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Rogues Gallery Transplant / The DCU

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The DCU

Rogues' Gallery Transplant in this franchise.
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    Comic Books 

Comic Books

  • Solomon Grundy was originally specifically an enemy of the (Golden Age) Green Lantern. However, due to his appearances in various animated series (particularly Superfriends and Justice League), and the fact that several comic book creators still identify him as a Golden Age villain, Grundy is now more of a standard DC Universe villain, also extending to appearances in Batman: Arkham City and Gotham, the latter being a Canon Character All Along under original identity Butch Gilzean, where he was associated among Batman's rogues gallery. He also takes on Superman, as one of the few characters who can go toe-to-toe with him.
  • Another Golden Age Green Lantern villain, Vandal Savage, is also now used as a general DC Universe villain, going up against numerous heroes, especially his time as Wally West's Arch-Enemy, and his prominent roles in Justice League, Justice League: Doom, and Young Justice, the latter two for his roles as the Big Bad (both where he led a Legion of Doom, though in the former he was targeting the Justice League's stolen weak points, while the latter made him a Well-Intentioned Extremist using complex gambits against all the heroes to make Earth the strongest power in the universe).
  • Aquaman has a habit of appropriating water based villains that originally debuted in other titles, such as The Shark and King Shark, shark themed villains who started out menacing Green Lantern and Superboy, respectively.
  • The Shade was originally created as a villain for The Flash, but in the modern age, he's perhaps best known for being a Trickster Mentor for the Jack Knight incarnation of Starman.
  • An in-universe version is how the Mist originally fought the Wesley Dodds incarnation of the Sandman before moving to Opal City and fighting Starman. This fact is used as a plot-point in the 1990s series.
  • Another in-universe version is Mongul being established as having fought Martian Manhunter before Superman, in a failed attempt to take the key to Warworld that was in the former's protection. If anything, Mongul acted as though he thought the Manhunter was a bigger threat than Superman (this was in the team-up series DC Comics Presents, so it made sense to give this new villain a history with the second character involved so that Superman could be an Audience Surrogate receiving all the exposition). But since this past adventure was a Retcon and the second part of the story only featured Superman and Supergirl, Mongul stuck in readers' memories as a Superman foil, which would ultimately be cemented by For the Man Who Has Everything. Also, since the Warworld key was destroyed in the final part of his debut story, he no longer had any reason to menace J'Ohn.
  • The Brotherhood of Evil were introduced as enemies of the Doom Patrol, but following the cancellation of that series and the corresponding death of most of its cast, the Brotherhood (now including new members like Plasmus and Phobia) went on to fight the New Teen Titans throughout the 80s. The group's two most prominent members, the Brain and Monsieur Mallah, have since become more general DC villains, having gone on to antagonize the likes of the Justice League, The Outsiders, Cassandra Cain, The Atom and even Animal Man.
  • Doctor Destiny was originally created as a villain for the Justice League of America, and specifically Green Lantern. However, he is now almost certainly best known today for being the sap who got his hand on the magical ruby created by the King of Dreams, Morpheus, in The Sandman.
  • Jason Woodrue the Floronic Man, created as an adversary of The Atom, is obscure outside of his appearances in Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing and Neil Gaiman making him integral to the creation of Poison Ivy in a Secret Origins story. In the Swamp Thing (2019) live-action series, Woodrue is presented entirely as an enemy of the title character, and has no connection to the Atom or any other costumed hero.
  • A short-term example, but the Trinity maxi-series culminated in the titular trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman having to defeat Krona, who is traditionally a Green Lantern foe.
  • Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman was, unsurprisingly, originally created as a recurring villain in the Superman titles. Later on, he gradually became more of a Green Lantern villain, largely due to his actions in Reign of the Supermen acting as the original provocation for Hal Jordan's temporary Face–Heel Turn, and he eventually joined the Sinestro Corps. He never gave up his hatred of Superman, however, and returned to the Superman book for his final Post-Crisis story in "Reign of Doomsday". The New 52 Cyborg Superman, though, has almost always been used as a Supergirl villain, being Zor-El, until the return of the Henshaw incarnation saw him join Zod's Superman Revenge Squad ... and then make another attack on the GLC.
