Best Batman villains? (besides the Joker)

[Blue3]

Best Batman villains? (besides the Joker)



I try to think about this regarding these factors:
- how evil?
- how powerful?
- how interesting/"fun"?
- how do they affect the main hero emotionally/personally?
- how sympathetic?

[Mr. Smith]

Hugo Strange is very underrated and of course, how can you forget Joe Chill, who started it all?

[Progressive Pessimist]

I always thought Two-Face, when done right (i.e. not Tommy Lee Jones), is the best contrast to Batman. And I really hope we see a version of him in a 'The Batman' sequel. It seems likely since the DA position is open.

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

I know there's Gotham, but I really wanna see a big-screen portrayal of Mad Hatter

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

It really depends on the version/writer

[Greedo punched first]

Mr. Freeze

[Landslide Lyndon]

I loved Danny DeVito's Penguin and (of course) Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman.

[Blue3]

I feel like the Penguin should be lower, and both Poison Ivy and Clayface should be higher.

Poison Ivy is both fun-sociopathic-evil, and her views somewhat justified if driven to an insane extreme.

Clayface is just great for horror, and very dangerous.

[MABA 2020]

Calendar Man

[strangerinthealps]

Calendar Man

Presumably the serial killer version from The Long Halloween?

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

Hugo Strange is very underrated

I feel like if TPTB insist on doing on a villain that hasn't been adapted yet on the big screen, he should be it. He would fit well into the Pattinson Batman series.

[MABA 2020]

Calendar Man

Presumably the serial killer version from The Long Halloween?

I actually was just being glib by naming a relatively obscure and lame Batman villain, though I suppose Calendar Man in The Long Halloween isn't lame.

A actual serious answer would be Mr Freeze or Two Face, it's difficult cos Batman has a lot of villains you could make a strong case for.

[strangerinthealps]

Calendar Man

Presumably the serial killer version from The Long Halloween?

I actually was just being glib by naming a relatively obscure and lame Batman villain, though I suppose Calendar Man in The Long Halloween isn't lame.

A actual serious answer would be Mr Freeze or Two Face, it's difficult cos Batman has a lot of villains you could make a strong case for.

Apart from the Joker, the best Batman villains, to me, are all anti-heroes.
- Mister Freeze (when done properly)
- The Mad Hatter
- Clayface

Man-Bat is also really strong in a Universal Movie Monster way, despite his name.

Plus, Cat-Woman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are all full blown heroes now.

I really love the interplay between Batman and Damien Wayne, as he provides a fantastic foil for Batman and what he stands for...

There was a really cool elseworld version of the Red Hood who was the Joker. Basically, the Justice League were all villains, and the Joker was that world's Batman; dropped in chemicals and completely nuts, but good.

[gerritcole]

The Joker isn't a villain he's a co protagonist

[Agonized-Statism]

Really loved Hugo Strange and Ra's al Ghul in Arkham City because they were a rare case of the villains being to Batman's right and the story not being essentially fascist propaganda. Even better, it's a pro-prison abolition story where the useful idiot Strange is betrayed by his foreign conservative guru- it shows that they eat their own. Ditto for Lock-Up, a rare instance of Batman looking in a mirror and being horrified.

Scarecrow is neat, because Batman is deeply afraid and insecure and that's a great way to get at him. Penguin is respectable in an Al Capone sort of way because he's just a businessman doing business and he's willing to roll up his sleeves to do it, unlike Batman who's a self-righteous maniac with annoying plot armor holding Gotham hostage and intentionally perpetuating and exacerbating its problems to make himself feel good. He could just take out the mass murdering supervillains once and for all, ditch the rodent-themed jackboots and rubber gloves (because God forbid he touches one of the poors), move out of his white flight manor, and actually live among and invest in the lumpenproletariat and the city he supposedly loves so much. It'd be great if he put as much effort into cleaning up Gotham as he does drafting plans to take out his allies in the Justice League or somehow getting away with adopting young boys of the same physical description who always seem to end up dying. But no, he needs to keep playing pretend as the bodies pile up and the Gotham economy continues to deteriorate. And this is the part of the story where I'd be captured by the Joker or something in the middle of my legitimate criticism of Batman, "proving him right". The villains almost seem like the attack dogs of the Batman regime.

Clayface is just great for horror, and very dangerous.

The Preston Payne version is creepy as hell, especially Grant Morrison's take. Yet another reason I would rather be protected by the Punisher.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The Joker isn't a villain he's a co protagonist

Being a villain and a protagonist isn't a contradiction, it merely means that he's a villain protagonist (as a opposed to a hero protagonist, hero antagonist, and villain antagonist).

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VillainProtagonist

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Scarecrow, hands down. Catwoman strikes me as being more of an anti-hero rather than an outright villain, tbh.