Magnificent Bastard / DC Series

Ra's al Ghul: I know it's difficult to fathom, Bruce, but Jeremiah and I are doing this for your benefit.
Bruce Wayne: How is destroying Gotham supposed to help me?
Ra's al Ghul: Because I had a vision, that out of this crucible of blood and fire, will rise the Dark Knight that your city needs. That I need.

— Gotham, "No Man's Land"

Just like their source material, shows based on DC Comics have several smooth and clever criminal masterminds.

Animated works can be found here.

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

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The following have their own pages

• Arrowverse
• Batman (1966)

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Other examples

Gotham

Examples

• Ra's Al Ghul is the leader of the League of Assassins and the true brains behind the Court of Owls. After unleashing a deadly virus on Gotham, a brainwashed Bruce Wayne is sent to Ra's, where he orders him to stab Alfred Pennyworth. Bruce obeys, but breaks free of his conditioning. Ra's escapes, but not without letting Bruce use the Lazarus Pit to save Alfred. Ra's later returns searching for a mysterious knife. After killing the knife's previous owner and later on his son, Ra's turns himself in and is sent to Blackgate Penitentiary, and has his guards infiltrate the facility. Bruce later arrives to confront Ra's, and Ra's successfully goads him into killing him. Ra's is later resurrected by his loyal followers, and after regaining his powers from Barbara Kean, teams up with Jeremiah Valeska to turn Gotham into a no man's land, and kidnaps Bruce to take him to a building where they can witness the city's destruction. Ra's then dies during a battle with Bruce and Barbara, but not before congratulating the latter for her efforts, and telling the former that he must now choose to remain Bruce Wayne, or become Gotham's Dark Knight. Charming and intelligent, Ra's stood out as one of the most cunning criminals Gotham ever faced.
• Poison Ivy, once the young orphan Ivy Pepper, then a ditzy Femme Fatale-wannabe, transforms herself into a truly dangerous threat to all of Gotham. With none of the immaturity of her previous incarnations, Ivy quickly sets about creating a poison that can kill people by turning them into plants, which she uses in her crusade to tear down Wayne Enterprises for the damage they've done to the environment. However, upon discovering their experiments with the Lazarus Pit, Ivy uses the substance to create an airborne version of her poison in order to return the entire city to nature. Armed with a hypnotizing perfume that allows her to quickly amass followers or lure enemies into traps, Ivy's brilliance is further showcased when she distracts Gordon from pursuing her with a vial of her poison's antidote, then later tricks Bruce into thinking she's an innocent victim so that she can slaughter those who have captured her. Not without some honor despite her misanthropy, Ivy nonetheless takes advantage of Gotham becoming a No Man's Land to both poison the city's water and brainwash Zsasz into attacking Gordon, hoping to create a human-free green paradise and easily escaping when foiled.
• Season 3 (Heroes Rise arc): The Sensei is the leader of the Court of Owls, managing the group of privileged families and their plan to destroy Gotham on behalf of Ra's Al Ghul. Responsible for creating the Court's unflinchingly loyal Talon assassins, the Sensei uses the same method by which these deadly soldiers are forged to mold Bruce into the perfect servant of the Demon's Head. Having the young Wayne abducted and replaced with a clone, the Sensei forces him to confront the trauma of his parents' murder and convinces him that his rage and pain are hindrances to his desire to save Gotham, guiding him in submitting to the Talons' brainwashing process so he can be reforged into a true protector. The Sensei, upon returning to Gotham, turns the Talons on the Court in revenge for the unapproved murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne, before releasing the Tetch Virus to see Gotham annihilated. Though killed in the process, the Sensei leaves Bruce instructions on how to find his master, loyally intent on seeing the young Wayne find his destiny and emerge as a hero from the ashes of his broken city.
