The best Batman villains – ranked!

No matter how brave and grown up Batman becomes, never forget that he still fights a man who looks like a penguin on a regular basis. Sure, Bruce Wayne witnessed his parents murdered and he listens to Nirvana in a dark room all day, but he still spends most of his time trying to outsmart a clown.

Every good superhero needs a good supervillain, and Batman has plenty to choose from – most of them tread the same path between terrifying and ridiculous that sees him dressed as a rubber bat every night. When Colin Farrell returns to The Penguin To catch up on the plot of Robert Pattinson's 2022 film (and hopefully bridge the gap until the next movie), it's time to rank Batman's best villains.

10. Ra's al Ghul – Liam Neeson, Batman begins (2005)

The man who trained Batman in Christopher Nolan's trilogy is also the man who gives him most of his complexity. Ra's, played by Liam Neeson as a terrorist philosopher, prepares Bruce Wayne for a life of difficult choices – which ultimately turns against him when their moral compasses begin to turn in different directions. An exploding monorail and a collapsing skyscraper might have ended him, but Ra's al Ghul's legacy lives on in the sequels (and in Batman's dark, dark heart).

Would have defeated Batman if only…he didn't tell him about his secret plan to blow up Gotham City

9. Poison Ivy – Uma Thurman, Batman and Robin (1997)

Which Uma Thurman dance scene is the most iconic on screen? Of course, the one in which she strips off a pink gorilla costume and seduces Batman and Robin at a sex auction (“I still have to let off steam, boys… my garden needs tending”). Thurman's performance would seem too affected. Drag racingwhich makes her panto plant witch even more fantastic.

Would have defeated Batman if only… he was more into girls and less into brooding

8. Mr. Freeze – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Batman and Robin (1997)

Sir Anthony Hopkins and Sir Patrick Stewart were both first considered for the role of Mr Freeze – a mad scientist trapped in a cold-weather suit powered by magical diamonds. Imagine either of them, sprayed in silver, delivering the immortal lines: “Let's kick some ice!”, “The weather forecast for tonight: It's going to be cold!”, “If vengeance is a dish best served cold, then put on your Sunday best. It's time for a feast!” And the classic line: “Always winterize your pipes!” There is only one Mr Freeze and only one Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Would have defeated Batman if only… he was played by Sir Anthony Hopkins or Sir Patrick Stewart

7. Two-Face – Aaron Eckhart, The Dark Knight (2008)

Tommy Lee Jones gave us a funny Two-Face in Batman foreverbut Aaron Eckhart brought the character from the comics into real life for The Dark KnightEckhart's Harvey Dent, portrayed here as a truly tragic anti-hero (or anti-villain?) completely at the mercy of fate, could just as easily have been the good guy if fate had turned out differently.

Would have defeated Batman if only… he called heads instead of tails

6. Bane – Tom Hardy, The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Bane first appeared in live-action form in Batman and Robin (played by pro wrestler Robert “Jeep” Swenson, who owns the weirdest profile picture on Wikipedia), but it was a very different take on the character than the one we got from Tom Hardy in the final installment of Christopher Nolan's trilogy. Even with a grim “revolutionary” rebrand, Bane is basically just a hulking mass of anger, menace, and violence: the ultimate thug.

Would have defeated Batman if only… he could have understood a word of what he said

5. The Riddler – Jim Carrey, Batman forever (1995)

Jim Carrey released five films within 18 months between early 1994 and late 1995, with Batman forever somewhere in between Dumb and Dumber And Ace Ventura 2. Looking back, it's all a bit of a blur – but the Riddler still stands out as the loudest, craziest, most insane comic performance of his career. Paul Dano transformed the character into something extraordinary. Se7en for the reboot in 2022, but you can see Carrey's disturbed Looney Tunes Energy: never more disastrous than when it goes too far.

Would have defeated Batman if only…he wasn't completely insane (although it would have stopped him from throwing his batarang at his brainwave machine thing)

4. Scarecrow – Cillian Murphy, Batman begins (2005)

The only Bat villain who appears in all three parts of The Dark Knight In the trilogy, Scarecrow is far too good a character to write off in a fight. In Nolan's films, he serves more as a metaphor for fear than an actual opponent. Cillian Murphy's take on the role is a weakness disguised as fear: a psychologist playing the villain just to mess around in the messed up minds of Gotham's weirdest cosplayers.

Would have defeated Batman if only… he actually focused on it. And since he survived The Dark Knight Risesthere is still a chance…

3. Catwoman – Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns (1992)

Eartha Kitt, Halle Berry, Anne Hathaway, Zoe Kravitz and others all have pointy ears and a pointy tail, but no one topped Michelle Pfeiffer at embodying so much real, first-rate cat. Dressed by Tim Burton in a PVC goth gimp costume, Pfeiffer looked like she'd crawled out of a Soho bookstore, but still gave Catwoman all the weird animalistic appeal of the comics – purring, clawing, whipping and quipping her way through Gotham City to more than match Batman's own mammalian madness.

Would have defeated Batman if only… she was not afraid of the sound of a vacuum cleaner

2. The Penguin – Danny DeVito, Batman Returns (1992)

Notes on Colin Farrell's performance: needs more penguins. Tim Burton's Halloween circus tent Batman The sequel gave the character a gothic backstory (raised by penguins…), and Danny DeVito gave him everything else: he gave his penguin performance an oily, fishy, ​​undead creepiness you could practically smell. Oswald Cobblepot screeches like a gentleman and fights like a ringmaster (with an army of exploding penguins, no less). He's one of cinema's greatest tragic monsters – part abandoned child, part grotesque bird-man – and the only one on this list that everyone secretly roots for.

Would have defeated Batman if only… Warner Bros. agreed that Tim Burton ended the film with Danny DeVito picking at Michael Keaton’s carcass

1. The Joker – Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (2008)

The performance that spawned thousands of casual Halloween outfits in 2008… Hard to remove from the legacy it left on T-shirts, posters in college dorms, and in subsequent film depictions, all of which deliberately tended in a different direction, Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight is rightly bigger than the film itself. Jack Nicholson had already given us a great clown prince in 1989, but Ledger managed to make him even angrier without losing his humanity – a piece of pure, damaged, tragic anarchy wrapped up in a performance that still feels untouchable. Sorry, Batman, but the Joker won this round.

Would have defeated Batman if only… chaos reigned