top 5 Marvel and DC villians

[ehtheist]

they have to be heavyweights!? Or can we appreciate specific hero centered villains?

Nope, OP didn't specifiy. I think "top" implies they're major, but your top villain may be a minor one, so... Yeah, I don't think there are rules or anything.

 

[Curly Peibce]

Superboy prime.

 

[BisexualMMA]

Marvel:

Topher Grace's Venom
Colin Farrell's Bullseye
Tyrion with a Mustache
Toad
Dominic Purcell's Dracula

DC:

Richard Pryor in Superman III
Jon Cryer in Superman III
Nucular Man
Faye Dunaway in Supergirl
Community Theater Uma Thurman

 

[prod2821]

Nope, OP didn't specifiy. I think "top" implies they're major, but your top villain may be a minor one, so... Yeah, I don't think there are rules or anything.

well he has that can venom, so I didn't think the OP meant in terms of power but whatevs, anyway Kraven is in my top 5 for Marvel

 

[Minnja]

Any love for Kraven? I've always loved him as a Spidey rogue

Kravens Last Hunt and Grim Hunt were both awesome. Thought Grim Hunt was just a lame attempt to recycle the story but I ended up liking it anyways

Norman Osborne is underrated. Dude is pretty fucked up. He bangs Gwen Stacey and impregnates her in one of the worst Spider-Man arcs I ever read (they had to have retcon this right? When I read it I was like WTFFFF)

 

[sangreporsangre]

I don't really agree with Galactus being considered a villain. He's basically like a force of nature, he's above petty concepts like good or evil. Although I guess that isn't too comforting if he's about to devour your planet.

I'm not really too big on DC so I guess my list would be:

Joker
Darkseid
Bane
Riddler - not sure if he's still used much in the comics but I was always a sucker for a good Riddler story. I always liked how they were more about heists than brutal murders and have Batman using his detective skills and reasoning skills as opposed to just beating people up.
Doomsday maybe? I don't really give a crap about Superman's enemies too much but Doomsday is a beast.

Eclipso was a guy I actually thought was cool, an evil god who could take over your body or whatever if you got pissed while holding the diamond. I don't know if he stayed around in the comics or if that was just a flash in the pan for him so I don't think I should put him in my top 5.

For Marvel:

Thanos
Doom
Magneto
Apocalypse
Loki

Venom would be an alternate pick for me, and a special shout out to the Red Skull. Not sure exactly what his status is now in the comics but I remember at one point dude was like running all the evil conspiracies in the world: Hydra, AIM, etc plus he was in a body cloned from Cap.

 

[ehtheist]

I don't really agree with Galactus being considered a villain. He's basically like a force of nature, he's above petty concepts like good or evil. Although I guess that isn't too comforting if he's about to devour your planet.

Heh, by your reasoning concerning Galactus, you might want to reconsider Venom and Thanos. Venom spent a very significant portion of his publication career as an anti-hero, and the same could be argued for Thanos, who happens to be one of the universe's greatest protectors, in an odd sort of way.

 

[sangreporsangre]

Heh, by your reasoning concerning Galactus, you might want to reconsider Venom and Thanos. Venom spent a very significant portion of his publication career as an anti-hero, and the same could be argued for Thanos, who happens to be one of the universe's greatest protectors, in an odd sort of way.

I guess that's true I definitely seem to remember that Venom really wasn't trying to be bad he would actually save innocent people and shit, he was just always trying to kill Spiderman because in his (or their) twisted mind Spidey was evil and needed to be stopped. And I didn't know anything about Thanos being some kind of protector of the universe or whatever. I guess my thing is, I consider Galactus sort of out of the villain category and into the cosmic being category. Thanos should be in that too I guess but I considered him a villain because he's always scheming and scamming to get more power and kill people, whereas Galactus just kind of does his thing and does what he has to do to survive. So I guess in my mind that's what puts guys like Venom and Thanos more into the villain category, the scheming and scamming and beefing with superheros. Same with including Magneto on the list even though he's probably done a lot of good over the years shit I think Xavier basically left him in charge of the Xmen and New Mutants back in the day. But when he goes bad he goes real bad.

