Well, I'm at the end of the road for this list. Who's in my top eight villains? Let's find out:
8. The T-1000 from Terminator 2 
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is one of my favorite movies. The T-1000 is one of those reasons. In the movie, his main goal is to kill John Connor, the boy who would one day grow up to become humanity’s hero. While the T-800 from the first movie is the iconic version, the T-1000 kicks that version out of the water. The machine is just ruthless in the movie. He does all he can in trying to find and kill John Connor. He’s a shape-shifter, he’s virtually indestructible, and he rarely talks. Whoever decided that Robert Patrick should play the T-1000 should get an award or something.
7. Khan from Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan
Did I say one villain per franchise? Hmm… well, this and another one will be a cheat. The franchise as a whole has produced a lot of good villains and Khan is one of them. Khan Noonien Singh was a 20th century warlord who was frozen in a suspended animation for over 200 years. When the Enterprise found him and his followers, he and his followers tried to take over the Enterprise. After failing that endeavor, they were exiled to a planet which conveniently went through some environmental issues later. Because of this predicament, Khan swore vengeance on Kirk and tried to carry it out in WoK.
A lot of things make Khan cool. He was genetically engineered which makes him unstoppable in mind and body. Yeah, Kirk was able to beat him up with a caulk gun, but Khan’s still a bad man. He’s also one villain who has been able to really hurt Kirk. In the second movie, it was his actions that led to Spock sacrificing his life to save the ship. Don’t worry because Spock gets better (lol). Khan was also greatly acted by Ricardo Montalbon in the episode "Space Seed" and the movie. While we have a new Khan in Benedict Cumberbatch, it’s hard to forget about “Mr. Fantasy Island.”
6. Agent Smith from the Matrix Trilogy
You know, this guy and Khan were the reason this list got bumped up to 22 spots. I had to get Agent Smith on here somewhere. For those who don’t know, he’s the main antagonist in The Matrix trilogy. Smith was a program that was designed to keep order within the Matrix. This put him and other agents up against the human resistance. He was seemingly destroyed when Neo “pulled a Lazarus card” on us. In the sequels, Smith takes on a more sinister role as he wants to take over the Matrix like a virus. Smith was awesomely acted by Hugo Weaving. He was probably the only thing that made The Matrix Revolutions worth watching because that movie… well, I’ll get to that someday.
5. Darkseid
Darkseid. Yeah, that’s all I got! Do I need to say more? I mean, he’s the baddest of the bad! He's a New God! He’s the lord of Apokalips! He has a crapload of minions to throw at ours heroes! He can stand toe to toe with Earth’s most powerful heroes! He’s the father of Orion, another hero who’s one BMS. Yes, he may be number 5, but don’t let that fool you. My favorite version of the character in all of the media is from Superman: TAS and Justice League/JLU. Michael Ironside just ruled that role.
“We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.” That sounds creepy, doesn’t it? The Borg was the best enemy that Star Trek has to offer. They’re a cybernetic race that has assimilated many worlds. They’re not out for revenge or for some vendetta. You can’t compromise or make peace with them. They just want your stuff and you to serve their collective.
Their look is pretty creepy. They're pale and they’ve got tubes protruding out them for goodness sake! Their updated look in Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Voyager made them look even creepier. They almost had a zombie look to them. The Borg were probably best used on TNG (The Next Generation) and First Contact, but there were some Voyager episodes like Scorpion and Dark Frontier that treated them well. The only negative thing about them may be that emotional, sexually-charged robot called the Borg Queen… yep, her.
3. Darth Vader
The two trilogies are really all about this guy, aren’t they? Anakin Skywalker aka Darth Vader (or Dark Vapor if you want to be funny about it…) is one of those classic villains. He’s essentially the “Lucifer” of the Star Wars Universe. He’s dressed in all black and looks intimidating in that mask. What makes Vader more of a bad mofo is that voice from James Earl Jones. Yes, the prequels weren’t the greatest thing ever, but they did try to show all that went into creating the evil man we saw in the original trilogy. We see that he started out as a innocent kid. Over time, got swayed over to the Dark Side by Palpatine and became evil.
In the original trilogy, we see the Sith Lord at his best. He's a beast. When one messes up with their job, he's the guy who'll take care of them. He uses his Force powers to do some pretty cool and horrible things in all of the movies. We do learn that he still has a soft side when regarding his son, Luke. He even gets to have a redemption in the end. All in all, he’s one of the best villains ever.
2. The Joker
“Some people just want to watch the world burn.” Alfred was right on point with The Joker. In a way, he’s the opposite of Batman. While Batman wants to maintain order, Joker wants to maintain chaos. He’s also got a wicked (and I mean wicked) sense of humor. He’s got a unique look and creepy look. He’s probably the main reason why people think clowns are creepy. The villain’s shown up in just about every Batman property outside the comics.
While Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight was pretty epic, my favorite Joker portrayal will always be one done by Mark Hamill. Joker was done well in all of the Timm/Dini animated series (Batman:TAS, Batman Beyond, Justice League). They were able to portray Joker at his best there. He was at his funniest and creepiest. He was especially done well in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Hamill also did it well in the recent Batman video games. He’s the villain we love to hate.
1. Lex Luthor
That’s right, folks! I mean, he’s the greatest criminal mastermind of our time (of our time)! In all seriousness, Luthor is an awesome villain for Superman to face. All he has to combat Superman with is his brain and his wits. While he may get overplayed in a lot of the movies, I think one reason for that is because he’s such a good villain to have in your rogues’ gallery. I think another reason I like him a lot is because he’s a villain who could be a hero or good man. He has the power and knowledge to do good things and all he does is throw that stuff into trying to defeat Superman. It's been said that he has the worst qualities of humanity, and that makes sense because Superman is supposed to have the best qualities of humanity.
Luthor is similar to Joker in that he has also shown up in about every DC property that involves Superman. I’d have to say my favorite version of Luthor in all media outside the comics is the Timm/Dini version from Superman: TAS and Justice League. He’s written so well and is voiced by Clancy Brown. I told I’d get back to him eventually. They infused all of the best qualities of the villain in those shows. I believe second place would go to Michael Rosenbaum’s portrayal of the character. While Smallville had its good and bad, Lex Luthor was definitely good there.
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And that is the end of this list. I know I've left off a lot of classic villains from most mediums. My only regret is that I didn't make the list longer. I won't make that mistake next time. I'll eventually do a list of my top 30 heroes. Until then, Peace and God Bless. Now if you excuse me, I think I'm gonna rock out to that Doctor Zaius song some more.
4,3, and 2, yep!
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