what is the hero to villain ratio in the DC universe...?

[mathew101281]

And what does that say about the average human/alien in the DCU?

[Lightning Rider]

Hmm, that's a good question.

The big guns have quite a few villains...but then again, there are plenty of B and C-list heroes who don't have many villains of their own. And those major characters often have families of heroes that help balance it out. At this point Batman can task each sidekick with an individul Gotham villain.

You also have to account for the neutral/fluid types.

As for what it says about the average DCU person/alien, not sure. Some villains were "bad" from the start, but there are a good number who probably would have led ordinary lives were it not for some intervening event.

[mathew101281]

Hmm, that's a good question.

The big guns have quite a few villains...but then again, there are plenty of B and C-list heroes who don't have many villains of their own. And those major characters often have families of heroes that help balance it out. At this point Batman can task each sidekick with an individul Gotham villain.

You also have to account for the neutral/fluid types.

As for what it says about the average DCU person/alien, not sure. Some villains were "bad" from the start, but there are a good number who probably would have led ordinary lives were it not for some intervening event.

I'd say its probably 2 to 1 in favor of villains.

[bat39]

You'll always have more villains than heroes in any work of serial fiction. Because one hero needs to take on villain after villain for years on end.

Its not exclusive to the superhero genre either. Consider Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. We've had 12 novels and a bunch of short stories about an elderly spinster who solves crimes. This means that for one old lady who's an amateur detective, we have a dozen or more criminals, most of them murderers, in the village of St. Mary Mead (and I know all the books aren't set in that one village - I'm simplifying a bit - but you get the point).

Hell, in real life, I bet there are more criminals in the world than officers of every police force in the world combined. (And I'm talking real violent criminals, and not just ordinary citizens running afoul of unfair or outdated laws).

[The Cool Thatguy]

This thread reminds me of Millar's 'Wanted'

The rational that all the villains would win is because there were a dozen villains for each hero.

Which kinda falls apart, because I don't think Ambush Bug or Loose Cannon have that many rogues. And plenty of heroes share villains.

Plus, the whole of society, police, army and emergency response, would be on the heroes side...

[Lee Stone]

Ideally, each main character would have at least a dozen villains to fight in their books.
Then you have guest star heroes, which tend to get associated to one or two villains that almost always only appear when the guest star does.
Then you have the 'family' heroes- Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman have roughly five or more heroes each in their families. With Batman probably in the dozens.

I guess you could go through the '80s Who's Whos and use them as a rough estimate.
However, the '80s were probably more skewed towards heroes if only because of the number of teams active at the time.
I don't think DC has a quarter of the number of teams currently active.

[prepmaster]

For the main heroes vs their "prominant" villans ratio, Batman has about 10-11, Superman & Flash each has about 5-6, Green Lantern & Wonder Woman each has about 2-3, Aquaman & Shazam each has about 1-2.