10 Best Super Villains (With No Super Powers)

Some of the most popular characters around are villains. They’re not confined by difficult, abstract concepts like justice, morality or right and wrong, and so are free to have much wilder narratives. Whether they’re showy, deranged, brutal or all of the above, villains are very rarely boring.

And every good hero needs a good villain - a strong nemesis for them to come up against, or a challenge to test them to their limits.

Not only are these villains evil and powerful foes for the heroes of Marvel, DC and beyond, they’re able to provide that match up without any super powers of their own. Some of them face off against heroes without powers too (like Batman), while others can go toe to toe with the super powered good guys and still come out the other side.

Some of them augment their powers via technology, costumes or technological costumes, while others get along just fine on their own. Either way, they provide challenging match ups, interesting stories and sinister moments in their comic books. We might want the heroes to win in the end, but it would be nowhere near as fun without these great antagonists.

Mysterio’s whole schtick is having no powers, so it only seems fitting that he kicks off the list. With Jake Gyllenhaal winning praise for his Mysterio portrayal in recent billion dollar blockbuster Spider-Man: Far From Home, the villain is also being introduced to new audiences. However, in the comic book world, the illusion based charlatan has always been a fairly popular villain.

He’s not without his detractors though. The fishbowl design is so infamously goofy that when it looked half decent in the movie, there was widespread shock. Unlike the others here, it’s not so much that he perseveres and thrives without powers either.

It’s more that he so desperately wants powers, and manages to fool the world that he has them... at least some of the time. Still, that’s a mightily impressive feat in and of itself.

The special effects wizard goes rogue when he fails to land a Hollywood job, rather than because Tony Stark marginalised his contributions and gave BARF a silly name, as happened in the movie.

Despite his lack of powers, his illusions often put up quite the fight; he once pitted Spidey against robotic, evil versions of the X-Men. Definitely still a powerful villain, despite no actual powers.