Superhero comics are pretty much stuck in eternal limbo. No one really ages past their mid-thirties, unless they started out old. Even the timeline itself keeps getting dragged forward to the present day. But sometimes, it's nice to see what happens to these characters as they age. One way writers get around this eternal youth involves the classic superhero comic staple: alternate universes. The Dark Knight ReturnsKingdom Come, and Earth X are some of the biggest graphic novels in the medium, and they all offer a glimpse at future versions of some of the biggest superheroes.

But where go superheroes, so too do supervillains. After all, what is Superman without Lex Luthor? Batman without the Joker? While these future stories sometimes introduce new villains for a new time, they will also occasionally revisit the past, pitting the aged superheroes against similarly aged villains. Sometimes, age and wisdom have made the villains all the more threatening. After tangling with the superheroes for so long, perhaps their conflict has become routine, which the villain seeks to break by doing something wild. In other stories, the villains have been mellowed by time, with age taking its toll more than the repeated defeats.

25 SCARIER: KINGDOM COME LEX LUTHOR

Alex Ross and Mark Waid's Kingdom Come is a much-beloved comic about the near-apocalyptic future of the DC Universe. A Revelation (like the Bible) narrative runs through it, Kansas gets nuked (twice!), and everyone acts like a jerk. While the primary conflict of the piece involves Superman and the older Justice League battling against a new generation of heroes, a cabal of aging villains carries out their own machinations. As the heroes battle over whether fascism or anarchy is better, the villains enact plan ostensibly to defend mere mortals from the clashes of gods.

Since Kingdom Come is mostly a Superman story, so it's fitting that Luthor acts as one of the main antagonists.

At the head of the table sits Lex Luthor. Since Kingdom Come is mostly a Superman story, so it's fitting that Luthor acts as one of the main antagonists. Luthor organizes the villains into the Mankind Liberation Front, supposedly to free humanity from the grip of the superheroes, but in actuality to usurp control of the world. To do this, he brings in Bruce Wayne and the Outsiders, a group of young heroes descended from the heroes of the past. As part of Luthor's plan, he manages to brainwash Captain Marvel, the only metahuman capable of matching Superman. While Luthor's plan ultimately fails, he establishes himself as one of the more threatening Luthors in the multiverse.

24 TAMED: OLD GALACTUS

In Jason Aaron's Thor: God of Thunder, readers were given a glimpse of Thor's far-flung future. There, he rules Asgard as the All-Father, over a blasted and wasted Midgard, a barren wasteland ravaged by millennia of human destruction. In this future, Thor faces off against Gorr the God-Butcher, who seeks to destroy every god in existence, past, present, and future. Although Gorr is defeated with the help of Thor's two younger selves, King Thor is left watching over a barren Earth, basically waiting for the universe to end.

That is, until Galactus returns to Earth. After vanishing for centuries, Galactus returns to consume Midgard, after failing so many times in the past. As he starts to consume the Earth, Thor naturally objects and personally arrives to battle Galactus. The Devourer of Worlds manages to put up a decent fight, even managing to knock Thor into deep space. He is then delayed by Thor's granddaughters, the Goddesses of Thunder, until Thor returns with All-Black, the Necrosword, and brutally defeats Galactus. While Galactus survives their encounter, and even acquires the Necrosword, he is later defeated and killed by Ego, the Living Planet. His battle with Thor, however, managed to revitalize Earth, as Thor's blood fell on the ground and caused plants to grow.

23 SCARIER: KING LOKI

If you remember our last list, you'll remember King Loki. As part of an incredibly convoluted scheme to free himself from the shackles of the Asgardian Ragnarok cycle, the original Loki died, and was revived as a child with no memory of his previous villainy. The original Loki killed the child version, and in the process, a third Loki was created. This third Loki then sought to forge a new identity as an approximate hero. King Loki is an end result of his attempts, where despite his efforts, he returns to villainy due to mistrust and being ostracized by his fellow Asgardians.

Unlike the original Loki, King Loki was far more focused on revenge and inflicting as much pain as possible on Thor.

