Highlights
- DC created superhero and super villain teams to pose threats to heroes and force them to work together, resulting in some of the best DC Comics.
- These teams range from compassionate anti-heroes to formidable evil forces, and they play significant roles in the DC universe, challenging and interacting with the heroes.
For every great superhero, there needs to be a great supervillain. Recognizing this could work in greater numbers, DC created superhero and supervillain teams. While the heroes gathered the best of the best of those protecting humanity, the villains gathered the worst of the worst in missions to take over the world.
DC created dozens of these teams over the years to pose threats to certain heroes and force them to work with others. It led to some of the best DC Comics on the market as heroes and villains who would not normally square off finally crossed paths.
10 Secret Six
Similar to Marvel's Sinister Six, the Secret Six is a team of six supervillains who desire freedom more than villainy. While certainly evil, they've proven themselves to be compassionate toward the underdog in a fight. This also allows them to be used as pawns by Amanda Waller.
There have been several different versions of the group featuring a wide range of members. These members include Mockingbird, Bane, Black Alice, King Shark, Dwarfstar, Lady Vic, and Giganta.
9 Legion of Super-Villains
The 30th Century already had the Legion of Super Heroes, so it makes sense there would be a Legion of Super-Villains to challenge them. The Villains usually possessed similar powers to their heroic counterpart, allowing for a lot of battles between the two groups.
Three main villains make up the evil Legion: Lightning Lord, Cosmic King, and Saturn Queen. These three paved the way for the rest of the villains that included luminaries like Superboy Prime.
8 Secret Society Of Super-Villains
After the Justice League had been around for about a year, Darkseid formed his group of supervillains to put up a fight against the powerful and troublesome heroes. He built the team using enemies of Justice League members including Lex Luthor and famed Flash villain Gorilla Grodd.
At its largest, the Secret Society had more than 500 villains as members once Alexander Luthor Jr. took over the team. This was one of the deadliest supervillain teams of all time.
7 Crime Syndicate Of America
The Crime Syndicate of America live on an Earth where they rule, as evil triumphs over good. The Earth-3 answer to the Justice League, the Crime Syndicate ruled that Earth with an iron fist. It was a great way to explore the multiverse in DC properties.
Eventually, this Earth would be destroyed creating the Crisis on Infinite Earths Storyline. But this allowed DC writers to explore other worlds and bigger storylines with the villains winning the day.
6 Court Of Owls
As Batman is the darkest of the DC superheroes, it makes sense that he has to face some of the darkest supervillain teams. The Court of Owls runs the dark criminal underworld of Gotham City. They are a secret society of puppet masters pulling the strings behind the obvious villains.
The Court has ties to nearly every major family of wealth in Gotham. They hide behind owl masks, so they can remain anonymous. Even Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson have been wrapped up in the court.
5 Sinestro Corps
When Sinestro was exiled from the Green Lantern Corps due to his cruel nature being exposed, he formed his team to challenge be the greatest foe the Corps had ever seen. Using yellow because it was the only weakness of the Green Lanterns, the Sinestro Corps presented a litany of problems.
Finding like-minded people who were craving vengeance like him, Sinestro understood the strength in the numbers given the enemy he was facing. Fans were able to decide for themselves if fear or willpower was more powerful.
4 Legion Of Doom
Originating in the old Super Friends cartoon, the Legion of Doom started as a silly team of villains meant for a kid-centric television show. But, as they made the jump from cartoons to comics, they became one of the most formidable evil forces in the comics.
While they were villains looking out for themselves, they would occasionally do heroic things. This group banded together to save the world from nuclear annihilation. Every so often, the Legion of Doom had good intentions.
3 The Injustice League
Much like the Legion of Doom, the Injustice League (or Gang in some cases), is the antithesis to the Justice League of America. Led by Lex Luthor, the Gang grabs some of the best villains of each member of the Justice League to set up the battles between the two squads.
The most famous version of the Injustice League was used during Grant Morrison's time writing the JLA books. The Gang nearly defeats the JLA until it is revealed that Joker isn't actually on the team but is Plastic Man in disguise spying for the JLA.
2 Suicide Squad
What happens when one takes the worst super-criminals and sends them on heroic and dangerous missions in exchange for their freedom if they survive? They get the Suicide Squad, the government team built by Amanda Waller and Rick Flag known originally as Task Force X.
These villains risk their lives to save others, but only because of the lethal devices Waller uses to keep them in line. This isn't a reformation project, but a way to get rid of criminals and villains by death or pointing them in a more favorable direction.
1 League Of Assassins
Few villainous groups reach the heights of the League of Assassins, the supervillain group formed by Ra's al Ghul. He created the League to ride the world of evil, but he was willing to do evil things to heal the world. The League is known for killing anyone indiscriminately.
The League has affected world governments and bent powerful people to the whim of Ra's al Ghul. Ra's is an immortal being thanks to his use of the Lazarus Pit which rejuvenates and revives him before he dies. It also takes away a little bit of his humanity with every resurrection. Despite being a Batman villain, the League even made appearances on the Arrowverse television series on the CW.