Best/Worst Rogues Gallery
 

Ok, nerds. It's time to nerd it up with a discussion of the wonderful world of comic book bad guys. Let's get it started with which "hero" you would consider to have the greatest rogues gallery of all time? Who has had a really pathetic collection of villains?

Batman.

I'm not a big Batman fan, but he definitely has the best rogues gallery.

Joker
Mad Hatter
The Riddler
The Penguin
Two-Face
Catwoman
Scarecrow
Ra's Al Ghul
Black Mask
Clayface
Killer Croc
Hush
Man-Bat
Ventriloquist
Bane

Batman. Thats pretty much it. :)

Batman, and its not even close. After that, maybe Spider-Man (Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Sandman, Kraven, Hobgoblin, Venom, Shocker, Vulture, Mysterio, Lizard, Scorpion, et al), X-Men (if you count all the evil/tweener mutants).

Worst, I don't know. I suppose to be fair you have to only count established and long-running heroes. Aquaman's main arch-enemy is Black Manta ... from there it just gets worse to guys like The Fisherman and the Ocean Master. Most major superheroes have at least someone decent for their #1, even if the rogues gallery doesn't have much depth.But Aquaman doesn't seem to even have that.

Batman definitely has the best. Frank Miller proved that with his take on The Joker, Catwoman and Two-Face among others.

I always thought Superman had a weak cast. Metallo, Brainiac, Terra-Man, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and so forth never struck me as viable threats. Then again, I'm more acquainted with pre-Crisis Superman than the latest reboot(s).

worst : The Punisher. I love the Punisher, but his best adversaries are borrowed from other marvel 'heros' : Kingpin, Bullseye, Jigsaw. There is The Russian, but I don't think he's a Punisher original either.

Post-crisis massively toned down Superman's powers, and made the villain threats much more believable. I think Supes probably has the 2nd best rogues gallery of the DC heroes (but sill far behind Batman, and Marvel's Spidey and X-Men). You left out the main man: Lex Luthor. Post-crisis Braniac is a much more serious villain -- not just a goofy green alien in tights whose power is just being smart and carrying a ray gun. Then there's Darkseid. And Bizarro. And General Zod. Mxyz is can be decent when written well, for a change of pace story. Add to that Metallo, Parasite, Toyman, Mongul, Doomsday. A strong group, both for powers and characters.

Iron Man has a horrible rogue's gallery.

Good point. Fing Fang Foom, Captain America, and alcohol. :)

Iron Man's rogues are pretty weak. Most heroes have at least ONE major archenemy, but he seems to just have a few second rate chumps like Mandarin, Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, Spymaster, Ghost, and Blizzard.

Hulk doesn't have that many good ones either, aside from the Leader and Abomination. I guess you could count the US Army as one.

Captain America at least has a MAJOR baddie in Red Skull, but past that he has Crossbones, Batroc the Leaper, and ummmmm Scourge?

Id say Winter Soldier is a good one for Cap, as well as Red Hood/Jason Todd, adding to Batmans impressive list.

I don't know what you guys are smoking that makes you say Iron Man has a bad Rogues Gallery, but I want some. Mandarin a second-rate chump? Sure, maybe if you only started reading comics when Joe Quesada was writing Iron Man. For 35 years, he was one of the heavy hitters in the Marvel Universe. Titanium Man and Crimson Dynamo are great, Spymaster a perfect foil for a millionaire industrialist, the Ghost has one of the best visuals in comics. To say nothing of Justin Hammer and his army of goons -- goons like Blacklash, Blizzard, Melter, and Constrictor -- and Obadiah Stane.

Batman's Rogues Gallery is good, but let's not exagerate. You're listing Bane and Killer Croc and Hush and Black Mask as examples of good rogues? Why not throw Mr. Zsasz on the list and be done with it.

For Captain America, don't forget MODOK, Flag Smasher, the Serpent Society, AIM, Hydra, and Baron Blood. But I do agree that Cap's Rogues Gallery isn't what it should be. Back in the olden days, it would have been great if they had pitted him against the Red Guardian more often -- Red Guardian could have made a great foe for Cap.

The other great Rogues Gallery that surprisingly hasn't been mentioned is the Flash. the Trickster, Heat Wave, Captain Cold, Gorilla Grodd, Abra Kadabra, Mirror Master, the Reverse Flash, the Pied Piper, Captain Boomerang, the Weather Wizard -- I mean, come on, people! This is the group of villains that literally defined the term "Rogues Gallery!"

But overall, I have to give my vote to Spider-Man. He's had his share of clunkers over the years (Grizzly? Man Mountain Marko?), but he's contributed four marquee villains (Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Kingpin and Venom) and a ton of other top-tier villains (Vulture, Lizard, Scorpion, Chameleon, Electro, Sandman, Kraven, Rhino, Mysterio, Jackal, Carion, Tarantula, Hobgoblin, Tombstone, and the list goes on).

I don't know why, but Mandarin has just never done anything for me. The rings are cool and everything, but take those away and he's about as wack as the Yellow Claw. I also appreciate guys like Blacklash and Blizzard, but they never really amounted to much aside from hired goons. I do really like the Living Laser though.

I'll tell you who had a great rogues gallery...G.I. Joe! Cobra Commander, Destro, Storm Shadow, Zartan, Major Bludd, Baroness, Dreadnoks, Tomax/Xamot, Serpentor, and one badass Saw-Viper!

YES! With Cobra Commander as your main villian, you may as well close the thread now!

Keep in mind that includes Captain Morgan, Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, and Jose Cuervo.

Fanastic 4 has a great villians (despite the Fan 4 themselves being kinda bla) . Dr Doom is the grandaddy of all villians, plus Galactus, and .... well thats 2 awesome ones.

First thing I thought of when I saw the title. I think I still have some 1970s Flash issues that have a "Rogues Gallery" cover.

FF has an under-rated Rogue's Gallery. Sure, there's Dr. Doom and Galactus (and all his heralds), but you can go deeper that that.

Mole Man has an army of zombie-like servants. That is awesome.

The Red Ghost hangs around with three super-powered apes. What could be cooler than that.

Plus, you've got Super Skrull, the Mad Thinker, Maximus, Annihilus, Psycho-Man, the Frightful Four, the Puppet Master, and Klaw, to name a few. That's a pretty solid bunch.

I'll go with Batman too, but the Ventriloquist and Scarface are the DUMBEST bad guys ever. Or should I say they're the dumbest gad guys ever?

Somebody hasn't read the latest issue of Detective Comics. :p

I like the Ventriloquist. I think that's a character with a good, unique gimmick.

I have to go with Spider-Man's over Batman's, I just think there's more variety to them.
Worst? I'll actually go with the X-Men. Outside Magneto, nobody impressive to me. Vanisher? The Blob? Mr. Sinister? Apocalypse? The good ones they turn into "heroes" anyway (Sabretooth, Juggernaut)

Last I read

Batman eeks out the Flash and Spider for best rogues gallery, barely.

The reason why both of their collective rogues are so strong is how well they're integrated into the "worlds" of their characters. They all also have quite a few rogues that are very much quality. Other heroes have great arch nemesisisis like the FF, Supes, and Daredevil, but things get thin once you get out of the main 2-5 villains. You can go pretty deep into Bats, Spidey, or Flash's rogues and still be impressed.

Kyle Rayner has the worst rogues gallery ever. He doesn't even have one!

In the most recent Detective Comics