The Flash Villains Ranked

The Flash Villains Ranked

Over the course of it’s 9 seasons The Flash has given us a variety of different villains for Barry Allen aka The Flash to fight. Some are great and some are bad, but which one is the best and worst? Let’s find out!

NOTE: This blog post will be packed with SPOILERS from all 9 seasons of the show. If you haven’t seen all of the seasons, be careful what you read. I will be talking about specifics with these characters. 

12. Ryan Wilder/The Red Death (Season 9): A total dud of a potential great villain to have in the final season of the show. And we haen’t gotten a lot of Batman in the Arrowverse, so I appreciated that this villain was the closes thing we would get to a Batman villain in the Arrowverse. But the execution of The Red Death was pretty terrible, and didn’t work for me. Javicia Leslie who plays Red Death, she’s also the new Batwoman wasn’t believable or convincing as the character what so ever. I didn’t mind her as Batwoman but here she just felt horribly mis-cast as this very evil speedster that has it out to get Barry and Team Flash. Plus the writing for the character is not very good, the writers thought it would be fun if she started quoting previous Batmen. So she says lines that both Michael Keaton and Robert Pattinson played, for what purpose? That’s a good question. To me, this is one of the biggest wastes of a villain in the entire Arrowverse. So easily, she’s in last place on this list. 

11. Orlin Dwyer and Grace Gibbons/Cicada (Season 5): For a while this was my least favorite villain of the show, but season 9 happened…and not anymore. This is a villain that I feel like had a lot of potential to be really good. Cicada is a serial killer that only kills meta humans, that’s a great idea for a villain on this show. You can create a situation that puts a lot of Team Flash in danger and a lot of Central City in danger. They could have had episodes where Barry has to protect and work with previous villains of the show so Cicada doesn’t kill them. But instead of that, you have Chris Kline do his best impression of Christian Bale’s Batman. Even in the character’s origin story they we learn that his daughter was put in the hospital due to the particle accelerator explosion from season 1. Cicada had all of the potential to be a top tier villain on the show, but just totally wasted. Chris Kline feels horribly mis cast in the role, I’m sure he’s lovely man in real life but he doesn’t fit this role. I don’t buy him as intimidating or a guy that Barry and Team Flash needs to stop. And then in the back half of the season we get the future of his daughter Grace coming back as Cicada. And it felt like they were stretching things out for WAY to long. I think both the villains of season 4 and 5 were hurt by having 23 episode long seasons. If they had Cicada as the villain for first 7-9 episodes of the season, he could have been a great villain. 

10. Nora Allen/The Speed Force (Season 7): From the start I didn’t feel like making The Speed Force the villain was a good idea. It’s one of those ideas that I feel like is better on paper then in reality. And once again, common theme between the bottom villains of the show the actress just doesn’t fit the show. Michelle Harrison I think is really good when she’s Barry mother and being this kind motherly figure in the later seasons. But she doesn’t give off the right villainous energy to make intimidating or somebody that you want to see defeated. Second, I really didn’t like the writing the used for this villain. One of my biggest pet peeves for any movie or tv show is when the villain or any character for the matter “mother” or “father” it just comes off as creepy, and it just doesn’t work. I think that’s part of the reason why Steppenwolf in 2017’s Justice League didn’t fully work was because of that. And when you have Barry and Iris saying that they are the parents of The Speed Force and her minions, it’s just creepy and weird. Especially when the embodiment of The Speed Force is the actress that plays Barry’s mother, it just doesn’t work at all for me. Honestly her and Cicada are pretty much tied for me, the order of the two villains can easily change on a different day. 

9. Eva McCullouch/Mirror Monarch (Season 6 and 7): I find it a bit strange that Mirror Master, one of The Flash’s great villains appeared in one episode of the show. And instead of getting Mirror Master as a villain on the show, we got Mirror Monarch. Who I thought was a good character back before she became full blown evil. When she was Iris’ friend that was helping her while in the mirrorverse, it really worked. The character had a lot of intrigue and mystery surrounding her that really worked for me. But as soon as it became clear that she was the main villain for the second half of the season, the character didn’t work for me at all. I thought the character got dramatically less interesting when she was the full on super villain. And just in general I feel like Mirror Monarch is a villain that is sort of just there for me. She doesn’t do anything that’s particularly exciting or flashy (no pun intended). But she also doesn’t do anything that makes me hate her either. She’s just a villain that is sort of just there for me, and as a villain that is just there she’s decent at being that. 

