WAMG’s Look At 26 Comic Book Supervillains

By Movie Geeks | January 17, 2019

Elijah Price: I almost gave up hope. There were so many times I questioned myself…
David Dunn: You killed all those people…
Elijah Price: But I found you. So many sacrifices, just to find you.
David Dunn: Jesus Christ…
Elijah Price: Now that we know who you are, I know who I am. I’m not a mistake! It all makes sense! In a comic, you know how you can tell who the arch-villain’s going to be? He’s the exact opposite of the hero. And most times they’re friends, like you and me! I should’ve known way back when… You know why, David? Because of the kids. They called me Mr Glass.

What happens when you really have a belief that you have super powers, and that you might be superhuman or a supervillain? Cultures have been sharing the stories of good and evil throughout the centuries, mostly through visual imagery, which led to the eventual birth of the comic book.

Action Comics #1 (cover dated June 1938) is the first issue of the original run of the comic book/magazine series Action Comics. It features the first appearance of several comic book heroes—most notably the Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster creation, Superman—and sold for 10 cents (equivalent to $2 in 2017). It is widely considered to be both the beginning of the superhero genre and the most valuable comic book in the world. (Wikipedia)

While the heroes have their flaws as well as powers, the arch-nemesis or “villains” have proven to be endearing and very human.

M. Night Shyamalan’s dive in to the world of heroes and villains began with UNBREAKABLE where a normal guy realizes he’s a superhero – an origin story, followed in 2016 with the second entry SPLIT setting up for the epic conclusion to the trilogy with GLASS.

From Unbreakable, Bruce Willis returns as David Dunn as does Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, known also by his pseudonym Mr. Glass. Joining from Split are James McAvoy, reprising his role as Kevin Wendell Crumb and the multiple identities who reside within, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke, the only captive to survive an encounter with The Beast.

Following the conclusion of Split, Glass finds Dunn pursuing Crumb’s superhuman figure of The Beast in a series of escalating encounters, while the shadowy presence of Price emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men.

Before the highly anticipated thriller opens in cinemas on January 18, WAMG looks at 26 Comic Book Supervillains.

Joker – Who better to start this list than the greatest comic book, nay one of the greatest villains in all of pop culture. Incredibly he was almost killed off in his initial appearance, fittingly in the first issue of Batman’s self-titled comic book in 1940. With his acid-squirting lapel flowers and high-voltage joy buzzers, the clown prince of crime (his only former identity was as a minor criminal, the Red Hood) was the perfect foe for the Dark Knight. Mainly a serial killer extortionist using a poison gas that left a permanent grin on his victims, he was too vile for the Comics Code censors in the 50’s until he returned as a semi-regular on the campy 1966-68 Batman TV show, complete with a distinctive laugh from actor Caesar Romero. He was soon in full murderous mode in the “back to basics” comics of the ’70s. In the following decades he’s been played in the Batman feature films by Jack Nicholson, Mark Hamil (voiced in the animated BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM), Heath Ledger (earning an Oscar), Jared Leto and soon Joaquin Phoenix

Cheetah – The origins of Wonder Woman’s fiercest female foe goes all the way back to the 1940s. In that incarnation, she was a twisted socialite whose super-heroine envy compels her to don a form-fitting cheetah skin complete with razor-sharp claws. After trying to frame Diana for a robbery, she begins working with Axis spies. Over the years, several other women will claim the Cheetah name, and eventually, a “metahuman” transforms into a human/feline hybrid with the cat’s powers and deadly fangs that can prove fatal to the Amazon princess. Kristen Wiig will play her in 2020’s WONDER WOMAN 1984.

Galactus – This towering God-like being from the stars proved a near-unstoppable threat to the Earth, one that was the greatest challenge to the Fantastic Four. Usually preceded by a super-powered “herald” who would find suitable planets (in that initial story it was the cosmos cruising Silver Surfer), Galactus would set up a device that helped him consume all life on a world, temporarily sating his unending hunger. Though thwarted, he would gain a reputation as the deadliest menace to the entire Marvel Universe. Galactus was heard, but only seen in shadows in the film FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER and just recently got a “shout out” in the political satire VICE.

Darkseid – Here’s one of the most ambitious villains of them all. Darkseid does not simply want to control the humanity, but all of existence. Created by Jack Kirby, he premiered in an issue of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen in 1970 and has been a staple in the DC animated universe and was even voiced by  ‘Weird Al” Yankovicin an episode of Teen Titans Go! 

