Superman Villains Appreciation 2021

[SiegePerilous02]

Love this cover. Throw Bizarro, the Legion of Supervillains and Zod in there, and you have Superman's essential Silver Age rogues IMO.

Though it IS kind of weird seeing Amalak grouped in with these guys. His placement on here along with the others always makes me mentally throw him into the group, but he really is very minor compared to even Terra-Man

[Gaius]

Love this cover. Throw Bizarro, the Legion of Supervillains and Zod in there, and you have Superman's essential Silver Age rogues IMO.

Though it IS kind of weird seeing Amalak grouped in with these guys. His placement on here along with the others always makes me mentally throw him into the group, but he really is very minor compared to even Terra-Man

Oh, that's who that is. Looked like a skinny Guy Gardner.

Though he meets the purple and/or green requirement of being a Superman villain so I can how made that cover.

[Vordan]

[Vakanai]

I recognize Lex, Mxy, Parasite, and Brainiac. I've no clue who the redhead, the Green Goblin looking dude, the masked guy, the cowboy, or the older Jimmy Olsen looking fellow are...

[Gaius]

I recognize Lex, Mxy, Parasite, and Brainiac. I've no clue who the redhead, the Green Goblin looking dude, the masked guy, the cowboy, or the older Jimmy Olsen looking fellow are...

Toy Man, Terra-Man, Prankster, Kryptonite Man, and Amalak (thank you, Siege ).

[Mistah K88]

Was DCAU Brainiac a case of lazy AI? I mean he didn’t tell everyone about Krypton’s problem because he would be tasked with figuring out a solution. He also destroyed civilizations after getting all of the knowledge/information because if they are left alone afterward, new information can pop up... was he from Microsoft?

[Vakanai]

Toy Man, Terra-Man, Prankster, Kryptonite Man, and Amalak (thank you, Siege ).

What's the order of that? Because I'm guessing the green man rather than the cowboy is Kryptonite Man.

I've never even hear of Amalak, and only know the names for Terra-Man and Kryptonite Man because I saw them on the wikipedia page for Superman's rogues once. They definitely need to give these guys more media appearances and comic book stories.

[Gaius]

What's the order of that? Because I'm guessing the green man rather than the cowboy is Kryptonite Man.

I've never even hear of Amalak, and only know the names for Terra-Man and Kryptonite Man because I saw them on the wikipedia page for Superman's rogues once. They definitely need to give these guys more media appearances and comic book stories.

Toy Man (older looking Jimmy Olsen), Terra-Man (the cowboy), Kryptonite Man (the Green Goblin-looking one), Prankster (the masked court jester looking guy) Amalak (redhead).

Terra-Man had an appearance in the Legion of Super-Heroes show.



If there was a C to D list Superman villain, I'd want to give the "Mr. Freeze" treatment to, he'd probably be who I'd pick.

[Vordan]

Was DCAU Brainiac a case of lazy AI? I mean he didn’t tell everyone about Krypton’s problem because he would be tasked with figuring out a solution. He also destroyed civilizations after getting all of the knowledge/information because if they are left alone afterward, new information can pop up... was he from Microsoft?

Malevolent AI. He basically calculated that Krypton was screwed and there wasn’t time to save everyone. So he chose to save himself first and foremost, and also covered the impending doom up because it would make it easier for him to prepare his escape unnoticed.

[atomicskull]

Nobody uses them. That’s the big problem. How many villains were great right off the bat? Mr. Freeze wasn’t. Prankster wasn’t. It took later writers coming back to the characters and going “there’s some potential here” and then showing said potential. Guys like Moore, Busiek, Johns, Rucka, and others, writers who want to try to make the “uncool” characters cool, are a rare breed. Most writers just go “Superman’s Rogues suck and I’m going to create my OCs who will totally be beloved”, and most of the time they’re simply abandoned when the next writer comes on board and treats those OCs with the same contempt as the rest of the Rogues.

Bloodsport has been dead since the 90s but since he’s in The Suicide Squad so it looks like they’re bringing him back in the comics and going to force writers to use him. Superman editors should be forcing writers to use Metallo, Parasite, or any of the other lesser known Rogues too because that’s how they get popular.

And when they don't create some lame OC. They focus on Lex, Zod, Brainiac and sometimes Mongal. Hell, Lobo rarely even appears in Superman books. You mean to tell me not one writer has a story in mind for Parasite, Livewire, Atomic Skull, Rampage or even Hellgramite? That's pretty sad. Reminds me of when Bruce Timm said he bought in Darkseid for Superman TAS b/c his rogues gallery was limited.

