Comic books will likely never again be as big as they were in the ‘90s. With collectors coming out in droves and books flying off shelves, the inherent popularity of titles like Uncanny X-Men and Amazing Spider-Man, and television blockbusters such as Batman: The Animated Series, comic books became something bigger than life. But the rushing high of the ‘90s came crashing down as story quality fell and the market was flooded with titles straying further and further from what had originally made the market such a booming success. Comics began reaching out far and wide to create new characters in the hopes of catching new readers, but accidentally created one of the more notable tropes in comic book history.

The trend of the ‘90s character has long been a joke among comic book fans. With outlandish clothing, a propensity for a brash attitude and typically some kind of unusual physical trait, comic book characters of the ‘90s became stranger and stranger. Villains especially became more bizarre in order to catch the eyes of readers. Demonic clowns brought literal Hell to Earth, popular heroes were reborn as cyborgs, and sinister clones began flooding the streets. Amid all this, heroes became some of the greatest villains ever seen. It seems inevitable that history will eventually repeat itself but until it does, there will be nothing more memorable than the number of ‘90s characters who will never be forgotten, no matter how bizarre they get.

25 WILDSIDE

When the ‘90s rolled around, Wolverine was a hot commodity, and the Wolverine rip-off train was in full chug. The basic design of Wolverine was often imitated, but that success was rarely duplicated. One such occasion was Mutant Liberation Force member Wildside.

With a shock of white hair and a suitably feral nature, Wildside seemed a pretty straightforward Wolverine clone. But he also had a notable power, the ability to induce hallucinations. Still, in the interest of being edgy and extreme, Wildside openly preferred maiming his victims to torturing them with his powers.

24 SHRIEK

Shriek was a strange character, even among the likes of Carnage's allies. Abused as a child and enduring great troubles as an adult, Shriek had a fixation with motherhood, regarding the bizarre Doppelganger as her son with Carnage.

Shriek's ability to generate and manipulate sound waves made her an interesting ally for Carnage, as well as a powerful foil for Spider-Man's then-ally Venom. Still, Shriek never gained much traction outside of "Maximum Carnage," only making sporadic appearances in the years since.

23 DOPPELGANGER

During the Infinity War event, Adam Warlock's evil counterpart Magus created a series of evil, twisted clones of the heroes he encountered. Notably among these was Doppelganger, a duplicate of Spider-Man who stuck around following the Infinity War.

As something of a pet to Shriek, Doppelganger became a notable foe during "Maximum Carnage." With six arms, sharp fangs and a razor-like webbing, the mindless Doppelganger has cheated death for years, returning to often aid his adoptive father, Carnage, in his various encounters with Spider-Man.

22 OVERTKILL

Following their very public departure from Marvel Comics, the creators of Image Comics were the rock stars of the comic book world. Chief among these was Todd McFarlane, whose creation Spawn proved to be one of the biggest stars of that era. With Spawn came outlandish and outrageous villains as well, such as Overtkill.

Originally called Overkill and spotted being drawn during a Stan Lee interview alongside Rob Liefeld, Overtkill was a cyborg assassin who nearly beat Spawn single-handedly on many occasions. At nearly 8' tall and adorned with robotic accents, he's the definition of '90s excess.

21 VENGEANCE

In an effort to obtain limitless power, Mephisto tricked Ghost Rider into murdering the father of detective Michael Badilino. Driven mad by the loss, Badilino would murder his family and take his own life before accepting Mephisto's offer to become Vengeance, a new Rider to oppose Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch.

Vengeance is ridiculous, even by Ghost Rider standards. A hulking monstrosity with a fanged skull and a flaming mohawk, Vengeance rode a massive bike made of bones and spikes into battle. Upon learning the truth of Mephisto's manipulations, he would again take his own life.

20 ONSLAUGHT

A desperate Professor Xavier shut down Magneto's mind, but a piece of Magneto's psyche slipped through. The resulting wave of emotions created the monstrosity Onslaught, a towering beast who very nearly destroyed the Marvel Universe.

Onslaught didn't just topple the X-Men, he nearly bested every non-mutant hero in existence. In a courageous last stand, the Avengers were seemingly killed but in fact were cast into an alternate reality for over a year, making Onslaught one of the few Marvel villains to actually enact a massive, lasting change in the universe.

19 ALBERT & ELSIE DEE

Donald Pierce created a two-prong, intricate plan to kill Wolverine. The first was Albert, a robot doppelganger who would battle Wolverine. But Albert was just a distraction, intended to lead Wolverine to another robot, a young girl named Elsie Dee who would then self-detonate to kill Wolverine.

The plan failed when Elsie Dee became self-aware and wanted to preserve her life. Elsie Dee and Albert would eventually find a way to break the programming, allowing the two to survive without their inherent need to kill Wolverine.

18 FOREARM

Stryfe's terrorist organization, the Mutant Liberation Front, was a cavalcade of mutants so unusual that even the X-Men had little use for them. One such mutant was Michael McCain. A mutant who had sprouted an extra pair of arms, McCain creatively dubbed himself Forearm.

Forearm was something of a one-trick pony. He had increased strength and stamina, but that was the bulk of his abilities... other than his extra arms, that is. He still proved to be plenty problematic for X-Force but was one of many mutants to lose his powers on M-Day.

17 SUGAR MAN

Sugar Man has become one of the most oddly recognizable mutants in the X-Men's long-running lore. A refugee from the Age of Apocalypse, Sugar Man worked as warden of Apocalypse's human work camps. Following the restoration of the timeline, Sugar Man survived when the M'Krann Crystal transported him back in time.

Sugar Man is an incredibly bizarre relic of ‘90s character design. His body consists of a giant head for his torso and is accentuated by his giant, prehensile tongue. The character has persisted even into the modern era, recently appearing in the pages of Extraordinary X-Men.