Bizarro – He’s from Bizzaro World (aka: Htrae – Earth spelled backward!), where their slogan is  “Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!” He doesn’t try to be a villain, but since he’s not too bright and he sees everything as the opposite of what it really is, his “heroic” actions usually end up doing more harm than good.

Doctor Octopus-Arriving in Spider-Man’s third issue, Otto Octavius quickly became one of the web-slinger’s most formidable adversaries. This respected scientist became the victim of a lab explosion which grafted four log, retractable steel arms (with razor-sharp pincers at the ends) onto the sides of his torso. The resulting radiation enabled him to control those “tentacles” with his mind, which aided him in his quest for wealth and power. Over the years, “Doc Ock” would drop an underground lair on Spidey and even try to wed his Aunt May. In the best of the Sam Raimi-directed trilogy, Alfred Molina portrayed him in SPIDER-MAN 2, while an alternate-Earth version can be seen in the animated SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE.

Cheshire – An expert on exotic poisons with her poisonous fingernails and a ruthless assassin, Cheshire has been part of the League of Assassins, Injustice League, Secret Six, and Suicide Squad. Okay, so a girl that’s not to be messed with. Cheshire runs with a rough crowd too. She recently battled Wonder Woman (2017 – Wonder Woman #29) along with a gang of bounty hunters that included the explosive Plastique, the goddess-incarnate (or so she claims) Cat Eye in an epic battle to bring down Diana of Themyscira.

DOCTOR DOOM – Who has the brains and powers to topple a quartet of galaxy-spawned super-beings? It’s Victor Von Doom, of course, who has challenged the FF since their fifth issue. With a green hood and cloak covering a full suit of high-tech battle armor (an exoskeleton with gauntlets that emit high-energy power beams), the brooding Doom (his hatred for Mr. Fantastic goes back to their college days) is a strange hybrid of science and magic (the dark arts, naturally). Plus he’s got a big advantage over many baddies: he’s the head of a country called Latveria (yup, diplomatic immunity). In the three recent FANTASTIC FOUR features, he’s been played by Julian McMahon (2005 and 2007) and, in the 2015 reboot, Toby Kebbell.

Lex Luthor – Lex Luthor is the perfect foil for Superman. While Superman defends humankind, his adopted people, with the morally-straight arrow ethics of his Midwestern upbringing, a perfect knight of doing right, Lex Luthor is determined to do the mirror opposite. Brilliant, egotistical and just plain bad, Lex Luthor seeks world domination, wealth and power through various destructive means, while railing against Superman, that creature from another planet who keeps messing up his evil plans. If anything, Superman’s inherent sense of justice and fairness is exactly what gets supervillain Lex Luthor’s goat. Part of the fun of watching this evil genius is seeing him lose it every time Superman does his nice-guy thing – while thwarting whatever nefarious plans Lex has laid.

Catwoman – Catwoman may not be looking for world domination like some supervillains but her one-woman crime wave has been a constant pain to crime-fighter Batman since her debut in 1940. It is easy to forget that superheroes started out as crime-fighters, and Catwoman is the kind of arch-criminal who always lands on her feet (sorry! – kinda). The first female supervillain to take on Batman, and still one of the best, Catwoman started out as a kind of slinky female version of the classic caper movie cat burglar, a charmingly roguish type embodied by Cary Grant mid-century. Cat burglar characters are supposed to have a roguish charm and an independent streak – and Catwoman has both in abundance. It’s why the character endures – she’s not just the sexy black catsuit, she’s the rule-breaking woman in the male-dominated field of cat burglars. A perennial fan favorite, Catwoman continues to evolve in her own rule-breaking way, while occasionally toying with Batman’s heart like a cat with a mouse. Sure, she’s not the same kind of world-domination villain as Dr. Ock or Lex Luthor and doesn’t have an ideological agenda like Poison Ivy or Harley Quinn, but she’s been an unforgettable character. While Lex Luthor is motivated in part by hatred for Superman, Catwoman is motivated partly by an urge to just mess with Batman, don’t you think? Comic book villains should be kind of fun like that.

Brainiac – Primarily a villain of Superman, Brainiac has had a few retcon verstions thoughout time. Primarily he is a sentient computer, with a general distaste for the living. He likes to concur and categorize all things as data, sometimes destroying the original.