  • The same thing happened with Mongul II. His father was a Superman villain, and also the one who helped the Cyborg-Superman destroy Coast City. After he was killed for refusing a pact with, and then trying to punch, Neron, his son appeared a few years later as a foe of Superman. Nowadays, he fights Green Lantern and the Green Lantern Corps, which makes sense since Mongul has yellow skin.
  • Clock King was originally introduced as an adversary of Green Arrow, but is now considered to be a minor member of Batman's Rogues Gallery, due in large part to his appearances in the DC Animated Universe. (And the sixties TV series.) In the New 52 and Arrow, he's a GA villain again.
  • Crazy Quilt was originally an enemy of the Boy Commandos. After their cancellation, he was brought back for a single Robin issue, then disappeared. He was revived decades later as a Batman villain and was given a particular grudge against Robin, who permanently blinded him.
  • While not a full-on transplant since he's still a regular part of the Flash's Rogues Gallery, Gorilla Grodd has fought Batman a number of times in different media, namely in Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Batman Ninja, sometimes getting lumped in with the rest of his Rogues Gallery. That said, he's become more of a general villain for the entire DC Universe.
  • Doctor Light was originally a Justice League villain, but drifted to become an enemy of the Teen Titans from The '70s onward. The subsequent hit his reputation took (both in and out of universe) led to him arguably becoming best known for getting beaten up by the Titans and other Kid Heroes, at least until Identity Crisis (2004) attempted to reestablish him as a villain worthy of DC's big guns. Adding to this perception is the fact that nearly all of his major media appearances have been in Teen Titans adaptations, such as the 2003 cartoon or the live-action series.
  • Lady Shiva was originally the archnemesis of Richard Dragon, but she was later brought over into the Batman mythos, particularly Robin, Batgirl (where she became the Evil Matriarch for Cassandra Cain), and Birds of Prey (becoming the Arch-Enemy of Black Canary), and has become much more well-known than Richard.
  • Darkseid is a circular example of the trope. He was introduced in Superman's Jimmy Olsen title, en route to becoming the specific villain of the New Gods series. With said title's cancellation, he has become associated with Superman's rogues gallery. This is likely due to how well he serves as a counterpoint to the Man of Steel: a super-powerful alien who comes to Earth to rule mankind, not serve it, and being one of the few foes of a similar weight class. He's also fairly strongly associated with the Legion of Super-Heroes, thanks to the classic storyline The Great Darkness Saga. Thanks to being the father of half-Amazonian villain Grail, Darkseid has also had encounters with Wonder Woman, and he also antagonized Young Justice when he turned one of their members, Secret, against the team. An Adaptation Origin Connection also made him the collective Arch-Enemy of the Justice League after becoming their Starter Villain in the New 52. He's also a popular villain for Crisis Crossover stories that encompass all of The DCU, such as Legends in 1986, Genesis in 1997, and Final Crisis in 2008.
  • Professor Arnold Hugo (a man who gave himself super-intelligence at the cost of an oversized cranium) debuted as a Batman opponent, but languished in obscurity until he was reused as a Martian Manhunter foe, reappearing several times.
  • Superman's first supervillain was the Ultra-Humanite, but he was retconned to be a Justice Society of America villain after Golden Age Superman was removed from continuity. He also served as the main villain of Power Girl's solo series.