Bitter about his continued lack of recognition, and continually being treated like a villain, Loki decided to fulfill their assumptions, and reverted back to a full-time villain. Unlike the original Loki, King Loki was far more focused on revenge and inflicting as much pain as possible on Thor, rather than simply mischief and mayhem. It is revealed that the devastation of Earth seen in the King Thor timeline of God of Thunder was caused by Loki, who exterminated humanity, and annihilated the planet. While he is eventually defeated by his present-day counterpart, he revealed just how dangerous this new Loki can be.

22 TAMED: OLD MAN THANOS

Are we still sad about Infinity War? Maybe. Thanos might have been victorious there, but in the comics, he's always rising and falling. In Marvel's upcoming summer event Infinity Wars, he'll be taking a major role. Whether as hero, villain, or something else remains to be seen. But recently, in Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw's storyline "Thanos Wins," we saw the very end of Thanos. As the heroes of the world grew older, they got weaker. But as Thanos got older, he only grew stronger. The story takes us to the literal end of the universe, where Thanos has killed almost everyone.

The present-day Thanos is brought forward to this time, supposedly to help his older self battle and defeat the last surviving creature in the universe, the Silver Surfer. While the Surfer puts up a valiant fight, he is ultimately defeated. It is revealed that Old Thanos did not bring Young Thanos to the future to kill the Surfer, but rather to kill him. After millions of years, Thanos is still in love with Death, and needs his younger self to kill him in order to finally be with her. After begging to be killed, the younger Thanos leaves the older Thanos, and the future, in disgust, vowing to never become the broken old man. Old Man Thanos is denied his release, and his timeline fades from existence.

21 SCARIER: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS JOKER

Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns is frequently hailed as one the best comic books of all time. Miller's tremendous talent is on full display and firing on all cylinders. Delivering a hard-edged story of an aging Bruce Wayne stepping back into the mantle of Batman to battle a growing criminal crisis in Gotham, the story shows Batman battling against a younger and hungrier criminal element, an aging Two Face (we'll get to him later), and even battling Superman head-on. But one foe has always been Batman's greatest nemesis, returning time and time again to hound him in ever more terrifying ways.

His bone-chilling awakening upon seeing Batman's return remains one of the most powerful moments in the book.

The Dark Knight Returns' version of the Joker shows him older and catatonic in Arkham Asylum after the disappearance of Batman. His bone-chilling awakening upon seeing Batman's return remains one of the most powerful moments in the book. After returning to lucidity, he convinces a pair of psychologists that he's reformed and sane, using this as an excuse to escape Arkham and go on a murder spree to attract Batman. After catching him, Batman breaks Joker's neck without killing him in order to leave him paralyzed and harmless. In a final act, Joker breaks his neck completely, killing himself while making it look like Batman did it, framing him for murder.

20 TAMED: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS TWO FACE

On the flip side (pun intended) of Joker, there's Two Face. Another of Batman's greatest foes, Two Face is perhaps the most effective mirror of Batman. Instead of keeping the dual identities hidden and controlling the switch like Batman, Harvey Dent literally wears his dual identities on the surface. Considered by Batman to be one of his own greatest failures, Harvey Dent is a former friend of Bruce Wayne who Batman failed to save. After being horrendously disfigured, to the point of developing a split personality, Dent adopted the criminal persona of Two Face, becoming one of Gotham's most feared crime lords.

In The Dark Knight Returns, Dent has aged just like every other character. In the meantime since Batman's disappearance, he went through extensive plastic surgery. Now returned to his pre-Two Face appearance, he manages to convince his psychiatrists at Arkham that he is fully cured and sane (foreshadowing Joker's reappearance). Unfortunately, this is not the case. After starting a crime spree, he threatens to hold Gotham City hostage with a bomb. After being defeated by Batman, he reveals that although his face is restored, the Two Face persona has completely overtaken his mind. The Harvey Dent persona, which kept him moderately sane, is gone forever.

