10 Oldest DC Villains Ever, Ranked

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DC Comics recently updated its official timeline with a four-issue series called New History of the DC Universe, setting the canon for 2025. Looking back through DC’s history was enjoyable, and it highlighted something often overlooked: DC has some of the oldest villains in comic books. Over the years, writers have created many villains, and a surprising number of them are incredibly ancient—some even predate the Earth, while others have existed since the dawn of humankind.

As a comics fan, I’ve seen a lot of villains come and go, but DC’s really has some that have been around forever. I’m talking about characters who predate entire versions of the DC Universe, and whose actions have shaped reality on a truly massive scale. I recently dove into researching the oldest of the lot, and let me tell you, these ten villains aren’t just bad guys – they’re ancient terrors with centuries, even eons, of experience in being evil. It’s honestly a little terrifying just thinking about their history.

10) Solaris the Tyrant Sun from DC One Million

The comic book event DC One Million features a truly impressive villain, Solaris the Tyrant Sun, who unfortunately isn’t used very often. Solaris is essentially a living star combined with a super-powerful computer, possessing incredible processing ability. When readers first encounter him, the story takes place in the 853rd century, but he was actually created in the present day within the comic’s timeline. This means the Solaris we see is over 85,000 years old! The story also introduces another very old villain, and these two use their combined centuries of experience to challenge the heroes.

9) Vandal Savage

The Justice League often battles formidable foes, and one of their longest-standing enemies is Vandal Savage. His story began in prehistoric times when, as a caveman, he discovered a crashed star with his brother. The energy from the star granted them both immortality and superhuman abilities. While his brother became Immortal Man, he became the notorious Vandal Savage. Over the millennia, Savage has traveled the globe, accumulating knowledge, power, and wealth, and consistently causing trouble. He’s now roughly 100,000 years old, and glimpses into the future, like in the DC One Million storyline, have even shown us versions of him nearly 200,000 years old.

8) Darkseid

Darkseid is widely considered DC’s most formidable villain, having challenged heroes ever since his creation by Jack Kirby. As the ruler of Apokolips and a being from the world of gods, his exact age is difficult to determine – he’s existed for well over a hundred thousand years, by all accounts. He’s an incredibly ancient and powerful force, a truly dangerous threat. Originally known as Uxas, he rose to power through cunning and is now once again unleashing his brilliant, evil might upon the universe.

7) Yuga Khan

Yuga Khan is a powerful god from the Fourth World and the former ruler of Apokolips. He’s Darkseid’s father and predates his son’s reign. Known as one of the universe’s most terrifying beings, Khan was so formidable that Darkseid was forced to imprison him within the Source Wall—a barrier at the edge of existence—after Khan was overthrown. Eventually, Khan broke free, and both New Genesis and Apokolips lived in fear of this ancient, evil god.

6) Mageddon

As a longtime fan, the idea of the Fourth World really blew my mind – it implies there were even older worlds of gods before Darkseid and his dad, Yuga Khan! We haven’t seen much from these earlier worlds, but we did meet Mageddon, a creature born in one of them. It was built by those ancient gods – honestly, we never learned which gods, though I always figured it was the Third World – as the ultimate weapon. It worked, ending their war, but then it just disappeared into the Underverse, only to come back and try to wipe everything out! The heroes did manage to beat it, but it took a massive effort – they had to empower the entire planet and get everyone involved in the fight.

5) Nekron

Now we’re talking about some truly ancient beings. DC Comics features multiple representations of death, with Death of the Endless being a prominent one, though she isn’t a villain. Most other death-related characters are actually aspects of her, meaning they’re all very old as well. However, these individual beings appear at different points in time, and Nekron is one of them. He’s almost certainly incredibly ancient – he existed before Earth itself, as he originally defeated the entity representing life, which then became part of the planet. Even the Guardians of the Universe are aware of him, suggesting he’s billions of years old.

4) Anti-Monitor

The story arc Crisis on Infinite Earths is fantastic and introduced readers to a very old comic book character, the Anti-Monitor. This being has existed since the beginning of the multiverse and played a key role in creating everything, making him an incredibly powerful and ancient force of destruction. Although he was defeated in Crisis, he’s returned and is now billions of years old. While he briefly showed heroic qualities, he’s primarily remembered as a villain.

3) Perpetua

Perpetua is an incredibly powerful being in the DC Universe, possibly the most powerful of all. She played a key role in creating the entire multiverse, and even turned it into a weapon against the creations of other powerful beings like herself. This led to her being trapped within the Source Wall. Beyond creating the multiverse, she’s also the mother of major characters like the Anti-Monitor, the Monitor, and the World-Forger. Perpetua is ancient beyond comprehension – she existed for an almost unimaginable length of time before she even began creating, a time span so vast it’s expressed with incredibly large numbers.

2) Neron

In DC Comics, the origins of everything are complex. While the Hands are powerful beings who created the Multiverse, there’s an even older entity: the Presence, who is essentially the Judeo-Christian God and may be the ultimate source of all creation. The Presence originally created everything, including Heaven (the Silver City) and Hell. Some argue the Hands predate even the Presence, creating multiple versions across different universes. However, the traditional understanding is that the Presence came first, followed by angels, then the fall of those angels, and finally, the creators known as the Hands. If this is true, Neron, a powerful demon and lord of Hell, would be one of the oldest villains in DC history, and many other characters from Hell would share that age, though Neron is considered the oldest aside from his direct superior.

1) Lucifer Morningstar

Lucifer Morningstar is the oldest villain in the entire DC Universe. Created as one of the very first beings by the supreme creator, he was originally a partner in creation. However, he eventually rebelled, and a large number of angels joined him. After a great war, Hell was formed as Lucifer and his followers were banished from Heaven. Over the years, DC Comics has presented different versions of Lucifer – for instance, the Lucifer series reimagined him as the original ruler of Hell, but he’s appeared in many forms. Ultimately, he represents the very first enemy and the ultimate source of evil.

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2025-12-14 02:14