The Arrowverse is home to dozens of heroes: Flash, Vibe and Elongated Man on The Flash. Green Arrow, Spartan and Black Canary on Arrow. Supergirl, Guardian and Brainiac on Supergirl. White Canary, the Atom and Zari on Legends of Tomorrow -- and that’s just to name a few. The newest addition to the Arrowverse is Batwoman who is expected to make her debut during this year’s big crossover event and continue her story on her own show. But enough about the heroes, what about the villains? Well, just like the heroes they fight, the villains too are numerous -- the Reverse-Flash, Slade Wilson, Zoom, Mallus, Reign, Lillian Luthor and so on and so forth.
In the Arrowverse villains come in all shapes and sizes. The monster of the week, the recurring foe, the anti-hero, the brainwashed/possessed/evil doppelganger friend, the big bad of the season and whatever you can think of. Some villains are there to pose an omnipresent threat to our heroes every step of the way. Others are present mostly to keep the heroes occupied until the main act. While the former is generally extremely powerful and dangerous, and the latter is typically less of a threat, this is not a rule. Over the years, there have been monster of the week type of villains who possessed immense power, even if they didn’t do as much damage as that season’s main villain. Below, we have ranked the 25 strongest villains in the Arrowverse. Check it out, some entries may surprise you.
25 VANDAL SAVAGE
The most Vandal Savage has accomplished is almost single-handedly ruining the first season of Legends of Tomorrow. All jokes aside though, Vandal Savage has become somewhat of a laughing stock in the Arrowverse fandom and for most part for a good reason.
But, Vandal Savage is not to be underestimated. After all, he’s immortal, he has enhanced physical condition and senses, and he’s an expert magic user. Plus, he is a rather skilled fighter and a master escape artist.
24 KILLER FROST
Caitlin Snow and her alter-ego Killer Frost, who is sometimes a villain, have learned to live in peace sharing the same body. Killer Frost is a metahuman with the ability to absorb the heat around her and freeze her surroundings. She’s used this to stop speedsters dead in their tracks.
Killer Frost can also create and weaponize all kinds of ice objects. She can affect the weather, freeze objects without touching them, create fog with her breath and freeze people with a kiss. Let’s just hope she never decides to go full villain again.
23 MALCOLM MERLYN
Malcolm Merlyn was the first major threat Oliver faced in Starling City. The Dark Archer aimed to take down the Glades, part of the city riddled with crime. Merlyn’s plans pitted him against the Hood on many occasions.
Merlyn was always a tough opponent to beat due to his League of Assassins training, during which he became a master martial artist, swordsman, archer, stick fighter and knife wielder. He easily bested Oliver, Nyssa, Thea and many others in battle. And as if that’s not enough, Merlyn is also a master tactician, master deceiver and filthy rich.
22 PROMETHEUS
In season five, Oliver Queen faced a formidable opponent both as the Green Arrow and as Mayor of Star City. Adrian Chase at first acted as Oliver’s adviser and friend, all the while causing trouble for the Green Arrow. In fact, everything he ever did was part of his evil plan to avenge his father who was ended by Oliver.
Not only was Prometheus a master martial artist, swordsman, and archer able to best even Oliver, he was also incredibly skilled in his day job, highly intelligent, extremely well-connected, calculating and manipulative, and oh so tenacious. Even after passing, he got his way.
21 DEATHSTROKE
Season two of Arrow is widely considered as its highest point. One of the reasons is the season’s main villain -- Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke. Oliver’s buddy from Lian Yu was a force to be reckoned with even without the enhancements provided by the Mirakuru.
Slade possesses a genius level intellect, he’s an exceptional tactician, he’s a master in martial arts, marksmanship and swordsmanship, and he is in top physical form. Thanks to his remarkable durability, Slade was able to keep fighting Oliver even after he was injected with the Mirakuru cure.
