This is silly. Why isn’t the Joker on this list? He’s clearly not as cool as Two-Face.

Havnt read an amazing amount of Batman comics so Im just choosing whoever I would prefer to write: Ras

Still, would have prefered to have voted for Darkseid, he fights Batman fairly often

Um, who’s his first?

Just kidding.

Man, this one’s tough. Good thing these are all for fun.

The only reason I didn’t pick Catwoman, who’s a great, well-written character, is that I can’t think of her as a villain anymore. She’s in the gray area.

Derek-

The gray area is exactly why I DID pick Catwoman- it’s what makes her more interesting than everyone else on the list.

Batman’s Second-Best Villain?

Two-Face, obviously.

That one was easy. Ras by a long shot.

Two Face would eventually kill his way to 2nd place anyway, since that’s where he’d most want to be. Number Two Tries Harder! He’s number two with a bullet. No wait — two bullets!!

Second best? You’re making this way too easy for Two-Face, Brian.

Yeah , I have to agree that Two – Face will most likely win this.

But my favorites are the Clayfaces (especially Preston and Lady Clay).

Two-Face.

Couldn’t resist Two-Face with that Second-Best heading either.

Voted before I read the comments. I think Two-Face is legitimately the best villain on that list. Dini’s been assembling a good case to move Riddler up in the ranks, but he’s not there yet (and taking the lazy route will leave him in the Catwoman boat). Catwoman’s been a full-fledged hero for years now, so she’s disqualified. Ras Al Ghul is solid, but really lacks the cross-genre appeal that Joker, Two-Face, and Riddler all bring to the table.

He’s not on the list but I’d vote for Deadshot

Yeah, to me it’s clearly Two-Face, though I do love the Riddler.

King Tut!

King Tut!

I dunno, I hear that guy got funky with his monkey.

Riddler. He doesn’t get enough love.

Mr Freeze. He’s the most sympathetic villain. What he does is wrong, but in his position I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. Of course, it could be Two-Face on a different day. Those two and Joker are basically tied for top by my standards.

Personally I love Poison Ivy (who weirdly is not an option, even though I think she has a way more legitimate choice). She has all of the femme fatale appeal of Catwoman, but she is more of a villain. She also has a lot of potential to mess with Bruce Wayne and Batman, since Wayne is an industrialist and she is an eco terrorist.

I assume the Joker is #1, but I’ve always loved Poison Ivy & Scarecrow

@ Craig

So the costumed ridiculous villains, who are obviously valid only within the superhero genre, have less cross-genre appeal than Ra’s who doesn’t wear a ridiculous costume and worked far better in a Batman film than any other Bat-villain besides The Joker?

I don’t think you know what genre means.

I think the Ventriloquist (the first one, not the Dini revamp), the best of the Wagner/Grant-introduced villains, deserves to be on the list. He’s perhaps the only fairly new villain who has the gimmicky nature of the classic Bat-villains. Doug Moench tried creating one with Black Mask, but IMO failed.

I wouldn’t put the Ventriloquist at 2nd place myself, but he’d rank fairly high – and if you’re going to put the execrable Hush (who I hope won’t get any votes) on the list, then the Ventriloquist deserves to be there too.

Scarecrow and it’s not even close for me.

I went with Two-Face even before the obvious Two-Face/2nd best connection hit me.

What, no Calendar Man, Kite-Man or Penny Plunderer? Way to stack the deck, Cronin.

this was hard to pick since most of my favorite bat rogues are on this list. but in the end had to pick the Riddler since he like Ra’s is one of the few bat baddies who challenges batman’s greatest asset his mind. plus the fact the Riddler is one of the top four of bats baddies. been around as long as the dark knight.

I went with Riddler. He’s always seemed to be the best foil for the “detective” part of Batman’s persona…

The Big Four of the 1966 tv series will always be on top for me. After the Joker, my favorite is the Penguin.

Two-Face is the 2nd best. Poison Ivy is 3rd, Mr Freeze is 4th and R’as is 5th.

Two-Face.

I hesitated between Ras, Hugo Strange and Simon Hurt. Voted for Ras.

I would’ve voted for Poison Ivy but she’s not there, so I went with Mr Freeze.

Two-Face is number one in my book. Most fans wouldn’t hear of it, but it just makes sense to me.

No love for Marsha, Queen of Diamonds?

Harder than I thought, but have to go with Mr. Freeze. Doesn’t get enough love and he’s such a compelling character, not just a badass or great foil for Batman.

Though I do have to wonder, like some others here, why Poison Ivy wasn’t included?

Ra’s al Ghul comes in at a close second for me.

No Arnold Wesker Ventriloquist/Scarface?

No Mr Zsasz??

It’ll be Two-Face then.

(It probably would have been Two-Face anyway, but you made it easier)

You’re all wrong!

Catwoman obviously.

I voted Doctor Hurt just to be that one dude who voted Doctor Hurt.

Besides, he’s like, half-a-Darkseid. That’s gotta count for something.

I wonder if people’s heads would explode if Hush won this poll… I laughed to myself when I saw that Brian had included him as an option

2nd: Joel Schumacher.

First: DC editorial.

I kid.

I couldn’t even consider Catwoman for this because I don’t even think of it as a gray area. She hasn’t been a villain for a looooong time. The omission of Poison Ivy is also weird to me (as is the inclusion of Hurt and Hush, but fair enough, I’m sure someone likes them), but it would have been Two-Face for me regardless. I can’t argue against the Joker as his number one, but when I was a kid I was always excited whenever Harvey popped up.

Ra’s. Aside from the Joker, he’s the only one who is a consistent threat every time he shows up. Whether he’s destroying the JLA with Batman’s plans or laying waste to Gotham with the Ebola virus, he leaves a mark every time that none of the others can claim.

No Mad Hatter?

Not that he’d get the votes anyway, but I’d argue that he has the potential to be a seriously creepy threat if anyone was allowed to use him the right way…

My vote goes to The Riddler. I would have picked Bane or Doctor Hurt, but after rereading Hush I appreciate the moxie and intelligence it took to mastermind such a plot AND remind Batman of his greatest failure (Jason Todd). And I know there aren’t legions of fans voting for Nigma, but considering his somewhat laughable post-Long Halloween career, the Hush scheme was a gem.