Which DC Hero/Group has the best Rogues?

[BatmanJones]

There are some JLA-specific villains like Amos Fortune, Kanjar-Ro, Despero, Starro, the Key, Dr. Destiny, Professor Ivo, Amazo, Royal Flush Gang, both Queen Bees, Starbreaker, Weapons Master, Injustice Gang, Injustice League, Legion of Doom, Secret Society of Super-Villains, the Cadre, the Extremists...

I love me some Dr. Destiny! I'd add Dr. Light, Eclipso, and Shaggy Man too. I'm also personally fond of Mark Shaw/Manhunter/Privateer/Star Tsar.

My team rankings (leaving out LoSH because I haven't read enough)...

1. JLA
2. JSA
3. Teen Titans (OG and NTT)
4. Doom Patrol
5. New Gods
6. Outsiders

[Bito Wladon]

For me it'd have to be:
1) Batman
2) Flash
3) Green Lantern.
I feel like the Earth Villains are being unfairly discounted when some of them make the most interesting issues of GL comics. Sure Goldface is kinda boring but a lot of the others have interesting personalities and dynamics with Hal specifically and sometimes the other Lanterns.
Like Doctor Polaris with his good side and evil side, who knows Hal's secret identity and it's pretty clear in his early comics that Hal cares about the Neal Emerson side of him, with Neal referring to him as a friend and Doctor Polaris calling him a former friend even as he plans to hurt Hal's other loved ones. My favorite series of issues for him, which are honestly my favorite Hal issues too, are Volume 2 #133-134, where Polaris steals Hal's ring and leaves him stranded at the North Pole, but the entire time they interact you can feel a palpable sense of respect from Polaris towards Hal, which I don't feel ever happens with Sinestro.
Or Sonar (who is honestly my favorite GL villain, sorry) who along with being one of the funnier villains, seems like more of a friendly enemy, to the point that he goes to Hal's funeral.
Black Hand is honestly more interesting since Geoff Johns did what he did to him, but I always found him one of the less interesting villains before.
Honestly it's a little disappointing that none of the Earth Villains are really allowed to appear in Green Lantern comics anymore, or interact with Hal if they do appear. But at the same time I would never try to put Sonar in a more serious issue, he's more of a comic relief villain to me, and doesn't work as anything else. But I think if a writer could make a good balance between time spent on Earth and in space all of the Lantern Villains would be able to shine.

[El_Gato]

Third this. I'd say Batman, Flash, and Superman are the only properties that have really strong rogues' galleries.

Leaving out teams, here are my rankings for the top 10...

1. Batman
2. Flash
3. Superman
4. Green Lantern
5. "Shazam" (I hate calling him that)
6. Wonder Woman
7. Aquaman
8. Green Arrow
9. The Atom
10. Hawkman

There's your list. Our top 3 are the same so atleast we agree there. The rest is different though, but I get your reasoning.

I put Wonder Woman ahead of Green Lantern because her big foes are more appealing to me than GL's. Cheetah, Ares, Circe, Giganta, Psycho and Cale are some good villains.

As for Shazam and Aquaman, I feel they're pretty much on par with one another. Both have a great villain (Black Adam vs Black Manta), a decent villain (Dr Sivana vs Ocean Master) and one with potential (King Shark vs Mr Mind) but then it's a steep drop off.

Lastly, I feel Firestorm and Blue Beetle have a stronger rogues gallery than Green Arrow, Atom and Hawkman. The latter group doesn't have a Killer Frost or Black Beetle equivalent.

[BatmanJones]

There's your list. Our top 3 are the same so atleast we agree there. The rest is different though, but I get your reasoning.

I put Wonder Woman ahead of Green Lantern because her big foes are more appealing to me than GL's. Cheetah, Ares, Circe, Giganta, Psycho and Cale are some good villains.

As for Shazam and Aquaman, I feel they're pretty much on par with one another. Both have a great villain (Black Adam vs Black Manta), a decent villain (Dr Sivana vs Ocean Master) and one with potential (King Shark vs Mr Mind) but then it's a steep drop off.

Lastly, I feel Firestorm and Blue Beetle have a stronger rogues gallery than Green Arrow, Atom and Hawkman. The latter group doesn't have a Killer Frost or Black Beetle equivalent.

