There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Villain : an article by: GF Willmetts
I commented a few months that I was researching an article about the popularity of super-villains, specially to DC Comics which has had on-going series for the Suicide Squad and my more recent discovery of their ‘Secret Six’ title, each surviving its various universes.
Marvel have had their ‘Super-Villain Team-Up’ and even the ‘Thunderbolts’ and a lot of villains with their own popularity but rarely sustained in their own right. It does get confusing when they cross sides. Villains like Doctor Doom, Deadpool, Magneto, Doctor Octopus and so forth do maintain their popularity and some thought has to be given to keep them out of prison so they recur with some credibility.
Should we even go there with the likes of ‘The Boys’ or the earlier ‘Watchmen’ where morality and what constitutes being good or bad becomes questionable as long as the job is done. Don’t forget vigilantism itself is actually a crime, hence the 1966 TV ‘Batman’ are authorised deputies to the Gotham Police Department, despite them not revealing their identities.
However, the main focus of this article is the popularity of DC Comics villains. Batman’s rogue gallery was their start. The Joker, Penguin and Catwoman were really there from the beginning, becoming instantly popular, even if its editor waited for the sales figures before using them again so it wasn’t an overnight success. They caught the readers’ imagination and wanted to see more of them so they kept coming back. Superman’s continuous villains took a while longer with the likes of Lex Luthor and Brainiac, although Mr. Mxyzptlk was a more acquired taste. The problem with Superman villains in the beginning was them not being able to beat him physically, so it was more a battle of wits. It wasn’t until much later that his creators produced enemies that could ultimately trash and even kill Superman. All Batman had was Bane, who broke his back and a retirement for a while. Mind you, that didn’t stop Barbara Gordon who switched from being Batgirl to Oracle after the Joker shot her in the back, damaging her spine. Despite all of these things, DC Comics villains still maintained their popularity. You couldn’t do anything to stop their popularity. Even Bane and he was put in the Secret Six. Granted, each generation these days, are less likely to remember a character’s past let alone which reality they belonged to or how much history belongs to each reality.
Let’s forget that for now. The Batman’s rogue gallery begat a similar one with the Barry Allen Flash in the DC Universe revival, often dominating the covers from time to time, working together. All gimmicked characters who thought they had an edge that could defeat the Flash. Any thefts were often beside the point of their activities. The likes of Green Lantern tended to have only had a couple regular villains, like Sinestro or Hector Hammond. The Legion of Super-Heroes had the Fatal Five and only their powerbase made them formidable. It sort of becomes oblationary to have a regular villain or more. In some respects, it saves time creating new characters all the time and allows a history continuity to build-up. They also have to be terminally stupid or insane to go against the same super-hero all the time. No wonder the Batman’s villains tend to end up in Arkham Asylum. Considering the number of people these insane people have killed, American law forbids their execution, you would think there would be some amendment in their reality, more so as the number of deaths add up. With each new DC Universe reality, the slate can be cleaned but their creators knew they had a marked card for readers.
The thing is, the super-heroes are caught out by their own ethics. Although looking that up, most have committed homicide at some point against extreme villains. Some, like Green Lantern/Hal Jordan, have even go over the edge into being considered super-villains themselves and he was regarded as one of the more stable super-heroes. A lot of the time, it was seen by the company as a means to introduce younger versions than consider any of them might be aging. Its also hasn’t been a good image to present to readers of a younger age. Saying that, with their filming and even with age restriction, has become a little grayer.
Even so, you do have to wonder what makes a great villain you want to see time and again and some you won’t miss if they don’t come back. A lot of the time, the villain was originally created as an adversary one-shot than a deliberate continuing character.
An interesting aspect of the 1960s DC characters is that through lack of continuity, they didn’t really develop that much. It was left to the reader’s imagination as to how much they liked them. Certainly, there was a contrast between them and the goody-goody heroes. People are always fascinated by villains. At least Wertham was wrong, readers are less likely to emulate their actions. If anything, it’s more an outlet for such feelings without doing anything about it themselves. That should hardly be surprising when you see the amount of violence in the newspapers, TV and other media out there these days, but you would also need to look at their reading habits. Most people prefer to be law-abiding because its has less fuss and we aren’t all, thankfully, homicidal maniacs.
