Other than the match-ups I that ended up in the top 25, I would have voted for:

Black Panther vs. Killmonger, based solely on the Priest isues. T’Challa goes up against someone he can’t always outfight or outthink.
Hulk vs. Leader. Peter David got great mileage out of their rivalry, and made the Leader a much better villain.

I was surprised by the Legion entry though. That was a fun rivalry.

That’s why I don’t put Jason Todd’s murder and Barbara Gordon’s paralysis in the same personal category as Flash vs. Professor Zoom or Aquaman vs. Black Manta. The Joker kills indiscriminately. He’s not trying to hurt Batman on a personal level the way Zoom and Manta did.

None of my top ten made the top 25, but here they are and my reasoning:

1) Swamp Thing v. Anton Arcane (Alan Moore’s Dark Messiah storyline hooked me like nothing had before-the words “Since yesterday” still give me a chill.)

2) Doom Patrol v. Brotherhood of Evil (I always loved the Doom Patrol. Originally, both the Doom Patrol and the Brotherhood were killed by rogue Brotherhood member Madame Rouge and her ally Captain Zahl)

3) Argent v. Grendel (ugly, brutal and good verus handsome, charming, and evil, not to mention the Christine Spaar version)

4) Dreadstar v. Lord High Papal (this one easily could have been Dreadstar versus the Empire and the Instrumentality)

5) Batman v. Nocturna v. Night-Slayer (I loved the Doug Moench era of Batman back in the 80s)

6) Deathstroke the Terminator v. Changeling (one word: Terra-I love a rivalry that ends with a conversation rather than a battle)

7) Silver Surfer v. Mephisto (messianic space god versus the devil-before Mephisto became the deus ex machina of Spider-Man)

Flash v. Zoom (see above)

9) Superman v. Mongul (because of Alan Moore’s “What do you get for the man who has everything?” in a Superman Annual.-my favorite line: “Happy Birthday Kryptonian. I bring you oblivion.”

10) Captain Mar-Vell v. Thanos (I was always a bigger Adam Warlock fan, but tthe Death of Graphic Novel Graphic novel put this one over the top.)

At least with other recurring bad guys like Doom and Kingpin and Luthor, even if they’re not physically beaten, you get the sense that they’re at least “foiled”. Joker’s crimes over the years have far outweighed any justice he’s received, and it’s just not fun for me to read about anymore.

Oh, and in the “rivalries that weren’t mentioned” category, I wish we’d seen Swamp Thing and Arcane.

I can probably find plenty on my shelf of trades before even looking into the long boxes.

I’d start with the 17 stories found in the “Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told” trade.

Then I’d think about Arkham Asylum, Dark Knight Returns, Death in the Family…

8 or 9 of my rivalries made the list, so I have little to complain about. I’m actually pleasantly surprised by the list. All classic rivalries up there. My fear is always that the villain of the month will somehow win out, but this wasn’t the case here.

I actually think this list came out a lot better than the top 25 battles. Seeing Superman vs. Lex Luthor is more refreshing somehow than seeing Superman vs. Doomsday.

I had voted for Silver Surfer vs. Galactus. Maybe there was too much vote-splitting with Galactus, as I did expect to see FF vs. Galactus on there.

I was also expecting at least one more Batman rivalry, but as I couldn’t guess which villain would be next (Penguin, Two-Face, Riddler, who knows?), I figure there was a lot of vote splitting there too.

You gotta respect the love for Daredevil though, given the concern of vote-splitting elsewhere, with his rivalries with Kingpin and Bullseye both making the top 10, as they’re easy to associate. I figured I’d just choose one of them (went with Kingpin) and thought this may hurt Daredevil. But nope. People love those Daredevil stories!

And as a Marvel guy, I’m pleased to see Marvel dominate the list.

Every writer who takes on Batman feels obliged to include the Joker whether they have a story to tell or not and it has resulted in him being over exposed.

The stories when they meet are predictable and formulaic . Batman’s physical superiority over the Joker means that there is no tension – how many of the Joker’s teeth has Batman knocked out by now?

By the by, Clarence Darrow, Alan Dershowitz and Johnnie Cochran combined couldn’t convince a jury that the Joker isn’t responsible for his actions. He’d have got the chair years ago.

The way that the X-Men’s enemies keep joining the team is probably one of the factors at work there, at a guess.

That was on, like, every other list!!