Which, on the surface, is a pretty easy question to answer, as there are so many villains in superhero comics… But it actually turned out to be more complicated than we first thought. A few ground rules:

- To be truly evil, you can’t really be sympathetic or helpful. That rules out some major villains like Magneto and Dr. Doom, who fight with honor, for causes, protect people, and sometimes team up with the heroes.

- You also can’t be totally freaking crazy. This was a highly debated one, as one of the audience members shouted out “Joker!” But Joker is only evil when we has focus, like in Killing Joke. That’s a pretty rare occurrence. The random Joker who just kills people wily-nily, which is most of the time, isn’t necessarily evil, just crazy. Like I said, not everyone agreed with this one, though for the sake of this particular game/post/whatever, let’s assume it’s a rule.

So who does that leave? Who is truly the most evil character in comics?

My first, gut instinct was Norman Osborne/Green Goblin. Ignoring the past two years or so of Marvel continuity, where Normie has, lets be honest, pretended to be a good guy for his own gain, he’s been probably the most consistently single-mindedly evil character in comics. What’s his motivation for wanting to destroy Spider-Man? It’s not to protect his family… He hates his family. It’s not to even, necessarily, protect his business. Most of those funds going into Spider-Man destroying type apparatuses. His motivation is that he completely, utterly, hates Spider-Man. That’s it.

I’m sure people maybe can point out a story here and there where it’s varied a little, but I would argue that 99% of the time, Norman Osborne’s sole motivation as a villain is, “I just came up with the most vile, complicated, horrific plan possible, that will destroy many, many lives and relationships, for the sole purpose of f–king with Spider-Man. The end!” No subtext, no complicated plan, just Spider-f–king.

Even Lex Luthor has had redeeming characteristics. He’s almost the same character at this point as Norman, but at least Lex thinks he’s doing the right thing, trying to get rid of Superman so either he can solve the world’s ills, or humans can stop depending on the man in Red and Blue.

Norman? Nope. Why does he throw Gwen Stacey off a bridge? To hurt Spider-Man. Why does he sleep with Gwen Stacey for that matter? To literally screw over Peter. And though we don’t know where it’s going, given the groundwork, I would not at all be shocked if the entire Dark Reign is just a way for Ozzie to legitimize making Spider-Man’s life utter hell.

So what do you guys think: is there any character more evil than the Green Goblin? The only other one that came even close was probably The Anti-Monitor, who again, has no motivation other than “I would like to destroy all reality.” So that’s pretty evil.