  • Deathstroke the Terminator started out as a Teen Titans rogue, turned towards antiheroism, and then became (after Identity Crisis (2004)) a sort of generic DC Universe villain, being as much of a dick to as many superheroes as he could manage. He seems to have a hobby of harassing young heroes. He's never let go of his grudge against the Titans since he never completed his contract against them (a bit of a blow to his merc cred). More specifically, his main archenemy among the team was Nightwing, then the team leader during the time of his introduction during his days as Robin. He even went so far as to harass Damian Wayne, Nightwing's (who was, for a while, Batman) protege. Additionally, he's also become a Batman villain, often tangling with him many times, and is considered an adversary to Batman almost as much as he is to the Titans. The DC Animated Movie Universe would also make him a Batman villain via having him as a former member of the League of Assassins, but he switches Robins, developing a hatred of Damian Wayne (Batman's son and League of Assassins leader Ra's al Ghul's grandson) during the events of Son of Batman rather than Dick Grayson (due to him being the reason for Slade's missing eye, and the villain's successful coup d'etat when he kills Ra's and captures Damian's mother Talia al Ghul), so that by the time an Animated Adaptation of classic Teen Titans story The Judas Contract took place in that universe, his original reason for taking the titular contract is replaced by a desire to get revenge on Damian.
  • Superboy-Prime first appeared as a hero in the Superman team-up series DC Comics Presents. His Face–Heel Turn occurred in the Crisis Crossover Infinite Crisis, which put him up against many heroes of The DCU. He later faced Green Lantern as an ally of the Sinestro Corps. After that, he fought the Legion of Super-Heroes during Final Crisis, becoming a personal adversary to the Teen Titans Impulse and Superboy, whom were resurrected from death by the Legion to stop him. He got to be the Villain Protagonist of his own Evil Versus Evil story during Blackest Night.
  • Teen Titans: When Wally West was brought back in DC Rebirth and reunited with the Titans in Titans (Rebirth), Abra Kadabra, who started off as a rogue of his uncle Barry Allen and later became one of Wally's archenemies when he succeeded Barry as Flash, would go over to confront the Titans as well to settle their score.
  • The Electrocutioner began as a one-shot Batman villain before appearing in The Vigilante, where he became the closest thing Vig had to an archenemy. Since the Vigilante's death, he has returned as a sporadic Batman foe, though the third Electrocutioner became a Nightwing rogue and ended his life as more of a Green Arrow foe after taking part in a plot that destroyed part of Star City and killed Roy Harper's daughter Lian.
  • The Queen of Fables started out attacking the entire JLA, but now she is an enemy to both Wonder Woman and Superman.
  • Blaze and Satanus began as demonic Superman villains, but were later revealed to be the half-human offspring of the wizard Shazam!. They've since become joint enemies of both the Superman and Marvel Families.
  • Dr. Sivana used to be Shazam's Arch-Enemy, but eventually disappeared from Marvel stories to become the DC Universe's standard Mad Scientist, especially considering Lex Luthor is better known nowadays as a megacorp owner with his own research staff, and later Shazam stories started focusing almost exclusively on magical villains. He returns as a Shazam foe in Shazam! (2012).
  • Silver Banshee has historically been a Superman foe but since the mid-00's and storylines like Death & the Family, she's been more associated with Supergirl. In Supergirl (2011) she even became a (currently non-villainous) supporting cast member.
  • Hector Hammond, a longtime enemy of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, is recast as a Superman villain in the New 52. It wouldn't be until the Rebirth era, which reincorporated more of the pre-Flashpoint continuity, that he would come across Hal Jordan again, where he went from full on villainous to helping Jordan as a morally grey figure.
  • One storyline in the New 52 Teen Titans run saw the Teen Titans fight Manchester Black and the Elite, best known as enemies of Superman. Later comics would have them drift back to Superman's area of the universe again.
  • The Prankster, who exclusively fought Superman in the past, has become something like Nightwing's archenemy in the New 52. He bears little resemblance to any previous incarnation of the character, however.
  • When Nightwing moved to Bludhaven at the start of his solo title, the second Blockbuster was imported. A genius turned Dumb Muscle in Batman, Blockbuster had just recently made a deal with Neron to regain his genius while keeping his super strength and was now a Bludhaven crimelord.
  • Major Force was originally Captain Atom's arch-nemesis, but ever since the infamous fridge incident, he's decidedly become a Green Lantern villain for various Green Lanterns.
  • Black Mask zig-zagged this in an almost Genre Savvy way in the early 2000s. Previously a C-list Batman villain, he Took a Level in Badass (and extreme sadism) to become Catwoman's Arch-Enemy. However, he then used that boost to effectively become top villain in Gotham for a time and an A-list member of Batman's Rogues Gallery. (This didn't stop Catwoman from being the one who eventually got to take him out, but that's because Batman has inhibitions about shooting people in the head.)
