Top 5 Fridays: Favorite Villains of The New 52

Recently I did a Top 5 Fridays on who my favorite heroes of the New 52 were and I had a bit of fun doing it.  To my surprise the list actually did pretty well and then I was asked who my favorite villains were and I figured why the hell not........... Well as it turns out, figuring out my favorite villains was a lot harder than I originally expected it to be.  I don't know what it is about being able to easily identify who your favorite heroes are, but when it comes time to lay down your top villains, well then you begin over thinking things and you forget to pay your electric bill........ Don't judge, that shit happens.

I like a lot of villains and it's true what people say, a hero is only as good as their villains and man does DC have some great villains.  Now like the heroes list, where I said that I wouldn't be including Justice Leaguers because....... Well because who doesn't love Batman?  So like that list I won't be including Joker here because that's the obvious choice for most people.  Hell, when I ask people who their favorite Batman villain is, I always have to say except for the Joker because I want to get a real answer, none of this phony baloney "I like the most popular villain ever" bullshit.  So no Joker here and no big societies or teams because man were the Court of the Owls really bad ass villains, but as individuals they were pretty weak and that's not a fun list.  Alright enough bullshitting, let's get to this week's list of my Favorite Villains of The New 52.






#5.  Killer Frost

Now this pick just might be due to my love of Firestorm and the fact that I miss him flying through the pages of the New 52 with the exception of Futures End........ Because that just doesn't count...... Five Years From Now that shit better not happen, you know what I'm saying.......... Yeah, you know what I'm saying.  Even with my man crush of Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch, I still think that this underrated villain has been a strong force within the New 52.  From her re-imagined origin during last year's Villain's Month to her actually helping out ARGUS with Forever Evil, I just became enamored with Killer Frost when before the New 52, I could really give a shit less about her.  I guess it was really Forever Evil ARGUS that did it for me because all hell was breaking loose, villains controlled the world and we realized that all Killer Frost wanted was Firestorm to come back because while yes she kills people, she only does it to stay alive and with Firestorm gone so is her only chance at finding a remedy for her frigid condition.  Just an awesome, tragic character that's not only underrated, but someone I underrated for a good long time.  Especially when she took a slot in the Injustice: Gods Among Us game, when I would of totally preferred someone else.  Don't worry Caitlin, I won't ever take you for granted again.




#4.  Deadshot

Now while I always saw Floyd Lawton as just a hired gun, it really took until I started reading the Suicide Squad for me to really fall dead over heels for this character......... that's a joke son.  He's just so much fun with his snarky attitude and the fact that he's bad ass doesn't hurt either.  I don't know if I'm alone here, but I really loved the first twenty issues of the New 52 Suicide Squad, especially the stuff between issue 0 and issue 19.  That' might sound asinine to some of you out there and to you I say stay on the trolley as I remind you that issue 0 came in between #12 and #13.  For all the different incarnations of the Suicide Squad during this time, my favorite characters for Deadshot to interact with are the ones that really put him in the Top 5.  Nothing would please me more than seeing Floyd interacting with King Shark and Harley and it was definitely a high point of my month whenever a new issue of Suicide Squad would come out.  Now you might say that Deadshot really hasn't had a chance to be a villain during the New 52 because he's spent most of his time doing government work on the Squad, but even when he's being good, he's bad as hell and if you remember from the 80's, bad means good........ so...... so........MY MIND!  I love loving Deadshot and I don't know how it will work yet, but I hope we get to see him in Secret Six when it comes out in December.




#3.  Black Adam

With the exception of the New 52 turning my beloved Billy Batson into a awful little snot that you just want to smack in front of people and then wait for them to say something so you can yell at them for telling you how to raise your child.......  Billy's a jerk off, but either way I freaking loved the Shazam origin backup story in the Justice League.  At the end of that story we had the whole Billy tricking Black Adam into turning back into a normal 2000 year old guy, effectively killing him and leaving us wondering how many times Black Adam can fall for that trick..  It's funny, when I was coming up with this list I had the damnedest time because most of the characters I used to love were re-imagined and I ended up hating them and their jerk off faces because of it, but good old Black Adam luckily stayed the same and I can continue my constant hate for anything different than what I'm used to.  After Shazam's backup finished, I was a little pissed that they brought the character back almost immediately for his Villain's month issue, but after reading the bad ass beginning he had in Forever Evil to the embarrassing beating he took from Ultra Man, I was happy as hell that they decided to bring him back and hopefully we'll have more of Shazam baddie in the future........ You know as soon as his jaw problems are fixed.




#2.  Sinestro

Now you might say that Sinestro has spent the majority of his New 52 run as sort of a good guy, you know since the character started out a Green Lantern and was doing a odd couple comic with Hal Jordan when the New 52 began.  But it wasn't too long until our Korugarian killer got back to form and he straight up murdered the Guardians of the Universe.  It was one of those jaw dropping moments where if you weren't sure about the character before that, you were totally scared to say anything about him in fear that he might kick your ass.......... You know, if you escaped reality hard enough and actually thought these were real people.  Sometimes I don't know where I am..........  Like Black Adam, Sinestro is one of those characters that I loved since I was a child and thankfully he wasn't changed during the relaunch of DC Comics and we can all enjoy his badassery from his time in Green Lantern, to him completely fucking up Power Ring and now taking back control of the Sinestro Corps in his own title.  It's a good time to be a Sinestro fan and you aren't a fan yourself........ Well, I guess we can't be friends.




#1.  The Penguin

Alright, I'm starting to become a goddamn broken record here because Penguin is one of those characters that didn't get one of those re-imaginings for the New 52 and thank god, because he has been one of my favorite villains my entire life.  It's just that unassuming quality he's got that makes him so much fun to me........... That and he uses umbrellas as weapons and anyone who can pull that shit off is always going to be gold in my eyes.  Now while I'm not what you would call completely caught up with Batman Eternal and the Penguin's struggles with Carmine Falcone, I can tell you that the Penguin's early work in the New 52 was something that I loved reading.  The fact that he had to reluctantly help out the Joker during Death of The Family and then having to reacquire his empire from Emperor Penguin, who completely took it over during his absence was just a pleasure to read.  I remember bitching about the Emperor Penguin story when it began, but it became one of my favorite stories in the New 52 by the time it was over and then seeing Penguin get his total revenge during Forever Evil was just the icing on the cake.  I love the Penguin and I hope he continues to be the great character that he's been for the past 75 years...... Hopefully during the next DC relaunch they won't decide to give him the Amanda Waller makeover.  Wouldn't that be weird as hell?


While originally I thought this list would be a larf and something that would be fun and easy to do, I swear it took me all week to whittle this list down to just those five characters.  I don't know what it is about DC villains, but they for the most part are all awesome.  People like to say how great Marvel characters are because they're just regular folks with superpowers and the comics we love are basically gods and billionaires, but to all the nay sayers out there, DC trumps Marvel's villains by far.  So even though I found myself stressing to get this list done, I hope you somehow found my list of favorite villains enjoyable and we'll see you back here in seven for the next Top 5 Fridays.  See you then.