Why are Marvel villains so lame!?

[Nyssane]

Yeah, Mr. Freeze and Two Face should definitely not be compared to Dr. Doom or Magneto, but rather characters like Shocker or Cobra. With street-level villains, DC definitely prevails as they actually give their villains backstory and keeps it with them for motivation. Marvel's villains generally have their backstory revealed once, and then it seems to be forgetton as the villains just become a larger lump/army, and all blend together for no real purpose other than to get defeated by the heroes.

[Avenger08]

Well fine, because we should word each side of the villains equally:

DC

The Joker: A schitzophrenic mass murderer with no past and only the will to watch the world burn.
Lex Luthor: Brilliant Buisinessman with the desire for complete conquering of the world and revenge against that which always stops him
Black Adam: Former Champion of SHAZAM and now the tyrannical ruler of Khandaq
Amazo: Android with the combined powers of All of the JLA
Superman Prime: Former hero of a parrallel world turned murderous villain
Alexander Luthor: Former savior of the Multiverse and then its destructor
Sinestro: One who can bring enormous fear to his victims
Two-Face: (already basically said and i dont want to repeat)

Marvel:
Dr. Doom: Super-Genius with overwhelming magical abilities that are near unparralleled and currrent ruler of his country Latveria
Magneto: Formerly an opressed Jewish child during WWII and realized the horrors of man and vowed to never allow them to bring pain to his dwindling peoples
Red Skull: Former Right hand of Hitler himself and current Nazi terrorist
Loki: God/ Goddess of Mischief
Ultron: Android with the soul mission to kill himanity

[carabas]

Sinestro is more like the Red Skull with one of the universe's most powerful weapons on his finger (yeah, okey, a cosmic cube is probably more powerful than a Lantern ring, but how often do those cubes actually do what they're supposed to do?)

And Superboy Prime is less a villain than that he is a plot device.

[Alan2099]

So, exactly what are Luthor's and Riddler's origins?

[Doug_Brunell]

I think Kingpin, when in the hands of a competent writer, is one of the better Marvel villains. What he's done to Daredevil's life over the years qualifies as DC type evil if ever there was any.

That said, some DC villains are fairly lame, too. Doomsday comes to mind.

[Avenger08]

Honestly it was difficult to come up with major DC villains beyond the Joker and Lex Luthor. I know that there are a huge amount of them but all the major ones really arent that huge. Recently, DC has just been using D- list characters like Libra and the club of villains or whatever

[Tikal]

With the heroes fighting eachother, a clever villain could come up with a clever plan to take over the world or something, not just sit on his ass, do nothing while the super hero community is destorying itself. Villains should be proactive.

heh.... almost as though he had a crystal ball

[Fatguy]

I like Marvel's villains much more than DC's. Its easy to come up with Marvel villains that I LOVE.

Dr. Doom
Bullseye
Apocalypse
Magneto
Ultron
Sabertooth
Electro
Rhino
Green Goblin
Kingpin
Loki

And more. For DC, and I love DC, its much harder. The only good villains are Batman villains.

[marvell2100]

The only lame Marvel villian I knew about was Kingpin because he was blind. But I hear he's over that so he's not lame anymore.

[Mississippienne]

It amazes me that there's any debate over whether Marvel's villains are complex, unique characters or not. I mean, my god, who could call...

Magneto: Holocaust survivor who believes he is fighting to save his people from eradication. And for him it's not merely an academic fear; he knows exactly what happens to minorities who're seen as different, aberrant, dangerous: first they take your homes, your businesses, then they herd you into camps, replace your name with a number tattooed on your arm, work you to death, gas your children, sterilize your women. He is the living embodiment of "better to die on your feet than live on your knees". He's so complex there's an entire website devoted to analyzing his character and his views.

Thanos: An insane nihilist dedicated to total universal genocide, who's motivation is... his obsessive love for Death.

Doctor Doom: Arguably the most intelligent, powerful, and dangerous man on Earth, he was born to nomadic gypsies and rose to rule his own nation with an iron fist. Brilliant, charismatic, utterly narcissistic, and capable of the most terrible acts along with occasional mercy (when it suits him of course). Is overcome with obsession and jealousy of his only rival, Reed Richards. He does everything OVER THE TOP and in ALL CAPS. Among the most successful villains of all time, he's accomplished almost all his goals, including ruling the world on several different occasions and freeing his mother's soul from Hell.

