DC has had some interesting additions to its history of movie villains in recent years. Jesse Eisenberg took Lex Luthor in a very different direction, and “Suicide Squad” was focused completely on the bad guys. While we await the arrival of Steppenwolf in “Justice League,” let’s grade all the DC rogues dating back to the era of Adam West and Christopher Reeves.
32.) Robert Vaughn as Ross Webster, “Superman III”: After fighting the likes of Luthor and Zod, Superman’s opponent for Round 3 is…a corrupt coffee magnate? This little slice of the one percent wanted to terrorize the Earth with a supercomputer once his business plans fell through.
31.) Faye Dunaway as Selena, “Supergirl“: How could a skilled actress like Dunaway turn in such a grating performance? Dunaway plays an obnoxious witch who takes on Supergirl because a love spell on a guy backfired and caused him to fall in love with the Kryptonian heroine. Yep. They finally gave us a female superhero movie, and they’re fighting over a guy.
30.) Sharon Stone as Laurel Hedare, “Catwoman”: Another multi-millionaire whose villainous motivations are centered around the almighty dollar. Use of her company’s poisonous anti-aging cream has turned her skin into “living marble,” a la Luke Cage. The only redeeming quality of both Laurel and this horrid movie is the final showdown between her and Catwoman at the end.
29.) Gene Hackman/Mark Pillow as Nuclear Man, “Superman IV”: This creation of Lex Luthor has the body of a god and the voice of Gene Hackman. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop him from being a big bore, as his battle with Superman turns into one of the most drawn-out, low-budget cringefests in the history of comic-book movies.
28.) John Malkovich as Quentin Turnbull “Jonah Hex”: You’ll be forgiven if you don’t remember this villain from one of the biggest comic-book movie bombs ever. His big plan is to blow up the United States with a super weapon designed by… Eli Whitney? Guess he wasn’t satisfied with inventing the cotton gin.
27.) Clancy Brown as Parallax, “Green Lantern”: A big, boring villain made from uninspiring CGI for the sole purpose of giving Ryan Reynolds something to fight while waiting for “Deadpool” to get greenlit. And speaking of bad CGI…
26.) Cara Delevingne and Robin Atkin Downes as The Enchantress and Incubus, “Suicide Squad”: One has a nondescript, boring world-domination plan she carries out through green-screen dancing. The other is a giant orange CGI monster that fires vines out of his hands while bad editing makes it impossible to get a good look at him. Ironically, a movie about villains ends up getting an utterly weak antagonist.
25.) Michael Shannon as General Zod, “Man of Steel”: Here’s a villain more known for his demise than his motivations or schemes. Why? Because Superman snaps his neck. If you could pinpoint a moment where Zach Snyder finally threw away any positive image he had in the eyes of comic-book movie fans, that was it.
24.) Jared Leto as The Joker, “Suicide Squad”: Leto wants oh-so-badly to be the successor to Heath Ledger, but just comes off as irritating. What’s more, he’s barely in the film, never engaging with any member of the Suicide Squad other than Harley. His subplot feels largely pointless, other than to get people in the seats.
23.) Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, “Suicide Squad”: He’s one of the “Suicide” characters that gets the shaft when it comes to screen time and development. He gets a half-baked gag about his obsession with pink unicorns and a few scenes where he shows off his boomerangs, but that’s about it.
22.) Matthew Goode as Ozymandias, “Watchmen”: In Alan Moore’s classic, Adrian Veidt devised a horrible plan in the name of bringing peace to the world, turning him into one of the most compelling comic- book villains ever written. Sadly, this nuance and intrigue doesn’t show up in Goode’s performance, partly due to plot changes made by Zach Snyder.
21.) Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face, “Batman Forever”: Your enjoyment of the villains in Joel Schumacher‘s Batman films depends on your taste for campy ridiculousness. The usually serious Tommy Lee Jones certainly brings the camp with one of the more absurd takes on Harvey Dent, though he struggles for attention when sharing screen time with Jim Carrey‘s manic Riddler.
20.) Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc, “Suicide Squad”: Like Captain Boomerang, Croc is largely left out of David Ayer‘s script. He’s mainly there to look awesome while smashing things in top-notch practical makeup, and to be fair, he pulls that off very well.
19.) Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”: Speaking of polarizing roles, here’s EisenLuthor! Many critics felt that Eisenberg’s Luthor was way too bizarre and manic to be intimidating, while others praised him for bringing some fun to the otherwise dreary plot.
18.) Cillian Murphy as The Scarecrow, “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight Rises”: If you want to see The Scarecrow and his fear toxin at their best, go play “Batman: Arkham Asylum.” The Scarecrow is secondary in Christopher Nolan‘s trilogy, serving as a means to introduce the fear toxin into the plot in “Begins” and offering a small cameo in “Rises.” Still, at least he gets some creepy scenes.
