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Image from Action Comics #544, art by Ed Hannigan

"Think the countdown's almost up. So you and mom can argue about morals and values all you want but you're both about to meet up with Daddy El. Glad I got to complete the whole family set."

Superman is one of the oldest superheroes, and the Man of Steel is the symbol for goodness and heroism in the DC universe. So it's not surprising that the members of his Rogues Gallery, which is appropriately massive, are the exact opposite. There are a few that are exceptionally vile, however.

This is for the comics only. Other examples for the franchise can be found elsewhere:

  • Examples from animated works (and related comics) can be found here.
  • Examples from films can be found here.
  • Examples from literature can be found here.
  • Examples from non-animated TV series can be found here and here Specifically .
  • Examples from video games (and related comics) can be found here
  • Examples from unproduced scripts can be found here.

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!


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Pre-Crisis

Recurring Villains

    Examples 
  • Alexei Luthor, from Earth-Two, is far more heartless and cruel than his Earth-One counterpart. Endeavoring to take over Europe, Alexei would try to start a large war, only to be foiled by Superman. Steadily succumbing to hate and bloodthirst, Alexei tried to destroy the Daily Star to murder everyone Superman had ever loved before being found by Lex Luthor. Hijacking Lex's plan, Alexei planned to crash Earth-One and Earth-Two into one another, annihilating both realities, in order to take Earth-Three as a "consolation prize".
  • Brainiac, the Coluan android, is possibly Superman's greatest Arch-Enemy after Lex Luthor. His crimes over the years range from shrinking cities and planets for his private collection, to coldly slaughtering thousands in a quest to destroy the "Master Programmer" (Superman) and become God. During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Brainiac tried to exploit the chaos of the oncoming apocalypse to his own ends, gathering an army of supervillains with which to conquer the universe, and icily vaporizing Earth-2's Alexei Luthor when he objected to the robotic mastermind's plan. When Brainiac truly proved he was beyond redemption, however, was when he brainjacked Lex Luthor, his one friend in the supervillain community, and led an assault on the Fortress of Solitude leading to the deaths of Luthor, Lana Lang, and Jimmy Olsen in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?. Always out only for itself, Brainiac proved how horrifying even the least emotional of intelligences could be.
  • Mongul, in his first appearance, kidnapped Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Steve Lombard in order to blackmail Superman into giving him the keys to Warworld, then tries to kill both Superman and Supergirl with the weapon. He later traveled to Prince Gavyn (one of the Starmen)'s homeworld, murdered Gavyn's sister, and tried to force Gavyn's girlfriend into marrying him so that he might take over the planet. Beaten by Gavyn and Superman, he seized control of a Sun-Eater and unleashed it on Earth's solar system, seeking to wipe out all human life. It was in his last appearance, however, in the iconic For the Man Who Has Everything storyline that Mongul showed just how low he could sink. Ambushing Superman on his birthday, Mongul used the Black Mercy plant to trap him in a fantasy world, from which Superman could only escape by sacrificing his heart's desire; in Mongul's own words "It must have been like tearing off your own arm." While Superman is occupied with this, Mongul tries to beat Wonder Woman to death, while gloating about how women are too weak to stop him. Eventually trapped by the same weapon he had used on Superman, Mongul dreams of a galaxy awash in bloodshed, with himself seated on a throne, orchestrating it all.

Others

    Examples 
  • Superman Vol. 1:
    • Issue #17's "The Human Bomb": Watkins uses his hypnotic powers to force civilians to commit robberies for him, blowing up those who refuse. Throughout Metropolis, a string of deadly attacks occur as his pawns commit suicide attacks. Threatening to destroy Metropolis if Superman tries to stop him, Watkins then straps a bomb to Lois Lane after Superman disarms his initial explosives.
    • Issue #205—"The Man Who Destroyed Krypton!": Black Zero is an alien saboteur, the architect of Krypton's destruction, and a shockingly vile foe for the single issue he appears in. Tasked by his mysterious employers to destroy Krypton, Black Zero rekindles the atomic fires in Krypton's core to detonate the entire planet and kill billions. Black Zero arrives on Earth with intention to do the same to it as he did to Krypton, disintegrating a spy that gets in his way while merrily taunting Superman about the death of his homeworld and the inevitable destruction of the world he protects now. Foiled in his plan, Black Zero attempts to use his psycho-particles to destroy all of Metropolis out of spite.
    • Issues #296-299—Who Took the Super out of Superman?: Xviar, alias Clark Kent's next-door neighbor Mr. Xavier, is an alien and an agent of Homeworld, an organization hired by a company to destroy Earth so said company may build a transportation route through the Solar System. Xviar implements a scheme whereby he treats Superman's civilian Clark Kent outfits so Superman cannot use his powers, making him think he's going insane and will have to be either Clark or Superman. During the latter, when Superman's at the Fortress of Solitude, Xviar sets his trap, ultimately planning for Superman to have a Super-Power Meltdown which in turn will trigger an Earth-Shattering Kaboom.
  • World's Finest Vol. 1:
    • Issues #192-193: Colonel Koslov, head of the Secret Police in Lubania, gloried in human rights abuses in his heyday. Koslov captured Superman after endangering a train full of people and subsequently exposing Superman to kryptonite rays, then captured Batman as well after the latter's failed rescue attempt. Koslov subjected Superman and Batman to sometimes unspeakable tortures for months, and starved them as well relentlessly, the same suffering that thousands of others who perished in the camps faced. Even when revisited as a Retired Monster, Koslov simply brushes off the question of his cooperation in Lubania's hellish regime.
    • Issue #292—"The Anthrax Hotline": Anthrax is a grandiloquent, disease-bearing terrorist who in actuality is an utter nobody of a sound engineer named George Swope. Infatuated with his co-worker Susan but abhorring how she ignores him, George steals a particularly virulent strain of anthrax and threatens to release it upon all of Gotham within an hour. Anthrax attaches the trigger to Susan's seat to force her to stay put and puts her through constant, sadistic torment and mockery, cheerfully indifferent as to whether or not Gotham's five-million strong populace survives his agonizing anthrax.
  • All-New Collectors' Edition C-56—Superman vs. Muhammad Ali: Rat'lar is the emperor of the Scrubb race, who one day saw Earth and humanity as a threat to his future rule, fearing that humanity might one day become more powerful than his empire. Convincing his people through lies that humans are cruel savages, Rat'lar leads his army to Earth and arrives at the planet, demanding that Earth's greatest champion faces his own Scrubb champion or else he would destroy Earth. Ordering a strike on St. Louis for the "offense" of Superman and Ali attacking him, with Superman barely being able to save the city, Rat'lar chooses Ali and Superman as Earth's champions, later having them fight to decide which one of them will face his champion. When Ali manages to beat his champion, Rat'lar decides to destroy Earth anyway, openly planning to force all humans on his ships to watch as he destroys their planet and kills off the rest of humanity.