Ultron: A killer robot with an Oedipal complex, he despises all fleshly beings (including his 'father' Hank Pym) but is so in love with his 'mother' Janet Van Dyne that he'll do anything, including modeling himself to look like her and creating female robots based on her brain patterns, to feel closer to her.

... carbon-copies of each other, or unremarkable characters. Even the much maligned Electro is a fairly respectable character: his over-bearing mother gave him a massive inferiority complex, resulting in a desperate need to prove to everyone that he's 'somebody'.

[NickFury90]

I like Marvel's villains much more than DC's. Its easy to come up with Marvel villains that I LOVE.

Dr. Doom
Bullseye
Apocalypse
Magneto
Ultron
Sabertooth
Electro
Rhino
Green Goblin
Kingpin
Loki

And more. For DC, and I love DC, its much harder. The only good villains are Batman/Flash/Superman villains.

Fixed that one.

Flash - Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard, Heatwave, the Trickster, Zoom

Superman - Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Bizarro, Doomsday, General Zod, Darkseid(well, he's everybody's enemy but Supes fights him a lot).

[AllisterH]

Yeah, Mr. Freeze and Two Face should definitely not be compared to Dr. Doom or Magneto, but rather characters like Shocker or Cobra. With street-level villains, DC definitely prevails as they actually give their villains backstory and keeps it with them for motivation. Marvel's villains generally have their backstory revealed once, and then it seems to be forgetton as the villains just become a larger lump/army, and all blend together for no real purpose other than to get defeated by the heroes.

Now this I can see myself agreeing with.

Marvel doesn't have a lot of Street level villains other than Bullseye and Kingpin (although Fisk is considered the greatest crime boss of all time - eclipsing either Black Mask/Penguin/Rupert Thorne EASILY).

[Nyssane]

Honestly it was difficult to come up with major DC villains beyond the Joker and Lex Luthor. I know that there are a huge amount of them but all the major ones really arent that huge. Recently, DC has just been using D- list characters like Libra and the club of villains or whatever

I'd say Darkseid, Cheetah, Sinestro, etc. are major DC villains. But it all depends on what you mean by "major." By using D-List characters like Libra, that's the only way there will be new "major" villains, so I applaud DC for using lesser known characters who don't appear often.

Now this I can see myself agreeing with.

Marvel doesn't have a lot of Street level villains other than Bullseye and Kingpin (although Fisk is considered the greatest crime boss of all time - eclipsing either Black Mask/Penguin/Rupert Thorne EASILY).

It's not that they don't have a lot, because they really do. They have heaps and heaps, but none of them are given the amount of work put into them that DC's street-level villains are. Marvel just likes to lump them into teams and have them get defeated really easily, rather than have them develop personalities or actually be a threat to the heroes. Dark Reign is the most obvious example of this. I'd say in the 70's and 80's, villains at Marvel had it a lot better. Villains like the Wrecking Crew, the Serpent Society, and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (though all villain groups, unlike DC which has several interesting solo villains) were filled with interesting, original characters with developed personalities. But nowadays they're treated nothing like they were in the past. Even the majority of Spider-Man's enemies, which are more often than not compared to Batman's, are rarely portrayed as solo threats anymore, or even retaining their established personalities.

/rant

[Crimson Knightman]

Now this I can see myself agreeing with.

Marvel doesn't have a lot of Street level villains other than Bullseye and Kingpin (although Fisk is considered the greatest crime boss of all time - eclipsing either Black Mask/Penguin/Rupert Thorne EASILY).

I disagree. Marvel has a wide range of street level villains like Hammerhead, Shocker, Lady Bullseye, Typhoid Mary, Jigsaw, Barracuda, Mr. Negative, Purple Man, Mr. Fear, Crossbones, Cobra and etc.

[Fatguy]

Fixed that one.

Flash - Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard, Heatwave, the Trickster, Zoom

Superman - Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Bizarro, Doomsday, General Zod, Darkseid(well, he's everybody's enemy but Supes fights him a lot).

Eh, true, Flash has some cool villains in the right hands, but nobody I'm nuts over. Superman's villains, however, are pretty lame. Discounting Darkseid, of course

I'd say Darkseid, Cheetah, Sinestro, etc. are major DC villains.

Cheetah is definitely not a major anything.