Top Ten Batman Villains
Disclaimer: Story lines change all the time and from arc to arc, so back stories may vary
#10 Solomon Grundy
Strength: 8 out of 10
Intelligence: 3 out of 10
Skill: 6 out of 10
Gimmick: He’s a ZOMBIE!!
Solomon Grundy – Cyrus Gold was a normal citizen of Gotham City at the turn of the century, but after a local prostitute got pregnant with Gold’s child and tried to extort money from him, things took a turn for the strange. After Cyrus refused, the prostitutes pimp stepped in and struck Gold with the heavy end of a shovel and buried him in Slaughter Swamp (appropriately named). Fast forward 50 years and for yet unknown reason Solomon Grundy is what wonders out of the swamp. He doesn’t remember who he is and the now zombie Supervillian is only interested in the death of Batman. As a product of his new form he also has superhuman strength, Invulnerability, and the ability to resurrect himself. Very Scary…
#9 Red Hood #2
Strength: 6 out of 10
Intelligence: 7 out of 10
Skill: 8 out of 10
Gimmick: He was Robin
Red Hood #2 – What’s worse than a resurrecting Zombie? How about someone who you use to trust turning on you? Jason Todd was Robin! More importantly he was the Robin that Joker (or rather the Batman fans) chooses to kill, or so we thought. During one of the story arcs, reality is altered and Jason Todd returns from the grave. That’s great! Batman and him can go back to fighting crime together!! Right…? WRONG! Jason is furious that Batman has done nothing to avenge his death and decides to steal the Red Hood outfit from Joker (who was the first Red Hood in certain story arcs) and take on the persona himself. Jason becomes a controlling figure in Gotham, manipulating the gangs and mobs to gain power over crime. He becomes an anti-hero who does good, but through bad means. Batman and him meet and argue over means of crime-fighting and the true meaning of good versus evil, culminating in an epic reveal when the Red Hood unveils who he really is.
#8 Mr. Freeze
Strength: 7 out of 10
Intelligence: 8 out of 10
Skill: 7 out of 10
Gimmick: Need extreme cold to live
Mr. Freeze – Staying on the same line of Anti-Heroes, we have Dr. Victor Fries. Dr. Fries was an extremely intelligent scientist when he discovered his lovely wife Nora had a fatal disease. Thinking that time would run out before he could develop a cure he attempted to cryogenically freeze her, when something went terribly wrong. Although she was successfully frozen, Victor himself suffered horrible side-effects that require his body remain at a sub-zero temperature, because of this he is forced to wear a self-made suit. Now Dr. Fries calls himself Mr. Freeze (a play on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and is bent on finding a way to cure his wife, and he will stop at nothing. Despite the fact that he sometimes come to Batman’s aid, it is often only for reasons of helping his own quest in some way, and would not hesitate to destroy the caped crusader if it too served his mission. In addition to being super intelligent, his suit also gives him super strength and decelerated aging. In the end he is a villain, but there is something poetically romantic that it’s all out of the love for his wife.
#7 The Ventriloquist and Scarface
Strength: 5 out of 10
Intelligence: 6 out of 10
Skill: 6 out of 10
Gimmick: Puppet made me do it
The Ventriloquist and Scarface – One of my personal favorites, Arnold Wesker A.K.A. The Ventriloquist has multiple personalities, or does he? His puppet is a gangster named Scarface (after Al Capone). And this is where it gets weird. Arnold is a quiet and meek man who believes himself to be under the control of his puppet. Growing up as an orphan, it is believed that Arnold repressed a lot of his deep anger which erupted in a bar fight which got him sent to Blackgate prison. There is where he found Scarface, who told Arnold to murder the current resident and the two have been inseparable since. While it is believed that Arnold is committing all the acts as some sort of release from the dark side of his personalities, Arnold himself believes he is the forced lackey of Scarface. Insert Dummy joke here.