Post-Crisis

Recurring Villains

    Examples 
  • Post-Crisis Brainiac isn't any better than his Pre-Crisis counterpart. Since the reboot he has fed on human spinal fluid, possessed countless victims and destroyed their minds in the process, exploited the Imperiex War in an attempt to rewrite the fabric of the universe, tried to destroy New Krypton, and gone in for planetary obliteration and city collection in a big way, destroying entire civilizations so that the information he has about them will become more valuable in the process. On a more personal level, he's also a coldly calculating sadist, who is only too happy to engage in the prolonged torture and mental manipulation of his victims once he has them in his clutches, and lives to reinforce his mental superiority over all other beings. He has never shown any remorse, his presence in a story inevitably signals that the body count is about to rise, and in Supergirl's words "is everything bad about aliens."
  • Mongul the Elder did not improve with the reboot. A sadistic tyrant with a taste for Gladiator Games, Mongul was overthrown when Superman paid a visit to his home base of Warworld and incited a revolution. Deposed and enraged, Mongul allied with the Cyborg-Superman, razing Coast City as part of a plot to convert Earth into a new Warworld (via building an "Engine City" where Coast City once stood) and ruin Superman's reputation in the process. When the plan failed, Mongul fired up Engine City anyway, planning to shake the planet to pieces. Jailed in a lunar penal colony, Mongul broke out, slaughtered his fellow inmates, and made his way to Debstaam IV, where his dictatorial rule proved so insufferable that the population chose death over serving him.
  • The Post-Crisis version of Benjamin Martin Krull, aka Reactron, is Supergirl's Arch-Enemy. Having been rebuilt by Lex Luthor into a cyborg with a Gold Kryptonite heart, Reactron invades New Krypton alongside Metallo, depowering and killing numerous Kryptonians, threatening to rape Supergirl, and then murdering her father, Zor-El, in front of her by giving him radiation sickness. Tasked by General Lane with eliminating Supergirl, Flamebird, and Nightwing, Reactron murdered all the soldiers assigned to help him when they expressed doubts about the mission, and did his best to slowly torture Supergirl and Flamebird to death. Captured and tortured by Supergirl's mother, Alura, Reactron waited until Supergirl came to free him from the torture chamber to reveal that his capture had been a set up and that Luthor had transformed him into a living bomb. Detonating himself with a smile, Reactron gives a serene look as he incinerates Alura, the city of Kandor, and the entire planet of New Krypton, killing over ninety percent of the population in a single fell swoop.
  • Alexander Trent, the second Bloodsport, is a rabidly murderous neo-Nazi who adopts the Bloodsport mantle in a crusade to murder as many "impure" people as he can. Bloodsport massacres his way through Hob's Heights, a poor, impoverished neighborhood mostly full of black people, and leaves over thirty bodies behind him. Bloodsport later attempts to burn over a dozen hostages alive, and seemingly perishes in a suicide run attempting to take down as many officers as he could with him to the grave. Awakening again after Lex Luthor devastates Metropolis, Bloodsport exploits the chaos to resume his rampage, killing an entire family the second he's armed and continuing to slaughter dozens more from there. Bloodsport wards off Superman's attention by setting up automated machine guns to open fire upon blocks of innocent people, while targeting a crisis relief center soon afterwards. Utterly nothing like his predecessor, the second Bloodsport was nothing more than a racist, cowardly bully with too many guns from the start to the end of his life.
  • Massacre lives up to his name in his sheer love for slaughter. He's introduced killing an entire ship of superpowered beings and mocking the Sole Survivor Auron over his teammates' deaths, after which Massacre wipes out the entire population of a small planetoid. Arriving on Earth with a desire to beat Superman, Massacre makes his way across the planet while killing anyone he has to ask for directions and threatening entire towns with destruction. After faking care for his Skimmer so as to escape from Superman, only to chunk the half-dead being into the vacuum of space, Massacre is brought before the Tribunal and has the full breadth of his crimes laid out: he has killed tens of thousands of people across hundreds of worlds simply because he could, and his only recourse when confronted with the families of his many victims is to laugh at them and express desire to kill them all, too.