• "The Balloonman": The Balloonman, in reality the mild mannered social worker Davis Lamond, targets corrupt public figures and kills them. Having purchased stolen weather balloons from Carl Smikers, an employee at a weather balloon manufacturing plant, the Balloonman disguises himself as a street vendor before confronting his victims, chaining them to weather balloons and letting them drop from the balloons as they collapse, with a con artist, a vicious and corrupt police officer, and a child molesting priest among his victims. When confronted by Gotham City Police Department Detectives Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock, the Balloonman expresses frustration that the law had shielded his victims from prosecution while they oppressed the innocent. When Gordon refuses to back down, the Balloonman tries to shoot him, only being subdued due to Bullock's intervention.
• "Arkham": "Richard Gladwell"—real name unknown—is a freelance professional assassin who works for both sides of a gang war between Gotham Mob Bosses Carmine Falcone and Sal Maroni, having previously killed a civilian and assumed his identity. Introduced posing as a constituent, Gladwell tricks a councilman in Falcone's pocket and the latter's aide into letting their guard down before killing them with a telescoping spike of his own design. Later burning a councilman in cahoots with Maroni, Gladwell proceeds to attempt the Mayor's assassination, nearly succeeding before being shot by Detectives Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock.
• "Viper": Stan Potolsky is a talented biochemist and a former employee of WellZyn, a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises dedicated to pharmaceuticals, with Potolsky involved in the development of a Super Serum called Viper. Disapproving of the unethical research, Potolsky went to Thomas Wayne who shut down the project, only to have it reopen after the Wayne murders. Potolsky quit his job and sought to expose the truth about WellZyn to the public by handing out vials of Viper to homeless junkies. But after WellZyn's lawyer covered their illegal activities up, Potolsky decided to target the Wayne Enterprises board members for assassination, while also recruiting his old college professor to stall any cops predicted to visit. Disguising himself as a waiter, Potolsky infiltrated a Wayne Enterprises charity event and rigged the ventilation to a tank of Viper. Revealing the truth via a video message, Potolsky is seconds away from gassing the board members, before taking his own life content he has exposed the truth.
• "Lovecraft": Larissa "Copperhead" Diaz is an assassin who spends her episode pursuing Selina Kyle. She's introduced being surprised on Wayne Manor grounds by a gardener who she lulls into a false sense of security before breaking his neck and using his blood to make herself look like an accident victim as a Wounded Gazelle Gambit to attack Selina. She gives both Bruce Wayne and Detective Jim Gordon a chance to save their lives by not opposing her and is impressed enough to spare both of them when they resist her anyway. She also warns Bruce not to mistake bravery for good sense in the future. While she fails to kill Selina, she does eliminate a secondary target, even using Gordon's gun to frame him for the shooting and then escapes as the police arrive.
• "Rogues' Gallery" & "What the Little Bird Told Him": Jack Buchinsky, AKA the Electrocutioner, was the mastermind behind a string of bank robberies under the employment of Sal Maroni before being betrayed and subsequently arrested. Using his connections, he had himself transferred to Arkham Asylum under the falsified profile of "Jack Gruber", a textbook sociopath and rapist, then proceeded to experiment on the inmates using electroshock therapy intending to create the perfect minion, which he succeeds with two such individuals. When Detective Jim Gordon investigates the electroshock cases, Buchinsky manages to evade detection. Using one of his minions to pose as an Arkham nurse to take the fall for the crimes, Buchinsky and his other minion manage to unlock his cell and escape. Upon his release, Buchinsky acquires his old electric weaponry and attempts to assassinate Maroni for his betrayal. With Maroni under protective custody, Buchinsky attacks the Gotham City Police Department directly, electrifying every metal surface and knocking out everyone in the building save for Gordon who defeats him by shorting out his equipment.