20 RA'S AL GHUL
Ra’s al Ghul was the leader of the League of Assassins and the man who trained some of Arrow’s finest. In season three, he sent his daughter Nyssa and a small army to Starling City to capture Oliver, whom he intended as his successor. As we now know, everything didn’t quite go according to Ra’s plans.
Still, Ra’s did prove himself as, not only a master martial artist, swordsman and archer, but also a master tactician. After all, leading an organization like the League takes skill. And thanks to the Lazarus Pit, Ra’s lived for centuries in peak health.
19 BLACK SIREN
Laurel’s Earth-2 doppelganger is all we could have ever wanted Black Canary to be… well, minus the villainous tendencies. Black Siren is a master martial artist who managed to beat the current Black Canary, Dinah Drake, multiple times. Plus, there’s her metahuman ability -- the superhuman sonic scream called the Canary Cry.
Using her Canary Cry, Black Siren can collapse entire buildings, cause fatal internal damage by sending her scream through a person’s ear and blow kisses -- adorable. If she wanted to, she could disintegrate someone.
18 BIZARRO
Jane Doe is an unidentified woman who was turned into a clone of Supergirl by Maxwell Lord. Dubbed Bizarro by Cat Grant, the woman was conditioned to hate Supergirl. After exposure to Green Kryptonite her powers of super breath and heat vision got flipped and she became mentally unstable.
Bizarro possesses the same super strength and speed as Supergirl, as well as flight and invulnerability. When she fought Supergirl, Bizarro was able to stand on equal footing with the Girl of Steel. In the end, Bizarro was defeated with the help of Alex and Blue Kryptonite.
17 QUEEN RHEA
Queen Rhea was one of Supergirl’s toughest opponents. Not only was she almost as strong and powerful as Kara, Rhea was extremely cunning and conniving, often manipulating others to her advantage. Plus, she was the mother of Kara’s boyfriend Mon-El.
After the destruction of Daxam, Rhea and her husband Lar Gand were able to survive for years before locating Mon-El. They came to Earth for Mon-El, but Rhea decided she’d like to keep the planet for Daxamites. She even took out her husband when he opposed her. The only way to stop her was to release lead into the atmosphere, driving away all Daxamites.
16 NON & ASTRA
Astra and Non committed several extreme crimes on Krypton and were accordingly sentenced to imprisonment at Fort Rozz. The sentence was issued by Kara’s mother and Astra’s sister Alura. After Fort Rozz crashlanded on Earth, Astra and Non set out to get revenge and establish their rule on Earth.
Since they’re Kryptonians, both Non and Astra have the same powers as Kara and proved to be challenging adversaries. On top of that, they have martial arts training and military experience, which gives them advantage in hand-to-hand combat.
15 INDIGO
The fact that Indigo was named the most dangerous prisoner ever sentenced to Fort Rozz should be more than enough to give you an idea just how powerful she is. Indigo is a Coluan cybernetic being, who possesses powers of super strength, shapeshifting and malleability, among many.
Able to transfer her body in form of digital code and teleport through technology, Indigo can use electronic devices as portals. When she tried to choke Winn, Indigo teleported only one arm out of his computer.
14 ABRA KADABRA
The time traveler from the 64th century Abra Kadabra outfitted his body with futuristic nanotechnology that bestowed him with magic-like abilities. The magician from the future claimed that in the future he would become one of Barry Allen’s greatest enemies.
With his powers of conjuration and technology manipulation Abra Kadabra was able to cause Joe West’s gun squirt out water. He can also teleport himself and others in and out of anything, travel between different universes, and project holograms.
13 NORA DARHK
Nora Darhk may have been but an innocent child when she appeared on Arrow. However, on Legends of Tomorrow, Nora is all grown up and ready to raise mayhem with dear old daddy, Damien Darhk. Much like her father, Nora possess incredible dark magic powers.
