DC villains are pretty tough in the movies, but big-screen baddies don't come anywhere close to matching the sheer power depicted in the comics. From metahumans to multiverse-ending threats, this is our ranking of some of DC's most formidable bad guys.
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00:00DC villains are pretty tough in the movies, but big-screen baddies don't come anywhere
00:05close to matching the sheer power depicted in the comics.
00:08From meta-humans to multiverse-ending threats, this is our ranking of some of DC's most formidable
00:13bad guys.
00:15With a name like Vandal Savage, you know this supervillain means business.
00:18An immortal warlord anywhere between 50,000 to 1 million years old, Savage has had a lot
00:23of identities over the years.
00:25Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Vlad the Impaler, and Jack the Ripper
00:30are just a few of his many names.
00:31He's even claimed to be the biblical Cain, who killed his brother Abel and became the
00:35first murderer in the process.
00:37A Golden Age supervillain who first appeared in 1943's Green Lantern Number 10, Savage
00:42was granted immortality by a passing meteorite before devoting his never-ending life to war
00:47and conquest.
00:48He has honed his superhuman skills in combat and weaponry over the course of centuries,
00:52making him one of the first known meta-humans and one of the most dangerous villains on
00:56Earth at any given point in the timeline.
00:58Savage's mission to conquer the world has made him a deadly foe for DC's heroes in the
01:02past, the present, and the future.
01:04While he certainly isn't the only immortal villain to face off against the Justice League,
01:08Savage's world-hopping origins and connections to some of history's greatest monsters give
01:12him a sinister edge.
01:14It's not wise to mess with Mother Nature.
01:16Just ask anyone in Gotham City who has dared to cross Poison Ivy.
01:20One of the most iconic supervillains in Batman's rogues gallery, Poison Ivy started her life
01:24as the brilliant botanist Dr. Pamela Eiseley, and after a scientific experiment involving
01:29plant toxins went sideways, Eiseley gained the ability to control people's minds using
01:33pheromones.
01:34That's powerful enough on its own, but what truly makes Poison Ivy dangerous is her connection
01:38with a powerful elemental force known as the Green.
01:41This mystical link grants her complete control over Earth's plant life, enabling her to rapidly
01:46grow and animate plants to use against her enemies however she sees fit.
01:50You're getting to be a real thorn in my side, Batman.
01:55And you're no rose, Poison Ivy.
01:59Poison Ivy has frequently been depicted as an eco-terrorist driven to destroy humanity,
02:03or at the very least, to make humankind pay for the damage they have inflicted on the
02:07planet.
02:08Recently, though, Poison Ivy has embraced the more complex role of anti-heroine, thanks
02:12in part to her romantic relationship with Harley Quinn.
02:14Even when she uses her powers in Batman Vol. 3, Number 43, to control the minds of everyone
02:19on Earth, Superman included, Poison Ivy decides to save the world rather than let her plants
02:24overrun it.
02:25All of this makes her one of the more sympathetic DC villains that happens to have apocalyptic
02:29abilities.
02:31The Reverse Flash may not be the number one most powerful villain in DC's lineup, but
02:35he's definitely the number one hater.
02:36The speedster who also uses the names Eobard Thawne and Professor Zoom has a single, unshakable
02:42goal — to destroy the life of the second Flash, Barry Allen.
02:45Hailing from the distant future, Thawne sought to recreate the accident that gave Barry his
02:49superpowers, eventually generating the negative speed force in the process.
02:53His ability to harness the extra-dimensional negative energy field allows him to travel
02:57through time and alter reality to suit his evil whims.
03:00As the Reverse Flash, Thawne is naturally the Flash's greatest nemesis.
03:03Thawne is behind every tragedy in Barry Allen's life, using his powers to rip his rival's
03:08existence to shreds.
03:09In one timeline, depicted in The Flash, number 275, he kills Barry's wife, Iris.
03:14In another, as depicted in The Flash Rebirth, Thawne kills Barry's mother, Nora, and frames
03:18his father for the crime for good measure.
03:21Reverse Flash has become a kind of living time paradox, deliberately altering history
03:24for his own personal gain, while trapped in an endless loop of antagonism with the Flash.
03:29His abuse of his tremendous time travel powers, combined with his staggeringly cruel, single-minded
03:34hatred of his arch-enemy, make him one of DC's most fiendish villains.
03:38Fight in his way, and he'll change history so you were never even born.
03:41"...Enjoy your petty little victories, Flash.
03:45But no matter how fast you run, you can't save everyone."
03:50One of the most controversial villains in the DC Universe, Superboy Prime is a dark
03:53and violent variant of Superman.
03:55His story is a tragic one.
03:57Superboy Prime was an eager young hero before the Anti-Monitor obliterated his homeworld,
04:01Earthprime, in the Crisis on Infinite Earths event.
