Favorite Villain by Year of Debut: Round 1, Part 5 (1958 - 1960)

[Air Wave]

You asked for it! Now you can vote for your favorite supervillains! Here they are listed chronologically by year of debut. Vote for as many as you like!

[DrNewGod]

Metallo is another one that surprises me with having debuted that late.

[Jim Kelly]

Metallo is another one that surprises me with having debuted that late.

What was surprising to me was that Metallo (John Corben) was a one-shot villain. He died at the end of the story. This was in ACTION COMICS 252 (May 1959), the very same issue that introduced Supergirl (Kara Zor-El). This Metallo story (more or less) was also told in the Superman comic strip--"The Menace of Metallo"--from December 15th, 1958, to April 4th, 1959.

There were two previous villains, unrelated. One was Metalo (George Grant, not the Canadian philosopher) in WORLD'S FINEST COMICS 6 (Summer 1942). He fell in a crevice at the end of the story and Superman left him for dead--but he was actually still alive and vowed to return. But it never seemed like he would until THE SUPERMAN FAMILY 217 (April 1982). The other was Metallo the robot created by Jor-El, who battled Kal-El in SUPERBOY 49 (June 1956)--his only appearance.

John Corben being dead, it was left to Marty Pasko to revive Metallo in the person of John's brother, Roger, who became the new Metallo in SUPERMAN 310 (April 1977)--"The Man with the Kryptonite Heart." He continued to menace the Earth-One Superman right up until the very end.

With the reboot, John Byrne could claim the glory of having created Metallo in SUPERMAN 1 (January 1987)--"Heart of Stone"--and that's the one that probably everybody is thinking of.

In fact, it seems like most villains are either one-shots or short-timers appearing in only a couple of stories, before they are abandoned, presumably never to be used again. Decades go by and then someone has the idea to revive them--sometimes completely overhauling the character for the new decade.

[Air Wave]

Gorilla Grodd leads the pack here so far.

[Sutekh]

Gorilla Grodd leads the pack here so far.

Put a gorilla on the cover, and it will move units!

Which wasn't meant to sound like an innuendo, but there it sits.