Wizard Picks their top 100 villains

[sps1000]

Prepare to disagree entirely:

100) Mr. Joshua ("Lethal Weapon")

99) Beholder (Dungeons & Dragons)

98) The Others ("Lost")

97) Francis Buxton ("Pee-wee's Big Adventure")

96) Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)

95) Stewie Griffin ("Family Guy")

94) Brainiac ("Superman: The Animated Series")

93) Norman Bates ("Psycho")

92) Dean Wormer ("Animal House")

91) Auric Goldfinger ("Goldfinger")

90) Gentlemen ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer")

89) Bill Lumberg ("Office Space")

88) Frank Booth ("Blue Velvet")

87) Endo ("Lethal Weapon")

86) Mr. Blonde ("Reservoir Dogs")

85) Col. Kurtz ("Apocalypse Now")

84) Deathstroke (DC Comics)

83) The French Taunter ("Monty Python and the Holy Grain")

82) Luther ("Warriors")

81) Angel Eyes ("The Good, the Bad and the Ugly")

80) Clubber Lang ("Rocky III")

79) Cancer Man ("X-Files")

78) R.J. Fletcher ("UHF")

77) The Flood (Halo: Combat Evolved)

76) The Socs (The Outsiders)

75) Big Brother (1984)

74) Herr Starr (DC/Vertigo)

73) Biff Tannen ("Back to the Future")

72) Tony Montoya ("Scarface")

71) Walter Peck ("Ghostbusters")

70) The Balrog ("The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring")

69) J.R. Ewing ("Dallas")

68) Megatron ("Transformers")

67) Venom (Marvel Comics)

66) Sideshow Bob ("The Simpsons")

65) Kevin ("Sin City")

64) Syndrome ("The Incredibles")

63) Samara ("The Ring")

62) Gollum ("The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King")

61) Johnny Lawrence ("The Karate Kid")

60) Judge Doom ("Who Framed Roger Rabbit")

59) Bob ("Twin Peaks")

58) General Zod ("Superman II")

57) Principal Ed Rooney ("Ferris Bueller's Day Off")

56) John Doe ("Seven")

55) The Overlook Hotel ("The Shining")

54) Leatherface ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre")

53) Cobra Commander ("G.I. Joe")

52) Kid Miracleman (Eclipse Comics)

51) Catwoman (DC Comics)

50) Max Cady ("Cape Fear")

49) Amanda Woodward ("Melrose Place")

48) Iago (Othello)

47) Bill the Butcher ("Gangs of New York")

46) Starscream ("Transformers")

45) Mr. Burns ("The Simpsons")

44) Godzilla ("Godzilla")

43) Serpentor (Marvel Comics)

42) Keyser Soze ("The Usual Suspects")

41) Hal 9000 ("2001: A Space Odyssey")

40) Buu ("Dragonball Z")

39) Michael Corleone ("The Godfather: Part II")

38) Dark Phoenix (Marvel Comics)

37) Predator ("Predator")

36) Alex Delarge ("A Clockwork Orange")

35) Roddy Piper (WWE)

34) Mayor Richard Wilkins ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer")

33) Tony Soprano ("The Sopranos")

32) Hans Grueber ("Die Hard")

31) Grand Moff Tarkin ("Star Wars")

30) Dracula ("Monster Squad")

29) T-1000 ("Terminator 2: Judgement Day")

28) Jabba the Hutt ("Star Wars: Return of the Jedi")

27) Hillbillies ("Deliverance")

26) Jason Voorhees ("Friday the 13th")

25) Ozymandias (DC Comics)

24) Agent Smith ("The Matrix")

23) Darkseid (DC Comics)

22) Thanos (Marvel Comics)

21) Red Skull (Marvel Comics)

20) Khan ("Star Trek")

19) Green Goblin (Marvel Comics)

18) Galactus (Marvel Comics)

17) Magneto (Marvel Comics)

16) The Thing ("John Carpenters' The Thing")

15) Pennywise (It)

14) Freddy Kreuger ("Nightmare on Elm Street")

13) Aliens ("Aliens")

12) Sauron (The Lord of the Rings)

11) Darth Vader ("Star Wars")

10) The Shark ("Jaws")

9) Pinhead ("Hellraiser")

8) Lex Luthor (DC Comics)

7) The Borg ("Star Trek: The Next Generation")

6) Hannibal Lecter ("Silence of the Lambs")

5) Zombies ("Dawn of the Dead," 2004)

4) Dr. Doom (Marvel Comics)

3) Palpatine ("Star Wars")

2) Pazuzu ("The Exorcist")

1) THE JOKER (DC Comics)

[Elliot Kane]

BOY do I ever disagree with that list! If this is supposed to the 100 greatest villains from ALL media, there's a lot of evidence there that Wizard put no thought into this at all.

