Born Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader is the tragic hero in the Star Wars films, and ultimately the central character of the series. He is the husband of Padmé Amidala and the biological father of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa. Through his role as the chief protagonist of the prequel movies and chief antagonist of the original three films, Vader has become an iconic villain (more than George Lucas ever intended), and was ranked third on American Film Institute's top 50 villains of all time list.

In the first two films released in the series, Vader is portrayed as the epitome of pure evil — a mass murderer and war criminal who holds an entire galaxy under the sway of an evil empire. However, in Return of the Jedi and the later prequel films, his fall from grace and eventual redemption are explored in greater depth. Indeed, Star Wars creator George Lucas has explained that he considers Vader a victim of the saga's true villain, Palpatine.

In the prequel trilogy, Anakin is believed to be the Chosen One of the Jedi prophecy, destined to bring balance to the Force by destroying the Sith. He is taken as a young boy in 32 BBY and trained as a Jedi. Anakin becomes a highly talented Jedi Knight; a distinguished pilot and swordsman with an unprecedented level of Force power. He is a legend of the Clone Wars, in which he fights for the Galactic Republic and is instrumental in several important battles. Despite his nearly unmatchable skills as a Jedi, however, Anakin's tragic flaw — fear of loss — ultimately leads him to the dark side of the Force, transforming him into Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, in 19 BBY.

Lex Luthor is a fictional character, a DC Comics supervillain and archenemy of Superman. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Luthor first appeared in Action Comics #23 (1940). His history has been retconned several times since then, with his current canonical origin being Mark Waid's 2004 limited series Birthright.

The (usually) bald-headed Luthor has been Superman's main foe for most of the superhero's existence and has unveiled countless plots to destroy him and take over the world. Originally Luthor was a mad scientist but has since been rewritten as a Machiavellian industrialist and white-collar criminal. For a brief period in the early 2000s, he was president of the United States.

Luthor is one of several Superman characters with the initials "LL," including Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Lionel Luthor, Letitia Lerner, Lori Lemaris, and Linda Lee (aka Supergirl).

Luthor has been featured in most adaptations of Superman outside comic books. In the film series of the late 1970s and 1980s, Gene Hackman took a comical approach to the character. Stan Jones provided Luthor's voice in the 1970s and 1980s SuperFriends cartoon series. In the 2000s live-action series Smallville, a retelling of Superman's early years, a young adult Lex is played by Michael Rosenbaum. The role of Lex Luthor will be played by Kevin Spacey in the upcoming movie Superman Returns.

Doctor Doom, real name Victor von Doom, is a Marvel Comics supervillain. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he debuted in The Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962). His full origin was told in Fantastic Four Annual #2 (1964).

A brilliant scientist, Doom was once a classmate of the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards. However, he became embittered by his jealousy of Richards and by facial scars received from an experiment gone awry, and perhaps from impatiently donning a steaming-hot iron mask forged by mystic monks.

Doom is considered the archenemy of the Fantastic Four, but has also been added to the rogue galleries of the Avengers, the Punisher, the Silver Surfer, the Hulk, Iron Man and Spider-Man. He is one of the comic book industry's most recognizable and archetypal supervillains. His ruling of the small nation of Latveria provides him with diplomatic immunity, an ingenious element never previously used in comic books.

He is not to be confused with the obscure Fox Comics villain Dr. Doom, introduced in Science Comics #1 (Feb. 1940), and who, like Marvel's Dr. Doom in Astonishing Tales, was the star of his own features in Science, Big 3, and The Green Mask. Neither are to be confused with the supernatural monster-hunter Doctor Droom a.k.a. Doctor Druid, Marvel's first ongoing Silver Age hero.

Dracula (1897) is a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, and the name of the world's most famous vampire character.

Dracula has been attributed to many literary genres including horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. Structurally it is an epistolary novel, that is, told as a series of diary entries and letters. Literary critics have examined many themes in the novel, such as the role of women in Victorian culture, sexuality, immigration and folklore. Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, the novel's influence on the popularity of vampires has been singularly responsible for scores of theatrical and movie interpretations throughout the 20th century.

Galactus, sometimes called the Devourer of Worlds or Eater of Planets, is a fictional comic book character, a cosmic entity within Marvel Comics' universe. Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, he first appeared in Fantastic Four #48, the beginning of a story arc sometimes regarded as the finest Lee/Kirby collaboration.

The Red Skull, Johann Schmidt, was a former Nazi general officer and confidante of Adolf Hitler. He has been closely affiliated with HYDRA and is an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Avengers, and the interests of the United States of America and of the free world in general. He was physically augmented by having his mind put in the body of a clone of Captain America; giving him a body that is the pinnacle of human perfection. He has been seemingly killed in the past only to return to plague the world with schemes of world domination and genocide, time and time again.

Doctor Octopus (real name Otto Octavius) is a comic book supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe (created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko) and one of the greatest foes of Spider-Man. "Doc Ock", as Spider-Man often calls him, is a powerful and highly intelligent foe who is usually considered Spider-Man's worst enemy, alongside the Green Goblin; a position not contested until the late 1980s by Venom. The character's first appearance was in Amazing Spider-Man volume 1 #3 (July 1963).

