The Flash Villains Ranked Worst to Best

The Flash's villains are a mixed bag of chilling and childish, but all of them have one thing in common: They will always inevitably be put in their place by Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and his team of crimefighters.

As for their differences, it's clear that not all villains were made equal in this saga. Every season, there's an assortment of main villains, right-hand man flunkies and throwaway baddies that are just cannon fodder. Some of them have great story arcs that left lasting impressions, while others were just CGI nightmares or victims of a less than stellar twist that sent them spiraling into obscurity.

We've compiled the ten biggest and baddest (and sometimes just plain bad) villains Team Flash has ever faced off with and ranked them from the very worst to the very best.

10. King Shark

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Let's be honest with ourselves. King Shark barely even qualifies as a villain considering he only shows up for single episode appearances before being defeated and/or captured again. It's not his fault he's made entirely of super expensive CGI, but this dude never manages to stick around for very long, let alone hatch a master plan. As far as super villains go, King Shark is kind of a dud.

9. Doctor Alchemy (Tom Felton)

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Savitar's high priest gave off some creepy cult vibes that held good villain potential, but at the end of the day, all he really did was turn regular Central City citizens into metas. It was a pretty nice twist to make Julian (Felton) Doctor Alchemy all along though, even if there was something to be desired as far as his diabolical plans went. In the end, he was only a brainwashed flunky for Savitar, who was the real big bad of Season 3.

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8. Savitar

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Speaking of which... Savitar was definitely creepy AF, and he seemed almost unbeatable for a while there. How was Barry supposed to take on a Speed God? Then... well, then we found out he was just an evil version of Barry from the future, who'd watched Iris (Candice Patton) die and thus became obsessed with killing Iris. Yeah, logic was not this guy's strongest suit. Savitar lost a bunch of cool villain points for that.

7. Grodd

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Grodd is where this list starts to turn from iffy to awesome, since a massive, super-intelligent gorilla is kind of hard to hate on. The two-hour event, "Attack on Gorilla City" and "Attack on Central City," was an impressive feat -- both because the CGI was pretty well done and because it once again allowed the team to play with the idea of Earth 2. It's a mystery how The Flash hasn't turned Grodd into a totally absurd villain, but whatever they're doing we hope they keep it up.

6. Zoom (Teddy Sears)

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This might be an unpopular opinion, but Zoom was a pretty fantastic villain. He opened up the concept of Earth 2, which in turn launched the whole multiverse narrative, and as far as fear factor goes, Zoom was terrifying. Sure, the reveal that he'd been Jay Garrick, a.k.a Hunter Zolomon, the whole time was kind of meh (that villain in disguise as a friend/mentor bit was recycled way too fast), but that didn't take away from his creepy factor. Seeing him unmasked somehow made him even scarier thanks to the crazy/obsessive vibes he was rocking with Caitlin.

5. The Thinker (Neil Sandilands)

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DeVoe was the first big non-speedster villain for The Flash, and all in all he was pretty great. His mission to collect metas powers as part of a larger endgame was a fun puzzle to solve, and his wealth of additional powers made it much more believable when Barry lost to him despite their huge speed difference. He also managed to put together an impressively convincing murder frame job, which sent Barry to prison and gave us the "Trial of The Flash" we've been waiting for.

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4. The Trickster (Mark Hamill)

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Who doesn't love a good trick? The Trickster gets bonus points for being bringing Mark Hamill to The Flash, who played the Trickster in the original The Flash series in the '90s. He's only shown up a few times and never for a very extended arc -- which is a shame, thanks, Star Wars -- but every time he does show up he provides a grizzly plot to foil. If we had our way, he'd be around 100% more often next season.

3. Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker)

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The evolution of Killer Frost from Earth 2 villain to Earth 1 alter ego to bad girl with a sort of good heart was pretty much the best villain to antihero arc ever. Even though she and Caitlin eventually became besties, Killer Frost never lost her bite, and we were devastated when DeVoe "killed" her. Yes, that's in quotes because like hell they killed off one of the best characters on the show.

2. Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller)

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We're still not over the fact that we've apparently seen the last of Captain Cold for good now that Wentworth Miller has decided not to make more appearances in any of the Arrowverse shows, but even if he's gone for good, he'll forever hold a special place in Flash fans hearts as a seriously epic villain. Like Killer Frost, he was a layered character who was not all good and not all bad. We're always in favor of a villain you kind of want to root for, even if you know you probably shouldn't.

1. Reverse Flash (Tom Cavanagh)

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No one can ever beat the epic villainy of Harrison Wells, a.k.a. Eobard Thawne, a.k.a. the Reverse Flash. He mastered the "hiding in the plain sight" move that other villains have tried (and failed) to copy in The Flash's following seasons, and he did all of it while pretending to be paralyzed! Who else could kick Barry's butt all around Central City while creating a speed mirage to keep up appearances that Harrison Wells was totally not the evil villain? Let us never forget how he ruined us when he scissored Cisco's (Carlos Valdes) heart. Thank God for time travel.

The Flash returns Tuesdays this fall at 8/7c on The CW.

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