Rogues Gallery

A colorful cast of crafty criminals.

Scrooge McDuck: Your new job is with my sworn enemy?

Donald Duck: I can't keep track of all your sworn enemies!

—DuckTales (2017)

The Rogues Gallery is the cast of colorful Recurring Characters that show up to torment the heroes week after week.

Having only a single antagonist can work, but as a series goes on it can become boring. On the other hand, audiences can never get attached to villains if they never come back again. The Rogues Gallery is a middle ground.

For certain special episodes, members of the Rogues Gallery may team up against the heroes, forming a Legion of Doom. Just as often they'll fight each other. If the hero helps one enemy or group of enemies against another in such a setup, it's Enemy Mine.

Sometimes, a one-shot stylish villain will be so popular with the audience that they join the ranks.

Superhero series, borrowing from the comic books, almost always have a Rogues Gallery. Of course, villains can and do appear outside their traditional rogues galleries, fighting heroes they don't usually face. Some even become part of more than one Rogues Gallery, with the Marvel villain Kingpin being a major enemy of both Daredevil and Spider-Man. When this occurs to such an extent that the villain becomes more identified with the new hero, they become a Rogues Gallery Transplant.

However large and varied the Rogues Gallery, it will usually contain at least one villain who is considered to be the hero's Arch Enemy. There is also a good chance that it will contain an Evil Counterpart (who may or may not be the same person as the Arch Enemy).

In order to allow the heroes to sometimes win against the rogues but still leave the villains available for re-use, the prison that they're put in will often be incredibly easy to escape from, or they'll feign having reformed so that they get allowed out, or they'll genuinely seek to reform and get allowed out, then relent to their old obsessions. Overall, members of the gallery tend to be protected by Joker Immunity.

It is also common for a hero's Rogues Gallery to have some kind of unifying theme that either reflects or contrasts with the personality, powers and/or origin of the hero himself. For example, most of Spider-Man's enemies gained their powers through scientific mishaps, and many use animal motifs in their names and costumes. Conversely, Batman's array of brightly-colored lunatics falls squarely into the "contrasts with" category, with a smattering of reflection given Batman's own borderline personality - but it's also composed mostly of Badass Normals like Bats himself. If all or most of the villains in the Rogues Gallery are linked in this way, then you have a Thematic Rogues Gallery.

While this trope is most prevalent in Superhero stories, it's by no means restricted to them, as some of the examples below show. As long as the franchise has a group of recognizable, distinct antagonists who continually return to cause trouble for the hero, they count as a Rogues Gallery.

Compare Big Bad Ensemble, which is similar but refers to a number of major villains being active, and distinct, threats at a given time, and revolves around the threat they pose rather than the hero whose enemy they are. Contrast Monster of the Week, which is a parade of one-shot villains.

Individual members of a Rogues Gallery have a strong tendency towards The Gimmick, for subtly obvious reasons.

The name of the trope comes from the row of "Wanted" posters displayed in police stations.

Examples of Rogues Gallery include:

Comic Books

Terry: You know this guy?
Bruce: Sorry, not one of mine.

