Breakout Villain / The DCU

The DCU

Breakout Villain in in this franchise.

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Comic Books

• Batman:
  • The Joker. DC's initial intention was to kill him off in his second appearance, as they were concerned that having recurring villains would diminish Batman's reputation as a skilled crime-fighter. Editor Whitney Ellsworth convinced the writers to spare him, a panel was hastily added to show that he'd survived, and the Joker rapidly became not only Batman's Arch-Enemy, but one of the most iconic example of an Arch-Enemy in all of fiction.
  • Harley Quinn from Batman: The Animated Series become a Canon Immigrant in the comics thanks to this, and she proceeded to become one of the main characters (if not the main character) of several comic series, such as the Harley & Ivy mini-series, her own ongoing and Gotham City Sirens. She even became the main villain in the Birds of Prey TV adaptation even though she's not prominent in the original comic. Later on she got a big role in the Batman: Arkham Series video games, became a member of the Suicide Squad, and got a second ongoing which became DC's highest-selling title with a female lead!
  • The Riddler was featured in a whopping two stories in his debut year (1948) before being promptly forgotten for nearly twenty years. After being brought back into the comics (just in time for the 60s show), he climbed his way up to the highest tier of the Bat-Rogues almost overnight.
  • The Scarecrow was featured in only two stories as well, neither of them memorable in the least. Then came a certain issue of The Brave and the Bold comic book that gave him his fear gas...and the rest is history.
  • For decades, Mr. Freeze was a joke villain from the 60s in the same league as Calendar Man and Killer Moth. Then the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Heart of Ice" aired, and he instantly became an A-list villain and one of the most haunting and tragic characters in Batman's rogue gallery. Ironically, they had killed him off just before the cartoon hit and were forced to pull an Author's Saving Throw to revive him.
  • In the third Two-Face story, Batman persuaded him to turn himself in and submit to any needed psychotherapy and surgery by loading a coin to land on its edge, and he did it and got better. However, the character's visuals proved so memorable that a number of successors popped up in his wake, until a 1954 story restored the original's scars and insanity (and took away his Morality Pet wife, to boot). Ironically, the The Comics Code would then send the character into a fifteen-year hiatus (barring the occasional reprint, and World's Finest (1941) #173 where Batman got turned into him), until Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams truly canonized him as a top villain in the 1970s.
  • C-List villain Kite-Man of all people became this during Tom King's run, due to the Memetic Mutation of a small scene he appeared in early on. The run ended up giving him A Day in the Limelight issue, that gave him a surprising amount of Hidden Depths.
• Darkseid was originally part of the self-contained universe of the New Gods as originally envisioned by Jack Kirby, he later became a prominent villain in the DCU's continuity.
• Shazam!: Captain Marvel was such a happy, fun, feel-good-superhero series at first...then Black Adam came along. Originally intended as a one-shot baddy back in the 40's, Black Adam came back in force several years before the Crisis on Infinite Earths, to become the most powerful villain/antihero of not only the Captain Marvel mythos, but also one of the most powerful villains in The DCU. In later years, he's proven to be more popular than the hero he was created to oppose. It is all the more interesting in that Captain Marvel already had a designated "primary villain" in the form of Dr. Sivana, who debuted alongside him in Whiz Comics #2, bedeviling the Big Red Cheese with a whole deck of Villain cards throughout The Golden Age of Comic Books.
• Captain Atom: Playyed with two villains. Major Force was never more than a secondary or even tertiary adversary for Captain Atom, but he later became a fairly major Green Lantern villain, particularly for Kyle Rayner. Wade Eiling, by contrast, was always intended to be the central antagonist for Captain Atom, but has since broken out to become a major villain for the entire DCU. He has also broken out to be a major antagonist for the whole Justice League in Justice League Unlimited, and now seems slated to become a major recurring antagonist for The Flash (2014).
• Sgt. Rock: The Iron Major became a popular recurring villain, despite dying in his first appearance.
