Heroes in need of villains.

[WonderScott]

Characters like Black Canary, Vixen, Mera, Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, Troia, Elongated Man, Captain Atom, and others don't, or rarely, have a deep bench of personal villains or rogues to call their own, like Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc. do.

Without stealing from another hero's primary and most important villains, which 3-5 villains would you have adopt one of your favorite adversary-lite heroes and compose their personal rogues gallery?

[WonderScott]

I love Dinah Lance, but she's rarely given her own set of villains outside those who are already foes of Green Arrow. Black Canary needs some personal foes and my list contains:

1. Count Vertigo - A. He's criminally underused as a villain. B. I love the optics and sonics, of his and Dinah's powers playing against one another. C. He's disgraced royalty and she's resourceful Justice League material.

2. Archer Brain (from Birds of Prey: Manhunt) - Mercenary, martial artist, and telepath, Archer Braun makes for a fine opponent for Dinah. I don't think he's appeared outside his debut story, so he's a blank slate, but I like the idea that his telepathy takes the form of precognition and how that'd challenge Dinah to defeat him, given all the hard work she's put into being one of the top martial artists in the DCU.

3. Mindboggler - Another villain with psionic abilities, she's able to create not only illusions, but also able to induce feelings in her opponents. I kind of like her in the sense of how she can not only warp the visuals of reality around her, but also able to nudge characters' emotions in directions to achieve her goals.

4. White Cat - A semi-frequent visitor from Earth 3 and an adrenaline and emotional drama junkie, the White Cat wants nothing more than to have fun playing with and causing anguish, again and again, for her prey in every way possible.

5. Queen of Spades - From the Royal Flush Gang, I've always wanted to see members of TRFG create rivalries between themselves and various Justice League or JLI members. Pairing Queen against Dinah seems like it could be interesting given some background development for the Royal Flush Gang and not changing the characters every time they appear.

[Sutekh]

Interesting! I particularly like the Queen of Spades and Count Vertigo suggestions, although Count Vertigo is one of those I was thinking could be an interesting choice to go up against Vixen. (Queen of Spade, operating independently of the rest of the Royal Flush Gang is kind of genius. I love it!)

Also for Vixen, some sort of big game hunter, like an early age Deathstroke (who started out getting his thrills big game hunting, before he moved on to 'the most dangerous game'), who sees Vixen as the ultimate challenge, sort of like hunting every dangerous animal, all wrapped up in one, could be interesting. Queen Bee, whose country could be behind some international shenanigans (and have hundreds of pheremone-controlled or alien bug-drone flunkies) would be another choice. Brother and sister mercenary pair, Mammoth and Shimmer could be another relatively unused villain option for Vixen.

For Booster Gold, either long******d villains who meddle on a generational scale, like Vandal Savage, or fellow time-travelers, like Chronos or the Angle Man, could be one direction to take, while a 'celebrity villain' (or media sensation superhero who fakes their big showy saves and resents any 'celebrity superhero' competition and wants to engineer some sort of showy event to show them up or dirty up their reputation, even one as long out of the celebrity game as Booster).

[king81992]

Cyborg should get Grail and Ultra Humanite.

[Midnight_v]

Cyborg should get Grail and Ultra Humanite.

Hank Henshaw too.

[Ascended]

I love discussions like this.

For Nightwing, I'd love to see him steal the following bad guys:

Riot. A D-list Superman foe from the 90's. He's a scrawny, crazy little guy with duplication powers. He's just "Arkham" enough to feel (psychologically) fitting for a Nightwing rogue, and his powers provide a unique challenge.

Atomic Skull. Another Superman villain who has never made much of himself. He's a huge guy with a green flaming skull for a head and radiation powers. He always gets overlooked by the Super books but there have been a few moments where an interesting character has peeked through. And he's so, so, soooo much more powerful than Nightwing, I think it'd make for a great battle. Everyone loves the underdog, and it'd be nice to see that Bruce Wayne isn't the only street level vigilante capable of punching above his weight class.

Roxy Rocket. From the 90's Batman cartoons. She's an adrenaline junkie who rides a giant rocket and steals stuff for fun. Sounds like the perfect femme fatale for our boy Grayson. And to top it off, Roxy's a red head.

Professor Pyg. He was created to be a Dick Grayson villain....but not a Nightwing one. Still, the dude is weird and creepy and runs a weird and creepy circus. He was built to bounce off Dick's character, why let him remain a Batman foe now that Dick isn't Batman?

HIVE. I gotta be honest, these guys have never impressed me. But there's potential in DC's own version of AIM and I do love me some super agent/spy Dick Grayson action.

[Flash Gordon]

Atomic Skull and Riot would be dope enemies for BLACK CANARY.

Dinah on her bike, in all her punk glory, charging head first into the Atomic Skull. So rad.