  • Similarly, Superman. Includes earthly villains like Lex Luthor, Metallo, Bizarro, Ultraman, Parasite, Prankster, Toyman, Silver Banshee, Cyborg-Superman, and Intergang, as well as alien foes like Brainiac, Zod, Darkseid, Mongul, Doomsday, and Mister Mxyzptlk.
    • The producers of Superman the Animated Series felt this gallery was really limited; they resorted to using Jack Kirby's Fourth World DC characters, such as Darkseid and his gang, to fill the ranks. They also created a couple of their own villains, most notably Canon Immigrant Livewire.
      • To be fair, Darkseid and other elements of the Fourth World were introduced in Jack Kirby's Jimmy Olsen comics, so they were, by extension, always a part of the Superman Mythos. And, in any case, their storylines were awesome.
  • Supergirl' Rogues Gallery includes Lesla-Lar -a Kryptonian mad scientist and body-surfer-, Blackflame -Lesla's best friend and lover of convoluted plans and death traps-, Nightflame -a sword-wielding sorceress born from Supergirl's dark side-, Blackstarr -a Nazi reality-warper-, Reactron -a murderous, ruthless, Kryptonite-empowered thug-, Starfire -a mob ringleader-, The Gang -a gang of super sentai expies-, Bizarro-Girl -her Bizarro counterpart-, Kraken -an alien that uses sufficiently advanced technology to pretend to be a wizard-, Psi -an Esper- Lobo -a mass-murderer bounty hunter-, the worldkillers -a group of Kryptonian biological weapons-, Cyborg Superman and more.
  • Spider-Man's includes the Green Goblin, Hobgoblin, Doctor Octopus, Venom, Electro, Mysterio, Sandman, Kraven the Hunter, the Vulture, Carnage, the Lizard, the Rhino, Black Cat, the Scorpion, the Shocker, etc. After Batman, it's considered probably the most well-known Rogues Gallery in all of comicdom.
    • The villains are also good examples of villains crossing over to fight new heroes besides their traditional sparring partners. Electro, for example, has become an enemy to Daredevil as well as Spider-Man, while Spidey himself has thrown down with the enemies of everyone from Iron Man to the Hulk to Captain Marvel.
      • A glaring example is Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. He's become so closely associated with Daredevil that the 2003 movie used him as the Big Bad.
        • Dark Reign upgraded Norman "The Green Goblin" Osborn to a universe-wide villain when he took over the Avengers.
      • Spider-Man has fought or teamed up with everyone at one point or another, to the point where one of She Hulk's comics has the cover page introducing him as "a mandatory guest star".
    • Starting with Brand New Day, many new villains have been introduced in order to keep stories from falling into routine. Among them are Mr. Negative, Menace, Screwball, Paper Doll, Fracture, Override, and Blindside. Of the bunch, Mr. Negative is probably the only one certain to remain a prominent facet of Spidey's rogues gallery for years to come.
    • Spider-Girl, his daughter, has a nice rogues gallery as well. Crazy Eight, Killerwatt, the Dragon King, Funny Face, Soldiers of the Serpent, Quickwire, the Hobgoblin, Earthshaker, Mr. Abnormal, Aftershock, Apox, Angel Face, Fury the Goblin Queen, Mr. Nobody, Carolyn Trainer, Killer Frost, Reverb, Black Tarantula, etc., etc., etc.
    • Due to villain attrition such as the death of Kraven and the reforming of Sandman as a hero, the Sinister Six has seen a lot of villains take part of the sextet as Doc Ock sought to fill up the empty slots any way he could just to preserve the group name.
  • The Flash, in his comic-book incarnation, has an impressively large Rogues Gallery, including Captain Cold, the Trickster, Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, Weather Wizard, the Shade, Gorilla Grodd, Heat Wave, the Reverse-Flashes etc. They were also marked being a really unambitious bunch, considering they all have some incredibly powerful tech and the best use most can think of is simple robberies of local targets. It's implied that many are at least as unstable as Batman's. Most actually called themselves "The Rogues" and are unusually social for supervillains. Gorilla Grodd and Zoom the Reverse Flash are not members of and actually hate the Rogues (the feeling is mutual-the fact that said two villains are probably the most heinous of the Flash's foes is implied to play a large part in the mutual dislike). The Rogues, in turn, have shunned other members of the Flash's Rogues Gallery, such as Abra Kadabra and the Rainbow Raider/s, though they will tolerate them when something big comes up (like Captain Boomerang's funeral) or when their goals coincide.
  • The Shazam Captain Marvel. Includes Dr. Sivana (and all four of his children), Mr. Mind, Black Adam, Mr. Atom, Ibac the Invincible, Sabbac, Oggar, King Kull, the crocodile-gangsters of Planet Punkus, etc. Most (save Black Adam) haven't appeared much lately, but they tend to congregate as the Monster Society of Evil.
