Who are Clark's Top 3 Most Heinous Villains?

[daBronzeBomma]

Who are the top 3 most heinous villains Superman has ever faced?

Emphasis on "Most Heinous".

Not most complex.

Not most murderous.

Not most love-to-hate.

I'm talking morally reprehensible to the extreme.

I'm talking them with the most unforgivable, most irredeemable acts on their resumes.

The morally worst of the worst.

Supes' rogues gallery is a little different than say Batman's, so off the top of my head ... I actually am not sure.

No nuance here. Someone deliberately causing the deaths of many to successfully save the lives of much more people wouldn't cut it here.

Who are the morally most heinous villains of Clark's lifetime?

[Vakanai]

Darkseid without a doubt is up at top.
What little I know of Mongul puts him up there.
Brainiac is pretty awful.

[Blue22]

Given what happens to his son (that he straight up lets happen): Jor-El XD

In all seriousness though,

Definitely Darkseid and Braniac. As for the third...I dunno. I wanna say Luthor but that seems too obvious. I guess Mongul works too.

[daBronzeBomma]

I was thinking the Queen of Hell Lady Blaze, but I don't recall any particular heinous act that she got away with (she killed Jerry White but couldn't keep his soul from going to Heaven).

Skyhook, OTOH, turned post-COIE children into actual demons and kept at least some of them that way, IIRC.

[Vordan]

Are we disregarding reboots? Because that’s been something that’s hurt his villains. All their “feats” get wiped out while someone like Joker gets to keep the acts of killing Jason and crippling Barbara. If we are then the top 3 have to be in no order:

Brainiac. This guy murders entire planets after he abducts one city. He must have a body count in the trillions, and he keeps the survivors as lab rats in his mausoleum. He’s a monster.

Hank Henshaw/Mongul. These two nuked an entire city during Reign, and Mongul is a mass murderer in his own right before that.

Lex. Post Crisis Lex was a real piece of **** and that’s carried over into current continuity. He murdered people for the pettiest reasons. He tortured and experimented on Clark during Morrison’s run. He framed Batman for murder. He cured his sister of her disability just to give it back to prove a point to Conner. He tried to destroy Metropolis during Up, Up, and Away. Oh and he nuked New Krypton using Reactron which basically meant he committed a second genocide on Kryptonians.

Darkseid and Superman definitely have a personal hatred of one another, but I consider Darkseid an enemy to the DCU as a whole. That’s why I don’t list him.

[Celgress]

Henshaw aka Cyborg Superman has to be near the top alongside Darkseid and Mongul. I'm not sure about Brainiac. He is more indifferent (or amoral) than evil (or immoral) by his measurement, whereas the others know they are evil and relish in said status. Brainiac is akin to a force of nature more so than a super-powered sociopath.

[ngroove]

1. Lex Luthor, Post Crisis
2. Bloodsport II
3. Toyman III

[Kuwagaton]

Blanque 'n' Hank. Then Sleez, a pathetic little nightmare.

[Osiris-Rex]

Lex Luthor
Darkseid
Brainiac

[manwhohaseverything]

1)writers who can't get a handle on the character.
2)Lack of imagination and creativity in storytelling.
3)Management who keeps on changing the direction.

[Adekis]

My first impulse is to say Skyhook, Henshaw, & the Pocket Universe Zod Squad.

Also though, I'd argue that Luthor is like, one of the most inconsistent villains of all time. Frequently he's written as very nuanced and sympathetic, too caught up in his own ego to realize he's wrong about Superman, or unwilling to do something truly horrible to someone no matter how badly he wants to win. All that said, every so often some writer who thinks Luthor should be just this completely reprehensible, unforgivable slimeball.

Remember when Luthor offered a woman a million dollars to leave her husband for him, only to ditch her before she made her decision, just so she'd beat herself up over it forever, and that was his whole plan? Remember when he cured someone of a horrible medical disorder, only to give it right back to them out of spite, since he'd only cured it to prove that he was smart enough to do it? Remember when he developed a cheap, simple vaccine for AIDS and wouldn't release it until he turned it into a long-time, prohibitively expensive series of procedures? Remember when Luthor blew up the planet his wife and son lived on and blamed it on Superman? Remember when a masked dude told Superman he had a hour to prevent the destruction of the world, and Kal thought "I don't know who that is, but it's probably not Luthor," only for it to turn out to be him, and his only excuse was "Did you really think I wasn't the worst person imaginable?"

Yeah Lex, somehow I kinda didn't think someone who I just read voluntarily going back to jail to give water to a desert planet, or to save the life of a child, was really bad enough to blow up the world. But those stories had different writers from the ones where he's irredeemably monstrous.

I've said for ages, maybe there just ought to be different Luthor-variants, instead of one unified Luthor who has to encompass everything that everyone wants him to be.

[Celgress]

1)writers who can't get a handle on the character.
2)Lack of imagination and creativity in storytelling.
3)Management who keeps on changing the direction.

LOL, post of the thread.

[Kuwagaton]

My first impulse is to say Skyhook, Henshaw, & the Pocket Universe Zod Squad.

Also though, I'd argue that Luthor is like, one of the most inconsistent villains of all time. Frequently he's written as very nuanced and sympathetic, too caught up in his own ego to realize he's wrong about Superman, or unwilling to do something truly horrible to someone no matter how badly he wants to win. All that said, every so often some writer who thinks Luthor should be just this completely reprehensible, unforgivable slimeball.

Remember when Luthor offered a woman a million dollars to leave her husband for him, only to ditch her before she made her decision, just so she'd beat herself up over it forever, and that was his whole plan? Remember when he cured someone of a horrible medical disorder, only to give it right back to them out of spite, since he'd only cured it to prove that he was smart enough to do it? Remember when he developed a cheap, simple vaccine for AIDS and wouldn't release it until he turned it into a long-time, prohibitively expensive series of procedures? Remember when Luthor blew up the planet his wife and son lived on and blamed it on Superman? Remember when a masked dude told Superman he had a hour to prevent the destruction of the world, and Kal thought "I don't know who that is, but it's probably not Luthor," only for it to turn out to be him, and his only excuse was "Did you really think I wasn't the worst person imaginable?"

Yeah Lex, somehow I kinda didn't think someone who I just read voluntarily going back to jail to give water to a desert planet, or to save the life of a child, was really bad enough to blow up the world. But those stories had different writers from the ones where he's irredeemably monstrous.

I've said for ages, maybe there just ought to be different Luthor-variants, instead of one unified Luthor who has to encompass everything that everyone wants him to be.

Cousins, clones, whatever. I just think a given continuity should have two guys named Luthor because they want to do way too much with him. I like a totally vile Luthor but that really limits the character.

[Vordan]

Cousins, clones, whatever. I just think a given continuity should have two guys named Luthor because they want to do way too much with him. I like a totally vile Luthor but that really limits the character.

I feel like the kind of “manically evil mad scientist” role could be filled pretty perfectly by Ultra-Humanite if the writers ever wanted to use him again.

[HeavenlyDemonic]

1)writers who can't get a handle on the character.
2)Lack of imagination and creativity in storytelling.
3)Management who keeps on changing the direction.

So, in other words, Bendis, Bendis and Bendis.