DC has a reputation among fans right now as being dark, gritty, and serious. Most of this comes from recent additions to the DC Cinematic Universe, like The Dark Knight Trilogy and Batman V Superman. Though new movies like Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman are bringing some much-needed lightness, brevity, and hope to the DC Universe, the doom and gloom reputation remains strong. If DC movies had some of the weird DC villains they introduced in the comics, the movies would be complete comedies.
We are all familiar with villains like The Joker, who was featured in Suicide Squad, or Darkseid, who is looking to be the main villain in Justice League. What DC wants us to forget are the weird, wacky DC villains that have disgraced the pages of DC comics. Here is a rundown of 15 of the silliest DC villains— and there are way more that this.
Know any weird, obscure DC villains we left out? Let us know in the comments!
1. Egg Fu
Egg Fu is an enemy of Wonder Woman— and all things good and right in the world. This inexplicably egg-shaped bundle of Humpty-Dumpty racism is one of the most confusing villains in the DC Universe. He is a Chinese egg with an unfortunate mustache and a penchant for comic book violence. His creepy spider-leg robotic exoskeleton is the stuff of nightmares. Egg Fu is a racist caricature, a Communist agent, a super-genius, a presumably threatening villain, and…an egg. The total package! Imagine this on the big screen— a realistic rendering of this terrifying egg monster. Gross.
2. Rainbow Raider
The Rainbow Raider, or Roy G. Bivolo (just a regular name for a regular guy, obviously) is an artist…of evil! He was a skilled painter, but also colorblind. Probably not the best combination for the little rainbow child. Luckily, his father was a famous optometrist. Unluckily, the fancy goggles his father invented didn’t cure his colorblindness. They instead emitted beams of light that could control people’s emotions. An easy medical mistake, I guess. The Rainbow Raider turns to crime, and is an enemy of the Flash. He later is revived as a Black Lantern, which is a little scarier, but still not enough to get him off of this list.
3. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum
If you thought one gross egg-looking villain was bad, prepare for these two. Dumfree and Deever Tweed are gross cousins that love crime and hate Batman. They really believe they are the famous Alice in Wonderland twins, and they capitalize on their similar appearance to commit crimes at the same time in different places and pull one over on Old Batsy. These two seem as awful as can be, but only one thing could really make these villains worse— another one! That’s right, when Dumfree is killed during a heist, his brother Dumson takes his place. They are all so ugly, no one can really tell the difference.
4. Codpiece
Codpiece was a fleeting villain, but memorable. His evildoing springs from a familiar complex. Some men buy a loud sports car, some men grow a showy Tony Stark goatee… and some men go insane, become a Super Villain, and build a giant codpiece armory into their costume. Everyone deals with insecurities in different ways, I guess. Codpiece is an obvious contender for most confusing and unnecessary villain of all time. The real question we should be asking, though, is who decided this was a good idea? (And is he OK?)
5. Polka Dot Man
Polka Dot Man is also known as Mister Polka Dot, and I can’t really decide which is worse. If the name isn’t enough to scare off even the strongest heroes, his powers are unmatched. He can peel the polka dots off his fancy jumpsuit and transform them into objects. Crime is simple when your spandex pattern can transform into cars, weapons, and whatever else you need to commit crimes. Besides being really easy to “spot” (sorry), it’s kind of a cool power to have. But overall, definitely not the most threatening Super Villain set up. Couldn’t he have just peeled all his dots off and carried them in a cute purse or something? The world will never know, because a revival of Polka Dot Man would pretty much kill Batman’s doom and gloom vibe. On the plus side, he could team up with Roy G. Bivolo and make a sweet game of Human Twister.
6. The Penguin
I know, I know, The Penguin is a classic villain. But really, if a villain can be successfully played by Danny Devito, can he really be a Big Bad? The Penguin might be a Super Genius Crime Lord, but at the core he’s just a weird dude with a fancy crime umbrella. Penguin isn’t the most terrifying name, but if I were Oswald Cobblepot I would probably embrace any mean nickname I could get my stubby little hands on, too. If not for some weird allure and a growing creepiness that went from page to screen, Penguin would be long-forgotten like some of these other off-the-wall villains. Penguin caught on, and has been featured as a Batman villain countless times, and he is definitely unforgettable.
7. Yo Yo
Yo Yo is a henchman (henchwoman? hence folk?) of The Joker. She seems pretty high up in the ranks, which is surprising for someone who bases their entire personality on a toy. Her clown outfit is covered in yo-yos, her puns are all about yo-yos, and her weapons are- you guessed it- yo-yos. Overall, she seems more fun than threatening. Batman tracks her down to find the whereabouts of The Joker, and rescue Judge Dent’s kidnapped children. Luckily she was introduced in the Flashpoint Event, so she technically was erased from history. Probably a good move, considering she wasn’t a very good idea in the first place.