19  SCARIER: THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN LEX LUTHOR

Rounding out our Frank Miller Dark Knight entries is The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Published almost 30 years after The Dark Knight ReturnsStrikes Again isn't quite as beloved as its predecessor. Written in what is commonly described as Miller's "lunacy" period, Strikes Again featured a far more out-there plot. Miller's already fairly unique art ascended to near abstract levels, painting a world descending into madness after the return of Batman. Featuring the rest of the DC Universe far more heavily than ReturnsStrikes Again was not well-received, to say the least.

Forcing Superman, Wonder Woman, and Captain Marvel to work for him, Luthor essentially has an iron grip on the world.

But one of the least of its problems was Lex Luthor. After Returns, Reagan is out, and President Rickard is in (a subtle nod to DC's Prez). In actuality, Rickard is a computer simulation created by Lex Luthor, with the enslaved help of Brainiac, to establish a dictatorial rule over the United States. Forcing Superman, Wonder Woman, and Captain Marvel to work for him, Luthor essentially has an iron grip on the world. It's up to Batman and the remaining members of the Justice League to incite a revolution against him. Luthor nearly succeeds with his plans to exterminate the human race as a last resort after losing power, but is defeated and killed at the last minute by Green Lantern and the son of Hawkman.

18 TAMED: EARTH X RED SKULL

Jim Krueger and John Paul Leon's Earth X is a story similar to Kingdom Come, only at Marvel. A glimpse at an alternate future of the Marvel Universe, it shows superheroes run amok as their population explodes, with many of the original villains killed or gone to ground. The Avengers are mostly dead, and civil unrest runs rampant. Prior to the main events of the story, Captain America quit the Avengers, which spared him when the rest of the Avengers were killed battling the Absorbing Man after he absorbed Ultron's intelligence for a massive power boost.

Cap's retirement came as a result of his final confrontation with the Red Skull. Skull had assembled an army of Neo-Nazis, who in turn captured and tortured Cap. During this torture, Red Skull revealed that Dr. Abraham Erskine, creator of the Super Soldier Serum, was in actuality a Nazi spy, and Steve Rogers was merely a test subject. Red Skull explained that Steve was chosen because he matched the Aryan ideal of blond hair and blue eyes. After Cap escapes, Red Skull and his army begin worshiping Captain America as Hitler's one true son. They begin killing everyone in Cap's life they deem to be impure or unworthy. After killing one of Cap's ex-girlfriends, Captain America battles Red Skull one last time, decapitating him with his shield.

17 SCARIER: DOOM 2099

The 1990s were a wild time for comics. Image was fresh-faced and fancy free. Marvel and DC were trying their very hardest to keep up, throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck. It was the time of pouches, big guns, bigger shoulder pads, and no feet. Men were men (i.e. piles of muscles in anatomically questionable places), and women were bizarre organ-less abominations. For Marvel, it was the peak of Rob Liefeld. Deadpool! Cable! Shatterstar! Various characters with names involving blood, death, or both! But for the purposes of this list, it was the time of 2099.

Doom 2099 did not star a future version of Doctor Doom, but rather the original Victor von Doom... who was not happy.

While the 2099 line mostly entailed stories about future versions of superheroes, one title stuck out. Doom 2099 did not star a future version of Doctor Doom, but rather the original Victor von Doom, time-displaced into the year 2099. In his hundred-ish year absence, a new dictator with vastly superior technology took over Latveria, and it's up to DOOM to overthrow him and regain control. Although he fails initially, he becomes an anti-hero freedom fighter, even managing to conquer the United States in a bid to control the world. While he is eventually defeated, he remains in the future as an anti-hero.

16 TAMED: EARTH X MAGNETO

Magneto is one of Marvel's greatest villains. The mutant master of magnetism presented a much more militant stance for mutant rights, as compared to Charles Xavier's stance of peaceful integration. That is to say, he wanted mutants to rule over humans. Naturally, this led to some clashes between the X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. But for a long time now, Magneto has walked the line between anti-hero and outright villain. These days he tends more towards the hero side, even joining the X-Men more often than not, but he definitely still has a bit of an anti-hero tilt.