  • Deadshot started off as a D-list Batman villain, but became much better known as a member of the Suicide Squad. While Deadshot and Batman have often gone against each other since his elevation in status, he's not really considered to be a Batman villain in the same way characters like The Joker, Two-Face, Penguin, and the Riddler are, and more a general Anti-Hero/Anti-Villain. He's also gone toe-to-toe with Green Arrow as well.
  • Doctor Polaris (Neal Emerson) was a villain who went against Green Lantern and Superman. However, his successor Doctor Polaris II (John Nichol) instead became an antagonist to Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes) after debuting in a Superman comic.
  • Downplayed by Tobias Whale. Originally created as the Arch-Enemy of Black Lightning, Whale moved to Gotham City and menaced Batman in the years when Black Lightning did not have his own book. Each time that Black Lightning gets his own title, however, Whale returns home to Metropolis to resume their grudge match.
  • Killer Moth was introduced in the Silver Age as an Evil Counterpart to Batman. As the first villain faced by Batgirl, he was sometimes considered specifically one of her rogues. He was introduced to the New 52 as a member of an anti-Green Arrow team, the Longbow Hunters, before drifting back to the Batfamily.
  • The Calculator was introduced as a Justice League of America villain, but later became Oracle's Evil Counterpart in Birds of Prey.
  • Cyborgirl started out as a Wonder Woman villain, but given her name and status as an Evil Counterpart to Cyborg writers love to pit her against him instead.
  • Trinity first appeared as a member of the Society of Sin in New Teen Titans Annual #6 before going on to establish herself as a foe of Wonder Woman.
  • Not that he's ever been a villain per se — really more of an Idiot Hero who just ends up causing trouble when he shows up — but Vartox started out as a significant recurring title in Superman's titles. These days he almost exclusively makes a nuisance of himself in Power Girl's books.
  • Roxy Rocket originated as a Batman villain in Batman: The Animated Series' tie-in comic (before making a proper appearance on the show itself via The New Batman Adventures), but made her DCU debut as an enemy of Stephanie Brown during the latter's time as Batgirl.
  • The Golden Age Star Sapphire fought Jay Garrick, Earth-2's Flash, twice. Her Silver Age counterpart was a recurring foe of Hal Jordan, Earth-1's Green Lantern. They had similar powers and a somewhat similar appearance, both gaining their abilities from a tiara with a Power Crystal, but weren't given a connection until 2000's The Brave and the Bold miniseries.
  • The original Sabbac was a Captain Marvel Jr villain. The second one stole the first's powers and used them to fight The Outsiders.
  • Downplayed and invoked in The Terrifics. Java the Caveman was always The Dragon of Metamorpho villain Simon Stagg. Events of the series made Java take matters in his own hands and create new identity for himself - Doctor Dread, who would antagonize the team to prove his intellectual superiority to Mister Terrific. Once Mr. Terrific unmasked him, Java decided It's Personal. Metamorpho was so far involved in battles with Doctor Dread so time will tell whom will he antagonize more.
  • As far as publication history goes, Gundra The Valkyrie first appeared in the golden age Wonder Woman books as Wonder Woman's foe, also pitting the other Valkyries against the other Amazons, Odin against Aphrodite. Then later Gundra and the Valkyries she leads appeared in Justice Society of America books as their foes without Wonder Woman or the Amazons in sight. This was in fact a retcon that "revealed" Adolph Hitler had accidentally summoned the Valkyries with The Spear Of Destiny, but while they decide to "aide" him they weren't keen to follow his orders. Regardless, it means despite appearing in Wonder Woman's books first from a narrative perspective Gundra was previously a Justice Society villain with no interest in the Amazon until she fell in love with Wonder Woman's boyfriend, Steve Trevor.
  • In Superman: Space Age Lex Luthor is ultimately more of a Batman enemy than a foe of Superman. He competes with Bruce Wayne at the beginning of the story, and is sent to prison before Superman becomes publically known. When he’s released 20 years later, he focused his efforts on trying to absorb Wayne Enterprises, dismissing Otis’ idea to use Kryptonite against Superman, and never directly confronts the Man of Steel once in this story.
  • Garguax started off as a Doom Patrol villain and was ultimately killed off at the end of Paul Kupperbeg's run. Years later, he resurfaces as an antagonist in Mark Waid's Shazam series.

