Readers love a redemption arc, so it's no surprise when comic book villains undergo transformations into antiheroes or superheroes. On the other hand, truly evil villains can raise a story's stakes and are often fun to read about—wicked characters who relish the chaos they sow are satisfying in their own right!

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Nevertheless, female villains in DC's canon tend to undergo redemption arcs at a much higher rate than male villains. From Star Sapphire to Silver Banshee to all of Gotham's major female rogues, there's no shortage of bad women gone good (or, at least, better). So, it's nice to see some of DC's longest-running female villains still prize evildoing above all else.

10 Cheetah Is Motivated By Hatred And Greed

Cheetah In DC Comics

Three different women (and one man) have taken on the moniker of Cheetah: one of Wonder Woman's main adversaries. All three women were fairly villainous, but Priscilla Rich and Deborah Domaine don't hold a candle to post-Crisis and current Cheetah, Barbara Ann Minerva.

Over her publication history, Minerva's backstory has been retconned several times. However, the outcome is always the same. She becomes a human-cheetah hybrid with incredible strength, speed, and reflexes who also retains her genius-level intellect. These abilities, combined with a profound thirst for blood and a potent hatred for Wonder Woman, create a truly evil foe for Princess Diana and the public.

9 Emerald Empress Could Never Undergo A Redemption Arc

The Emerald Empress of the 31st century

The Emerald Eyes of Ekron are inherently corrupting forces. So, to redeem herself, whoever holds the title of Emerald Empress must purge herself of the Eye's influence and by extension, the identity. Therefore, it's impossible for the Emerald Empress mantle to be anything but malevolent.

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Still, the distinction between the woman and the Empress is blurry. Some women, like Cera Kesh, succumb to the Eye of Ekron willingly and enjoy being the Emerald Empress. On the other hand, Ingria Olav realizes her distaste for carnage while under the (other) Eye's influence. However, before Ingria can rid herself of the Eye, Cera kills her so she's the only Emerald Empress.

8 Cupid Views Her Murders As Acts Of Love

Cupid shoots a gun in DC Comics

Carrie Cutter is more sympathetic than some of her (equally dangerous) contemporaries. For example, her desire to feel loved is understandable to many readers. Furthermore, she had no way of knowing the training program she underwent to minimize her fear would also alter the way she experiences love.

Nevertheless, Cupid is still a coldblooded killer. Just because she thinks her obsession with Green Arrow is perfectly healthy does not make it so, and slaughtering people for his attention, believing that's what he wants, is still murder.

7 Faora Lives To Kill And Has A Bloodlust Like Few Others

Faora Zod looking towards the reader in DC Comics

Whether she's paired with General Zod or operating independently, Faora Hu-Ul exhibits a bloodlust that rivals only a handful of other villains. In fact, she's often drawn to Dru-Zod because she views him as having the same barbarity that motivates her own actions.

In her original incarnation, Faora was a misandrist sentenced to the Phantom Zone by the Kryptonian Courts for torturing and murdering twenty-three men. So, it's unsurprising that, even in more recent continuities (in which she willingly partners with a man to exact violence), she still enjoys massacring other people, though she's hardly discriminatory about her victims' genders these days.

6 Siren Lets Her Resentment Control Her Evil Actions

Siren (Hila) launches an attack against beachgoers in DC Comics

Hila and Mera are identical twins, but they couldn't be more different. Mera is the golden child and Hila is the black sheep. Resentful of the benevolent Mera, Hila uses her powers for evil. Mera only uses her given name while Hila uses the alias "Siren."

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While a storyline in DC's Bombshells sees Mera and Hila reconcile, and Hila's earliest incarnation experienced guilt after impersonating her sister, no such redemption has occurred in the main continuity ever since. This is good news for Aquaman readers: an evil twin dynamic is a fun one to read.

5 Granny Goodness Is Irony And Misogyny Incarnate

Granny Goodness smiles gleefully as Aurelie collapses and the Furies look on in DC Comics

Granny Goodness embodies female misogyny, illustrating its capacity for evil. She's cruel and ruthless and primarily in service of a man's sinister agenda. She uses other women to achieve her ends by torturing and stripping them of any autonomy so they "obey" her.

Goodness also embodies irony. She's subjugated as a woman of Apokolips, and yet goes to great lengths to maintain the system that harms her, turning Apokoliptian girls into the Female Furies who fight on Darkseid's behalf. Of course, her name is ironic too: "Granny," a protective figure, and "Goodness," a source of compassion, is actually a wholly sinister and hateful individual.

4 Doctor Poison Is A Violent Coward

Doctor Poison

Though her identity has changed over her seven decades in publication, the woman known as Maru or Doctor Poison is consistently depicted as a toxicologist who uses her expertise to take human lives, which she loves. This characterization makes Doctor Poison the anti-Wonder Woman in several ways.

Where Diana has the courage to face her opponents in battle, Poison uses her namesake, which is an inherently cowardly form of violence. Furthermore, where the Princess of Themyscira fights in combat out of necessity, Doctor Poison sees violence as an end of its own, often conducting torturous biochemical and biomedical experiments for the fun of it.

3 White Rabbit Is Among Gotham's Remaining Evil Female Villains

The DC Comics villain White Rabbit, first introduced in the New 52.

Jaina Hudson shares a lot in common with the Gotham City Sirens. Like the Sirens, she's exceptionally beautiful and uses it to her advantage. She can also split herself into two bodies, one of whom is the White Rabbit. In true Alice's Adventures in Wonderland fashion, she weaponizes her attractive and Playboy Bunny-inspired form to lure victims down the proverbial rabbit hole and grave danger.

However, unlike the Sirens, White Rabbit is yet to receive a redemption arc. Her exact motivations remain mysterious, but this remains true to her persona. There's no question of her evilness, either, as she's been known to actively ally herself with Bane and Joker or wreak havoc of her own design.

2 Morgaine Le Fey Endlessly Seeks Power

Morgaine le Fey is an evil magician in DC Comics and Arthurian legend

Morgaine le Fey is a power-hungry sorceress born in Arthurian times. Merlin the Magician was so concerned about Morgaine's nature, he sacrificed himself by binding his familiar, Etrigan, to Jason Blood in the hopes of protecting Camelot from Morgaine's manipulation and appetite for control.

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To this day, Morgaine roams the Earth, enacting plots to overthrow leadership and control Homo sapiens, whom she views contemptuously for their lack of magic. When other Homo magi and even Homo sapiens dare to fight back, Morgaine le Fey turns her sights on destroying the regions she intended to control. If she can't have it, no one can!

1 Perpetua Creates So She Can Destroy

Perpetua wears her twisted crown and sits on her celestial throne in DC Comics

Perpetua may be the mother of all—the Monitor, Anti-Monitor, World Forger, and creator of the Multiverse—but this doesn't mean she's a benevolent protector of these entities. On the contrary, Perpetua is a vicious villain and only creates so that she can destroy, as she demonstrates during the Dark Knights: Death Metal event (and all preceding Crises).

Though she's newer to DC's canon relative to most villains, Perpetua is literally as old as time immemorial. Her combined archaic, maternal, and destructive natures are all the more terrifying for tapping into the (equally timeless) shared anxiety of mothers who don't love their children.

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