Earth X is no different. With the release of the Terrigen Mists into Earth's atmosphere, more and more mutants began appearing. Magneto took it upon himself to create a mutant utopia in the Savage Land, built by and out of Sentinels he used his magnetic powers to control. After Galactus consumes the Celestial Egg within Earth's core (Earth X gets pretty wild), the polarity of Earth's magnetic field reverses. For some reason, this results in Magneto switching powers with Toad. Toad takes control of the Savage Land, and reduces Magneto to a jester in his court, pixie boots, tasseled hat, and all.

15 SCARIER: OLD MAN LOGAN RED SKULL

Mark Millar and Steven McNiven's Old Man Logan shows a post-apocalyptic America. The villains have won, and the heroes have been all but wiped out. Everyone is old, more haggard, and a lot grimmer. The story served as an inspiration for the movie Logan, so naturally it centers around Wolverine. But there's also the incestuous Hulk clan, born from She-Hulk and Hulk, Old Man Hawkeye, and of course the villains controlling America. After the death of the heroes, the villains divided up America between themselves, claiming cities and territories for themselves. One of these territories is Amerika, controlled by the Red Skull.

"But wait," you say, "how could an actual Nazi with a bright red skull face be scarier than he already is?" Quite easily!

This Red Skull has descended further into genocidal madness without his longtime foe Captain America to clash with. In addition to redecorating the White House with decidedly more Nazi-ish decor, he's also taken to wearing Bucky Barnes' Captain America costume. He also keeps grisly trophies of slaughtered heroes. He is ultimately killed by Logan on a revenge-fueled rampage. In a manner similar to his Earth X counterpart, he is decapitated with Captain America's shield.

14 TAMED: BATMAN BEYOND BANE

The DC Animated Universe has long been considered one of the finest superhero adaptations. Starting with Batman: The Animated Series, it continued into Superman: The Animated SeriesBatman Beyond, and Justice LeagueBatman Beyond followed a young successor to Batman, after Bruce Wayne has retired after his aging body began to fail and he was forced to pull a gun on a criminal. Bruce acts as a mentor to young Terry McGinnis, guiding him as he grows to become Batman. Along the way, he faces a number of villains, both new and old from Bruce's past.

Among them is Jackson Chappell, responsible for supplying Terry's high school sports teams with a form of steroids called Slappers. Slappers are revealed to be an easily applicable form of the drug Venom. Created and used originally by Bane, they grant his great strength without the need for the bulky apparatus Bane used. Upon this discovery, Terry tracks down Bane. Living on an isolated island estate, Bane has wasted away to nothing, so weak he needs a wheelchair to move and a respirator just to breathe. Chappell, revealed to be Bane's medical attendant, later overdoses on Slappers, resulting in a similar degeneration to Bane's.

13 SCARIER: BATMAN BEYOND JOKER

Mark Hamill's Joker remains one of the greatest voice performances of our generation. From Batman: The Animated Series to its crossover with Superman: The Animated Series, he was one of the favorite villains in the DCAU. His two appearances in Justice League are widely considered to be two of the best episodes in the series. In between Justice League and Batman Beyond, though, Joker seemingly died. After kidnapping Tim Drake, he brainwashed and corrupted Robin into a twisted Joker-like son. Although Batman managed to rescue his ward, Tim also killed Joker.

Unbeknownst to Batman, Joker's corruption of Tim went far beyond the physical, or even the mental.

Decades later, Bruce Wayne is an old man, and the mantle of Batman has passed on to Terry McGinnis. Terry has come a long way as Batman, but he still hasn't faced a threat the level of Joker. Unbeknownst to Batman, Joker's corruption of Tim went far beyond the physical, or even the mental. Using stolen technology, Joker managed to implant a copy of his consciousness on Tim's spinal column. This allowed him to re-emerge 40 years later, where he begins to menace Gotham once again. Retaining his criminal genius, he now comes with the physical skills and power of a former Robin, able to handily defeat Terry in hand-to-hand combat.

