10 Comic Book Villains Who Deserve Their Own Movie

The age of heroes has ended. Now it’s time to bring on the bad guys. The upcoming Clayface movie is just the latest example of supervillains getting the spotlight. Not only did Clayface’s fellow Arkham inmate the Joker get two feature films, but Lex Luthor will be the co-lead of the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow, and Doctor Doom will drive Avengers: Doomsday. On the small screen, Loki and Penguin carried their own shows, and Kingpin is the co-lead of Daredevil: Born Again.

Impressive as this list certainly is, studios have only begun to scratch the surface of interesting supervillains. Let’s look at some of the most compelling evildoers in comic book history, some bad guys who deserve to do good on the silver screen!

Baron Zemo

Last year’s Thunderbolts* remains one of the best recent Marvel offerings. But for all that movie got right, we can’t help but lament the loss of a proper Thunderbolts movie, one that adapted the team’s original incarnation from the mid-1990s. The first Thunderbolts were the Masters of Evil disguised as superheroes, and led by the wonderfully hammy Baron Zemo.

Although we’ve seen Baron Zemo in Captain America: Civil War and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, played by the able Daniel Brühl, that soulful sad sack has little to do with the blustery baddie of the comics. A proper Baron Zemo movie would have to lean into his pure awfulness, even if it told a Thunderbolts-style story, in which he begins to see the value of heroism when masquerading as the dashing Citizen V. Also, the film would have to be very, very clear that Zemo is 100% a villain if he harbors any fascist sympathies.

Bizarro

Even though he’s really only appeared in the most recent Superman movie, and even then in a slightly skewed form, Bizarro is a perfect bad guy concept. Since his first appearance in 1958’s Superboy #68, written by Otto Binder and penciled by George Papp, Bizarro has been everything from a defective clone to a denizen of a counter-Earth to a Kryptonian gone wrong. No matter how he’s explained, Bizarro is fundamentally Superman’s perfect opposite, down to his tendency to say “No” when he means “Yes” and “Bad” when he means “Good.”

A great Bizarro movie would take place on Htrae (Earth, backwards), the Bizarro World introduced in the Silver Age. For the most part, the movie would play it straight, with Bizarro as the Superman of a backwards reality, taking advantage of all the absurd comedy the premise invites. Would that make for a good movie? In Bizarro-speak, “No!” In regular-speak, “Absolutely!”

Darkseid

Even the biggest Zack Snyder hater has to admit that the director’s take on Justice League villain Darkseid isn’t uniquely bad. It’s bad, to be sure, as is every other story that reduces the New Gods antagonist to just a generic villain bent on conquering the universe, but even greats like John Byrne and Jim Starlin have mishandled the Jack Kirby creation.

A film would be an opportunity to show Darkseid in his full, soul-crushing glory. The movie would certainly deal with Darkseid’s origin, showing how he went from Prince Uxas to become the absolute ruler of the planet Apokolips. And it might even show Darkseid’s ultimate end, destroyed by his own son, Orion. But the film must primarily illustrate Darkseid’s worldview, his commitment to destroying all vivaciousness and individuality, his desire to control the Anti-Life Equation.

Green Goblin

The Green Goblin is one of the most recognizable comic book villains, and not just because Willem Dafoe put in such an incredible performance in the Spider-Man movies. He matches the Joker’s hideous smile with a lizard-like green pallor, topping it all off with a cool glider jet and distinctive pumpkin bombs. Gobbie will forever be in the supervillain hall of fame, if only for throwing Gwen Stacy off the George Washington bridge, resulting in Peter Parker accidentally killing the love of his life.

Yet, Norman isn’t all evil. When not corrupted by the formula that gave him his incredible abilities, Norman Osborn is just your run-of-the-mill industrialist, who seeks power and success to avoid dealing with the death of his wife. In his most interesting stories, Norman is also a victim of the Goblin. An interesting movie could be made about Norman trying to build his company and convincing himself that he’s fundamentally good, while wrestling with the Green Goblin deep within him.

Junkman

Unless you’re a fan of indie comics from the 1990s, you’ve probably never heard of the Junkman. And that’s the tragedy of the character. Born Hiram Potterstone, Junkman troubles the heroes of Astro City, the titular setting of the great series from writer Kurt Busiek. Like all of the Astro City characters, the Junkman riffs on established superhero tropes, recalling classic evil geniuses such as Paste Pot Pete or Gizmo.

