Are all villains created equal?
As the universe has expanded so has their villain list, the time has come for us to release our DCEU Villain Tier list.
We are making changes this time. Instead of splitting it up into Best and Worst villains, we are going to make one Tier list and rank them. For the purposes of our list, we focused on the main villain(s) from the movies. We omitted a few if they felt more like an extension of the main villain.
With that being said, here we go. FYI, our Tier titles are based on the Superman and Batman movie villains.
The Joker
Maxwell Lord (Wonder Woman 1984) Hands down the best villain we have seen in the DCEU. Forgot about the Wish Stone, just focus on how he arcs through the movie. The one question we had at the end of the movie had to be what happened to him.
Black Manta (Aquaman) This is the way they should set up all of their secondary villains. There is enough of a story there to set the motive and we can see the arc develop into the next Aquaman movie.
Black Mask (Birds of Prey) Another crazy villain who seemed like he could break anytime. Excellent performance and quite memorable as being the best part of the Birds of Prey. The only thing keeping him from the top of the list would be why he was chasing the diamond.
Bane
Ocean Master (Aquaman) The plot was intriguing and he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. Had he been a bit more charismatic, he would be in higher tier. Aquaman is the one movie where both villains deserved to be on the positive side of things.
The Riddler
Doctor Sivana (Shazam) The character drive and acting was good but there was something holding it back. Something we can’t pinpoint but he feels lacking in the end and was not memorable enough.
Enchantress (Suicide Squad) The character design was good but you lost us with the beam of light show and the dancing. Also her escape plot was simple enough that it should have been already done before the movie kicked off.
Ares (Wonder Woman) Everything was going good for this villain until they had the big reveal. They could have done so much more with him and the CGI was another clunker.
Lex Luthor (Batman v Superman) This character had some potential to be decent but the focus was left on the wrong aspects of the character. Spare us your argument that the deleted scenes make him so much better. Then they should have make it fit.
Cheetah (Wonder Woman 1984) There was some hope for this villain but it felt too by the numbers. Especially the way we saw her descent into villainess. The CGI at the end did not help either.
Nuclear Man
Steppenwolf (Justice League) Bad CGI and lack of real motivation makes a bad villain. He might have been useful as a secondary villain but not as the primary. Even the reworked CGI in the Snyder Cut is going to save him.
Doomsday (Batman v Superman) It was a real shame to see what they did to this Superman villain. He deserved so much more than bad bad CGI and left to be simple brute force.
Joker (Suicide Squad) Maybe they were trying a new approach to him, but they swung and miss. The bigger issue we had was how little he played a role despite being all over the place in the trailer. Just as above, a Snyder Cut revision does not do much for us.
Unranked
Zod (Man of Steel) This one is a difficult one for the simple fact that we have not seen the movie. We have heard good and iffy things about him. With that being said, we will keep him in the middle of the pack for now. When we get around to seeing the movie, we will update our list.
Disregarded
The Sin Demons (Shazam)
Incubus (Suicide Squad)
