What would be considered Batman’s “core” rogues gallery

[DreamsReallyDoComeTrue125]

First of all, hi, glad to be here. I am currently writing fanfiction of both Marvel and DC Universes and trying to make coherent narrative out of both, and make an overarching story with a beginning, middle, and end. I want to include the best of the best of the comics, movies, shows, video games, etc. I am autistic, and superheroes are one of my obsessions.

I also need to constrain myself so my ambition won’t overreach it’s grasp. Which means limiting the amount of superheroes and supervillains to fit the story, while still making it feel like a universe. One of the toughest characters to decide what I should keep or not in regards to lore is my favorite superhero of all time, Batman.

Batman has arguably the greatest rogues gallery in not just comic books, but pop culture history. That’s what makes it hard to decide which villains I include in my saga. I can include more than a movie can, but not literally every single Batman villain. I will include any number of villains between 10-20. So I want to ask, which Batman villains should I include? Which ones are the most important, which ones antagonize Batman the best, which come to your mind when you think of Batman’s rogues gallery, and which have made their mark in the cultural lexicon?

[godisawesome]

I’m going to organize mine a bit, to kind of point out where various niches can be filled without overlap.

“Big 3 Gothamites” - the baseline human criminals who can be big damn deals or more mundane threats, and who kind of can’t be skipped:
1. Joker - the Arch-nemesis and most spiteful villain with the biggest flair for the dramatic, but in the complete opposite way from Batman himself.
2. Two-Face - the most tragic personal nemesis who Bruce feels for as a fried who broke in a more understandable way, but an utterly remorseless and straight ahead (but not dumb) walking rampage against an unjust world.
3. Riddler - the most cerebral opponent, but also a genuine rival for information and mystery investigations, and the one who expends the most effort to try and pretend he’s sane.

“Demigods of crime” - the super-powered foes who still tend to work as basic villains, but could be major, terrifying threats if you want them to.
4. Poison Ivy - a literal force of nature and would be wrath of Mother Earth, who Bruce tries to contain more than anything else.
5. Mister Freeze - ice-cold fury and vengeance personified, who’s the one Batman knows was provoked the worst, but must stop.
6. Clayface - a mix of various fun plot twists and special effects challenges, though one who’s personality is often up to the creator.

“World’s Most Wanted” - the blockbuster-sized international threats who leans more towards James Bond-esque plots.
7. Talia - the most dangerous ex-girlfriend in history, who wants to rule the world, and doesn’t really bother with excuses.
8. Ra’s Al Ghul - would-be father figure to Bruce, who masks a capricious tyrannical impulse behind self-righteous excuses.
9. Bane - the barbarian conqueror to Bruce’s guardian knight, with a “pure” rivalry it’s Bruce that has a weird understanding beneath the antipathy.

“The Usual Suspects” - criminals who are fixtures of Gotham City who Batman must usually tolerate for various reason.
10. Catwoman - a de facto ally from the other side of the law, but also the number one suspect if anything goes missing, defining the on-again, off-again, frienemies-with-benefits relationship they have.
11. Penguin - “the devil you know” that acts a consistent source of information but also a persistent financier of crime.
12. Harley Quinn - chaos in pigtails, but one that occasionally targets Joker, calms down Ivy, and is more likely to cause annoyance than emergencies.

[Frontier]

I’m going to organize mine a bit, to kind of point out where various niches can be filled without overlap.

“Big 3 Gothamites” - the baseline human criminals who can be big damn deals or more mundane threats, and who kind of can’t be skipped:
1. Joker - the Arch-nemesis and most spiteful villain with the biggest flair for the dramatic, but in the complete opposite way from Batman himself.
2. Two-Face - the most tragic personal nemesis who Bruce feels for as a fried who broke in a more understandable way, but an utterly remorseless and straight ahead (but not dumb) walking rampage against an unjust world.
3. Riddler - the most cerebral opponent, but also a genuine rival for information and mystery investigations, and the one who expends the most effort to try and pretend he’s sane.

“Demigods of crime” - the super-powered foes who still tend to work as basic villains, but could be major, terrifying threats if you want them to.
4. Poison Ivy - a literal force of nature and would be wrath of Mother Earth, who Bruce tries to contain more than anything else.
5. Mister Freeze - ice-cold fury and vengeance personified, who’s the one Batman knows was provoked the worst, but must stop.
6. Clayface - a mix of various fun plot twists and special effects challenges, though one who’s personality is often up to the creator.

“World’s Most Wanted” - the blockbuster-sized international threats who leans more towards James Bond-esque plots.
7. Talia - the most dangerous ex-girlfriend in history, who wants to rule the world, and doesn’t really bother with excuses.
8. Ra’s Al Ghul - would-be father figure to Bruce, who masks a capricious tyrannical impulse behind self-righteous excuses.
9. Bane - the barbarian conqueror to Bruce’s guardian knight, with a “pure” rivalry it’s Bruce that has a weird understanding beneath the antipathy.

“The Usual Suspects” - criminals who are fixtures of Gotham City who Batman must usually tolerate for various reason.
10. Catwoman - a de facto ally from the other side of the law, but also the number one suspect if anything goes missing, defining the on-again, off-again, frienemies-with-benefits relationship they have.
11. Penguin - “the devil you know” that acts a consistent source of information but also a persistent financier of crime.
12. Harley Quinn - chaos in pigtails, but one that occasionally targets Joker, calms down Ivy, and is more likely to cause annoyance than emergencies.

