The 10 Worst Villains In Comic Book Movies

As we celebrate the golden age of comic book movies, we can fondly look back at all the different adaptations of heroes and villains that have entertained us. From Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man to the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, there have been incredible performances to cherish and love forever. However, there have also been more than a few duds - most notably in the villain department. Now, hold your horses, we're not going to list every rogue in the MCU to date, because that would be trolling and a lie (but mostly trolling). Instead, we've looked back at the worst of the worst, the real bubblegum under your shoe of scoundrels, and seen who deserves to be called out for terribleness. As with these sorts of things, there's naturally a lot of debate about what constitutes a horrible baddie. So, as always, if you agree or disagree with our choices, please let us know in the comments section below. With that out of the way, get those tomatoes ready and take aim at these stinkers, folks. These are the 10 worst villains in comic book movies, and it all begins on the next page. Galactus (Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer) When a giant fart in the sky is your film's main antagonist, you know you're scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of ideas. What's even more tragic, however, is when the flatulence is supposed to represent the god-like Galactus. As one of the most powerful villains in comic book history, Galactus is a cosmic entity that devours planets like we do hamburgers. He's a freakin' planet eater, people! Yet, in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, he looked about as menacing as the tornado in 1996's Twister - minus the flying cow. We still say that the true villain of this film remains the producers, who allowed something so stupid to find its way into the final cut. Ultimately, Galactus was another victim of 20th Century Fox's absurd ideas for Marvel's first family - and it seems like it's set to continue in the future. Can we please just give the rights back to Marvel already? You know they'll do a better job. Venom (Spider-Man 3) Oh, how it pains us to put Eddie Brock (Venom) on this list. As the poster boy of villains in the nineties, Venom is the one character that every Spider-Man fan clamored for when Sam Raimi's franchise kicked off in 2002. But you know that saying, "be careful what you wish for"? Yeah, that. Shoehorned into the jam-packed Spider-Man 3, which already contained two other villains, Venom became the laughing stock of an already hilariously bad film. Forget about Emo Peter and his bad boy fringe, the biggest cringe-worthy moment was the finale that felt like a first grade recital. Just in case anyone forgot, Venom was also the role that killed Topher Grace's Hollywood career and any chance of him joining the A-list ranks. Mind you, we still don't know how his That '70s Show co-star Ashton "I play Kelso in everything" Kutcher still gets roles. Now, that's another mystery for Scooby-Doo and the gang to solve. Enchantress (Suicide Squad) On paper, Enchantress sounds like a decent antagonist for a film. June Moone is possessed by a witch and holds magical powers, so she'd definitely be more than capable of causing trouble for anyone trying to stop her from whatever ridiculous motive tickles her fancy on the day. Unfortunately, much like everything else in Suicide Squad, David Ayer forgot to read a comic book about the character. Instead, he made Cara Delevingne do the hula for the whole movie while looking like she'd rather be in Rings. We're not even going to get into the topic of her shocking CGI that appeared somehow worse than 1984's Ghostbusters. The cherry on the cake, however, is Delevingne, who had about as much charisma as an empty packet of cornflakes, ensuring Enchantress sucked more than Jared Leto's Joker. At least she had a cool transformation scene though, right? Helmut Zemo (Captain America: Civil War) From Spider-Man's outstanding cameo to the fight scene between Captain America and Iron Man, Captain America: Civil War did a lot of things right. Yet, the one major thing it failed in doing was introducing a good Helmut Zemo into the MCU. As one of Captain America's most famous foes, Zemo is meant to be tough and scary. This version of the character, however, was more like an angry SJW on a Twitter tirade. He probably could've been replaced by an anti-Zack Snyder blogger and no one would've noticed the difference. Considering we'd already seen a really good Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger, one would've expected a more accurate depiction of Zemo as well. Sadly, we'll have to wait and see if Daniel Brühl ever puts on the signature mask in a future Cap film. Bane (Batman & Robin) We could've listed all the villains from Batman & Robin here, but the late Robert Swenson's Bane stands out as the biggest loser of the lot. How in the world do you take one of Batman's most intelligent foes and turn him into Hulk Hogan's Wrestlemania II opponent? Apart from being Poison Ivy's muscle, Bane