04:04During the Crisis, Superboy Prime was a multiversal refugee living in a paradise dimension, but
04:09the loss of his family in Earthprime drove him to madness.
04:12In the limited series Infinite Crisis, Superboy Prime uses his Kryptonian strength to break
04:17the barrier between worlds.
04:19What follows is a rampage that ends with the deaths of several heroes, including the mainstream
04:23DC Universe's Superboy, Connor Kent.
04:25Not even Superman's traditional weaknesses, like magic and kryptonite, seem to be able
04:29to stop him.
04:30Superboy Prime was a persistent threat to the Teen Titans and the Justice League during
04:34his time in the spotlight, but he's best remembered for his so-called retcon punch.
04:39During Infinite Crisis, it's established that Superboy Prime's punches are so powerful that
04:43they can literally tear the fabric of the DC Universe, resulting in timeline changes.
04:48Of course, this was a way for writers and readers alike to blame anything they didn't
04:51like in DC Comics on Superboy Prime.
04:54You definitely wouldn't want to find yourself on the receiving end of one of his reality
04:57rewriting attacks.
04:59Just mentioning the name Parallax will elicit an emotional reaction from many DC fans, which
05:04is fitting for an ancient entity representing fear in the galaxy.
05:07When Parallax was first named in the Emerald Twilight storyline in 1994, he was believed
05:12to be Hal Jordan, a once-great Green Lantern driven to despair after the destruction of
05:17his beloved Coast City.
05:18Embracing the supervillain name Parallax, Jordan slaughtered the Green Lantern Corps,
05:22in which was a tragic yet historic DC event.
05:25That single atrocity warrants a spot on this list, but Parallax's true identity is more
05:29complex than that.
05:30Published between 2004 and 2005, the six-issue limited series Green Lantern Rebirth revealed
05:36that Parallax was a cosmic parasite once imprisoned by the Green Lantern Corps.
05:40In fact, Parallax is actually the reason why the Green Lantern Corps are famously weak
05:44against the color yellow.
05:46The embodiment of the power of fear, Parallax would go on to possess The Flash and Green
05:49Lantern Kyle Rayner as well.
05:51Any living creature susceptible to fear is vulnerable to Parallax's mind control powers
05:56and solid, light constructs.
05:57Its evil influence has no limit.
05:59Parallax is the ultimate power source for the Sinestro Corps, who use their yellow power
06:03rings to spread fear and terror throughout the universe.
06:06With this weapon, I can fulfill my true purpose.
06:11I can wipe the universe clean and create a newer, better one.
06:16Forget the Bat Family and the Super Family, the Endless are the most powerful family unit
06:21in the DC Universe, and it's not close.
06:23As embodiments of cosmic forces, the seven siblings Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction,
06:28Desire, Despair, and Delirium are billions of years old.
06:31Unlike gods, they will continue to exist forever even if no one believes in them.
06:35While most humans naturally fear death or destruction, Desire of the Endless is actually
06:40the cruelest and most capricious of the lot.
06:42It's Desire's personal belief that all mortals exist to be their personal playthings.
06:47Their eons-long feud with their brother, Dream, nearly destroyed the world.
06:50As revealed in The Sandman number 16, Desire manipulated events so that their granddaughter,
06:55Rose Walker, would become a Vortex, a being with the power to collapse the walls between
06:59the minds of every living Dreamer and destroy the fabric of reality.
07:03Thankfully, Desire's elaborate plan to trick Dream into killing Rose failed, with the fate
07:07of the universe seemingly inconsequential to the vain immortal.
07:11As the personification of need itself, with the ability to bestow love and take it away,
07:15Desire wields enormous power over the DC Universe.
07:18It's perhaps only their self-absorbed nature that prevents them from becoming a more active
07:23threat, something that every superhero should be thankful for.
07:26Created by the legendary Jack Kirby to be the DC Universe's God of Evil, Darkseid is
07:31one of the most iconic villains in comic book history.
07:33The ruler of the grim planet Apokolips is an iron-willed, stone-faced tyrant who commands
07:38vast armies of parademons, fires destructive Omega Beams from his eyes, and has raised
07:43wells in his quest to find the mysterious Anti-Life Equation.
07:46A persistent arch-enemy of Superman, the Justice League, and the New Gods of New Genesis, Darkseid's
07:51goal is to eliminate all free will and hold supreme power over the universe.
07:55It's his hope that possessing the Equation will make this possible.
07:58You are now the instrument of my will.
08:02Darkseid finally unleashes the Anti-Life Equation in the seven-issue crossover event Final Crisis.
08:08With this, the villain is able to control the minds of nearly everyone on Earth and
08:11turn the planet into a doomsday singularity that risks ripping apart time and space.
08:16Although Superman and a specially constructed miracle machine ultimately save Earth, Darkseid
08:21drives one of DC's greatest heroes to do the unthinkable.
08:24While trying to stop him, Batman shoots Darkseid with a gun loaded with a special Radeon bullet,
08:29thus breaking his oath to never use the weapon that killed his parents.