#6 Killer Croc
Strength: 8 out of 10
Intelligence: 5 out of 10
Skill: 9 out of 10
Gimmick: He’s a Crocodile
Killer Croc – Born Waylon Jones, Killer Croc has a birth defect that not only gives him scale-like skin, but also razor-sharp claws and regenerative healing. This caused him to be bullied as a child by (of all people) his aunt. So he did what any logical person would do, he killed her and became a criminal. Over time he has lost a lot of what makes him human and has become more animal. His superhuman strength, speed, agility, stamina and senses are only matched by his extreme hatred for Batman. At one point he attempts to even back Batman’s back (again, see Bane), but fails. He knew wants nothing more than to see Batman die at his hands, and maybe even eat him. It’s also worth noting that he lives in the Gotham sewer when he is not in Arkham Asylum.
#5 The Riddler
Strength: 5 out of 10
Intelligence: 9 out of 10
Skill: 7 out of 10
Gimmick: Commits Crime in Riddles
The Riddler – His real name is Edward Nigma, a play on the word enigma which he is. There really isn’t much to Edward’s back story. He was abused by his father, which has left him a broken and half sane individual. Over that last few years he has become a much darker version of himself. He has intense obsessive compulsive disorder which manifests itself in his need to tell riddles. The basis for his hatred for Batman started off with simply trying to outwit the Dark Knight, but as attempt after attempt failed, he has grown more and more obsessed with doing so and therefore more and more dark. He is now so bent on proving that he is smarter than Batman. He has become less of a criminal and more of Batman’s stalker. It is also worth noting that The Riddler is extreme intelligent!
#4 Hugo Strange
Strength: 5 out of 10
Intelligence: 9 out of 10
Skill: 6 out of 10
Gimmick: Knows who Batman is
Hugo Strange – The key to staying a superhero is making sure that no one figures out who you really are. Well Batman failed at that (many times actually but regardless). Hugo Stranger is refered to as “the most dangerous man in the world” by Bruce Wane. Little is known of Strange’s past, other than he a psychologist, schizophrenic and chemical genius and he has a obsession with Batman. So why not tell the world who Batman is and thus eliminate the caped crusader(or at very lest cause him some trouble)? Simple, Hugo doesn’t want to destroy Batman, he wants to become Batman, often times plotting his way of take the Dark Knights place. What makes him so high on the list? Much like the Riddler, his very small connection with reality, which as time passes seems to be decreasing.
#3 Bane
Strength: 9 out of 10
Intelligence: 8 out of 10
Skill: 7 out of 10
Gimmick: Super Human Strength
Bane – What makes Bane a great villain? How about the fact that he beat Batman? Born in a prison to carry out the rest of his father’s life sentence, Bane’s life was tough right from the start. He learned from the prisoners and every book he could get his hands on everything from hand to hand combat to military tactics. By the age of 8 he had committed his first murder, with his only friend Osito, which was a little teddy bear he carried with him because it had a knife inside. In no time he was the king of the prison. The prison’s controllers took notice and used him in an experimental drug test. With injection of Venom, which almost killed him at first, Bane gained super human strength. Down side, he needs injections every 12 hours, which is why he has the tubes connected straight into his brain. Once he was able to escape the prison, he went to Gotham City, a place he had heard about in Prison. Why there? Two reasons, 1) it is run off of fear, the fear of the batman and 2) he really hates bats. No joke, he had dreams of demonic bats as a kid and sees Batman as the dreams manifestation. Once inside Gotham, it wasn’t long before he was able to get close the Batman, culminating in Bane breaking Batman’s back in one of the greatest story line ever. This caused Batman to be forced out of the cape while he recovered, passing it to Jean-Paul Valley (Azrael) for some time. Now Bane and Batman have a love/hate relationship, sometimes even helping each other. But the point was still made, and that is why Bane is one of the greatest Villains of all time.