I think collectively the Big Three are Joker, Ra's and you could probably alternate between Two-Face/Bane/Riddler but Bane would probably inch out purely because of Knightfall and no other villain other than Joker or Ra's has that same impact or consistent popularity.

[DreamsReallyDoComeTrue125]

IÂ’m going to organize mine a bit, to kind of point out where various niches can be filled without overlap.

“Big 3 Gothamites” - the baseline human criminals who can be big damn deals or more mundane threats, and who kind of can’t be skipped:
1. Joker - the Arch-nemesis and most spiteful villain with the biggest flair for the dramatic, but in the complete opposite way from Batman himself.
2. Two-Face - the most tragic personal nemesis who Bruce feels for as a fried who broke in a more understandable way, but an utterly remorseless and straight ahead (but not dumb) walking rampage against an unjust world.
3. Riddler - the most cerebral opponent, but also a genuine rival for information and mystery investigations, and the one who expends the most effort to try and pretend heÂ’s sane.

“Demigods of crime” - the super-powered foes who still tend to work as basic villains, but could be major, terrifying threats if you want them to.
4. Poison Ivy - a literal force of nature and would be wrath of Mother Earth, who Bruce tries to contain more than anything else.
5. Mister Freeze - ice-cold fury and vengeance personified, whoÂ’s the one Batman knows was provoked the worst, but must stop.
6. Clayface - a mix of various fun plot twists and special effects challenges, though one whoÂ’s personality is often up to the creator.

“World’s Most Wanted” - the blockbuster-sized international threats who leans more towards James Bond-esque plots.
7. Talia - the most dangerous ex-girlfriend in history, who wants to rule the world, and doesnÂ’t really bother with excuses.
8. RaÂ’s Al Ghul - would-be father figure to Bruce, who masks a capricious tyrannical impulse behind self-righteous excuses.
9. Bane - the barbarian conqueror to Bruce’s guardian knight, with a “pure” rivalry it’s Bruce that has a weird understanding beneath the antipathy.

“The Usual Suspects” - criminals who are fixtures of Gotham City who Batman must usually tolerate for various reason.
10. Catwoman - a de facto ally from the other side of the law, but also the number one suspect if anything goes missing, defining the on-again, off-again, frienemies-with-benefits relationship they have.
11. Penguin - “the devil you know” that acts a consistent source of information but also a persistent financier of crime.
12. Harley Quinn - chaos in pigtails, but one that occasionally targets Joker, calms down Ivy, and is more likely to cause annoyance than emergencies.

Holy great analysis Batman. Thank you so much for the suggestion. My only follow up is that can you replace Harley and Talia with a few different villains. Not because I dislike them or anything, FAR from it, and I will absolutely include them in my story. I only ask because Harley and Talia, unlike the other villains, are dependent on two of the other aforementioned characters (Joker and RaÂ’s) for their character development unlike the others. And I just have a feeling a couple villains are missing, but I canÂ’t put my finger on it.

Other than that, you gave me an absolutely awesome answer. Take care.

[Confuzzled]

Holy great analysis Batman. Thank you so much for the suggestion. My only follow up is that can you replace Harley and Talia with a few different villains. Not because I dislike them or anything, FAR from it, and I will absolutely include them in my story. I only ask because Harley and Talia, unlike the other villains, are dependent on two of the other aforementioned characters (Joker and RaÂ’s) for their character development unlike the others. And I just have a feeling a couple villains are missing, but I canÂ’t put my finger on it.

Other than that, you gave me an absolutely awesome answer. Take care.

The thing with Talia is, she doesn't necessarily need Ra's to work as a character. A small reminder that she debuted before her father in the comics (just a month earlier but still), and Ra's debut story was titled Daughter of the Demon. As it was 1971, the creators chose to make Ra's the leader of the League of Assassins instead of Talia and have him search for her consort to be his male heir, but if the Al Ghuls were created in the 2010s, it's possible Talia would have been established as Ra's heiress, if not already running League operations and searching for a partner in Bruce.

In a nutshell, Ra's is equally expendable as Talia and both are on the same footing. It just depends on who you decide to go with as the League leader for your story.

[Multiverse]

If you're gonna condense it down, I say choose from the Golden Age Rogues Gallery:

Hugo Strange, Joker, Catwoman, Clayface, Scarecrow, Penguin, Two-Face, Mad Hatter and Riddler.

[Little_Mac]

Holy great analysis Batman. Thank you so much for the suggestion. My only follow up is that can you replace Harley and Talia with a few different villains. Not because I dislike them or anything, FAR from it, and I will absolutely include them in my story. I only ask because Harley and Talia, unlike the other villains, are dependent on two of the other aforementioned characters (Joker and RaÂ’s) for their character development unlike the others. And I just have a feeling a couple villains are missing, but I canÂ’t put my finger on it.

Other than that, you gave me an absolutely awesome answer. Take care.

You're missing the Gotham Mafia. Batman can handle the costumed foes, but there is no one who really commits normal, street level crime. So, you might want to include the Falcone and/or Maroni families. That will allow you to connect stories together.

Maybe Hush/Black Mask if you want to deal with high society Gotham Crime.