Others

    Examples 
  • The Supergirl Saga: The first Post-Crisis version of General Dru-Zod was from a Pocket Universe. Manipulating Lex Luthor into freeing him and his allies Quex-Ul and Faora, the three took over Earth. When Luthor led a resistance, the three responded by exterminating humanity. After our Earth's Superman depowers Zod and his allies, they vow to find a way to get back their powers and head to his universe to slaughter everyone on his Earth as well, causing Superman, in a rare occurrence, to kill them.
  • Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey: Bertron was an alien obsessed with creating the so-called "Ultimate". Every day he exposed a newly cloned child to the harsh environment of prehistoric Krypton; when the child died, Bertron would incorporate its memories into the next child, which would be exposed the following day. Bertron continued this process across the course of his lifetime, slaughtering, in his own words, "thousands upon thousands" of children in an effort to achieve the result he wanted. The creature he finally created was, unsurprisingly, completely insane, and sought to destroy everything it encountered, butchering all the life on ancient Krypton, including Bertron himself, before moving onto the rest of the galaxy. Its name was Doomsday, and in it, all of Bertron's malice would live on, devastating all that it encountered.
  • Superman: The Last God of Krypton, by Walt Simonson & the Brothers Hildebrandt: The wicked goddess Cythonna once attempted to consume all life and warmth with cold and death. Attempting to wipe out Krypton before being stopped by Rao, Cythonna later returns and attempts to freeze Earth, gleefully trying to wipe out all life while forcing Superman to be her lover in order to birth a new race of monsters to continue a crusade to end all that exists.
  • Godfallnote  & Action Comics Vol. 1 issues #821-825: Preus is a Kryptonian CPC officer. First encountering Superman in the bottle city of Kandor, Preus pursued him to Metropolis, where the manifestation of his Kryptonian abilities convinced Preus that he had become a deity with a duty to "cleanse the impure." Furious at Superman—whom he had once worshiped as a god—for having let the citizens of Metropolis live, Preus tried to level the city before being stopped by Superman and Kandorian Empireth Lyla. Recruiting a cult of white supremacists, Preus set himself up as a god-figure, forcing the women in the cult to sleep with him—an experience many did not survive—and readying them for a race war with the rest of the USA. When Martian Manhunter tried to stop him, Preus crucified him and tortured him with fire. When Superman arrived, Preus ordered his cult to launch a Suicide Attack on the Man of Steel, aiming to force Superman to massacre the humans he was so dedicated to protecting. Hating everything that did not conform to his ideas of racial purity, Preus was representative of the very worst Kandor had to offer.
  • Superman Vol. 1 issues #657-658: Hassan-I-Sabbah, aka Khyber, is the lord of The Hashshashin, having his assassins slaughter whomever they wanted before seemingly fading into myth to prepare for his greatest attack on Earth yet. As a foretold Bad Future portends, Khyber divides nations and causes horrible terrorist attacks for centuries, dealing and divvying power to a variety of supervillains, before defeating Superman himself and using the ensuing chaos to scar the world with war and disasters, killing billions and allowing whomever survives to exist in nuclear winter under the cruel rule of the supervillains he's dealt with. Killing Superman himself for real during their final battle, Khyber's ultimate end comes in the form of his own creation Sirocco, a man whom Khyber put all his capacity for remorse and guilt into, making him immortal while forcing him to bear the emotional torment of every atrocity Khyber has committed for centuries.

New 52

  • Action Comics Vol. 2: Vyndktvx is a 5th dimensional Imp whose jealousy and envy spurred him into trying to murder rival magician Mxyzptlk and the hundreds of worlds he contained inside a Pocket Dimension kept in his hat. Upon accidentally striking the King-Thing of Zrfff dead instead, Vyndktvx quickly schemes to take over Zrfff for himself, plunges Mxyzptlk into a coma, and goes about systematically destroying all of the planets inside his pocket dimension to spite his enemy, before specifically targeting Superman for burning Vyndktvx's arm during one of his attacks on Earth. Murdering Superman's parents, endangering Metropolis several times over, and horrifically killing an entire science expedition to Mars while Superman watches, Vyndktvx does all this and much more just to torment Superman, even arranging for Lex Luthor to come into prominence as Superman's Arch-Enemy. After turning a parallel Earth into a dystopia and creating a Superman-killing machine that he unleashes across the multiverse, Vyndktvx stages a massive strike against Superman in which he tortures the hero, brags about his intent to leave Earth a desolated land of suffering, and, when beaten, tries to blow up Metropolis as a final, petty blow.

