My #12 Choice:
From DC Comics Doom Patrol here comes the Animal Vegetable Mineral Man! First seen in Doom Patrol #89 in August of 1964 and found by me within the thrift store boxes during my youth in the 70's. And while it isn't so much his actual "costume" which captured my attention it was instead his amazing and outrageous physical changes that mesmerized me. Not so much his singular use of his abilities to transform but instead it was the way he was portrayed upon the covers where he was usually shown as a giant conglomeration utilizing all of his amazing transformations into one humongous challenge to threaten the DP! Something about seeing the shape changing humanoid monster using all the aspects in one form made for eye catching and exciting covers that jumped out and grabbed me when I discovered comic books. Such a cool visualization certain to make you want to read what is inside the comic!

He was the supreme villain in my mind for the DP in that he was capable of facing off the entire team with an endless choice of physical transformations with which to confront and confound them. 

# 12 Enchantress


The Enchantress is one of the three females that made my list. For the most part she has kept the same look- Green with black. Everything about her look screams seduction , the head piece , the arm sleeves the high heels that were connected to her leggings all were used to manipulate the men of earth and Asgard. LET’s not forget that long flowing blonde hair.

Yeah, the good guys never had a chance.

12. The Mekon




I said in the advanced warning thread that I was gonna try and focus on super-villain couture and stay away from characters whose psychical appearance enhanced their design, but straight off of the bat, I've violated my own rule by picking this green alien with the enlarged braincase. Springing from the pages of The Eagle comic's Dan Dare strip in November 1950, the Mekon of Mekonta (the capital city of Venus) was Dan's arch-enemy and the leader of the sinister Treens of northern Venus.

Designed by the strip's creator Frank Hampson (and I'm including the Mekon's floating hover-chair as part of that design), the Mekon looks suitably alien, smugly superior and proper sinister. The product of a Treen experiment which left his body withered and atrophied, his freakishly out-sized head houses a superior intelligence and one of the most evil, cunning intellects in the galaxy.

I'm guessing that the Mekon is probably little known in the U.S., but over here in the UK, it's no exaggeration to say that he is something of a cultural icon. Hampson's strikingly sinister and instantly recognisable design is a big part of why this villain is still so well known in Britain, almost 70 years after his first appearance.

If you were able to decipher their cryptic user interface, you're a better man than I am. I don't have time to work it out.

Cei-U!
I summon the frustration!

That's what I use too and always have. However, Tinypic is owned by Photobucket, which might give some folks cause for alarm.

12. Ir, Ur and Ar, the Mutants from Doom Patrol 115 -116 (Nov-Dec 1967)

These guys were just about the freakiest looking creatures I'd ever seen in a comic book. The guy with eyes in the palms of his hands got the best of the mutations caused by -- what else? -- atomic radiation. Those other two? I could never decide who'd got the worst of it. And who cared that "Chestface" decided to wear his yellow jammie bottoms for whatever reason? You never even noticed those because of the grotesqueness of the anomalies that cursed these poor guys.

From Arnold Drake's opening narration: "What terrifying cauldron could have spewed out this witch's brew? "

Or Robotman's first reaction: "YICHHHH! Look at those things They look like people that got made n a Mix-Master!"

And Neg-Man's response: "Operated by a cockeyed cook! BLEUCHH!"

Of course, leave it to Rita to bring these two up short: "The Doom Patrol -- Outcasts of the world -- fabulous freaks -- poking fun at someone else's strangeness?...

Cliff, who hasn't quite caught the irony yet, says, "Honey, these aren't strange -- I mena they're stomach-turners!"

At which point Rita lifts Cliff high into the air and drops the hammer: "Really? And what about us -- a walking mummy, a rubber girl and a tin man! You don't think we've killed a few appetites?"

Anyway, these three refugees from a Basil Wolverton comic or a Topps' 1965 series, Ugly Stickers www.bubblegumcards.org/Ugly_Stickers.html have haunted me ever since I firat saw them in all their simple, horrific glory. Don't know if it was Arnold and/or the great Bruno Premiani who designed thest poor guys, but all praise to both of them! 

 

Number 12, for me, is the Golden Age Crimebuster enemy, Iron Jaw.





Outside of the Batman enemies, you don't find too many great Golden Age supervillains. Sure, there are the gimmicky Flash and JSA enemies and the Red Skull; but, you are hard pressed to name others. However, one of the truly memorable villains of the golden Age was Charles Biro's Iron Jaw, from the Crimebuster strips. This guys was pure nasty and would make guys like the Fiddler and the Shade wet themselves if they were put in the same cell with him. He didn't have a fancy costume because he didn't need it. All you needed was that, well, iron jaw, with it's sharp-looking jagged teeth, not to mention the malevolent expression on his face and the buzzcut hair. Biro delighted in savage stories and grim characters, long before the words "grim and gritty" became synonymous with comics. He is one of the people who sparked the witch hunts of the 50s and characters like Iron Jaw are why. The design is pure simplicity, which gives it power. Like the Batman rogues, it is borrowing from Chester Gould's MO, on Dick Tracy; but, it is one of the most successful swipes of the idea and Iron Jaw was a constant threat to crimebuster, while many villains had only an appearance or two.

Had Hollywood gone after comic book material then, like it does now (leaving aside the Republic and Columbia serials); we can imagine something like Bogey as Iron Jaw and the sounds of women shrieking and fainting in theaters (probably a lot of men, too).