Highlights
- DC Comics introduced new villains in 2023 who provide strong impressions and challenge their respective heroes.
- Childminder, Shush, Vel Anthro, Graft, NewMazo, Insomnia, Red Lantern, and Red Mask are some of the notable new villains introduced.
- These villains bring unique powers, backstories, and threats to the DC Universe, making them formidable foes for the heroes to face.
A good hero needs a good villain. Whilst DC Comics have a reserved nemesis for each of their heroes: Batman with Joker, Superman with Lex Luthor, and The Flash with Reverse Flash, that doesn’t mean they can’t be challenged by other rogues from their gallery of intense villains. DC Comics often provides readers with great villains, and these fresh faces introduced in 2023 are no exception, and easily provide strong impressions as challenging foes.
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2023 was indeed a busy year for DC Comics, and plenty of new villains were introduced to try and test the might of fan-favorite heroes. Not all their powers and ambitions are the same, but the universal constant is that they are DC’s best new villains of 2023.
8 Childminder
Creators: Geoff Johns; Todd Nauck
First Appearance: Stargirl: The Lost Children #1 (January, 2023)
This “time scavenger” was known for kidnapping sidekicks and child heroes across the 1940s in the DC Universe. Placing them outside the flow of time, Childminder embraces the horror of the DC Universe, and the design of this character is like something out-of-body horror movie. With bird-like legs, wide unblinking eyes, and a croaking voice, Childminder isn’t exactly someone readers would want to hang out with.
What’s interesting about Childminder is her place in the DC Universe, existing just outside it, and attracted to the retcons and changes made since the Flashpoint reboot. Now de-aged into an egg, time can only tell what will happen to Childminder.
7 Shush
Creators: Joshua Williamson; Simone Di Meo
- First Appearance: Batman and Robin (October, 2023)
A new villain was introduced in the DC Universe thanks to this father-and-son series. Whilst the comic follows the Dynamic Duo of Batman and Robin and their heroic crusades in Gotham City, neither of them could expect a new villain, Shush. Whilst there is not much known about the character, the comparisons to Hush are surely not coincidental.
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Shush exhibits great speed and a tactical mind, keeping Batman occupied rather than asking more questions than she is willing to answer. Shush’s lack of morality makes her a dangerous foe, and one that Batman surely isn’t ready to face again after his first bout with Hush. This new villain is sure to cause quite the turmoil for the Bat Family.
6 Vel Anthro
Creators: Jeremy Adams; Roger Cruz
- First Appearance: The Flash #790 (March, 2023)
The Flash often has a beloved Rogue Gallery. From Captain Cold, Gorilla Grodd, all the way to his reverse with Reverse Flash. As of late, it seems that most of Flash’s villains involve the Speed Force, which allows them to be on equal footing when it comes to taking on the heroic Speedster. The latest to join this battle against The Flash is Vel Anthro of House Sigma, the Admiral of The Fraction.
Vel Anthro was a willing test subject to try and tap into the Speed Force. The success of this experiment gave him natural connections to the Speed Force, which he used to colonize and conquer star systems. As a conduit for the Speed Force, and a true villain loyal only to The Empress of The Fraction, Vel Anthro should be feared.
5 Graft
Creators: Joshua Williamson; Jamal Campbell
- First Appearance: Superman #1 (February, 2023)
With Lex Luthor behind bars yet again, it’s time for Superman to face a new foe. What could be worse than Luthor, but a man who despises both the Man of Steel and Lex equally? Graft was introduced in the first issue, and his plans are still unfolding. An old enemy to Lex and a new adversary to Superman, Graft is an intelligent villain who has tried to bring Metropolis to its knees.
As the leader of the assumed Secret Order of Mad Scientists, Graft has been tinkering and upgrading villains, like Parasite, and dissecting familiar faces like Bizarro. Graft’s experiments are not over, and Superman is still preparing for what Graft throws at him and the Supercorps next, but what is known, is that this villainous genius is not done.
4 NewMazo
Creators: Mark Waid; Dan Mora
- First Appearance: Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #15 (July, 2023)
Some readers might be familiar with Amazo, an android creation from Professor Ivo. Amazo had Absorption Cells that made him as strong as anyone within his proximity, creating a dangerous adversary and template for the core Justice League members and beyond. So, what happens when Ivo and William Magnus team up? They create NewMazo, the newest threat to the World’s Finest.
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NewMazo may have been the unwilling creation of Doc Magnus, but that doesn’t mean he has a flaw. NewMazo is vastly intelligent and works for himself to begin his war against humanity through the replacement of billionaires and other powerhouses around the globe. His genius-level intellect and power replication makes NewMazo a threat to the world.
3 Insomnia
Creators: Tim Seeley; Joshua Williamson; Chris Bachalo; Howard Porter
- First Appearance: Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1 (April, 2023)
The Lazarus Rain saw many new heroes and villains arrive on the scene, with one of them being Christopher Lake, who assumed the identity of Insomnia. This powerful being had the power to invade and trap heroes and villains within twisted amalgamations of their own nightmares, keeping them suspended in the frightening realities of the creations they conjured in their sleep.
Insomnia made for a great horror-themed villain with a grudge against the Justice League for their failure to save his family during the Dark Knights: Metal incident. With Insomnia at the helm of villainy, this monster has nothing left to lose, and nothing but hatred for heroes as he tries to terrorize others within their own minds.
2 Red Lantern (Vladimir Sokov)
Creators: Geoff Johns; Brandon Peterson
- First Appearance: The New Golden Age #1 (January, 2023)
The Red Lantern is a perfect counterpart to the Green Lantern, Alan Scott. Taking place during the Golden Age of heroes, the Red Lantern is not bound by rage like how audiences know. In fact, the Red Lantern is a Soviet agent, created specifically to rival the American powerhouse of the Green Lantern. What’s most interesting about the Red Lantern, is that he and Green Lantern were once lovers, at a time when love was illegal.
Their love ended in tragedy when Johnny Ladd was grabbed by the Crimson Flame and drowned. However, it was revealed that Johnny was found by the Soviet Union, and given the identity of Vladimir Sokov. Experimented by the Crimson Flame, the Red Lantern was born, and he was tasked with destroying the Green Lantern. Murdering Alan’s current and former lovers, Red Lantern attempted to destroy Green Lantern’s name and willpower for years.
1 Red Mask (Darwin Halliday)
Creators: Chip Zdarsky; Mike Hawthorne
- Appearance: Batman Vol 3 #131 (March, 2023)
Although it might be considered cheating, Red Mask is still in fact an original character, even if his ties to The Joker are far too close for comfort. Darwin Halliday may have been a great chemist and the CEO of Halliday Industries, but his constant strive to fix the emptiness within caused him to become the Joker, in a parallel universe. Ever since, Darwin has been obsessed with recreating multiversal experiments to drive himself to the same madness that created the Joker, so that he could be free of limitations.
Darwin Halliday realized that he could never become the Joker, but he was destined to create them. With a villain like this, creating new Jokers for realities where Joker does not exist, has not been created yet, or is dead, there is much to fear, providing Batman and readers with a fearsome Proto-Joker that leads Batman to hop through the multiverse, encountering familiar Batmen.