12 TAMED: REIGN DOCTOR OCTOPUS

While the Green Goblin is perhaps Spider-Man's greatest foe, Doctor Octopus certainly comes in at a close second. His genius intellect combined with his robot arms makes him one of Spider-Man's most formidable villains, at the very least. He even managed to bodyjack Peter Parker and spent a considerable amount of time as the Superior Spider-Man. Even though he was defeated by the Green Goblin, he became obsessed with proving himself superior to Spider-Man, even stealing a cloned Peter Parker body so he could become the Superior Octopus. Although, that did lead to a brief stint as a Nazi under Captain America's Hydra takeover.

But in Spider-Man: Reign, Doctor Octopus is long dead. Spider-Man has retired after the death of Mary Jane Watson. Super-crime in New York has been all but wiped out by the new fascistic government, and most of Spider-Man's rogue's gallery is off the street. Although Doctor Octopus' body is dead, his tentacles are still functioning, and operating on a final order. The tentacles are eager to take their revenge on Spider-Man, and replace Otto Octavius' body with Peter Parker's (sound familiar?), and they even bury him alive in Mary Jane's grave. But it turns out that was all to give Peter the kick in the butt he needed to become Spider-Man.

11 SCARIER: BATMAN BEYOND MR. FREEZE

Mr. Freeze is an interesting villain. For a long time, he was a pretty generic bad guy with an ice gun. But in Batman: The Animated Series, Paul Dini and Bruce Timm re-imagined him. His debut episode, "Heart of Ice," completely overhauled the character. Widely considered to be the best single episode in the DCAU, and largely responsible for rocketing BTAS to fame, the episode retooled Mr. Freeze as a mad scientist, desperate to save his wife from a rare disease.

This origin eventually made the jump to the comics, and even to the movies, where it served as Freeze's origin in Batman and Robin.

While Freeze would clash repeatedly with Batman over the course of BTAS, his final defeat would wait until Batman Beyond. Reduced to just a head after BTAS (and its sequel series New Batman Adventures), Freeze was cloned into a new, healthy body. Unfortunately, the experiment failed, and his new body began to revert back to its cold state. After killing the scientists responsible (after they attempted to kill him), he donned his most powerful suit yet, which allowed him to stand toe-to-toe with the new Batman and the dangerous villain Blight. He ultimately died saving Batman from Blight.

10 TAMED: IMMORTUS

Kang the Conqueror is one of the Avengers' greatest foes. A time-traveling supervillain descendant of Doctor Doom, Kang has spent a long, long time conquering timelines. At one point, he conquered ancient Egypt, setting himself up as the pharaoh Rama Tut before being defeated by the Fantastic Four. Most frequently, he clashes with the Avengers in his attempts to conquer the modern day. He continually uses time shenanigans to attempt to either conquer the the world or all of creation. Even death can't keep him down, as his constant time travelling always leaves a version of him somewhere in the timeline.

Eventually, he spends a stint in Limbo and becomes Immortus. No longer an outright villain, he acts as a separate entity from Kang. Tired of attempting to conquer timelines, he instead reinvents himself as a defender of them. Because time is complicated, this still brings him into conflict with the Avengers. But generally, he's a lot less aggressive, and therefore considerably less of a threat than his past versions. In one timeline, he even ends up enslaved to the Maestro, serving him in order to resist an invasion by Ultron. He would also alternatively ally with and battle his Kang form.

9 SCARIER: ROCK OF AGES DARKSEID

HE IS THE REVELATION! THE TIGER-FORCE AT THE CORE OF ALL THINGS! WHEN YOU CRY OUT IN YOUR DREAMS, IT IS HIM THAT YOU SEE! HE IS BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL! HE IS THE PROPHET OF ANTI-LIFE! HE IS THE ROCK, THE CHAIN AND THE LIGHTNING! ALL POWERFUL! ALL UNFORGIVING! ALL CONQUERING! WHO IS YOUR NEW GOD, NOW AND FOREVER?

DARKSEID IS.

