The Justice League is the most powerful team that DC has to offer and is always the first response to the most dangerous threats in the DC Universe. Whether it be galactic warlords or dark gods who seek to reshape reality, the Justice League is always there to stop them. While there have been some truly fantastic villains the League has gone up against in the past, there’s also been some really lame ones.
Tons of villains have tried to take the Justice League down over the years, from the powerful Perpetua to the conniving Prometheus, but not every villain the League has gone up against had some grand epic backstory. Some had truly absurd ones, like a hyper-intelligent gorilla from outer space, or a stay-at-home mom who simply decided she one day wanted more out of life. While the Justice League is used to fighting epic villains, some of their origins have been truly lame.
10 Gorilla Grodd Is A Hyper-Intelligent Gorilla From Space
The Flash #106 by John Broome, Carmine Infantino, and Joe Giella.
Gorilla Grodd is one of the more bizarre villains that the Justice League has gone up against. The origins of Gorilla Grodd vary, with him sometimes being a regular gorilla who gained hyper-intelligence and telepathic powers from a meteor, to him being a gorilla from space that belonged to a hyper-advanced society. Regardless of the explanation, Gorilla Grodd has been one of the goofier villains to plague both the Flash and the Justice League over the years, but in the grand scheme of the DC Universe, a gorilla from space isn’t the lamest possible origin.
9 Black Adam Had A Terrible Start As A Supervillain
The Marvel Family #1 by Otto Binder, C.C. Beck, and Pete Costanza
DC has absorbed several comic franchises in its years of publishing and one such character was Black Adam. Black Adam is the dark opposite of Shazam and, despite being a major antagonist to him, he died in the first comic he appeared in and remained dead for years. Black Adam was gifted the same powers as Shazam, but when he began using them for evil, the Shazam Family had to stop him, eventually forcing him to transform back into his mortal form, where he promptly died and stayed dead for decades.
8 Amos Fortune Was A Gambler With A Grudge
Justice League of America #6 by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernie Sachs.
Not every villain who goes up against the Justice League can have major cosmic origins and this is best shown by Amos Fortune. Amos Fortune was the child of a gambler who drove his family into poverty before abandoning them. Amos was obsessed with gambling as a result, wanting to learn his father’s hobby to get close to him. This also made Amos obsessed with the idea of luck, and using this as a theme, he put together the Royal Flush Gang to battle against the Justice League.
7 Battlecat Had A Completely Absurd Origin
Justice League Quarterly #9 by Paul Kupperberg, Dusty Abell, Bob Wiacek, Tom McCraw, and Todd Klein.
Battlecat is one of the strongest villains to ever go up against the Justice League and shows just how far one man will go when he’s finally snapped. Battlecat used to be a janitor at S.T.A.R. Labs but eventually grew fed up with his colleagues’ refusal to pick up after themselves. With no other possible option, Battlecat stole an exo-suit and went on a rampage across London, trying to force everyone to pick up their litter. His rampage was brought to a quick end when he accidentally caught the attention of the Justice League Europe.
6 The Troll King Was A Bizarre Villain From A Fantasy Land
Justice League of America #2 by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernie Sachs.
There are tons of different areas in the DC Universe beyond just Earth and outer space. There are places like New Genesis and Apokolips, the underworld, and even Heaven and Hell, but the most ridiculous place DC has revealed is “Magic-Land.” Also known as Fairyland or Grimmworld, this is the world where all things magical come from, including creatures like fairies and ogres. The DC Universe is so massive that having a dedicated land just for magical creatures seemed odd. It was introduced when the Justice League battled villains like the Troll King, a magical troll who joined forces with Lord Saturna to steal Earth’s scientific devices in order to defeat the magician Merlin.
5 The Maestro Was The Justice League’s Lamest Villain Who Never Existed
Justice League of America #16 by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernie Sachs.
The Maestro was an enemy of the Justice League who had the power to compel people to dance to whatever song he played. This really wasn’t that much of a threat, but he still shockingly beat the Justice League, at least in one fan’s imagination. The origins of the Music Maestro were actually very simple. He never existed. The Music Maestro was the main villain in a comic book that was sent in by a fan to the Justice League themselves. He was never a real villain that they faced off against, just the imagination of one major fan of the team.
4 Alien-Ator Had An Obsession With Turning People Into Aliens
Justice League of America #33 Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Bernie Sachs.
The Justice League is no stranger to fighting aliens. The majority of threats to Earth often come from beyond the stars and one of the earliest examples of this was the Alien-Ator. The Alien-Ator was a being who invaded and conquered Earth in the year 25673. He then proceeded to turn everyone on Earth into aliens as well, and even managed to do this to half of the Justice League. The League was eventually able to defeat the Alien-Ator and save the population of Earth, causing the Alien-Ator to flee back into space.
3 The Weapon Master Went Back In Time For A Ridiculous Reason
The Brave and the Bold #29 by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, Bernie Sachs, and Joe Giella.
The Weapon Master was a character from the far future who was a master of all weapons and believed that one day he’d choose a weapon that could destroy the Justice League. He came to believe this because he found Wonder Woman’s diary in the future, but the diary left out exactly which weapon it was that defeated the League. This resulted in the Weapon Master continually attacking the Justice League over and over again, each time with a variety of weapons as he searched for the one that would finally defeat the Justice League.
2 David Graves Hated The Justice League
Justice League #6 by Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Sandra Hope, Matt Banning, Mark Irwin, Alex Sinclair, Tony Avina, Hi-Fi Design, and Pat Brosseau.
David Graves was a man who nearly lost his life during the first fight between Justice League and Darkseid. Right when David Graves thought he and his family were dead, the Justice League saved him. He was so grateful he wrote a book documenting the formation of the Justice League and was their greatest fan. Eventually, David and his family would be stricken with an unknown disease that would claim his family’s life. Furious that the Justice League left him to die, he set out to get revenge on them and destroy them, despite them having nothing to do with his situation.
1 Amanda Waller Is The Biggest Villain With The Most Simple Background
Legends #1 by John Ostrander, Len Wein, John Byrne, Karl Kesel, Tom Ziuko, and Steve Haynie.
The biggest villain in the DC Universe right now is Amanda Waller. She has been manipulating the events of Beast World and Amanda Waller has become the biggest threat in DC because of it. Despite her overwhelming importance in the DCU right now, her origins are entirely unremarkable. Her life wasn’t ruined by superheroes, she wasn’t the daughter of a supervillain, she was just a woman in Chicago who fell in love and married early. She lost half her family to crime and managed to put herself through college, eventually going into politics and working her way up to become the head of Task Force X. Given how big a threat she is to the heroes of the Justice League, it’s shocking to think Amanda Waller comes from such mundane beginnings.
