So my friend and I got in a debate over which superhero has the best rogue gallery. He said Spider-Man, I said Batman. But I started to wonder why Batman. Because of the variety of powers each one possesses? Because of the lack of cliched evil versions (Zoom to Flash, Bizarro to Superman, Venom to Spider-Man)? Because the majority could be based in reality? Because of sheer number?

Discuss.

Dupe thread: http://www.comicvine.com/batman/29-1699/why-is-batmans-rogue-gallery-the-best/92-718736/#1

Honestly, the popular Batman villains suck. A fat midget, a crazy clown, a doctor who hands out LSD, a retarded man-crocodile, a guy who's obsessed with dates etc.

I like Deadshot, Black Mask, Great White Shark, Clayface, Bane (sometimes), Firefly, The Court of the Owls' Talons were cool, the ones who actually can pose a feasible threat.

The all-time best belongs to Spider-Man like your friend said, my personal favorite being Kraven the Hunter and Tombstone. And Venom is hardly a Spider-Man clone, he's MUCH different.

You do know hush and prometheus are supposed to be cliche evil versions of batman right? every superhero has a villian who has the exact same powerset. The majority of batman's villians cant be really based in reality the only one that i can think of that can be real without major changes is Mr.Zsasz. Every charecter has a large number of rogues. Personally the only reason that i feel people consider batman's rogues better is because

1. batman is a popular charecter

2. writers have learned to effectively use his rogues gallery in interesting ways

Otherwise i dont see how batman villians are any better than other charecters villians

Because they an analysis of the Batman character and mythos

Face time

Street level villains are the best Rogues in all of Dc Comic and Marvels villains are the best because they are Batman Rogues that go by names such as Penguin, Riddler , Mr. Freeze etc.... Superman yawnssssss! Spiderman is lol at the names . Even batman gave this thought a face palm!

I honestly think the Fantastic Four has the best rogue's gallery in all of comics. They have more diversity than anybody with street levelers, cosmic entities, mystical characters and technology foes with a lot of overlap with them. Don't get me wrong, Batman has a great rogue's gallery but I think Fantastic Four has the best.

Batman's rogue gallery is the best. The sheer diversity of the villains, the stories that beautifully mix bizarreness with realism, and the villains twisted pyches, makes it the greatest. The writers have used these interesting villains in such a variety of different ways exploring the diffent dimensions of the characters. The characters are such more realistic. I agree that Spiderman's rogue gallery is good but it does not compare to Batman's. Most villains of characters are simple, they have an origin, an ability and a motivation to do evil. Disappointingly that's it. The characters aren't written as well as Batman's.

Because most other villains are just looking to kill the hero. Or beat him, or humiliate him, etc. Grodd wants to kill Flash. Luthor wants to kill Superman. Batman's villains aren't necessarily looking to do that. Joker doesn't want to kill Batman. Two-Face only half wants to do that. Mr. Freeze just wants to save his wife. Riddler wants a worthy adversary. Etc. Do they try to kill him? Yes. Do they WANT to kill him? No, not really. It's like how you'd put an ant under a magnifying glass: You don't necessarily want to kill it, you may not mean it in a meanspirited kind of way, you just want to see what it'll do when you put it through hell.

There's a reason other rogue galleries may be feared by citizens, but Batman's is feared even by other villains and heroes. When a Legion of Doom is assembled, there's a reason nobody calls a Batman villain: Fear of them. They'll call in a deranged sociopathic cannibal ape genius like Grodd. But they won't call Two-Face. They'll call in a megalomaniacal dictator wielding the most powerful weapon in the universe like Sinestro. But they won't call in Joker. Why do you think the other members of the Justice League never comment to Batman: "Hey, your villains are kind of weak." Flash's gallery is even actively made fun of, despite most of them being more powerful than Batman's. Because they know that as powerful as someone like Luthor, or Parasite is, they're predictable. Luthor will always be out to kill Superman. Parasite will always be out to gain more power. No one knows what Joker will do. No one knows what deranged riddle Edward Nigma may unleash. No one knows which side of the coin Two-Face will land on. Humanity instinctively fears the unknown, the chaos, that which can't be controlled. And there are few greater instances of that than Batman's gallery. Only here will you find a clown that can send a city into a panic with a mere chuckle. Only here will you find a box asking "What's inside?", with hundreds scared to answer. Only here will you find a man who devotion to his wife is shown in the frozen remains of those in his way. And only here will you find a man who dares to stand and defy these broken, twisted, agents of chaos.

Batman's rogues are more interesting bec. they are usually weirdos. Normal evil villains are just boring. Most of the Batman's rogues are not really mentally ill but most of them are weirdos and evil geniuses too.

because they define batman in many different ways, and provide an interesting insight to the psyche of batman. is he just like them or better ? why would a adult billionaire dress up and fight dangerous psychotic criminals every night? to me batman has the best rogue galler besides, spider-man.

His villains aren't just "the bad guy" they have reasoning's for their actions, some of which are incredibly complex.