  • The X-Men have Magneto, Mystique, Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, Reverend (or Colonel) Stryker, the Shadow King, Black Tom Cassidy, Selene, Sabretooth, The Juggernaut, etc. X-Men being a book about a team, they've got even more groups as enemies: the Brotherhood of Mutants, the Hellfire Club, the Savage Land mutates, the original Hellions, the Acolytes, the Marauders, the Four Horsemen, the Sentinels, and on and on. Team names tend to get reused, and individual members get around a lot, nearly as much as with the X-Men themselves.
    • Making things even more complicated, a few X-Men have their own Rogues galleries! Wolverine has everyone ever involved with the Weapon Plus project (Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, etc.), Jean Grey (thanks to being the incarnation of the Phoenix) is on the entire Shi'ar Empire's shit list, and Xavier himself has personal issues with Magneto, the Shadow King, Cassandra Nova, and Cain "Juggernaut" Marko. Cyclops and his brother Havok are of special interest to Mr. Sinister (who has up to THREE teams of Psycho for Hire assassins!), Beast has to deal with his Age of Apocalypse Evil Counterpart Dark Beast, Banshee and Black Tom are cousins, and Colossus has a Cain and Abel dynamic with his brother Mikhael Rasputin. The X-Men have so many enemies it's a wonder how they keep track of them all. And while some of the above are currently dead, this is X-Men, so they'll probably be back.
  • Wonder Woman has the Cheetah, Giganta, Dr. Psycho, Dr. Cyber, Angle Man, Silver Swan, Veronica Cale, the Queen of Fables and some gods gone bad (Ares, Hades, etc.) and other figures from Greek Mythology (Hercules, Medusa, Circe). If it stems from mythology, especially Classical Mythology, its likely Wonder Woman encountered it. However, many of the more recent rogues are often skipped over due to Wonder Woman's continual battle with Depending on the Writer.
  • Each Green Lantern to headline his own series has had a collection of recurring foes, though they rarely if ever have teamed up collectively.
    • Alan Scott: Vandal Savage (arguably his archnemesis), Solomon Grundy, the Sportsman, the Icicle, the Gambler, the Harlequin (who pulled a Heel Face Turn and married Alan) and the Thorn (the mother of his two children).
    • Hal Jordan: Sinestro (definitely his archnemesis), the Manhunters, Kanjar Ro, Atrocitus, Hector Hammond, Star Sapphire (Hal's sometimes-girlfriend), Dr. Polaris, the Tattooed Man, Evil Star, Black Hand, Goldface (another Heel Face Turn), Sonar, and the Shark.
    • Kyle Rayner: Major Force (on loan from Captain Atom and not really his archnemesis, but he's loomed large in Kyle's life anyway, thanks largely to what he did to his first girlfriend), Oblivion, Grayven, Effigy, Alex Nero, Fatality, Brainwave Jr., and Amon Sur. Kyle, in an issue of his comic, bemoans the fact that he has a lousy Rogues Gallery, compared to his friend Wally West (The Flash).
    • As of Green Lantern: Rebirth and the subsequent relaunch of the franchise, Hal and Kyle's galleries have more or less merged into a collective Rogues Gallery for the entire Green Lantern Corps, with the additions of Parallax, Mongul, Cyborg-Superman, Superboy-Prime, Krona, and the Sinestro Corps.
    • Furthermore, the entire GL Corps now have their own rival factions, including the Red Lanterns, Black Lanterns, Agent Orange, and the aforementioned Sinestro Corps. The Star Sapphire name is now applied to an entire corps as well, although they don't have any designs towards antagonizing the Green Lanterns.
  • In addition to their individual enemies, the Justice League of America had a handful of villains that regularly fought them as a team: Amazo, Despero, Starro the Conqueror, Kanjar Ro, Starbreaker, The Shaggy Man (later known as the General), The Queen Bee, and Prometheus, to name but a few.
    • Two of the most famous villain teams are the Injustice League and the Secret Society of Supervillains.
  • The Justice Society of America's Rogues Gallery is made up mostly of the surviving foes of their individual members from back in The Golden Age of Comic Books, as well as said foes' legacies and a few add-ons from more recent years. These include but are not limited to: Vandal Savage, the Wizard, and the Ultra-Humanite (more or less collectively the team's archfoes), plus Per Degaton, Wotan, Solomon Grundy, the Rival, the Tigress, Shiv, the Gentleman Ghost, Johnny Sorrow, Roulette, Icicle II, the Thinker, Killer Wasp, Rag Doll, and on-again-off-again Anti-Hero Black Adam.
  • Both the League and the Society occasionally fall foul of various terrorist groups (Kobra, the Illuminati) and shadowy government organizations (The D.E.O., The Agency, Checkmate).
  • Likewise, The Avengers fought both the enemies of their individual members (such as Loki and The Red Skull) and their own collective enemies, including Ultron, Kang the Conqueror, Graviton, Count Nefaria, and the various incarnations of The Masters of Evil.
