Top 10 Supervillains in the DC Universe

[stargazer01]

Who are the most dangerous supervillains in the DCU and why are they a big threat?

Try to limit the list to 10 or so.

[caj]

My 10 just off the top of my head:

Darkseid
Luthor
Brainiac
Joker
Sinestro
Grodd
Black Adam
Mordru
Trigon
Ra's A Ghul
Ultra Humanite

[K7P5V]

My Top 10:

Darkseid
Lex Luthor
The Joker
Black Adam
Black Manta
Mongul
Atrocitus
Prometheus
Talia al Ghul
Deathstroke

[caj]

My Top 10:
Mongul
Prometheus

Both of these are great choices that I left off my list.

[BatmanJones]

My top 10 wouldn't at all be the biggest threats. The biggest threats are mostly the villains that typically appear in events and don't tend to have a lot of personality. The Anti-Monitor and World Forger would probably qualify as a couple of the top 10 threats but they're each as generic as a comic book character can be.

The lists others have already posted are much better villains than the ones that are the biggest threats, IMO.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

I don't know what you would mean by dangerous. Do you mean, like, the most powerful or the scariest or the ones who have the biggest impact on their respective heroes?

Well, either way, here goes nothing, considering all three of the criteria I just listed:

Darkseid: despotic, calculating, and manipulative; a literal god, who has, several times, taken over the whole world and/or universe including when he used the Anti-Life Equation to bend every sentient living being to his will. Oh, and the mere presence of his true form in our universe causes all of reality to fold in on itself

Lex Luthor: Superman's arch nemesis who has made every hero in the DCU's lives miserable for decades, including using his power as President to turn the public against Superman and Batman, destroying New Krypton, framing Bruce Wayne for murder, almost destroying Metropolis, etc.

Anti-Monitor: can literally eat whole universes

Joker: bats%*t crazy and crazy about the Bat; paralyzed Barbara Gordon, murdered Jason Todd, killed Sarah Essen, blew up a school, has killed people senselessly on numerous occasions including during the Laughing Fish arc, stole Mxyzptlk's powers, etc.

Sinestro: Sinestro Corps War is really all you need.

Doomsday: cuz you know...he's a giant rage monster who killed Superman

Reverse Flash: so incredibly unstable and with all of the powers of a speedster in the DCU. Killed Iris West, almost killed Fiona Webb, forcing Barry to kill him (albeit not for long), poses as Barry in the Return of Barry Allen arc and causing Wally to doubt his place as the Flash, was at the center of Flashpoint, etc.

Cyborg Superman (Hank Henshaw): destroyed all of Coast City and made Mongul into a servant. On this list because he is probably one of the most personal villains for both Superman and Green Lantern, since he pulled off one of the most tragic events in the DCU's history

Ra's al Ghul: basically immortal madman who has almost destroyed the world many times over, knows Batman's identity, has taken out the whole JLA in the past, and is probably one of the greatest strategic minds of the DCU

Trigon: has conquered almost countless realities and is obviously one of the most powerful DC villains.

[stargazer01]

My top 10 wouldn't at all be the biggest threats. The biggest threats are mostly the villains that typically appear in events and don't tend to have a lot of personality. The Anti-Monitor and World Forger would probably qualify as a couple of the top 10 threats but they're each as generic as a comic book character can be.

The lists others have already posted are much better villains than the ones that are the biggest threats, IMO.

I don't know what you would mean by dangerous. Do you mean, like, the most powerful or the scariest or the one's who have the biggest impact on their respective heroes?

By most dangerous I mean bigger threats to the whole world.

[ChrisG]

Nr 1 Black Manta, he killed a baby without mercy

[TheRay]

I would throw Starro the Conqueror into the mix.

[Nomads1]

Darkseid
Luthor
Joker
Sinestro
Grodd
Black Manta
Reverse Flash
Deathstroke
Black Adam
Catwoman
(though the last three could be argued to be anti-heroes, rather than villains).

