Monday Night Poll: The Lamest Superhero Movie Villains
Filed under: Polls
I grew up loving all things Superman, but even as a lad of 13 I could tell that the villain in Superman IV -- Nuclear Man, created when Supes threw all the world's nuclear weapons into the sun -- was dumb. He had no personality. He didn't even have a name. "Nuclear Man" is what the closing credits called him, but no one in the film ever calls him anything. Rule No. 1 of being a supervillain: You must have a name. I cannot imagine any exceptions to that rule.
So Nuclear Man is probably my vote for the lamest villain in a superhero movie, but it's hardly a slam-dunk. He has a lot of competition. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campy Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin is legendary. At the opposite end of the muscles scale, there's whiny Venom (Topher Grace) in Spider-Man 3 and emo-goth Blackheart (Wes Bentley) in Ghost Rider. And don't forget Faye Dunaway in Supergirl, Sharon Stone in Catwoman, and the completely useless Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) in the completely useless X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Or the ineffectual but well dressed Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) in Daredevil.
We could go on forever, but we had to narrow it down for the poll. Now we seek your input. Who's the worst villain in a superhero movie? One of the choices below, or someone else? Feel free to explain your choices in the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
10-05-2009 @ 10:24PM
Jubby said...
How the hell do you consider "Gambit" a villain in Origins? He might SLIGHTLY be considered one for all of 5-8 minutes when he and Wolverine go at it. If anything it should have been Deadpool/Weapon X, or hell, even Sabertooth was more villainous.
Jebus...
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10-11-2009 @ 9:27PM
katie said...
i totally n completely agree i so dont gt that
10-11-2009 @ 11:22PM
freakytrish said...
I agree with you...did the moron who wrote this article even watch Wolverine?? Gambit was far from a bad guy....he even helped Logan get on the island and tried to help the mutants get off the island. Wolverine is my FAVORITE movie of all time and this dude says it stinks. Well I think you and your article are the one who stinks??
Don't quit your day job.....
10-05-2009 @ 10:58PM
Rich said...
i have to choose one off that list? can't we just call it pretty much all equal?
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10-06-2009 @ 12:15AM
Wexler said...
Yea... Gambit was definitely not a villain. Deadpool on the other hand definitely was a villain, and they completely screwed him up, so he would be a good vote right there.
I would also throw in Dr. Doom from the Fantastic Four movies, Juggernaut from X3, Dracula from Blade Trinity, and those lame criminals from Hancock. Honorable mention to Venom in Spidey 3.
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10-11-2009 @ 8:36PM
Brad said...
You are dead on. I was about to write what you said verbatum. I hope they fix what they screwed up with on Deadpool because he was one of my favorites, but Ryan Reynolds was perfect...IT WAS THE LAME SCRIPT!
10-11-2009 @ 9:56PM
Michelle said...
You are so right about Hancock. But then again, the whole movie was fairly lame, not just the villains.
10-06-2009 @ 1:02PM
Holly said...
Gambit and Logan fought for about five seconds until Victor showed up and then they were on the same side again. That's really not a villian, especially not compared to the brother who was trying to kill him or the mutant hating military scientist who ruined his life and erased his memory. Did you actually see this movie?
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10-06-2009 @ 2:13AM
JamesRyanHamm said...
Hands down, lamest villain in a comic book movie, for me, is M/Moriarty in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. What a botch-job on a long list of them for that stinkburger.
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10-06-2009 @ 6:16AM
Jacob said...
I actuallu thought Kingpin was the best part of Daredevil.
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10-06-2009 @ 8:15AM
filmsuki said...
What's the context of that Joker panel? Did boner used to mean something else? :o3
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10-06-2009 @ 8:40AM
crashcarstar said...
Boner can also mean "mistake", especially a dumb one.
10-06-2009 @ 8:46AM
madgamer said...
It just meant 'mistake' or 'blunder' back in the day. I like Wexler's suggestion of the hancock baddies, as they were just terrible. Venom was such a let down too.
10-11-2009 @ 9:08PM
Karen said...
Yes -- back in the day (40s - 70s?) It was to make a stupid, and often public mistake. Came from a short version of a "bonehead" move.
10-06-2009 @ 9:24AM
scotw1t said...
I'd agree with Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin, except for the fact that that "film" also contained possibly the most intimidating and complex character in Batman comics, the only person ever to "break the bat", Bane, as nothing more than a mindless grunting stooge. That has to be the greatest waste of a character ever.
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10-11-2009 @ 11:12PM
c.j. said...
haha, greatest waste of a villian was darth maul. awesome premise and character but horrible timing to end him. the whole scene was painful to watch.
10-12-2009 @ 1:49AM
Chris said...
Er, Bane was always like that, even in the comics.
10-06-2009 @ 11:05AM
Huud said...
Mr. Freeze really stunk in Batman & Robin, but not nearly as bad as Bane was in that film. They took a cool villain, with a cool personality; and made him a mindless ogre. He was the main reason I wanted to walk out of that film.
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10-19-2009 @ 11:55PM
TVMovie said...
Here is the lamest villiam in the history of the cinema:
The Cloud threatening the Earth in Fantanstic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Look out everyone here comes the cloud!
Reminds me of Joe Flaherty as Count Floyd on SCTV trying to make a really bad movie sound scary, when it was just stupid.
Sort of like Star Trek: The Motion Picture where they had a cloud surrounding the V'Ger (Voyager) spacecraft, execpt they left out the spacecraft and just had the cloud! I guess there was no money in the budget to show "Hungortus, Eater of Worlds", so they had a cloud and let it go at that.
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10-06-2009 @ 12:45PM
Drewbacca said...
While I agree that Mr. Freeze, Bain and Nuclear Man were nightmares on the screen, I would also like to throw Professor Bedlam from "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" into the mix
F*ckin' POINTLESS!!
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