RED SKULL – Captain America first encountered an incarnation of his ultimate adversary in his very first comic back in 1941. It was a corrupt American behind the mask named George Maxon. Six issues later the real Skull reared his ugly mug, one Johann Schmidt who was Hitler’s most feared hitman and founder of the HYDRA splinter sect. Another Skull appeared during the Atlas heroes revival in the 1950s, with a hammer and sickle replacing his swastika. The real one would emerge from suspended animation (an underground gas) soon after Steve Rogers thawed out. Later it was established that his face was not a mask, rather Schmidt was disfigured during a botched early test of the Super Soldier” formula (he seems to have gotten all the other advanced physical abilities). Hugo Weaving played him in CAPTAIN AMERICA: FIRST AVENGER, while Ross Marquand took over in the last Avengers flick.

Apocalypse – The Original mutant in most Marvel continuities, he has immense power in the form of a variety of superpowers. He wants to use mutants to cleanse the world of the less evolved, you know…humans.

Mister Sinister – As stories on the big screen and in comic books have taught us, sometimes a scientist doesn’t always have the best intentions. Mister Sinister is one of those because of his fascination with continuing mutation. Of course, with any great supervillain, this is at great cost to those around him or anyone who gets in his way. The scientist Nathaniel Essex was genetically mutated by the villain Apocalypse, who shared his philosophy of Social Darwinism. It’s this Darwin belief system that makes Mister Sinister an interesting foe that goes beyond your typical evil mastermind. Throughout the comic world, he has had many attempts at crafting the most powerful mutant, going so far as to cloning Jean Grey in order to have a new child with Scott Summers, Cyclops – a child believed to be strong enough to defeat Apocalypse. Like some of the best villains in comics, he sits in the shadows and acts as a puppetmaster.

Black Manta – Sign us up for Team Black Manta! The suit and helmet – need we say more? Both allows him to survive extreme pressures and temperatures underwater, and to breathe underwater. Every supervillain needs a jet pack and a telepathic scrambler, especially Manta which keeps Aquaman’s telepathy at bay during their undersea battles. Black Manta also has an arsenal of deadly weapons include a trident, a harpoon gun and powerful energy beams that shoot from his helmet. The fact that he has been on many super-villains teams such as the Legion of Doom, the Injustice League, N.E.M.O and the Secret Society of Super-Villains, consider him on our list.

Superboy-Prime – One of the most powerful beings in the DC universes, Superboy Prime, or “Prime” operates on a power level way beyond Superman and the Justice League. Driven mad when put in a pocket universe, denied the powers that he once had, when he gets them back, destruction is really his new bag.

Thanos -called The Dark Lord by his most loyal underlings and The Mad Titan by the galactic community, Thanos is a powerful, genocidal, and psychopathic titan who rules over a distant region of space and commands several armies. Thanos first appeared in an issue of Iron Man in 1973 and achieved big-screen immortality after cameos in the first two Avengers films and then the lead villain in last year’s Avengers Infinity Wars. Josh Brolin played Thanos in all three films.

Deathstroke – Possessing super speed, strength, and senses, Deathstroke’s greatest power comes from his incredibly high intelligence and the ability to use 90% of his brain, making him a master strategist and tactician. He is capable of standing toe-to-toe against some of the DC Universe’s most gifted heroes but is mostly known as a great foe for the Teen Titans, especially Dick Grayson (aka Robin). Deathstroke first appeared in The New Teen Titans in 1980 and was so popular; he had his own comic. Deathstroke popped up in the post-credits scene of Justice League so count on seeing him on the big screen again soon.

Ultra-Humanite – A lightweight in this group, the UH is a windbag and a egotist, but a bad guy (or bad being) all the way. Essentially he is Megamind, but with the additional ability to transfer his mind in to other vessels. He’s not much more than a really smart criminal, but his persistance and dedication to evil gets him on the list.

MAGNETO – When Professor Xavier Charles sent out his X-Men in that first issue, Magneto AKA Erik Lehnsherr was right there to challenge them as the leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (with Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and, um, Toad). While Xavier opted for peaceful co-existence with humanity, Erik wanted revenge over years of bigotry (going back to WWII) and desired domination over them. With his mutant ability to control any sort of metal, he was almost unstoppable. Plus he sported a nifty red and purple helmet that blocked Prof. X’s mutant mental powers as he levitated from one scheme to the next. Magneto’s been a huge part of Fox’s X-Men movie franchises, portrayed in different eras by Sir Ian McKellan and Michael Fassbender

The Mandarin -In his early crime-fighting years, the biggest thorn in Tony Stark’s side (not far from the pain in his shrapnel-infused heart) was the Chinese super-genius warlord known as the Mandarin. Endowed with ten alien power-rings, he would attempt to destroy or capture Stark tech (particularly the Iron Man armor) using his own advanced weaponry like the towering humanoid android named Ultimo. Marvel’s super-gadget super-villain riff on Fu Manchu would take on most of their heroes including the Hulk, the Avengers, and even the Inhumans. He was played (in name only) by Sir Ben Kingsley in IRON MAN 3.

