*Main post* 30 Days of Scans! Day 5: Favorite Rogues Gallery

[angelophile]

benicio127 and shelleymaree are taking a break today, so the mods are stepping up to kick off today's 30 Days of Scans topic - Favorite Rogues Gallery.

As per usual, you can comment with your choices in this post, or make your own!

So, S_Ders, which is your favorite gallery of rogues?



As the saying goes, "You can tell a lot about a man by the quality of his enemies."

Of course, they can't all be winners.

Comments

[q99]

Crazy Quilt is really more of a *Robin* rogue...

[icon_uk]

Indeed! :)

[gargoylekitty]

It's not like I can use this .gif too much.

I like Wonder Woman's as well, though wish it'd get a bit more respect, not that it looks likely anytime soon.

[ebailey140]

I like Diana's, as well. I just like Bruce's more.

Wonder what the Flash Rogues fans will have to offer? I'm guessing that's the second most popular group of bad guys around here.

[kingrockwell]

If Diana's could get more respect, they could've easily been my favorites!
we need more stories with Angle Man as a dapper European thief because oh my god he was great

[icon_uk]

Yeah, the Bat-foes are, I suspect, pretty much going to sweep the boards here, with the Central City Rogues a close second, because of their basically blue-collar approach to crime.

For the Marvel side, I'd say Spider-Man has an impressive array of bag guys too, probably moreso than any other single hero at Marvel, with the Fantastic Four getting second place, though mostly only because of Doom, as beyond him we're almost immediately into the realms of Puppet Master and the Frightful Four.

[nezchan]

Superman's silver age Rogues Gallery was pretty cool, what with Amazo, Luthor, Braniac and the like running around.

As to the FF, Doom IS a Rogues Gallery. He needs no one else.

[icon_uk]

Amazo is a JLA villain, but I see what you mean; Luthor, Brainiac, Metallo, Parasite, heck even the Toyman.

[nezchan]

There was a lot of crossover in terms of Superman/JLA Rogues, wasn't there? The main story I remember with Amazo in it was a Superman book, anyway.

[kamino_neko]

There was (which is why Superman doesn't make the cut, IMO), but Amazo is a League enemy by nature, as well as by origin - he first appeared in a JLA story in The Brave and The Bold, and his power just isn't as interesting against a single enemy.

[nezchan]

I suppose. In a way, he's very like the Super-Skrull, who doesn't work that well outside the FF's rogues.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, he was specifically created to go up against the FF, so that makes sense.

[morgana006]

Hmm, I'll have to go with the Batvillains too. But with Flash's Rogues in second and Spidey's in third.

On the note of Flash's - "Flash and Substance" is my favourite JLU episode of all time, beating out the Question's episodes and "The Greatest Story Never Told".

Also, in Honorary Mention, since it's not exactly a comic - Kim Possible's villains. Those were a good bunch.

[icon_uk]

Nice choice on Kim Possible's bad guys. Dr Drakken and Shego, Senor Senior Snr. (and Senor Senior Jnr), Gil (Who became Gill after being transformed into a Creature from the Black lagoon style monster, and then has to keep explaining that he HAS changed he name, he's added an L at the end) and Lord Monty-Fisk/Monkey-Fist!

[morgana006]

Yes! And DNAmy and Dr, Dementor.

Kim Possible had just, the best set of bad guys in any cartoon.

[ebailey140]

Yes! And DNAmy and Dr, Dementor.

Kim Possible had just, the best set of bad guys in any cartoon.

Surely, the best cartoon Rogues Gallery goes to the Powerpuff Girls? Take Him, for example. Yeah, a lot of folks have a demonic embodiment of Darkness to fight, but the PPG's have a cross dressing one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfTD1NDNFIg

And, of course, what cartoon villain can top Mojo Jojo?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfQIwIy7_bU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkFIO86m7q0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lYZcIC6bqU

[morgana006]

...Did you just [quote] me? _{How did you do that?}

And I totally forgot about the Powerpuff Girls! Those were some good villains too.

Also, Mojo Jojo really does sound like the personification of the Superdictionary.

[ebailey140]

The Superdictionary was the inspiration for Mojo's speech patterns, actually.

How to quote: It's one of the options when you hit Reply. You highlight what you want to quote, then hit Quote.

[ebailey140]

Agreed that the Bat foes are the best, followed by Flash's and Spidey's, but I personally think Spidey's are better than Flash's, overall. The Green Goblin, the Kingpin, and Dr. Octopus give him the edge, there.

Dick Tracy's would be up there.

