Marvel

Dr doom

Magneto

Thanos

green goblin

Doc ock

Loki (is he still a villain?)

DC

Joker

er uh

Darkseid?

Yeah this is how I see things marvel most the most villains that seem to top DC I mean did any of you see the last poll nobody but the joker and darkseid won

Its that or... Joker and darkseid are so well love they outshine the others... What do you think?

i think this is largely true. And the reason has to come down to DCs superheroes themselves. Remember, at least originally, DCs heroes were shining paragons of goodness, they were never meant to lose, or lose for long. They have mostly stupid villains. literally and designed that way stupid. The villains that aren't stupid are the ones people have grown to like. The Joker, Catwoman, Darkseid (sure), Lex Luthor, Harley Quinn (though she's an extension of Joker's popularity), these characters moved the spotlight, perhaps unintentionally away from their hero opposites.

Marvel on the other hand has flawed, realistic heroes, which means we get, generally, equally flawed and realistic villains. Sure some of them are as 2 dimensional as anything DC produces... think MOST of Spider-Man's villains... but by and large Marvel's villains have better, more relatable motivations. Some of them - Apocalypse, Thanos, Dr Doom - are the typical big cheese super-dooper-mega-villain types. All the Marvel heroes have at least one of those. But even these have layer upon layer of complexity to fuel their motivations. DCs villains exist to be defeated. And they always are. (well lets say 99% of the time). Marvel's heroes are there to achieve their own goals (and this is true of the DC heroes listed above). That they fight heroes who oppose them is almost incidental. Marvel's heroes also often lose to their enemies. And though ultimately they usually rise up to overcome... there have been several times where the Heroes of the piece lose - and indeed "die."

Then there are the Magneto's and Loki's of the piece. The sympathetic "villains" and the ones we love in spite of their villainy. And no, Loki isn't a villain. He is however, Thor's main antagonist... which casts him in that role. As a God of Mischief, Loki does exactly what he's supposed to... with style, panache and just a hint of tongue-in-cheek humor.

While it's all subjective, you're severely underrating DC's gallery of villains.

Darkseid, Joker, Lex Luthor, Ra's al Ghul, Deathstroke, the Rogues, Dr. Sivana, Bizarro, Zod, Brainiac, Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, Bane, the Penguin, etc. the list goes on and on.

Sure popluarity might be the case.

But DC have great villians as well. Popularity isnt the major factor but how well it is used. Most fans always choose Batman and Superman´s related things because they are the most popular and usually dont go far from thoose heroes. Even as member of Trinity, Wonder Woman doesnt have much popularity compare with some heroes. DC has great villains like

Young Justice had Cheshire, Lex Luthor, Black Manta and Manta (Kalduram)

Arrow has Deathstroke and League of Assassins

Teen Titans had Deathstroke, HIVE, Fearsome Five

Superman had Lex Luthor

Lex and Joker>> All Marvel villains.

@the_stegman: I don't understand the popularity of Joker.

@maccyd: Yet, he's still more popular than any Marvel villain.

• Amazo
• Zolomon
• Ares
• Circe
• Mongul
• Parallax
• Despero
• Thawne
• Doomsday
• Black Adam
• Deathstroke

Couldn't help but notice you mentioned only the Marvel villains that have been on the big screen. As for the poll - Loki>everyone. A dude who's very name conjures up images of someone who's loved by guys and drops panties quicker than the eye can see. Hate to shatter this illusion for you but *spoiler alert* Polls ARE popularity contests. Shh don't tell anyone.

@the_stegman:

Joker maybe but Luthor no. I've personally never found him all that interesting.

The majority isn't always right.

@master_of_suprise: Do you think Batman is interesting? If yes, Lex is a relatable version of Batman.