8. Despero (Season 8): Speaking of villains that are sort of just there for me, Despero is a great example of this. When I made my first draft of this list I actually forgot to include him on this list. But he was the main villain for the first 5 episodes of season 8 which acted as a mini crossover event that happened on The Flash. And what I think holds him back, where I don’t think he’s a top tier villain is that he feels sort of generic. He feels like The Anti-Monitor from Crisis on Infinite Earths, but not as ugly looking and a different endgame. But they both just feel like these super powerful evil beings that want to destroy one of our main Arrowverse heroes that we really like. Now on the positive I really liked the actor they got for the character, I thought he did a good job with the material he was given. But I feel like the character as a whole was just sort of there and generic for me. That’s really why he’s on the bottom portion of the list, he’s just sort of there for me. 

7. Eddie Thawne/Cobalt Blue (Season 9): If the last two were villains that were sort of just there for me. Cobalt Blue and my #6 are very frustrating villains that had a lot of good things and bad things about them. When it comes to Cobalt Blue I really liked the idea of him, bringing back Eddie Thawne for the final big bad of the show was a great idea. And his motivation the reason why he’s out to get Barry is a pretty solid reason. If you think about Eddie is the one that defeated Reverse-Flash, he’s more so then hero of season 1 then Barry is. But Barry got all of the credit also, Eddie is jealous because Barry stole Iris from him. That’s an interesting motivation for a villain on the show, it felts in with the lore of what was established in earlier seasons. It’s also great to see Rick Cosnett back on the show, and it’s fun to see him as the villain and I thought he pulled it off rather well. Where I think he gets held back is I feel like his story arc was overstuffed with other things to the point where I feel like he was underused. I feel like they needed another episode to flesh things out and focus more on him. He needed more time to be interesting as a villain, but he wasn’t that. And because of that, it felt very rushed to me and once again like it needed another episode or two to make things run a bit smoother. As much as I liked so many things about him, I feel like the character as a whole was a bit of wasted potential. 

6. Clifford DeVoe/The Thinker (Season 4): Another villain that is so incredibly frustrating for me, and probably even more frustrating then Cobalt Blue is. I think the highs and lowers of The Thinker are both higher and lower then Cobalt Blue. On the positive, I thought the actor Neil Sandilands did a great job. I think he’s one of the actors to portray a Flash villain, I thought what he was able to do was great. One of the common things I said about the bottom tier villains was the actor was intimidating or threatening, I feel the opposite about The Thinker. Neil plays the character so well that he actually feels like a threat towards Team Flash. Beyond that after having three seasons in a row where the main villain was a speedster, it’s refreshing that he’s not that. He’s a different type of villain that is obviously much smarter then Team Flash, and causes Barry to have to outsmart him on multiple occasions. All of that stuff I loved about the character, I think there’s a lot with the character that was great. But I feel like he’s a victim of these 23 episode long seasons. If season 4 was 13 episodes long, and he was the main villain for that season he could have been great. But they had to stretch out The Thinker and his plot line for 23 episodes and it all feels stretched out. In the back half of the season they have him do this body swapping deal where ever episode or two there’s a new version of The Thinker. And you can feel them stretching out this plot line for way to long. So like Cicada in season 5 I think The Thinker was hurt by the 23 episode long season format they have. 

5. Barry Allen/Savitar (Season 3): I feel like the big thing holding back Savitar is that he’s the third speedster villain in a row. If Savitar was the villain in season 4 or 5, I think he might be a better villain. And I feel like people in general will like Savitar a good bit more because of that. But I really feel like that’s the big thing holding back Savitar from being a top tier Flash movie. Another issue with Savitar is that I feel like the reveal of Savitar being an evil version of Barry happened way to late in the season. I believe it’s revealed at the end of episode 20, and since it happened so late in the season it became predictable. I feel like most people already kind of guessed that Savitar was some version of Barry. Now on the positive, there’s a lot of things about Savitar that I think does work. I really liked the threat that Savitar poses towards Team Flash, he’s this villain that you feel the danger of him through-out the season. I really liked what Grant Gustin was able to do with the character, we get to see a different side of his acting that I thought worked. He’s able to pull of being this evil guy that you want to see taken out. And he does look really cool, I think he’s one of the best looking villains on the show and in the Arrowverse in general. I don’t think Savitar is a great villain, he’s far from the bottom of the list. He’s a good villain, he’s one that I think is a bit underrated and works for the season that he’s in. 