I don't disagree with you. It's a matter of personal taste and also of me having read so many comics in the 70s-80s when the villains that fought GA (Count Vertigo, Clock King), Atom (Floronic Man, Chronos), Hawkman (Shadow Thief, Gentleman Ghost) were much more significant than they are today.

Firestorm was a major omission for me and probably belongs in the 8 spot. Not disagreeing about Blue Beetle. I just haven't read much of the Jaime Reyes version so I only know his villains from YJ. Black Beetle is a great villain on YJ. I wouldn't know how he fares in the comics. I did love the Madmen that fought Ted Kord though.

[El_Gato]

I don't disagree with you. It's a matter of personal taste and also of me having read so many comics in the 70s-80s when the villains that fought GA (Count Vertigo, Clock King), Atom (Floronic Man, Chronos), Hawkman (Shadow Thief, Gentleman Ghost) were much more significant than they are today.

Firestorm was a major omission for me and probably belongs in the 8 spot. Not disagreeing about Blue Beetle. I just haven't read much of the Jaime Reyes version so I only know his villains from YJ. Black Beetle is a great villain on YJ. I wouldn't know how he fares in the comics. I did love the Madmen that fought Ted Kord though.

Yup. Sadly those villains of Green Arrow, Atom and The Hawks aren't as prominent in present times, which is probably why I don't hold them in the highest regard. My mother was born in the mid 70's so that should tell you how recent a comic fan I am lol

YJ is definitely the best iteration of Black Beetle. The New 52 version wasn't very good and he didn't appear in the Rebirth version. So definitely just stick to the YJ version.

[Ascended]

I think Flash could be number one, but Batman's utilized his rogues better and developed a wider range of them. So even though I think there's more potential with Flash, Batman wins.

Flash is a very close second.

Then Superman, GL, and Shazam.

[daBronzeBomma]

Let's try setting the various DC franchises' rogue galleries like a basketball team (12-slot roster made up of 5 starters and 7 bench players) and see how they measure up. Feel free to make any changes or additions as my knowledge of each of these franchises varies wildly.

Superverse
Team MVP: Lex Luthor
Team All-Stars: Brainiac, Zod
Remaining Starters: Mongul, Mxyzptlk
Rotational Bench: Bizarro, Metallo, Parasite
Injury Reserve: Doomsday, Manchester Black, Toyman, Maxima

Batverse:
Team MVP: The Joker
Team All-Stars: Two-Face, Ra's al Ghul
Remaining Starters: Scarecrow, Bane
Rotational Bench: Riddler, Ventriloquist, Hugo Strange
Injury Reserve: Penguin, Man-Bat, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze

Wonderverse:
Team MVP: The Cheetah
Team All-Stars: Circe, Ares
Rotational Bench: Giganta, Paula von Gunther, Dr. Psycho (Earth-One version only)
Injury Reserve: Silver Swan, Medusa, Dr. Poison, Genocide

Aquaverse:
Team MVP: Black Manta
Team All-Stars: Ocean Master, The Siren
Remaining Starters: The Trench, Piranha Man
Rotational Bench: King Shark, Nereus, The Thirst
Injury Reserve: Marine Marauder, The Eel, The Fisherman, Kordax

Flashverse:
Team MVP: The Reverse Flash
Team All-Stars: Captain Cold, Gorilla Grodd
Remaining Starters: Abra Kadabra, Zoom
Rotational Bench: Mirror Master, Blacksmith, Godspeed
Injury Reserve: Rainbow Raider, Captain Boomerang, Golden Glider, The Thinker

Lanternverse:
Team MVP: Thaal Sinestro
Team All-Stars: Atrocitus, Krona
Remaining Starters: Manhunters, Black Hand
Rotational Bench: Larfleeze, Dr. Polaris, Parallax
Injury Reserve: Weaponeers of Qward, Goldface, Volthoom, Hector Hammond

Shazamverse:
Team MVP: Black Adam
Team All-Stars: Dr. Sivana, Mr. Mind
Remaining Starters: Captain Nazi, Sabbac
Rotational Bench: Ibac, Mr. Atom, Oggar
Injury Reserve: King Kull, 7 Deadly Sins, Sobek, Niyola

Arrowverse:
Team MVP: Deathstroke?
Team All-Stars:
Remaining Starters:
Rotational Bench:
Injury Reserve:

Hawkverse:
Team MVP: Vandal Savage?
Team All-Stars:
Remaining Starters:
Rotational Bench:
Injury Reserve:

Not sure if the Hawks have enough to field a team, and I got the Arrowverse a bit conflated with the tv show, so feel free to fill in the blanks on them or any of the other DC franchises.

