8) Bane – Tom Hardy, The Dark Knight Rises
It was never going to be easy to follow on from the incredible performance of the late Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, but Tom Hardy gave it his best shot as the formidable Bane in the grand finale to the Nolan Batman trilogy. In his own way, he has even seeped into popular culture just as much – though that’s mostly due to his unique muffled voice.
With his breathing apparatus replacing his Venom superserum, Bane isn’t too close to his comics iteration, but he still retains all his might and fiendish mind. While a late reveal that Bane is a lovesick puppet of Talia Al Ghul feels disingenuous with what had gone on before, the character still stands as one of the toughest of Batman’s foes. Say what you like about the Joker, but he never managed to break the Bat’s back and takeover Gotham city.