• Deathstroke the Terminator was just going to be a villain to the Teen Titans for one story arc. But he had his role extended to being the villain of a much bigger story arc, then later became an Anti-Hero with his own comic, and when he went back to villainy, he became one of the most famous and prominent villains in the DC Universe who was not just limited to the Titans anymore, clashing with the likes of Batman, Green Arrow, and the entire Justice League.
• Deathstorm was originally just an unnamed black lantern version of Firestorm from Blackest Night. His cool design and Totally Radical attitude though made him a fan favorite and landed him an important role in said comics follow up (Brightest Day). Eventually even being transplanted into the New 52 as the Earth 3 version of Firestorm.
• Prez (1973): Of all the antagonists Prez had in the four (and one cancelled Comic Cavalcade story) issues of his comic book, only Boss Smiley, the villain of the first issue, is ever brought up in retellings. It makes sense, as he was the one who inadvertently set Prez down the path to greatness, but he was absolutely a Starter Villain who was promptly forgotten by his creators. The Sandman (1989) and DC You make him the de facto Big Bad of the story; the former even makes him a Satanic archetype.
• Superman:
  • Lex Luthor started out as a minor if powerful villain, with only two comic appearances in the first year he was created. Superman's original arch-nemesis was intended to be the now largely forgotten Ultra-Humanite.
  • Brainiac went into hibernation for one-hundred years at the end of "The Super-Duel in Space", and nothing seemed to indicate that strange alien villain would be seen again. However, he became such a hit between readers thanks to his distinctive city-stealing gimmick and the fact that the Silver Age Superman was unable to beat him that he returned with little explanation and became arguably Superman's second most prominent nemesis and one of the most iconic villains in comic book history.
  • Though not a character, Kryptonite was first introduced in the radio series. This Achilles' Heel became a defining element of the Superman mythos. (Something called "K-Metal", which amounted to the same thing as Kryptonite, figured in "The K-Metal from Krypton" well before the radio show, but the story was never published because it included Lois Lane discovering Superman's identity.)
  • General Zod. Debuting in "The Phantom Superboy" (1961), was originally a rather minor figure among the many Kryptonian Phantom Zone prisoners that Superman tussled with, merely the enforcer of the original leader of the Phantom Zoners Jax-Ur. Thanks to his popularity in various adaptations, most notably Superman II, he eventually started to grow in prominence as the Phantom Zoners' de facto leader (The Phantom Zone, the first story post-Donner films featuring the Zoners, suddenly placed him as their leader) and one of Superman's arch-enemies alongside Lex Luthor and Brainiac.
  • Doomsday became real popular thanks to this debut causing the death of Superman. Even thought he died and Superman came back later Doomsday would come back to life as well and since become one of The Man of Steel’s most iconic enemies.
• Flash Comics' character Johnny Thunder is a seldom remembered Golden Age superhero. The most iconic character in his strips was a little thief (though, it was later revealed she was a spy who infiltrating gangs) known as "the Black Canary". In the span of less than ten issues, Black Canary quickly eclipsed the titular hero and was given her own stand-alone comic. She was changed into a full-fledged superheroine and has been a comic book staple since.
• The Flash
  • Eobard Thawne the Reverse-Flash: While he's still solely fixated on the Flash Family, the Turn of the Millennium promotes Eobard to a multiversal threat due to his constant tampering with time, culminating in Flashpoint, which then led to the New 52 reboot.
  • Contrary to popular belief, The Rogues did not start off with any set leader; in their first official teamup, they were actually manipulated by Gorilla Grodd. They just decided to stick together because they were more effective as a team, with various other outside sources vying for the leadership spot. Leonard Snart a.k.a. Captain Cold, however, was proven popular because of Hidden Depths and Character Development that he eventually got elevated to group leader, which stuck ever since.
• WonderWoman: Cheetah was just a minor villain back in the day but is now the arch-nemesis of Wonder Woman with the Barbara Minvera version to be the longest one to held the mantle in modern times.

