Ranking Every DC Movie Villain From Worst To Best

Even without the tragedy of his death or the added poignancy added by the ridiculous fanboy outrage that greeted his casting, Heath Ledger's transformative, irresistible performance as the Joker would still deserve to be counted as the best DC movie performance. That's not just in terms of villainy either.

Though he's in no way a faithful adaptation, the important thing Christopher Nolan took from the source for his villain was the sense of mystery and a commitment to raining chaos down. Without the grounding of the comics, the question of where he got those scars becomes infinitely more important: he's a bona fide enigma and while there's something devilish in his teases, it's better that we don't know where he came from.

Instead, it's better to imagine he was vomited out of the Earth as a response to Batman existing: they complete each other in a binary romance - which is something no Batman film has got right before or since. He is the darkness that makes Bats' light possible.

And underneath all the layers of complexity is a startling performance by Ledger; a raw, stripped nerve of anxiety and excessive energy. He doesn't have limits, he's brutal and he is deeply, worryingly charismatic. We shouldn't love him, but thanks to Ledger's tics and that disarming charm, we absolutely do despite everything. Why else would the pencil trick be so thrilling?

The Dark Knight is available to buy over at Amazon.

Which DC movie villain do you think belong at the top of this list? Share your assessment below in the comments thread.