 

[ehtheist]

I guess that's true I definitely seem to remember that Venom really wasn't trying to be bad he would actually save innocent people and shit, he was just always trying to kill Spiderman because in his (or their) twisted mind Spidey was evil and needed to be stopped. And I didn't know anything about Thanos being some kind of protector of the universe or whatever. I guess my thing is, I consider Galactus sort of out of the villain category and into the cosmic being category. Thanos should be in that too I guess but I considered him a villain because he's always scheming and scamming to get more power and kill people, whereas Galactus just kind of does his thing and does what he has to do to survive. So I guess in my mind that's what puts guys like Venom and Thanos more into the villain category, the scheming and scamming and beefing with superheros. Same with including Magneto on the list even though he's probably done a lot of good over the years shit I think Xavier basically left him in charge of the Xmen and New Mutants back in the day. But when he goes bad he goes real bad.

It's kind of a fine line. Honestly, I think Thanos is still a villain even though he really has been one of the 616 Marvel Universe's greatest protectors for much of the time since the end of the Infinity Gauntlet saga, but Venom? Venom is a tricky case. Venom has a grudge against one person - and other than that, he's a hero. Sure he wants to outright murder that one person, but hey, isn't that what the Punisher does almost daily, and he's still in the hero category?

Also, Magneto is another good case because, ultimately, he isn't trying to be evil per say - he's devoted to freeing an oppressed class. Granted, he also wants to make them dominant, but he's ultimately trying to free them. As I understand it, Prof X and Magneto were inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and, when you look at their respective motivations and histories, it kind of makes sense.

 

[Aegon Spengler]

EGON?!?! I can't believe you don't like Johns run. NOOOOOOOO!! IMO it's like a seminal piece of comic book work by a writer. And it was critically acclaimed and loved by th fans.

Ok now talk more comics with me. You read Johns Flash run??

Lol I need to get home so I can converse properly

As to John's flash run....I am a huge fan of Wally West and I don't like Allen, however, Flash rebirth made a lot more sense than GL rebirth. Overall it's a good run, I also like what Johns did with Shazam

 

[SammyPops]

Carnage
dr doom
apocalypse
omega red
abomination

 

[Raiman]

From what I've read in the BvS thread Zack Snyder is DC's biggest Villain.

 

[CardsLJ]

Riddler - not sure if he's still used much in the comics but I was always a sucker for a good Riddler story. I always liked how they were more about heists than brutal murders and have Batman using his detective skills and reasoning skills as opposed to just beating people up.
.

he was the main villain in a recent batman arc called zero year which had three sub arcs: Secret City, Dark City, and Savage City.

 

[Bobby Boulders]

Marvel:

1. Dr. Doom
2. Magneto
3. Thanos
4. Red Skull
5. Apocalypse

DC:

1.Joker
2. Luthor
3. Sinestro
4. Darkseid
5. Deathstroke

 

[That209]

These are my personal favourites in no specific order.

Marvel:

Apocalypse
Galactus
Venom
Carnage
Magneto


DC:

Joker
Darkseid
Doomsday
Deathstroke
Bane

 

[Aegon Spengler]

EGON?!?! I can't believe you don't like Johns run. NOOOOOOOO!! IMO it's like a seminal piece of comic book work by a writer. And it was critically acclaimed and loved by th fans.

Ok now talk more comics with me. You read Johns Flash run??

Ok I can talk a little more coherently now

So for the Green Lantern stuff, you gotta understand, I was (am) a diehard Green Lantern fan. Since I've been old enough to read he's been my favorite comic book character, and along with Superman, Kyle Rayner's adventures were the first series I started collecting. I would never miss an issue of Green Lantern, Superman and the JLA. (I had a flood in my parents basement which wiped out most of my collection unfortunately, but I bought back most of the GL stuff, some as the hardcover editions)

I loved every second of everything I read with Green Lantern under Grant Morrison and Ron Marz, and when I decide to re-read Marz's run I still feel it holds up and is excellent.

