The DC Comics Universe is home to some of the most infamous and iconic supervillains in pop culture history, who have menaced the likes of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman time and time again. However, not all of DC’s greatest antagonists have left an equal impact on pop culture.

The likes of Lex Luthor, the Joker, General Zod, and the Riddler have been immortalized in the public consciousness due to their multiple cinematic appearances — and more recently, lesser-known bad guys like Black Manta and Starro the Conqueror have made their big screen debuts as well. But unfortunately, not all of the Justice League’s most nefarious foes have been so lucky. Here are just a few prominent DC Comics villains who still haven’t starred in a live action movie.

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Brainiac

Brainiac Injustice 2

Arguably Superman’s greatest enemy besides Lex Luthor, the sinister alien cyborg Brainiac is one of the few villains who’s dangerous enough to consistently pose a major threat to the Man of Steel. Originally known as Vril Dox of the planet Colu, Brainiac is a mad scientist obsessed with attaining absolute knowledge of the universe. He travels the stars in a giant skull-shaped spaceship, shrinking a single city from every planet he finds and trapping it inside a bottle for preservation. Cruel and emotionless, Brainaic treats all other life forms as nothing but specimens to be studied in his endless pursuit of knowledge.

Brainiac has menaced Superman in the comics since 1958, undergoing numerous retoolings and reimaginings over the decades. He’s been an alien invader, a killer robot, a rogue AI, and everywhere in between. He’s appeared in cartoons like Super Friends and Superman: The Animated Series, as well as video games like Injustice 2 and the upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. He’s also had a couple of live-action TV appearances in Smallville and Krypton. Even his name has taken on a life of its own as a common colloquialism. However, despite his massive impact on the DC Universe, Brainiac has still never faced off with Superman on the silver screen.

Gorilla Grodd

Gorilla Grodd using the Kryptonite Cloud

Gorilla Grodd is another popular antagonist who even casual DC fans are likely to be familiar with. After all, an evil super-intelligent gorilla with psychic powers and a hunger for world domination is the kind of character who’s unlikely to be forgotten once you’ve heard of him. Hailing from Gorilla City, a hidden civilization of sentient mutant apes, Grodd believes that his superior intellect makes him the rightful ruler of the world. He’s even tried to transform all of humanity into apes — however, his schemes have always been stopped by Earth’s heroes, most frequently the Flash.

The premise of a genius gorilla supervillain is difficult to portray without a healthy dose of camp, but Grodd has nevertheless appeared in numerous past adaptations. He’s been a recurring antagonist in the Justice League Unlimited and Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoons, a playable character in Injustice 2, and of course a prominent villain in The CW’s The Flash series. While there’s been no news of a potential Grodd appearance in the upcoming The Flash movie, he’s the sort of character who could easily flourish in James Gunn’s corner of the DC Extended Universe — goofy on the surface, but with the potential to be a truly compelling and even terrifying villain.

Vandal Savage

Vandal-Savage-Young-Justice

Few bad guys can claim to be as experienced at villainy as Vandal Savage, who’s been menacing the world for countless millennia. Originally a normal Cro-Magnon warrior, Vandal was transformed into an immortal superhuman by the power of a mysterious meteorite. Over the centuries, he became a conqueror of unparalleled power, waging war in ancient Sumeria, Egypt, and Rome, among others. Later on, he served as an advisor to the likes of Erik the Red, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Otto Von Bismarck. Some stories have even depicted him as the true identity of Edward Teach, aka the infamous pirate Blackbeard. But in recent years, his ambitions of world conquest have pitted him against the Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, and many more of Earth’s heroes.

Vandal is a cunning, deadly adversary, capable of being charismatic and sophisticated one moment and brutally sadistic the next. In terms of past adaptations, he’s appeared as a recurring villain in the Justice League animated series, as well as the main antagonist of Young Justice. His only live action appearance so far is in the Legends of Tomorrow TV series — however, his unique backstory and menacing personality make him a perfect candidate for a big screen bad guy.

Solomon Grundy

Solomon Grundy DC villain comic

The undead menace known as Solomon Grundy was once Cyrus Gold, a wealthy merchant in 19th century Gotham City. One night, Gold was murdered, and his body was dumped in the nearby Slaughter Swamp. Fifty years later, his corpse rose from the swamp as a monstrous, hulking zombie — and ever since, Gotham has been haunted by the legend of Solomon Grundy. Originally introduced as an enemy of the original Green Lantern, Grundy has since battled Batman, Superman, Swamp-Thing, and numerous other heroes.

As a zombie, Grundy always returns from the dead every time he’s killed. However, his personality is often altered in the process. Sometimes he’s a dimwitted brute who serves as a loyal henchman to more clever villains. Other times, he’s a mindless, bestial entity, more of a force of nature than a living creature. He’s been a tragic, sympathetic anti-hero, and even an intelligent evil mastermind. This versatility, plus the striking concept behind the character, has allowed Grundy to gain notoriety in numerous past adaptations, proving that he’s more ready for the movies.

Anti-Monitor

Anti-Monitor-DC

Big bads don’t get much bigger than this. The Ant-Monitor is best known as the main antagonist of the landmark 1985 storyline Crisis on Infinite Earths, which saw the DC Comics multiverse destroyed and reborn in a grand cosmic war. A cosmic entity born at the dawn of the multiverse, the Anti-Monitor — given the birth name of Mobius in later stories — is the twin brother of the Monitor, guardian of the multiverse. Born with an all-consuming hunger for power, the Anti-Monitor schemed to destroy the multiverse, feeding on the energy of each Earth he destroyed until only his home reality remained, with him reigning supreme over all existence. To defeat the Anti-Monitor, a legion of the multiverse’s greatest heroes and villains joined forces, with the Flash and Supergirl both giving their lives to foil his ambitions.

In the end, it took Superman joining forces with two of his parallel Earth counterparts — along with Darkseid himself — to defeat the Anti-Monitor. However, no great villain is gone for good, and the Anti-Monitor later returned to face off with the Green Lantern Corps in 2007’s Sinestro Corps War arc. He later returned again in the Darkseid War and Dark Nights: Death Metal storylines, but none of his repeat performances have ever managed to top the original Crisis. DC still has a long way to go before a Crisis on Infinite Earths movie is in the cards, but there’s no doubt that seeing the Anti-Monitor properly brought to life on the big screen would delight countless fans.

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