While everyone remembers the heroes from their favorite comic books, the villains are what make the heroes so memorable. Would Batman be as popular if he did not always have the Joker to match wits with? Or would we care for Superman if Lex Luthor did not care to destroy him at every turn? The villains undoubtedly make the stories, and thus, a list of the greatest comic villains in this author's opinion deserved a few words.

1. The Joker: Of course he makes this list. In his lifetime, he has orchestrated some of the most horrific crimes ever witnessed in comic-land. He is responsible for the death of more than one Robin, the paralization of the first Batgirl, and of course, the deaths of countless Gotham Citizens. Aside from being the Clown Prince of Crime to Batman's Dark Knight of Gotham, he also does something that readers find amazing. While doing the most morally debasing things ever written, he also makes us laugh. We laugh to cope with what the story does to us, but we still laugh. And in the end, isn't that exactly what the Joker was going for anyway?

2. Ozymandias: What kind of villain is not a villain at all? The kind that kills millions to save billions. Ozymandias from Watchmen makes the list of great comic villains because he not only kills his own kind, masked heroes, in order to make way for the greater good, but he also sacrifices the lives of millions of innocents to keep the world from degenerating to the point where there is no choice left but nuclear war. While he might have saved the planet, he also profits from creating his very own alien attack, and lives a life of luxury and comfort while millions still succumb to disease and malnutrition. In the end, he is no better than the credit card companies of today.

3. Dark Phoenix: Disturbed and unstable, Jean Grey reborn as Phoenix took a turn for the worst and becomes a villain worthy of this list. Guilty of numerous crimes including snuffing out the sun of a populated galaxy, Dark Phoenix has murdered countless numbers of people, all in the name of chaos. Not to mention she turned on all her friends, and gives anyone who ticks her off (and that's everyone) a seriously bad sunburn if she is only mildly irritated.

4. The Government: When there is nobody to blame, who does everyone blame? The government. And with good reason. The government has been involved with major plans to destroy other countries, assassinate people, and even wipe out entire planets in order to further their own needs. Whether it is the British government from V For Vendetta or the United States in DMZ. Killing their own people, performing scientific experiments on the social deviants that stand up to them, or simply causing immesurable collateral damage is all a part of the evil government, and is something that certainly gets any evil government a place on this list.

5. Jack The Ripper: The streets of London were never more terrorized than when Jack the Ripper roamed the land, and in From Hell, it is brought forth in elegant, perfect style complete with the frame narrative that something larger than a few murdered hookers going on. Jack The Ripper makes the list of villains not because he was a real person or because of how he is personified in From Hell, but because he was never truly caught. To this day, it is a mystery as to whom was disembowling innocent women of the night.

Of course, comic books are rife with good villains, but these five give the term villain a whole new definition. Whether they are killing mass numbers of people, or just making life a living hell for the hero, the villains that we all love to hate are what make many comic books worth reading.