Any time a filmmaker goes into a movie, they have many different details floating around their minds: how to do the characters justice, the ways to make the heroes arc properly, what the main conflict will be, and can they make a powerful villain?
Over the years, directors have tried and failed to craft a truly powerful villain. Then along came Christopher Nolan and one of his best movie series, The Dark KnightTrilogy, a series of films full of powerful comic-book villains, ranging from physical to mental strength and who have brought up the question as to who is the most powerful of them all.
Lau
Every villain strives to be smarter than the rest, able to outsmart or outdo one another by way of mind games or tricks. However, out of most of the villains in the Nolanverse, many overlook Lau.
Lau, a corrupt accountant working for several mob bosses at the beginning of The Dark Knight, proves himself to be one of the more competent of the mob bosses. Lau manages to outwit the GCPD by transferring all of the mob’s money into his accounts in Hong Kong, seemingly making it impossible for anyone to come after him and the mob’s money. Of course, he didn’t count on Batman going international or the Joker lighting him and said mob money on fire, making his plan seem somewhat less intelligent.
Carmine “The Roman” Falcone
Typically when audiences imagine powerful villains, their minds immediately go towards some cackling strong man bending a steel beam into a pretzel. Powerful villains aren’t defined by physical strength alone, and most of the villains from Nolanverse are more mentally or connectively powerful than anything.
With crime lord Carmine “The Roman” Falcone, a small baddie from Batman Begins, his power lies in his reach in Gotham. Even though The Roman only has a brief role in the film, his hold on Gotham’s underbelly is seen and felt, with the crime boss overseeing drugs being transferred, threats against Bruce Wayne carried out, and overall just being a powerful crime lord.
Harvey Dent/Two-Face
Vengeance is a powerful motivator and, in the right amount, can push anyone to bend vengeance to their own will and use it for their own means and methods. So after District Attorney Harvey Dent is burned badly following a bomb set off by the Joker, vengeance slowly takes form in one of Nolan’s best plot twists in the shape of the nefarious and demented Two-Face.
Fueled by an obsession for doing what’s fair is in his mind, Two-Face goes on a rampage throughout Gotham, effectively taking down several crooked cops and Sal Maroni, a mob boss. While the method of his madness isn’t exactly just, Harvey does prove himself in the Two-Face persona as being just as powerful as a DA would be, while taking justice into his own hands.
Selina Kyle/Catwoman
What’s a thief without a little wit and skill to help them along? The first time audiences saw Selina Kyle, she was a bumbling maid at a gala hosted by Bruce Wayne. In an instant, however, Selina sheds her disguise and reveals herself as the skilled and manipulative thief that she was, setting the stage for Catwoman to make her debut in the Nolanverse.
Despite becoming more of an anti-hero towards the film’s end, Catwoman does a great job of manipulating a great number of residents in Gotham. From a powerful politician to even Batman himself, Selina shows her strengths not just in physicality and safe cracking, but also in charm and the everlasting power of persuasion.
Ducard/Ra’s Al Ghul
There’s a shadowy mastermind when it comes to superhero movies. In the case of Batman Begins (one of Nolan’s more underrated films), the man behind the curtain in question is Ducard, the man who trained Bruce and the head of the League of Shadows, Ra’s Al Ghul.
Even though his masterplan to have Gotham tear itself apart by the use of an aerosol version of the fear toxin is a little over the top, the Demons head still proves himself as a mighty foe. Using a decoy to throw off his true identity and not to mention his swordplay, athletics, and brilliant although cliched mind, Ra’s is a strong manipulator who almost gets the better of Batman and is only barely beaten by the world’s greatest detective.
Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow
Fear is an incredibly potent weapon. Fear can turn the bravest of men into cowering and mewling children and when your Jonathan, the Scarecrow, fear is the ultimate weapon and tool of destruction.
The unfortunate fact many viewers overlook a number of aspects of Batman Begins, with Cillian Murphey’s Scarecrow being one of them. They seem to forget that, despite being a flunky of sorts of Ra’s Al Ghul, Scarecrow sowed seeds of fear throughout Gotham, turning Carmine Falcon mad, providing the chemicals that would be Ra’s Al Ghul’s weapon against the city and even dosing Batman and showing him his deepest fears. Only powerful can pull that sort of thing off… even when they’re beaten by their own toxin in the end.
Bane
“You think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark… I was born in it, molded by it.” Not only does Bane have some of the best quotes in the trilogy but he’s physical, he’s one of the strongest foes Batman has gone up against and lost to.
Played excellently by Tom Hardy, this menacing masked terrorist manages to uncover Batman’s true identity, exposed the lie of Harvey Dent, turned Gotham into a No Man’s Land for five long months, and, in a scene ripped straight from the comics, break Batman’s back. His mental prowess coupled with physical strength and brutality puts him towards the top of being Batman’s most powerful foes.
The Joker
Yes, Heath Ledger gives one of the best performances in a Nolan film and just in general as the Joker, and time again, Joker has been seen as one of the best comic book villains out there, so much so that some do see him as being overrated. However, the Joker is at the top of this list not just because of Ledger’s performance, but mainly due to how powerful he really is.
Throughout the entire trilogy, viewers saw Batman laid bare by fear toxin, brute strength, and even a nuclear bomb but the Joker was really the only villain to truly break Batman and to get away with it. With only “a few drums and a couple of bullets” Joker tore Gotham apart, created Two-Face, turned the people against the Dark Knight, and proved everything that he was saying was right in the end. Even was Batman beat him, this agent of chaos still won and all it took was one bad day and is one of the reasons why The Dark Knight is one of DC’s best movies.
