A good villain requires two things. First, they need to provide a challenge for your hero; make them question their beliefs and what they stand for. And two, they need to garner sympathy or understanding from the audience. If your audience asks themselves, “Would I become a villain if I was pushed that far?” you’ve done an excellent job. DC comics have created some of the most memorable villains, from manipulative psychopaths who love to play games with Batman to misunderstood geniuses who crack under pressure. But, unfortunately, now and then, they come out with a villain that makes absolutely no sense and leaves you wondering who gave the green light for that character. Let’s look at some of the worst DC villains.
11. Captain Boomerang
George “Digger” Harkness is a bit of a strange character concept. He is an Australian criminal who learned how to carve and throw boomerangs accurately to impress his absentee father in case he ever met him. His case isn’t really helped by the fact that he was made a villain of the fastest man alive.
He’s one of the worst DC villains for several reasons. First, he isn’t brilliant and has landed himself in many difficult situations several times throughout the comics because of it. He’s no match for the Flash (Barry Allen). One of the most commendable things about him was that he could escape Kahndaq while the rest of his team couldn’t, for various reasons. When he was finally sent to Belle Reve Penitentiary, Amanda Waller selected him as a member of her Suicide Squad.
10. Crazy Quilt
Paul Dekker is a Batman villain. The painter was a crime lord who was driven insane after he went blind due to a side-splitting attempt on his life. He underwent experimental surgery and found himself only able to see disorienting bright colours.
Crazy Quilt is mostly useless. His plans to steal the colours from Gotham City were ruined when Robin realised he was using a water-soluble dye that was quickly removed. As a result, he’s been defeated by the Boy Wonder several times and was eventually permanently blinded by him while still recovering from experimental eye surgery.
DC writers reimagined the character in the New 52, but it did nothing to help his status as one of the worst DC villains. Like previous versions of the character, he was obsessed with the idea of immortality, which was eventually his undoing. Crazy Quilt’s power comes from his helmet, which allows him to hypnotise his victims and even see.
9. Kite Man
Charles Brown is one of the worst DC villains. While his origin story adds something to the character, he is completely useless and doesn’t do anything for the most part. During the Battle of Jokes and Riddles, Batman (Bruce Wayne) contacted Brown, who agreed to be a spy for him on the Joker’s side, officially joining the Joker’s side and taking the name Kite Man after an unfortunate incident with the Riddler and Brown’s son.
He gave up the quest for vengeance and has become a petty criminal. He spends his time stealing jewellery and selling his kites to other criminals. He’s considered a joke by fans and by many DC characters and was one of the first villains Gotham Girl ever caught.
8. Clock King
Billy Tockman was once an engineer who worked at Queen Industries but was fired by Robert Queen, who he claims took advantage of his research and ruined his career. Later in life, Tockman’s grudge fell to Oliver, and he became a villain to Green Arrow (and occasionally Batman).
His love for clocks extends to his outfits and weapons. He might be a genius who could predict people’s actions and invent a watch that could stop the wearer’s heart, but that doesn’t change his status as one of the worst DC villains. The cheesy name and poor character design don’t help his case much. His costumes value form over function (I will never know how a giant clockface seems like a good idea for a mask), and he’s been defeated many times. For example, Cat Woman once beat him because he wasn’t expecting her to crash through a window.
7. Ten-Eyed Man
Philip Reardon is the worst villain ever introduced in DC comic books. He is a former soldier who was blinded in an accident and received experimental surgery connecting his optic nerves to his fingers. However, he managed to convince a doctor who sheltered him from his fingers’ supernatural sight when he predicted the location of Double X and later found Solomon Grundy.
Reardon is a relatively useless character. He claims he has magic and often performs rituals for various purposes, but this has never been proven. He has the strange ability to remove victims’ organs without causing injury or harm.
6. The Condiment King
Buddy Standler is one of the worst DC villains ever created. A joke both out- and in-universe, the Condiment King isn’t even a villain. To get revenge on Standler for scoffing at him years ago, the Joker used Mad Hatter’s mind control technology to brainwash the comedian and turn him into a condiment-themed villain.