Also, I think the rankings change a bit when you factor in how many of the rogues are an actual true threat to the hero. How many of Batman's rogues are in his league both mentally and physically? Just Ras and Bane, really. Same with Flash (only the evil speedsters matter), Superman (just the Kryptonian analogues and the mages pose an actual threat), and the others.

[Lee Stone]

Legion:
Legion of Super-Villains
Fatal Five
Darkseid
Time Trapper
Mordru
Glorith
Starfinger
Dr. Regulus
Computo
Dark Circle
League of Super-Assassins
Pulsar Stargrave
Universo

Titans:
Fearsome Five
Brotherhood of Evil
Trigon
Deathstroke
The Hive
Brother Blood
The Antithesis
Mr. Twister
Terra
Cheshire
Blackfire

And the Outsiders list posted earlier here.

[SiegePerilous02]

For teams, it would probably be ranked like this for me:

1. JLA- for their best arch enemies teaming up together, and neat villains unique to them as a group: White Martians, Crime Syndicate, Prometheus, Queen Bee, Dr. Destiny, AMAZO, etc.
2. NTT- this franchise is in desperate need of new blood injected into all parts of it, including the villains, but the foes introduced in the Perez run were still great: Deathstroke (before Wolfman's favoritism got the better of him), Trigon, Brother Blood, Blackfire, Cheshire, the new Brotherhood of Evil, Terra
3. Legion of Superheroes: for the Fatal Five and the Legion of Supervillains
4. the Doom Patrol- mostly for the Morrison run: Mr. Nobody, the Candlemaker, Red Jack and well...Caulder himself

I have Flash ahead of Superman too though it's a close call for me. To me the clear winners are Batman, Flash, and Superman in that order. WRT GL/WW, I think it's just personal taste but apart from Cheetah I don't personally love any WW villain as much as Sinestro, Star Sapphire, Hector Hammond, or the Geoff Johns update of Black Hand. My top 10 are farther back in this thread. I agree that modern writers have done a good job fleshing out Wonder Woman's rogues' gallery.

It seems like it's always two steps forward, one step back with Wonder Woman's rogues. As much as I dislike the fact that they rebooted at all in the 80s, Perez still did a good job of overhauling Cheetah, Ares and his kids, Circe, Dr. Psycho and the Swan and making them serious threats. Subsequent writers rarely brought back old faces to revamp, instead either focusing on that small group (and aside from Rucka and Jimenez, not doing too much of note) or tried to create their own villains, which are subsequently ignored by the next writer. Giganta, Dr. Poison and Queen Clea made it back to the post-Crisis universe, but that's it, and not the same capacity as the group Perez brought back.

Then Rucka did a great job with Cheetah (in particular), Circe, Veronica Cale, Dr. Cyber, Ares's kids and Dr. Poison, but we are still waiting on a new writer to keep that momentum going with those characters and add more. The filler arcs by Fontanna and Orlando didn't help, Robinson's half assed usage of Psycho, the Swan, Zara and Blue Snowman didn't amount to much, and Wilson's still finding her footing and being let down by weak art (though she deserves mad props for continuing the Cale plot and even doing a Giganta arc for the first time in...ever). We really need a writer with a long term plan to beef up the ENTIRE rogues gallery, like Johns did with his first Flash run and GL run, and is shaping up to do with his Shazam.

[BatmanJones]

For teams, it would probably be ranked like this for me:

1. JLA- for their best arch enemies teaming up together, and neat villains unique to them as a group: White Martians, Crime Syndicate, Prometheus, Queen Bee, Dr. Destiny, AMAZO, etc.
2. NTT- this franchise is in desperate need of new blood injected into all parts of it, including the villains, but the foes introduced in the Perez run were still great: Deathstroke (before Wolfman's favoritism got the better of him), Trigon, Brother Blood, Blackfire, Cheshire, the new Brotherhood of Evil, Terra
3. Legion of Superheroes: for the Fatal Five and the Legion of Supervillains
4. the Doom Patrol- mostly for the Morrison run: Mr. Nobody, the Candlemaker, Red Jack and well...Caulder himself

Any thoughts on JSA rogues? They've got some pretty heavy hitters...

