Give me your top three SuperVillains...

[Synchronicity]

My top three have all already been mentioned, but heck, if it ain't broke, why fix it?

1) Doctor Doom. He's just...cool. Suit of powered armour? Check. Metal facemask, concealing (presumably) hideously scarred face? Check. Total megalomania, utter self-confidence and infinite sycophantic minions? Check. Able to spout lines dripping with cheese and actually make them sound menacing? Check. Pure genius.

2) The Joker. No superpowers, but a take on the world that's at right-angles to sanity. Incredibly dangerous, because other people have things they won't do. Even supervillains, because they're, well, sane. He isn't. There's no line he can't cross if he wants to, and nothing that he just won't do. He's unpredictable, he's illogical, and he's utterly, utterly mad. Doom, for example, is just a super-powered, hyper-intelligent megalomaniac. The Joker's *really* crazy. It's hard to say which is more dangerous.

3) Magneto. He honestly believes his way is the best, and events keep proving him right! Well..that's an exaggeration, but Magneto's take on humanity as fearful people wanting to wipe out mutants proves more often correct than Xavier's peaceful coexistence philosophy. Plus, he can hold off an entire team of people bent on taking him down. And while they're fighting, everyone has to ask the question - 'Am I *really* on the right side here?'

In short, my choices come down to:
1) The stereotypical arch-villain, bent on world domination. There's always got to be one, and they're so much gosh-darn fun!
2) The madman, dangerous because of his utter insanity and lack of restraint.
3) The uncertain element; the villain who exists in shades of grey. Is he wrong? Is he right? Is he really a villain at all? There's a lot more to think about when fighting him than just how best to take him down.

Just my 2 cents!

 

[DonAdam]

I'll second the Joker and Magneto.

The best thing I've ever read on the Joker is The Killing Joke, when he paralyzes Barbara Gordon. It gets across well how perfectly evil he is.

Note that when I say Magneto, I mean "sometimes does the right thing but still a bad, bad man" Magneto. I hate it when popular villains become heroes; it always fails miserably and kills the seriousness of the character (see Venom).

The coolest thing about Magneto is that he is a holocaust survivor. Who cannot sympathize with that? Then there's the fact that he really does look out for his own; he's not entirely selfless in this, but he doesn't follow the typical pattern of attacking his own henchmen (unless they're human... see Ultimate X-Men #1, or 26, which is my favorite issue of the series). He might be after power for himself, and that might be partially selfishly motivated, but its also to protect those around him.

I guess for my 3rd, though there are lots of good options, I should go with one that someone hasn't said. I'll just say this, to avoid spoilers for those who haven't read the comics: the mastermind bad guy in The Watchmen. Not a character that was extremely well developed, but a plan and execution truly diabolical.

Honorable mentions go to:
Well, most of the Batman villains. Two Face and the early 90's cartoon Mr Freeze, in particular, are interesting characters. And of course, Hush. "What kind of killer quotes Aristotle?"
I enjoyed the whole Strife/Cable/Scott/Jean thing in Executioner's Song, especially when it came out who Cable really is.
Omega Red, who wasn't actually cool, but because I like watching dirty commies get beat up (especially when his powers were a rank allegory for communism).
And, of course... The Swiss agents from the Blowhole episode of the Tick. They had giant freaking swiss army knives on their backs. Classic!

By the way, I think Batman finally beat Shiva. In Hush, Shiva beat up Selina pretty bad. In Batman/Superman, which follows right on its heels, they run into each other in Washington DC and Batman makes pretty short work of her.

 

[devilbat]

Kingpin - I love the godfather type motif. Well written, cool history, makes street thugs shivver in their bootays. Just please forget everything that was portrayed about him in the Daredevil movie.

Joker - Maniacal, psychotic and killed Jason Todd.

Red Skull - Maniacal + Nazis. What's not to love?

Honerable mentions - Deathstroke, Deadpool, Green Goblin.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Karl Ro...

...oh, wait, you meant fictional supervillains. Never mind... ;-)

1) The Joker. No other character is as evil just for the sake of being evil. His portrayal in the early seasons of Batman: The Animated Series is brilliant, as is his appearance in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker - even in "death" he wrecks people's lives (try to get the uncensored version, if you can).

2) Raz al Ghul. Hey, I like immortals! They just keep on coming again...

3) Doktor Evil. For some classic lines:

"Hello gentlemen. Welcome to my underground lair."

"When I get angry, Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset. And when Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset... people die!"

"I have a better idea. I'm going to put him in an easily-escapable situation involving an overly-elaborate and exotic death."

"Mr. Powers, you will notice that all of the sharks have laser beams attached to their heads. I figure, every animal deserves a warm meal."

 

[Bretbo]

The Thunderbolts: Had to include the whole team on this one. A group of villians who pretend to be heroes so they can can gain control of the heroes equipment. Some would revel in their villianess, while others would find they liked being heroes. A good character study.

The Suicide Squad: Another team book, this time the villians are essentially the Dirty Dozen. Some were very villiany; using the circumstance to their benefit. Others found new purpose. None where two-dimensional stereotypical villians. Great series!

Another vote for Darksied. A monarch-like villian who is willing to risk everything to gain his final goal: the solution to the Anti-Life Equation. A villian that the cartoons finally got right (see Justice League; NOT Superfriends!)

 

[Enkhidu]

3. The Green Goblin. While I thought Spiderman's clone saga was long, drawn out, and overdone, and was unhappy with old Norman coming back from the comicbook grave because it undid one of the best plotlines in comicdom, I have to admit there's something very scary about a guy who hates a hero so much that he doesn't just want to kill him, but wants to take away everything good in his life. If you want to mess with your players, this is the way to do it.

2. Kingpin. I've always liked the Kingpin because you just can't fight him head on and expect to win. He'll hit you when don't expect it, in ways you don't expect.

1. Ozymandias. Why? Because Ozymandias knows best. Everything he does is for the betterment of mankind. Even if he has to kill a few million people to do it. He's a bad guy who takes the concept of the "greater good" to the extreme.

 

[Piratecat]

Instead of specific villians, I'm going to talk about great bad guy style:

- The untouchable. This is the villain who maintains the veneer of respectability and uses that power to make life miserable for the characters. Example are the Kingpin, Lex Luthor (in some incarnations), and the like. Just opposing the beloved guy makes the heroes look like jerks or traitors, and all this time the villain is manipulating things around the PCs to ruin their lives and create great plans.

- The opponent who's doing what's right in all the wrong ways. That's Magneto; he's fighting for a reasonable cause, but he's not opposed to doing so by any means possible. This sort of moral quandary is fun to play.

- The unstoppable scrapper. The villian that has non-physical weaknesses, bu =t who is really tough to stop in a fight.

I'm seeing a trend here; I like bad guys who can be taken down in methods that are more complicated than simple fights. That's a little odd, 'cause I love fights, but there it is.

 

[Yalius]

I'd go for Thanos. Motivated by love for an unloveable ideal, more far-thinking than Dr. Doom on his best day, can only be defeated if he chooses to lose...

Followed by... Magneto.

And the Vulture. Weak, geriatric villain with one more-or-less everyday ability. Yet he still managed to vex Spider-man over and over. Luck?

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Well I've always been a late 80's to early 90's X-freak.
So my pics are...

#3. Mister Sinister. He was the first villain I liked.
#2. The Sentinels. The real ones. The giant ones.
#1. Nimrod. The ultimate sentinel. The original pink one.

 

[ironmani]

#1. Nimrod. The ultimate sentinel. The original pink one.

That last bit just takes the evilness out of him!
"I am Nimrod! The orginal Pink one!"