    Films 

Films

  • Catwoman: Hunted: Catwoman and Batwoman end up facing enemies who aren't part of their usual rogues galleries; Cheetah (Wonder Woman), Tobias Whale (Black Lightning and Batman), Nosferata (Superboy), Cheshire (Teen Titans), Boss Moxie Mannheim (Superman), Dr. Tzin (Batman), La Dama (Blue Beetle), Talia al Ghul (Batman), and Oyabun Noguri (The Outsiders and given the codename "Mr. Yakuza" here). Black Mask is the only villain who is well known for facing against Catwoman, and ironically this movie seems to be their first meeting.
  • DC Extended Universe
    • Birds of Prey (2020) pits Harley Quinn as lead hero against Black Mask and Mr. Zsasz, who are both Gotham villains in the comics, but have rarely had much to do with her. (Both of them usually fight Batman, apart from the periods when Black Mask has been used as Catwoman's Arch-Enemy in her solo title.)
    • The Suicide Squad has the titular team go up against Starro the Conqueror, who usually acts as a foe to major heroes like the Justice League, rather than a smaller team like this one.
    • The main villain of Black Adam (2022) is Sabbac, usually an enemy of Captain Marvel Jr. and the Marvel Family in the comics. In fact, the comics had previously portrayed Sabbac and Black Adam as allies rather than enemies. He's also specifically the Ishmael Gregor version, who in the comics has no connection to any Shazam characters beyond stealing the original Sabbac's powers to fight The Outsiders. In addition, while Akh-Ton did briefly conquer Kandaq in the comics and was fought by Adam, he was primarily an enemy of Metamorpho.
      • According to various leaked information, some of it confirmed by Zachary Levi, Dwayne Johnson was pushing for this to happen to Black Adam himself. He convinced Warner Bros. to split the character off from SHAZAM! (2019) into its own movie, then veto cameos of two characters in each other's films and stopped members of Justice Society of America to appear in a scene in SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods where Billy is recruited into the group, while going above board to get cameo of a character he clearly wanted Black Adam to be fighting with - Superman - instead. However, ''Black Adam' being a' Box Office Bomb prevented that from happenning.
    • Blue Beetle: Downplayed with Carapax; Carapax, under the identity of "The Indestructible Man", was indeed a foe to the Blue Beetle in the comics, but he specifically fought the Ted Kord iteration. Here, he fights Jaime Reyes, who is usually Kord's successor but is the first Blue Beetle here.