served no other purpose than to increase the toy range of this movie. Undoubtedly, his popularity after the Knightfall arc inspired the producers to include him here, but he added absolutely nothing to this abomination of Batman. On a side note, did anyone else spot Bane's spiked collar in the film? With that mask and collar combination, he looked like a real gimp. Way to go, Joel Schumacher! Fortunately, we received a better - albeit also different - version of the character in The Dark Knight Rises, which washed out the bad taste of his previous outing in Batman & Robin. All thanks must go to Christopher Nolan and Tom Hardy for being such swell guys and not ruining Bane as well. Walker (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III) It's rather poetic that the worst Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film provided us with the worst villain as well. There's so much wrong with this 96-minute eyesore that most of us don't even remember that the bad guy was a random dude named Walker. The filmmakers had yet to introduce the likes of Krang or Bebop and Rocksteady by the time the third film came around. So, what did they do? They went and sent the Turtles back in time to battle someone who'd never even appeared in any TMNT media. Genius, right? Apart from the fact that Walker was a weak villain, the film was so bad that it killed the Turtles' big screen adventures for over a decade. Seeing this script developed, however, should give hope to any aspiring screenwriter. It shows you that no matter how bad your idea is, there's always the chance that someone will buy it. Howard Saint (The Punisher) When you're given the chance to adapt the Punisher, there's a long list of characters to pit Frank Castle against. You could choose Tombstone, Kingpin, or even Jigsaw. Who did we get in 2004's The Punisher though? Um, Howard Saint. Oh, don't worry, we don't know who he is, either. Apparently, a comic book character, which had been around for 30 years before this film was released, required a crime lord to be specifically created for this movie. Because, you know, the Kingpin isn't O.G. enough… John Travolta did what he could with this role, but none of us cared enough for Saint for him to be a memorable rival. Fortunately, we only had to endure him for one movie and have moved onto better things in recent times - like Jon Bernthal's take on the antihero over on Netflix. Laurel Hedare (Catwoman) We're convinced the script for Catwoman got mixed up with the one for Zoolander somehow. It's the only thing that explains why the antagonist, Laurel Hedare, is the head of a cosmetics company. Yip, she's evil because she's created some dodgy skin cream, like pretty much every other cosmetics company. Now that you've stopped laughing… Actually, carry on. This was the dumbest film ever made, and it deserves to be laughed at until the end of time. Skin cream, really? You're handed the keys to the DC kingdom and you create a skin care villain? And here we thought that Condiment King was the lamest villain in DC Comics… When you consider this film exists, maybe we should count our blessings and not be so hard on the DCEU after all. It could always be Catwoman bad, and the world has already suffered enough pain. Dr. Russel Tresh (Generation X) Not many people remember the Generation X TV movie, and that's probably a good thing. It wasn't very good, and only existed because it failed as a television pilot and the filmmakers decided to use the footage for something else. Bless them for having a sense of humor. Apart from the distinctly nineties feel of it all, the baddie, Dr. Russel Tresh, was a clichéd mad scientist obsessed with dreams. Matt Frewer's portrayal of the villain was so campy and over the top that it made you wonder if Tresh was a grown-up version of Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory. Cheesier than mozzarella and smellier than blue cheese, Tresh didn't do much to salvage this train-wreck of a flick. Generation X is a product of its time, and the nineties aren't remembered for being particularly kind to comic books as a whole. Aldrich Killian/Mandarin (Iron Man 3) Shane Black probably thought his Mandarin twist was pretty clever and edgy when he penned the script with Drew Pearce. Meanwhile, he singlehandedly destroyed the Mandarin for the MCU and wasted Guy Pearce's talents in one film. What, you disagree? Cash me outside, how bout dat?! The Mandarin is arguably Iron Man's greatest foe and one of the most interesting super villains in comic book lore. For years, Tony Stark fans were excited by the prospect of seeing him face our iron-clad hero in a film outing, and it seemed like they got their wish with the casting of Ben Kingsley in 2013's Iron Man 3. Then, it all went to pot, and we got one of the stupidest plot twists in the history of comic book movies. Iron Man 3 presented the perfect opportunity to introduce a formidable adversary for Tony. Instead, we got a cheap copout and another failed villain in the MCU. Pearce is a tremendous actor, but he's not Mandarin. Comic book movies deserve a better class of criminals, and this just wasn't it.