Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
Spider-Man's rogues gallery is definitely not the best. There's not much thematic depth and variety. Like there aren't any good female villains whereas Batman has Poison Ivy, Catwoman, Talia al Ghul, Lady Shiva. Black Cat isn't half as good a character as Selina Kyle of which she is a ripoff.

Scarecrow in terms of the whole trickster/illusionist thing is a far superior villain to Mysterio whose full potential is rarely utilized and when it is, it's often to make him like Scarecrow anyway, such as that trick in Old Man Logan where he gaslights Logan into killing the X-Men. Sandman isn't as good as Clayface is. Clayface being a washed up actor and a merge of different other Clayfaces has the personality to go with being a shape-shifting freak whereas Flint Marko is a two-bit thug and moron, and with an ugly civilian design (that stupid green striped T-Shirt).

If you compare head-to-head and counterpart to counterpart it's debatable to call any Spider-Man villain the best version of that character archetype. Green Goblin isn't as good as Joker, Dr. Octopus isn't as good as Dr. Doom, Luthor, or Dr. Sivana to list some of the most iconic and important mad scientists. And comics historians will argue that The Octopus from Eisner's The Spirit (who inspired Miller's Kingpin) is the best villain called Octopus in comics history.

I guess you could say Kingpin is the best mobster supervillain but then it's debatable if Kingpin is a great Spider-Man villain. Because the version of Kingpin that is great is the one Frank Miller wrote into Daredevil. The Pre-Miller Daredevil Kingpin in Spider-Man comics, i.e. Sydney Greenstreet in the L-R era isn't all that special, and Post-Daredevil, Kingpin's most prominent stories in 616 Spider-Man such as "Read 'Em in Weep" and Back in Black involve Spider-Man humiliating him thoroughly. Ultimate Spider-Man had a great Kingpin story in "Learning Curve" but that was still Miller's Kingpin in a Spider-Man story. I mean we can say Juggernaut is a great Spider-Man villain, or Firelord if we go by that.



Well Captain Cold is a minor villain in the scheme of things.



Mole Man, Namor, Puppetmaster, Annihilus, Molecule Man, The Mad Thinker. Dr. Doom, Galactus, Mole Man, Annihilus are the best versions of their character archetype. Dr. Doom is the greatest mad scientist and ruler-of-state as supervillain in comics, directly inspiring Potus Luthor and Norman's time as head of hammer or Mayor Fisk. Mole Man is the ultimate subterranean villain, so iconic that The Incredibles parodied him with the Underminer. And Annihilus and the Negative Zone are the most iconic interdimensional threats.
I think a lot of this is about subjective opinion.

One big factor for whether villains are good is the quality of stories. This is largely subjective as well, although we can also look at whether stories are acclaimed as a counterpoint (IE- lists of great stories from elsewhere).

With the Fantastic Four villains, there are multiple great stories with Galactus, and Doctor Doom. And a handful with the Skrulls.

Mole Man may be the most iconic subterranean villain, but what are his truly great stories? What are the great stories where Molecule Man is the main villain? Annihilus' highlight is probably when the Annihilation event where someone else is the bad guy.

There are similar issues with some of the bar-villains listed as all time greats. What are the great Clayface and Lady Shiva stories?

As for archtypes, Mysterio's focus on illusions gives greater variety than Scarecrow's focus on fear (that focus works great for Scarecrow but they're different.) The Lizard is probably the most iconic of his type of villain, the supporting cast member who becomes a monster on occasion. Harry Osborn is probably the greatest of the legacy bad guys. J. Jonah Jameson is the greatest media figure in comics.