Batman's greatest villain

[aty990]

Vote and explain.

 

[zmystico]

It was a toss-up between Bane and The Joker, I picked The Joker just because he's the complete opposite of Batman so to speak.

 

[firstclassclown]

Joker. Because that's how it's always been written.
Batman may have had toughs times with several different advisories but Joker has and will always remain as Batman's greatest villainous opposite.

 

[aty990]

Well, seems at this point that Joker is rated #1 in the poll of, "Who is Batman's greatest villain." Don't be shy folks, come and vote! Please, do not be afraid to vote other than Joker, if you do so believe that another is worthy then explain. I'm curious to other assessments of the topic.

I've set this poll to end on July 19, 2012, the day before the present release date of Batman 3.

 

[maenalus]

1. Joker

2. Two-Face

3. Scarecrow

4. Ra's al Ghul

5. Hugo Strange

 

[firstclassclown]

Top 10 IMO

1 - Joker
2 - Two-Face
3 - Catwoman
4 - Riddler
5 - Penguin
6 - Bane
7 - Black Mask
8 - Ra's Al Ghul
9 - Scarecrow
10 - Poison Ivy

 

[ChickenScratch]

Ra's because he's Batman's equal or better in most areas.

If I could pick a second one it would be Bane. Strong, intelligent, brutal.

 

[Cain]

Two-Face, most personal.

 

[The Joker]

This is a no brainer. It's The Joker. Nobody has given Batman more grief over the years than the Joker.

 

[aty990]

I'd been looking for an alternative to the seemingly obvious Joker, but to no avail. Nevertheless, I've compiled a top five list...

1. Joker
2. Two-Face
3. Bane
4. Ra's al Ghul
5. Riddler

 

[Robin91939]

1.) Ra's Al Ghul
2.) Joker
3.) Two-Face
4.) Bane


Ra's Al Ghul: The greatest threat to the world.
Joker: The greatest threat to Batman and those close to him.
Two-Face: Represents his greatest failure.
Bane: The one man who broke him.

-R

 

[Brother Jack]

The Joker is the perfect villain for Batman. They exist on the same spectrum (on the fringes of society, deemed freaks) but are on complete opposite ends. Joker is almost the inversion of Batman.

 

[SpideyInATree]

1.) Ra's Al Ghul
2.) Joker
3.) Two-Face
4.) Bane


Ra's Al Ghul: The greatest threat to the world.
Joker: The greatest threat to Batman and those close to him.
Two-Face: Represents his greatest failure.
Bane: The one man who broke him.

-R

I voted for Ra's Al Ghul as well for that very same reason. Ra's was always a super threat. I love Robin91939's explanation of the various villains and their villainous relationships to Batman.

I would agree Joker is the greatest, simply because as another poster said he's been written that way through the years, but Ra's is just that super threat to the world and has also known that Batman is Bruce Wayne. I mean, come on, Bruce has a child with Ra's daughter!

 

[Dork Knight]

Ra's Al Ghul. He is Batman's equal in combat, intelligence, and wealth/power. He is also Bruce Wayne's greatest temptation because thru Ra's, Bruce could accomplish everything he sets out to do. Wipe out crime, restore order, and in weird way get his father back. (-Paul Dini)

 

[returntovoid]

1. Ra's Al Ghul (He is the perfectly formidable opponent for Batman in both intelligence, combat and wealth/power. He also takes advantage out of Batman's romantic relationship with his daughter Talia to have Batman take his position in global terrorism once Ra's retires or dies and Batman just wont let himself become a terrorist. He's also a very honorable/noble villain in the sense that respects Batman unlike The Joker)

2. The Joker (He is just evil incarnate, he can not be bought or reasoned with and is utterly bat***** insane. He has killed/harmed some close to Batman or his allies such as Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon, Sarah Essen (second wife of Gordon) and in TDK, Rachel Dawes)

3. The Riddler (He just wants to play mind-games with Batman and prove he has more intellect than the "The World's Greatest Detective. His OCD for leaving riddles behind his crimes make him a very unique villain)

4. Two-Face (He was Bruce Wayne's best friend but when tragedy occurred of half of his face burned, he was destroyed. He became dualistic because the burning released the personality that he got due to history physical abuse that he kept under control due to therapy but the burning made it permanent and he lost control, completely. He also is obsessed with the number two and makes decisions by flipping a two headed-coin because his father would flip the to decide whether to beat him up, he would beat him if the coin fell on one particular side. Two-Face is a really tragic villain and gets to Batman at a very emotional level)