DC Rebirth

    Examples 
  • Blanque is a mass murderer who fancies himself an artist, using his telepathic powers to bring swathes of death wherever he goes in an effort to create his "masterpiece". Blanque is introduced massacring the entire population of a small town for fun, and when Superman stops him, Blanque reads his mind to learn his secret identity. With this knowledge, Blanque homes in on Lois Lane and their 10-year-old son to kill them first. Blanque later becomes part of the Superman Revenge Squad, cheerfully onboard with Hank Henshaw's plan to destroy Earth to spite Superman.
  • Mongul, returning as monstrous as ever, is the sovereign of Warworld and the latest in a long line of tyrants. Responsible for all his old atrocities, Mongul attacks a gathering of the United Planets to butcher everything there and keep any galactic peace from forming before attempting to destroy the world so he may punish Superman for "daring to hope". Conducting horrific conquests where he decorates Warworld with thousands of slaughtered carcasses as seen in Superman: Villains, Mongul remains a being of spite and dread to all the cosmos.

Elseworlds

    Examples 
  • At Earth's End: The DNA Diktators, revealed to be cloned twins of Adolf Hitler, are two biology-perverting madmen obsessed with continuing their work from World War II in creating a "Master Race". As clones of Hitler, the Diktators happily take responsibility for their original form's crimes, and continue these in the present by rounding up thousands of innocents, performing horrific experiments on them that leave them in constant agony, then grinding them up into raw material to create an army of mutant Nazi stormtroopers. After their mutant monsters fail to murder numerous children who escaped the Diktators' grasp, the Diktators order the children, alongside Superman, all murdered by their various creations, even having defiled the corpse of the hero Batman by using his corpse to create nightmarish bat monsters that they sic on Superman to torment him. Utter sociopaths with delusions of godhood and megalomania, these clones of Hitler display all of their original's cruelty and evil in their quest for a perfect race.
  • Batman: Nosferatu, by Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier, et al.: Dr. Arkham is the fiendish ruler of the asylum in the aftermath of the death of Lutor. Mistreating and tormenting his patients, he has possession of the monstrous Laughing Man that he uses to kill anyone inconvenient. Arkham sends the Laughing Man to murder First Eschevin Gord-son, and later has Dirk Gray-son killed as well. Upon Bruss Wayn-son discovering his schemes, Arkham has him thrown to his seeming death and attempts to have Gord-son's daughter Barbara murdered. Keeping and torturing countless souls in his asylum, Arkham intends on eventually spreading his works to all of Metropolis to "cure" them.
  • The Dark Side, by John Francis Moore et al.: Darkseid uses a Boomtube to teleport baby Kal-El's ship to Apokolips after the destruction of Krypton. After murdering two of his slaves who discover the ship, Darkseid raises Kal-El in isolation. Naming Kal-El Superman, Darkseid presents him to the public in a gladiatorial match, where Superman defeats Darkseid's son Kalibak. Darkseid orders Superman to kill Kalibak after he is defeated. Darkseid then orders Superman to go to New Genesis and destroy it with an Omega Bomb. Though High Father manages to save some of the New Gods, most of the population of New Genesis dies. High Father reveals Darkseid's lies to Superman and teleports Superman to Earth. However. Darkseid soon arrives on Earth and discovers that Superman's DNA contains the Anti-Life Equation. Darkseid has Desaad torture Superman and then uses the Anti-Life Equation to turn everyone on Earth into his mindless slaves, intending to do the same to the rest of the galaxy.
  • Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl: Lex Luthor is a respected businessman who helped revolutionized the city of Metropolis; his reputation is just a means to hide his glory and greed. Along with his accomplice Hamilton, Luthor murdered an infant Kal-El with kryptonite and used his corpse as an energy source for his labs, making him millions while Luthor left Hamilton with nothing and ruined his life due to attempting to expose his crimes to the public. Luthor was also responsible for hiring Joe Chill to murder the Waynes, including their son Bruce Wayne, making him indirectly responsible for the death of Barbara Gordon's parents. Luthor conspires with the Joker to get rid of Supergirl and Batgirl, so he could use Supergirl's corpse the same way he did to her infant cousin. Having Joker beat Supergirl nearly to death, Luthor taunts her about the fact he'll make her species extinct, how he murdered her stillborn, and claimed he didn't murder anyone as aliens are worthless and have no equal rights as humans.
  • The Feral Man of Steel, by Darren Vincenzo, Frank Fosco, & Stan Woch: Lex Luthor is portrayed as a petty noble who desires power above all else. Slaughtering an entire native tribe to get his hands on the "Star Gem", in reality green kryptonite, Lex joined the hunt for the "Jungle Man", who in reality was a Kryptonian K'L'L that was raised by wolves. Furious that Lois Lane rejected his proposal, Luthor assaulted her, only to discover that the Star Gem severely weakened K'L'L when the Kryptonian came to defend Lois. Deciding to use it for his own gain, Lex massacred all men who were loyal to the leader of the traveling team, Richard Burton, and left Richard himself to burn alive, using the Star Gem to capture K'L'L and force Lois to marry him. Torturing K'L'L with the Star Gem and treating him like a wild animal, Lex tried to force him to kill Queen Victoria by threatening to hurt Lois if he refused.
  • Kal, by Dave Gibbons, JosĂ© Luis GarcĂ­a-LĂ³pez, et al.: Baron Luthor shows himself as a corrupt tyrant who oppresses the people, has anyone against him killed and rigs fights to the death. Upon Lady Loisse marrying Kal, Luthor claims the right of "first night", attempting to rape her. When Loisse resists, Luthor savagely beats her to death and tries to kill Kal when he rebels in retribution.
  • The Last Family of Krypton, by Cary Bates, Renato Arlem, et al.: Lex Luthor is a a genius personally recruited by Jor-El to become part of Jorcorp, where Lex develops a inferiority complex towards Jor-El and his family. Initially earning their trust to study Kryptonite after saving their daughter from Kryptonite poisoning at hands of the hate group "Doomsday", Lex betrays said trust to destroy Jor-El's legacy. Manipulating Jor-El's son Bru-El to submit himself to a treatment to become immune to Kryptonite, Lex turns him into a brainwashed radiation emitter that attacks his own family during a reunion, fatally poisoning Jor-El's wife Lara. Then, Lex activates machines that mess with the Earth's core, threatening to kill millions and making the panicked civilians believe this is an accident which could destroy Earth, empowering Doomsday to carry terrorist attacks on Kryptonian sympathizers, while Lex plans to deactivate his machines in the last minute to be known as a savior. Lex also corrupts the Kryptonian AI B by copying his own neural process on its systems, which B describes as unable to feel remorse.
