Build The Ultimate Villain Team To See If You Could Take Over The World
- by Michael Gordon
- – on
- in Movies and TV
Moviegoers all over the world love a good villain. It's often said that a hero is only as good as the villain he or she is facing, and that is definitely the case in the movies. Think of any of your favourite heroic characters from cinema history and chances are that the antagonists or obstacles they went up against were an integral part of making the heroes so strong and the movies so damn good.
Where would Bond be without Blofeld? Or Batman without the Joker? Or Spider-Man without the Green Goblin? Their adventures certainly wouldn't be as compelling, that's for sure.
In this quiz we're going to throw some dastardly villains your way, and it will be your job to decide whether or not they would gain a place on a supervillain team you are building in order to take over the world (naturally). Some will be a simple yes or no, but others might be a bit different. Maybe they're terrifying villains, but not really built to take over the world, as such? Well, we've put in some options for villains like that too.
At the end of the quiz you will find out whether your team has what it takes to conquer the world, or whether you'd be easily swept aside by the heroes.
Let's do it!
Is General Zod on your team?
Zod is a Kryptonian military General, known for trying to kill Superman and enslave the Earth a bunch of times over the years. He was memorably played by Terence Stamp in Superman: The Movie and Superman II in 1978 and 1980, then was rebooted as Michael Shannon in 2013's Man Of Steel. Loves to tell people to kneel before him.
Is Hans Gruber on your team?
Hans Gruber was the terrorist who lead the group that took over the Nakatomi Plaza in 1988's Die Hard. He was cold, calculating and ruthless, and was played with perfect menace by the late Alan Rickman. One of the most popular movie villains ever, Hans met his fate when John McClane dropped him out a window from the very top of the building. Yippee-ki-yay!
Is Poison Ivy on your team?
In the comic books, Poison Ivy is one of Batman's most formidable opponents. An eco-terrorist obsessed with ecological extinction, she is not someone to be taken lightly. It's a pity that her only big screen appearance was in 1997's Batman & Robin, where she inexplicably teamed up with Mr Freeze, who planned to start a new ice age on Earth. Which would have killed all the plants...
Is Freddy Krueger on your team?
As far as villainy goes, there can be few men out there more evil than Freddy Krueger. An undead serial killer with horrific burns on his face and body, he stalks and kills teenagers in their dreams, which causes their deaths in the real world as well. His weapon of choice is a glove with razors attached to it. Oh, and he also has a wicked sense of humour, bizarrely.
Is Lord Voldemort on your team?
Lord Voldemort, played with serpentine malevolence by Ralph Fiennes, is the arch-enemy of Harry Potter, leader of the Death Eaters and the most powerful dark wizard around. Nearly every witch or wizard is scared to even mention his name, and he is mostly referred to as 'he who must not be named' or 'the Dark Lord'. He also has no nose. Which is off-putting.
Is Hela on your team?
Even though the movie she appeared in was a laugh riot, and she wasn't short of a few jokes herself, Cate Blanchett's Hela was still a pretty terrifying villain. After all, she was able to destroy Mjolnir, her brother Thor's indestructible hammer, and nearly take over Asgard in revenge for her father Odin casting her out. Plus she had that awesome helmet which looked like scary deer antlers.
Is Pennywise on your team?
Pennywise the Dancing Clown is the horrifying villain of Stephen King's IT, a mammoth 1000 page novel that was turned into a TV movie in 1990, and a big screen reboot in 2017. Which means two different generations developed a whole new fear of clowns! Pennywise is a malevolent entity that preys on children and can shapeshift into whatever scares them the most.
Is the Cloverfield Monster on your team?
Now, if you were going to try to take over the world, it might be a good idea to have a giant monster on your team. Because giant monsters are extremely hard to kill and cause a heck of a lot of destruction in their wake. The Cloverfield Monster is a good as any, especially considering it has all those little beasties that drop off its body too. The monster might be difficult to control, but if you could bring it under control? Whoa.
Is The Joker on your team?
One of the greatest villains of all time, The Joker is iconic. An agent of chaos, he delights in causing havoc in Gotham City and pushing Batman to the very brink of his moral code. A murderous, psychopathic clown, he is about as dangerous as a villain can be. He might be unpredictable, and could easily turn on his teammates, but he would be a huge asset on any supervillain team.
Is Sean Ambrose on your team?
