The best of the worst: TV’s 25 greatest supervillains
Any true fan knows a superhero show is only as good as its villain. So here's to those evil Big Bads, from Batman's many foils to Daredevil's biggest nemesis.
TV Lists Kilgrave
Supervillains might seem like a big-screen phenomenon at first blush, but there’s a long history of great villains on superhero TV shows, too, going all the way back to the original Batman live-action series in 1966. That show threw down a gauntlet in terms of Big Bad performances that would be unmatched on the small screen for decades. Even now, in the golden age of television, big-screen stars tend to get all the credit. And sure, Thanos is an all-time great villain, but so are Kilgrave from Jessica Jones, Kingpin from Daredevil, and the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series, to name just a few. In fact, TV gives these baddies a distinct advantage over their film counterparts, because there’s so much more time to explore their twisted and sometimes tragic backstories. Which means there’s a lot more time for them to get under our skin, too. Read on to see who made our list of the best of the worst.
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Homelander needs to be #1
I love Kingpin (Hawkeye aside) and am a huge Vincent D’Onofrio fan, but I am putting Homelander and Antony Starr at #1.
There should be a place on this list for The Master (Doctor Who).
Is Doctor Who a superhero show though? I guess there’s an argument to be made, but it never read that way to me.
Doctor Who fits all of the requirements for superhero.
The Doctor has regenerative powers, a “magic” screwdriver, and a time-travelling phone-box — and has saved the Earth (and the Universe) multiple times. I think that should count as being a superhero.
I feel like either Clancy Brown’s rightly celebrated JLU Lex Luthor or John Shea’s criminally underrated Lois & Clark Lex Luthor should be somewhere on the list, but I can’t decide where.
I can only hear his growl when I think of Lex. Apologies to Michael Rosenbaum, who’s a lovely guy.
Rosenbaum-as-Flash-as-Lex is one of my favourite moments in all of animated TV.
Without a doubt. Plus that line reading: “I have no idea who this is.” LOL
Clancy Brown’s Lex is just as definitive and important as Hamill’s joker. Incredibly well written, amazing performance, lots of layers, and had a slow burn from ruthless CEO to full on silver age style supervillain. It was an incredible amount of character growth over 3 different series. For a lot of people (and kids) this was their first introduction to Lex in his “evil CEO” incarnation, as popular media prior to that was still rooted in the version from the Donner movies and Superfriends.
His near-refusal to ever call Supes anything but “the alien” always made me happy.
This list needs:- Logan Roy (Succession)
– Arthur Mitchell/Trinity Killer (Dexter)
– Livia Soprano (The Sopranos)
– Marlo Stanfield (The Wire)
– Lorne Malvo (Fargo)
– Joffrey Baratheon (Game of Thrones)
– Gus Fring (Breaking Bad)
Seriously, your list has too many network TV comic book villains that are now so unnuanced and cartoonish, it’s hard to take them seriously. Mr. Freeze? The Penguin? Deathstroke? Get real.
Also, what’s your beef with premium cable? There are zero villains from HBO shows. Did they not offer to pay you guys enough or something?
Happy to see Grant Ward here. One of the best aspects of AoS. Him returning as a hero within the Framework was gutting.
A comic book villain has a turn as a hero? Shocking.
Ignoring your condescension, it was more that his virtual recreation was genuinely the hero they had initially assumed him to be in “real life.” And at various points the avatar version was told that he was evil irl and was devastated at this, so much so that it motivated his tragic end.
Agent Beefchest McGreatVillain.(People that were around for the AoS reviews know what this means)
I remember that gag. I was one of the ones that got really tired of it really fast.
Me too.
someone didn’t watch super crooks which is supposed to have a live version come out. a cartoon show about villians from the Jupiter’s Legacy live show. Anyways a bunch of super crooks decided to rob the baddest villian of them all (the Bastard) who has the same power as that one lady from the boys has, the ability to kill someone by exploding their head.
I always really liked The Flash’s Zoom. From the moment he shows up he just covers the series in a wave of ominous dread. Barry goes into their first fight full of arrogance, and Zoom just flattens it.
And don’t forget, the only way Barry could defeat him was to run faster than he’d ever run before.
Oh look, another prompt for an actual list.
First off, The Monarch is a terrible supervillain, WHICH IS THE POINT OF HIS GODDAMN CHARACTER. He’s bad at being bad. If we’re going for a good supervillain from Venture Brothers, there are definitely more to choose from. The Sovereign? Red Death? Wide Wale?
Second, this list doesn’t include Rita Repulsa? Come on, this is amateur hour.
Red Death is SO awesome
Clancy Brown brings his A game to every role.
Did I miss Neal McDonough’s Damian Darhk? He wasn’t all that during his first go round on Season 4 of Arrow. But as soon as he started chewing scenery with Matt Letcher (the best Eobard) and John Barrowman on Legends of Tomorrow he became maybe the most delightfully entertaining villain from the CWverse.
