As the old saying goes, a hero is only as good as their villain, and from 2010 through 2019, comic books saw a lot of great heroes take on a lot of amazing villains. These are villains who forever changed the shape of the DC and Marvel universes both in the comics and the movies. The ones who left a mark that will long be remembered.
Some of these villains were focused on specific heroes, while others sought to remake or destroy the whole of the universe. Some didn't see themselves as the villain, believing that what they were doing would make things better or, maybe even worse, did not actually matter. Whatever their reasons, these bad guys stood out from the rest, making pop culture history in a chaotic decade.
10 Thomas Wayne
Thomas Wayne was dead, murdered in an alley next to his wife and in front of his son. This was the moment that birthed Batman. But when the Flash went back in time to stop the murder of his mother, he changed the history of the DC Universe and created Flashpoint, a reality where Thomas and Martha Wayne survived, but their young son Bruce was killed.
In that world, Thomas Wayne became Batman, but when he learned that in the real universe his son grew up to become the Dark Knight, he set his sights on ending that life. Thomas Wayne didn't want to kill his son, he wanted to make his son give up, ending the career of the Caped Crusader. In the end, all Thomas Wayne managed to do was break his son's heart and cause the death of Alfred.
9 Doctor Octopus
Facing the end of his life, Doctor Otto Octavius, better known as Doctor Octopus, came up with a plan to become young again; he would transplant his essence into the body of his greatest enemy, Spider-Man. While this isn't the newest idea a supervillain has ever had, what made this one so special is that Doc Ock succeeded in his goal and took over Spider-Man's life for a year.
During that year, Otto worked to prove that he was better than Peter Parker by not only becoming the Superior Spider-Man but by making Peter's personal life better as well.
8 Cyclops
It can be hard to watch when a hero turns rogue and become an enemy of those they once called ally. It is even harder when their reason for turning against their friends makes a lot of sense. That was the case with Cyclops, a founding member and longtime leader of the X-Men. After years of trying to get humanity to accept mutants only for mankind to constantly turn against his kind – including, in Cyclops' mind, Captain America – Scott Summers had enough and became a radical activist, joining Magneto. Things got worse when Cyclops became one of the hosts for the Phoenix Force. But in the end, as the saying went, "Cyclops was right".
7 Darkseid
One of the greatest villains in the DC Universe, Darkseid had a busy decade. As New 52 kicked off, the Lord of Apokolips destroyed a number of Earths searching for the Anti-Life Equation, killing the Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman of Earth-2 in the process. When he turned his attention to Earth-1, Darkseid's actions led to the creation of the Justice League, a team that would stand against him in the Darkseid War, which saw the dark god's death.
Not long after, the Mister Miracle series by Tom King and Mitch Gerads showed a Darkseid who was still very much alive and very much evil. He ate some carrots, killed a whole lot of New Gods, and finally faced his own death – again – at the hands of Scott Free and Big Barda.
6 Court Of Owls
Batman has some of the greatest villains in comics, from Joker to Two-Face to Kite Man, which makes it all the more impressive when a new enemy emerges and becomes an instant classic. The Court of Owls, an ancient cabal that has secretly been forming the events of Gotham City for centuries, was unlike anything the Dark Knight had ever faced before.
This group, made up of the wealthy and powerful hidden behind owl masks, put Batman and the other heroes of Gotham through some of the gravest threats they ever faced, all in the name of the Bat God Barbatos.
5 Red Skull
While his name didn't make the headlines, the actions of the Red Skull led to a lot of news coverage in 2016. In Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 by Nick Spencer and Jesus Saiz, it was revealed that the newly young again Steve Rogers had actually been a Hydra sleeper agent his whole career when Cap uttered the words "Hail Hydra".
As time went on, and Secret Empire was released, the truth was revealed: the Red Skull had used Kobik, a young girl created from fragments of a Cosmic Cube, to recreate the universe in his image. What followed was a Marvel Universe where many of the heroes were trapped in space as a Hydra Cap fulfills the wishes of his greatest foe, making one of the most exciting Marvel stories of the decade.
4 Doctor Doom
Not to be outdone by Red Skull, Doctor Doom didn't just change reality to make Captain America evil, he created a new universe from the ashes of what came before. Working with Doctor Strange and the Molecule Man, Doom was able to save parts of the 616 and 1610 universes went the Marvel multiverse collapsed, turning them into "Battleworld", a place made up of different realms. Each realm had its own ruler, but every ruler answered to God Emperor Doom. In Secret Wars, Doctor Doom reminded everyone why he is the greatest villain in the Marvel universe.
3 Doctor Manhattan
When Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created Doctor Manhattan for 1986's Watchmen, they had no idea that 30 years later the character would become the greatest threat the DC Universe ever faced. Following the events of Watchmen, Doctor Manhattan left his reality and found his way to the DC Universe. Being a scientist, Doctor Manhattan chose to run an experiment and see what would happen if he messed with the timeline of the universe. As seen in Doomsday Clock, Doctor Manhattan erased the Justice Society and the Legion of Super-Heroes, played with other pieces of the timeline, and, in doing so, created a darker universe filled with fear and anger that he thought would lead to his own destruction.
2 Batman Who Laughs
While he started off as the henchman of the Bat God Barbatos, the Batman Who Laughs quickly became the gravest threat to the DC Universe. Spinning out of the events of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Dark Knights: Metal, the Batman Who Laughs was created in the Dark Multiverse and invaded the DC Multiverse looking to cause some chaos.
In time, the Batman Who Laughs joined forces with Perpetua, the creator of the Multiverse, and began infecting some of DC's greatest heroes, all leading to the anti-Crisis known as Dark Nights: Death Metal, setting up the DCU for the decade to come.
1 Thanos
Making his film debut in the post-credits scene of 2012's The Avengers, Thanos became the main focus of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for eight years, leading up to his victory over the heroes in Avengers: Infinity War and his final defeat in 2019's Avengers: Endgame.
Across the eight years, Thanos worked to collect the six Infinity Stones and create the Infinity Gauntlet, which he then used to wipe out half of all living beings in the universe. To Thanos, his goals were pure – by erasing half the galaxy he would be ensuring that there were enough resources for the other half to live, but his actions were less heroic and more playing god. Still, it did turn the character into one of the best known comic villains of all time.