Batman’s first feature-length movie adapted Adam West’s delightfully camp take from the classic ‘60s TV series. Two decades later, Tim Burton made the Dark Knight cool with 1989’s Batman, starring Michael Keaton as the definitive take on Bruce Wayne. Burton and Keaton departed from the franchise after two movies (Batman and Batman Returns), but director Joel Schumacher carried on their films’ continuity with Val Kilmer in Batman Forever and George Clooney in Batman & Robin.

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The villains in these movies were a mixed bag. Some rank among the greatest villains in comic book movie history, like Jack Nicholson’s Joker and Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman, while others rank among the worst, like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze.

Bane

Jeep Swenson as Bane in Batman and Robin

Bane appears in Batman & Robin, but he’s barely even a character. He exists purely as Poison Ivy’s muscle and barely has a coherent word of dialogue in the whole movie. Wrestler Robert Swenson is a suitably intimidating on-screen presence, but he’s given paper-thin material.

Luckily, Bane’s on-screen legacy was later redeemed by Tom Hardy’s turn as a masked revolutionary in The Dark Knight Rises. Hardy’s Bane couldn’t quite live up to Heath Ledger’s Joker (an impossible feat), but his performance was undeniably iconic.

Mr. Freeze

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr Freeze in his lab in Batman and Robin

Mr. Freeze, one of the possible villains up in the air for The Batman 2, was previously the main villain of Batman & Robin. While Matt Reeves promises a grounded, semi-realistic take on the character, Batman & Robin’s Mr. Freeze is sustained by a painful abundance of icy puns: “Everybody chill,” “Cool party,” “Let’s kick some ice,” “Allow me to break the ice,” the mind-numbing list goes on.

The character himself is as one-note as his sense of humor. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave a rare villain performance in Batman & Robin, but his Mr. Freeze is more Jingle All the Way than The Terminator.

Two-Face

Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face smiling in Batman Forever

The Two-Face featured in Batman Forever doesn’t dig into the most interesting aspect of the character. The half-burnt face and coin-flipping habit are just visual flourishes, not the substance of the character. What makes Two-Face a compelling villain is the tragic dichotomy of “white knight” Harvey Dent and his evil criminal alter ego.

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Batman Forever skips the origin story, so this dichotomy is never explored. Tommy Lee Jones is usually a nuanced actor, but in Batman Forever, he’s too focused on trying to outdo the wackiness of Jim Carrey’s performance (which, of course, is an unwinnable battle).

Poison Ivy

Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy in Batman and Robin

The secondary villain of Batman & Robin is a ludicrously hammy take on Poison Ivy. This version of the character – botanist-turned-ecoterrorist Dr. Pamela Isley – is a pretty mediocre adaptation of the DC Comics icon. The writing of Poison Ivy in this movie is like a tiny word cloud of the terms “plant life” and “femme fatale.”

The script is massively let down by ridiculous plot turns like Robin thwarting the seductive supervillain with a pair of rubber lips. Mercifully, Uma Thurman elevates the lackluster material with a typically stellar performance.

The Riddler

Jim Carrey as The Riddler in Batman Forever

The Riddler played by Paul Dano in The Batman is a horrifying Zodiac-esque serial killer who bludgeons corrupt officials to death with a carpet tucker. The previous incarnation seen in Batman Forever couldn’t be further removed from this Jigsaw-inspired slasher.

Jim Carrey’s Riddler is, as expected, shamelessly zany. But that tone works for this silly character: a green-spandex-clad trickster who leaves puzzles at the scenes of his crimes. Carrey effortlessly steals the movie from Val Kilmer.

The Penguin

Danny Devito as the Penguin staing at the viewer in Batman Returns.

Colin Farrell recently reinvented Oswald Cobblepot as a wisecracking Scorsese mafioso in The Batman. The Penguin played by Danny DeVito in Batman Returns was similarly subversive, but in a totally different way: he’s more like a B-movie baddie than a traditional supervillain.

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DeVito’s Penguin is a deformed psychopath who lives underground and commands an army of penguins. As he would later do in the role of Frank Reynolds, DeVito leaned heavily into the gross-out gags and mustache-twirling villainy.

The Joker

Jack Nicholson's Joker

Burton’s original Batman movie gave the Joker a new origin story. The Clown Prince of Crime played by Jack Nicholson is a gangster named Jack Napier who turns out to have killed Bruce Wayne’s parents. Nicholson played the Joker as a straightforward horror villain, a la Jack Torrance. In his initial transformation scene, Nicholson terrifies the audience simply by asking his underground surgeon for a mirror.

The actor was later outdone by Heath Ledger, but his Joker performance is still iconic. Nicholson finds a nice middle ground between the wacky theatrics of Cesar Romero and the unrelenting terror of Ledger’s Oscar-winning turn.

Catwoman

Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman in Batman Returns

Zoë Kravitz recently wowed audiences with a subversively sympathetic take on Selina Kyle in The Batman, but Michelle Pfeiffer’s iconic Catwoman from Batman Returns is a more traditional adaptation of the character. Batman Returns’ Catwoman is a classic femme fatale, playing the hero and the villain against each other and always coming out on top.

Pfeiffer dazzled audiences with an empowering take on the character. Her Selina liberates herself by turning to a life of crime after her unscrupulous boss, Max Shreck, tries to kill her. On top of that, Pfeiffer shared sizzling on-screen chemistry with Keaton’s Batman.

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