luthor

Real Name: Alexander Luthor

First Appearance: Action Comics #23 (1940)

Enemies: Superman

“Those red eyes, I’m sure they look right through me, like I am nothing more than a nuisance. But when I see you? I see something no man can ever be. I see the end. The end of our potential. The end of our achievements. The end of our dreams. You are my nightmare.”

This irredeemable bastard once stole 40 cakes. FORTY!

What a bastard.

Because of Crises and reboots over the decades it’s a bit tricky to keep track of what Lex has and hasn’t done in continuity, so we’re just going to do what DC did and throw our hands in the air, say ‘fuck it’, and just accept it all.

So, mad scientist that lived in Smallville when he was young, lost his hair because of Clark Kent aka Superboy, moved to Metropolis and became a big deal? Sure, why not? Super mega rich a-hole that first meets Superman in Metropolis and hates him for stealing his spotlight? OK, sure. Stone cold businessman who uses economics as his weapon and is just super cruel? Brilliant scientist with a mean streak but some level of honor, or super villain in armor that makes everyone think of the game ‘Simon’, all are acceptable takes on Luthor. Just no real estate scams, please.

This dude is so comically evil he was actually elected President of the United States! Doesn’t get much more evil than that!

Lex could be anything he wanted to be, and he chose to be a jealous little bitch. He could easily be an Iron Man level super hero, superior to even Steel. He’s got the engineering skills of a Tony Stark and is every bit as smart. He could cure diseases, end world hunger, solve housing issues, fix societal ills, and just make everyone’s lives better and more fulfilling.

He could do that. Instead, he does jerk-ass stuff that only a jerk-ass would do. There’s a freaking laundry list of horrible things Lex has pulled over the decades since his first appearance. He’s always up to some shit or another. Like right after he was elected President, he falsified evidence showing Batman and Superman were trying to destroy the world and sent pretty much everything the U.S. could throw at them.

How about his creepiness factor? In some continuities, Lex and Lois Lane briefly dated before Superman/Clark came to town, and he never got over her rejection. So, he built a Lois Lane-bot, using her DNA and Kryptonian tech. She worked as his bodyguard (her arms could become guns), but was also his… sex-bot? Lex, you creepy, creepy fucker.

He also has a genocidal streak. When Superman finally solved the problem of the shrunken bottle city of Kandor, the now regular sized Kryptonians formed an artificial planet and called it New Krypton. Not loving the idea of an entire planet of Superman-level individuals within super speed flying distance of Earth, General Sam Lane thought they could use a bunch of Gold Kryptonite to permanently remove the Kryptonians’ powers, but Luthor had another idea: he just blew the whole planet the hell up, including almost every Kryptonian on it.

He murdered his parents for insurance money. Granted, his parents sucked, but still…

Then there’s my two personal favorite dick moves by old Lexy: the creation of Conner Kent aka Superboy, and the Rain of the Supermen from the title ’52’.

Superboy was a Luthor experiment under Project Cadmus. He escaped prematurely, so his real purpose and origin weren’t revealed for years, but it turns out you can’t outright clone Kryptonia DNA or you get a Bizarro or worse, so they combined a sample of Superman’s DNA with… Lex’s! So Superboy is half Superman… half Lex Luthor! To make matters even worse, when he learns this information a long dormant brainwashing kicks in and he immediately tries to murder the Teen Titans. Luthor, obviously manipulating Superboy, loves every second of using what is essentially Superman’s little brother at this point to hurt the Titans.

In the 52 title, which focuses on the DC universe in the year in which Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman are out of commission and there is no Justice League, Luthor introduces the Everyman Project, which will give volunteers super-powers, which he does to tons of people (maybe hundreds? More? It’s not quite clear, but it’s a lot). Then, when he learns that his DNA is just not compatible with the project, he loses all interest in it and eventually just turns everyone’s powers off, leading to a literal ‘rain of Supermen’ as hundreds, maybe more, of people suddenly lose the ability to fly and fall to their deaths. Even for Lex, it’s a shockingly huge dick move.

Also, there was this:

Yikes. Just… yikes. It takes a special kind of evil to rock a giant red mullet with that half beard. Keep this man away from your fake Supergirls, Lois Lane bots, and for the love of all that is holy, don’t leave him alone with your cakes.

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2. Joker

Real Name: Unknown
First Appearance: Batman #1 (1940)
Enemies: Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Riddler (it’s really all about Batman though)

“This is going to hurt you a lot more than it does me.”

It might seem impossible that he’s not at the top of the list, but years of overuse have dulled his impact somewhat (see: Deadpool, Wolverine, Venom, etc). Still, the Clown Prince of Crime can claim DC’s top spot for villainy, at the very least.

The Joker is such a phenomenal villain that it’s impossible to imagine Batman, or DC Comics as a whole for that matter, without him. Any time there’s as new Batman cast in the movies one of the first questions is who is going to be his Joker. Any time there’s a Batman animated series you can’t wait until they get to a Joker episode. One of the greatest voice actors of his generation lending his talents to his portrayal over multiple forms of media didn’t hurt (God bless you, Mark Hamill). Hell, the Joker got his own movie (and a sequel!) before Batgirl, Nightwing, or Robin even showed up on screen (not counting Batman Forever & Batman and Robin, because you know why). It’s a little disturbing that the absolute psychopathic mass murderer dressed like a clown has so many fans, but it’s easy to understand. Even though he does just the worst things, he has so much fun doing it that it’s infectious.