Live-Action TV

• Smallville: Lionel Luthor, Lex's Corrupt Corporate Executive Abusive Dad was originally meant to appear in only a few episodes of Season 1 as a way of making Lex's Freudian Excuse seem more poignant. Lionel was written into Season 2 as a major antagonist and Recurring Character, and became the Big Bad of Season 3. In the process he gained new dimensions to his character and his own Freudian Excuse becoming an Even Evil Has Standards Archnemesis Dad who was himself the product of Abusive Parents. He was later possessed by Jor-El and made a Heel–Face Turn, becoming a dark Mentor figure to Clark. Killed Off for Real in Season 7 by Lex, Glover and Lionel returned to the show in Season 10 as Earth-2 Lionel, an Eviler Twin of our Lionel, who was The Heavy for most of the last part of the show. In some ways Lionel, and not Lex as was originally intended, became Smallville's defining villain. Lionel, and Glover's portrayal of him, resonated so well that he was written into the comics as Lex Luthor's canonical (and deceased) father. While Lex had obviously always had a (deceased by the time of the "present day") father, this character had never had a consistent name or physical appearance and usually had no importance. But ever since Smallville, Lex's father is explicitly named "Lionel Luthor" and flashback scenes have depicted him as looking very similar to actor John Glover. A zombiefied, Black Lantern version of Lionel even showed up for revenge against Lex in Blackest Night.
• On Batman (1966) The Riddler quickly came to be one of the Dynamic Duo's most popular adversaries, likely because of Frank Gorshin's amazing performance as the character.
• Arrowverse
  • Malcolm Merlyn / The Dark Archer. He was obviously intended to be killed off at the end of the first season of Arrow, left for dead by Oliver. And then he showed up again in season 2, alive and well, without any real explanation. Then he got an even bigger role in season 3 as the Token Evil Teammate, culminating in him taking over the League of Assassins. Then, after losing that position in season 4, he spitefully joined forces with that season's Big Bad Damien Darhk. Then he showed up in Legends of Tomorrow as part of the Legion of Doom, slowly making his way back through the Heel–Face Revolving Door. His last proper appearance was at the end of Arrow season 5, where he sacrificed himself to save his daughter Thea's life.
  • Speaking of Damien Darhk, after dying at the end of Arrow season 4, he was also brought back to be part of the Legion of Doom on Legends of Tomorrow. And then he was brought back again the next season as the servant of Demon Lord Malus. His last appearance (so far) was in season 5 of Legends. Raised from hell to...raise some hell, he instead reconciled with his daughter and apologized to the Legends, before killing himself again with a soul-destroying sword.
  • The Reverse Flash. While he is the Flash's nemesis in the comics, He was literally erased from existence at the end of season 1. That didn't stop the writers from bringing him back in season 2 via time travel. And again in season 3. And in season 2 of Legends of Tommorrow, where he was, again, erased from existence. Then he showed up (with barely a hand-wave) during the 2017 cross-over. He showed up in season 5 of the Flash and became the Big Bad again. His latest appearance, Post-Crisis, he's been reduced to the equivalent of a ghost trying to possess Nash Wells' body. Though the Reverse Flash's spirit was exorcised, no-one in-universe or out believes he's gone for good.
  • John Cryer's Lex Luthor on Supergirl, helped by the fact that the actor seems to be having a ball with the role. He appeared as the Big Bad of season 4 and was killed by his sister Lena...but was then revived by The Monitor to participate in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. Where he literally wrote himself to be one of the saviors of the multi-verse. And made himself Supergirl's boss in the revived universe. Since then, he's been a regular on Supergirl season 5, scheming to gain even more power.
  • King Shark was originally just meant to be a One-Scene Wonder on The Flash but was so popular due to his amazing design he got he's own episode and ended up becoming a reoccurring character, to spite not really being a Flash villain. The Trickster similarly got promoted to reoccurring villain due to being played by Mark Hamill channeling The Joker.

Western Animation

• Harley Quinn, everyone's favorite Villainous Harlequin from Batman: The Animated Series. She was originally invented as a one-shot female henchmen to leap out of Commissioner Gordon's cake (the censors allowed The Joker to do it instead), and an overwhelming fan response turned her into a recurring villain and a Canon Immigrant into the comics. She even went on to be one of the few villains to Out-Batman Gambit Batman himself and come this close to actually killing him. In 2016, she became the breakout star of Suicide Squad — Margot Robbie's performance as her was one of the few things universally praised about the otherwise divisive film, even managing to steal the show from the long-awaited cinematic return of The Joker himself.
• Mad Stan from Batman Beyond was originally a one-shot joke villain thrown in to make Terry miss his date with Dana. The fans loved him, and he eventually became a regular member of the Rogues Gallery.
• Static Shock: Originally exclusive to the show, Ebon became one of the show's most popular villians, and would eventually jump to the comics in Static: Shadows of Dakota; one of the few original villians from the show to do so.

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