5. Catwoman (Not exactly a villain but a femme-fatale and neither that deadly. She's just like Batman really is his soul-mate but one difference of him being a vigilante and her being a criminal/thief tears them apart. They have interesting love/hate relationship and she is a sort of a reflection of himself for Batman. This femme-fatale gets to Batman at a romantic, emotional, conflicted and sexual level)

 

[Original Spawn]

Joker because he is exactle the opposite of what batman represents, the it is two-face because he was one of his allies but was turned into a villain, i´m not that great a fan of ras all ghoul, while he was different in batman begins that´s the version i like most, i also like the dc animated universe version

 

[Two-Face]

Two-Face.

 

[BigSams50]

Joker Easily

 

[Steven]

The Joker, obviously. Every guy in the world and his dog knows this.

Not jumping on the "I love Heath" bandwagon here (I hate these kids who love Batman/the Joker all of a sudden, after seeing TDK, going around looking all goth and misunderstood in their XXL Hot Topic Joker T-shirts) but just look at the most recent portrayal of the character in modern pop culture.

Heath's Joker got to the core of why he's so damned perfect as Batman's greatest villain: he's the unstoppable force to Batman's immovable object. He loves anarchy, chaos, destruction and that represents everything Batman hates. But, as Batman will never kill, the Joker's happy for this to run and run until they eventually both end up dying.

Batman hates the Joker but has to try to see the potential in all the people he takes down, and he will never ever stoop to their level, i.e.- kill his enemies.

The Joker is just too much of a "freak" for the normal law enforcers, he NEEDS Batman to live. The Joker is a man whose joke is death and destruction and Batman is the only audience who he shares his "gags" with.

There's never been a more obvious case of yin-and-yang in comics history.

​

 

[Riddler]

1. Bane
2. Joker
3. Ra's
4. Riddler
5. Two-Face

1. Bane: He won. No need to explain. He won.
2. Joker: is pretty much out to get batman and as a result has to be creative and is very good at what he does.
3. Ra's: idk why. probably batman begins.
4. Riddler: Intelligence that if applied correctly, can doop the dark knight.
5. two-face: why not.

 

[Two-Face=Badass]

As much as I love Joker I'll never quite understand how people preference him over Ra's Al Ghul or Two-Face. I think mostly it's because Joker easily stands with these two, maybe even above them, but he's not a character that can last efficiently for many stories with his more modern, killing incarnation. Just how many stories have we had recently where Joker kills dozens of guys and Batman comes close to killing him, and then decides it wouldn't be right? I just think it reaches a ludicrous point where I can no longer take his part of the universe seriously, and turn instead to less logic-breaking characters that are still great.

Of course for things like BTAS, BTBATB, Englehart/O'Neill era Joker and such he's much, much better, since there he is written as a formidable foe without racking up kills in the quadruple digits.

 

[Riddler]

As much as I love Joker I'll never quite understand how people preference him over Ra's Al Ghul or Two-Face. I think mostly it's because Joker easily stands with these two, maybe even above them, but he's not a character that can last efficiently for many stories with his more modern, killing incarnation. Just how many stories have we had recently where Joker kills dozens of guys and Batman comes close to killing him, and then decides it wouldn't be right? I just think it reaches a ludicrous point where I can no longer take his part of the universe seriously, and turn instead to less logic-breaking characters that are still great.

Of course for things like BTAS, BTBATB, Englehart/O'Neill era Joker and such he's much, much better, since there he is written as a formidable foe without racking up kills in the quadruple digits.

thats exactly what he wants.

 

[maenalus]

1.)
Two-Face: Represents his greatest failure.

How did Bruce "fail" Harvey?

 

[Two-Face=Badass]

How did Bruce "fail" Harvey?

Depending on the story, Bruce totally mishandled the trouble Harvey was going through and sidelined one of his greatest allies issues in favour of taking down the mob. His subsequent attempts to help Harvey have pretty much failed, because as good as Batman is and how well he understands his enemies, he really doesn't know how to properly take steps to rehabilitate them. His constantly playing straight man to Joker's act is an example of this.

Of course if you go with the pretty art but utterly abominable waste of plot that The Long Halloween was, then moral issues and character get dumped in favour of lots and lots of villains and repetitive narration boxes.

 

[howl]

joker.

i'm gunna be a prick and not argue why. i know i'm right :P