4. August Heart/Godspeed (Season 7): After seasons 4,5,6, and the first half of season 7 had non speedster villains. The back half of season 7 gave us another speedster villain for the big bad, and he was really good. Godspeed was a character introduced in season 5 and in season 7 became a big bad. First up, I really like Godspeed’s suit in the season the nature of his suit can lend itself really cool to a live action version. In the finale of season 7 you get a lot of great moments with him, that’s the best Godspeed in the season. The final fight between Barry and Godspeed is really cool, they use lightning sticks and have their own lightsaber fight. It’s kind of cheesy and corny but it worked for me and I thought it was fun. And Godspeed poses so much of a threat towards Barry that Reverse-Flash, Barry’s arch nemesis has to work with him to defeat him. That was a nice touch to the character that I think makes Godspeed better and more threatening. So in general, even though season 7 is one of the weaker villains. I think that Godspeed is one of the stronger villains. 

3. Ramsey Rosso/Bloodwork (Season 6): What I think benefits Bloodwork greatly is that he’s the main villain for all 19 episodes. Even before the season was trimmed down, he was the main villain for the first 8 episodes of the season. That was the right length for his arc, it never felt stretched out and like it was going on forever. Right off the bat I think that benefited this character a whole lot and made him really really good. Other thing that I think helps him out is that he’s something very different from other villains. Half of these villains are speedsters, we have one that is super smart, one that is serial killer, and he’s a guy that never really set out to be a villain. One of the common tropes of Spider-Man villains is that they are scientists that experiment on themselves that cause them to turn evil and a monster. But Bloodwork kind of functions as that, and I mean that as a positive. I really did appreciate that he was something new, fresh, and different for this show. Also the actor they got to play Bloodwork I thought was great, he played the character very well. When he needs to be good scientist guy that is friends with Barry and Caitlin he can pull it off. And as you get to the end of his arc and he needs to be full on villain he can pull that off equally as well. 

2. Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash (Season 1 and 8): Now for a while I use to have Reverse-Flash at my number 1. But I feel like they’ve done a few more frustrating things that hold him back. And I’ll just start with my negatives for Reverse-Flash. I don’t like how they kept on bringing him back for later seasons. Like both of the finales for seasons 7 and 8 had Thawne return and that was a part of the show where I felt like they were recycling ideas that worked before. I don’t mind that they brought him back, but when they brought him back as much as they it cheapend the character. If he was the main villain for only season 1 and a couple of guest stars later he could have been number 1. But since they kept on bringing back him, I had to knock him back. But he’s still a great villain, so there’s still a lot about him that I love. First up, his villains motives are personal to Barry. Thawne killed his mother, that’s about as personal as you could get. Another thing that makes him a personal villain for Barry he was a mentor and a friend to Barry. Harrison Wells was Barry Allen’s idol then became his mentor, friend, and kind of a father figure to Barry. So when the betrayal happens you feel it, it’s earned conflict and drama. And he’s this villain that you want to see Barry take out, and it’s so satisfying when he does so. He’s also just this incredibly smart villain, he’s a true mastermind. Where he was able to conduct this plan that started back 14 years prior to season 1 taking place, where he meant for Barry to become The Flash. All of the stuff that happened was because of Thawne, a great example of a true mastermind of a villain. And of course Tom Cavanagh is great in the role, he’s able to pull of being this friend and mentor but also this villain that needs to be stopped. Then Matt Letscher as the true Eobard Thawne, equally as good as the character. So it’s really tough not putting him at number 1, but my issues with him I feel like don’t really apply to my #1. 

1. Hunter Zolomon/Zoom (Season 2): A pretty classic Flash villain that to this day that is one of the best villains of the show. And I don’t think Zoom is hurt at all by being another speedster villain after Reverse-Flash was. The season was still early enough in the show that I feel like they could get away with that. And what I think Zoom does best as a villain is being this intimidating foe for Team Flash, he’s easily the scariest villain on the show and possibly in the entire Arrowverse. Where the way Zoom looks mixed with the way he speaks makes him this intimidating villain that you want to see Team Flash take, but you’re always afraid of the danger that Zoom poses. And I feel like that’s because the first fight between Barry and Zoom in episode 6 shows Zoom just beating the crap out of Barry. And after that episode whenever Zoom shows up you feel the danger of him whenever he’s on screen. And I think the twist of “Jay Garrick” being Zoom worked because they used the audience’s knowledge of The Flash against us. When he first shows up we think he’s a good guy, because Jay Garrick is a good guy. So when the twist happens, it’s a truly shocking twist that comes out of nowhere. And then I think Zoom’s suit is one of the best villain suits of the Arrowverse. Zoom has always been and always will be a top tier Arrowverse villain. He’s the most well rounded villain of the show, so he’s my number 1.