As I got into Lantern in the 90's I came into contact with the other GL's: Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart. Stewart was my #2 behind Kyle, followed closely by Alan Scott. I decided to read the back issues. There were some really excellent JSA stories (JSA: The Golden Age, in particular), and Green Lantern Mosaic with John Stewart was unreal (and to this day is a top 3 for me of all the comics I've ever read.) With Hal Jordan... there was nothing. Pre Johns I can't think of a single Hal Jordan story worth reading, except for his fall from grace, Emerald Twillight, written by Ron Marz. To this day I still think it's the best Jordan story, and is right behind Mosaic as the best GL story ever told period.

Jordan coming in at the end of "Death of Superman" and dealing with the destruction of Coast City... it was my first taste of serious adult content in literature and the way the story moved from that horrible event into the destruction of the corps, the death of Sinestro, Zero Hour and Parallax...it was perfect. It was gut wrenching stuff that instantly got me hooked and essentially kept me hooked for life - and I heard about all the lame ass die hard Hal Jordan fans who constantly chided Marz and insisted Hal be brought back as the "one true lantern" (my ass), and it was always one of those little fears in the back of my mind that DC would cave and bring someone in who would retcon it all and contrive some bullshit story about Hal being brainwashed or some other halfwitted nonsense - and low and behold, Geoff Johns comes into DC and does that exact thing. Rebirth was a complete slap in the face and was just so unbelievably lame from start to finish. Fans of Hal's loved it and praised it in spite of all the continuity errors, sloppy dialogue, plot holes etc simply because they brought "their guy" back - and that only pissed me off more. Really soured me on Johns.

This is an interesting interview with Marz on the subject, about how turning Jordan into a villain actually created hardcore Jordan fans, where none really existed before: http://comicbook.com/blog/2013/10/12/ron-marz-looks-back-on-nearly-20-years-since-emerald-twilight/

As for his run on the Flash - that was a lot tighter, better written, more respectful to the fans of Wally West who had grown up with that character as the natural replacement for Allen (Terminal Velocity by Mark Waid is still the best Flash story period) and felt more like an actual rebirth, not a tearing down. There weren't constant references to "the greatest Flash" and there was none of the lame ass pandering/caving-to-pressure from Hal Jordan's idiot fans that went on with the Green Lantern rebirth or subsequent series like Sinestro Corps War/Blackest Night/War of the Green Lanterns.

I think Johns was in love with the Silver Age and hated the era of DC that I loved with a passion, to the point where he had no respect for any of it.

His GL stories were decent but they didn't hold a candle to the Marz run and it kind of bothers me people hold them in such high esteem, considering the "emotional spectrum" stuff A) doesn't make any sense, "will" isn't even an emotion as such and fear/hope/anger/compassion/love/avarice aren't the only emotions that exist, and B) he turned GL's from something special with a cool piece of space-technology into a bizarre kind of space power ranger with powers based on an "emotional well of energy". He also undid the death of the guardians without explaining it, making them "the oldest beings in the universe" when it was Kyle who brought them back, so they'd be around 5 years old at the time of rebirth...

He took all the stories I loved and grew up with and took a giant shit on them. Marz didn't do that when he turned Hal villain. His fall made perfect sense and was character consistent, explored complex emotions, dealt with death and the idea of finality in a universe full of unparalleled wonders and godlike powers, it questioned the very need for tragedy in a world where one goodguy could become God...


anyway that's my rant on Johns and why I don't care for his run on Lantern. I do still enjoy the stories to this day, I like Peter Tomassi quite a bit and the Red Lantern stuff was cool. Johns is a workhorse I'll give him that and he did the new 52 thing which was cool, if a bit poorly fleshed out, but he also gave us that terrible GL movie with Ryan Reynolds and has apparently handed the keys to the DC-CU over to Zack Snyder......