Every Superman Movie Villain Ranked Worst To Best

Superman is of course one of the most iconic superheroes of all time, and few comic book characters have made as much impact on cinema as the Man of Steel.

Beginning with Richard Donner's groundbreaking 1978 Superman, the property has remained a cinematic mainstay for almost 50 years, even as its popularity with general audiences has waned and then skyrocketed.

But what would a character as impossibly powerful as Superman be without a gallery of villains to oppose him?

Now, it's understandably difficult to rustle up a baddie who can genuinely go toe-to-toe with such an unstoppably potent superhero, so it's little surprise that the villains in Superman movies have offered up mixed results to say the least.

Over nearly a whole half-century, Superman's enemies have ranged from instantly iconic to absolutely dreadful, some posing a genuine, palpable threat to Supes while others were simply too damn silly to take seriously.

They can't all be winners after all, but at least the low-points are low enough that it's tough to believe things will ever get that bad again. The high points, however, set a benchmark that's similarly tough to match...

Was anyone ever going to make last place but Superman IV's infamous Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow)?

Created after a missile containing one of Superman's (Christopher Reeve) hairs is launched into the sun, Nuclear Man is about as lame as superhero villains - let alone Superman baddies - get.

Reliant on the sun for power, rocking a truly ridiculous costume, and inexplicably sounding just like Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) - because Hackman re-dubbed the lines - there simply isn't a single redeemable thing about him.

He may simply be one of Superman IV's many budget-afflicted catastrophes, but at least it's near-impossible for Warner Bros. to ever give Superman a villain this woeful ever again.