I'd rather foccus on the 10 villains that should be raised to Top 10 levels:

Neron - He could be DC's Mephisto. Loved his first appearence in Underworld. Though I think he could use a visual remake.
Eclipso - He got a great boost in the 90's but they didn't take it far enough. As a "God of Evil", he's actually has the potential to be more intresting than Darkseid.
Circe - This list sure needs more women. Circe is powerful cruel and ruthless, and deserves to have the spotlight of Wonder Woman's badest bad.
Prometheus - The Batmanof villains. Of course this guys needs to be used very carefully (if the heroes always defeat him, he loses credibility. and no one wants to see the villain always win, especially when he wants to kill the good guys).
Mongul - Potentially, the Thanos of the DCU. And they were created by the same guy. Mongul is another who should be very hard to defeat, and not just physically.
Ultra Humanite - Let Lex Luthor be the evil genius businessman. The Ultra-Humanite should be the evil crazy scientist. And the body switching thing is a gimmick that needs to be put to better use.
Vandal Savage - The Immortal villain, power and experience, this one must be feared.
Queen Bee - I Love the JLI version, the crafty seductress who plays a game of political dominance with the minds of men. In fact, I like the whole more globalized and political complex DCU Earth of the late 80's - early 90's.
Captain Nazi or Baron Blitzkreig - C'mon, what's more fun than a Nazi super-villian, but whichever one we chosse to use, he shouldn't be played for laughs. If used well, this is a villain who could really thrive in the current "diversity foccused" world we live in.
Monarch - C'mon, an uber-powerful former hero who actually has a shot at conquering the whole world. Monarch needs to be brought back and done right.

Peace

[Korath]

By most dangerous I mean bigger threats to the whole world.

With that criteria in mind, I'll just list the entities who are still alive and have already acted (so, no Perpetua so far) :

1: Anti-Monitor is the top 1, since he destroyed almost all of the original Multiverse -and proved to be monstrously powerful still in Darkseid War
2: Barbatos; in one assault, he almost doomed the whole Multiverse, and was powerful enough to overthrow his own creator
3: The Empty Hand - his level of threat isn't quite clear, but he was able to corrupt -however briefly- the Over-Monitor
4: Darkseid - the God of Evil has proven, several times, that he deserves this place - he would have been lower, nonetheless, if not for JLO which is injecting him some well-needed new approach
5: Superboy-Prime; do I really need to explain why ?
6: Nekron; he could be higher, but after the Blackest Night and Brightest Day, he doesn't seem that interested in the living world
7: Trigon; he's extremely powerful, but it's been a long time since he felt like a legitimate threat to me
8: Mxy; he got the powers but not really the will, to destroy the whole DC Universe; still, he was able to go toe to toe with Trigon in Injustice and even possessed the Spectre
9: Mandrakk; he's this low only because he was basically defanged and made a non-threat for the normal Multiverse in The Unexpected, otherwise he would have been among the Top 5.
10: Brainiac; he has a lot of technology and abilities, but he's the lowest of the Universe-ending threats, if he is even one.

It hasn't been an easy list to do, mostly because there isn't that many truly universe-ending entities in the DCU

[TheRay]

The Anti-Monitor and World Forger would probably qualify as a couple of the top 10 threats but they're each as generic as a comic book character can be.

I don't know, I thought The Anti-Monitor in the Arrowverse was intriguing at least.

Joker: bats%*t crazy and crazy about the Bat; paralyzed Barbara Gordon, murdered Jason Todd, killed Sarah Essen, blew up a school, has killed people senselessly on numerous occasions including during the Laughing Fish arc, stole Mxyzptlk's powers, etc.

The Joker is so crazy he has people questioning the morality of the "no kill" part of the definition of hero. I don't think anyone else has come that close to justifiably pushing (or, in Injustice's case, actually over it) a hero over the edge.