Honestly, the question boils down to a nother DC vs Marvel debate. If you prefer one as a company, you're gonna gravitate more toward their villains as well, neither is really that much greater than the other. For every Doctor Doom you have a Lex Luthor, for every Green Goblin, a Joker, for every Spidey Rogue, you have a Flash Rogue or Batman Rogue. For Thanos, there's a Darkseid, for Loki, there's an Ares. etc etc.

It all depends on who's writing them......

This. So much this.

This topic cannot be done on a company vs company basis as both companies have so many great stand out villains and also so many 1 dimensional "we need somebody for him to hit this week" guys. It would be more productive to look at the villains that are liked and figure out what makes a villain well received. A villain's success is not dependent on a characters powers but, as Judasnixon said, on how they are written. Doesn't really matter what their power-set is or how campy their gimmick is as long as they are portrayed well in their medium.

Case in point is Sportsmaster from the Young Justice TV series.

@lifeofvibe: Not even marvel likes it's villains that's why their heroes fight each other.

I think DC has 2 out of 3 when it comes to the biggest, most recognizable rogues galleries.

1. Batman
2. Spider-Man
3. Superman

Those are the top rogues galleries, and to most people, probably in that order. Me, im a sucker for Superman's rogues, but I can see why it usually falls out in this order. Marvel has some of the best, most recognizable individual villains, but before the movies, the general public likely couldnt name a single villain for some of Marvel's biggest characters.

Regular people probably couldnt name a villain for Hulk or Iron Man. Other than maybe Red Skull, most people couldnt name a villain for Cap. Nobody knew any Thor villains, and other than Loki, i doubt anyone knows any now haha.

Batman's rogues gallery is more well known to popular culture than the entire cacophony of villains in the Marvel Universe. Spider-Man may have as good a rogue's gallery, but most people would not know them.

@jaken7: Its probably due to the 90s cartoon and the generation we live in, but a lot of people know Spidey villains, and even have a favorite.

DC's got Joker and Lex...Marvel's got Doom and Magneto...ehhhhh...

Some of them, but not most of the staples. Shocker? Boomerang? Spider-Slayer? Kraven the Hunter? Carnage? Mysterio? Vulture? etc.

I mean, if it's not a Goblin, Venom, Doc Ock, Sandman, or Lizard then forget about it.

I'm omitting Electro and Rhino because currently they're pop culture unknowns, but they'll be household names when Amazing Spider-Man 2 comes out.

That damn 90's cartoon (was awesome, lol). I'm sure people still think Kingpin is mainly a Spider-Man villain (although in all fairness he and Daredevil basically share Rogue's galleries).

subjectivity.

Pretty much what OP said. Yeah, I have a bunch of Marvel villains I like (Galactus is my fave), but not many DC villains because I don't know much about many outside Batman's rogues galleries (except Lex, Darkseid, Deathstroke, and Sinestro). If only DC would focus more on exposing non-Batman things, maybe I could appreciate some of the other villains. Can someone tell me who their favorite non-Batman DC villains are so I can look into them and see how epic they are?

Personally my favorite is Lex Luthor but I'm just going to start typing others and see how far we can get. Here we go:

Vandal Savage

Cheetah

Braniac

Amanda Waller (Grey I know but any chance I have to include her in anything I do :D)

Anti-Monitor

Black Adam

General Zod

Bizzarro

Black Manta (Fun fact, first villain to kill a hero's family member)

Deathstroke

Sinestro

Mirror Master

Captain Cold (Heck, just put all of Flash's rogues here)

Mister Mxyzptlk

Zoom

Ares

Catwoman

Circe

Trigon

I gotta go now so stopping here.

I like both of their villains but always gravitated towards Marvel's more

Lex Luthor, The Joker, Darkseid, Captain Cold, Deathstroke, Black Adam, Bane, Brainiac, R'as , Sinestro, Zod; that is all.

Ultron > Every villain.

@irs: Thanks. I'll be looking into these characters.

