The Most Iconic Men's Villain Costumes in DC Comics!

Alex Ross/DC Comics

By Esteban Cepero

While DC may be recognized as having some of the most iconic superheroes we can name off of the top of our heads, we can never forget the villains. If you don't know, villains play a huge part in the upbringing of a superhero. Villains that are classically assigned to a superhero, define that specific superhero in many ways. If you take a look at the Joker, he's shaped Batman into the dark Caped Crusader we know today. With everything the Joker has done, it's obvious that Batman can really be prepared for anything. Though, these villains can be seen as equally classic as the superheroes they were meant to torment. But what makes these villains so recognizable? Obviously, it has to be their costumes that contribute so much to this. To perfect the villain's themselves, you have to perfect the villain's costume first. There's a whole array of iconic men's villain costumes that I can name. So with that in mind, let's look back at the origins and original costumes of some of the most classic villains in DC Comics!

Captain Cold!

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Watch out, cause the temperature's about to drop! Leonard Snart (Captain Cold) is mostly known as the very first villain to face off against the Silver Age Flash. While being the leader of the criminal group, known as the Rogues, Captain Cold is making his mark on the world with committing all sorts of crime. Snart grew up with an abusive father and it didn't take long for him to fall into a life of crime. After being captured by the Flash and thrown into prison, Snart, as soon as he escaped, decided to try to get rid of the speedster. Snart designed a weapon that can tamper with the Flash's speed using a type of particle accelerator. Snart discovered that his weapon was designed in a way, where it freezes the moisture in the air. Taking this weapon, Snart donned the alias Captain Cold. Obviously, with the name Captain Cold, this villain loves the winter theme. This clearly showed in his villain costume design. Snart's villain costume, has an original design to it that is mainly iconic to his character. While being the man who mastered absolute zero, Snart rocks the good ol' parka, along with a visor that he would wear to shield his eyes from gunfire during robberies in the past. With this all put together in his villain costume, we have the antagonist, Captain Cold.

Scarecrow!

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Your worst fear is about to come true! Scarecrow made only two appearances in the 1940's Batman run, but went on to become one of the most iconic Batman foes in the 1960's and in the silver age. Dr. Jonathan Crane is insanely obsessive over the idea of "fear." While being bullied as a kid, he committed an act of murder at the age of 18. Crane flourished a gun in the high school parking lot at senior prom, dressed as a scarecrow to scare his bully Bo Griggs and his girlfriend, Sherry Squires into a car accident. The accident killed Squires and paralyzed Griggs. After this event, Crane found it fun to literally scare people to death.  Crane grew up to become a professor in psychology, but after firing a gun in class to prove a point to students a point about fear, he was fired. He killed the people who fired him and later made crime his main profession. Though, Crane became a psychiatrist at Arkham and used the asylum to perform fear-related experiments on patients. Crane went on to create the Scarecrow alias and used it terrify the citizens of Gotham and use them as his guinea pigs for his fear experiments. As for his villain costume, Scarecrow's costume stays true to his name. His villain costume is an actual scarecrow costume and nothing else. His villain costume has been modified many times in later years but it still sticks to the same concept.

Brainiac!

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Your about to get shrunken down and stuck in a bottle! In his silver age origin, Brainiac was a humanoid created by the Computer of Colu. Brainiac traveled to Earth to shrink Paris, Rome and New York, and literally stick them in bottles. Brainiac even shrunk down the Kryptonian city of Kandor. To help Superman in bringing back the cities to full size, the Kandorians gave up their own restoration. Superman even saved the bottle with the city Kandor and placed it in his Fortress of Solitude. Brainiac doesn't have a specific villain costume. In the golden age, his villain costume was basically casual clothes, considering the fact that he was an alien instead of a humanoid. His villain costume now, is something more out-of-this-world. Brainiac's villain costume has a robotic concept to it, especially in modern comics.