17.) Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy, “Batman and Robin”: As maligned as “Batman and Robin” is, it has gotten some appreciation in recent years as a So Bad It’s Good flick. Thurman deserves a lot of credit for this, as she did everything in her power to try and upstage everyone else with maximum scenery chewing. Of course, if you give credit to Thurman, you also have to give credit to…
16.) Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, “Batman and Robin”: It’s hard to think of a role with more hilariously awful puns than this one. At a time when he was best known for being the emotionless Terminator, Schwarzenegger turned the camp up to twelve.
15.) Jay Hernandez as El Diablo, “Suicide Squad”: Hernandez turns a bare-bones backstory about a super-powered LA gangbanger into a powerful and tragic performance. El Diablo wants to just take his punishment and die in jail, but the powers that be won’t let him.
14.) Jim Carrey as The Riddler, “Batman Forever”: Carrey was given free reign to be as much of a goofball as possible in this film, so much so that you might think he’s playing the Joker rather than the Riddler. Still, of all the Schumacher villains, he’s the most fun to watch, with lots of clever laughs and over-the-top physicality.
13.) Will Smith as Deadshot, “Suicide Squad”: If we were judging purely by how villainous these characters are, Deadshot would fail. He comes off as more of an antihero than a real bad guy. Still, Smith makes him the heart and soul of “Suicide Squad” with his trademark charisma.
12.) Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, “Superman Returns”: Spacey played up the more bitter side of Luthor, focusing on his hatred of Superman and his desire to defeat him with his cold intellect. Spacey is underrated in the role. He gets to the core of what makes Luthor such a perfect foil for the Man of Steel.
11.) Lee Meriwether, Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin and Cesar Romero as the United Underworld, “Batman: The Movie”: All four of the villains Adam West‘s Batman faced have to be lumped together, as only Catwoman got any sort of individual moment. Still, as a group they embodied the silly fun that defined the Silver Age and the original 60s TV series.
10.) Tom Hardy as Bane, “The Dark Knight Rises”: While many of the Marvel films have been criticized for lackluster villains, Christopher Nolan provided some of the most engaging interpretations of Batman bad guys ever. Bane is brought to life with an iconic face mask and chilling lines about the liberating nature of anarchy, delivered in an unforgettable voice by Tom Hardy.
9.) Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, “Suicide Squad”: For all its flaws, “Suicide Squad” absolutely nails what’s so great about Harley Quinn. Robbie’s take on her is fun to watch, but you’d rather watch from a distance. Get too close, and Harley will smash your head in with a cartoonishly large mallet. She doesn’t need the Joker to be an engaging villain.
8.) Liam Neeson as Ra’s Al Ghul, “Batman Begins”: While the Jokers of the world are more iconic, Neeson’s Ra’s gets to the heart of Batman’s philosophy on justice. Neeson plays Ra’s as a disturbingly cool, unforgiving individual who sees Bruce Wayne’s sense of mercy as a weakness, despite the two men’s begrudging respect for each other. Ra’s explains his plan to eradicate Gotham with an inhumanly casual tone, showing no qualms about crushing the lives of countless innocents in the process.
7.) Terence Stamp as General Zod, “Superman II”: “KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!” Somehow, some way, Terence Stamp found a way to turn what could have been a cornball role into an iconic one. Thanks to Stamp’s authoritative voice, Zod’s silly lines become attention grabbers, turning the Superman sequel into a classic.
6.) Jack Nicholson as The Joker, “Batman”: Before Ledger came along, Nicholson was the definitive Joker, balancing his silliness with deadly traps that proved he was the most dangerous foe Batman would ever face. If faithfulness to the source material is what you’re looking for, then Jack is definitely your man.
5.) Danny DeVito as The Penguin, “Batman Returns”: As legendary as Nicholson was, DeVito’s interpretation of the Penguin is, for our money, an even better example of a faithful realization of a Batman villain. Animalistic, disgusting, and crafty, DeVito turns Oswald Cobblepot into the most complex villain in any pre-Nolan Batman film.
4.) Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face, “The Dark Knight”: In a stroke of genius, Nolan allows us to spend a good amount of time with Harvey Dent before he becomes Two-Face. We get to see his idealism and heroic sacrifice, which makes it all the more heartbreaking when tragedy twists him into the bitter Two-Face. Unlike Jones’ version, this Two-Face is uncomfortably human. There’s no insanity here — just a man so jaded by the darkness of the world that he’d rather swap out his sense of justice for one defined by bitterness, death, and most of all, chance.
3.) Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, “Superman I, II, and IV”: We’re going to ignore the hot mess that was “Superman IV” and focus on Hackman’s brilliant performance in the first two films.
2.) Mark Hamill as The Joker, “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm”: You forgot this animated theatrical release, didn’t you? For many Millennials, Mark Hamill is the ultimate Joker, mixing danger with one fantastic joke after another. Beyond “Phantasm” and “Batman: The Animated Series,” Hamill has brought even more menace to the Joker in the “Arkham” video games and in the recent animated adaptation of “The Killing Joke.”
1.) Heath Ledger as The Joker, “The Dark Knight”: Who else? More than anyone else, Ledger embodied what made the Clown Prince of Crime such a dangerous villain. He is pure, nihilistic id, assuming the worst in every human being and believing that people are, as he says, “only as good as the world allows them to be.” Villains don’t get more evil than this.