  • Last Son of Earth & Last Stand on Krypton, written by Steve Gerber: Lex Luthor is the Glorious Leader of the surviving humans after an apocalyptic meteor impact, leading a fascist regime that orders the killing of anyone that refuses to submit. When Kal-El—a human raised by Kryptonians and a Green Lantern in this story—arrives on Earth, Luthor steals his ring and jails Kal-El. Successfully overthrown by Kal-El and his allies, Lex escapes by murdering his guards and reverse engineering Kryptonian drones to travel to Krypton. Reaching the planet, Lex allies with the Elder Council against Jor-El's rebellion to get a chance to capture Kal-El and torture him by testing different types of Kryptonite radiation or "Green Death". After capturing his enemy, Lex betrays the Council by destroying their living support machines and enjoying their agony. Questioned by Seyg-El, Lex admits being a madman while planning to rule Krypton. Challenged a last time by Kal-El, Lex burns him to death during their fight and uses his remaining energy to destabilize Krypton's already-unstable core, dooming the planet to explode as his final revenge.
  • Red Son: This version of Brainiac allies himself with Lex Luthor until he is seemingly reprogrammed by Superman to become the USSR's chief scientist, and comes up with the diabolical idea to lobotomize all those who oppose the misguided Superman's rule. Attempting to push for nuclear war with America, Brainiac cares nothing for the millions of deaths, and when Luthor comes to negotiate, has him roboticized to prevent questioning. When Superman calls off the attack, Brainiac attacks him, revealing he simply pretended to be reprogrammed to serve his own purposes and plans to conquer the world and then galaxy after killing Superman, and rigs his ship to explode and wipe out humanity out of spite when beaten.
  • Speeding Bullets: Lex Luthor himself becomes the Joker in this alternate retelling of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne's backstories. A powerful, amoral businessman disfigured in an accident, Luthor is the one responsible for the death of the Waynes in this continuity, executing the burglars he sent to do the job afterward. Violently possessive of Lois Lane, Luthor schemes to make her his own, intending her to be the queen of his own "Jokerania." To remold the city, Luthor sends mercenary armies to utterly devastate Gotham to remake it from the ground up in his own image, killing hundreds—to which Joker merely quips "why not?" when Batman furiously demands why so many have suffered for his convenience.
  • Steel: Crucible of Freedom, by Ande Parks et al.: Arthur Forrest and Mr. Haig embody all the evils of American slavery in this story that reimagines John Henry Irons as a slave during the American Civil War. Forrest used to be an innocent child in love with Arthurian Legend and even befriended John, but when he was punished by his own father, Arthur blamed John and became cruel even by the standards of his family, personally killing a Black slave who had sex with his White crush and allowing the overseer Mr. Haig to abuse the slaves, with John being forced to allow himself to be whipped in place of his pregnant wife. When the Civil War begins, John is forced to create a steampunk armor at Arthur's orders, who threatens slave children by having Haig put them in a box in the open air. When a downpour comes, Haig allows the babies to be drowned in rainwater and gives orders to the guards to attack the parents when they rebel. When John takes Arthur's armor to help the slave revolt, Arthur, a delusional man who sees himself as the new King Arthur, compares John to the legendary Mordred before blowing himself up, trying to take John with him.
  • Superboy's Legion, written by Mark Farmer: Lex Luthor starts World War III in the 20th Century to take revenge on Earth's metahumans after being left paralyzed for the Justice League, with the war being described as a massacre. Ruling Earth until his lies were exposed, Luthor creates an AI copy of himself and installs it inside Universo, the main computer used for Humanity and causing it to fail during his eventual revival. In the 30th Century, Luthor's copy causes planetary disasters that include the destruction of Daxam. Once Brainiac 5 appears to help the Legion of Superheroes and Luthor confirms the existence of the Coluans, Luthor hires the Fatal Five to kidnap Brainiac 5, killing a legionary in the process. Painfully invading Brainiac 5's mind to reach Colu, Luthor cheerfully announces his plans to annihilate the Coluans by absorbing their data into himself, recreating the body of Vril-Dox in the process and hijacking the body of a agonizing cyborg to attack Superboy, desiring to steal the Coluan knowledge to reach true immortality.
  • Superman & Batman: Generations:
    • The Ultra-Humanite attacks the Metropolis World's Fair with a giant robot in 1939, intending to kill civilians until he gets $1 million. After he is stopped, he takes Lois Lane as his hostage until Batman and Superman find his lair. He reveals that he has set the Hyperglobe to blow up Metropolis, but Batman and Superman stop him. Though seemingly killed, it is later revealed he has swapped brains with Lex Luthor. Years later, he exposes Lois's unborn son, Joel, to Gold Kryptonite, rendering him powerless, and manipulates him into believing that Superman stripped him of his powers. In 1979, Joel and the Ultra-Humanite attack the wedding of Bruce Wayne Jr. and Supergirl, leading to the deaths of Supergirl and Lois. Hours later, Joel also dies, because the concoction from the Humanite that gave him superpowers is ultimately fatal. In 1989, when Superman tracks him down, the Ultra-Humanite reveals he had several of his close friends and family murdered and plans to swap brains with Superman to gain his powers. When Superman stops him, it is revealed that the Ultra-Humanite has made it appear that Superman killed him in cold blood out of spite for Superman.
    • Lex Luthor is far worse than his mainstream counterpart. In 1929, he betrays his boss, Dr. Erwin Stanislaus, and has a robot wreak havoc on the city until it is stopped. In 2008, Luthor, now a brain in a robot's body and calling himself Metallo, attacks Metropolis and is stopped, but not before he detonates an EMP that causes a blackout in Metropolis. In 2025, Luthor escapes from prison and detonates a larger EMP, causing humanity to fall back into the Dark Ages temporarily, with hundreds of millions dying. In the 25th century, Luthor is freed again and goes to the Superman Museum, planting a bomb and intending to gain control of every computer grid on the planet. The bomb is contained safely, but Luthor succeeds in gaining control of every computer grid, and wages war on humanity until he is stopped.
  • Super Seven: Kryll'n, aka Grend'll, is the leader of the Malazza-Rem Confederacy, a group of alien marauders who Rape, Pillage, and Burn their way through entire planets to take over as many as they can. Coming to Earth, Kryll'n has his hordes destroy Coast City, killing 7 million people, ordering 500 or even a thousand more innocents killed for every time a meta-human was seen or rebelled. Viciously massacring the rest of the rebellion himself, Kryll'n eventually enslaves mankind, harvesting them for the use of the Malazza-Rem, and, when the Super Seven unite, Kryll'n promptly makes a point of trying to kill every last man, woman, and child within Metropolis to spite them. Kryll'n is even revealed to have murdered Superman's love, Lois Lane, using Lana Lang to lure him in with the promise Lois was still alive to entrap Superman, murdering Lang the instant her use expires and dragging down Superman with him in death.

