With a comic book history stretching back to 1938, Superman has one of the most formidable and iconic rogues’ galleries in all of fiction. Yet, for decades, his cinematic outings have been surprisingly conservative, repeatedly drawing from the same small circle of antagonists. Filmmakers have consistently returned to the brilliant malevolence of Lex Luthor and the Kryptonian physical threat of General Zod, making them the definitive on-screen foes. While their statuses are well-earned, this narrow focus has left a vast treasure trove of villains from the Superman comics completely untouched by live-action movies. Fortunately, that can soon change.
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As the first official film in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DC Universe, 2025’s Superman has launched the franchise to staggering new heights. Bolstered by overwhelmingly positive reviews, the film is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a score hovering around 85% from critics and an even more impressive 95% from audiences. This resounding success has translated to the box office, where the film debuted to a massive $125 million domestically and has since soared past the $550-million mark worldwide, becoming one of the year’s biggest hits. With Gunn already confirming he is writing a Superman follow-up, the door is wide open to finally introduce the major threats who have been ready to challenge the hero in ways moviegoers have never seen before.
Below you’ll find seven of the Man of Steel’s most iconic villains who deserve to jump to live-action, ranked.
7) Manchester Black
First appearing in the classic Action Comics #775, “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?”, Manchester Black emerged as a direct indictment of the grim anti-heroes who dominated comics in the 1990s and early 2000s. As the powerful telepathic leader of The Elite, Black championed a lethal form of justice, executing villains without hesitation. He and his team quickly gained public adoration, positioning their brutal methods as a modern and effective alternative to Superman’s seemingly outdated moral code.
Black’s conflict with Superman was never about physical superiority but ideological warfare. He posed a simple question: in a dark world, isn’t lethal force the only answer? The story’s climax saw Superman seemingly adopt Black’s methods, terrifying him with a display of ruthless power before revealing it was a ruse to prove his point about the horror of unchecked might. Because he attacks the hero’s philosophy instead of his body, Manchester Black remains a fan-favorite character who represents one of the most relevant threats to Superman’s legacy.
6) Metallo
John Corben is a villain who strikes at Superman’s most fundamental vulnerability. A man whose consciousness is trapped inside a nigh-invulnerable robotic chassis, Metallo is powered by a heart of pure Kryptonite. This lethal energy source makes him a walking, talking anathema to the Man of Steel, turning any physical encounter into a desperate battle for survival. While his origins have been updated over the years, from common crook to jilted soldier, his core purpose has remained terrifyingly consistent.
Because of his unique power source, Metallo fundamentally alters the rules of engagement. Superman cannot simply trade blows with him, so he is forced to rely on his intellect, environmental defenses like lead, and tactical ingenuity to even get close. This dynamic ensures that Metallo is never just another brute, but a persistent and highly effective antagonist whose presence in a story guarantees a unique kind of conflict, one where Superman’s strength is irrelevant.
5) Parasite
The Parasite brings a unique element of body horror to Superman’s world. Usually depicted as a hapless janitor named Rudy Jones, he is tragically transformed into a being with an agonizing and insatiable hunger for life energy. Through physical touch, he can drain the vitality, memories, and even the powers of his victims. When his target is Superman, the Parasite becomes an existential threat, as every second of contact makes him stronger while simultaneously weakening the hero.
This vampiric ability makes the Parasite one of Superman’s most dangerous foes. Plus, the physical threat of having his own immense powers turned against him is compounded by the villain’s often-sympathetic nature. Jones is rarely portrayed as purely evil, but as a man cursed by a painful biological imperative he cannot control. This tragic dimension makes him a far more compelling antagonist than a simple monster.
4) Cyborg Superman
Few villains have wounded Superman on such a personal level as Hank Henshaw. He debuted in the “Reign of the Supermen!” storyline following the hero’s death, initially appearing as a cybernetically enhanced but seemingly heroic Man of Steel. After earning the trust of the world, Henshaw revealed his true identity as a vengeful scientist who blamed Superman for an accident that cost him his body and his wife. He then cemented his place in history with an unforgivable act of villainy.
In partnership with Mongul, Cyborg Superman obliterated Coast City, the home of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, killing millions. This act was a perversion of Superman’s legacy, twisting his symbol of hope into an instrument of genocide. This deep psychological cruelty, combined with his command of technology and access to Kryptonian abilities, makes Henshaw one of the most hated and effective villains in the entire DC canon, a monster born from grief who sought to burn down everything the hero stood for.
3) Mister Mxyzptlk
A being of unimaginable power, Mister Mxyzptlk is an imp from the 5th Dimension who treats our universe like his personal toybox. He isn’t evil in a conventional sense, because our world’s morals have little meaning to him. Instead, Mister Mxyzptlk is a cosmic trickster driven by a profound boredom that can only be cured by tormenting Superman. With the ability to rewrite reality on a whim, his challenges are surreal, often comical, and completely unbound by the laws of physics. Famously, the only way to defeat him is to exploit the one bizarre rule he must obey, as getting him to say his name backward banishes him home for 90 days.
While he is often the source of Silver Age whimsy, Mxyzptlk’s true potential was terrifyingly unleashed in Alan Moore’s seminal 1986 story, “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”. In that finale for the pre-Crisis Superman, a bored Mxyzptlk revealed his true form and unleashed apocalyptic chaos, proving that his near-omnipotence was capable of absolute horror. He is the ultimate intellectual puzzle, a villain who renders Superman’s strength completely irrelevant and forces him to win with his wits alone.
2) Mongul
The brutal tyrant of Warworld, a planet-sized mobile battle station, Mongul is a galactic conqueror whose ruthlessness puts him in the same class as Darkseid. However, his reputation was forever cemented by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ 1985 classic, “For the Man Who Has Everything.” In that story, Mongul demonstrated a uniquely sadistic form of cruelty by trapping Superman in a psychic fantasy using the Black Mercy, a parasitic plant that forced him to live out a happy life on a Krypton that never exploded.
This story established Mongul as a master of psychological torture, able to identify a hero’s deepest desires and turn them into a weapon. Furthermore, his other signature crime, the destruction of Coast City alongside Cyborg Superman, had devastating consequences that rippled across the DC Universe for years. Fans regard Mongul as an A-list threat precisely because he has proven capable of challenging Superman on every conceivable level, from his heart to his home.
1) Brainiac
Alongside Lex Luthor, Brainiac is one of Superman’s absolute greatest enemies, and his continued absence from live-action cinema is a source of constant fan frustration. A hyper-advanced alien intelligence, Brainiac scours the cosmos for knowledge, which he preserves by shrinking and bottling entire cities from planets he deems worthy before destroying them. His conflict with Superman is intensely personal, as his collection contains Kandor, the last surviving city of Krypton.
Brainiac represents the ultimate fusion of intellectual and physical threats. His 12th-level intellect allows him to out-think virtually any opponent, while his advanced technology, vast drone armies, and iconic skull-shaped starship make him a devastating physical force. Throughout the comics, his design has evolved from a simple green-skinned humanoid to a terrifying skeletal android, but his core identity as a calculating collector of worlds remains. He is the total package, a villain who challenges Superman’s mind, might, and heritage all at once.
Which Superman villain are you most excited to see in a live-action movie? Share your favorites in the comments!
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