There's an old saying in fiction that a hero is only as good as their villain. Sherlock Holmes needed someone like Professor Moriarty to show the world just how great a detective he was. Superman needs Lex Luthor to remind us just how heroic he really is. And Batman needs Joker to show us what would happen if the Dark Knight wasn't around.
But not every villain pushes their hero to new heights. For every Captain Cold, there are dozens of Rainbow Raiders. Some of these lower-level DC villains still have something that catches the imagination, so they never really go away for too long, while others disappear with little to no fanfare, even if they have the makings of being a great villain. These evil men and women fell into the gutters of the four-color page, never to be seen again.
10 Speed Demon
Jerry McGee was a well-respected scientist who, along with his wife Tina, was working on a way to give humans superspeed. When he chose to test his experiment on himself, Jerry gained super speed, but also entered a state of perpetual roid rage, driving his wife into the arms of Wally West, the third Flash.
Filled with jealous rage at Flash, Jerry became the supervillain Speed Demon and may have killed Flash if it wasn't for his body breaking down under the stress of the drugs he took. Thanks to Flash and Tina, Jerry was able to recuperate and ended up becoming one of Wally's closest friends for a time.
9 Ten-Eyed Man
A U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam, Philip Reardon's military career came to an end when a grenade fragment hit him between the eyes. Back home in Gotham City, Philip became a security guard at a warehouse, but when that warehouse became the location of a battle between Batman and some thugs, Philip was further injured in an explosion and left completely blind.
That's when a crazed doctor decided to connect Philip's optic nerves to his fingertips, turning him into the supervillain known as the Ten-Eyed Man. The Ten-Eyed Man went up against Batman a few times, but was killed during Crisis on Infinite Earths and never seen again.
8 Conduit
On the same night that Ma and Pa Kent found the baby Kal-El in his rocketship in Smallville, the Bravermans were having their own child. Unable to get to the hospital in time, Kenny Braverman was born on the side of the road not far from where the Kryptonian ship had landed, and the residual Kryptonite radiation altered the newborn Kenny.
Holding a lifelong grudge against Superman, Kenny used the powers he received from the Kryptonite to become Conduit, the leader of the freelance intelligence outfit, Pipeline, and began his mission to destroy the Man of Steel. It didn't go well, ending with Kenny's death.
7 Two-Face II
While Harvey Dent, the first Two-Face, has become one of Batman's creepiest villains, his butler, Two-Face II, has all but been forgotten. Debuting in 1948's Batman #50, Wilkens, the butler of Harvey Dent, used make-up to make himself look like his disfigured boss and go on his own crime spree.
In time, Batman and Robin realize that they aren't on the trail of the real Two-Face, but a cheap imitation. Once the Dark Knight figured out the ruse, it was only a matter of time before he was able to take the crooked manservant down.
6 Two-Face III
Paul Sloane was a talented and rather famous actor who was hired to play Two-Face in a movie, but when a prop man on set got jealous over Sloane's good looks, he replaced the fake acid on set with real acid, ensuring that Sloane would look just like the evil criminal he was playing.
Like Harvey Dent, Sloane's disfigurement drove him mad, turning the actor into the third Two-Face and leading him into a life of crime. Batman was able to trick Sloane into having reconstructive surgery, but the villain returned a number of times after that before forever vanishing from the comics.
5 Fausta Grables
A Nazi operative sent by Hitler himself to gather information on - and capture - Wonder Woman, Fausta Grables was one of the first villains that the Amazonian Princess ever faced. In her debut, Fausta Grables is able to steal Wonder Woman's costume and magic lasso, using it to bind Wonder Woman and hold her captive.
Fausta would go on to appear in the 1970s Wonder Woman TV series where she was called "The Nazi Wonder Woman". The character also has a brief cameo in the 2017 movie. Sadly, she hasn't appeared in any comics since 1943.
4 Grayven
Created by Ron Marz and Darryl Banks in the 1990s, Grayven was the third previously unknown son of Darkseid. Feeling abandoned by his father, Grayven began to conquer the galaxy planet by planet in an attempt to gain enough power to kill Darkseid, Kalibak, and Orion so that he could rule over Apokolips. Grayven's plan was stopped by the Darkstars and the Green Lantern Kyle Rayner.
Grayven showed up from time to time after his defeat, but was eventually killed by the New God Drax in Jim Starlin's Death of the New Gods. Unlike the other New Gods, Grayven has not been reborn.
3 Anthony Lupus
When Olympic athlete Anthony Lupus started suffering from migraines, he did what anyone in the DC Universe would do - he got in contact with the mad scientist Professor Milo and started taking a concoction derived from the genes of Alaskan wolves. Instead of curing Lupus of his headaches, Professor Milo's serum turned him into a werewolf.
Lupus battled Batman a few times, and the Dark Knight promised to do what he could to find a cure for the former athlete's ailment, but the villain soon vanished from the comics, never to be seen again.
2 Massacre
An alien of unknown origin, Massacre made a name for himself by going from planet to planet and randomly killing people. Sometimes he did this for money, but mostly he did it for his own sadistic pleasure. In time, Massacre's actions brought him to the attention of Superman, and the two battled a few times.
Massacre made his way to Earth looking for the Man of Steel, but ended up in Metropolis, Illinois. Once he reached the right Metropolis, Massacre was badly beaten by Superman and left. He next appeared working alongside Maxima in her war against Imperiex. It was in this battle that Massacre died.
1 Ultivac
War criminal Felex Hesse found himself in a tight spot. He and his fellow imprisoned war criminal Floyd Barker had built a giant robot - Ultivac- that was supposed to help them, but instead, it wanted to kill them. Hesse made his way to the Challengers of the Unknown who first defeated the robot, and then convinced it to not destroy mankind just before Hesse destroyed it with a raygun.
Ultivac later returned as part of a supervillain team aptly named The Forgotten Villains to battle Young Justice, but hasn't been heard from since 2006.