10 Arrowverse Villains That Should Make a Comeback

The CW’s Arrowverse of shows are currently in the middle of their season, bringing fans’ weeks of DC Comics-inspired content.

But as Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow fans have noticed, this season has seen a sort of villain renaissance. Plenty of antagonists from past seasons have made return appearances across the four shows, with a wide range of results.

Arrow saw the brief return of Slade Wilson/Deathstroke (Manu Bennett) earlier this season, and is currently facing off against Anatoly Knyazev (David Kykl). The Flash saw Shawna Baez/Peek-a-Boo (Britne Oldford) and Axel Walker/Trickster (Devon Graye) briefly return, and Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash (Tom Cavanagh) cause more trouble in the “Crisis on Earth-X” crossover.

Supergirl gave fans a short-lived (and tragic) return of Leslie Willis/Livewire (Brit Morgan), and even featured a brief cameo from a Dominator. Meanwhile, Legends has sort of had a greatest hits of Arrowverse villains this season, with past antagonists Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough), Gorilla Grodd, and Kuasa (Tracy Ifeachor) forming a new team.

So, who else would we like to see return to the Arrowverse, even for as much as an episode?

Huntress

Huntress feels like one of the most obvious characters to place on this list, mainly because she was mentioned during a recent Arrow episode.

In “Divided”, Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) crossed paths with Jerry Bertinelli, prompting him to ask what happened with Helena Bertinelli/Huntress (Jessica De Gouw). As Jerry has revealed, Helena had “gone underground”, escaping from the jail that she’s been in since the middle of season two.

This is the perfect set up to bring Huntress back into the fold, even if just for a very special episode. Seeing Helena react to the new version of Oliver – who has gone from a brooding party boy to being mayor, getting married, and raising a child – would surely be something interesting to see. Plus, Helena could hopefully cross paths with, or team up with, Laurel Lance/Black Siren (Katie Cassidy), giving a sort of unique twist on the whole Birds of Prey mythos of DC Comics.

Silver Banshee

Another noteworthy female villain who has been missing in action for a while is Siobhan Smythe/Silver Banshee (Italia Ricci).

After being a sort of frenemy of Kara/Danvers/Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) in Supergirl‘s first season, Siobhan teamed up with Leslie Willis/Livewire (Brit Morgan) in the fan-favorite “Worlds Finest” episode. The pair of villains faced off against both Supergirl and Barry Allen/The Flash (Grant Gustin), and were ultimately thrown into a metahuman prison by the episode’s end.

Granted, Siobhan’s absence in the years since is somewhat due to the show’s move to Vancouver (and Ricci’s role on Designated Survivor), but it still isn’t out of the question that she could make some sort of return appearance. It’d be fun to see exactly what Siobhan has been up to all of these years, and how she goes toe-to-toe with the Girl of Steel once again. Plus, her reaction to Livewire’s death would probably pull on fans’ heartstrings.

Pied Piper

In a weird way, the last Arrowverse appearance of Hartley Rathaway/Pied Piper (Andy Meintus) left him in a perfect place for a return appearance, it just has yet to really happen.

During the Season Two episode “Flash Back”, Barry traveled back to the events of Season One, needing the help of Eobard Thawne’s incarnation of Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh). When he returned back to the present day, he was subsequently saved by Hartley and Team Flash. Barry quickly learned that Hartley’s relationship to Team Flash had been changed within the timeline, causing him to be an occasional help to the team instead of a betrayed adversary.

The question is — why haven’t we gotten a chance to explore that yet? If Meintus was available, it would certainly be fun to see how this sort of new version of Hartley interacts with the team. Plus, he would be an interesting ally in the season-long quest against The Thinker.

Bizarro Girl

Speaking of Arrowverse villains who could easily make a return appearance, an argument can totally be made for Jane Doe/Bizarro (Hope Lauren) to make her way back to Supergirl.

Midway through Season One, it was revealed that Maxwell Lord (Peter Facinelli) was experimenting on Jane, trying to find a way to duplicate Supergirl’s abilities. After going toe-to-toe with her in the episode “Bizarro”, Kara and the DEO left Jane in a coma, so that she wouldn’t be able to cause any more people harm.

Now that time has passed, it’d be really interesting to see how Jane is brought back into the show, possibly being convinced to use her powers for good. After all, Kara and company are currently up against plenty of Kryptonian threats with Reign and the Worldkillers, meaning they could use all the help they can get.