Other Continuities

Examples

• Gotham Knights (2023): Henri Ducard is a powerful international assassin responsible for training some of the deadliest fighters in the world, from Turner Hayes' parents to the Batman himself. Years after he sent the former two to assassinate Bruce Wayne, and some months after Turner is framed for his adoptive father's murder, Ducard begins seeing the same potential in him and decides to abduct him. Having his forces intervene in the climactic final battle with the Court of Owls, using specialized weapons to completely decimate both their immortal leader and her unkillable Talons in the process, Ducard uses the Court's plan to destroy Wayne Tower to fake Turner's death in the chaos, spiriting him away to be trained now that his old life is dead and a new one lies ahead of him.
• Lucifer (2016): The decoy of the Sinnerman served as The Dragon to the real Sinnerman, the immortal Cain aka "Marcus Pierce", knowing him since childhood before going rogue for unknown reasons, making favors and murdering people who worked with Cain. Knowing that Lucifer Morningstar is the Devil and seeking to expose Pierce's true identity as both Cain and the Sinnerman, the decoy murders people who Lucifer blessed with favors for to get the Devil's attention. Imprisoning Lucifer in a room with reinforced steel so he won't break the walls, the decoy talks to him through a TV and keeps his glasses on so Lucifer cannot use his powers to reveal the decoy's deepest desire. After being arrested by Pierce and Chloe Decker, gouging his eyes out with a pen so Lucifer won't find out his desire, and tricking an entire precinct by forcing a woman to fake her own abduction, Lucifer kidnaps him and has the demon Mazikeen torture him. Moments before death, the decoy reveals his deepest desire was for Lucifer to kill him, and successfully outs Pierce as the real Sinnerman. In a world with celestials, the decoy manages to make his own existence an urban legend, all while still a mortal.
• Peacemaker (2022):
  • "Royland Goff", real name Eek Stack Ik Ik, led her people the Butterflies to Earth after her own world was destroyed. Seeing the same kind of corruption that destroyed her planet in humanity, Eek Stack Ik Ik decided to conquer the world in order to save it, and leads her people in an insidious, body-jacking invasion force to slowly take over America first. Taking the body of a US Senator named Royland Goff, Eek Stack Ik Ik ends up genuinely bonding with Peacemaker after a period of captivity and—after breaking out, wiping out the local police precinct to the tune of Reckless Love's "Monster," and preparing to relocate the "cow" from which the Butterflies derive their food source—tries to reason with Peacemaker instead of fighting with him. Peacemaker is sincerely captivated by "Goff's" willpower and intentions, and even after he kills the cow, "Goff" holds nothing against him.
  • "Clemson Murn," real name Ik Nobe Llok, is a Butterfly who turned on his people after seeing "Goff's" designs for Earth. Taking over the body of a sociopathic mercenary, Murn becomes the taskmaster for Peacemaker and his team in taking down the Butterflies while simultaneously concealing from them his own alien origins. So efficient he takes even "Goff" off-guard, Murn fights to his last breath for humanity's survival and sacrifices himself to keep "Goff" away from them, telling them it's been an honor.
• The Sandman (2022):
  • Desire is the fifth of the Endless and twin of Despair. Despising their elder brother Dream, Desire remains behind the scenes to ensure Dream is imprisoned by the Burgess maguses and then seduces the sleeping Dream Vortex, Unity Kincaid, to father a child by Unity in her sleep. Desire then sets a plan in motion so that Dream will be forced to kill Unity's descendant Rose or be consumed by her as the Dream Vortex. Cheerily admitting to their schemes when caught, Desire only notes with glee that they managed to get under Dream's skin, vowing to draw blood the next time.
  • Ethel Cripps is a wily manipulator who ingratiates herself into the Burgess household as Roderick's mistress to share in his fortunes. When Roderick demands she terminate her pregnancy years into their relationship, Ethel swipes Roderick's prized collection of Dream's tools and flees into the night, setting up a bountiful life for herself and her son, John. Ethel trades Dream's tools for the Amulet of Protection which unnaturally extends her youth, and enables her to not only create a successful ring of artifact thievery, but also fight off the Corinthian himself. To prove her love for John once and for all, Ethel sacrifices herself to bestow the Amulet upon him, swearing her adoration for her son to her dying breath.