The character only ever works because McDonough is clearly having such a blast literally every time he’s on screen.
Like every role he plays. That man is a national treasure.
You can tell this is a comics-based TV show villains list because it doesn’t even include Mark Hamill’s best villain role.
What is it?
Jim the vampire?
Not a traditional villain, but the antagonist, Jack Mcgee from the Incredible Hulk tv show is my pick. Played to perfection by Jack Colvin, that dogged reporter was an unstoppable thorn in Banner’s side.
This list is irrelevant without any mention of The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight (yeah baby!)
I wanna tell you you’re wrong, but I can’t, baby,’cause you’re not!
Bad is good, baby! Down with government!
I have never heard of this and I absolutely LOVE it.
Baby.
The Tick animated series was quite good. Unfortunately Saban has insisted on sitting on the rights to all characters that were created for the show (including this guy) so they can’t be used in the comics or any subsequent series.
Saban himself is a notorious fucking dickbag.
Fuck Saban. Dude is dedicated to making substandard schlock and should be stripped of all holdings.
100% him baby!
Montgomery Burns, The SimpsonsJ.R. Ewing, DallasAlexis Colby, Dynasty
Your definition of “superhero tv shows” is a broad and unusual one, my friend.
Would Dr. Who count? I mean, The Doctor has regenerative powers, a “magic” screwdriver, and a time-travelling phone-box. I say it counts, which means that “The Master” should be on this list.
If DC’s ‘Rip Hunter, Time Master’ can count, so can Dr. Who.
Just going by the headline: The best of the worst: TV’s 25 greatest supervillains
Ah, neat. I was going by the page’s title:
https://www.avclub.com/the-best-villains-from-superhero-tv-shows-1850826550
(I like that we’re both right)
TV’s greatest supervillian? You guessed it! Frank Stallone.
Or so the Germans would have us believe.
Greg Berlanti wrote this article.
Stargirl’s top three villains were fucking scary. Icicle, Brain Wave, and Season 2’s Eclipso … Cindy Burman maybe takes third. The show had a deep bench of baddies that it established surprisingly fast.
It’s a shame the list doesn’t mention how Alan Tudyk left Doom Patrol after the second season to go voice both Joker *and* Clayface in the Harley Quinn HBO animated series cause he absolutely kills it in both roles (there was even a funny little meta-gag referencing his departure in Doom Patrol S3). Don’t get me wrong, Mark Hamill will forever be the definitive voice of Joker in my book (especially after the incredible performances he put in for Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham games), but damned if Alan Tudyk doesn’t give him a run for his money.
I agree. I think John “Voice of Jake the Dog” DiMaggio’s one-off turn was memorable as well.
David Tennant going from Doctor Who to Broadchurch to Jessica Jones is just marvelous. He has incredible range.
Don’t forget Crowley in Good Omens.
A list of best villains that doesn’t have Mojo Jojo? It is not a good list. It’s a list that isn’t good. It’s a list that needs Mooooojo Jojo!
Are there only like 6 shows to choose from in this category? No love for John Shea’s Luthor on Lois & Clark, or Mahershala Ali on Luke Cage? I’m sure there’s gotta be others… I enjoyed Arrow as much as the next person, but I have a hard time swallowing that they make a list of the best TV supervillains three times.
No Protoclown? Joe Stalin? The Terror? Uncle Creamy? This list is invalid
I’m glad that Alan Tudyk is on this list, but he was better in another role: Alpha on Dollhouse. Jacked up, terrifying, and tormented. I had been mostly aware of him in his more comic roles up to that point, and WOW!
Deep pull. I feel like we’re aiming for a new slideshow of Alan’s asskickinging. I nominate any consecutive 30 seconds of him in Resident Alien.
Vandal Savage from Young Justice. The human counterpart to Darkseid, he was utterly ruthless and calculating. The man sank Atlantis and killed 99.99% of the people that lived there, just so that the people that survived could colonize the ocean floor. He was Genghis Kahn, Marduk, and Sun Tzu. He beats speedsters, mind-controls Batman, and wields the frigging Warworld. Give the father of metahumans his due.
You’re a bastich for not including the MAIN MAN!!
If we’re gonna talk about Reverse Flash it should be mentioned Matt Letscher played him nearly as much as Cavanagh, and did just as good a job too.
Luthor in JLU and Superman the animated deserves to be on the list. He was the best Luthor ever.
Man, I recently rewatched Daredevil and D’onofrio’s Kingpin is a rough hang. He does an amazing job in S1, and his bit in S2 is small enough to not be distracting. But seriously every time he appears in the last season, which is always, I was gritting my teeth and waiting for the scene to end. What was a nuanced and terrifying performance gave way to overacted, over-enuciating cartoonishness that didn’t fit the tone of the show at all.
No love for the Borg queen? Cylons?
No Chairface? What a list.For my money, the ‘super’ part is debatable, but Wyndham Earle gave me chills on Twin Peaks.