    Live-Action TV 

Live-Action TV

The following have their own pages:

  • Batman had the Green Arrow foe Clock King acting as a member of Batman's rogues gallery, setting a precedent for later adaptations. Contrary to popular belief the Puzzler and the Archer are NOT examples as them sharing the same names as 2 minor Golden Age supervillains was purely coincidental.
  • Legends of the Superheroes has the Justice League face a version of the Legion of Doom led by Mordru, who in the comics was an enemy of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
  • Peacemaker:
    • The show does this by way of Composite Character. One of the core antagonists is Auggie Smith, the titular hero's white supremacist father, who in this continuity is also the armored supervillain White Dragon. In the comics, White Dragon was a Suicide Squad enemy (providing some justification, as Peacemaker was a member of the Suicide Squad here) who also clashed with Hawkman and the Justice Society of America.
    • It's also established that one of Peacemaker's first public victories was against Kite Man, a D-list Batman villain in the comics.
  • Smallville had Deathstroke show up as a recurring foe despite having little if any connection to the Superman mythos, while Deadshot appeared as part of the Suicide Squad in the last season of the show, along with Firestorm villain Plastique and Teen Titans villain Warp. Although Smallville is pretty infamous about it.
  • Stargirl (2020):
    • The series sees the teenage Legacy Characters who make up the new Justice Society of America battling the Injustice Society of America, the villains who killed the original JSA. In the comics, most of the original Injustice Society members had either retired or died by the time most of the JSA legacies debuted in Infinity, Inc., and it was their own children who instead did battle with the young heroes. The most notable example is probably Icicle, the first season’s Big Bad, who, in the comics, died back in Crisis on Infinite Earths, well before Stargirl was even created.
    • In a more specific example, the Gambler is said to have been the arch-nemesis of the original Doctor Mid-Nite. In the comics, the Gambler was actually created as an enemy of Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern.
    • The second season continues this trend by featuring Eclipso, Arch-Enemy of The Spectre, as an overarching antagonist for the JSA heroes.
  • Titans (2018):

     Multi-Media 

Multi-Media

  • Maxwell Lord hasn't been a villain all the time in mainstream DC continuity, and when he has been depicted as such he's usually been a villain against the JLA as a whole. In the 2020s, however, he seems to have built up a reputation among writers of other continuities as a Wonder Woman villain (probably due to their prominent conflict in the run-up to Infinite Crisis), being the Big Bad of both Wonder Woman 1984 and Wonder Woman: Earth One (although the latter was a Composite Character, the secret human identity of the Greek god and established Wonder Woman foe Ares).

     Video Games 

Video Games

     Web Comics 

Webcomic

    Web Animation 
  • DC Super Hero Girls has a lot of this, largely due to many villains being alignment-swapped in this universe and pulling out more obscure DC villains to act as enemies. For instance, the Double Dare Twins are little-known Nightwing villains, but are often used in a Villain of the Week role, either against Katana or the Wonder Woman/Batgirl/Supergirl team, while he hasn't shown up at all. Dark Opal kind of counts, as while he menaces the DCSHG team, mainly Supergirl, here, his backstory flashback shows that he got there by running away from Amethyst.

