Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Who has the best ROGUES GALLERY?

Lessee...

Legion - Time Trapper, Fatal 5, Universo, Mordru, Glorith, LSV, Progenitor, R'as Al Ghul (now,) Nemesis Kid, Darkseid, Roxxas, and so forth

Batman - Joker, Catwoman, Penguin, Two-face, Riddler, Bane, R'as Al Ghul, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Ventriloquist, Scarecrow, Clayface, and so on...

Superman - Lex Luthor, Toyman, Brainiac, Doomsday, Cyborg, Mongul, Bizarro, Metallo, Darkseid, Mr. Mxzxpltk (sp?)

JLA - Starro, Darkseid, Injustice Gang, Secret Society of Super-vilains, Prometheus, Key, Dr. Destiny, Kanjar Ro, Despero, Queen Bee... okay, they may wind up last...

Flash - Gorilla Grodd, Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard, Professor Zoom, Kobra, and so forth...

Teen Titans - Deathstroke, Trigon, Evil Raven, Terra, HIVE, Blackfire, Brother Blood...

Spiderman - Chameleon, Vulture, Green Goblin, Hobgoblin, Venom, Mysterio, Silvermane, Sandman, Doctor Octopus, Shocker, Lizard, Scorpion, Kraven, Carnage, Morbius...

X-Men - Magneto, Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, Mystique, Hellfire Club, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Sabretooth, Mojo, Dark Phoenix, Proteus, Sentinels, Brood

Avengers - Kang, Ultron, Masters of Evil (original and modern,) Zodiac, Supreme Intelligence, Immortus, Absorbing Man, Wrecking Crew, Thanos, Korvac, Controller, Morgan Le Fay, Count Nefaria, Grim Reaper

Fantastic Four - Dr. Doom, Galactus, Terrax, Super-Skrull, Abominus, Blastarr, Diablo, Frightful Four, Klaw, Terminus, Impossible Man

Of those listed, here's my list...

10. JLA. Ugggh. They only show up to fight when they're fighting individual members' arch-villains. Not a good lineup at all.

9. Superman. Supes has always been plagued with poor villains.

8. Teen Titans - Some good villains with personal ties to the Titans, but ultimately, Deathstroke and Terra are the most memorable.

7. Avengers. They have great villains, but most of them wind up being ultimately easy to put down. It's hard to shake the fact that the Avengers are always out there doing a job. Sometimes it gets personal, but it's always on a professional level.

6. Flash. Flash has an amazingly colorful Rogues Gallery. The reason they're not higher is because of power levels.

5. Fantastic Four. The team supreme of Marvel Comics. They are the only people in the Marvel Universe who have beaten Galactus. Multiple times.

4. X-Men. They are measured by the emotional ties to their villains, which are HUGE. Once again, though, power levels keep them from being higher on this list. Their villains are good, but on the whole less strong than those of the FF or Avengers.

3. Legion - This team's villains DEFINES cosmic.

2. Batman - AMAZING villains gallery, and it's SOO close to #1.

1. Spiderman. No one has the emotional connectedness to his villains' gallery that Peter Parker has. And no one's fights, over time, have been writen better. Add that to the fact that his villains are (I think) the best-designed, best personalities, and most colorful, unique, and varied, and you see why Petey has the #1 villains gallery.

well, good way to rank those rogues you got there....as for me...I tend to think in a different way, kind of. For example -

The most Colorful rogues - the Flash's

The most scariest and evillest rogue - Batman's

The "klunkiest" - Superman's

As you can see, my perspective is really different. The best of them all is..I have no answer....really.

I agree with your assessment, KP -- Spider-Man and Batman are the top two in my book. Spidey might have the best overall (Penguin and Riddler are weak links, imo), but in terms of arch-rival, nobody holds a candle to the JOKER!

want to add to the list:

Wonder Woman - Cheetah, Silver Swan, Dr. Psycho, White Magician, Queen Cleo, Giganta, Ares, Duke of Deception, Decay, Phobos and Deimos, the Blue Snowman (can't resist that one!), Hyponta, Dr. Poison...

Oh yeah, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) had a pretty good rogue's gallery as well:
Sinestro, Evil Star, Killer Shark, Star Sapphire, Krona/Entropy (the main baddy in JLA/Avengers, thank you), Dr. Polaris, Goldface, The Weaponers of Qward, Nekron, Sonar, Tattooed Man, Hector Hammond, Myrhwhydden, Black Hand, The Invisible Destroyer etc...

I have believed that Wonder Woman and Hawkman's rogue gallery are the ones that really need a major overhaul...revamping or even amping up the power level.

Hawkman - Gentleman Ghost, Byth, Lionmane, Kiteman, Count Viper, Shadow Thief, Omanir Sinn, Manhawks, etc...

Flash for me, noone close. They are the most identifiable though John's seems to be switching to a more bland/cliche set with power-ups... The only new one with great potential for character exposition IMO is Peak a Boo. Murmer is downright creepy but seems more suited to Batman or Green Arrow. Basically, developing a personality for this character would just ruin it.

Legion's are far and away the most powerful, a combination of FF's and Avenger's. They are either politically motivated or of near god-like capability.

Hawkman is supposed to be getting a major baddie!!

Batman has great villains but they seem to be the same ones recycled over and over. Actually, same with the Legion - I don't know the other books well enough or back far enough to tell.

The problem the Bat-writers have is that Bats' Rogues are so great that it's hard to create new ones that match up.

