The best Batman villains – ranked!
However gritty and grown-up Batman gets, never forget that he still regularly fights a man who looks like a penguin. Sure, Bruce Wayne watched his parents get murdered and he listens to Nirvana in a dark room all day, but he still spends most of his time trying to outwit a clown.
Every good superhero needs a good supervillain and Batman has plenty to choose from – mostly all walking the same path between terrifying and ridiculous that sees him dress up as a rubber bat every night. As Colin Farrell returns to The Penguin to pick up the plot of Robert Pattinson’s 2022 film (and hopefully bridge the gap to the next film), it’s time to rank Batman’s best baddies.
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. Played as a terrorist philosopher by Liam Neeson, Ra’s prepares Bruce Wayne for a life of tough decisions – ultimately turning against him when their moral compasses start spinning in different directions. An exploding monorail and a collapsing skyscraper might have put an end to him, but Ra’s al Ghul’s legacy lives on in the sequels (and in Batman’s dark, dark heart).
Would have beaten Batman if only… he didn’t tell him about his secret plan to blow up Gotham City
9. Poison Ivy – Uma Thurman, Batman & Robin (1997)
What’s the most iconic dance scene on screen featuring Uma Thurman? It’s the one where she strips out of a pink gorilla suit and seduces Batman and Robin at a sex auction, of course (“I’ve got some wild oats to sow boys… my garden needs tending”). Thurman’s performance would look too camp on Drag Race, which is what makes her panto plant witch all the more fantastic.
Would have beaten Batman if only… he was more into girls and less into brooding
8. Mr Freeze – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Batman & 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 sub-zero suit that’s powered by magic diamonds. Picture, if you can, either of them sprayed silver saying the immortal lines: “Let’s kick some ice!”, “Tonight’s forecast: a freeze is coming!”, “If revenge is a dish best served cold, then put on your Sunday finest. It’s time to feast!”. And the classic zinger, “Always winterize your pipes!”. There’s only one Mr Freeze, and there’s only one Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Would have beaten 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 fun Two-Face in Batman Forever, but Aaron Eckhart lifted the character out of the comics and into real life for The Dark Knight. Played here as a genuinely tragic anti-hero (or anti-villain?) given over completely to fate, Eckhart’s scarred Harvey Dent could have just as easily been the good guy if the coin landed a different way.
Would have beaten 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 & Robin (played by pro wrestler Robert “Jeep” Swenson, owner of the oddest profile picture on Wikipedia), but it was a very different take on the character to the one we got from Tom Hardy in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy-closer. Even with a gritty “revolutionary” rebrand though, Bane is basically just a hulking mass of rage and menace and violence: the ultimate big bruiser.
Would have beaten Batman if only… he could have understood a word he said
5. The Riddler – Jim Carrey, Batman Forever (1995)
Jim Carrey somehow released five films in 18 months between the start of 1994 and the end of 1995, with Batman Forever sandwiched somewhere 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, maddest, most insane comic-book performance of his career. Paul Dano turned the character into something out of Se7en for the reboot in 2022, but you can’t beat Carrey’s deranged Looney Tunes energy: never more sinister than when he takes it all too far.
Would have beaten Batman if only… he wasn’t completely insane (also if he’d stopped him from throwing his Batarang at his brainwave machine thingy)
4. Scarecrow – Cillian Murphy, Batman Begins (2005)
The only Bat-villain to appear in all three parts of The Dark Knight trilogy, Scarecrow is far too good a character to be written off in a fight. Serving Nolan’s films more as a metaphor for fear than as an actual adversary, Cillian Murphy’s take on the role is weakness disguised as anxiety: a psychologist playing at being a bad guy just so he can play around in the broken minds of Gotham’s oddest cosplayers.
Would have beaten Batman if only… he actually put his mind to it. And seeing as he survived The Dark Knight Rises, there’s still a chance…
3. Catwoman – Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns (1992)
Eartha Kitt, Halle Berry, Anne Hathaway, Zöe Kravitz and more have all donned the pointy ears and tail, but none quite beat Michelle Pfeiffer in channelling so much genuine, grade-A cat. Dressed up by Tim Burton in a PVC goth-gimp suit, Pfeiffer looked like she’d crawled out of a Soho bookshop but still gave Catwoman all the odd animal magnetism of the comics – purring, clawing, whipping and quipping her way through Gotham City to more than match Batman’s own mammal madness.
Would have beaten Batman if only… she wasn’t terrified of the sound of a vacuum cleaner
2. The Penguin – Danny DeVito, Batman Returns (1992)
Notes for Colin Farrell’s performance: needs more penguins. Tim Burton’s Halloween big-top Batman sequel gave the character a gothic backstory (raised by penguins…), and Danny DeVito gave him everything else: gifting his Penguin performance an oily, fishy, undead creepiness that you could practically smell. Squawking like a gentleman, fighting like a Ringmaster (with an army of exploding penguins, no less), Oswald Cobblepot is one of cinema’s great tragic monsters – part abandoned child, part grotesque bird-man – he’s the only one on this list everyone is secretly rooting for.
Would have beaten Batman if only… Warner Bros. were OK with Tim Burton ending the film with Danny DeVito pecking the carcass of Michael Keaton
1. The Joker – Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (2008)
The performance that launched a thousand lazy Halloween outfits in 2008… Hard to remove now from the legacy it left on t-shirts, dorm-room posters, and subsequent movie portrayals that all deliberately leaned a different way, Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight is rightfully bigger than the film itself. Jack Nicholson had already given us a great Clown Prince in 1989, but Ledger managed to make him madder without losing his humanity – a slice of pure, damaged, tragic anarchy wrapped up in a performance that still feels untouchable. Sorry Batman, but The Joker won this round.
Would have beaten Batman if only… chaos reigned supreme
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Paul Bradshaw
NME