  • Captain America (comics)'s gallery consists mostly of threats to the American way of life: Nazis (The Red Skull, both Barons Zemo), terrorist organizations (HYDRA, U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M.), internal threats (The Secret Empire, led by President Nixon), and, of course, The French (Batroc ze Lee-pair). That said, he's also battled more conventional supervillains like Solarr, the Porcupine, the Animus, and the Serpent Society. The Captain has also repeatedly clashed with the likes of the Scorpion, Mister Hyde, and Marvel's version of the Scarecrow.
  • Since Iron Man began as a vehicle for Cold War stories, his gallery were nearly all communists - the Mandarin (not technically a communist but more of a Yellow Peril), the Crimson Dynamo, the Unicorn, and the Titanium Man. Eventually, when the Cold War threats died down, his enemies became tailored to be antagonists to a playboy industrialist millionaire: Iron Monger, Justin Hammer and Sunset Bain (two business rivals), Doctor Doom (a dictator and technocrat who has what may be an even more powerful suit of armor than his own), the Ghost (an industrial saboteur), Whiplash/Blacklash (one of Hammer's longtime employees), the Blizzard (an embittered ex-employee who was fired by Stark for stealing from the company, and created his own suit of armor in an attempt at revenge), Firebrand (a radical anarchist determined to destroy capitalism and lead a utopian revolution), the Spymaster (an industrial spy), Madame Masque (a masked criminal saboteur, as well as an on-again, off-again girlfriend), Firepower (an armored warrior sponsored by the U.S. government, who wanted to destroy Iron Man when they thought he had gone rogue), the Melter (a crooked industrialist who was run out of business and set out to sabotage Stark Enterprises), Sunturion (another armored warrior who worked for a rival company), and the Living Laser (a psychopath with deadly laser blasters strapped to his wrists, who started out lusting after one of Iron Man's teammates but soon developed a loathing for Iron Man himself).
    • After the downfall of the Soviet Union, many of the Soviet villains were altered somewhat, with the Crimson Dynamo armor being used by petty criminals or by people with other non-Communist political agendas, the Unicorn having become a Cloudcuckoolander, and the Titanium Man embittered over Russia's transition to a capitalist democracy and determined to destroy Iron Man, who he blames for the change.
  • The Teen Titans have had Deathstroke, Terra, Trigon, Brother Blood, Blackfire, Psimon, and occasionally the Brotherhood of Evil. More recent additions are Jericho and evil counterparts like the Terror Titans and the Titans of Tomorrow.
  • Sleepwalker had a strange collection of original villains, including costumed criminals (8-Ball, the Chain Gang, Spectra, Psyko), uncostumed villains (Lullaby and the Bookworm), crazed government agents (the Office of Insufficient Evidence, the Thought Police), and supernatural demons (Mr. Jyn and Cobweb). In his short career, Sleepy also found time to mess with the villains of the X-Men (Brotherhood of Evil Mutants), Spider-Man (the Hobgoblin), and Doctor Strange (Nightmare).
  • Averted in Watchmen: One of the reasons the first wave of masked crime-fighters didn't work out well was that there weren't nearly as many villains that wore costumes, and they just ended up convincing criminals to work in less conspicuous ways.
  • Naturally Doctor Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme of Marvel Comics, has a rogues gallery, although it's extremely unusual. Strange's foes range from other human sorcerers (Baron Mordo) to demonic entities from other dimensions who want to take over the Earth (Nightmare, Dormammu, the Dweller-in-Darkness) to out-and-out Eldritch Abominations (Shuma-Gorath) to ancient super weapons left behind (Zom). To complicate matters, sometimes these entities use humans as agents or vessels to attack Strange when they can't go after him directly (e.g. Dormammu possessing The Hood).
  • Even though her series is only 38 issues long, Kate Spencer, the Manhunter, has quite an impressive rogues gallery. Sweeney Todd, Copperhead, the Monocle, Phobia, Dr. Phobia, Everyman, and Vesetech.
  • The C List Heroes of Great Lakes Aveng -- uhm -- X-Me -- uhm Champi -- uh... Initiative have a rogues gallery consisting of Gene "Leather Boy" Lorrene, Dr. Tannenbaumm, Deathurge (the Squirrel) and Maelstrom. Yes, most of them are even D List Villains.
  • While for rather obvious reasons The Punisher has a small rogues gallery in the sense of recurring targets... Jigsaw is the most long-running character he's ever had to deal with, even when the original Jigsaw was killed in the regular Marvel Universe, as Stuart Clarke eventually "succeeded" him, although Nicky Cavella (2 arcs) and Kathie O'Brien's husband Rawlins (3), and finally the Generals briefly joined in the MAX universe under Garth Ennis' years as author.
    • Barracuda, the Made of Iron backstabbing mercenary introduced in the MAX universe also lasted for a few arcs and even got his own miniseries. After surviving a ridiculous number of injuries throughout the series, Barracuda was finally Killed Off for Real after Frank tore off his nose with a pair of pliers, chopped off his arms, and blew his head off with an AK-47.