I am not sure why you said that Batman villains has been recycled over and over...I thought that Bane, Zsasz, Harley Quinn, and others were new, Ra's in Legion, Catwoman starring in her own book, many Batman elseworlds, many Batman spinoffs, etc...etc....how can they be recycled?

Some of those villains have been around since the 40s. Of course there have been new ones, some of which have had staying powers and some one-shots. Perhaps it's just the length of time over which Batman has been published...I just wonder how many Joker stories there have been. After not reading Batman for 20 years, I picked up some TPBs this year - and he's still fighting the Joker, Catwoman, and the rest of the gang I left in the 80s.

It's not bad, the villains have evolved with the times - but I don't know if it's a reflection of fans' love for certain characters that keeps them coming back, or that these rogues are such tough acts to follow, few of the new villains can compare.

The statistically-minded fan might want to calculate what percentage of villains have staying power vs. how many have had only one or two appearances. The quality of a hero's Rogues Gallery might depend on how long the book's been published - keep cranking out the bad guys, and you're going to get a certain percentage of big hits with the fans.

Unfortunately, this hypothesis is entirely contradicted by JLA and Superman villains, which, I agree, for the most part, stink. Maybe the writers got lazy with Superman, or JLA including Superman, because he was such a big draw on his own. You could have pitted him against a rottweiler and people would have bought the book.

Cramer - thank you for the clarification. Now I can see how you define by "recycling". Somehow I do get the impression that the writers from Superman does not want to bring old villains back. What can they do? They decide to create new characters (new Supergirl and Manchester Black, for example) so that will be much easier to write them than older villains. Because the writers will have to do some researching and to make sure that they fit the dialogues to each of them to avoid the character assassination or even continunity as many readers love to police. Does that sometimes give you the impression?

I loved what they have done to the Prankster (from fat man to a thinner and more mischeivous man ) unfortunately I did not read the current Superman series - I just heard that re-amped Prankster was perished. is that right?

I've always liked the Marvel Family rogues gallery.

How can one not be at least a little fond of a green caterpillar with a box around its neck, nicknamed "World's Wickedest Worm"?

And can there be any doubt that a character named "Captain Nazi" is meant to be a villain?

I think it's a combination of those two factors plus the fact that by this point (or by the sixties and seventies), certain villains like the Joker, Two-Face and Catwoman have filled a slot in his life that no newcomer can replace just because no newcomer can have the history with Batman that these two have.

Of the newer Bat-villains that have come since the '40's that have really risen in the ranks and become a part of Batman's world is Ra's al Ghul. On the other hand, guys like the Penguin and The Riddler always seem to need updating to keep from seeming ridiculous.

Then there are others like Mr Freeze, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn who will always be a part of the rogue's gallery but probably never have that kind of connection to Bats as the four mentioned above.

I love villain books, starting with Secret Society of Supervillains, and ending with Ostrander's Suicide Squad. I might have liked Thunderbolts, but I'm just not that familiar with Marvel.

I really like the Authority's rogues gallery, but its rare that they survive for a re-match.

The best villains about at the moment are The Four, from Planetary. Evil, evil, evil people.

Computo - we have several villains book out there now - Catwoman, Mystique, Deadpool (?), Empire

Do you also read Joker, Kobra, recent Suicide Squad, Eclipso, and Deathstroke the Terminator?

I notice that Wonder Woman is the ONLY female super hero ever to have a rogue gallery...I wonder about Supergirl, Catwoman, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel..do they also have their own galleries as well?

I should qualify my statement: I love good villain books.

I have been told to read Catwoman, but I tend to be a bit wary of anything with a bat logo on the cover.

Empire sounds like an interesting concept. I will look into it.

I flipped though a few issues of Deathstroke and Deadpool, but never actually purchased them.

During Jim Lee's run on X-men, it seemed often as if Magneto was the main character, and the X-men themselves were the second-stringers. A fleshed out villain really appeals to me, and Magneto, with all of his pride and anger, is certainly that.

Speaking of Magneto ... he kinda might not be dead anymore (check out the new "NEW X-MEN" storyline if that means anything to you).

And speaking of villain titles, my fav has to be "Grendel" (esp. Hunter Rose)

I miss Ostranders Suicide Squad!!!!

It was a bit frustrating to read an interview with Ostrander and hear that he had made pitches to DC for Suicide Squad, and that they were knocked back...and then to get stuck Giffen's terrible version.

And yes, I heard about Magneto and his assumed identity. I give Morrison the benefit of the doubt and blame editorial interference.

I am sure that Wonder Woman is NOT the only one who has the rogues gallery....so help me out:

Supergirl - Blackstarr, Lena Luthor, Satan Girl, Carnivorne (God), who else?

Ms. Marvel: ?
Spider-Woman: the Shroud?, Grimm Brothers?
Dazzler: ?
Catwoman: (can villains have own galleries too?)

so help!

Promethea has The Temple, the Howling, Night Queen, and once, I guess, Jack Faust.

The original Bat-girl had Killer-Moth and the Cavalier. I don't read the current title so I don't know the latest version's enemies.

Over at Image, Witchblade has Jeremy Irons and Ian Nottingham. Probably others: again, I haven't read it for ages.

Marvel I'm not too familiar with....

I'd say the Titans, but their villains have turned into idiots so no.

All of the Green Lantern villains are pretty much becoming colored coordinated.

All the Sailor Moon villains wind up being led by some black demonic mass of energy, usually.

Batman, Flash and Spider-Man. Some others come close but these three have it by a mile.