Sections on this page:
- Notable Lead Characters in Non-Superhero Comics
- Additional Super-Villains and Other Antagonists
- Other Notable Minor Characters

Notable Lead Characters in Non-Superhero Comics

Additional Super-Villains and Other Antagonists

The list below includes numerous additional super-villains, villains and antagonists, including many minor villains. Many of these characters have shown up in only a single issue or story arc. Most minor villains in mainstream comics are atheists, agnostic, or non-religious. The list below focuses on characters who have an identifiable religious affiliation. Frequently these minor characters were the result of a very simple idea on the part of the writer: Having heard about a particular minority religious group (i.e., Vodoun, Santeria, Buddhism, Russian Orthodoxy) or mystical tradition the writer decides to base a villain on that idea.

In other instances, villains have been created to embody a specific social issue or political debate, and have been envisioned as a "priest" or "reverend" with a group of followers. This is done in order to illustrate that the character's philosophy is not simply an idiosyncratic belief or the result of insanity, but is a position that has at least a nominally widespread following. These characters typically do not symbolize an entire denomination (although they are often depicted as Catholic or Protestant clergymen), so much as they stand for a specific idea or trait that can be found within religious groups as well within the general population.

It may seem as though the large number of explicitly religious villain indicates an anti-religious bias in mainstream comic books. Actually, the opposite is true. Since the 1930s (when Superman was created) until the present time, the proportion of Americans who profess identification with a specific organized religion has remained between 85% to 93%, with an additional 5% of the population claiming no specific religious identification, but claiming belief in God or a supreme being. Yet, the overwhelming majority (over 90%) of villains faced by mainstream superheroes have been manifestly non-religious, anti-religious or atheist.

The extreme disproportionate representation of non-religious characters among comic book villains is not mean to imply that lack of religious activity leads inexorably to villainy. It simply means that the types of individuals who become villains are most likely to be non-religious or atheist/agnostic in outlook, and that the religious villain is a relative rarity.

Other Notable Minor Characters

Religious Affiliation of Comic Book Characters page created 27 July 2005. This page was split from the main page on 11 January 2006. Last modified 19 August 2007.