Miscellaneous

Frank Miller's Dark Knight trilogy
    Examples 
  • The Joker Appearances  is a psychopathic murderer, responsible for deaths of hundreds, including Dick Grayson's parents and Jason Todd. Beginning his criminal spree with trying to poison Gotham's water supply, the Joker continues causing chaos and destruction in Gotham by having his gang commit crimes for fun. Setting up a trap for Jason Todd, Joker manipulates several inmates in Arkham Asylum to mutilate themselves, before starting a riot, killing countless guards before escaping. After having gone into unresponsive catatonia for a decade due to Batman retiring, the Joker returns to his old habits after the return of Batman to Gotham. The Joker marks his return by fatally gassing the entirety of a talk show audience with his Joker toxins, causing them to die a slow death as they laugh themselves to death. To goad Batman into coming after him, the Joker sells poisoned cotton candy to dozens of children, which resulted in all of them quickly dying. After Batman started chasing him, the Joker shoots randomly many innocent people and when Batman snapped his neck thus paralyzing him, the Joker defiantly snaps his own neck the rest of the way anyways and dies with a wide smile on his face, intending to frame Batman for his own death, proclaiming he'll meet Batman in Hell.
  • The Dark Knight Strikes Again:
    • Lex Luthor is Superman's Arch-Enemy and the current de facto ruler of the United States. Seizing control of the country after installing a hologram to assume the role of the president, Luthor proceeded to turn the entire country into a police state. Recruiting the help of Brainiac, Luthor kept the superheroes of Earth in line by threatening to kill their loved ones. The heroes that Luthor did not find useful were either imprisoned or subjected to horrific genetic experiments. After a series of raids led by Batman reinvigorates the public's interest in superheroes, Luthor snaps and begins cracking down on any super-heroic activities. Luthor launches a missile strike against Costa Rica that kills Hawkman and Hawkgirl, while he orders his forces to open fire on a concert held by "The Superchix". Luthor has Brainiac kill thousands of people in Metropolis in an attempt to discredit superheroes, not caring at all about the innocent lives lost. Luthor later captures Batman and begins torturing him while gloating how the rebellion has given him the perfect opportunity to use his satellite defense network to kill most of the world's population and allow him to rule what's left. Lacking any pretenses of helping his fellow man, Lex Luthor is motivated entirely by his lust for power.
    • Brainiac is an alien cyborg who partners up with Lex Luthor in order to make sure that Superman is compliant with Luthor's regime. Holding the bottled city of Kandor hostage, Brainiac murders a Kryptonian family for every time that Superman refuses to follow their orders. In an attempt to publicly discredit superheroes, Brainiac attacks Metropolis and orders Superman to not fight back or he'll have all of Kandor destroyed. Brainiac proceeds to wail on Superman when he refuses to flee, and continues on his rampage. While he is eventually stopped by Superman's daughter Lara, Brainiac's assault ends up killing thousands of people, including Captain Marvel, Jimmy Olson, and Lois Lane. Lara travels to Brainiac's hideout to free the citizens of Kandor by pretending to surrender, but not before Brainiac attempts to turn her into his subservient slave. Driven by sadism rather than his usual logic, Brainiac takes immense pleasure in the pain and suffering that he causes others.
  • Dark Knight III: The Master Race: Quar is a Kryptonian cult leader who was shunned by the citizens of Kandor for his fanatical beliefs. Believing it was his right to be worshipped by humanity, he slaughtered any who opposed him and tricked Ray Palmer into enlarging his congregation back to normal size. Quar destroyed the remaining citizens of Kandor with his heat vision and led his "children" on a trail of mass destruction across the globe. After having one of his followers suicide bomb the city of Moscow, Quar ordered humanity to surrender or face his wrath. He turned Superman's daughter Lara against him and threatened to destroy Gotham if they didn't surrender Batman to him. After a failed attempt to kidnap Superman's infant son, Quar killed most of his flock when they express a desire to leave humanity alone. With his remaining children, he planned to destroy the rest of the Earth by blowing themselves up at a fault line. With a massive god complex to go along with his powers, Quar believed that Kryptonians were the true Master Race.