  • The Fantastic Four have a rather wide ranging gallery, from Galactus to Doctor Doom to The Red Ghost and his Super Apes. It says something, however, that their "Oh, right, it's Tuesday again. And right in the middle of Andy Griffith" foes are most of the universe's "Anyone know a really, really interventionist deity?" foes. (Obviously, this does not apply to the Super Apes.)
    • It's worth noting that the FF have fought a number of heroes, some of whom debuted fighting the Four. These include Namor, Hulk, the Black Panther, and the Silver Surfer.
  • In the very early stories written by Stan Lee, even the Human Torch and Ant-Man had their own rogue's galleries before they became full-time team heroes. The Torch faced off against the Beetle, Plant-Man, the Trapster, and the Wizard, while Ant-Man battled the likes of Whirlwind, Egghead, and the Porcupine. The Wizard went on to become a significant threat to the Fantastic Four, while the rest of them languished as minor villains... they weren't Stan's best creations.
  • Most of the Incredible Hulk's enemies are other super-strong bruisers who can actually go a few rounds with the Big Green Machine without immediately getting turned into roadkill, like the Abomination, Mister Hyde, Madman, the Glob, and the Wendigo. Not everyone fits the bill however, such as the Leader, a Mad Scientist and Evil Genius who has as much brains as the Hulk does brawn; the U-Foes, a collective Evil Counterpart to the Fantastic Four with a similar origin and powers, although they never actually met the Four; Zzzax, a sentient electrical field; Mercy, a fragile-looking and wayward Dark Magical Girl; the Gamma Corps, a collection of other gamma-mutated humans who serve the Leader; and Rock and Redeemer, one of whom is basically a sentient shapeshifting boulder and the other who wears a suit of deadly power armor. The Hulk has even battled a couple of Eldritch Abominations, like the Crawling Unknown (basically a giant, cancerlike growth that mutated out of control), and Sh'mballah, an Expy of Cthulhu who tried to conquer the Earth, messed with the Hulk and didn't live to regret it. The Hulk is also a popular choice for villains who fight someone besides their traditional enemies, as he's tangled with the likes of the Sandman and the Rhino and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and the Juggernaut. The Hulk is also one of the few Marvel characters who has other heroes in his rogues gallery, regularly slugging it out with The Mighty Thor, Wolverine, and The Thing.
  • Daredevil, despite usually keeping to one area of New York City, has managed to rack up quite a Rogues Gallery, amongst them the Kingpin, assassin for hire Bullseye, on and off again girlfriend / Greek Goddess of Death Elektra, evil ninja cult the Hand, and then there's Bullet, Stilt-Man, Turk, Typhoid Mary, Tombstone, Mister Hyde, Mister Fear, the Death-Stalker, the Gladiator, the Eel, and Electro and Mysterio, who DD shares with Spider-Man. Even Anti-Hero The Punisher clashes with Daredevil often enough that the two show up in each other's series at least once on each run!
  • The Mighty Thor's rogues gallery is a strange mishmash of mythological villains and costumed criminals. Some of his enemies are derived from Norse myth, like his brother Loki, and the fire giant Surtur, and those who hail from the worlds of myth but were created by Stan Lee like Ulik the rock troll, Amora the Enchantress, and Skurge the Executioner, but even in the early Stan Lee-scripted stories he fought mortal villains like the Wrecking Crew, the Absorbing Man, Mister Hyde, the Cobra, Radioactive Man, Zarrko, and the Grey Gargoyle.
  • The original Spider-Woman developed a considerable rogues gallery of her own during her original 50-issue series in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the Brothers Grimm, the Needle, the Flying Tiger, Nekra, Dr. Karl Malus, the Hangman, Gypsy Moth, the Human Fly (on loan from Spider-Man), Morgan Le Fey, Daddy Long Legs, Turner D. Century, and the Waxman.
  • Different incarnations of the Ghost Rider had their own rogues galleries, including both demonic villains like Deathwatch, Blackout, Hag & Troll and Lilith, and more conventional costumed villains like the Orb, the Water Wizard, and Marvel's own version of the Scarecrow.
  • A non-superhero example would be with Scrooge McDuck, most notably in the comics by Carl Barks and Don Rosa. Along with the Beagle Boys, who are constantly trying to rob Scrooge blind, he has to contend with Magica De Spelle, an evil sorceress who constantly tries to steal Scrooge's Number One Dime because she thinks it has magic powers; the snooty John D. Rockerduck, who simply inherited his money instead of working for it like Scrooge did; and Flintheart Glomgold, who has all of Scrooge's drive and determination but none of his ethics or morals. Later day additions include the Evil Foreigner country of Brutopia and Arpine Lusene (who's out to steal Scrooge's money simply to show that he can, or, at the very least, make it disappear so he can claim he did.)
