Can a hero have to many villains?

[mathew101281]

Can a rogue’s gallery be to populated? I think some heroes have so many villains that really great villains get underused. I feel in a perfect world 4-10 is the deal range for recurring villains. Any less and it can seem repetitive, any more and you start to have villains that slip through the cracks and are barely used.

[Digifiend]

If a villain is underused, let another hero fight them. Rogues Gallery Transplants are not uncommon.

So, no, there's no such thing as too many villains. A hero can have too few though, which can cause problems in adaptations. Ant-Man doesn't have many, for example, so his second movie used Ghost, who is normally an Iron Man villain.

[Restingvoice]

No coz not every writer can or even interested to write certain villains. Having as many as possible allows them to choose what the one they can or like.

[king81992]

Not really since most of the existing villains for most character's rogue galleries never get used. Wonder Woman and Superman to a lesser extent are poster child's for this.

[king81992]

Not really since most of the existing villains for most character's rogue galleries never get used. Wonder Woman and Superman to a lesser extent are poster child's for this.

[Zero Hunter]

I would much rather have some villains underused than the same 4 or 5 villains overused so the bigger the better in my eyes.

[Frontier]

Not a complain I've ever had, personally. The more the merrier .

[cranger]

I suppose this depends on the pace of the comic. If a writer is doing longer arcs where there might end up being 2-3 villains a year than an overcrowded gallery can be bad for wanting to see favorites return. I prefer a higher turn over, so shorter stories, with preferably more new villains introduced each year than older villains returning. At some point a writer will focus on an old villain or two and that is fine, but give me more, new ideas and I am happy.

[married guy]

At some point a writer will focus on an old villain or two and that is fine, but give me more, new ideas and I am happy.

The problem with this is writers are now more reluctant to create a new character for DC or Marvel to make potential millions out of.

And no, you can't have enough villains! It's a always a kick seeing heroes face off against another heroes rogue.
Riddler vs The Flash
Mirror Master vs Batman
Zoom vs Wonder Woman

All fun!

[DrNewGod]

No. At least, not as long as they're a bit distinctive.

[Lightning Rider]

I would much rather have some villains underused than the same 4 or 5 villains overused so the bigger the better in my eyes.

Not a complain I've ever had, personally. The more the merrier .

Yeah agreed.

[kingaliencracker]

I would say no in the sense that any writer can take a villain and make him/her interesting, and any writer can take a villain and simply not use him/her if he/she doesn't want to. So in that regard, the more the merrier because it provides options.

Having said that, there was a period in the 80's and 90's, especially with regards to Spider-Man and Superman, where it felt like we were getting a "monster of the week" villain and it definitely saturated their rogues gallery at the expense of other more prominent and interesting villains. It became especially bad with Superman at times because after he died, it felt like every other issue he was fighting some generic monster who he would have to mention was as strong or powerful as Doomsday.

So I guess long answer short, no but there still has to be some reason and logic behind it all.

[Adekis]

Having said that, there was a period in the 80's and 90's, especially with regards to Spider-Man and Superman, where it felt like we were getting a "monster of the week" villain and it definitely saturated their rogues gallery at the expense of other more prominent and interesting villains. It became especially bad with Superman at times because after he died, it felt like every other issue he was fighting some generic monster who he would have to mention was as strong or powerful as Doomsday.

Oh yeah, the old "I haven't been hit that hard since Doomsday!" trope wore pretty thin pretty fast.

Overall, I also agree with this. Superman had a billion foes in the 80s and 90s who could have been memorable, if they'd gotten more exposure - but they didn't, so they faded into obscurity. Honestly, it's not just the 80s and 90s, either. I think a lot of Superman foes have been like this from the Golden Age on. Who remembers Lil Danvers, the Blonde Tigress? Yeah, nobody. How many casual fans remember Amalak?

So I guess my answer to OP's question is "yes, but not because the bad guys are bad, just because oversaturating the villain market means none of them get re-used or explored more deeply.

[Killerbee911]

No a character can not have to many quality villains because the concept of recurring villains means the heroes and hero system suck at their job. So the more good villains a hero can have before having to go back the one they used before is a good thing.

[shadow6743]

No, but I would like a new Two face story in Batman. We haven't gotten a story with him for a while.