Others

    Examples 
  • Earth One's Volume Three: General Zod-El was once Krypton's greatest soldier. After a conflict with his brother Jor-El, Zod started a bloody Civil War that killed many of his own people. Upon his loss, Zod helped Krypton's enemies destroy the world, watching billions die with the sole condition that he be the one and only survivor, even if it meant Earth being destroyed in the process. Zod later arrives to torture and murder Clark, his own nephew, threatening to murder Clark's mother for spite and being willing to kill as many humans as it takes to hurt him more.
  • Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade: Mr. Mxyzptlkwithout the honor from his usual characterization—is an imp from the Fifth Dimension that plans to use Kara Zor-El's emotions to fuel a machine that would turn him into "the most powerful being in all creation". Initially disguised as the principal of Supergirl's school with other imps as the teachers, Mxyzptlk betrays his allies by draining their energy after deciding to use Supergirl's Evil Counterpart instead of her. Starting to collapse reality—including his own dimension—Mr. Mxyzptlk gloats to Kara and Lena Luthor about how his plan would destroy the Third Dimension and implies that he personally destroyed Krypton to manipulate Kara's life. Gaining control over the entire creation, Mr. Mxyzptlk treats it as his toy, wanting to "shake it" as his first action. Defeated by Supergirl, Mr. Mxyzptlk plots revenge on the entire Third Dimension before being judged and punished by other dimensional imps.
  • Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves & Batman vs. The Undead, by Kevin VanHook, Tom Mandrake, et al.: Professor Herbert Combs is a twisted scientist who seeks to discover the secrets of the undead, planning to use them to conquer the world. Discovering a portal to the undead, he would kidnap its inhabitants and use their blood to experiment on countless innocents of all ages, turning them into vampires and werewolves and sending them out to the public to kill people, having done so to Dimeter and Janko. After Superman saves a child named Chadd, Combs captures Chadd and turns him into a vampire. Escaping from Arkham Asylum, Combs travels to New Orleans to become a student of Mama Ezili, hoping to learn the secrets of Voodoo and rule the world with a zombie army. Kidnapping Dimeter's girlfriend Olivia to lure him to be sacrificed, Combs sacrifices a man to become his zombie slave, planning to do the same to Batman when he arrives to stop him.
  • Superman Smashes the Klan: Matt Riggs is the Grand Scorpion of the Klan of the Fiery Cross, leading the Metropolis chapter the group, who wants to "purify" America of all nonwhite people. When his nephew Chuck gets into a fight with a Chinese-American boy named Tommy Lee during a baseball game, Matt decides to induct Chuck into the Klan. Matt and his Klan followers go to Tommy's house, burn a cross on their yard and attempt to firebomb the house. After that fails, Matt Riggs kidnaps Tommy and plans to have him tarred and feathered. Later, Matt attempts to bomb the Unity House children's community center, feeling it is a threat to American purity, not caring how many people die in the process. After the Daily Planet offers a reward for the unmasking of any Klansmen, Matt and his followers attack the Daily Planet and kidnap Lois Lane, Perry White and Police Chief Henderson, with Matt Riggs planning to murder them all. After being captured by Superman, Matt Riggs escapes from prison, murders his boss, the Grand Mogul of the Klan, for not being a true believer in the cause, and steals his weapons to use against Superman. Matt attacks a baseball game to lure Superman out, and when Matt tries to murder Tommy Lee, Chuck attacks his uncle to stop him, leading Matt Riggs to try to kill Chuck as well. After Superman overloads his laser gun, Matt Riggs reveals he has a bomb under his cloak and he plans to blow up himself and take everyone in the baseball stadium with him.
  • Superman: Space Age: Lex Luthor, the consummate Corrupt Corporate Executive, is depicted here as a narcissist who seeks superiority over all. Using a military defense contract to build an underground bomb shelter and acquire two hydrogen bombs for testing, Lex truthfully plans to hide his followers in the shelter and recreate society in his own image after setting off World War III, activating one of the bombs to completely annihilate Coast City. Intent on the Soviet Union being blamed for the crime so that the U.S. will retaliate and begin a nuclear holocaust, Lex attempts to set off the second bomb in Metropolis when his first attack fails to generate the expected response, preparing to sacrifice an unwitting employee to see this through. Though foiled, Lex is able to secure his release two decades later and sets out to make LexCorp so powerful that the world will depend on him for survival. Lex funds the Joker in a vendetta against Wayne Enterprises that results in Lucius Fox being forced into becoming a suicide bomber, seven children being endangered, and Bruce Wayne killed, giving Lex the perfect opportunity to take over and assert his seeming victory over the entire world.