[Vordan]

And when they don't create some lame OC. They focus on Lex, Zod, Brainiac and sometimes Mongal. Hell, Lobo rarely even appears in Superman books. You mean to tell me not one writer has a story in mind for Parasite, Livewire, Atomic Skull, Rampage or even Hellgramite? That's pretty sad. Reminds me of when Bruce Timm said he bought in Darkseid for Superman TAS b/c his rogues gallery was limited.

Yeah Timm’s attitude rubbed me the wrong way because Mr. Freeze was a crap villain before they totally rebuilt him for the show. He was so lame and forgotten he showed up in Morrison’s Animal Man in Limbo, the place where all the loser characters ended up!


Modern readers would be baffled, because everyone knows who Mr. Freeze is, he’s one of Batman’s best Rogues! Except before BTAS he wasn’t. And Timm & Dini did a pretty great job with Toyman so it’s not like it was beyond their ability, they just didn’t want to, and didn’t have the enthusiasm to retool old concepts for Superman like they did Batman, which is pretty much how it’s been for everyone except Batman at DC. I wish Busiek had had a longer run, he apparently had plans to retool more of Superman’s Rogues, as did Johns. I guess we’ll just have to keep hoping, maybe Waid will do more with the classic Rogues if he gets another book, or maybe there are plans to do stuff with them in the main books coming up.

Mongul is an interesting case because for whatever reason (I have a hunch as to why), writers have started to take an interest in using him. Historically they didn’t, he was a jobber who showed up more in GL during the 00s than in the Superbooks, and until Bendis he hadn’t been the solo villain of an arc in over a decade. My hunch as to why he’s being used more is that Darkseid has been re-elevated to being the bigger deal he always should’ve been, and editorial is blocking anyone from just using him as a “villain of the arc” type threat in the Superbooks. I have no real problem with that, and I’m happy to see Mongul get more use since I think he’s cool and I’m hopeful to get more one on one stories between him and Superman.

[Gaius]

Always interesting Freeze ended up in comic book limbo given he was one of the Bat-villains who actually made the jump to live-action in the 60s show. Guess that shows appearances in other media don’t mean so much if writers think you’re just not interesting.

[Vordan]

Always interesting Freeze ended up in comic book limbo given he was one of the Bat-villains who actually made the jump to live-action in the 60s show. Guess that shows appearances in other media don’t mean so much if writers think you’re just not interesting.

Well that Batman writers usually also have a seething hatred of the Adam West Batman show probably didn’t help him either. I asked Doc Shaner on his tumblr once though if he thought “creative synergy” was a real thing in his experience, and he said no. Sometimes a character gets a push or DC will want a character to look like they do in outside media, but otherwise there hasn’t been much of DC saying “X is in Y, you need to use X in your book as well”. That’s just in his experience, although I can think of a couple examples that may contradict his experience being the norm.

[Gaius]

Well that Batman writers usually also have a seething hatred of the Adam West Batman show probably didn’t help him either. I asked Doc Shaner on his tumblr once though if he thought “creative synergy” was a real thing in his experience, and he said no. Sometimes a character gets a push or DC will want a character to look like they do in outside media, but otherwise there hasn’t been much of DC saying “X is in Y, you need to use X in your book as well”. That’s just in his experience, although I can think of a couple examples that may contradict his experience being the norm.

Lol, I'll never get over how much I love how Bat-fans and writers for decades thought Batman '66 "ruined" Batman.

[SiegePerilous02]

Yeah Timm’s attitude rubbed me the wrong way because Mr. Freeze was a crap villain before they totally rebuilt him for the show. He was so lame and forgotten he showed up in Morrison’s Animal Man in Limbo, the place where all the loser characters ended up!.

Before BTAS, Freeze was nothing but a gimmick villain with a cool visual and catchy name, but a flat character. Clayface and the Mad Hatter weren't that great pre-BTAS as well. I wouldn't say any of Supes's Silver Age foes were any sillier than Freeze or had less potential, and Terra-Man already had more to work with as far as backstory goes! In that he actually had one.

There is also Perez revamping some of Wonder Woman's villains, and that material already made them more impressive than Freeze was before the DCAU, so there really is no excuse for why they ended up as lame as they did in JLU beyond Timm having stars in his eyes for all things Batman.