I personally think that the villains of Marvel are its driving force. The X-Men would be nowhere without Magneto. The Fantastic Four can be downright boring without Dr. Doom. Spider-Man has one of the best, if not the best, rogue's galleries in comics. The Avengers, Hulk and Captain America all have iconic adversaries that continue to pose bigger and more epic threats. The heroes of Marvel are iconic and all, but the villains are the real reason we read Marvel books. I can even make the argument that the most iconic and copied villain in existence is a Marvel villain in Galactus. Not only because they're cool, but also because a lot of the villains in Marvel can be as relatable as the series protagonist.

DC has iconic antagonists as well. But, in my opinion, The depth of the well at Marvel is deeper than at DC.

I believe Marvel and Dc Villains are quite about the same but, Marvel has the best Villains.

Everyone I know knows Vulture and Rhino also.

Nobody likes Doomsday?

@hyiena: some do

P.s I had no idea my thread took off until now

@devilsgrin81: this is exactly what I was trying to say marvels villians all (almost) have complex layer apon layer well designed characters and there are so many of them

Dc has these characters if were going by what you said there

Joker

Harley Quinn

Ras al ghul

Catwoman

Sinestro

Pinguin

dc does have more but they dont care to let those shine some of the ones ive haven't had there time to shine either oh wel l...

Marvel has better villains imo

Absolutely. Even though DC has interesting villains too.

Fail thread.

This.....

Marvels villains are better because their heroes are weaker. Because with DC main villains, they always lose.

Ex: Lex Luthor will always lose to superman

Joker will always lose to batman

We dont care about the other villains because they have the same concept, they always lose simply because they arent the main character

Marvel has good villains because they can actually get the win, most of the heroes have at one point been dead. Marvel has two types of villains, ones that are threats and ones that are hired threats. The threats, like doom, have powerful stories that rival the heroes morals etc. the hired threats, or muscle, often referred to as jobbers are those who are inserted for fight scenes. Theats have stories while jobbers often dont. Who has a great origin story, magneto, whomdoesnt have an origin story worthwhile, batroc the leaper.

With DC they use their characters for whatever purpose suits them, they can jobber or be threat depending on the writer. (Jobberseid or Darkseid?)

@lifeofvibe:

please don't be a flamer. I hate to see people arguing of fictional things. its stupid.

There was a man whom was a strong believer in God, and desired to spread his beliefs. He went to a church to spread his word, but found the men had already shared the same view as he, and was met with nothing but agreement. He turned to the scientist of the town, and was met with quite the opposite. Questioning of his beliefs was all the man recieved, with not an answer to give. When the man finally thought of a response, he shot the exact questions back. The scientist had but the same dilemma of having not an answer to give. Both stood dumbfounded, until the man left to return to the church, to continue preaching his word to the only men who would only agree. Once he had left, the scientist continued to work entirely unfazed.

Paraphrasing an old parable. In short, it's an opinion, and your statement is being made amongst a demographic that is more likely to agree with you than challenge you. Had the initial post not been oozing with ignorance, I might have taken it seriously. It's a subjective matter, my opinion, along with anyone else's will be solely their opinion, and bias in favor of whichever universe's villains they're more knowledgable of and familiar with.

I believe they're both tied.

@lifeofvibe: Fanboy much?

Just because you don't like or know of any good villains doesn't mean that DC have none. Joker and Darkseid are very popular, but there are plenty of great villains in the DC rogue gallery:

- Lex Luthor

- Sinestro

- Professor Zoom/Reverse Flash

- Two-Face

- Doomsday

- Deathstroke

- Bizarro

- Harley Quinn

- Cheetah

- The Anti-Monitor

...among many more. DC have a brilliant selection of both heroes and villains, as does Marvel, so don't be a fanboy - they're both great companies.

LOL, Marvel has better villians?

Imperiex. Zoom. Doomsday. Deathstroke.

I agree.

Beata

Marvel certainly has more iconic villains, and always has. As for villain quality, that is completely subjective, but popularity is a reflection of success.

@superdrummer: who's more iconic than joker?

Both are awesome.