  • Superman: The Harvests of Youth, by Sina Grace (DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults imprint): Mr. Mxyzptlk, depicted here as a middle-aged incel creep, brings hate and resentment to Smallville. Hanging out on online forums, Mr. Mxyzptlk spurs on teenagers from Smallville to fall into misogyny and blame everyone around them for their problems, emotionally isolating them from their friends and family; one depressed teen who listened to this rhetoric, upon being excluded from Mr. Mxyzptlk's private chat room, is Driven to Suicide by his feelings of loneliness. After orchestrating several acts of vandalism and juvenile pranks, Mxyzptlk brings one of Clark's friends into his confidence and encourages the teen to steal LuthorCorp robots, which they then use to attack a town festival being attended by nearly everyone in Smallville.
  • Superman: The Man of Steel 1996 Annual—"The Never-Ending Battle": Lex Luthor is The Emperor who ordered the destruction of Kaleb's home planet Hydros and the genocide of its people. A survivor from the eventual destruction of planet Earth, Luthor created an empire from ashes and launched wars of conquest throughout the universe, which he describes as "glorious". Keeping himself alive through centuries using multiple clones, Luthor's empire has a policy of annihilating the native population of planets with species similar to Kryptonians. Once Kaleb confronts him personally, Luthor reveals that the champions of the tournaments to become his personal guard are killed, with their genes used to improve his biologically engineered guards before trying to kill Kaleb with radiation that emulates Kryptonite for the Hydrosians. A decrepit and senile old man with massive power, Luthor's ambition, paranoia and grudges killed countless innocents.
  • Superman vs. Aliens II: God War, by Chuck Dixon et al.: Darkseid is the tyrannical dictator of Apokolips who uses the monstrous aliens known as Xenomorphs as weapons in this crossover series. Introduced by forcing his men to drag a spacecraft out of Apokolips and crash it into the slums, Darkseid callously ignores his minions' protests that it will kill millions of his slaves before it does just that. Discovering the eggs of facehuggers, entities that implant the infant Xenomorphs inside hosts, Darkseid tests a facehugger on one of his top scientists, leading to the man's brutal death as a Xenomorph bursts from his chest, and Darkseid then begins his new plans for war with New Genesis. Implanting dozens of his soldiers with Xenomorphs, Darkseid has them attack New Genesis, only so as to allow the Xenomorphs to burst forth and slaughter everyone in their way, and, when Superman and Darkseid's son, Orion, travel to Apokolips to stop him, they stumble across the fact that Darkseid has used hundreds of his slaved as breeding materials for more Xenomorphs. In the end, Darkseid "saves" Orion and New Genesis from the Xenomorph threat, solely to plant doubt in Orion so he will one day turn on New Genesis and become Darkseid's slave.
  • Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man: Lex Luthor himself proves to be the most evil version of the character ever seen in the Pre-Crisis continuity. Initially content with causing mayhem across Metropolis for the purpose of luring Superman out, Lex eventually allies with Doctor Octopus and teams up to ostensibly threaten the world with a weather machine. Kidnapping Lois Lane and Mary Jane as leverage and hypnotizing a tribesman to act as the unwilling, murderous guardian of his secret lair in the process, Lex finally reveals the absolute depth of his wickedness when he reveals he simply intends to use the weather machine to annihilate the entire planet as the culmination of his "black ambition", gloating that even after his plan is sabotaged he's still doomed the Atlantic Coast to a tidal wave. Beholden to none of Luthor's more honorable traits here, Lex ultimately attempts to destroy all humanity out of petty spite for never recognizing his genius, horrifying even Doc Ock with how far he'll sink to hurt Superman.
  • Superman vs. Predator, written by David Michelinie: Captain Nigel Skane doesn't even have the tiny redeeming qualities of his boss, Dr. Solomon Ward. A mercenary willing to do anything for a buck, Skane is helping out with the global genocide of everyone with a birth defect for a payday. Adding to this, Skane is an attempted rapist who tries to leave one of his own men for dead at the Predator's hands, just so he can swoop in when the Predator is exhausted.
  • Superman vs. The Terminator: Death to the Future: As in the Terminator films, Skynet is a malevolent A.I. who killed billions of humans on Judgment Day after gaining access to every computer grid on the planet. When John Connor and the other surviving humans revolt, Skynet sends Terminators back in time to kill John and his mother, all attempts being unsuccessful. When Superman is transported to the future, Skynet captures him, along with an aged Steel, intending to forcibly retrieve information from their heads that will help it defeat La RĂ©sistance. Skynet also reveals that after it finishes wiping out humanity, it plans on committing genocide on every other species in the universe until only machines remain.

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