10 Most Brutal Comic Book Villains

3. The Joker

The Clown Prince of Crime is the perfect example of how you don't to be an all-powerful intergalactic being, you don't have to be a god-like figure, and you don't even need any discernible superpowers, to be a truly brutal, clinical villain.

Depending on what canon you're sticking to, the Joker has a rap sheet that reads like very few others.

From skinning a man alive, to blowing up a school full of children, to crippling Barbara Gordon, to murdering Jim Gordon's wife Sarah Essen, to destroying Metropolis and sending Superman into a spiral of hate.

There is also, of course, the case of him brutalising poor Jason Todd with a crowbar before exploding a building and sending the second Robin to the afterlife - they don't come more vicious, vindictive, and violent that the Joker.

Those moments? they're just a select few shocking acts of terror that jump to mind at the drop of a hat. Make no mistake about it, there are so many other heinous acts that have been carried out by the Jester of Genocide over the decades - and all with no special powers or abilities, per se, to speak of.