DC Comics has helped make the superhero into one of the most important kinds of fictional characters of the last century, and they did that by pitting them against the best villains ever. DC created the iconic villain that has become such a big part of the superhero story, their bad guys becoming household names. Making a villain famous is a difficult thing. You have to find the right balance of evil, power, and coolness to allow them to truly shine without being overshadowed by the hero. The best way to do that is to give the villain an interesting philosophy, one that separates them other bad guys and makes them into something special.
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Not every villain needs some complex code to live by, but it has helped some reach levels that no one ever would have expected. The best villain philosophies add so much to the character, allowing creators to dig into the meat of the bad guy. These seven DC villains have the best philosophies, helping them become unique in a world of evil.
7) Two-Face
Batman doesn’t hate all of his enemies and the best example of this is Two-Face. Harvey Dent was a man with a lot of demons, but he harnessed them to make Gotham City a better place as district attorney. An acid attack destroyed half his body and he became obsessed with duality and chance. Dent sees the world completely in black and white terms; there’s good and evil, life and death, and the only thing governing them is chance. It’s a simple yet fascinating way of looking at the world and creators have used it to make Two-Face into one of the most popular villains ever.
6) Captain Cold
The Flash faces some very powerful villains but one of the best is one of the least potent. Captain Cold is a just a man with a cold gun, using it to become the master of absolute zero and the leader of the Rogues. Len Snart is basically just a blue collar criminal; he wants to hang out with his friends, do his job – which in his case is crime, and help the people he cares about. He believes in people looking out for each other and doing his job in the most efficient way possible. There’s something remarkably grounded about the villain; it would be easy to make him into a hero because the only difference between him and the good guys is how he makes his money.
5) Zoom
Zoom is Wally West’s version of Reverse Flash. Hunter Zolomon was a paralyzed, disgraced FBI agent working with the Keystone City police and the Flash. He asked Wally to use the cosmic treadmill and go back in time to save Hunter’s father-in-law, which would have saved his career, marriage, and spinal cord, but West told him that was impossible, that you couldn’t change the past. Zolomon tried to do it himself and the temporal energy transformed him into Zoom, allowing him to speed up and slow down time to give him the illusion of super speed. He believed that tragedy made heroes better and that he would be the catalyst for that, testing his enemies beyond breaking to make them better. It’s an interesting way for a villain to look at his actions and made Zoom a great antagonist.
4) Sinestro
Sinestro is the most storied Green Lantern villain, a perfect dichotomy of will and fear. Thal Sinestro was able to get his hands on a Green Lantern ring through murder and then became the greatest member of the Corps. Thal believed wholeheartedly in order, in making the universe a fair and safe place for everyone. However, he decided that the best way to do that was to use fear. He ended up using opposite sides of the emotional electromagnetic spectrum to become one of the most formidable beings in the universe. He’s a fascinating character to read about; he’s an evil fascist, but there’s a core of hope to him, of wanting a better world. He just goes about it in completely the wrong way.
3) Poison Ivy
Poison Ivy is one of DC’s most beloved villains, as much for her philosophy on the world as for anything else. Pamela Isely loved plants and learned to hate humanity for what they’ve done to the world of flora. She rightly believes that mankind is a blight at the best of time and has devoted her life to making the world a safer place for things that grow and are green. Of course, this has led to her committing acts of terrorism and killing many innocent people. Ivy works because on the one hand, her ideas are correct but on the other, she wants to reach her goals by destroying everything she doesn’t like. In recent years, she’s vacillated between hero and villain because of how much her philosophy appeals to people on a certain level.
2) Ra’s al Ghul
Ra’s al Ghul and Poison Ivy have very similar philosophies. The Demon’s Head has been alive for centuries and he’s watched humanity indulge its appetites, destroying the fragile world around them. Unlike Ivy, he’s never wanted to kill every animal on the planet, though. His plans usually involve the deaths of the majority of mankind, allowing the planet to replenish itself and humanity to learn a better way to live with nature. If it wasn’t for the genocide, it would be a laudable goal, and it makes al Ghul into one of the most entertaining villains of all time.
1) Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor is DC’s most unhinged genius and his philosophy on the world has made him into one of the biggest villainous icons ever. Luthor is all about ego; he believes that he is the pinnacle of humanity and that everyone should worship him for the great person he is. This has led to his hatred of Superman and the superheroes and informed all of his schemes. What really makes it interesting is that he actually believes that as the pinnacle of humanity, everything he does is for the aggrandizement of the human race. He sees them as an extension of himself. It’s why he’s been able to evolve so much over the years. His complex way of looking at himself and the world has made him into a villain that became a household name.
What’s your favorite DC villain philosophy? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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Image Courtesy of Paramount
