Your favorite Batman villains (and why)

[Thomas Veil]

I've bored enough of you talking about my binge-watching Gotham with my grandson, but recent episodes we've seen inspired this topic...simply because when I think about it, there are tons of Batman bad guys and so many of them are really entertaining for a variety of reasons. I'll start with a few of my favorites.

• The Court of Owls. You wouldn't think the name Katherine would be a top Batman villain, but she's one of the leaders of the Court on Gotham...and holy shit, is she creepy. With an imperious, quietly menacing demeanor and what Penguin described as a "rather severe" look. Not to mention a tendency to announce that the entire city must be utterly destroyed.
  
  
  
  
  
  Imagine my surprise to find that the actress has played the medical examiner on a show I don't normally watch, Law & Order, for something like twenty seasons.
• The Riddler (Jim Carrey). Yes, the movie was idiotic, but Carrey's manic performance reminded me so much of Frank Gorshin's. And some great lines: "Your entrance was good; his was better!" And just...Riddler's compulsion to leave clues is a great hook for a villain.
• Joker, of course. I can address each version separately, but I want to give a little love to the Jared Leto one, which normally doesn't get any. I get that some people objected to the tats and the bling, but get past the looks and the performance was scary...leaping into Common's face suddenly like an animal...hissing like a snake...telling Dr. Quinzel, "Oh, I'm not gonna kill ya. I'm just gonna hurt you...really, really bad." And in Snyder's Justice League he was all kinds of a smug, taunting prick.