Just off the top of my head, the glaringly obvious missing ones:

Fu Manchu - arguably the best villain ever, and certainly one of the most complex.
Jon Irenicus - the villain from Baldur's Gate 2 CRPG
The Kurgan from Highlander
The Terminator from Terminator #1
The Daleks - Dr Who's arch enemies. Exterminate!
Dracula - from the original novel by Bram Stoker! 'Monster Squad' indeed!
The Wamphyri - from Brian Lumley's novels.
Judge Death - Dredd's arch-nemesis. "The Crime isss life... The sssentence is death!" How can that guy NOT make the list?

Heck, Ursula the Sea Witch from The Little Mermaid is a better villain than half that list!

[Venom65437]

How the ulmighty Venom didn't hit number 1 is beyond me.

In all seriousness, I would think Magneto should be much higher up on that list. I mean, Kruger, Pinhead, the Jaws shark, and ZOMBIES are better than Mags? Whatever.

By the way, why does everyone seem to love Jaws, that movie couldn't be more boring if they just filmed someone's front lawn for 2.5 hours.

[Ubereil]

Who's Fu Manchu?

Übereil

[sps1000]

IMO this list really missed the boat also. I mean where is Bill from Kill Bill? Or Mr. Sinister? Or even better yet where is Angelus from Buffy? Also Dark Phoenix should've been higher. Finally Dr. Doom should've been #1.

[fourleafclover]

admin said:

Heck, Ursula the Sea Witch from The Little Mermaid is a better villain than half that list!

Agreed! She and the evil Queen from Sleeping Beauty were some of the scariest cartoon villians ever.

[nights]

Malefesita is the evil queens name... she also a pain in the ass in Kingdom Hearts.. I would like to know the grounds some of these losers even get on the list..

[hector]

ubereil said:

Who's Fu Manchu?

A now dated and stereotyped criminal mastermind of Chinese origin created by British writer Sax Rohmer around the early years of the 20th Century. Whose sole purpose was to 'bring down the West' and all that. It was probably the best example of the paranoid "Yellow Peril" (i.e. Asians are different, and therefore, evil) that predated the communism paranoid. Heck, Rohmer himself described him as the best example of The Yellow Peril in his introduction in his first book.

He had a series of books, comic books (Detective Comics #1, the book where Batman would debut some years later, starred a Manchu rip-off), serials, movies, parodies, homages, clichés, etc.

You have probably seen Fu Manchu or one of his countless rip-off or parodies. Whenever you see a clichéd Evil Asian:

[hector]

As for the list..well, as always when there is a list like this there is bound to be disagreement. I mean, E's half list has characters that few probably knows and the other half is irrelevant for anyone not British, but I'm sure he has good reasons to think they should be included. Mine would be different from his and Wizard's. No big deal.

Still, putting a character of The Karate Kid in *any* Top list, that's just wrong. Really.

[Elliot Kane]

Fu Manchu begins as a stereotype, yes. By the end of the series, he is actually the most complex and well designed character in the series - and easily one of the best fictional villains of all time. Just saying

[Alrik]

Fu Manchu has a same-looking representative in Evil Genius.

By the way, I'm quite surprised so many villians from comics appear on the tep 10. I had rather thought there would be plenty from other media, too.

[hector]

Well, that's because:


A) Comic Book villains have been portrayed in many different media throughout the years.

B) Wizard, the magazine who compiled that list, is about comic books. So they may be some *slight* bias.

[BJC]

What the heck are they going by here? No brains or something?

[Alrik]

hector said:

B) Wizard, the magazine who compiled that list, is about comic books. So they may be some *slight* bias.

Okay, I understand that.

I'm not too much into comics, that's why, for example, I usually don't respond on comics discussions. So I don't know much about this area.

[hector]

Nah, don't worry. It's an understandable reaction when seeing names like Herr Star or Kid Miracleman in a list like that.

I think SPS just misjudged the audience, automatically assuming everyone would know what Wizard is and what does it write about.

[sps1000]

Yep, that's what I assumed.