[psychopathicus_rex]

The thing with them, though, is that there were rarely more than one of those at a time - Dick Tracy villains had a tendency to be killed off at the end of most cases. (There were lots of them at once in the movie, of course, but you didn't really see all that much of them, and most of them got offed anyway.) The closest thing he's had to an iconic recurring villain was Flattop, and that's only because he turned out to have plenty of relatives who wanted to get in on the action - he himself was killed off at the end of his first appearance, as per usual. 'Rogues Gallery' kind of implies villains that stick around and come back often.

[gargoylekitty]

Kim Possible's = yes. Also, Gargoyles. Xanatos and Demona are awesome villains.

[retro_nouveau]

Batgallery: Bane, Clayface, Harley, Ivy, Joker, Mad Hatter, Mr. Freeze, Penguin, Ra's al Ghul, Riddler, Roxy Rocket, Scarecrow, Two-Face, Ventriloquist (Wesker). Can I count Catwoman, Man-Bat, and The Phantasm? Buzz Bronski, Roland Daggett, Carlton Duquesne, H.A.R.D.A.C., Kyodai Ken, Red Claw, Chuckie Sol, Rupert Thorne, Tygrus, Salvatore Valestra, Grant Walker, Tony Zucco?

2. Spider-Gallery: Chameleon, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Green Goblin, Hobgoblin, Hydro-Man, Kingpin, Kraven, The Lizard, Mysterio, Rhino, Sandman, Scorpion, Scream, Shocker, Venom, The Vulture. Can I count Black Cat?

3. Supergallery: Atomic Skull (Michaels), Bizarro, Brainiac, Luthor, Livewire, Metallo, Mxyzptlk, Parasite, Toyman, Ultra-Humanite, Zod. Can I count Maxima and Vartox? Volcana?

4. THE Rogues Gallery: Abra Kadabra, Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold, Golden Glider, Heat Wave, Mirror Master, Piper, Trickster, Weather Wizard. Dr. Alchemy & The Top, meh. Can I throw Grodd in there for fun?

5. Batgallery Beyond: 2-D Man, Blight, Curaré, Mr Fixx, Freon, Inque, Magma, Shriek, Spellbinder, Stalker. Jokerz (Bonk, Chucko, Dee-Dee, Ghoul, Woof) and splicers. Can I count Ten?

6. The Cross-Dimensional Conglomerate of Crime: Ultraman, Superwoman, Owlman, Power Ring, Johnny Quick, Olympian, J’edd J’arkus, Angelique, Annataz, White Canary-Scream Queen, Black Power, Extruded Man, Model Citizen, Aurora, Warwolf, Captain Super, Mr. Action, Red Archer-Blue Bowman, Scarlet Scarab, Silver Cyclone, ... ad infinitum.

[perletwo]

My pick: the New Teen Titans rogues gallery.

You got your Fearsome Five. You got your Deathstroke the Terminator, in his first appearances no less. You got your H.I.V.E. You got your assorted space-scum of the Vega galaxy. You got your Brother Blood and his psycho-cult. You got your Titans of Myth. You got TRIGON. awesomeness!

[kingrockwell]

The Bat-rogues have all the pathos and menace, but for me, I've gotta go with the Super-rogues. It has everything to do with charm. I read these stories with these guys and I get the stupidest grin on my face.



You've got Bizarro, the epitome of the misunderstood monster, with his infectious enthusiasm and wild curiousity. An anti-villain if ever there was one, even sometimes a hero.

There's Mr. Mxyzptlk, the trickster god who acts more out of boredom and a fondness for Clark than out of malice.

And Lex! Oh, Lex. I have a Lex in my head who rarely exists on the page, but when he does he could easily be my favorite antagonist. And that's the key word, antagonist. He should be right sometimes, he should really care about humanity, and maybe even have something of a point about Metropolis' dependency on Clark. If one of Clark's hooks is that he's an inspiration to us all, than Lex should be there to challenge that, to put that on the spot so Clark has to prove him wrong. And Lex should be proven wrong, but not by making him as outright morally reprehensible or motivated by jealousy as is often done (hatred and xenophobia, i can see though). His whole stint as president was a huge disappointment because what's so special about Lex Luthor becoming president and being evil in the White House? Hell, that'd be a step-down from running LexCorp. How much more interesting a story would it be if he were actually really good at the job? If DCAU Lex were president, goddamn we would get a story.

But right, right, I was talking about the charm. Lex is pretty much the smartest man on earth, and see where this can take him is a real joy. When you're actually given a front-row seat of his nonlinear thought processes, as we've gotten from Paul Cornell's current run on Action Comics, it is a real wild and fun ride, well worth taking.

Are these guys all heavy-duty threats? Sure! But it isn't about that, the way I see it.

[benicio127]

Thanks for helping out, mods! Much appreciated. I'm just gonna C&P from my tumblr...

