What hasn't been said about the DC superheroes before? That people hate them? That isn't said very often... especially by those who have looked elsewhere for great heroes... (and have discriminating taste)...
But there ARE those who hate the superheroes of DC. And I'm not just talking about the 12 year old anarchists that rush into the DC Online chat rooms to shout their age and sex and that everything but X-Men "sux," either... I'm talking about... oh could it possibly be... oh yes I think it just might. . .EEEEEEEEEEEEEE-VIIIIIIILLLLLL.
That's right-- Bad Guys. And Bad Girls (even better for sales). And Bad Mind-Controlling Starfish From Outer Space That Suck Onto Your Head And Make You Do Their Bidding Formerly Known As Starro. And Bad Robots. And Conceptual Beings That You Would Like To Avoid Letting Them Hear You Make Value Judgements About In The First Place.
It's said you know the great by their enemies, and the superheroes of DC have some of the most... Great? I won't glorify the names of those who follow by calling them great. But they're so important I can't call them the worst... Or the most monstrous-- some are so much more clever and brilliant than you or I they understand how the continuity works post-Zero Hour, and are witty, charming, and civilized as well and probably good dancers. Or the most fiendish... some don't think at all, but exist only in so far as their capacity for destruction can be described. Or even the most evil-- some would be heroes themselves if the world was just a little different...
Well, yeah-- but not many of them.
He's brought a big hammer though.
Unfortunately for her, she was born of an origin in which War is a big angry scheming god named Ares.
Oops.
Two brothers will always fight over the fate of Atlantis. And it's not an uneven match... they've each always been and still are just as gifted and dysfunctional as the other. (And that's pretty darn gifted and dysfunctional.) They always manage to one-up one another just in time to run smack into their own shortcomings. End of debate. Black Manta doesn't really even make the cut long enough to BE cut.
The Joker isn't civilized, especially competant, masculine, brilliant, or as good a fighter as Batman. He's just an obscene mockery, a monster that stopped being human a long time ago and can't be contained. And that's why he wins this contest by a wide margin.
All humor is at the expence of someone else, the butt of even a kindly joke that makes you want to laugh and say, wow, I'm glad I'm not that guy.
Based on this principle, for the Joker, "Life... is a cabaret, old chum... so come, to the cabaret..."
Computo once made Triplicate Girl into Duo-Damsel and thus his name must be hated and reviled forever. And if it ever happens again, the same goes for the writers who make it happen.
The Dominators invaded Earth and destroyed the Legion. They made Sun Boy into a traitor and experimented on the human populace. They enslaved the human race and a bunch more.
Glorith is, well, Glorith.
But Mordru destroyed a planet and swatted the Legion like bugs without half trying, and held off two super-teams and some hangers-on and the Emerald Eye and some U.P. battleships and blew a guy's face off and crippled Magno during 15 rounds in which they barely made him stub his toe. And all we could do to him was wear him out and put him down for a nap. And that's just in CURRENT continuity.
Ouch.
And then he snapped. Maybe it's the GREEN LANTERNS who should come with a built-in safety valve in case they get too powerful, and not the rings?
Trigon was pretty darn scary.
Starfire's sister blowed up her wedding reeeal good. Wildebeest looks darn sad as a threat next to these guys.
So it's strange, unless you've read the stories he appeared in, that Brother Blood might be the scariest threat the Titans ever faced. He ruined their reputation and messed with Dick's brain (okay not the most difficult thing in the whole world... it's right above making Cyborg look dumb... although hey, he did that too), and threw the core team in a pit with a giant spider that he'd tortured and starved to make sure it ate 'em all. And messed-up, tortured, busted-rib Dick Grayson still saved them all. Whatta guy.
But Brother Blood still got away. And that was in JUST ONE ISSUE. I can't tell you much more than that about Brother Blood. Too disgusting.
Grant Morrison came onto this title and put in hints, almost from his first issue, that the Candlemaker was going to come and destroy the Doom Patrol. We didn't want him to do it. They really didn't deserve it. They had problems of their own.
Like their leader, the Chief, who oh-by-the-way-didn't-I-mention arranged the accidents that made them freaks and outcasts in the first place just to see what would happen and then let Rita Farr die?
After the Chief killed a Doom Patrol member who was starting to figure all this out, we were just working on what we were going to do about this revelation when the Candlemaker, an embodiment of nuclear holocaust fears of the world ever since the atomic bomb was used, was accidentally given life by a Doom Patrol member in the form of the Chief's newest, greatest robot.
It then proceeded to kill the Chief and rip out Cliff Steele's brain and make it go squishy squishy. And lots of other bad things after that.
On the other hand, one should probably mention that Mister Nobody and his Brotherhoods of Dada _were_, contrary to what I said in the introduction, the Doom Patrol's GREATEST villains. They were hilarious. Who doesn't like Mr. Nobody? He's such a nut.
Savitar? Sure, he was powerful, but he didn't hang around long, did he?
The Rogue's Gallery? Not in great shape today, are they...? No, there's one guy who's the worst. In his sick, twisted way, he really is the Anti-Barry. Costume like Barry (only yellow). Looks like Barry. Powers equal to Barry.
BUT BROTHER, THAT AIN'T BARRY. It's PROFESSOR ZOOM, THE REVERSE-FLASH. It's a name that still fits, beyond the cheesiness of the Silver Age. The REVERSE-Flash. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
When I answered that question, I answered the other. J'Onn has feelings, alien though they be, for the Justice League. And there's a single being that fills the bill. Another very alien being from a messed-up planet. Despero. Despero killed the family of one JLA member just to warm up and would have killed Scott Free if he hadn't been on tour that week. Make no mistake... if Despero isn't the scariest villain for the JLA, he is for the Martian Manhunter.
Oh, and J'Onn likes Oreo cookies. But no one attacks Oreos. Not often.