Batman also has interesting weirdo female villains who all seem to want to have sex with the Batman. Fortunately or unfortunately, none of the weirdo male villains are interested in having sex with the Batman so the Batman just beats them up.

@Eternal19: Prometheus is pretty loose as far as being a Batman villain.

This is a double post! I thought I disagreed once.

Because Batman gets all the best writers, which means there are better, and more memorable stories featuring his villains. For my money, though, the Flash has the best Rogues' Gallery.

I like the Spiderman villains too.  They are colourful and interesting and work well against Spiderman. 
It's a tough one for me because I think both Batman and Spiderman have a much greater list of famous rogues than any other superhero. 
 
For me, the clincher is with Batman.  The ventriloquist and his/her psycho puppet; Mad Hatter and his mind controlled hat as well as his alice in wonderland fixation; great white shark who operates from prison; The penguin and his ingenious megalomania along with his fancy array of umbrella weapons... need I go on. 
 
Spiderman does have some really entertaining enemies too though.  I particularly love stories with Kingpin, Shocker, Maximum Carnage, Rhino, Doc Ock and Doppelganger.

Batman villain's the best 'cause @Blood1991 said:

His villains aren't just "the bad guy" they have reasoning's for their actions, some of which are incredibly complex.

@chalkshark said:

Because Batman gets all the best writers, which means there are better, and more memorable stories featuring his villains. For my money, though, the Flash has the best Rogues' Gallery.

Spider-Man for me on a whole, though Spidey and Bats kinda run neck and neck for better rogues gallery.

@JonSmith said:

Because most other villains are just looking to kill the hero. Or beat him, or humiliate him, etc. Grodd wants to kill Flash. Luthor wants to kill Superman. Batman's villains aren't necessarily looking to do that. Joker doesn't want to kill Batman. Two-Face only half wants to do that. Mr. Freeze just wants to save his wife. Riddler wants a worthy adversary. Etc. Do they try to kill him? Yes. Do they WANT to kill him? No, not really. It's like how you'd put an ant under a magnifying glass: You don't necessarily want to kill it, you may not mean it in a meanspirited kind of way, you just want to see what it'll do when you put it through hell.

There's a reason other rogue galleries may be feared by citizens, but Batman's is feared even by other villains and heroes. When a Legion of Doom is assembled, there's a reason nobody calls a Batman villain: Fear of them. They'll call in a deranged sociopathic cannibal ape genius like Grodd. But they won't call Two-Face. They'll call in a megalomaniacal dictator wielding the most powerful weapon in the universe like Sinestro. But they won't call in Joker. Why do you think the other members of the Justice League never comment to Batman: "Hey, your villains are kind of weak." Flash's gallery is even actively made fun of, despite most of them being more powerful than Batman's. Because they know that as powerful as someone like Luthor, or Parasite is, they're predictable. Luthor will always be out to kill Superman. Parasite will always be out to gain more power. No one knows what Joker will do. No one knows what deranged riddle Edward Nigma may unleash. No one knows which side of the coin Two-Face will land on. Humanity instinctively fears the unknown, the chaos, that which can't be controlled. And there are few greater instances of that than Batman's gallery. Only here will you find a clown that can send a city into a panic with a mere chuckle. Only here will you find a box asking "What's inside?", with hundreds scared to answer. Only here will you find a man who devotion to his wife is shown in the frozen remains of those in his way. And only here will you find a man who dares to stand and defy these broken, twisted, agents of chaos.

I think that the reason they dont have those people there is because they dont need them, not because they fear them.

Well, let's give some credit to the writers for one thing. I cannot say who came up with most of the classic villains, but they obviously had some good ideas.

I think psychology plays a large role. I am not sure if it was in their original inception or in later interpretations, but almost all Batman villains are mentally damaged in some way, and that makes the both sympathetic and fairly unique.

There is also the fact that they are mostly mind opponents rather than physical opponents. Half Batman's rogue gallery could not even stand against him in a straight up fight. Since Batman is powerless, writers had to make villains formidable in a non-physical way.

Those are my thoughts.

It's not, it's just the most famous

Variety,there's a few for everyone.

@Night Thrasher:Fantastic Four? Their only villain I can think of is Doctor Doom. However I am very ignorant about the Fantastic Four, have never read one of their comics, and think that even though they're one of the three main factions of the Marvel Universe (Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four) they wouldn't even be relevant if it wasn't for FF.

@JakeN7: Doctor Doom, Galactus, Kree, Skrulls, Negative Zone, Silver Surfer, Terrax, Gabriel Air Walker, Inhumans, etc...A big chunk of the Marvel Universe originated with the Fantastic Four. The big name cosmic villains and races especially. People don't automatically associate them with the FF because they show up elsewhere so much, but most of big scale Marvel villains originated with the Fantastic Four

Street level villains have a more human evil side. we understand them better because of their history. Street level also seems to be more about taking away lives (murder) where you cosmic or Doctor Doom type is about world domination. Personally I'd rather read about trying to stop a string of murders (via Two Face, Joker, Jason Bourne like Baddie from Winter Soldier) rather than read another Kang/Lex Luthor,Doctor Doom storyline.