Every Superman Movie Villain Ranked Worst To Best

We'll never forget you, Nuclear Man.

By Jack Pooley /

Superman is of course one of the most iconic superheroes of all time, and few comic book characters have made as much impact on cinema as the Man of Steel.

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Beginning with Richard Donner's groundbreaking 1978 Superman, the property has remained a cinematic mainstay for almost 50 years, even as its popularity with general audiences has waned and then skyrocketed.

But what would a character as impossibly powerful as Superman be without a gallery of villains to oppose him?

Now, it's understandably difficult to rustle up a baddie who can genuinely go toe-to-toe with such an unstoppably potent superhero, so it's little surprise that the villains in Superman movies have offered up mixed results to say the least.

Over nearly a whole half-century, Superman's enemies have ranged from instantly iconic to absolutely dreadful, some posing a genuine, palpable threat to Supes while others were simply too damn silly to take seriously.

They can't all be winners after all, but at least the low-points are low enough that it's tough to believe things will ever get that bad again. The high points, however, set a benchmark that's similarly tough to match...

20. Nuclear Man (Superman IV: The Quest For Peace)

Was anyone ever going to make last place but Superman IV's infamous Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow)?

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Created after a missile containing one of Superman's (Christopher Reeve) hairs is launched into the sun, Nuclear Man is about as lame as superhero villains - let alone Superman baddies - get.

Reliant on the sun for power, rocking a truly ridiculous costume, and inexplicably sounding just like Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) - because Hackman re-dubbed the lines - there simply isn't a single redeemable thing about him.

He may simply be one of Superman IV's many budget-afflicted catastrophes, but at least it's near-impossible for Warner Bros. to ever give Superman a villain this woeful ever again.

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