100 Greatest Comic Book Villains Of All Time

10. Darkseid

Darkseid1FIRST APPEARANCE: SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #134 (1970) Darkseid is among DC's most powerful characters, a New God who can vaporise any organism with the Omega Beam fired from his eyes, and he can also use its power to resurrect an organism should he so wish. His more complex powers include travelling through time and space, and his ability to place an enemy in the Omega Sanction, which essentially traps the victim in a series of increasingly traumatic, horrifying alternate realities, which will surely erode their mental state, if they even survive it physically. Darkseid's physical abilities can easily match Superman's, with the added touch that he can also increase his size, can employ telepathy and telekineses, and for all intents and purposes is immortal. That said, with all of these powers, Darkseid tends to stick to a strategic, intellect-driven role, preferring to play the long game and call the shots from afar.

9. Red Skull

Red SkullFIRST APPEARANCE: CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #7 (1941) Johann Schmidt is a high-ranking Nazi officer, and his grotesquely scarred face caused him to earn the apt moniker Red Skull. Despite his surreal look, he doesn't in fact have any supernatural powers, but is instead an extremely intelligent strategist, while also in peak physical fitness, and capable both with ranged weapons and in hand-to-hand combat. Still, his rather alarming appearance unsurprisingly begets an occasionally theatrical attitude; he often carries about his person a cigarette containing poison gas, which will kill a regular human within mere seconds of making contact with the skin or lungs. Some of his more peculiar and fascinating episodes include Schmidt's mind entering the body of a Captain America clone, giving him the very same physical advantages that Cap has, and also melding his own mind with Charles Xavier's, granting him telepathic abilities. Red Skull was played with superbly over-the-top vigour by Hugo Weaving in 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger.

8. Doctor Doom

Dr. Doom 1FIRST APPEARANCE: THE FANTASTIC FOUR #5 (1962) Victor Von Doom is one of the most intelligent characters in the history of comic books, often proving himself capable of scientific feats that even the collective Fantastic Four cannot. As his alter ego Doctor Doom, he is a famed sorcerer, capable of project energy shields and even conjuring demonic entities, while his armour allows him to withstand blasts from even Iron Man, and he can even use it to survive long periods of time underwater and out in space. Like so many villains, however, Doom's failures are often a result of his own arrogance, something he naturally doesn't seem so keen to recognise. Oddly, though, Doom does have a strict moral code, meaning that he will save even his biggest foes if they have previously stopped him from dying, often to the extent that this may interfere with his plans. This code extends to killing those who might try to kill the Fantastic Four, because he wants to beat them on a level playing field, without them being in a weakened state. Doom was played by Julian McMahon in two totally underwhelming Fantastic Four movies to date.
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