Vandal Savage, Ultra-Humanite, Per Degaton, Brainwave, Psycho Pirate, Wotan, and particularly the first anti-hero team in the Injustice Society (Sportsmaster, Huntress, Gambler, Icicle, Fiddler, Thinker, Shade, Solomon Grundy)... And in the more modern age Johnny Sorrow and Roulette at least.

Re: Brotherhood of Evil, I'd say they're more Doom Patrol villains than Teen Titans villains, though TT certainly used them a lot.

[SiegePerilous02]

Any thoughts on JSA rogues? They've got some pretty heavy hitters...

Vandal Savage, Ultra-Humanite, Per Degaton, Brainwave, Psycho Pirate, Wotan, and particularly the first anti-hero team in the Injustice Society (Sportsmaster, Huntress, Gambler, Icicle, Fiddler, Thinker, Shade, Solomon Grundy)... And in the more modern age Johnny Sorrow and Roulette at least.

Re: Brotherhood of Evil, I'd say they're more Doom Patrol villains than Teen Titans villains, though TT certainly used them a lot.

Forgot to mention the JSA! I've only really read the Johns run, and it's been a while. I'm in the process of getting the new omnibuses. But I did remember liking Johnny Sorrow and Roulette, and of course Savage and Ultra-Humanite are great.

I did mean to mention the Brotherhood with the Doom Patrol as well, but forgot. I've had more exposure to them with the Titans due to the NTT run and the cartoon, and the likes of Phobia, Houngan Warp and Plasmus are specifically TT villains. But the classic Brotherhood (with Rouge, Immortus and Zahl going along with Brain and Mallah) would definitely count towards the DP.

[DrNewGod]

Any thoughts on JSA rogues? They've got some pretty heavy hitters...

Vandal Savage, Ultra-Humanite, Per Degaton, Brainwave, Psycho Pirate, Wotan, and particularly the first anti-hero team in the Injustice Society (Sportsmaster, Huntress, Gambler, Icicle, Fiddler, Thinker, Shade, Solomon Grundy)... And in the more modern age Johnny Sorrow and Roulette at least.

Re: Brotherhood of Evil, I'd say they're more Doom Patrol villains than Teen Titans villains, though TT certainly used them a lot.

JSA had some prime enemies. Honestly, individually and collectively, IMO, they outshined anything the SA/BA JLA had thrown at them (with the possible exception of The Construct and The Manhunters).

Doom Patrol: Wolfman has said that Teen Titans wasn't what he wanted back in 1979 (Justice Little League, he called them), but when he got the assignment, he patterned them on The Fantastic Four. I wonder what we'd have gotten had his assignment been DP instead?

[Lee Stone]

Any thoughts on JSA rogues? They've got some pretty heavy hitters...

Vandal Savage, Ultra-Humanite, Per Degaton, Brainwave, Psycho Pirate, Wotan, and particularly the first anti-hero team in the Injustice Society (Sportsmaster, Huntress, Gambler, Icicle, Fiddler, Thinker, Shade, Solomon Grundy)... And in the more modern age Johnny Sorrow and Roulette at least.

Re: Brotherhood of Evil, I'd say they're more Doom Patrol villains than Teen Titans villains, though TT certainly used them a lot.

I think of it like this:

Original Doom Patrol - Brotherhood of Evil I
New Teen Titans - Brotherhood of Evil II
Morrison Doom Patrol - Brotherhood of Evil III (Brotherhood of Dada)

[Aahz]

I don't disagree with you. It's a matter of personal taste and also of me having read so many comics in the 70s-80s when the villains that fought GA (Count Vertigo, Clock King), Atom (Floronic Man, Chronos), Hawkman (Shadow Thief, Gentleman Ghost) were much more significant than they are today.

I'm not really that knowledgeable about the others, but the Green Arrow villains (Count Vertigo, Clock King, Merlyn) had even in the 70s-80s not that many appearances.
And at least Count Vertigo and iirc Clock King have more often appeared in Stories without Green Arrow, than in stories with him.

[Frontier]

I'm not really that knowledgeable about the others, but the Green Arrow villains (Count Vertigo, Clock King, Merlyn) had even in the 70s-80s not that many appearances.
And at least Count Vertigo and iirc Clock King have more often appeared in Stories without Green Arrow, than in stories with him.

Most people would probably assume Clock King is a Batman villain thanks to B:TAS anyways...