Top DC Comics Super Villain Characters: Superman

In light of The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel coming out later next year, we decided to take a look at the characters that many people choose to ignore- the villains. The villains were chosen not only on how famous they are (meaning portrayed in movies or comic books) but also just how evil they are.

Superman: Who doesn’t know about Superman? Known as the most famous comic book hero ever, Superman is known as the most famous Superman   American pop-culture icon. Almost always featured wearing his signature blue and red tights with the Superman “S” symbol, and his red cape, he is different from any other hero out there- while other heroes were born human and became superheroes, Superman was born extraordinary, rare (i.e. Superman) and created Clark Kent as a cover. (In case my English not so good, I mean that every other superhero created their superhero, meaning that the mask they wear is the superhero mask and their regular self is their . .  regular self. Superman, however, was born Superman, and his mask is Clark Kent). Superman has x-ray vision, superhuman strength and speed, sometimes flight, super hearing, super breath, and more, with variations among different comic eras. So what’s the problem? Superman’s only weakness is kryptonite, a green rock material that came from his destroyed home planet.

Lex Luthor is probably the most well known villain in the Superman universe. It doesn’t matter what movie you’re watching, like Kevin Spacey’s Lex in 2006 Superman Returns or Gene Hackman’s Lex in the Superman series- which is what Superman Returns is based on. Well, having much confidence in you to know all the things that Lex has done, I’ll stick to the comics version of his evil deeds. While there are different back stories for Luthor- like how once he was a mad scientist, or the president of the U.S. or even that he grew up being  Clark Kent’s best friend and had curly red hair- they all agree on the fact that Lex Luthor is basically the archenemy of Superman. In the early comics, he wanted to kill Superman and enslave the earth’s population. In another comic world, he becomes allies with Superman in order to defeat Brainiac, and in another version, he challenges Superman to a fight in which he kills Superman, but he *magically* came alive after Supergirl took Luthor away.

Bizarro is actually a bi-product of a bi-product. He was made by General Zod who created a duplicating ray to secure his spot in the Kryptonian hierarchy. After discovering the replicas were too willing to kill, he destroyed them and was sent to Phantom Zone. Later on, a mad scientists makes a duplication of Superboy (just what it implies, Superman as a boy) and it is discovered that the boy is child-like in nature has an evil attitude. He falls in love with Lois Lane and Lois decides to duplicate herself, and the two “bizzaros” go off to a distant planet.  Over the years, he says that he’s lonely and that he’s a monster. I actually feel sorry for him- all he wanted was a place to call home and someone to be with him! Well, he gets into trouble over time- eventually joining ranks with General Zod as his only way to escape jail. He is also (don’t forget) Superman’s reverse duplicate- so in some versions, he might have Superman’s powers, and in others, he has the opposite. Some of his reverse powers include freeze vision (since Superman has heat) and fire breath (while Superman has freezing breath) and most importantly, his weakness is blue kryptonite.

If you saw the 1970s Superman (yes, the Christopher Reeve and Marlon Brando one), you probably know at least a little about General Zod. The most common and original back story of Zod is that he was in charge of the military branch of the Kryptonian government, all while Jor-el (Superman’s dad) was a scientist.  He would then try to conquer Krypton after their moon was destroyed- all with the duplicates he had made (see Bizarro). He was later sent to Phantom Zone and gained power from staying in the sun. He continues to be a recurring enemy for Superman, since Zod is able to escape from jail and try to destroy Superman.

Darkseid is the ruler of Apokolips since he is the son of a king figure and princess, Darkseid is an enemy who just wants to conquer Earth. He has numerous soldiers with super powers in his army and is probably Superman’s most difficult enemy to beat. He is pretty much indestructible and has an Omega Beam that alternates as a weapon. He “earned” control of Apokolips after he killed his brother and stole not only the planet but also the Omega Force and Beam. He basically tried to get rid of all free will in the world and enslave the world under his command.

He killed Superman. Boom, done- amazed. Yes, Doomsday is the only villain to kill Superman (temporarily) and holds this title. He isn’t really a being but actually a freak experiment where an alien scientist on Krypton (way before Krypton existed, it was all bare and only strong creatures lived) who made a infant alien out of cells. The infant died, so the alien got the remains of the baby and made a stronger and tougher infant. This went on and on for a while, until the alien was finally satisfied- but the only problem is that after all of the deaths that modified the genes of the infant, it grew up hating life. He grew accustomed to high temperatures and lived in the atmosphere without food and was pretty much indestructible (well, he was “made” numerous times for that purpose) to anything that tried to kill him. The alien had originally used him to destroy all evil criminals on Krypton, and after a while, Doomsday did that and killed the alien as well. He later traveled to Earth where he held many wrestling fights to kill people (and accidently attracted the attention of Superman and the Justice League as well). And since he was “born” on Krypton, Doomsday had a internal instinct to kill anyone kryptonian, since he saw them as enemies. Doomsday and Superman later fought to the death in front of the Daily Planet building. At Superman’s funeral, 4 “supers” claimed to be Superman, and one of those (a Cyborg) took Doomsday’s lifeless body and strapped it to a asteroid. At the end, we ear Doomsday’s voice- as well as Superman’s.

Metallo is a cyborg who has green kryptonite in his chest- often making it difficult for superman to stop him. Since he is a Vyborg, he has superhuman strength and speed, and does not need energy from food since his body makes its own power. He sold his soul to Neron who gave him the power to asorb anything metallic or mechanical and he uses the “new technology” as weapons to his exo-skeleton. Well, Metallo never did any real damage to superman, but he does have some awesome powers which puts him on the list.