We know what you're asking: who is Sean Ambrose? Well, we'll tell you. Back in the year 2000, before Tom Cruise had mostly perfected the formula that makes the Mission: Impossible movies so entertaining, M:I:2 was released and starred Scottish actor Dougray Scott as Sean Ambrose, a terrorist and former IMF agent. The movie wasn't very good, and Ambrose wasn't a particularly good villain. Oh dear.
Is Darth Vader on your team?
Any supervillain team that has plans on world domination has to include the scariest villain in a galaxy far, far away, right? Darth Vader is royalty in villain terms; the most iconic antagonist from the most successful franchise in movie history. From young Anakin Skywalker to the twisted, corrupted Vader who had embraced the Dark Side, audiences followed this guy over his entire life!
Is Apocalypse on your team?
En Sabah Nur is the world's first mutant, and was worshipped as a God in ancient Egypt. Played by Oscar Isaac in X-Men: Apocalypse, he was trapped in stasis for millennia before being awakened in the 1980's, where he decided he was going to remake the world in his own image; a world in which only the strong survive.
Is Harley Quinn on your team?
Easily one of the most popular villains in all of comics, the anarchic Harley Quinn made her big screen debut in 2016's questionable (though highly entertaining) Suicide Squad. Played by Margot Robbie, whose casting was note perfect, Quinn was as funny, crazy and psychologically mixed-up as fans had expected. She'd definitely be useful on a villain team, although she may betray her teammates at the drop of a hat.
Is Anton Chigurh on your team?
Even in a world of over-the-top supervillains and heavy-breathing galactic menaces, there are few villains as purely frightening as Anton Chigurh. This dead-eyed hitman was played by Javier Bardem in the Coen Brothers' amazing No Country For Old Men, and he made a huge impression on audiences with his bizarre haircut, eyes that burned with malevolence and bolt pistol weapon of choice.
Is Erik Killmonger on your team?
Black Panther is currently wowing audiences the world over, destroying box office records and becoming something of a cultural phenomenon. One of the best things about the film is its villain, Erik Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan. To say much about him would be to risk getting into spoiler territory, but suffice it to say, he's not someone to be trifled with!
Is Jason Voorhees on your team?
Another villain who mightn't have many plans for world domination, but he's racked up a teenage bodycount over the years that would boggle the mind. Jason, the iconic killer from the Friday The 13th franchise, has been hacking people to bits since 1980, appearing in 12 films (of varying quality). We'd also put good money on another reboot coming along in the next few years!
Is Doctor Poison on your team?
With a monicker like Doctor Poison, it's hard to imagine a person will be anything other than villainous. And Isabel Maru, one of the antagonists in 2017's all-conquering Wonder Woman film, lived up to the name. She was the chief chemist for General Ludendorff and was trying to come up with a deadlier version of mustard gas to help the Germans win World War One.
Is The Vulture on your team?
Adrian Toomes wasn't always a bad guy. At the start of Spider-Man: Homecoming, we found out that he was a regular joe running a salvaging business tasked with cleaning up NYC after the Chitauri invasion in The Avengers. But when his livelihood was taken away by Tony Stark's Damage Control program, he took to arms trafficking while wearing a pair of mechanical wings amplified by Chitauri tech. As you do.
Is Michael Myers on your team?
Michael Myers comfortably sits in the same category as Freddy and Jason. He's a murderous psychopath who relentlessly stalks and kills teenagers (and anyone in his way), and might just be the living embodiment of pure evil. After all, he has the blackest eyes. The devil's eyes. But is he a supervillain who can help you take over the world? We're not sure.
Is Loki on your team?
Played with eloquent deviousness by Tom Hiddleston, Loki is one of the best aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The God Of Mischief and Thor's half-brother, the vengeful Asgardian has caused havoc throughout the universe in several movies, including leading the Chitauri invasion of Earth. You would definitely want him on your team, but could be fairly certain he would betray you at some point!
Is Bane on your team?
The 'Man Who Broke The Bat' would be an extremely formidable addition to anyone's world-conquering villain team. After all, he is a man who was kicked out of the League Of Shadows for being too hardcore! Played with funny-voiced intensity by Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises, his performance was enough to erase the awful memories of Jeep Swenson's grunting non-performance in 1997's Batman & Robin.
Is Jared Nomak on your team?
Jared Nomak was a scary customer. The main threat of Guillermo Del Toro's excellent Blade II, Nomak was the leader of a new strain of vampire, the Reapers, who fed on other vampires as well as humans. The Reapers were pale, Nosferatu-esque villains whose faces actually split in half to reveal a octopus-like sucker that they used to feed, unlike the usual pointy vampire teeth. It was gross. But awesome.