16 DEADPOOL

There is perhaps no ‘90s character who found his place in comics more so than Deadpool. Marvel's insanely popular Merc with a Mouth became a mainstay of Marvel comics after his debut in the pages of The New Mutants.

Though renowned as a hero now, it's easy to forget that Deadpool's early appearances skewed him clearly towards villain. Hired to assassinate Cable and the New Mutants, Deadpool would ultimately find himself working closely alongside Cable and his team, later re-branded as X-Force.

15 LADY DEATH

Small press comics were a hot commodity in the late ‘90s, and the bad girl mascot characters spearheaded the revolution. Perhaps none was more iconic than Brian Pulido's own Lady Death, a femme fatale who went on to become one of comics' most recognizable anti-heroes.

With superhuman measurements and ivory skin, Lady Death was as infamous for her aesthetic appeal as she was her numerous stories. First appearing in the pages of Evil Ernie, she soon amassed a following of her own, which continues today, with Pulido relaunching the character following a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2015.

14 OVERLORD

Many fans of Savage Dragon come from the era of his ‘90s animated series, something that it is frankly absurd to consider exists when you remember the series' penchant for over the top violence and blatant indescretions. Those same fans probably also remember Tony Jay's iconic performance as Dragon's big bad, Overlord.

With an iconic red and black suit and sharp, pointed mask, Overlord struck an imposing figure. In the comics, though, this crime lord taunted Dragon through the early 2000's before Dragon finally killed his longtime nemesis.

13 STRYFE

As if Cable's timeline wasn't confusing enough, he also has to contend with a clone. Stryfe came from the same timeline as Cable, cloned by the Askani as they feared the techno-organic virus that ravaged Cable's system would kill him as a child.

Unfortunately, the evil Apocalypse would steal the clone, believing it was the real Cable. Grown with the intent to be a body for Apocalypse to take over, Stryfe would grow to hate Cable and hunt him throughout time on a quest for revenge.

12 SPIDERCIDE

"The Clone Saga" has more than enough infamy, seeing the legacy of Spider-Man tarnished by the outlandish claim that the Peter appearing in comics since the ‘60s was actually a clone. Though Peter's clones Ben Reilly and Kane would become popular, a third clone wouldn't gain near as much traction.

Spidercide was a third clone engineered by Jackal, one designed to kill Peter and the other clones. Spidercide would be a thorn in the side of Spider-Man for several months but seemingly died after falling from the top of the Daily Bugle building.

11 OMEGA RED

In the wake of Captain America's rise to prominence, many nations attempted to create their own Super Soldier. For the Russians, this led to the creation of Omega Red. A serial killer and mutant, Arkady Rossovich had a "death factor" which consisted of pheromones that could kill any normal human.

With a set of indestructible tendrils implanted in each arm, Omega Red became a terrifying and deadly X-Men villain, constantly plaguing the likes of Wolverine and fellow Russian mutant Colossus. Omega Red remains a threat today, recently resurrected to square off against Kitty's team in X-Men Gold.

10 REDEEMER

Spawn's array of bizarre villains was rounded out by Heaven's warriors, who were determined to hunt and kill the Hellspawn. To that end, they made their own soldier, the Anti-Spawn, who would later become known as Redeemer.

The Redeemer was a human host imbued with the power of elemental fire, creating a foe strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Spawn. In fact, each Redeemer was significantly more powerful than the previous, and Spawn typically only won thanks to distractions and interference from other allies.

9 CARNAGE

The offspring of iconic Spider-Man nemesis Venom, Carnage changed the game for symbiote characters. Where Venom had always been portrayed as malicious, Carnage was straight up sadistic. Bonding with Cletus Kasady, Carnage uniquely bonded with Kasady's blood as opposed to his body.

The result of this blood bond was a much stronger, seemingly unstoppable pairing which even traditional weaknesses could not topple. Kasady proved to be an unstoppable force, even managing to overthrow most of New York thanks to his alliance with Shriek. He was only bested by Spider-Man teaming with some of his greatest villains.

8 CYBORG SUPERMAN

Following the destruction of the space shuttle Excalibur, Hank Henshaw seemingly died. In actual fact, he uploaded his mind into a LexCorp mainframe and built a new robotic body for himself. Henshaw would return following Superman's apparent demise at the hands of Doomsday, claiming to be a cyborg rebirth of Superman.

The Cyborg Superman became one of the most iconic elements of "Reign of the Supermen." Featured regularly on covers, the look persisted into the modern era. Henshaw wasn't immediately seen following The New 52, but with DC Rebirth the character was reintroduced yet again as a major Superman villain.

7 ADAM-X

Adam-X the X-Treme embodies the ‘90s X-Men trope of trying way too hard. Where do you even begin? The backwards baseball cap? The multiple protruding blades on his costume? The long hair? Everything about Adam-X encapsulates the worst parts of ‘90s character design.

It extends beyond his design too. Adam-X, who initially debuted as a villain against X-Force, encapsulates the extreme ‘tude that defined too many ‘90s characters. Even his power, the ability to ignite blood on fire, comes off as trying too hard to be cool.

6 EVIL TONY STARK

Heroes turning evil has always been a trope, but it was especially notable during the ‘90s. Hal Jordan became Parallax, Wolverine became the Horseman of Death, and even Tony Stark took a jaunt to the dark side.

It was revealed during the story "The Crossing" that Tony Stark had been working for Kang the Conqueror for years. The story, which saw Tony replaced with a teenaged version of himself, was incredibly controversial, and the Onslaught event was used to remove it from the timeline, with Franklin Richards merging the two versions of Tony inside the pocket universe.