#2 Ra’s Al Ghul
Strength: 6 out of 10
Intelligence: 9 out of 10
Skill: 9 out of 10
Gimmick: Cannot die
Ra’s Al Ghul – Born in a small tribe in Arabia some 500 or 600 years ago, Ra’s Al Ghul was a physician. He discovers the Lazarus Pit, a pool of chemicals that restore and regenerate any and all who enter it. With his new-found time he journeys the world for centuries learning how to become a skilled warrior and creating a group of assassins known as the Demon, naming himself the Demon’s head. Unlike most of the other people on the list, Ra’s Al Ghul doesn’t hate Batman, in fact he wants Batman to marry his daughter Talia and take over for him as the Head of the Demon, but in order to do so, Batman must kill Ra’s and that is the one thing Batman will not do. In some story arc’s Batman does marry Talia and they have a child together, Damian Wayne. In other’s Ra’s is killed and cremated in order to ensure he doesn’t return (he has a tendency of doing that) but his consciousness is transferred to another (his son Dusan al Ghul) and he returns anyway. Because of his continued use of the Lazarus pit, Ra’s Al Ghul has enhance strength, agility, and stamina in addition to his mastery of many different fighting styles. But the pit has also become his weakness and as a product of that or his elongated life or both he is slowly losing his grip on time and reality.
#1 Joker
Strength: 5 out of 10
Intelligence: 7 out of 10
Skill: 6 out of 10
Gimmick: Completely and Utterly Insane
Joker – His back story is the easiest to tell, because he doesn’t have one. Introduced in Batman #1 in 1940 he has been rewritten, redesigned, and recreated more times than any of Batman’s enemies and that has just added to the mystery that is the Joker. Is he a failed comedian whose wife leaves him? Is he a two-bit criminal who was dropped into a bat of chemicals? Is he the crime lord known as the Red Hood? No one knows. At one point Joker says, “I’m not exactly sure what happened. Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another… If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice.” The only this that is known for sure about the Joker is that he is completely and utterly insane. He has one goal, to cause as much death and destruction and humanly possible. He has killed Robin (Jason Todd), He has shot and paralyzed Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and he has driven his psychiatrist insane (Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel A.K.A. Harley Quinn). And as for Batman, his obsession with the Dark Knight has kept The Joker from killing him. Frank Miller depicts Joker in “The Dark Knight Returns” many years after Batman retires as a vegetable that doesn’t talk, move, or even eat on his own. It’s only after the Bat comes back that Joker begins to find a reason to awake again. In his mind, his life is meaningless without Batman. This is shown even in the popular movie adaptation, “The Dark Knight” when the late Heather Ledge who plays the Joker in the movie says to Batman, “I don’t want to kill you! What would I do without you?!” In the end Joker’s attraction transcends time; he is the crying clown, the lovable villain, and the funny tragedy. He is there every time we laugh at someone falling down, or secretly wish for someone else to fail. In the end Joker himself said it best in the famous “Batman: The Killing Joke”, “Any man can have one really bad day and end up just like me.”
Honorable Mention
Hush
Strength: 6 out of 10
Intelligence: 8 out of 10
Skill: 7 out of 10
Gimmick: Bruce Wayne’s opposite
Hush – Picture Batman. Now reverse it. Thomas “Tommy” Elliot was born to a rich family, much like Bruce Wayne. They were even friends growing up. However that is where the stories turn in opposite directions. Tommy’s Father was not the loving father that Bruce had, instead he was abusive and his mother was willing to do nothing about it. So Tommy cut the brake line on his parent’s car and sent them over the side of a cliff. His father died instantly. However Thomas Wayne (Bruce’s father) was able to perform emergency surgery on Tommy’s mother which saved her life. She would eventually succumb to cancer. Twisted in the head, Tommy blamed the Wayne family and become jealous of the “good fortune” they had. His goal now is simple, complete destruction of both Bruce Wayne and Batman. Now called Hush, he possesses a genius level of intelligence and is a skilled plastic surgeon, although his specializes in brain surgery. In some story arc’s he has even made himself to look like Bruce Wayne in order to deceive people and aid in the destruction of the Wayne family.
~Oberon Sexton