Batman’s. Hands down. No other Rogues Gallery in any comics can even compare. He has the most enigmatic villains, some of the best and most complex villains and they are so psychologically engrossing.

You’ve got The Joker, who you just can’t take your eyes off of in any incarnation, whether it’s in the pages of a comic book or on a movie screen; Harley Quinn, whose relationship with the Joker is as complex as it is tragic, kinky, abusive, macabre and a parody; Ivy, the original environmentalist; Riddler, whose OCD practically handicaps him; Two-Face, whose dichotomy is fascinating; and Jane Doe, who is pretty much a female Ed Gein/Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.

Creepy, fascinating, engrossing, tragic, macabre, playful, funny, cold, disturbing: you could use all of these words to describe any one of Batman’s Rogues. Each and every one of them can elicit sympathy in some way — even Zsasz, the Black Mask and the Joker — and trust me, some fans like Batman’s villains far more than they like the heroes! Even Killer Moth has his fans!

My favourites by far are the Joker and Harley Quinn. I could never get enough of the two of them. If there was an ongoing comic featuring just them, I would buy it by the dozen.

Oh! And I own that Dustin Nguyen art, signed and everything by Dustin himself! It’s hanging up in our front hall. Great conversation piece, too!

[20thcenturyvole]

Holy crap! You own that?!

Sorry, it's just - NGUYEN. I check his DeviantArt page every day. <3!

[benicio127]

Yeah! He was selling them through his DeviantArt. Sent me two other pieces, too, coz I think he forgot the shipment originally. Ha.

[mcity]

I recognize everyone but the woman/girl on Clayface's shoulder.

[retro_nouveau]

That's Clayface, too. :D

It's Annie (DCAU), who was sent out as a subdivision of Clayface to scout ahead, given the name by Tim when she can't remember anything about her actual identity.

[mcity]

Oh. I was wondering, but that seemed like a comic-book Batman picture, not DCAU as well.

[arilou_skiff]

Spider-man's, obviously. It always felt like it had a bit more range than Batman's. And the fact that at least some of them are sane, helps. (I'm especially fond of the Vulture)

Another one is of course the Fantastic Four's: Galactus, Dr. Doom, Super-Skrull, Annihilus... Their Rogues gallery is so good everyone else keeps using them as well. In a lot of ways it's bigger than the FF itself.

[kamino_neko]

I really don't WANT to go with the Bat, but...really, taken as a whole, they're the winners. (Spoken as primarily a DC fan...not really familiar enough with most of Marvel to say.)

The sheer variety, the fact that most of them stay primarily his, or at least within the Bat-family (several of Superman's better enemies have become JLA, JSA, or GLC enemies, instead, for instance)... Only the Flash comes close, but the really good Flash enemies are pretty much restricted to the Rogues, Zoom, Grodd, and couple who stopped being villains.

[ebailey140]

The Batman Rogues do enjoy visiting Metropolis, though. The Joker, Selena, and Harly & Ivy have had some memorable visits, there. Harley even got a job as an advice columnist at the Daily Planet and dated Jimmy Olsen. Conversely, Lex has caused all sorts of grief in Gotham.

They don't seem as fond of the Flash's home turf of Keystone City, however. At least Selena didn't like it. She found it too weird.

[kamino_neko]

But they always return to Gotham to bother Batman and his Batketeers. He keeps his villains - or at least keeps them in the family - rather than having them become someone else's the way Ultra-Humanite, or Mongul did.

[ebailey140]

Most keep their villains, though there's a lot of crossover with the Bats and Supes Rogues. That makes sense, because of the close ties between the Batman and Superman families. Steph has been Batgirl for a little more than a year, and she's already fought two Superman Rogues.

But I was amused by Selena's reaction to how things operate in Keystone and Central City with the Flash and his Rogues. The girl from Gotham thought that was really weird, like her town is normal. :)

[werehawk.livejournal.com]

Spiderman's or Flash's. No one else has a gallery even close. No, not even Batman
:

[psychopathicus_rex]

Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with the majority here, I'm afraid - the Bat-villains are the best. There are lots of other villains I like, but most of them are stand-alone examples, not members of a gallery. I'd list some examples, but I think 'favorite villain' is one of the upcoming categories, so I'll keep my trap shut 'til then.
Oh, and just when did Harvey wear a turtleneck? He looks very bohemian. (Also, the artist mixed up his traditional colors - the left side is supposed to be the purple one.)

[http://www.google.com/profiles/NielJacoby]

US Comics: The Flash for DC, FF or Spidey for Marvel
Manga: OnePiece, though it may not count as a gallery, per se.

And since I forgot to post on the previous ones:
D1: Deadpool or Mister Miracle
D2: Big Barda
D3: Ted & Booster
D4: Ted Kord