In many respects, super-villain popularity was used constructively when it came to the Suicide Squad in 1987 onwards when the prisoners of the Belle Reve Penitentiary were coerced to join Task Force X under the command of Amanda Waller to do missions for the government that they could not ask the likes of the Justice League to do because it involved killing adversaries. Although its members have a charged explosive in their necks to prevent them absconding, they live under the promise of freedom should they complete enough missions. In many respects, it allows these characters to get a viewing without fighting super-heroes and an opportunity to remove characters periodically and have had seven volumes so far. Interestingly, Amanda Waller herself became the breakout character but, then, as she doesn’t always have a criminal record, that made things easier as she recruits beyond the prison. Not a job for the faint-hearted.
Even so, it doesn’t explain the attraction super-villains had in the first place. I’m assuming you’ve read or seen either team or various rogues galleries. The super-hero and super-team books still exist so there isn’t a loss of sales in that direction and even their fingers have been mired with blood and death from time to time. In an interview in ‘Comic Book Artist’ about the Flash’s rogues gallery, artist Carmine Infantino says he designed the villains to look interesting but no thoughts on regular uses. That could be a common denominator for a lot of the super-villains. Giving them a personality was only a bonus and blandness doesn’t sell.
The strength of any hero can be measured by the quality of their opponents and that applies away from comcbooks. Sherlock Holmes had his Morarity. James Bond his Blofeld. Writer Peter O’Donnell moved his character Modesty Blaise away from that as her opponents mostly ended up dead which breaks the pattern. There are exceptions to the rule.
With comicbooks, this could be multiplied up because there were so many stories to fill. Comicbook time is also somewhat different. Jail sentences don’t last long, hence Batman’s villains gallery tended to be insane and locked in as asylum. Some, like Lex Luthor, evolved over time, to become a rich power magnet and less likely to be imprisoned. Of course, alien villains just had to be exiled from Earth. That’s been changing over the years, so why should we not be surprised if the government employs some to go after other criminals. ‘Silence Of The Lambs’ attempted to manipulate Doctor Hannibal Lector by the FBI, although what they got back was far worse. The point I’m making that villains being manipulated to do good things isn’t unusual in fiction. In real life, ex-criminals have turned their knowledge into helping people against scams and burglaries. Contradictory to the USA’s prisoner system which doesn’t attempt to reform convicts, reformed DC super-villains tend to follow the British model.
Rather contradictory, you can’t have a bad villain. Actually, you can but really it’s the villainy that sticks. In many respects, in all media, people would want to see criminal activity but unlikely to copy it. This indicates the moral threshold is examined. It would be why there is a fascination with villains and why newspapers and media is orientated towards this even more than the victims. Bad news sales. Look at how you watch a film or TV series with that orientation and see if I’m right. We know what to expect from the heroes or protagonists far more than the villains. The surprise element has to be considered an important factor when it comes to plotting.
These days, DC super-heroes are being given an edge of unpredictability/ Not all. Superman is still the boy scout. This also might be connected to both the age group and what is acceptable today. Certainly morality has been explored since the ‘Watchmen’ maxi-series. Although Rorschach was very right-wing in his attitudes, as a vigilante he was very effective which got fan attention. He showed the dirty side of the tracks with his own form of justice. Vigilantism was changed. It certainly had an influence on Frank Miller’s ‘Dark Knight’ mini-series and a much older Batman with all his accumulated injuries. This didn’t mean a change in DC Comics ethics when it came to super-heroes but they did the right thing under certain circumstances. Whether they would have gotten away with murder, as with Wonder Woman, in a court would remain debatable.
The thing is, it opened things up for showing super-villains in a different light. The Suicide Squad were coerced to work for the government. The Secret Six were villains who turned mercenary, although even they had their own limits as to what they would do and ultimately captured when faced off with the super-heroes. Either way, popularity led to comicbook sales and, fortunately, no one has ever cited these teams or any super-villain as role models to behave like. Maybe the moral compass is still working. Popularity means we like to see the activity but only as bystanders. Just beware, charisma alone isn’t enough to like someone. If anything, its just as damning.
© GF Willmetts 2026
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