Every good superhero needs a great supervillain to fight. I mean, without the villain, what would the hero be doing for the entire film, right? While the movies have produced some really quality enemies for the protagonists in our superhero films, Hollywood does have a habit of reusing the same ones over and over again. We’ve already had around four versions of The Joker over the past couple of decades and the X-Men have gone toe-to-toe against Magneto for most of their movies. It’s sad because DC and Marvel have given comic book fans so many more memorable villains yet they have yet to appear on the big screen facing off against our favorite heroes.
So, in order to shine the spotlight on some of these baddies, here are five supervillains that we really need to see get a live-action version. Now, to be totally fair, I will be only picking one villain from one franchise to give a little more diversity and not just focus on one superhero’s rogues gallery. Also, I will be excluding the villains that have appeared in the films in one capacity or another, which is why X-Men’s Sentinels won’t be on this list, much to my chagrin.
Anyway, here’s the list!
Mister Sinister (X-Men)
Yeah, silly name and even more ridiculous costume. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s one of the X-Men’s better villains.
Even his sitting pose looks cheesy!
Mister Sinister was originally Nathaniel Essex, a biologist who was obsessed with Darwin’s theory of evolution and has strove to create stronger and stronger mutants. He found Apocalypse sometime in the 1800s and the latter enhanced Essex’s human body. Essex changed his name to Mister Sinister because that was the last word his wife said (long story) and has modified Apocalypse’s original modification by incorporating the DNA of other mutants into his own. As such, Mister Sinister has a incredibly long list of mutant abilities that are too vast to enumerate. He’s generally immortal, can shapeshift, has incredible strength, can generate a force field, telekinesis and many more. Mister Sinister is also a genius geneticist and accomplished surgeon. He’s also a master manipulator and, since he’s virtually immortal, tends to plan ahead. Even if his plan takes years for it to come to fruition, it doesn’t matter to Mister Sinister. He’s got more than enough time.
He was alluded to at the end of X-Men: Apocalypse, where you can see a bunch of guys in black suits collect some of Wolverine’s blood and put it in a briefcase labeled with the Essex Corp logo. Yet Mister Sinister has yet to appear in any of the movies. It would be great if they actually push through with what they hinted in Apocalypse and actually make him a main villain. His powers alone would make him a formidable foe for the X-Men.
Professor Hugo Strange (Batman)
I really like intelligent villains. This is why I’ve always wanted to see Professor Hugo Strange take on The Caped Crusader in the movies.
And, yes, he’s smart enough to have figured out Batman’s secret identity.
Technically, they did a live-action version of the character but it was in the Gotham television series. As much as I enjoyed BD Wong’s performance, I felt they didn’t really do the character justice as he was mostly just a really smart sadist with a love of genetic manipulation. This is a far cry from the mad genius of the character with a definite Batman fetish. Even though he is probably clinically insane, Hugo Strange is smart enough to put on the facade to make him look like he’s control of all his faculties when out in the public eye. While not the brawniest of villains, Hugo Strange makes up for it with raw brainpower. Not only has he figured out Batman’s secret identity because he’s just that smart, he also is a master scientist, biologist, robotics expert and psychologist.
The biggest reason why Hollywood hasn’t made Hugo Strange into a main villain in any of the Batman movies yet is because he’s not exactly an “action oriented” villain. It would be a hard sell for someone to pitch a purely detective Batman movie with not that much action, which is what a Hugo Strange villain would demand to really extract how great he is.
The Skrulls (Fantastic Four/Captain Marvel)
Yeah, they’ll be using the Skrulls in the upcoming Captain Marvel movie. But why haven’t they used them before?
It’s like they have their own Avengers!
The Skrulls are an alien race of shapeshifters who are hellbent on taking over the Earth and, well, pretty much every planet that has sentient life. They are also technologically advanced that they can manipulate their genetic code to give them superpowers. For example, Super Skrull has all of the abilities and powers of the Fantastic Four. While the Skrulls are originally known to be a Fantastic Four villain, they’ve become big enough to take on the rest of the Marvel group of heroes as seen in the Secret Invasion storyline.
Like I mentioned before, the Skrulls have been named to be the primary antagonists in Captain Marvel film. However, I would really want to see them be the big baddies in a proper Fantastic Four movie first, just so I can see Super Skrull in action.
Brainiac (Superman)
Sure, Luthor’s more well-known but we all know that Brainiac is the better Superman arch-villain, right?
He does kinda look like a green Lex Luthor, though.
Among all of the villains in Superman’s rogues gallery, I’ve always felt that Brainiac is the most dangerous and most closely linked to the hero. Brainiac has a “twelfth-level intellect,” which is just fancy speak for saying he’s got super-smarts. Well, that just sounds like Lex Luthor, right? Well, Brainiac is much more than that. He’s an android with a extremely durable body and possesses super strength, the ability to fly and can interface with various technology. This includes his (really awesome looking) spaceship that looks like a skull with tentacles.
That doesn’t cover what makes Brainiac possibly Superman’s greatest villain because you have to go through their histories to see how their lives are intertwined. Brainiac has been known to, among other things, invade Superman’s home planet of Krypton to shrink the then-capital city of Kandor just so he could keep it in his “bottle city” collection. But the biggest reason why Brainiac is Superman’s greatest enemy is the fact that he’s the reason why Krypton exploded in the first place. At least that’s what was explained in Superman: The Animated Series anyway. With such an amazing litany of evil and abilities, it’s amazing that Brainiac hasn’t duked it out with Superman on the silver screen as of yet.
Mysterio (Spider-Man)
He’s not the most popular Spider-Man villain out there but he’s one of my personal favorites. So, yeah. He’s on this list.
All you need is a goldfish bowl and you’ve got Mysterio’s helmet.
The main reason why Mysterio would be a great villain for the movies (besides being a personal favorite of mine) is his special skills. Mysterio is a special effects expert and a robotics genius. And you know how much special effects are needed to make a Spider-Man movie or any superhero movie for that matter? A whole bunch. Well, why not use Mysterio’s gimmick of creating ultra-realistic illusions via his ability of really good special effects into the movie? Movie producers can be incredibly creative by setting the locations in really weird settings and it can all be explained because of Mysterio’s special effects.
Besides, Mysterio isn’t a slouch in battle. He’s also a professional stuntman so he’s learned a thing or two about fighting and taking a hit. Also, he can use his trickery and his tricked out costume to do crazy things like jump really far, breathe underwater and even walk up walls (yes, he’s done that before). Mysterio may not be as great as the more notable Spider-Man villians, but if they can make a good movie featuring the Vulture, they can make a good movie featuring Mysterio.
BONUS: Galactus (Fantastic Four)
No, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer doesn’t count. And you can’t make me acknowledge that thing being Galactus.
Give us the eater of worlds! Give us a huge guy with a really badass looking helmet. Not that stupid swarm of robots!
Which supervillain do you think deserves to be in the movies? Let me know in the comments section below!
3rd World Geeks 