08:32It's one of the few times that Batman has gone back on his biggest rule, and Darkseid
08:36personally makes sure that he pays for it dearly.
08:40In a world of gods and monsters, Trigon is as evil as Satan himself, though he shouldn't
08:44be mistaken for the actual devil.
08:46Trigon's origins are similarly mythical.
08:48According to the 1982 four-issue limited series Tales of the New Teen Titans, he was born
08:53after the peaceful mystics of Azeroth attempted to exorcise their darkest emotions and urges.
08:58Trigon is an interdimensional demon of immeasurable power who has wiped out countless civilizations.
09:03He's also a strong candidate for the worst dad in DC history, siring multiple children
09:08across eons in order to extend the reach of his evil empire.
09:11One of Trigon's hundreds of children is the half-human superhero Raven, who forms the
09:15New Teen Titans in order to thwart her father's conquest of Earth.
09:18She's spent her life fighting his demonic influence on her soul.
09:22You survive only because I allow it.
09:25What hope can a mere child have of defeating her all-powerful father?
09:30But Trigon is way more than a bad dad.
09:33He represents the evil that lurks deep within the hearts of mankind, and that's what makes
09:37him especially terrifying.
09:39Just like in the real world, one of the most frightening and powerful villains in the DC
09:43universe is Death itself.
09:44The skeletal, scythe-wielding Necron rules over the Land of the Unliving and is one of
09:48several personifications of Death in DC lore.
09:51With his powers of necromancy, he repeatedly crosses dimensions to battle the Green Lantern
09:55Corps, becoming a threat to all life in the cosmos by producing the Black Power Rings.
10:00In the crossover event Blackest Night, Necron imprisons the Anti-Monitor as a power source
10:04and resurrects deceased heroes and villains as undead Black Lanterns.
10:08He even revives heroes' loved ones, just so he can torment them further.
10:11It's all incredibly bleak, and it's only possible because of Necron's sheer power.
10:16Necron even has some zombified A-listers in his ranks here, as dead versions of Green
10:20Arrow, Wonder Woman, and even Superman are all brought back as Black Lanterns.
10:24Necron's evil plans are derailed when Hal Jordan bonds with a cosmic life entity to
10:28become a White Lantern, and he uses his newfound power to condemn Necron back to the Land of
10:32the Unliving.
10:33But can Death ever truly be defeated?
10:36If this was a ranking of DC villains based on kill count alone, then the Anti-Monitor
10:40would easily conquer the number one spot.
10:42The antagonist of this seminal Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline, the Anti-Monitor destroyed
10:46the entirety of the DC multiverse, killing innumerable worlds and their inhabitants in
10:50the process.
10:51A cosmic entity from the Anti-Matter universe, the Anti-Monitor exists in opposition to his
10:55brother from the Positive Matter universe, the Monitor.
10:58The Anti-Monitor has the power to release a universe-annihilating Anti-Matter waves,
11:02feeding on the energy of their destruction.
11:04When encased in his armored suit of full power, the Anti-Monitor has near unlimited strength
11:08and energy, at least enough to kill Supergirl and Barry Allen.
11:11When the Anti-Monitor attempted to alter the course of history by traveling to the beginning
11:15of time, it took the combined power of the universe's remaining heroes and villains,
11:19and a punch into a star by Superman of Earth-2, to end the Anti-Monitor's threat.
11:23Although DC's heroes have since faced other world-shattering crisis events, the horrors
11:27committed by the Anti-Monitor in Crisis on Infinite Earths will never be forgotten.
11:31As far as we're concerned, there's only one DC villain who is even more powerful.
11:35Ultimately, the most powerful supervillain in the DC universe is the godlike entity who
11:40created it.
11:41Perpetua is the Super Celestial, a nigh-omnipotent being who shaped the first incarnation of
11:45the multiverse with the Big Bang.
11:47After this, Perpetua was meant to die and return her energy to the cosmos, but she refused,
11:52instead overseeing the now-unstable multiverse.
11:54As the immortal mother of the Monitor and Anti-Monitor, Perpetua is the definitive
11:58instigator of the Crisis on Infinite Earths and the other catastrophic crisis events that
12:03followed.
12:04Perpetua is empowered by destructive crisis energy, enabling her to destroy realities
12:07and alter the universe at will.
12:09In 2020's Dark Knights Death Metal, Perpetua battled the Justice League head-on, joining
12:14forces with a sinister Batman variant called the Batman Who Laughs to reshape the multiverse
12:19and establish evil as the natural order.
12:21Perpetua was only destroyed after the Batman Who Laughs betrayed her and drained her crisis
12:25energy in a cosmic door.
12:26But even after her defeat, her impact on DC history cannot be overstated.
12:31As far as the DC Universe is concerned, one might say that Perpetua is the mother of all
12:35evil.