    • The Beagle Boys, Flintheart, and Magica all became regulars on DuckTales (1987).
    • Interestingly, while both pretty much come from the original canon, Rockerduck and Flintheart rarely if ever are featured in the same canon in modern comics. In America Flintheart is prevalent while in Europe Rockerduck is more famous, and as a result hardly any american fan is aware of Rockerduck and the same applies to european fans for Flinheart, which resulted in their personalities to have evolved over time to basically be the same. Thus, you can basically call Rockerduck's "Europe's Flintheart" and Flintheart "America's Rockerduck".
  • Superman analogue Supreme has Darius Dax, the Televillain, Korgo the Space Tyrant, Shadow Supreme, Emerpus, Optilux, and Szasz the Sprite Supreme, among others.
  • Aquaman has Black Manta and Ocean Master sharing archvillain status, with Carapax, the Fisherman, the Scavenger, the Human Flying Fish, King Shark, the Eel, Marine Marauder, the Deep Six, the Thirst, Kordax, and Charybdis rounding out the ranks.
  • Deconstructed in Bates and Weisman's version of Captain Atom, in which Cap had a fictitious rogues' gallery that the military designed for him as part of his publicly-revealed false origin. Since that origin was, of course, his original, Silver Age Charlton origin, his fake rogues' gallery, most notably Dr. Spectro, were drawn from his actual Charlton stories. On top of which, some of these fake villains later became real ones. Plus which, they, along with many of his other actual rogues, including, again, Dr. Spectro, as well as Major Force, The Ghost (at one time), and, of course, Wade Eiling, worked for the same secret military project he himself worked for. Of course, he also had "regular" rogues like Plastique and the Queen Bee.
  • The Legion of Super-Heroes has loads and loads of recurring enemies, including at least three teams of villains:
    • The Fatal Five: Tharok, Manos, Validus, Emerald Empress, and the Persuader (plus, on one occasion, Mordecai standing in for Validus).
    • The Legion of Super-Villains: Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen, Cosmic King, Chameleon Chief, Esper Lass, Hunter, Magno Lad, Micro Lad, Nemesis Kid, Ol-Vir, Radiation Roy, Ron-Karr, Spider Girl, Sun Emperor, Tyr, and Zymyr.
    • The Justice League of Earth: Earth-Man, Storm Boy, Golden Boy, Tusker, Eyeful Ethel, and Radiation Roy and Spider Girl from the LSV.
    • And numerous unaffiliated villains: Mordru, the Time Trapper, Computo, Universo, the Dark Circle, Leland McCauley, Imperiex, Evillo, Grimbor the Chainsman, and so on and so forth.
  • Tintin isn't a superhero, but he did have a series of recurring antagonists: Roberto Rastapopulous (Cigars of the Pharaoh, The Blue Lotus, The Red Sea Sharks, Flight 714), Colonel Spontz (Destination Moon, Explorers on the Moon, The Calculus Affair), Allan (The Crab with the Golden Claws, Flight 714), Dr. Mueller (The Black Island, Land of Black Gold), and General Tapioca (The Broken Ear, Tintin and the Picaros).
  • The Savage Dragon has literally hundreds of rogues between the Vicious Circle, various Overlords, Darklord, Thor, Solar Man, The Fiend, his Evil Doppelganger, etc.
  • Judge Dredd has a rather small gallery, since (much like Punisher) most of his enemies end up dead, and many of those that he sends to prison don't pop up again. Recurring villains include Judge Death, PJ Maybe, and the recently-retired Mean Machine Angel. One could perhaps also add Orlok, though he tends to tangle more with Anderson.
  • Scott Pilgrim has Ramona's league of evil exes as part of Scott's rogues gallery. They are Matthew Patel, Lucas Lee, Todd Ingram, Roxy Richter, Kyle and Ken Katayanagi, Gideon Graves. Envy Adams also serves as part of the rogues gallery throughout books 3 and 6 but in the end she makes a Heel Face Turn.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog, in his self-titled series, has acquired a large Rogues Gallery over the comic's Long Runners. Aside from his Arch Enemy Dr. Robotnik/Eggman, Sonic and his friends have also had to deal with Eggman's nephew Snively, Ixis Naugus, Mammoth Mogul, the Destructix, Scourge and the Suppression Squad, Warlord Kodos (now deceased), A.D.A.M. and E.V.E.[1] (also deceased), the Iron Queen and King, the Battle Bird Armada, and traitors like Fiona Fox, Drago Wolf, and Geoffrey St. John. And that's not even counting all of Robotnik's numerous robots with more character than mere Mooks.
  • DC's Firestorm has a Rogues Gallery that could be charitably described as... deficient. Not only are the vast majority laughably underpowered compared to the hero (who has to carry around an Idiot Ball the size of a house for them to be any threat to him whatsoever), but they seem to made up mostly of perverts or offensive stereotypes. This article covers several of the worst offenders.
  • Before they lost their powers en masse, the Order of Despots was this to the Pantheon in All Fall Down.


