Superman Villains who should be brought back from obscurity

[scary harpy]

what about original villains from the 60s cartoons?

Seconded. 10 characters

[scary harpy]

• Toyman
• Prankster
• Puzzler
• J. Wilbur Wolfingham
• Humpty Dumpty, the Hobby Robber
• other golden age foes

Nightwing should inherit these foes; they would present him with more of a challenge than Superman.

[Clark_Kent]

Thinking about it more, I think Rebirth has provided an excellent opportunity to create new villains for him to fight, as well as bringing back old foes. A lot of his rogues weren’t fan favorites after 1 or 2 appearances, they became that way due to the writers trotting them out every now & then. I’m even fine with many of them being from space, as long as they aren’t here for world domination / invasion all the time. I used to enjoy the ones who came looking for a fight just because of Superman’s reputation, the guys who just wanted to see how tough he was.

The problem with Superman rogues, though, is most of them won’t support the (now pretty) standard 6-issue plot. If Toyman shows up, you miiiight get a 2-parter out of him, but if it goes further than that then Superman looks weak. Most of his rogues, and even the kind I suggested above, really only work for single issue appearances here & there. That’s one of the reasons why the Triangle era worked so well...sure, Toyman might pop up but the bad guy was often secondary to whatever the “main” story thread was at the time. So although the villain was weaker than Superman, the writers didn’t have to pad out his appearance. There was plenty of other things to fill the issue with. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work today with the trade model they use, so I’m not sure how a lot of these guys would work now.

[Adekis]

Thinking about it more, I think Rebirth has provided an excellent opportunity to create new villains for him to fight, as well as bringing back old foes. A lot of his rogues weren’t fan favorites after 1 or 2 appearances, they became that way due to the writers trotting them out every now & then. I’m even fine with many of them being from space, as long as they aren’t here for world domination / invasion all the time. I used to enjoy the ones who came looking for a fight just because of Superman’s reputation, the guys who just wanted to see how tough he was.

The problem with Superman rogues, though, is most of them won’t support the (now pretty) standard 6-issue plot. If Toyman shows up, you miiiight get a 2-parter out of him, but if it goes further than that then Superman looks weak. Most of his rogues, and even the kind I suggested above, really only work for single issue appearances here & there. That’s one of the reasons why the Triangle era worked so well...sure, Toyman might pop up but the bad guy was often secondary to whatever the “main” story thread was at the time. So although the villain was weaker than Superman, the writers didn’t have to pad out his appearance. There was plenty of other things to fill the issue with. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work today with the trade model they use, so I’m not sure how a lot of these guys would work now.

I'm definitely on board with that. Superman evolved for a differently-run industry. Maybe finding a way to bring back his minor foes in the midst of bigger plots could be a good way to counteract that. Of course the longer-form stories from the Triangle era might not be the zeitgeist today, but I think that a more trade-focused take on some of these guys might still work out pretty well.