Top 5 Favorite Batman Villains

In the past I wrote an editorial about my top five favorite Batman heroes, and I thought it was time I followed it up, this time featuring my top five favorite Batman villains. Like the last editorial I will rank them least favorite at #5 and #1 most beloved.

5) The Riddler

The Riddler is to Batman as Professor Moriarty is to Sherlock Holmes. He is Batman’s intellectual rival, Riddler forces Batman to push himself further as a detective. Riddler makes Batman prove that he is the world’s greatest detective as we so often call him. Batman has a genius level intelligence and I love to see him challenged on an intellctual level, which is why the Riddler, possibly Batman’s most intelligent villain, made it on my top five Batman villains list. I am disappointed that we have not had a serious live action portrayel of the Riddler, but that can apply to several of Batman’s best villains. Jim Carry portrayed the Riddler in Batman Forever as Jim Carry dressed up as the Riddler. I like The Arkham video games’ version of the Riddler, serious, sane, genius. Yes Batman calls him insane but in terms of the law, he knows right from wrong and he knows what he is doing is illegal when he commits his crimes. That makes him sane under the letter of the law. He may have mental illnesses, but they do not prevent him from knowing the difference between right and wrong. In the Arkham video games the Riddler is clever and calculating, and frankly hilarious when he starts to freak out that you are solving so many of his challenges.

4) Catwoman

Catwoman is on this list because I love the romance she shares with Batman. I don’t like most of the other women in Batman’s life, like Talia and Wonder Woman. I’m a woman and I guess I mostly just want to keep Batman single because I want him for myself. The only reason I don’t feel like so about Catwoman is because I wanted to be her when I was little, and I was attracted to her myself. My earliest Batman memory is of being three years old playing pretend with another little girl, she was Catwoman and I was Batman. She played the damsel in distress and I rescued her. If Batman has a one true love, and I’m not saying he does, it would have to be Catwoman. Over and over comic writers an artists have had the bat and the cat meet and fall in love, in just about every incarnation of both characters, in parallel universes and across time and space, Batman and Catwoman, as well as Bruce and Selina, fall in love. Dr. Travis Langley did an excellent job explaining their relationship in his book Batman and Psychology a Dark and Stormy Knight, which I highly recommend reading for an in-depth look at several of Batman’s best villains, see my review of the book here.

3) The Joker

Who doesn’t love the Joker! He is by far the biggest and best (or worst depending on how you look at it) of Batman’s villains. Batman without the Joker just wouldn’t be the same, and of course Joker without Batman is nothing at all. Batman and Joker go together like The Doctor and The Master. For those who are not Doctor Who fans, I guess you could say they go together like Superman and Lex Luthor. Batman and the Joker just go together, and many of Batman’s best stories feature the Joker as the villain. There is just something about the Joker that we love, wether we just love him or love to hate him, every Batman fan spends time pondering the relationship between the clown and the bat.

2) Poison Ivy

Poison Ivy is my favorite Eco-terrorist! She is fighting for a good cause, she’s just gotten a bit off track. Okay a bit off track is an understatement, but you get what I mean, she wants to save the world she’s just not concerned with human life anymore. Most of the time. Sometimes Poison Ivy is feeling more human and can be found in a Gotham park giving fruit and veggies to homeless people so they can eat. Poison Ivy is sexy, and what comic book loving woman hasn’t occasionally wished they had her talents? Of course the real reason I love Ivy so much is because of her friendship with Harley Quinn. Ivy and Harley are good for each other, Harley makes Ivy more mellow, she embraces her human side more when she is teamed up with Harley. And of course Harley gets away from her abusive boyfriend the Joker for awhile, she is more empowered and has better self-esteem when she is with Ivy. Sadly Harley will always find her way back to Mr. J and Ivy will always slip back into her plant side, which is when she is an Eco-terrorist and not just on a crime-spree with Harley where the goal is material gain.

1) Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn is my girl, as villains go I love her a lot, in fact I love her more than any other Batman villain. Though I don’t find myself in love with an abusive madman I have always related to her for some reason, and I have always been rooting for her to successfully rehabilitate, or at least permenantly drop the Joker for Poison Ivy who may think she is just as dumb as the Joker thinks she is at least is kind to her and seems to genuinely care for her. I have always thought that Harley Quinn was trapped in a love triangle of sorts between herself, Poison Ivy and the Joker. It seems to me that no matter what the Joker does Harley will always take him back, and no matter how many times Harley runs back to the Joker, Ivy will always take Harley in when she has run away or been kicked out by Joker. Ivy probably takes pity on Harley, and they do seem to really have fun when they go on crime sprees together. I love Harley’s outfits in the Arkham video game series. One of my favorite Harley Quinn moments in Batman TAS was in the episode ‘Harley’s Holiday’ which aired Oct. 15th 1994. Harley is released from Arkham and tries to live a reformed life. She quickly gets into trouble and at some point she is facing a group of armed thugs next to a rich socialite she kidnapped earlier in the episode. The thugs ask her if she has any last words, and she replies “just one. BABIES!” and here come her hyenas to the rescue. The episode ends with Batman and Robin taking a willing Harley Quinn back to Arkham where Batman presents her with the dress she tried to purchase at the beginning of the episode and she kisses him in thanks.

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