Who’s the best bad guy on Fox’s “Gotham”? We rank all the bad guys we’ve seen so far. This list will be updated with new villains as they come in season 3 and beyond, and as characters warrant reevaluation.
38. Harvey Dent (Nicolas D’Agosto)
Not actually a villain yet, so technically he sucks. I’m sure he’ll move up once he becomes Two Face (if that ever happens). For now, he’s just generally unhelpful as Gotham’s DA.
37. Mr. Freeze (Nathan Darrow)
Hopefully now that he looks hilarious he’ll grow a personality instead of just moping around all the time.
36. Sal Maroni (David Zayas)
So annoying and bad at being a gangster that I’m surprised he survived almost to the end of the first season.
35. The Electrocutioner (Christopher Heyerdahl)
The “Gotham” showrunners have so far missed out by not having him back since Mr. Freeze and Firefly came along. We’re due for an evil team-up of villains who carry elemental guns. Get on it.
34. The Red Hood Gang
The only reason I didn’t completely forget about these guys is because there was a callback to them late in season 2.
33. The Spirit of the Goat
This is technically several people, and the actual “goat” is, I guess, the evil therapist (Susan Misner) who managed to convince people to become serial killers. Anyway, points added for excess complexity. Points subtracted for being otherwise boring.
32. Evil Bruce (David Mazouz)
Very much a dope, and yet to prove his value as part of the Gotham evilness. There’s a lot of potential here, at least.
31. Commissioner Loeb (Peter Scolari)
Exactly the sort of corrupt police commissioner Gotham needed: incredibly unlikable and irritating. You’d enjoy watching him get his, admit it.
30. Mayor James (Richard Kind)
A bumbling but fun idiot. It was really kind of a bummer that Galavan didn’t kill him.
29. Matches Malone (Michael Bowen)
Only has two scenes, but one of them was that one where Bruce Wayne’s mom and dad get murdered. Because he murdered them. In his other scene he shoots himself in the face. Points for having an efficient arc, I guess.
28. Mario Falcone (James Carpinello)
Amusing to watch, sure, but “super strong raging lunatic” is not the most inventive brand of “Gotham” villain.
27. Carmine Falcone (John Doman)
A little too vanilla for “Gotham,” and doesn’t really fit in in the new wacky world of Batman villains. And that contrast becomes even more evident when he returned in season 3. So, yeah, get outta here.
26. Silver St. Cloud (Natalie Ayn Lind)
Finally, Bruce Wayne has met a girl who can relate to how rich he is. Unfortunately, she’s also trying to kill him, and it’s impossible to tell when she’s being sincere. She thinks dolphins can read minds, though, which is pretty dumb even if she was just trying to be poetic. Children, ugh.
25. Basil a.k.a. Clayface (Brian McManamon)
Basil, who can shapeshift after being resurrected by Hugo Strange, brings tremendous sitcom-ish potential to “Gotham.” His face is hilarious.
24. Zaardon (David Fierro)
A truly delightful fake villain who belches a blue smoky toxin. Even in death he entertains.
23. The Lady (Michelle Gomez)
Pretty much a video-game villain, having had her business ruined by single dude (Jim Gordon) who fought off her army of hired killers.
21-22. Gerald Crane and Jonathan Crane (Julian Sands and Charlie Tahan)
Tragic figures on “Gotham” tend to be pretty meh unless they are so tragic you start to feel real emotions about them. The Cranes (Jonathan will eventually become the Scarecrow) actually manage to pull that off!
20. Theo Galavan/Azrael (James Frain)
An excellent schemer who ends up foiled by Tabitha, killed by Penguin and Gordon, resurrected by Hugo Strange (who tricks him into thinking he’s the 300-year-old St. Dumas warrior Azrael), then blown up with a rocket launcher by Butch. Now THAT is a fully formed character arc.
19. The Flamingo (Raul Castillo)
“It’s not a job if you love what you do,” Eduardo Flamingo says as he’s torturing and getting ready to eat a dude. It’s a little bit hard to hate this guy.
18. Richard Sionis (Todd Stashwick)
A corporate boss who makes the interns fight each other with swords to determine who gets the real job. That probably makes him my role model.
17. Father Creel (Ron Rifkin)
Not only is Creel a priest who sacrifices children, but he’s also an old man who can jump real high. A double whammy of Cool Villain Things.
16. Copperhead (Leslie-Ann Brandt)
“Gotham” may be overflowing with assassin characters, but they aren’t all super-memorable. Copperhead definitely is, though, despite only appearing in one episode — she’s one of the few bad guys on the show who are calm and rational instead of being unhinged in some way.
15. Poison Ivy (Claire Foley, Maggie Geha)
Possibly the most relatable character on the show: a grump who just wants all these nerds to go away. And then, once she’s turned into a teenager, takes advantage of lusty men in order to steal their stuff.
14. Captain Barnes (Michael Chiklis)
Yes, ole Captain Barnes has the same affliction as Mario Falcone. BUT Barnes is played by Michael Chiklis and is the GCPD captain, so by default he’s way more fun.
13. Tabitha Galavan (Jessica Lucas)
Good with a whip, doesn’t take any crap from her brother Theo, apparently is into base jumping, and stabs a guy in the neck with her heel that one time. All of this is awesome.
12. Firefly (Michelle Veintimilla)
They turned Firefly into a woman! Awesome. I’m sure the genderbending made some dude on the internet mad, which automatically puts Firefly in the upper echelon of “Gotham” villains. That she’s actually cool anyway is icing on the cake.
11. Butch (Drew Powell)
Plays the straight man to basically every other character on the show — until Penguin chops off his right hand and they start affixing tools to his stump. My favorite is the power drill.
10. The Court of Owls
They’ve had a hand in lots of the wacky events that have taken place so far, their masks are funny, and they almost killed Alfred. Gotta respect all of that.
9. Victor Zsasz (Anthony Carrigan)
Sure, he’s a bad person, but he always looks like he’s having so much fun when he’s murdering everybody. We all should admire how he does what he loves.
8. The Mad Hatter (Benedict Samuel)
Samuel is solidly theatrical, and the incredible cruelty of the Hatter in general goes a long way on a list like this.
7. Ed Nygma/The Riddler (Corey Michael Smith)
So good that I could totally watch a “Hannibal”-like show that’s just about him.
6. Hugo Strange (B.D. Wong)
His totally calm demeanor and permanent condescending smile makes all those horrible experiments seem totally reasonable.
5. Oswald Cobblepot a.k.a. The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor)
It was almost sad when his stay at Arkham Asylum in season 2 mellowed him out, but the payoff was worth it: He killed the Van Dahl siblings, cooked them and then fed them to their mother. “Game of Thrones” totally ripped that off, by the way. (That was a joke. Don’t @ me.)
4. The Dollmaker (Colm Feore)
If we were ranking these “Gotham” bad guys solely on the fear factor, Dr. Dullmacher’s brand of body horror would probably win by default.
3. Barbara Kean (Erin Richards)
In the DC Comics annals, Barbara is supposed to marry Jim Gordon and have a kid with him, and so it’s super fun that “Gotham” turned her into a murderer there for a while.
2. Jerome Valeska (Cameron Monaghan)
Is he the Joker, or just a “proto-Joker”? I don’t know, but he’s super fun and steals every scene he’s in, as well as all of the ones he’s merely mentioned in.
1. Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith)
There are a handful of actors on “Gotham” who really, truly got what kind of show it was trying to be in the early going, and Jada Pinkett led the way. To our great relief she kept all her memories when Hugo Strange resurrected her. There’s been a seriously troubling lack of Fish in season 3.