Is Queen Ravenna on your team?
If you want to bring some fairytale magic to your villain team, you should look no further than the evil sorceress Queen Ravenna! Played by Charlize Theron in Snow White and the Huntsman (and it's sequel The Huntsman: Winter's War), Ravenna was Snow White's evil stepmother and master of the Dark Army, a battallion of demonic glass soldiers.
Is The Riddler on your team?
Riddle me this, would you want Edward Nygma aka The Riddler on your supervillain team? On the plus side, he's fiendishly intelligent and would help you come up with some intricate schemes that could cause chaos. Unfortunately, he'd also be compelled to leave clues behind in the form of riddles so that he could continue his battle of wits with a certain Dark Knight...
Is Rasputin on your team?
Grigori Rasputin was a real-life Russian mystic and self-proclaimed Holy Man who gained considerable influence in Imperial Russia in the late 1800's. He was assassinated in 1916 (and was reportedly extremely hard to kill), but according to 2004's Hellboy movie, he didn't die at all. Instead, he became immortal and tried to unleash the Ogdru Jahad, the Seven Gods of Chaos, upon an unsuspecting world. Yikes.
Is Maleficent on your team?
Another fairytale themed villain here. Maleficent, the evil fairy from classic Disney movie Sleeping Beauty, received her own live-action film in 2014, starring Angelina Jolie. Here it showed that she was more misunderstood than truly evil, and had been betrayed by someone she loved when she was young, which caused her to turn her homeworld into a Dark Kingdom.
Is Thanos on your team?
When plotting to take over the world, an intergalactic despot is always useful to have on your team. Thanos, Marvel Comics chief cosmic villain, is such a huge presence that it will take the combined might of The Avengers and Guardians Of The Galaxy to combat him in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War. He is obsessed with nihilism, and once even fell in love with the physical embodiment of Death!
Is Magneto on your team?
Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto is the arch-enemy of the X-Men, and one-time best friend of Charles Xavier. Appearing in several X-Men films over two different time periods, he has been played by Ian McKellan and Michael Fassbender. Admittedly a conflicted character, he was wronged by humanity when his family was killed during the Holocaust, but that doesn't fully excuse his repeated attacks on human and mutantkind.
Is Catwoman on your team?
Selina Kyle is a character full of complication and nuance. She is a cat burglar and has committed many crimes over the years, but she is very far away from the usual kind of evil psychopath Batman faces. Sometimes she is even more of an antihero, doing good in the world but just in a less virtuous fashion than Batman.
Is Bullseye on your team?
Played with scenery-chewing gusto by Irish actor Colin Farrell in 2003's Daredevil movie, Bullseye was a memorable villain. A highly paid assassin, he is blessed with almost superhumanly accurate aim; as he says, he 'never misses'. He can kill people with anything to hand, including paperclips, playing cards and even peanuts! Perhaps a useful guy to have on a supervillain team.
Is Le Chiffre on your team?
In Casino Royale, the bruising 2006 reboot of the James Bond franchise, Le Chiffre was the villain. Played by then-mostly-unknown Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, Le Chiffre was a financier of international terrorism. Exuding quiet menace at all times, we also found out that he was a creative torturer; stripping Bond naked and then bludgeoning his family jewels with the knotted end of a ship's lanyard. Ouch.
Is the Xenomorph on your team?
The Xenomorph has been terrifying audiences since 1979, when the species first appeared in Ridley Scott's seminal sci-fi horror Alien. One of the most iconic monsters in all of cinema, it's incredible design was courtesy of maverick Swiss artist H.R. Giger. A beast that has no higher purpose other than destruction of any nearby lifeform and the propagation of their species, the xenomorph is (theoretically) the ultimate biological weapon.
Is Steppenwolf on your team?
In November 2017, the culmination of the DC Extended Universe of films was released. Justice League, which featured the combined might of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg would come up against this baddie.
Is Predator on your team?
In September 2018, the Predator will make its return to the big screen in Shane Black's new installment, which stars Boyd Holbrook and Sterling K. Brown. First appearing in 1987, where it stalked Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Special Forces crew in the jungle, the Predator was a technologically advanced alien that lived solely to hunt prey for sport.
Is Malekith on your team?
Malekith the Accursed was the leader of the Dark Elves, a race of villains who were attempting to unleash the Aether on the Nine Realms, which would plunge the world into darkness. Played by Christopher Eccleston, Malekith was one of a line of fairly forgettable villains in Marvel Cinematic Universe films. His character design was pretty cool, though.