Grant Morrison's JLA was one of the seminal comics of the late 1990s, a deliberate pushback against comics he viewed as overly grim and serious. One of the best storylines was "Rock of Ages." It showed a future Earth, conquered by Darkseid. Having gained the Anti-Life Equation, he kept the population subdued through its constant public broadcast. While Jack Kirby portrayed Darkseid as an unstoppable villain, the darkness at the core of all things, after his departure, Darkseid became a bit of a joke. With Morrison, Darkseid was restored to his Kirby-styled supreme villainy. It also served to establish Darkseid as the God of Evil, a theme that would run through much of Morrison's subsequent work for DC. The story served as a precursor for Morrison's Final Crisis, which also saw Darkseid conquer Earth with the Anti-Life Equation.

8 TAMED: EARTH-2 JOKER

Before the New 52, DC's Earth-2 was a world where heroes and villains aged in real time, contrary to the main universe where everyone stays in their early-mid thirties for eternity. As such, it showed a number of aging heroes and villains, and their children. Originally the home of the Justice Society and other Golden Age DC heroes, it was abandoned in Crisis On Infinite Earths, and was reborn in Infinite Crisis and 52. Although it generally acted as just a fun fact, and the homeworld of Power Girl, it eventually got a starring feature in Justice Society of America Annual #1, in 2008.

It is suggested that this Joker managed to kill Batman, making him the only Joker in the multiverse to have actually done so.

The story followed the daughter of Batman, Helena Wayne, going by Huntress, in her quest to do what her father could not, and finally kill the Joker. It is suggested that this Joker managed to kill Batman, making him the only Joker in the multiverse to have actually done so. Despite his own failing health, he attempted to keep the war going with Batman's descendants, even as his fellow villains died of old age around him. Upon discovering the Joker, it is revealed that he is confined to a wheelchair, needing a respirator to breathe. His lungs are apparently so damaged he can't even laugh anymore.

7 SCARIER: THE GREAT DARKNESS SAGA DARKSEID

Since we've already gone through who DARKSEID IS, let's talk about the Legion of Superheroes. Originally created as a part-time supporting cast for Superboy, the Legion of Superheroes is a team of superheroes from the 30th century. Inspired by Superman's heroics, superheroes from across the galaxy joined together to create a vast super team. Superboy would occasionally travel to the future to aid them with some threat or other, until the Legion got its own series. Then, the series would follow the Legion's adventures in the 30th and 31st century. Then, in 1982, came The Great Darkness Saga

The Legion is faced with an implacable evil bent on conquering the universe. Capable of absorbing powers and abilities, the Master is immensely powerful, easily defeating long-time Legion foes like Mordru and the Time Trapper. He grants the natives of Daxam powers equal to Superman, and enthrals all three billion of them to his service. The Master is eventually revealed to be none other than Darkseid, returned from a long disappearance, and more powerful than ever. He manages to easily defeat a cloned Orion, Superboy, and Supergirl, and is only defeated once he loses control of the Daxamites and is forced to retreat.

6 TAMED: SPIDER-MAN REIGN MYSTERIO

Mysterio is one of the goofier villains in comics. The fish bowl helmet alone is often the butt of Spider-Man's jokes. Furthermore, his technologically-created illusions are usually easily defeated by Spider-Man's genius level intellect. But Mysterio can occasionally present a threat, and has even managed to jump between universes to threaten the younger and more naive Ultimate Spider-Man. He also is a technological genius, at one point making a series of androids resembling dead people from Spider-Man's past, indistinguishable from the real thing, in an attempt to drive Spider-Man mad.

But ultimately, Mysterio is on the lower tier of Spider villains.

This trend continues in Spider-Man: Reign. While most super-villainy has been wiped out by the fascist New York government after the disappearance of Spider-Man, many of his villains were merely imprisoned, not killed. Among them is Mysterio. On the night of Spider-Man's return, the mayor releases the Sinister Six, reformed as the Sinner Six, to stop him. Because he's Spider-Man, and because the Six are all pretty low-tier villains, they are easily defeated. Mysterio in particularly is almost entirely ineffectual. His fear gas, similar to DC's Scarecrow, is useless against Spider-Man, as he has already faced and become bored with his greatest fears.