     Western Animation 

Western Animation

  • Most of the villains on Batman: The Brave and the Bold come from the rogues galleries of other heroes, most of them were depicted as such. Only 2 villains of those villains were portrayed as being regular parts of Batman's rogues gallery: Gorilla Grodd and Gentleman Ghost. Gorilla Grodd (a Flash villain) was depicted as being completely obsessed with Batman, regarding him as the only 1 worthy of his intellect and a regular inmate of Arkham Asylum...despite having almost no interaction with Batman in the comicsnote . Gentleman Ghost was a major enemy of Hawkman who had three episodes in a Batman-centric show devoted to him before Hawkman was even mentioned. Although for a brief period in the Bronze Age Gentleman Ghost WAS considered a Batman rogue.
    • Occasionally this may also happen from the opposite side and a Batman villain may be an enemy of another hero. This is seen with minor Batman villain Kite-Man, who is depicted as the criminal who Plastic Man worked for prior to him gaining his superpowers, and who kidnaps the hero's family for revenge in one episode.
  • Beware the Batman uses Tobias Whale, who is traditionally an enemy of Black Lightning and Simon Stagg, who is the archenemy of Metamorpho (who, unlike Black Lightning, did appear). Deathstroke also appears, and while he is pretty much a general DC Universe menace these days and has fought Batman quite a bit, having some moments as an Evil Counterpart of Batman (this time around, Alfred mentored him too), the character originated as a Teen Titans villain.
  • DC Animated Universe:
    • Batman: The Animated Series used Clock King and Count Vertigo (the latter depicted as a former friend of Ra's al Ghul to justify his inclusion), who were originally Green Arrow villains in the comics.
    • Inverted in an episode of Superman: The Animated Series where Superman briefly takes over vigilante duty in Gotham, posing as Batman. He falls into a trap set by Bane, Mad Hatter and the Riddler, but escapes the trap with brute force, beating Bane into submission with ease, before using his super speed to apprehend the others, to their absolute shock.
    • While Sinestro in the comics fought several Green Lanterns, he was the archenemy and Evil Mentor of Hal Jordan. In the DCAU, his debut in Superman: The Animated Series saw him fight Kyle Rayner (and be the one to murder Abin Sur, therefore causing Kyle to get the ring) and Static Shock gave John Stewart Hal's role in Sinestro's expulsion from the GLC.
    • In-universe and out with the Royal Flush Gang as they made their DCAU debut in the future-set Batman Beyond and the Gang is explicitly stated to have a history with Batman. However, the very first version of the Gang chronologically made their debut fighting the Justice League, the Gang's traditional enemies.
    • Justice League:
      • Solomon Grundy does not fight against Green Lantern or Batman, but instead against Superman and Hawkgirl. Somewhat justified by Grundy occasionally facing Superman in Bronze Age stories.
      • Unlimited portrayed Devil Ray (the Captain Ersatz of Black Manta) as a foe of Wonder Woman instead of Aquaman. This was due to rights issues with the failed Mercy Reef pilot that kept Aquaman himself from appearing in the last season of JLU.
      • Gentleman Ghost and Shadow Thief spend most of their time fighting Green Lantern instead of Hawkman, although in the latter's case, it is due to the Love Triangle involving Hawkgirl.
      • Instead of being a foe of the Justice Society, Roulette appears as a foe of the League. However, her debut does however involve Wildcat and Black Canary, members of the JSA in the comics.
    • While he's crossed paths with Batman before and was involved in the origins of Poison Ivy, the Floronic Man made his DCAU debut in Batman and Harley Quinn whereas the comic character started out as an enemy of The Atom and is a regular opponent of Swamp Thing (the latter of whom cameos in the film).
  • DC Super Hero Girls 2019 does the same thing as its Web Animation counterpart:
  • Green Lantern: The Animated Series uses Byth Rok, who is traditionally a foe of Hawkman.
  • My Adventures with Superman:
    • Deathstroke appears as a villain in this series, despite him traditionally being more commonly associated with Batman, the Teen Titans, and especially Nightwing.
    • This show features a version of the Golden Age supervillain Mist, despite him being the Arch-Enemy of the Ted Knight version of Starman rather than a Superman villain.
    • Professor Ivo, traditionally a villain of the Justice League as a whole, appears in this show as a solely Superman enemy.
    • Heat Wave shows up in this show, despite the character traditionally being a villain of the Flash rather than Superman.
    • The Brain and Monsieur Mallah appear in this show, even though their comic counterparts are traditionally the Arch-Enemies of the Doom Patrol. Then again, the versions of their character seen in this show aren't particularly villainous, anyway.
  • Superfriends:
    • The All-New Super Friends Hour episode "Ghosts" features Gentleman Ghost as the villain, albeit only addressed as Gentleman Jim Craddock, but makes Superman and Wonder Woman his personal foes rather than Hawkman and Hawkwoman.