• Smallville: Lionel Luthor dominated the show for all seven seasons in which he appeared. Originally created to explain how Lex grew up to become a villain himself, Lionel became a power unto himself in the show, and for the first three seasons was a virtually untouchable threat who easily undercut any efforts by Lex or even Clark Kent himself to act against him. Jailed in Season 4, Lionel proved he was still capable of reaching out to touch anyone, anywhere, whenever he wanted, and after his release from prison and subsequent Heel–Face Turn, remained the show's most potent manipulator. When an alternate version of Lionel was brought to Earth-1, he discovered he truly cared for Lex and made a plan to revive him using body parts of failed clones. Planning to use Tess's heart to finish the process, Lionel kidnaps her and eventually sacrifices his own heart in a deal with Darkseid to bring Lex back to life. In a show filled with mutants, aliens, and meteor freaks, Lionel Luthor was still the most dangerous man around, and no matter who he was sharing space with, always managed to feel like the most powerful person in the room.
• Stargirl (2020):
  • Icicle, aka Jordan Mahkent, vowed to eliminate the "injustices" of the world after the death of his wife by forming the Injustice Society of America with the promise of a brighter future for their children. Jordan planned to use Brainwave's telepathic abilities to spread the doctrine of his "New Constitution"—killing 25% of those affected but forcing every adult in the Midwest into accepting renewable energy and social equality—and when his team subsequently come into conflict with the Justice Society he led a successful attack that utterly decimated their membership. Later returning after his defeat at the hands of the new JSA, Icicle allies with Dragon King and the Ultra-Humanite to ensure his son's place as a hero, having the former harass Blue Valley to provide an enemy to unite against while the latter steals Starman's body; with his son's happiness secured, Icicle planned to then have "Starman" run for president, acting as a mouthpiece for him to enforce his benevolent ideals on the nation. A genuinely compassionate man despite his extreme methods, Jordan nonetheless let nothing stand in the way of his mission, fighting to his last breath against what he saw as injustice.
  • Sportsmaster and Tigress, aka Lawrence "Crusher" Crock and Paula Brooks, are the delightfully evil yet wholesome brute killers of the ISA. Participating in Icicle's New America plan to create a better country for their daughter Artemis, the two serve as Jordan's most dreaded personal enforcers as they effortlessly battle their way through the new JSA, all while Crusher genuinely tries to befriend Pat Dugan through fitness advice. While eventually incarcerated with the ISA's defeat, the Crocks let not even prison stop them as they nonchalantly break out to visit Artemis during her college football tryouts, then break back in to appease the Whitmores. Later returning to help stop Eclipso, the Crocks legally secure their release despite their litany of crimes before moving back into Blue Valley, proving their worth as sincere friends and allies of the JSA as they reform to talk the Mahkents out of total war. Gleefully unrepentant of their past evils yet unconditionally loving and supportive of those they call their friends, the Crocks leave an undeniable impact on the Whitmore family, with Artemis continuing to carry on their legacy as she uses their lessons to avenge their deaths and become one of the greatest heroes of the new age.
  • The Shade, aka Richard Swift, is a charming thief and conman who retains a code of honor among his more nefarious compatriots in the ISA. Opposing the malevolent Eclipso's influence over the decades, the Shade helped the JSA kill his human host when the demon came to possess Bruce Gordon and befriended Dr. Mid-Nite in the conflict, later saving the hero's life during the ISA's attack out of disgust for Icicle's murderous plans. Reemerging years later to ensure Eclipso's Black Diamond is safely disappeared, the Shade retains his charismatic affability as he slowly gains the trust of the suspicious Whitmore family to aid them in fighting the demon. Despite tricking the new JSA into recreating the Black Diamond to restore his powers when he is injured, the Shade nonetheless helps the heroes escape the Shadowlands and, after faking his death for no reason other than "a flair for the dramatic," returns to save Beth's parents and help stop the demon for good. Going on to mentor the other children and legacies of the JSA, the Shade ends the series a full-fledged hero, fighting beside his newfound friends and ensuring their own legacies live on forever.
• Watchmen (2019): Lady Trieu is the daughter of Adrian "Ozymandias" Veidt and just as brilliant and devious as her father. Seeking godhood, Trieu builds an empire on her own, using the racist Seventh Kavalry for her own purposes, manipulating them with her own devices and plan so they can capture Dr. Manhattan for her. Trieu proceeds to wipe out all the leaders of the Kavalry while bringing her father to witness her victory; with even Ozymandias left helpless against her until Dr. Manhattan himself intervenes.

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