[Aahz]

I love Dinah Lance, but she's rarely given her own set of villains outside those who are already foes of Green Arrow. Black Canary needs some personal foes and my list contains:

1. Count Vertigo - A. He's criminally underused as a villain. B. I love the optics and sonics, of his and Dinah's powers playing against one another. C. He's disgraced royalty and she's resourceful Justice League material.

Vertigo is one of the very few Green Arrow Villains and I don't think that his powers are sonic based, so I don't think the would really good choice for Black Canary.

3. Mindboggler - Another villain with psionic abilities, she's able to create not only illusions, but also able to induce feelings in her opponents. I kind of like her in the sense of how she can not only warp the visuals of reality around her, but also able to nudge characters' emotions in directions to achieve her goals.

She was turend into a digital beeing in Suicide Squad, unless you ignore that she is probably better used as a villain for Batgirl.

[Restingvoice]

First of all, I read that title like a newspaper ad. Single heroes need good villains.

Personally, I want them to create their own villains. Mera has her twin sister, and Black Canary has a couple of baddies whose name I forget from her rock band book and recent Birds of Prey. Evil twin and dark version of characters are the easiest so I wanna start from there, though there are other villains I wanna see interact, but not necessarily has to become a rogue gallery.

I want Nightwing to tangle with Max Lord and Amanda Waller. Max Lord only showed up at the end of Grayson's run, and Dick in Grayson is so not into being a spy and just there for the ride until he can get out or takedown Spyral that he misses a lot of things. I want him to be pushed to his tactical limits with these people who are experts on secrecy.

Troia, I want her to face a Greek mythology counterpart named after something related to Titans or Troy. Achilles for example, or some tacky giant monstrous construct called The Trojan Horse.

[DrNewGod]

Since Superman has Lex, Ultra-Humanite is ideal arch-enemy for Mr. Terrific.

If you focus on them as ruthless corporate tycoons, happy to despoil nature for a nickel, either Max Lord or Morgan Edge could make interesting Justin Hammer-esque enemies for Aquaman.

Somebody like Dr. Phosphorous could be a terrifying enemy for Black Lightning.

ETA: very cool thread idea

[Sutekh]

Troia, I want her to face a Greek mythology counterpart named after something related to Titans or Troy. Achilles for example, or some tacky giant monstrous construct called The Trojan Horse.

Lots of potential there. One of the immortal gorgons, or the bronze golem Talos, could be fun.

[king81992]

I love discussions like this.

For Nightwing, I'd love to see him steal the following bad guys:

Riot. A D-list Superman foe from the 90's. He's a scrawny, crazy little guy with duplication powers. He's just "Arkham" enough to feel (psychologically) fitting for a Nightwing rogue, and his powers provide a unique challenge.

Atomic Skull. Another Superman villain who has never made much of himself. He's a huge guy with a green flaming skull for a head and radiation powers. He always gets overlooked by the Super books but there have been a few moments where an interesting character has peeked through. And he's so, so, soooo much more powerful than Nightwing, I think it'd make for a great battle. Everyone loves the underdog, and it'd be nice to see that Bruce Wayne isn't the only street level vigilante capable of punching above his weight class.

Roxy Rocket. From the 90's Batman cartoons. She's an adrenaline junkie who rides a giant rocket and steals stuff for fun. Sounds like the perfect femme fatale for our boy Grayson. And to top it off, Roxy's a red head.

Professor Pyg. He was created to be a Dick Grayson villain....but not a Nightwing one. Still, the dude is weird and creepy and runs a weird and creepy circus. He was built to bounce off Dick's character, why let him remain a Batman foe now that Dick isn't Batman?

HIVE. I gotta be honest, these guys have never impressed me. But there's potential in DC's own version of AIM and I do love me some super agent/spy Dick Grayson action.

HIVE is wasted potential, if they could be salvaged they'd make good rogues for Nightwing or Cyborg.

[Valentonis]

I would love Max Lord as a Nightwing villian, the end of Grayson and the reveal that Mr. Minos was a Checkmate robot in Nightwing Rebirth sets up perfectly for it.

[scary harpy]

For Donna Troy, I would 'adopt' some villainesses from Diana's foes:

1. Saturna (nee Eviless)
2. Byrna Brylliant a.k.a. the Blue Snowman
3. Hypnotic Woman (nee Hypnota)
4. Zara (nee Priestess of the Crimson Flame)
5. Queen Clea

[Sutekh]

HIVE is wasted potential, if they could be salvaged they'd make good rogues for Nightwing or Cyborg.

Agreed, and being originally Titans villains, they wouldn't even be switching up, just narrowing down on particular Titans. Given that their stated ambition back in the Judas Contract was finding a way to 'steal' the Titans powers, they'd be most ideal, IMO, targetting Cyborg (and his father, and their lab) in particular, first to just poach data, and then the scientists and material themselves, to make their own cadre of cyborg super-soldiers (and / or body armor and weaponry designed from his carapace and sonic cannon).