DC Comics has created many of the greatest superheroes ever, but none of that would be possible without the supervillains. While Marvel was having their heroes fight each other and Nazis, Golden Age DC was laying the groundwork for the best roster of villains ever, creating antagonists who would set the standards for what a comic book supervillain could be. Villains have changed a lot since then and DC has always been on the cutting edge, developing their bad guys into some of greatest of all time. Some of them had rather humble beginnings, growing into icons, but some were legends right off the bat.
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These villains may have gotten better over the years, as much thanks to the changing quality standard in the industry as anything else, but their debuts set the stage for them beautifully. They had that it factor right away, their examples making other bad guys even better. DC Comics nailed these ten villains right away, creating antagonists that would define all the directions you could take a villain.
10) Two-Face
Two-Face has become one of Batman’s most popular villains and his early years were the key to that. Harvey Dent was a crusading district attorney, horrifically scarred for doing his job. His opening story laid out the villain perfectly, showing the tragedy that forged him, his obsession with duality, and the brutality he was willing to enact on even those who worked with him because of the flip of a coin. His early stories expanded on this, all while showing Harvey’s early relationship with Batman and how his change to Two-Face affected both of them. Those early appearances made him a legend and he’s been able to become even better than ever as the years went on.
9) Reverse Flash
Reverse Flash is Barry Allen’s greatest foe and has been proving it ever since. Eobard Thawne hailed from the 25th century and his first appearance set the stage for the villain, becoming the Reverse-Flash after finding a time capsule sent forward through time that contained a Flash costume and a way to replicate his powers and battling Allen, who traveled to the future to stop an atomic clock that turned into an atomic bomb on the trip to the future. Reverse-Flash would later come back to the present, becoming Allen’s most dangerous foe. The character would be completely expanded on in the years to come, these early appearances laying the foundations beautifully.
8) Zoom
Wally West became the Flash after Barry’s death and creators kept trying to create a speedster villain for him that would rival Reverse-Flash. Eventually, Geoff Johns created Zoom. He was a friend of Wally who tried to get him to go back in time and stop the criminal that killed his father-in-law and paralyzed him. Wally refused, but Zoom tried to use the Cosmic Treadmill himself, the temporal energies giving him the power to control the flow of time around him. He decided that suffering made heroes better and he would do his part by tormenting them. His first story, “Blitz”, is one of the best ’00s Flash stories; he was flawless from the start and it’s a shame that he isn’t the big deal he deserves to be.
7) Ra’s al Ghul
Batman faces the most dangerous evil geniuses and few of them are as deadly as Ra’s al Ghul. The Demon’s Head had one of the best debuts in comics, bar none. The villain first appeared in Batman (Vol. 1) #232, by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, in a story that perfectly laid out who Ra’s al Ghul was and why he was so dangerous. He quickly became extremely popular and since then has become one of the most well-known Bat-villains ever, his origin issue being adapted wonderfully by Batman: The Animated Series. O’Neil and Adams gave readers an amazing gift that would never go out of style and al Ghul’s early stories will knock your socks off.
6) Sinestro
Sinestro is Hal Jordan’s most storied villain, becoming one of the most popular characters in the Green Lantern mythos. He first appeared in Green Lantern (Vol. 2) #7. While he didn’t have his origin of training Hal like he would in post-Crisis DC, this first issue built the rest of his origin, telling the story of his fall to fascism after being a Lantern and his alliance with the Qwardians. He was exactly the kind of villain you’d expect from a Silver Age story, the type of gleefully evil bad guy that fans loved back then. His early appearances showed him for the icon he would become, threatening the Green Lantern Corps and trying to spread evil across the universe.
5) Darkseid
Darkseid had some of the most humble beginnings imaginable, first appearing in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #134, by Jack Kirby. He was created to be the ultimate evil, the “tiger force at the center of all things” in his own words, and Kirby was able to nail that right away. He was the ultimate evil, fascism and brutality given form and his early appearances sold him as one of the greatest of all time. Darkseid is one of those characters who was completely perfect right away (something that happens when you’re created by Jack Kirby), with creators just following the script for the lord of Apokolips that Kirby laid out years ago.
4) The Anti-Monitor
Crisis on Infinite Earths is the best event comic ever and the Anti-Monitor is a huge part of that. This story was meant to birth a whole new DC Universe, pitting the multiverse’s greatest heroes against an evil that fans could believe would be evil enough to destroy all existence. The Anti-Monitor was the perfect bad guy for the story, an all-powerful monster who was evil as they come. He wasn’t some deep character with a tragic origin, he was just the living embodiment of destruction and the story made him into the most feared villain in DC history.
3) Deathstroke
Deathstroke the Terminator has become one of the most popular DC villains, the genesis of which was his early tales. After the death of his son Ravager, he took up the H.I.V.E. contract on the New Teen Titans, leading to “The Judas Contract”, the classic story that made him into an icon. New Teen Titans creators Marv Wolfman and George Perez were able to create a complex villain that would grow in some surprising directions, one who was strong enough to take down teams and interesting enough to helm his own solo series several years after his debut.
2) Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor is DC’s number one evil genius and has become one of the biggest icons in the history of comics. When he first appeared, the villain was somewhat different than he is now, an evil genius trying to take over another country; he wasn’t a mad scientist yet and he wasn’t the evil industrialist he’d become post-Crisis. Golden Age Lex wasn’t Superman’s greatest foe yet – that was the Ultra-Humanite – but there was something to the character that kept him showing up, allowing him to become the evil super-scientist we all know and love today. He was a different character back then, but he was still a great villain and would go on to prove it many times over the years.
1) The Joker
The Joker has become one of the most popular villains ever. He’s starred in stories across numerous mediums and has been considered Batman’s greatest foe for closer to a century than half of one. The Joker first appeared in Batman (Vol. 1) #1, one of several stories in the issue. Batman creators Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson, and Bob Kane based the look of the character on actor Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs, giving him a chilling visage that fans loved right away. While he wasn’t the killer monster he is now, the Clown Prince of Crime had that it factor right away, and there was honestly no way he wouldn’t become an icon after his awesome early years.
What DC villain do you think was nailed right away? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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Image Courtesy of DC Comics
