With Legends of Tomorrow’s sixth season set to come out in 2021 and the team being announced to have aliens as its primary threat during that season, it felt appropriate to rank each of the main villains from the first five seasons of the show.
5. Lachesis (Season 5): On paper, the premise of Charlie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) being a mythical Fate and having her sister (Sarah Strange) wreak havoc by releasing the souls of history’s worst people into the world sounds interesting and exciting. Unfortunately, the writing and performance of Strange prevents Lachesis from being an actual threatening villain. We are not properly introduced to her until halfway through the season, and we mostly see the other sister Atropos (Joanna Vanderham) go up against the Legends while Lachesis is offscreen for the majority of season 5. Lachesis never once seemed intimidating because we barely ever saw her. If she appeared during the season more than she actually did, she could have been interesting. Unfortunately, she mainly just sat in a room while her sister did most of the work. The only character she really interacted with was Astra Logue (Olivia Swamn), and even then it was just to develop Astra’s character instead of solidifying Lachesis as a threat. While season 5 was a large improvement over the previous season, it stumbled with its main villain.
4. Mallus (Season 3): With an actor like John Noble doing the voice, Mallus should have been a very frightening villain during the third season of the show. Unfortunately, with the series trying to steer towards the comedy more than the drama, Mallus suffered greatly as a character. Similar to Lachesis, Mallus was rarely ever seen and appeared even less so than the former. While the buildup to him was fascinating and exciting at first, most of that goodwill was ruined when it became apparent that the show was saving him until the season finale. When he did finally appear, he was nothing more than a generic looking CGI demon. He becomes even harder to take seriously when he is defeated by a giant Elmo ripoff called Beebo. This is the villain that Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) was afraid of? This is the character that not even Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) would cross? What a letdown. Noble’s voice performance of the character elevated him a tiny bit, but it still didn’t pay off. The only reason that Mallus is a better villain than Lachesis is because the buildup surrounding him was very interesting at the time. Season 3 was good and an overall win for the show, but Mallus is not one of the reasons that it succeeded.
3. Neron (Season 4): Like Arrow and The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow’s fourth season is probably its lowest point in the entire series. It combined each Arrowverse show’s problem of annoying characters and unfunny humor and went even further with it. Little about the fourth season worked aside from Matt Ryan’s performance as John Constantine and the relationship between Nate (Nick Zano) and his father (Thomas F. Wilson). One aspect about the season that was rather mixed was the villain Neron. In the comics, Neron is one of DC’s most formidable and interesting villains, almost rivaling iconic characters like Darkseid and Brainiac. This version of Neron fails to live up the the comics due to the character being set in an almost parody-like environment. The buildup before he is seen is very interesting and his rivalry with Constantine is extremely entertaining. Whenever the season focused on Neron manipulating the Legends and torturing Constantine, the character worked. Unfortunately, the season insisted on forcing in laughable aspects to the character when it really didn’t need to. Neron’s girlfriend turns out to be none other than the Fairy Godmother (Jane Carr) and with that, all the interesting and intimidating aspects of the villain are erased. If Neron was given more dignity by the writers and the plot point of the Fairy Godmother being his girlfriend was removed, he could have been a great villain. Unfortunately, he is an average antagonist at best.
2. Vandal Savage (Season 1): A lot has been said about Legends of Tomorrow’s lackluster first season, and rarely any of it has been positive. Many fans say that one of the weakest aspects surrounding the first season was Vandal Savage (Casper Crump), who was the first big bad to face off against the Legends. A lot of people called Crump’s performance wooden and the character’s infatuation with Hawkgirl (Ciara Renée) to be creepy and weird. In some areas, the fans are right to criticize this version of Vandal Savage. Compared to the comics and animated media that Vandal Savage appears in, Crump’s portrayal does not even hold a candle. Even the writers of the show agreed that he was a lame villain and have created opportunities to make fun of the character in following seasons. However, when the writing had better moments during the season, Savage managed to be quite a terrifying presence, especially during his scenes with Rip Hunter, as both Darvill and Crump had great chemistry. While the story did not do much to support him, Crump elevated a handful of scenes with his performance whenever he was able to. While he wasn’t an amazing villain and obviously could have been a lot better, Vandal Savage was still a decent enough villain when the show allowed him to be and is not as awful of an antagonist as people say.
1. The Legion of Doom (Season 2): When Vandal Savage didn’t work, the writers made a very wise decision by having three of the previous big bads from Arrow and The Flash be the main villains during season 2. By teaming up the Reverse-Flash (Matt Letscher), Damien Darhk, and Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), season 2 brought together the best villains to ever appear on the show. While some may argue that the writers are playing it safe by introducing villains who have already been established in the Arrowverse, it clearly worked in the show’s favor, especially when it comes to the story and their conflict with the Legends. Letscher, McDonough and Barrowman all had incredible chemistry with each-other and always managed to be entertaining with their performances. The season even spiced things up by having a past version of Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller) join the Legion, making for a pleasant surprise after his present day version was killed off last season. It is amazing how well these characters worked in the show, especially Damien Darhk who did not fit at all when he was the main villain of Arrow’s fourth season. Along with the story, character development for the Legends and performances from the cast, the Legion of Doom elevated the show and made season 2 of Legends of Tomorrow its best year in the Arrowverse.
