I've determined that Marvel has superior villains than DC
- Thread starter Norrin Radd
- Start date
Norrin Radd
Vice Admiral
This is especially the case for Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Aquaman villains. They're pretty damn weak and I'm not talking power levels, here. Flash has better villains, but compared to guys like Cap, Iron Man or Thor, nothing special. Wonder Woman's are the worst by far. Captain Marvel isn't bad when you consider he's got Black Adam.
Agreed, although at least GL has Sinestro (and Parallax, sort of) and Aquaman has Black Manta. But Wonder Woman? She has Cheetah. Cheetah's somewhat interesting but let's face it, she's basically a mutant version of Catwoman. I'd prefer seeing Diana kick the crap out of some more worthy opponents. And I see Black Adam as more of a anti-hero anyway (see Venom.)
I don't see that comparison at all. She's (if we're talking about the Minerva version, the one that's been around for the last 20+ years) is a Lara Croft-type with magic powers from a rival god.
Diana's got four villains that have some real staying power and consistency; Cheetah, Ares (or Mars; he's been the first villain in all of her origin stories), Circe (the post-Crisis version), and Doctor Psycho. Then there's a whole bunch of others, many of whom have concepts that you could really see working, but are in serious need of some attention by a writer (one of the most frustrating aspects of Heinberg's five-issue run was how he combed through several decades of comics and plucked like 15 villains from various points in her continuity who had only appeared a few times, or fallen out of use in the post-Crisis world, and then just threw them all into a single Annual; any one of them could have been revamped and reintroduced for the arc, but he just threw spaghetti at a wall).
I dispute the idea that Diana has the worst rogues of a major DC character; that clearly goes to Aquaman.
I got to go with Marvel on this one. Yeah, Batman, Superman, and perhaps the Flash have the strongest stable of villains on the DC side, but overall I think Marvel has more depth on their roster of evil.
Spider-Man and the X-Men alone have some heavy hitters, not to mention Iron Man's and Daredevil's overlooked stables, Dr. Doom, Red Skull, etc.
I also agree with the other posters that Marvel's villains, like their heroes, are more complex and interesting characters for the most part than DC.
Spider-Man and the X-Men alone have some heavy hitters, not to mention Iron Man's and Daredevil's overlooked stables, Dr. Doom, Red Skull, etc.
I also agree with the other posters that Marvel's villains, like their heroes, are more complex and interesting characters for the most part than DC.
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
But D.C. has the Legion of Doom!
Solomon Grundy want pants, too!
What I like is that Marvel's villains used to die. (Before Marvel turned to shit or whatever, and Red Skull, Green Goblin, Thanos, etc...all came back.)
Solomon Grundy want pants, too!
What I like is that Marvel's villains used to die. (Before Marvel turned to shit or whatever, and Red Skull, Green Goblin, Thanos, etc...all came back.)
With the first and the last of those, them coming back was a part of the story where they died. Heck, Thanos' whole story is about him romancing Death.
While I haven't been a fan of Marvel for a while, I do think they handle their villains far, far better.
DC benefits from a far, far longer history in pop culture (again that would be primarily Batman and Superman).
But even DC top tier villains generally bore me to tears.
I would take Doom, Magneto, Ultron over any of the top tier DC villains.
Now in the last few years DC has been attempting to develop their villains better and their has been progress, but it still isn't there yet.
DC benefits from a far, far longer history in pop culture (again that would be primarily Batman and Superman).
But even DC top tier villains generally bore me to tears.
I would take Doom, Magneto, Ultron over any of the top tier DC villains.
Now in the last few years DC has been attempting to develop their villains better and their has been progress, but it still isn't there yet.
I disagree. If I had to 'choose' Marvel or DC, DC would win because they always have the better villains. And it is the bad guy who ends of being the true measure of worth in keeping one's interest.
Marvel has some great villains - Magneto could be one for example, but not many others come to mind.
Course I think choosing one or the other is a bit silly as both Marvel and DC have their merits.
Marvel has some great villains - Magneto could be one for example, but not many others come to mind.
Course I think choosing one or the other is a bit silly as both Marvel and DC have their merits.
Not Doctor Doom.
Darkseid eats Marvel villains for lunch.
Norrin Radd
Vice Admiral
^If it was Kirby Darkseid, maybe I'd agree, but the guy's been neutered so much he's hard to take seriously now. But then again, you could say that for tons of villains, including Doom, Galactus, etc.
Anyways, you've gotta look at these guys when they were at their best, and then decide...
Anyways, you've gotta look at these guys when they were at their best, and then decide...
Actually, I don't think I've read a Darkseid story that wasn't by Kirby. Oh, I guess there's his appearance in Crisis on Infinite Earths, but he totally rocks there, too. My exposure to him is only from the original Fourth World comics and the 1990s Superman cartoon.
Eh, Kirby Darkseid frankly isn't all that special, I thought; he's nowhere near the pure malevolence that later writers assigned to him.
More broadly, Darkseid's cool, but he's a pure example of "evil for evil's sake", and there's only so far you can take that, I think. Compared to Lex Luthor or even a well-written Joker, that's very one-dimensional, not to mention Magneto or Doctor Doom.
I think the answer to that question is tied up just as much with whether or not someone is a bigger Bats or a Supes fan. Just as heroes are nothing without villains, vice versa.
