Most Iconic Comic Book Villains

The Joker is the greatest comic book villain ever created, Batman's perfect opposite number, a force of pure chaos whose unknowable origin makes him more terrifying than any superhuman threat.

Magneto is one of comics' most morally complex villains, a Holocaust survivor whose hatred of human oppression is entirely understandable even when his methods are monstrous.

Doctor Doom is Marvel's most regal villain, a genius sorcerer and scientist who rules his own nation and genuinely believes he is more qualified to rule the world than anyone else.

Thanos is Marvel's ultimate cosmic villain, a nihilistic philosopher whose obsession with death and balance makes him the most dangerous being in the universe.

Darkseid is DC's ultimate villain, a god of evil who seeks the Anti-Life Equation to end all free will, and whose mere existence casts a shadow over the entire DC universe.

Lex Luthor is the human villain who proves that the greatest threat to Superman is not power but intelligence and ego, a self-made man who despises everything a god represents.