Plus, it’s always fun to watch Batman beat the brakes off of him.

Over the last 80+ years the Joker has more than earned his spot at the top of the Gotham City Asshole Parade. He’s killed a LOT of people, obviously, and terrorized thousands more, but it’s the ‘smaller’ things that have cemented him at the top of Batman’s “Never Stop Punching” list. For a few examples, he has:

-crippled Barbara Gordon
-murdered Robin
-murdered Commissioner Gordon’s wife, Sarah Essen
-blew up a school with kids inside to prove a point
-tortured Jim Gordon
-psychologically broke Harleen Quinzel
-skinned a former associate alive
-blew up a blimp over Gotham that was filled with broken glass (that had been dipped in Joker toxin), sending shards raining over the city
-sold nukes to terrorists
-poisoned the Signal’s parents
-went on a killing spree with a sniper rifle on Christmas Eve, turned himself in just so he could kill his way out of the police station
-removed Carmine Falcone’s mother’s teeth (forcefully) so that he could make a smile (he had lost the ability at the time)
-killed boy scouts with poisoned cotton candy (Dark Knight Returns)
-infected all of Gotham with a zombifying Joker toxin

The really messed up thing is, I could keep going.

It’s always interesting to see what he’s going to do next, because NOBODY KNOWS. That’s what makes him so scary; there’s nothing he won’t do and often seemingly no real rhyme or reason to why he’s doing it (although usually the answer is to get at Batman).

The people of Gotham would be far, far safer if he weren’t around, but we as readers would be much poorer for it.

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1. Dr. Doom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Real Name: Victor Von Doom
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #5 (1961)
Enemies: Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Black Panther, Avengers

“Is it true what I’ve heard, Benjamin? That when Johnny Storm died — valiantly facing an endless army… Is it true that you — surrounded by crying children — weeping at the inevitable death of your close comrade and friend… Is it true? Is it true that you just…watched? How very brave.”

“…RICHARDS.”

Here it is. The number one super villain of all-time. The only guy that can top the Joker, the bane of the Fantastic Four, it’s Dr. mf’ing Doom, the baddest super villain there is.

First things first, Doom always looks awesome. His classic armor and cloak combo is unbeatable, but between his magic amor made from his girlfriend’s skin, the 2099 armor, and God Doom’s all-white look (which he adopted from his time working WITH the FF as a member of the Future Foundation, interestingly enough) he always looks awesome.

So cool.

Hell, he even looked cool when he was filling in as Iron Man (don’t ask)!

I can’t overstate how awesome Dr. Doom is. Besides a great name, a great look, an intellect that has almost no peer, a mastery of magic that is second to only Stephen Strange and perhaps Baron Mordo or Wanda Maximoff, armor that rivals (and often shames) the Iron Man, his own working time machine, an army of robot sentries and another army of robot duplicates (Doombots), he also has an entire NATION completely devoted to him.

He’s got a long list of feats that is unmatched in Marvel comics. He’s the only villain truly worthy of being the rival of the Fantastic Four, and they’re really the only heroes worthy of Doom. He has routinely beaten the living crap out of every super hero he’s faced, including the likes of the Hulk or Thor! I mentioned a few of them here, but they bear repeating.

-Stole the Power Cosmic from the Silver Surfer
-Stole the power of the being called The Beyonder and gained omnipotence
-Stole Galactus’ power, leaving Galactus a human-sized regular guy
-Conquered the Avengers and the Champions and had them bowing at his feet, and this was a roster that included names like Hercules, the Vision, Thor and the Scarlet Witch
-Stole the Odinforce from Thor
-Beat the living bejeezus out of Spider-Man. It’s not shocking considering who he is but it was SO one-sided
-Beat the Hulk up and then helped Banner and the Hulk physically separate into two bodies
-Sent young Franklin Richards into hell
-Sacrificed his childhood love to demons for magic power and a gross suit of armor made from her skin
-Stole the powers of the Beyonders, a race of alien beings that created the universe, and made himself God
-Kidnapped Asgardians and dissected them to determine the source of their longevity, then created a new Destroyer armor and powered it with their life-force
-Used the Purple Man to bend the population of Earth to his will
-Attacked Reed & Sue Richards on their wedding day
-Invaded Wakanda to steal vibranium

That’s all just for starters. I could keep going, and going, and going. Seriously, this dude is a real piece of work who has done some truly horrible crap.

Sadly, for the Marvel Universe, he manipulated the events of the Blood Hunt storyline so that Stephen Strange would be forced to grant Doom the title of Sorcerer Supreme, and it looks like Doom’s not about to give it up, and the next big status quo shift, ala Dark Reign, is going to be Doom ruling the world!

I can only imagine this means great things for the Richards family. I’m sure they’re perfectly safe.

The best super villain of all time, ladies and gentlemen: Dr. Victor Von Doom.

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That’s our list!

Thanks so much for sticking with us, it obviously took a very long time to get through all 100 entries. If you haven’t seen the list from the beginning, start here!

Also, if you haven’t already, be sure to check out our Top 100 Super Heroes countdown!