A Junkman film would adapt the character’s sole appearance, in 1997’s Kurt Busiek’s Astro City #10, written by Busiek and penciled by Brent Anderson. The story “Show ‘Em All” finds Hiram spending his old age on a sunny beach in South America, enjoying his millions after pulling off the perfect crime. There’s just one problem: his heist was so perfect that no one knows he did it. In fact, no one believes he can pull it off at all. Junkman’s story is a classic “careful what you wish for” tale, told through the cape and cowl perspective.

Magneto

In his first appearance in 1963’s X-Men #1, Magneto captures an American military base and threatens to use its explosives against ordinary humans. Such was the standard supervillain stuff that the Master of Magnetism did throughout the Silver Age, at least until writer Chris Claremont took over the X-Men. Under Claremont’s guidance, Magneto not only received pardon for his crimes from the UN (in part because he was turned into a baby and then into an adult, because comics) but even his evil deeds were re-examined in light of his history as a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust.

A good Magneto movie could expand the bits we saw in X-Men: First Class, when Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) used his powers to hunt and execute former Nazis. A great Magneto movie would examine that history in light of his own supervillainy, exploring the way the oppressed can become an oppressor. That moral complexity has always often been present in the comics, but a full feature could give the concept the attention it deserves.

Monsieur Mallah and the Brain

Most of the bad guys on this list are fighters. But Monsieur Mallah and the Brain are lovers. The couple’s first appearance in 1964’s Doom Patrol #86, by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani, followed the standard model for an adventure featuring the world’s strangest heroes, with the Brain guiding Mallah and other members of the Brotherhood of Evil in a Silver Age caper with a Doom Patrol twist. But when Grant Morrison began writing Doom Patrol in the ’80s, they reimagined the two as devoted lovers seeking against the team’s leader, Niles Caulder, aka the Chief.

A movie focused on Monsieur Mallah and the Brain would take a cue from the Morrison run. The two would still belong to the Brotherhood of Evil, but, apropos of Morrison’s perspective-twisting approach, they would fight for liberation against restrictive normality. And at the center of it all would be a love story, which must be played as seriously as possible, despite all the absurdity going on around them.

Mystique

In a way, Mystique has already led a movie or two, if we count the First Class era of X-Men movies, in which Jennifer Lawrence‘s star-power pushed her shapeshifter to the forefront. But any X-Men fan can tell you that neither she nor the blue femme fatale played by Rebecca Romijn had much to do with the character from the comics.

A proper Mystique movie would draw more closely from the comics. The film could feature Mystique leading the Freedom Force, a group of evil mutants doing work for the U.S. government, and forever trying to outwit her handler Val Cooper. Or it could adapt the Brian K. Vaughn series from the 2000s, an espionage tale that made the most of her covert abilities. Perhaps it could draw from the recent Krakoa arc, in which Mystique was willing to burn down the mutant paradise to reunite with her lost wife, Destiny. And those are just three options out of the multitude offered by the multifarious mutant.

Star Sapphire

Ask most Green Lantern fans, and they’ll say that arch-enemy Sinestro deserves more attention. But the more compelling member of Hal Jordan’s Rogues Gallery is the one who is closest to him, the space-faring Star Sapphire. When introduced in 1962’s Green Lantern #16, by John Broome and Gil Kane, Star Sapphire was the alter-ego of Jordan’s girlfriend Carol Ferris, who gets turned into a murderous man-hater by an alien gem.

Over the years, the icky qualities of that original concept have been revised, to the point now that Carol has gained control over the gem and, in addition to no longer trying to force Green Lantern to marry her, has become a member of the Justice League. A great Star Sapphire movie would take place at the point of that change, with Carol still tempted by the obsessive feelings invoked by the gem, but fighting for a healthier understand of the power of love.

The Tick

As much as we would absolutely adore a film about the big blue bug of justice, that’s not the Tick we’re talking about. No, we want to see a movie about Barry Hubris, the guy who claims he was the Tick before the Tick. Barry first appears in 1986’s The Tick #11, written and drawn by creator Ben Edlund, demanding that the nigh-invincible blue guy give up the moniker and restore it to him. Of course, the Tick and Arthur win the right to keep the name, which drives Barry to remove his costume… and everything else, and spend the rest of his days running around in the nude.

A movie about Barry would build on the character’s later appearances, where we learn that he too was an inmate at Evanston Asylum, where the Tick we know and love got his gimmick, and that he makes a habit of stealing the identities of other super-people. A comedic film following Barry as he battles with the voices in his head and trying to find a superhero name that fits him would make for a delightful comic book parody, worthy of the name “the Tick.”