Boba Fett (born 32 BBY) is a popular fictional character in the Star Wars universe, despite having relatively little screen time in the films. Boba Fett is a bounty hunter hired by the Empire to track down and capture Han Solo and Chewbacca, and also hired by Jabba the Hutt to capture Han Solo.

A clone of Jango Fett, Boba was created on Kamino and raised as Jango's natural son. Jango trained the boy in the ways of the Mandalorians. Boba grew up to be a bounty hunter feared and dreaded throughout the galaxy, known for his subtle and cunning moves tracking down his prey. Fett commonly worked for the gangster Jabba the Hutt, and held associations with Darth Vader.

Magneto (alias Erik Magnus Lehnsherr) is a mutant in the Marvel Comics universe. He has at various times been a supervillain, a superhero, and an anti-hero and in his role as a villain - arguably his most famous role, though not his most complex - he is the primary antagonist of the X-Men. He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, though it was writer Chris Claremont who would later flesh out and develop the character into the one he is today.

Just as Professor X was inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr., it is possible that Magneto could have been inspired by Malcolm X.

Ming the Merciless is a fictional character appearing in the Flash Gordon comic strip. When the heroic Flash Gordon and his friends land on the planet Mongo, they find it ruled by the evil Emperor Ming, a despot who quickly becomes their enemy.

The capital of his empire is named Mongo in his honour. In addition to his army, Ming has access to a wide variety of science fiction gadgets, ranging from rocket ships to death rays to robots. Though evil, he has his weaknesses, which include a desire to marry Flash's beautiful companion, Dale Arden. Ming's daughter Princess Aura is as evil as he is when the series begins, but is eventually reformed by her love for Flash.

Though he is technically an extraterrestrial, Ming strongly resembles a stereotypical Asian supervillain, and his resemblance to Dr. Fu Manchu is especially strong. In later adaptations of the story, his Oriental nature has been downplayed out of sensitivity to criticisms of racial stereotyping. (In fact, in DC Comics' 9 issue Flash Gordon mini-series, Ming and most of the human-like denizens of Mongo [with some exceptions] were given grey skin.)


Max von Sydow as Emperor Ming in Flash Gordon (1980)In the Flash Gordon film serials, Ming was played by Charles Middleton. In the 1980 theatrical film, he was played by Max von Sydow.

In the animated series, Ming looks totally different: he is a green, pointy-eared, sharp-toothed scaly alien, which cause the heroes to call him a "lizard" (the change to green skin was not an uncommon treatment for Asian villains to receive, and was shared by Doctor No in James Bond Jr and The Mandarin in Iron Man). In this version, Ming is more humane and even comical at times.

Emperor Palpatine of the Galactic Empire (82 BBY – 4 ABY, spirit incapacitated 11 ABY), often simply referred to as the Emperor, is one of the main characters and the foremost villain in the fictional Star Wars universe.

Palpatine is also known as Darth Sidious, a cunning and powerful Sith Lord whose sole goal was to rule the galaxy. To this end, he gradually orchestrated the collapse of the Galactic Republic and transformed it into a dictatorship known as the Galactic Empire, with himself as Emperor. Throughout his lifetime, his styles of address have been:

His Grace Senator Palpatine of the Sovereign System of Naboo and Member of the Galactic Senate
His Excellency Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic, Leader of the Galactic Senate.
His Imperial Majesty Emperor Palpatine of the Galactic Empire, Leader of the Imperial Senate.
Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith.

The Joker is a fictional DC Comics villain, widely considered to be Batman's arch-enemy and the most well-known villain in comic book history. The idea was conceived by Batman inker\letterer Jerry Robinson (while on staff under Batman creator\artist Bob Kane), the Joker first appeared in Batman #1 (1940). Originally conceived as an evil "court-jester" type, the character was rejected by studio writer Bill Finger as being "too clownish" however, he later relayed the idea to Bob Kane. Kane, who started out as a "gag" artist, loved the concept and encouraged its production. Mr. Finger found a photograph of actor Conrad Veidt wearing make-up for a silent film entitled The Man Who Laughs (which was based on a novel by Victor Hugo) and it was from this photograph that the Joker was modelled.

The Joker is a humor-obsessed criminal with a clown-like appearance, who likes to kill people with fatal hilarity. Writers have alternatively portrayed him as a goofy trickster-thief or as a serial killer with a warped sense of humor. Recent writers of the Batman comic book series have preferred the latter, and the Joker has been responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life, such as the murder of Jason Todd, the successor to the mantle of Robin after Dick Grayson, the injury/paralysis of Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl/Oracle, and the death of Sarah Essen Gordon, Jim Gordon's wife.

The Joker also killed Alexander Luthor, the hero of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths and villain of its sequal Infinite Crisis.

The Joker is regarded by fans and comic-book aficionados as one of the greatest villains in comic-book history and by many the one with the most psychological depth.

The Joker has been featured throughout the Batman saga, and has been an enemy of the Caped Crusader in most adaptations in other media. Interpretations of the Joker that have made him well-known to the general public include Cesar Romero's in the 1960s Batman television series, Mark Hamill in the DC Animated Universe and Jack Nicholson's in the 1989 feature film.

The Joker (as played by Nicholson) ranks number 45 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 50 film villains of all time.