The Search for the Greatest Villain of All-Time
The villain, the antagonist, the bad guy, whatever you want to call them, is easily the most important part of any good vs. evil story. There can be a villain without a hero, but there can’t be a hero without a villain. After all, the events and substance of the story are driven by the actions of the villain, and the more intriguing they are, the better. So obviously, they can’t just be an average Joe committing crimes with a bad attitude, there’s an art to creating good villain. The darkness of their backstory, the complexity of their morals, the legitimacy of their motivation, the forcefulness of their will & power. Villains like Thanos excel in these categories: morally complex to the point of killing his own daughter for the sake of achieving his goal, his backstory and motivation tied together with the collapse of his home world, and power so great that, even without the infinity stones, the Avengers could not stop him. Truly a great character.
HOWEVER, I firmly believe that when evaluating the greatness of a villain, the villain part is the most important, they can’t just be a great character. While it should definitely help their case in the evaluation process, it should by no means take precedence over their mastery of the villainary arts (yes, I just said that and it’s a thing now). I’m talking about their dastardly deeds, and their infamous reputations. Why are they doing what they’re doing; is what they’re doing actually evil; and are they aware that what they’re doing is evil? Just because they happen to be the antagonist in an iconic piece of entertainment does not mean they’re a great villain.
And that is the criteria for my search. No anti-heroes doing wrong for the right reasons; no self-proclaimed saints who don’t realized what they’re doing is bad because they believe it’s God’s will; no mentally weak mad genius’ that come to a revelation after some inspiring words from the hero to convince them to change their ways. This is an exclusive selection for villains who knowingly and purposefully committed evil acts for selfish reasons and stayed committed to their evil craft.
View all Greatest Villain picks.
But to start, I’m going to list some famous villains that will actually NOT be making the cut:
Thanos (MCU version)
As much praise as I just gave him, I also said he was a great character, not a great villain. But, as noted, I’m purely talking about the version of Thanos we see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as his comic book counterpart is way more hardcore. It’s the evil side of this MCU version that comes up short, while his methods may be severe, his intentions are pure. If we look at what he’s trying to achieve with his actions, solving world hunger on a galactic scale, we can not only sympathize, but empathize to the point of thinking he might be right. Because of this, like many of history’s greatest real-life villains, he firmly believes that his devastating methods are entirely justifiable, is convinced that what he’s doing is for the greater good, and that the end justifies any means. Sorry, but this is far from true evil.
Darth Vader
Easily the most unproven and overrated villain ever. For the life of me, I cannot understand why people consider Darth Vader to be one of the best villains of all-time. Not only does he turn good in the end, but he does next to nothing evil. His entire persona relies on his presence and the vibe he gives off. People are terrified when he’s in the same room as them because they know how powerful he is, but immense power means nothing when you literally never use it. Throughout all three movies, his only evil action of note is killing Obi-Wan Kenobi, and even then, as everybody knows, Obi-Wan let Vader kill him. He’s just a pawn, everybody knows he’s a pawn, even he knows he’s a pawn. I can’t help but get the impression that Vader wants to be the hero all along, since in the duel at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, he tries to convince Luke to join him and help him overthrow Emperor Palpatine. Then, in the final showdown at the end of Return of the Jedi, Emperor Palpatine tries to convince Luke to kill Darth Vader and take his spot, all while Darth Vader is standing right there! Actualizing his desire to be the hero, it’s only when Vader sees his son being electrified that he decides to throw the evil Emperor into the depths of the second Death Star. So yeah, Darth Vader does no evil, kills the actual bad guy of the story, and is considered one of the greatest villains of all-time… WHY?
But we’ll always have that Rogue One scene.
Magneto
This was a truly tough decision to make. Magneto really is one of the all-time greatest villains in entertainment history. Perhaps no other villain is as simultaneously feared and sympathized as he is. The only thing holding him back in my selection is his motivation, he’s just not selfish enough, and it can legitimately be hard to see Magneto as a villain at times. Raised in Auschwitz, Magneto was one of the few survivors of the Holocaust. Psychologically scarred at a young age, he saw humanity’s potential to harm those who are seen as “different”, and adopted the philosophy that mutants would suffer the same fate if they did not band together and fight back. In his mind, he’s simply defending his people. On that note, X-Men started out as an allegory for the Civil Rights Movement, with Professor Xavier representing Martin Luther King Jr., and Magneto representing Malcom X. They both have the same goal, the acceptance of their people, but have different methods when it comes to achieving that goal. Professor Xavier, through peaceful coexistence, and Magneto, by any means necessary, and sometimes those means are taken to an extreme.
That’s where I give him credit, despite his admirable intentions, there are times when Magneto has taken to outright villainy. He once killed a doctor by forcing a paperclip through her body and manipulating it until she succumbed to the pain and internal injuries. When the Soviet Union attacked him, he sank a nuclear submarine and raised a volcano from beneath a city just to teach them a lesson. When humanity once tried to prevent him using his magnetic powers, he unleashed an EMP so powerful the entire world went dark, then when the X-Men retaliated, he ripped Wolverine’s Adamantium skeleton out of his body. While it’s hard not to root for him at times, he’s also done some pretty evil things that are hard to forgive.