    • The Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show episode "Reflections in Crime" has the villain be Flash foe Mirror Master, but he only confronts Superman, Batman, Robin, Firestorm and Samurai with his traditional nemesis the Flash nowhere to be seen in the episode.
    • The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians episode "The Case of the Stolen Powers" focuses on a Villain Team-Up between Felix Faust and Batman adversary The Penguin, but neither Batman nor Robin are present and the only heroes Penguin is shown fighting are Superman, Firestorm, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Samurai and Aquaman.
  • Teen Titans (2003) occasionally featured Killer Moth, a villain mostly associated with the Batman franchise and Batgirl in particular.
  • Young Justice (2010)
    • The majority of villains are not associated to any specific hero. Almost all the heroes work for or with the Justice League while most of the villains are part of The Light. Speaking of The Light, the main council is lead by Vandal Savage, whom originally faced Alan Scott but became an overarching villain to the DC universe as a whole, in this case here as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, and has maintained Superman villain Lex Luthor, Justice League International villain Queen Bee, and Etrigan villain Klarion the Witch Boy, whom is also remembered for his role in the storyline Sins of Youth. Other members of The Light, most of which were rotated out and replaced by other villains, include Batman villain Ra's al Ghul, Aquaman villains Ocean Master and Black Manta, Doom Patrol villain the Brain, Teen Titans and Nightwing villain Deathstroke, original Superman archenemy and later Justice Society villain Ultra-Humanite, New Gods and Mister Miracle villain Granny Goodness, and The Outsiders villain Bad Samaritan, here an ambassador of Markovia in the United Nations. By the show's present time period, the whole concept of a Rogues Gallery has pretty much vanished.
    • Speaking of Luthor, he never interacts with Superman (though he retains his connection to Superboy in being his source of human DNA, a father of sorts). In fact, overall he comes comes off more as an Arrow Family villain—his first appearance sees him engaged in a Xanatos Gambit against clone!Roy, and he's eventually revealed to be behind the capture of the original Roy Harper and creation of clone!Roy as a Manchurian Agent. After that, he uses his Secretary-General position to attempt to promote the Justice League and the Outsiders as Heroes With Bad Publicity.
    • Queen Bee was originally the main enemy to Justice League International, even acting as an Evil Counterpart to Maxwell Lord before his Face–Heel Turn, but is positioned against Miss Martian and Beast Boy because she murdered Miss Martian's idol and inspiration for her human identity in revenge for impersonating and humiliating her and worming her way out of being blackmailed by her, said idol being Beast Boy's mother and therefore making Queen Bee the reason he is orphaned this time.
    • Klarion here is depicted as a Lord of Chaos on par with Nabu and a Doctor Fate foe, killing the Kent Nelson Doctor Fate in an attempt to get his helmet. He did actually have run ins with the original Young Justice team of the comics, but he is shown in a more powerful light this time around, filling the role Bedlam had in Young Justice story "World Without Grown Ups".
    • Even taking into account how Ma'alefa'ak, typically the Arch-Enemy of Martian Manhunter, was changed from his brother to Miss Martian's brother, he is also mainly seen as an adversary for the New Gods due to his loyalty to Darkseid and his stirring of tensions on New Genesis. His later loyalty for Lor-Zod, revamped as a time traveler, also makes him become an adversary of the Legion of Super-Heroes, thanks to being revealed as the founder of Chameleon Boy's homeworld Durla.
    • General Zod became the Starter Villain of the Legion of Super-Heroes rather than being one of Superman's major enemies, due to only finally being let out of the Phantom Zone in their time and being re-imprisoned by them. His son Lor-Zod, adapting changes in Superman Family Adventures and Superman (Rebirth) and being depicted as a time traveler, likewise becomes one when he hopes that killing Conner Kent will remove the inspiration behind the Legion to prevent his father's defeat, and becomes another New Gods adversary through his partnership with Darkseid. This is further backed by Ursa Zod, General Zod's wife, becoming a Composite Character / Legacy Character of Legion of Super-Heroes villain Emerald Empress. Despite this, the Zods still have their burning hatred for Jor-El and the El family, and finally meet Superman near the end of season 4 after they escape the Phantom Zone in the present day, though because Zod and forces were freed in the present rather than the future, their history with the Legion was largely erased, leaving them primarily as Superman villains like in the comics.

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