Fanfic


Film


Literature

  • Not a standard Superhero gig, but the Harry Potter books have a Rogues Gallery of Death Eaters, including (though most definitely not limited to) Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, Peter Pettigrew, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Voldemort himself.
  • Though each book has its own villains, The Dresden Files does have a number of recurring villains and factions who make trouble for the eponymous wizard, including the Denarians, Cowl, Queen Mab, the Black Court, the Red Court, the White Court, and the Black Council.
  • The Wheel of Time has the thirteen Forsaken, powerful mages with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder practicing general villainy and trying to kill the heroes.
  • Jess Nevins notes that Dr. Jack Quartz assembled many of Nick Carter's former foes as part of a coordinated effort against Nick Carter.
  • Sexton Blake also had recurring foes.


Live-Action TV

  • The PBS game show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?? had a recurring group of criminals, one of whom would feature as the villain the contestants had to capture in any given episode - Double Trouble, Patty Larceny, Eartha Brute, Top Grunge, Vic the Slick...
  • Though Firefly only ran for a few episodes, the series made a point to have multiple instances of recurring villains, including Adelai Niska, Saffron, the Hands of Blue, and, in the comic series Those Left Behind, Lawrence Dobson.
  • Hawaii Five-O had a number of recurring villains: Chinese terrorist and Magnificent Bastard Wo Fat, gang lords Honore Vashon and Tony Alika, drug kingpin Big Chicken, and Master of Disguise Lewis Avery Filer.
  • Instead of just one group, Power Rangers Operation Overdrive had four groups of villains competing for the MacGuffin aside from the Rangers themselves. A rarity in the series.
  • The Negative Syndicate from Go Go Sentai Boukenger.
  • Doctor Who, being a Long Runner show, has a large Rogues Gallery. Some of the villains and aggressors are the Daleks and their creator Davros, the Master, the Cybermen, the Sontarans, the Autons and Nestene replicants, the Silurians, the Weeping Angels and the Slitheen. Several of these races would form the Alliance in "The Pandorica Opens" to save the Universe from the Doctor.
    • The BBC has taken to dubbing the Doctor's Rogues Gallery the "Carnival of Monsters", a name derived from the title of a serial in which, strangely, only two of them appear.
    • Specifically speaking...
      • First Doctor: Daleks, the Monk, the Celestial Toymaker, and the Voord.
      • Second Doctor: Daleks, Cybermen, the Great Intelligence, Robot Yetis, Ice Warriors and Quarks.
      • Third Doctor: Autons, Nestene Consciousness, Silurians, Sea Devils, The Master, Daleks, and Ogrons.
      • Fourth Doctor: Sontarans, Daleks, Davros, Cybermen, the Master, the Black Guardian, Zygons, and Beep the Meep.
      • Fifth Doctor: The Master, Mara, Cybermen, the Black Guardian, and Daleks.
      • Sixth Doctor: Daleks, Sil, Cybermen, the Rani, Davros and The Valeyard.
      • Seventh Doctor: Daleks, Cybermen, Silurians, the Master, Death, and Timewyrm.
      • Eighth Doctor: The Master, Daleks, Rassilon, Cybermen, the Monk, and Zygons.
      • Ninth Doctor: Slitheen family and Daleks.
      • Tenth Doctor: Robot Santas, Krillitanes, Cybus Cybermen, Daleks, the Master, Sontarans and the Advocate.
      • Eleventh Doctor: Cybermen, Daleks, Weeping Angels, Silurians, Silents, and Professor Saurian.
  • Star Trek had gotten a progressively larger one as time went on. While The Original Series pretty much only had Klingons and Romulans, later series would give us the Ferengi (for a while), the Cardassians, the Breen, the Dominion, the Kazon, the Vidians, and, of course, the Borg.
  • Santino from the Filipino drama May Bukas Pa has enemies varied as an atheistic reporter out to destroy his reputation to a syndicate leader who abducts children to the corrupt town mayor who is also his father. Santino is only 6 years old.
  • The Cape collected a cadre of creepy criminals to combat, including Chess, Scales, Cain, Goggles and Hicks, Dice, Razer, Kozmo, the Lich, and frienemies Marty Voyt and the Carnival of Crime.
  • Person of Interest has been building up an impressive Rogues Gallery in the midst of its we-help-the-helpless-Cyberpunk-spy-procedural: Carl Elias, an up-and-coming Mafia don; Agent Snow, a CIA assassin; Root, a super-hacker; "HR", a cabal of cortupt cops inside the NYPD; Special Agent Donnelly, who's in charge of an FBI manhunt; and the unnamed government department tasked with covering up the Machine's existance. Plus there's Zoe Morgan, who's more of a frienemy-with-benefits.