Green Goblin – In a break from his menagerie of animal-themed villains, Spidey’s most re-occurring nemesis is the fairy-tale inspired demon. But don’t let that purple pixie-cap and tunic fool you, he’s got a deadly bag of tricks: pumpkin bombs full of smoke, gas, or explosives along with razor-sharp boomerang bats. And he tosses them with precision while riding his high-flying Goblin Glider. Plus Spidey knew his true identity, Norman Osborn, father of pal Harry, whose mind was twisted by his experimental “green gas”, which also gave him great strength. Things got even more complicated when Norman found out Peter Parker’s secret. In a memorable 70s story arc, his reign was ended after GG caused the death of Pete’s beloved Gwen Stacy. But soon Harry was suiting up for revenge. In the Raimi trilogy, Willem Dafoe and James Franco were father and son respectively. Dane DeHaan hoped on the glider for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, while the Ultimate version appears in the current SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE.

The Kingpin – Think you can outrun and outfight that old bald guy who looks to be a quarter-mile wide? Think again, pal. Dispite his bulk, Wilson Fisk is all muscle with a black belt and a tricked-out walking stick (it’s a laser gun and emits sleeping gas). This crime boss tried to squish Spider-Man way back in issue #50. With a look inspired by Sydney Greenstreet of THE MALTESE FALCON, his pudgy fingers are in every pie, with cops and politicos in his pocket. But it wasn’t until writer/artist Frank Miller pitted him against Daredevil when Fisk became one of Marvel’s most complex and tragic characters thanks to his devotion to wife Vanessa. Later the Punisher would put the big man in his sights. Fisk was played on screen by Michael Clark Duncan in 2003’s DAREDEVIL and is voiced by Liev Schreiber in the current SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE. But the definitive actor may be Vincent D’Onofrio in three seasons of the Netflix streaming show “Daredevil”.

Ra’s al Ghul – Compared to the criminal thugs and superpowered villains Batman faces, this leader of the League of Assasins is quite a different beast – his name is translated from Arabic as “The Demon’s Head.” The highly intelligent idealist has potentially lived for centuries, consistently healing himself in his rejuvenating Lazarus Pit and defying his ultimate fate. Yet, the reason why he continues to come back is his desire to destroy half of the world and trigger a renewal of life. Despite his troubling plan, he’s ultimately, a distinguished gentleman and master swordsman who respects his foe, even calling him “Detective.” Both men want to rid the world of crime, it’s just Batman believes in redemption and Ra’s al Ghul believes the only way to cleanse the world is through death. In recent years in the comics, the two are bound by blood, as Bruce Wayne and Talia’s son Damian is the grandson of Ra’s al Ghul.

Harley Quinn – Dr. Harleen Quinzel, the one and only Clown Princess of Crime is much more than meets the eye. Most don’t give the “sidekick” as much credit as they deserve, but Harley is much more than arm candy for the Joker. Her goofy demeanor and cutesy voice hide the fact that she’s just as evil and unpredictable as her main squeeze. As a former psychiatrist, she’s extremely cunning and manipulative. She may not have superpowers but she makes up for it with a giant mallet, two occasional attack hyenas, and a penchant for being a loose cannon. But who can blame her… love can make people do crazy things.

Poison Ivy – With her immunity to poisons and power over plant life, supervillain Poison Ivy has attempted, in her own misguided, deluded way, to protect plant life from people through various evil plots. Her intentions might be good but her methods are oh-so wrong. She started out as a promising botany student but fell victim to an evil professor who experimented on her, experiments that made her immune to poisons and drove her insane. Adopting the persona of Poison Ivy and a green, leafy outfit, she embarked on a life of crime with a pro-plant/eco-terrorism twist. Along the way, she evolves plant- and poison-related superpowers, and a thing for Batman, the one man she can’t seduce. Her kiss can kill – no, really, she has poison in her lips. More recently, Poison Ivy has been reformed a bit, straying into anti-hero territory. But while Poison Ivy may have good (environmental) intentions, she still uses the worse possible methods. And she does hang out with that mayhem-loving Harley Quinn.

Contributed by Jim Batts, Michael Haffner, Marc Butterfield, Michelle Hannett, Cate Marquis and Tom Stockman