If you would like an example of comic book villains done right, you don’t need to look further than the Netflix Marvel TV shows. For some reason, they are able to offer unique villains that we learn to love and hate simultaneously. The same cannot be said about some of the stinkers we’ve gotten in comic book movies over the years. Here is our list of some of the worst comic book movie villains. And by worst, we mean crappiest.
17. Dracula (Blade: Trinity)
Blade earned his stripes in the 1970s as a backup story in Tomb of Dracula, popping up during Marvel’s full-on horror binge. That context matters, because by 2004, bringing in Dracula should’ve felt earned. Instead, the film turns him into Drake, a sulky roadblock with speeches about honor and a habit of kidnapping babies when Blade gets too close. Menacing stuff, if you squint. Dominic Purcell barely breaks a sweat, and most of the cast follows his lead. The only signs of life come from Triple H punching things and Ryan Reynolds joking like he knows he won’t be here long.
16. Lex Luthor And Doomsday (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)
A lot of fans trashed Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but not because Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, or Gal Gadot dropped the ball. The real headache came from Lex Luthor and Doomsday. Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex showed up with long, flowing hair, which already felt like a prank on decades of bald-headed canon. He was nothing like the classic Lex fans have learnt to love from the comics or the previous movies. Then Doomsday arrived late, wrecked the movie’s rhythm, and barely resembled the comic version that killed Superman in the 1990s too. Fans waited years for that moment. They didn’t get it.
15. Lenny Luthor (Superman IV: The Quest For Peace)
Lenny Luthor is Lex Luthor’s nephew. He helped Luthor get out of jail and served as his assistant for a time, although Lex considered him incompetent. He also helped Lex create Nuclear Man in Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. Jon Cryer (of Two and a Half Men) is nothing short of awful here. He is so awful that he makes Nuclear Man seem okay. His character is so misplaced that he could easily have shown up as a villain on the ’90s Power Rangers shows.
14. Dr. Hector Hammond (Green Lantern)
Ignoring his freakishly large head in Green Lantern, Peter Sarsgaard is a pretty solid actor. How he ended up being such a ridiculous and awful character in Green Lantern is beyond our understanding. Just look at that head. You can’t take anyone with a head that big seriously. Maybe playing comic book movie villains is not his strong point?
13. Bullseye (Daredevil)
The Irish Bullseye is probably one of the worst career choices ever made by Colin Farrell. I’m surprised he doesn’t take as much heat as Ben Affleck does for 2003’s Daredevil. Look at how bad that costume is. This doesn’t resemble the comic book character at all.
12. Ross Webster (Superman III)
The only character worse than Richard Pryor’s Gus Gorman in Superman III was Robert Vaughn’s Ross Webster, a campy version of Lex Luthor. Okay, maybe he isn’t worse than Pryor, but he is still pretty bad. Everything about this movie is bad. To think that Superman gets outsmarted by these characters is an insult. This is definitely one of the worst comic book movie villains of all time.
11. Rhino (The Amazing Spider-Man 2)
I cringe every time I see Paul-Giamatti as Rhino in Amazing Spider-Man 2. His performance is over the top and incredibly cheesy. His facial expressions… sigh… I can’t deal. I’m not sure what he was thinking here, but this is one of the reasons why there wasn’t a follow-up film. That crappy Rhino destroyed the whole franchise.
10. Selena (Supergirl)
Supergirl had actors like Peter Cook, Peter O’Toole, Mia Farrow and Faye Dunaway, but still somehow to be a completely rubbish movie. That takes some doing. Dunaway as Selena is a cartoonish monstrosity. In her defence, the material was awful, and it almost seems like the director forced her to overact.
9. Slipknot (Suicide Squad)
Slipknot barely survived the movie poster. That’s how short his time was in Suicide Squad. Why does he deserve to be one of the worst comic book movie villains to grace the big screen? Because we can’t even remember a single good thing about him. What a shame. It seems Native Americans are still getting the short end of the stick all these years later.
7. The Mandarin (Iron Man 3)
A lot of fans felt cheated with Iron Man 3. Why? Because the bad guy wasn’t the bad guy. It was an actor playing an actor playing a bad guy. The Mandarin is to Iron Man what the Joker is to Batman. Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley is hilarious in the role, but please… The real Mandarin must still be out there somewhere. This trickery left many fans disappointed.
6. Venom (Spider-Man 3)
Topher Grace is a bad guy! What a laugh! No! How do you take one of Spider-Man’s most notorious villains and turn him into a clown? Eddie Brock deserves more. This is possibly the worst casting of any film ever. Do you think of Venom when you see Eric from That 70s Show? No? Neither do I. Thankfully, Tom Hardy’s version erased the previous version out of memory.
5. Deadpool (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
Even the new Deadpool makes fun of this version. Infamously known for horribly misrepresenting the character, Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine is shamelessly shoehorned into the film for cheap shock value. Whose idea was it to make The Merc With A Mouth a mute? Fire that guy. I’m so glad that this character was redeveloped and given a second chance. Thankfully, we got the Deadpool fans deserved.
4. Galactus (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer)
There is something wrong with your film if a cloud in space is your main villain. Galactus certainly deserved more than this laughably weak portrayal in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Perhaps they were running low on budget or didn’t know how to approach the character, but the end result is so lacklustre.
3. Doctor Doom (Fant4stic Four)
Sparkles! Sparkles everywhere! Toby Kebbell is such a good actor. Doctor Doom, sadly, isn’t one of his better moments. It would have been interesting to see what this character would have been like had the studio not interfered. As is, though, it’s awful. It’s like watching a Terminator who swallowed a string of Christmas lights step out of a toaster. Fant4stic Four‘s Doctor Doom deserves a place on the list of the worst comic book movie villains to grace the big screen.
2. Bane (Batman & Robin)
Bane is supposed to have muscles. Big muscles. Here he is, looking like a chubby guy with too many veins painted on. I’m going to go ahead and assume that the creators never read a single comic book about the character. He is supposed to be a match for Batman intellectually and physically. This mute wrestler-looking Bane is not. He looks like a giant toad with a bondage mask. He deserves his place on this list of worst comic book movie villains to grace the big screen.
1. Laurel Hedare (Catwoman)
A good villain might have helped Catwoman. Instead, we got Sharon Stone representing the evil face of the cosmetic industry. The performance is uneven, and her motivations in the film are nothing short of ridiculous. Catwoman was clearly made with an agenda of creating awareness for animal cruelty. Dammit, PETA, stop funding projects like this. What a disaster. There is no denying that this is one of the worst comic book movie villains to grace the big screen.
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Who are we missing from the list? Who do you think are the worst comic book movie villains?