Newspaper Comics

  • Parodied in Calvin and Hobbes with Calvin's alter-ego Stupendous Man when Calvin imagines many of the people he knows as his supervillainous enemies. Susie becomes "Annoying Girl", Miss Wormwood becomes the "Crab Teacher," Rosalyn becomes "Baby-Sitter Girl," and Calvin's Mom becomes Stupendous Man's Arch Enemy, "Mom-Lady."
  • A comic strip in the Philippines, entitled 'Pugad Baboy' (translated: Pig's Nest), about a town of fat Filipinos features several long-story adventure arcs with its protagonist talking dog, Polgas (translated: "Flea"). Polgas has amassed a bit of a Rogues Gallery with recurring villains such as Atong Damuho, Col. Manyakis, and Sendong Langib. Read The Other Wiki for details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_villains_in_Pugad_Baboy
  • Dick Tracy could be considered a Trope Maker, as he had his own Rogues Gallery (Big Boy, Pruneface, Flattop, Mumbles, etc.) before Batman and Superman, though Dick tended to off his foes after one or two appearances.
    • It should be noted that a couple of Batman's most memorable foes (Like the Joker and Catwoman) predate the appearance of the most famous grotesque Dick Tracy antagonists.


Professional Wrestling


Video Games

  • Sora of Kingdom Hearts has what is likely one of the most epic instances of a Rogues Gallery ever, consisting of almost every Disney Villain, each of whom dominated entire movies: Maleficent, The Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook, Ursula, Jafar, Scar, Hades, Shan-Yu, Clayton, Barbossa, The MCP, Oogie-Boogie, Chernabog, and Pete. The organization XII provides thirteen more flamboyant villains, and the distinction of Arch-nemesis goes to Xehanort (though he's been split up into multiple characters).
  • Geo Stelar's Mega Man has accumulated a Rogues Gallery, some reoccurring after their main arc. Taurus Fire, Cygnus Wing, Harp Note, Libra Scales, Queen Ophiuca, Gemini Thunder and King Cepheus in the first game. Dark Phantom, Yeti Blizzard, Solo-Rogue, Plesio Surf, Terra Condor, Hollow and Vega with Taurus Fire, Harp Note and Queen Ophiuca returning for their second round. Then in the third game are the dealers consisting of Mr. King, Joker, Tia and her little brother, their alien partners Virgo/Corvus and Heartless. Also returning for their second round are Dark Phantom and Solo-Rogue and returning for his third round is Taurus Fire.
  • Crash Bandicoot has one himself in the form of Neo Cortex, Tiny Tiger, Ripper Roo, Papu Papu, and Uka Uka
  • Earthworm Jim has a rogue's gallery in both the game and cartoon continuities, with some villains unique to each continuity. Villains present in both continuities are Queen Slug-for-a-Butt, Psy-Crow, Evil the Cat, Bob the Killer Goldfish, and Professor Monkey-For-A-Head. Game-exclusive villains are Chuck, Major Mucus, and Doctor Duodenum and a cartoon-exclusive villain was Evil Jim (though he did make an appearance in an EWJ game, making him a Canon Immigrant).
  • While the 1979 movie of The Warriors just had Luther, the 2005 videogame adaptation provided Cleon, Swan, and company with a whole array of colorful gang leaders: Chatterbox, Cobb, Big Moe, and Ghost, to name a few - not to mention Cleon's oldest enemy, Virgil.
  • Surprisingly, despite being a Superhero game, City of Heroes didn't really have a Rogues Gallery to speak of - mostly its enemies formed entire factions, the leaders of which only occasionally appeared. But Issue 18 introduced an actual Rogues Gallery faction consisting of a multitude of heroes, villains, rogues, and vigilantes with their own backstories and motivations for players to battle during Tip and Morality Missions.
    • This hasn't stopped players from creating their own rogues galleries beforehand, either through making other characters, the Mission Architect, or simple roleplaying. And many of the game's canonical heroes have particular enemies they fight. (Statesman and Lord Recluse, Back Alley Brawler and drugs in general, and so on.)
  • Champions Online actually allows the player to create his or her OWN Rogues Gallery with the Nemesis game mechanic. Starting at level 25, the player creates a custom costumed supervillain with a basic powerset, chooses their minion types, and gives him one of three personality types. For quite a while longer, those minions will occasionally try to ambush the player, dropping "clues" which lead to anti-Nemesis minions. Eventually the Nemesis is defeated "for good", and the player can create a NEW Nemesis - or, if they prefer, can even reactivate a previous one. If a player sticks with a level-capped character long enough, (s)he can create a really significant gallery for himself / herself.
  • Mario has built up a gallery of his own over the years. It includes: Bowser, Wario, Bowser Jr., King Boo, Fawful, Petey Piranha, the Koopalings, Kamek, and Waluigi.
  • Each and every Carmen Sandiego game features a whole Rogues Gallery of baddies, many of them with names that are Incredibly Lame Puns.
  • Superhero City has a wide and varied Rogues Gallery for your character to battle, whether through missions or as bosses in raids that you can summon to combat and get Experience Points. The major villains, counting raid bosses, include: Crime boss Kingpin and his primary enforcer Suit, ninja lord Fuma Hanzo, werewolf pack leader Silvermane, voodoo master Lou, Amazon leader Shieka, galactic conquerors Astronickus and Kemma Azonix, vampire lord Lucius Bloodvayne, Eldritch Abomination Hollow King, Atlantean racist Dr. Argon, and Horsemen of the Apocalypse Conquest, War, Famine, and Death.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog has slowly built up his own little gallery over the years: Dr. Eggman, Metal Sonic, Eggman Nega, Fang the Sniper, Babylon Rogues, Chaos, and Mecha Sonic.
  • Kirby has a variety of recurring antagonists: King Dedede, Meta Knight, Dark Matter, and Bloody Murder are the main ones, but if you include recurring bosses and minibosses then it expands to include: Whispy Woods, Kracko, Bonkers, Lololo and Lalala, Paint Rollerblade Good, Dyna Blade, Galacta Knight, and more.


Web Comics

  • Most of the contestants of Last Res0rt ARE the Rogues Gallery. Having a pack of condemned criminals tends to indicate they've all been put there for SOME reason...
  • Sluggy Freelance - Hereti Corp, Oasis, K'Z'K, the Dimension of Pain demons, Dr. Crabtree, The Evil, and, depending on the storyline, Bun-Bun. Different members of the Rouges Gallery meeting each other has been pretty rare so far, though a potential meeting between Hereti Corp and K'Z'K's cult is supposedly enough to lead to the destruction of reality.
  • The Adventures of Dr. McNinja has been building up towards a proper gallery for some time now, with members like King Radical, Dracula, Frans Rayner, Mongo the Uberninja, Ronald McBonald, and Dr. Luchadore.
  • The Order of the Stick often brings villains back in new arcs, especially the Linear Guild, with its rotating cast of evil opposites (some of which return each time), and arguably Miko being brought back after her initial "go fetch the Order" arc to participate in the Battle of Azure City.
    • Currently, the Order's rouge's gallery consists of the members of Xykon's Team Evil, the Linear Guild, the Thieves' Guild (technically), General Tarquin (and by extension, Tarquin's co-conspirators in the other two Western empires), the IFCC (though only V knows about them, and even he/she doesn't know the extent of their threat), and Qarr the imp. Miko and Kubota both qualified, but not anymore, due to both being dead.
  • The Non Adventures of Wonderella parodies the heck out of this trope as all members of her Rogues Gallery have names ending in 'ella. She even told one would-be nemesis whose first alias did not end in 'ella that she couldn't be in her Rogue's Gallery until she got with the program. (They also function as a support group.)


Web Original

Western Animation


Real Life

  • A truly bizarre example can be seen with Christian Weston Chandler, creator of the infamous Sonichu webcomic. Chris-Chan, as he's often called, has made a long list of enemies for reasons too varied to go into here. His recurring foes include the likes of Mary Lee Walsh, Clyde Cash, Asperchu, Michael Snyder, the Man In The Pickle Suit, and many more.
  1. ↑ who, despite the Theme Naming, never actually worked together - or even met, for that matter
  2. ↑ Thanks to Apollo, he's no longer alone as a hero, but Linkara is still the main protector.
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