Though Mallus has left her body, she managed to retain powers like telekinesis, thermokinesis, photokinesis, electrokinesis and energy projection. Nora was shown toying with the Legends and controlling the blasts of energy from both Atom and Heat Wave. Oh, and one more thing, she can drain a person’s life force with just a touch.
12 DAMIEN DARHK
Damien Darhk’s overwhelming dark magic almost proved to be too much for Oliver and his Team Arrow to handle. For most of the season Team Arrow was powerless in the face of an adversary whose specialty isn’t exclusively archery and martial arts. Oliver needed the help of the entire city to stop Darhk. However, Dahrk returned to torment the Legends for two seasons.
With enhanced endurance and strength, powers like telekinesis and teleportation Damien Darhk was one tough cookie. But, most impressive of all of his abilities is life-force absorption, which allowed him to end people with the touch of his hand.
11 GORILLA GRODD
As a gorilla, Grodd already has incredible endurance and physical strength that was enhanced even further by the particle accelerator explosion. To stop the mighty supersonic punch from the Flash Grodd only used his hand.
On top of being incredibly strong, Grodd is also a meta. He is intelligent and psychic. Gorilla Grodd can control the mind of any human from considerable distance and insert negative thoughts into a person mind. Grodd’s powers were too much even for Barry. Stopping Grodd meant sending him as far as possible.
10 ZOOM
It should come as no surprise that among the most powerful beings in the Arrowverse, right up there with aliens and extra-dimensional organisms, are speedsters, and Hunter Zolomon is no exception. Zoom has demonstrated incredible speed and strength, which allowed him to easily overpower Flash, drag him all over Central City, and break his back.
Zoom can open breaches between two Earths, throw lightnings and create time remnants. On Earth-2, he had the population under his control. But, he got greedy. Zoom had already administered himself a speed-increasing drug that was slowly ending him -- Barry's speed was his Hail Mary.
9 SAVITAR
The self-proclaimed God of Speed was obviously gonna be pretty high on the list. Savitar is the fastest being in the multiverse, whose other powers include time travel, inter-dimensional travel, energy absorption -- just to name a few.
On top of that, the Philosopher’s Stone makes Savitar immune to speedster weapons, and gives him the ability to possess and telepathically control people like he did with Julian. And let’s not forget that he is, as a matter of fact, the future Barry and shares a link with the present Barry, which gave Savitar the edge in many of their encounters.
8 THE THINKER
The Flash’s season four big bad may not be a fan-favorite, but he is immensely powerful. When the particle accelerator went kaboom, DaVoe was wearing his Thinking Cap and got hit. As a result, his already impressive mental capacities were enhanced to superhuman levels. He became the fastest thinker alive.
But that’s not all DaVoe is. With the help of his wife, DaVoe tracked down the Bus Metas and absorbed their powers, including but not limited to dimensional manipulation, gravity manipulation, and telepathy. Unfortunately, the writers wrote themselves into a corner with DaVoe, resulting in a rather underwhelming final battle.
7 WHITE MARTIANS
The White Martians lived under the surface of Mars until one day they emerged and seemingly wiped out the entire race of Green Martians, leaving J’onn J’onzz the sole survivor. Cruel and ruthless by design, White Martians believe themselves a superior race and show disdain for “lower creatures”.
White Martians stand at about eight feet tall, but can easily change their appearance to look however they want. Other than that, they possess super strength, longevity, density-shifting, camouflage, telepathy, telekinesis and so on.
6 OVERGIRL
The evil Earth-X Kara escaped her home planet Krypton as a teenager just like our Kara. Hitting land on an Earth where Germany had won World War II, the blond and blue-eyed Kara was a godsend, irrefutable proof of their so-called superiority.
Dubbed Overgirl, Kara became a General in the Third Reich army and the wife of Fuhrer Oliver Queen. Overgirl’s powers are the same as Supergirl's, but she was considerably weakened after having absorbed too much yellow sun. Despite her condition, Overgirl fought to the very end, demonstrating indomitable will much like her Earth-38 counterpart.