A second iteration of the character was Mitchell Mayo. Mayo allied himself with Penguin to help go after Harley Quinn but turned “legit” after all the villains were defeated and opened a restaurant on Coney Island. It didn’t take long for him to return to his life of crime. The only helpful thing about the condiment king would be spraying hot sauce in peoples’ eyes.
5. Rainbow Raider
From an early age, Roy G. Bivolo was a talented painter. Unfortunately, he was also colour-blind, so his determined father tried to create goggles that would allow Roy to see in full colour. Unfortunately, Roy didn’t receive the gift until his father passed away, and it didn’t quite do what it was supposed to.
Instead, they projected beams of light that could do everything from making him invisible to affecting someone’s emotions. Unable to pursue art, he instead turned to crime, using the goggles to work his way into Flash’s Rogue Gallery.
Despite being one of the worst DC villains, he was still revived as a Black Lantern during the events of Blackest Night. He briefly went as Chroma during the events of New 52 and was defeated by Gorilla Grodd after he asked to share control of the city.
4. Egg Fu
His inability to stay alive makes Chang Tzu one of the worst DC villains. He has been blasted to pieced by several characters, including Will Magnus, Cassandra Cain, Power Girl and Wonder Woman, but he returns every time.
Tzu established the Science Squad, who were responsible for bioengineering the Four Horsemen (mighty beings) and was responsible for his own destruction when he took Will’s bipolar medication, as he believed it suppressed his creativity. Will unleashed miniature Metal Men on him and defeated Tzu using a partial wave gun.
This first event doubled to free Black Adam, who Tzu had kidnapped and attempted to sell. He has multiple names and won’t hesitate to destroy anything that laughs at his name, even if they are one of his own guards. There is another version of the character referred to as Edgar Fullerton Yeung, and at this point, it feels like the character keeps being brought back so the writers can make terrible egg puns.
3. Blue Snowman
Byrna Brilyant is an old foe of Wonder Woman, a thief, and a former member of the Ice Pack who battled various heroes throughout their tenure as villains. The Washington, D.C. press named the mecha suit after its powers and colour.
Brilyant had wired their brain into the cerebellum into the suit, so when Wonder Woman crashed the suit, their brain crashed with it. Only afterwards did Diana realise a woman was inside the Blue Snowman. Wonder Woman has easily defeated the Blue Snowman several times and once did so with the help of Steve Trevor.
2. Hector Hammond
Hector Hammond is one of the villains of the Green Lantern Corps and one of the worst DC villains. He started as a petty criminal who happened upon a strange meteor in the woods. To test the meteor’s capabilities, he kidnapped four scientists. Exposing them to the radiation caused their intelligence to evolve, but their wills were sapped, and Hammond immediately took advantage of this, forcing them to build him new inventions.
He sold these, but Hal Jordan soon became aware of his activities and investigated what he was doing, suspecting that he was behind the four scientists’ kidnappings. Nevertheless, he easily defeated them and returned the four scientists (and his friend, whom he had used as bait) to their normal state.
Hammond managed to escape and decided to fully expose himself to the meteorite, which didn’t go too well for him. His brain grew exponentially, granting him immortality, telepathy and telekinesis. Unfortunately, he also became unable to speak or use his body, so he was trapped in a constant, motionless state, not something you want to affect you for the rest of your immortal life.
Hammond has been regularly defeated by Hal Jordan, who manages to outsmart him despite his enhanced genius and was once beaten by Dr Martin Stein. He did become more powerful when he swallowed the Power Battery of the Orange Lantern Corps and was possessed by Ophidian.
1. Polka Dot Man
The Snyderverse reintroduced fans to Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad, and while the DCEU version of him was pretty funny, the comic book version had slightly different powers and was one of the worst DC villains.
Abner Krill was a minor villain whose polka-dots on his gimmicked costume concealed various weapons. He regularly battled Batman and Robin (Dick Grayson) early in their careers. However, during his first appearance in the comics, his ultimate downfall was not caused by Batman (although he had a large part in it), but by a young Robin who used braille on a note Polka-Dot Man forced him to send to Batman.
He became a joke to the other villains in Gotham City, especially after Robin once tracked him with a leopard. Then, during Final Crisis, he joined a gang of other costumed misfits.
Who do you think is the worst DC villain?
Also read: The 18 Most Powerful DC Villains and The 26 Strongest DC Characters, Ranked