Everyman

The early seasons of The Flash introduced a wide array of metahumans and villains of the week, but few were as unique as Hannibal Bates/Everyman (Martin Novotny).

The character had the unique ability to shape-shift into any person he came into physical contact with, causing a conundrum when he impersonated Barry. He was eventually trapped in The Pipeline, where he stayed until Wells!Thawne enlisted his help. Hannibal impersonated Wells!Thawne, until he was shot dead.

Even though he met his demise on The Flash, there’s no reason why Hannibal couldn’t be given a chance to return on another show — Legends of Tomorrow. Hannibal very easily could have been displaced from time somehow, causing the Legends to track him down, and some sort of hilarity to certainly ensue. After all, a shape-shifting metahuman named after fictional serial killers wouldn’t even be the fifth-weirdest anachronism the Legends have dealt with.

The Royal Flush Gang

Remember these guys?

The Restons, a family of bank robbers, first appeared in Arrow‘s first season, and proved to have a unique tie to Oliver’s Season One crusade. By the episode’s end, Oliver had put the members of the Reston family in prison.

But the beauty of the Royal Flush Gang is that the mantle can very easily be passed from group to group — something that’s already been played with in The Flash. In an early Season One episode (coincidentally the same one Hartley appeared in), Barry tracked down a second incarnation of the group in Keystone City, and sent them to jail as well.

Another iteration of the group could very easily pop up on either Arrow or Flash, or even be seen on Legends or Supergirl. New actors and characters would need to be brought in anyway, and it would provide a pretty colorful foe for the heroes to face off against.

Cassandra Savage

Yes, we know that a lot of Legends fans have basically blocked Season One’s Vandal Savage storyline from their memory (to a point where Legends even parodied the villain in an episode of Season Two).

But one of the unexplored — and arguably underrated — components of that storyline was Cassandra Savage (Jessica Sipos), his young daughter from the 2100s. Cassandra briefly appeared in the episode “Leviathan”, in which she ultimately turned on her father and helped the Resistance.

There’s an argument to be made for Cassandra making a return appearance, either as an ally of the Legends or as the show’s sort of stand-in for Scandal Savage. After all, Legends has been dealing with the whole “daughter of a familiar supervillain” thing pretty well so far this season.

Per Degaton

On that note, another villain from Legends‘ first season arguably left too many things unexplored.

The episode “Progeny” saw the Legends travel to the future to kill a young version of Per Degaton (Cory Gruter-Andrew), who would ultimately grow up to be the dictator of the Kasnia Conglomerate and an ally of Vandal Savage. This differed to an extent from his DC Comics’ counterpart, who is a sort of superpowered time-traveler.

It’d be interesting to see a different incarnation of Per on Legends, one who more fits into his time traveling roots (or, you know, is an anachronism). Like with the Royal Flush Gang, a different actor could play the role, and would probably reinvent it in the process.

Deathbolt

Another villain who was arguably underused was Jake Simmons/Deathbolt (Doug Jones), a metahuman with the ability to absorb electricity and shoot lasers from his eyes. Deathbolt first appeared in an episode of Arrow before being sent to Star Labs and getting caught up in the whole metahuman prison exchange.

In the fight, Deathbolt was killed by Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller), but there’s still no reason why he couldn’t return again. Maybe Flashpoint brought him back from the dead? Or maybe a version of him was turned into an anachronism?

Yes, we know that Doug Jones is a little busy right now, thanks to the success of both Star Trek: Discovery and The Shape of Water. But if anything, that’s only more reason for him to lend his talents to a new corner of the Arrowverse again.

Manny

Sure, he’s only an Arrowverse villain based on a technicality, but we’d love to see Manny (Harold Perrineau) make the jump from Constantine to the Arrowverse.

Manny and John Constantine’s (Matt Ryan) dynamic was arguably one of the most intriguing parts of Constantine‘s tenure, and there’s still plenty more territory left to explore with him. In the closing minutes of Constantine‘s first season, it was revealed that Manny was actually orchestrating the rise in demons and other dark energy, and fans never really got a chance to see that further developed.

A pretty perfect place for that would be in one of Constantine’s inevitable future appearances on Legends, or on an episode of the Constantine animated series. Either way, we’d love to see it happen.

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Which villains would you like to see return to the Arrowverse? Sound off in the comments below.