8. Toyman
Before we get started, some clarification: this is not a little toy man, it is not Santa Claus, it is not a good name for a Super Villain. Superman has faced some serious foes, but Toyman is not really one of them. There have been several iterations of Toyman at different points in comics history, but it is rumored that some of them may have been lifelike robotic copies of the original. That makes sense, considering Toyman is a mechanical Super-Genius who designs deadly toy-based weaponry. Superman can defeat almost every villain, and it seems like the creators ran out of ideas after a while. Let’s hope that Toyman is a villain that never gets played with again.
9. Crazy Quilt
Crazy Quilt seems like a villain that should never have existed, but instead he (and she! in one version of the character) has shown up in several different forms within the DC Universe. This villainous Batman foe used to be a skilled painter, before he settled down in his afghan-suit to start a life of crime. He leaves clues to his Henchmen in his paintings. Like Rainbow Raider before him, he was let down by his eyesight. He was blinded by a gunshot wound, and an experimental procedure left him able to only see vivid, blinding colors that drive him insane. Later, he loses his sight completely and delves deeper into darkness and revenge. Crazy Quilt actually has a pretty dark past for someone wearing Joseph’s Technicolor Dreamcoat. This is a villain DC should have let fade into the past, but instead he was recently revived in DC Superhero Girls.
10. Ten-Eyed Man
Obviously there is some sort of correlation between Batman Villains and Tragic Blindness. The Ten-Eyed Man lost his sight in an explosion, and a “doctor” decided it was a good idea to re-route his optic nerves…to his fingertips. Having ten eyeballs on his fingertips allows him to see better than the average person—unless he’s wearing gloves. Not the most impressive power. Seeing with your hands is great, but when you can be defeated by being tricked into catching something, or probably even giving Batman a congratulatory high-five, the benefits are a little outweighed by the inconvenience. Plus, what is his daily life like? We all do things with our hands that we would probably not like to see up-close and with Super-Vision….
11. Sportsmaster
Lawrence “Crusher” Crock is a Gym Teacher flashback nightmare personified. He is a disgruntled athlete who lost his career after pulling some Tonya Harding level violence in a football match. Banned from sports, he resorted to the obvious backup plan— committing crimes with sports equipment. In some stroke of bad decision-making, Huntress actually married this dude. Who knew exploding baseballs and hockey pucks were so attractive? Again, this is a villain that should have “played” out (sorry) but DC keeps bringing him back.
12. Kite-Man
Kite-Man is a villain who likes kites. Yep, that’s pretty much it. Sometimes it feels like the DC Bullpen was a little strapped for ideas. Chuck Brown grew up loving kites, and that somehow led to him committing crimes with kites. He has gimmicky kites, hang gliders, weaponized kites. Who knew that all it took to fight Batman was a handful of augmented toys? Luckily Kite-Man was pretty short lived as a Villain, though he has shown up in a couple of DC properties.
13. The Penny Plunderer
Joe Coyne, The Penny Plunderer, pretty much explains himself. In World’s Finest, he can be found yelling about himself: “I’ll fight coppers– with pennies! Every job I pull will involve pennies! My crime symbol will be pennies!” Overall, a pretty straightforward dude. He likes pennies. A lot. He earned pennies selling newspapers, but was fired from his job. In a mid-life crisis spiral, he embraced the symbol of his destruction and did everything pennies. He was pretty on-brand in all hi villainy. If you ever wondered where Batman’s Giant Penny came from, this is it! That Batcave conversation piece is all that’s left of Joe Coyne’s legacy.
14. Calculator
It might be hard to believe now, as we make Siri figure out our math for us on our iPhones, but in the 80’s calculators were really cool. And so, the Calculator is born. He’s a Super-Genius Batman foe who dresses up in a questionable giant calculator outfit. Was Dc trying to reel in the rad youths with their newfangled calculator watches? Who knows. The calculator runs a network of evil-doers, making him the perfect genius baddie to go up against Oracle. He can use his calculator-powers to analyze the battle tactics of his Superhero foes, which makes it possible for them to be defeated by a man wearing a math-machine. I suppose the modern counterpart to Calculator would be Batman being taken down by a rogue iPad. One whisper of “Siri, how do I defeat Batman?” and he would be done for.
15. Calendar Man
Full disclosure, I love Calendar Man. Without him, we would never have had my favorite Batman story, The Long Halloween. However, committing crimes on major holidays is kind of a drag. Take some time off, Calendar Man! Enjoy a Bank Holiday every once in a while without having to murder people. Luckily, Mr. Julian Day was at least a little scary in The Long Halloween, with a tattoo of dates around his head and a recent escape from Arkham Asylum looming over him. Before that, he wore fancy calendar-themes outfits that corresponded to the date of his crimes. It’s not easy to take a villain seriously when he’s decked out in giant shamrocks. Calendar Man is a ridiculous DC villain, but he had a lot of strong moments.
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