A thread celebrating the forgotten and obscure villains of the DC Universe.
Shoutout to @Jurisdiction for their contributions in helping me make this Topic.
Character: Lord Manga Khan!
First Appearance: Justice League Of America(1987-1996) , #14, 1988
Description: A intergalactic trader. Lord Khan is an alien being of gas who contained himself in metallic indestructible armor and commands an army of robots and helms a cluster ship that is the size of a small planet that can absorb the resources of other planets if they don’t barter with him. A comedic yet powerful foe of the Justice League.
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Did he ever do that “pointing at each other” thing with Doctor Fate?
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Oh my god, I hope so!
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Looks like a perfect way to create a fun 10-15 minute cold, pre-credits opening for Superman Legacy; giant robots that can look like the Mechanical Monsters, plenty of opportunity to introduce the Daily Planet newsroom and show-off Jimmy as a competent photographer, Lois as an excellent BAMF news reporter, and Perry White in full-on crisis mode, and a great, clear and very visual opponent and potential planetary crisis that is clearly Superman level but well within the wheelhouse of what Superman can do on his own, so no need to wonder, “where is Wonder Woman, where is the Flash, etc.” in that precise moment this is all on the screen.
Get on it, James!
8 Likes
Character: The Annihilator
First Appearance: Action Comics (1938-2011), #355, 1967
Description: The only man Superman feared. The Annihilator is Karl Keller; a former Soviet prisoner who created chemicals from a Kyptionian bio-weapon injected in his blood to become an incredibly strong and also highly destructive bomb where a powerful attack from Superman would cause planetary destruction.
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Character: Reaper
First Appearance: Detective Comics (1937-2011), #575, 1987
Description: Appearing in the Year Two storyline. Reaper is a killer vigilante who targets Gotham’s criminals and others he considers evil in it including random civilians and even the GCPD. A dark reflection of Batman’s origins, Reaper’s skills and equipment were far greater than that of Batman which forced him to work with the criminal underworld to take them out.
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Character: The Glop
First Appearance: Wonder-woman(1942-2011), #151, 1964.
Description: Appearing in Wondergirl’s first solo issue. The Glop is a slime-like creature hailing from an alien comet that can absorb anything and take its characteristics. Missiles shot at it can be duplicated and it mimics planes to chase Wondergirl. Its noteworthy example is absorbing a Disk player and mimicking Rock and Roll to sing about Wondergirl while trying to kill her.
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Character: Buzz (Gaius Marcus)
First Appearance: Supergirl (1996-2003), #1, 1996.
Description: A cunning demon who was a frequent enemy of Linda Danvers and later her supergirl alter ego. Buzz was once a man named Gaius Marcus who gave his soul to a lord of hell Baalzebub(Beelzebub) to become his agent of chaos. As an immortal he appeared throughout history, responsible for countless atrocities. Buzz had the ability to perform magic and summon demons of hell to fight Supergirl.
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Character: Herdsman and The Rifters
First Appearance: Breach (2005), #2, 2005
Description: The first villain here to be listed with a group. The Herdsman and the other Rifters are malicious extra-dimensional creatures who take over the bodies of different races and use those deformed forms to acquire their powerful and deadly abilities to achieve their goal of humanity’s destruction.
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which is also on the list for a Month of Obscurity!
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Character: Goldvia II
First Appearance: New Teen Titans, Annual #3, 1987
(Not to be confused with Dorcas Leigh Goldiva who premiered a decade before along with the Global Guardians in Super-friends, #7, 1977.)
Description: Goldiva is a mercenary with the ability of hypnosis to control others as well as use it on herself for her own vanity. A narcissist who enjoys the attention so much that she has cameras follow her constantly even on her crimes. She became an enemy of the Titans after kidnapping Danny Chase’s parents and a series of missions where the Titans constantly fail to capture her.
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Character: Faith
First Appearance: Bloodlines, #1, 2016
(Not to be confused with Faith from the JLA series who premiered in #69, 2002.)
Description: When a meteorite lands in a small town infecting several people with superpowers. One such person is a child name Faith whom gained the power to manifest a psychic monstrous entity that feeds on her selfish desires. She uses this creature to murder a dozen people at a children’s birthday party and later her parents.
Faith is currently our youngest villain on the list.
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Character: Marshal
First Appearance: Justice League of America (1960-1987), #228, 1984.
Description: A warlord of Mars II in the pre-crisis DC universe. Mashal was a military general who was genetically modified to be a perfect warrior. Marshal believed that Earth was seeking to pillage the resources of their homeworld to lead a Martian group called the Red Brotherhood to overthrow the government of Mars II and start a war against Earth.
This villain is indirectly responsible in forcing the Justice League to restructure itself following their weak defense of Earth to form a small scale chapter of the team in Detroit City led by Aquaman.
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Character: Top Dog
Firsr Appearance: Hardware(1993-1997), #40, 1996.
Description: A villain with the abnormal appearance of a dog. Top Dog is a criminal boss who has the ability of hypnosis to control the will of others. His real influence however came from cohesive power as his control over people is limited by proximity.
Top Dog is our first Milestone villain on the list.
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Character: Reactron (Benjamin Martin Krull)
First Appearance: The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, #8, 1983.
(While Reactron in his earliest appearances was named Ben Krullen before being changed in post crisis to Benjamin Martin Krull. As the character and their history is largely the same, we would be following both the original and his revised origins in this summary.)
Description: The living reactor. Benjamin Krull was once a soldier who served alongside Joshua Clay (Tempest) in the Vietnam War. Being treated poorly by Krull, the turning point of both their lives came when Krull massacred an entire village and in Joshua Clay rage his meta genes were activated, burning Krull with an uncontrolled high energy blast. Instead of dying, Krull was transformed into Reactron a being of radioactive energy who can fire powerful concussive blasts.
Initially a Doom Patrol adversary, Reactron later became a focus on fighting Supergirl. His most destructive accomplishment being the destruction of New Krypton in Superman: War of the Supermen storyline.
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Character: Massacre
First Appearance: Adventures of Superman (1896-2006), #509, 1993.
(Not to be confused with 2011’s Massacre from the Batwing series, who has an entirely different and distinct history with this version, who appears apocryphal in current continuity.)
Description: A alien mercenary who kills for sport, whose name comes from his brutality alone. Massacre is an occasional opponent to Superman, who Massacre recognized as his ultimate prize. Superman claimed their strength can rival Doomsday, and later discovered that Massacre had the ability to read his opponent’s moves by sensing their nerves. Along with his skills as a fighter, Massacre is a deadly and fearsome opponent to the Man of Steel.
Massacre only genuine noble trait was his concern for his alien servant Skimmer, who takes the scraps of what is left of every opponent Massacre killed after every battle.
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I use to have a toy of him in the late 90s, I didn’t know who he was, but I figure he was a villain for Superman. 
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Character: Masseacre (Issac Zavimbe)
First Appearance: Batwing, #1, 2011.
(The following character shares the same name as the previous Massacre in the list, but does not share history with him. A portion of the text will be blurred to not spoil volume one of Batwing.)
Description: Former superheroes across Africa are being hunted down and killed by a mysterious serial killer calling himself Massacre. As David Zavimbe, “Batwing” investigates this bloody trail of violence across the continent, leading to a series of grueling confrontations against Massacre. Despite the technological edge, Massacre proves to be Batwing’s physical match throughout their various battles. Massacre is the Batwing series most ruthless villain.
Issac was a former child soldier who was believed dead, but was later revived with the skills and knowledge to become a superhero killer. Massacre is an expert combatant and tracker who possess incredible durability and strength to fight against powerful superheroes.
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