DC Comics has created extremely successful villains over the years. They've become icons of evil in the comic industry, their power, intelligence, and prestige making them into something special. However, some villains are luckier than others and that's made all the difference. Being a villain brings its own trials and hardships, but some villains experience worse defeats than their fellows.
Even the most well known and powerful villains find themselves unlucky for a variety of reasons. While their unluckiness isn't good for them, it often makes them more interesting as characters than they would be otherwise and gives the heroes a fighting chance.
10 Perpetua Is The Most Powerful Being Ever And She Still Lost
Perpetua beat the Justice League at every turn. Her power eclipsed that of any other foe the heroes had ever faced. She was the mother of the Monitor, Anti-Monitor, and World-Forger and had the power to create entire multiverses. No being should've been able to stand against her, yet Perpetua lost to the Batman Who Laughs.
The Batman Who Laughs had gained the power of Doctor Manhattan, but still, Perpetua had created multiverses. The power difference between the two should've given Perpetua the win, but she still experienced brutal defeat, ending her streak of wins in a humiliating fashion.
9 The Anti-Monitor Destroyed Countless Worlds But Fell In The End
The Anti-Monitor is the definition of unlucky. He spent millennia battling his brother and destroying universes, with nothing able to stand in his way. It's conceivable that he battled multiple iterations of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and all the others in his rampage. The Anti-Monitor's plans were pretty much unstoppable and every defeat he experienced was simply a setback.
The Anti-Monitor was more powerful than everyone he fought, and yet he lost in the end. He had the heroes of the five remaining Earths eating out of his hand, trumping their every attempt to beat him, but it wasn't enough. The Anti-Monitor would return multiple times over the years, every time weaker than before, cementing how unlucky he'd become.
8 Superboy-Prime Had All The Power And None Of The Luck
Superboy-Prime made a name for himself as the most dangerous villain in the DC Universe for a long time. He was easily the most powerful Kryptonian around, able to move planets as if they were nothing and overpowering heroes like Superboy and Superman. However, if there ever was an unlucky villain, it was Superboy-Prime.
Even before he was a villain, Superboy-Prime didn't have favorable fortunes. He discovered his powers than lost his world. He got stuck in a "paradise dimension," and every battle he fought ended in loss. No matter powerful he was, everyone made fun of him. Even Superboy-Prime's redemption led to his death. He had power, but his luck was non-existent.
7 Penguin's Bad Luck Started Immediately
Penguin has been battling Batman for a long time. He became so unsuccessful that he basically left the supervillain game, becoming more of a facilitator and an information broker. The Penguin experienced one misfortune and tragedy after another, starting with his family abandoning him not long after his birth.
Beyond being chased out of the supervillain business, few of Penguin's peers respect him despite his obvious influence and prestige in the Gotham underworld. Penguin has always been a hard luck villain, everything in his life shifting from bad to worse.
6 Mongul Always Loses
More of a title than a name, Mongul has a long history with Superman. Over the years, there have been at least three Monguls. Each one has conquered Warworld and tried to use it to destroy Superman, all of them failing. Each Mongul was a powerful alien and a conqueror, but their luck ran out as soon as Superman or any other hero showed up.
The various Monguls talk a big game and can back it up to an extent, but always fall short when things get serious. Mongul can dominate Superman or whoever else he's fighting and then experience the most precipitous loss a second later.
5 The Riddler's Intelligence Has Never Mattered As Much As His Bad Luck
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The Riddler is Batman's most intelligent villain. He's outsmarted the Caped Crusader more than once, but the fact he can't consistently win speaks to his misfortune. The Riddler has lost many battles because he made the mistake of picking a subject Batman happened to know more about.
The Riddler is a polymath, much like Batman, but his bad luck has affected his track record. Beating Batman is as much a matter of luck as skill. The Riddler can't consistently pull off a win, and his schemes' success rate feels dictated by circumstance and fate.
4 Two-Face Has Had Terrible Luck
Few Batman villains have a sadder backstory than Two-Face. Looking at everything that's happened to him, it's easy to see bad luck's hand in his life. From his wife Gilda's role as the Holiday Killer, the accident that cost his state of mind and half his face, and the many times he thought Two-Face was dead only for it to return, bad luck defines the villain.
Beyond that, Two-Face leaving things up to chance shows just how bad luck affects his life in practice. If he was lucky, he would win his coin tosses when they matter most, but he never does. Bad luck is a prime mover in Two-Face's life and continues to direct his life and victories.
3 Mr. Freeze Can't Catch A Break
Mr. Freeze's tragic backstory has pulled on readers' heartstrings for years. Nora Fries's terrible disease and Victor's failures to cure her no matter how he tried, drove him to terrible places. He became Mr. Freeze to get the resources to cure her, but Victor couldn't make a difference.
Batman always stood in Mr. Freeze's way, keeping him from helping his wife. When Freeze finally cured her, Nora spurned him and became a super criminal. Mr. Freeze's life comprised getting smacked upside his head by bad luck, and it influenced his life like nothing else.
2 Darkseid Is A God But He Can Never Win
Darkseid is the God of Evil. It would be safe to assume his great power and prestige would grant him many great victories, but nothing else could be further from the truth. Darkseid has experienced defeat after defeat. Even when he wins, he can't seal the deal. As powerful as he is, he's constantly losing to beings who are much weaker than him.
Darkseid may be able to kill nearly any enemy with one shot, but he'll almost certainly miss when it counts. He can get the Anti-Life Equation, but it won't work as well as he thinks it will. Darkseid should win every time he shows up, but his bad luck keeps him from ultimate victory.
1 The Minute Superman Arrived, Lex Luthor's Luck Changed
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Lex Luthor is the most important villain on Earth, but his luck has definitely gone through a huge change over the years. For a long time, thinking Lex Luthor was the luckiest person in Metropolis would've been correct. Luthor was the wealthiest man in the city, LexCorp was the biggest business around, and everyone loved him. Then Superman showed up.
Superman's debut in Metropolis changed Luthor's luck. He was no longer the best, the one people looked up to. He became second best and nothing he did changed that. Luthor's wrongdoings were laid bare, and the blessed existence he'd enjoyed for years completely changed when his luck ran out.