Nerd roundtable: This week, we focus on the best villain in the wide world of nerd.
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PrairieNerds@tulsaworld.comJason Powers: 
Best Villain: Professor Moriarty
Despite having only appeared in two canonical Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Professor Moriarty has become almost as famous as Holmes himself. His name is so synonymous with “archenemy” that it is how you describe one in our culture, as in “Lex Luthor is Superman’s Moriarty.” In Moriarty’s first appearance, "The Adventure of the Final Problem," it comes to light that the evil professor has had a hand in some of Sherlock’s most famous cases. Holmes, having busted up Moriarty’s crime ring, has to flee England to continental Europe to avoid retribution. Moriarty catches up with Holmes, and the two appear to fall to their deaths during a struggle at the Reichenbach Falls. Neither character could stay dead, of course, and both have lived on, with Moriarty gaining popularity as he went. Often depicted as a cold, calculating, ruthless genius, Moriarty rarely gets his own hands dirty, preferring instead to have his vast network of petty criminals do his work for him, often never knowing for whom they were actually employed. This has been the mold for many a villain since, from the afore mentioned Lex Luthor to 007's Blofeld, to Keyser Söze to Voldemort.
Moriarty has been played by the likes of Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, Vincent D'Onofrio, and by Jared Harris in the most recent “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Moriarty has been transported to the
future, met Batman and Robin, showed up as a poltergeist on the “Ghostbusters” cartoon, was once played in mouse form by Vincent Price in “The Great Mouse Detective,” and became a sentient hologram on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” among other appearances. My favorite depiction by far, has got to be Andrew Scott’s scene-chewing turn as James Moriarty in the BBC's modern-day adaptation “Sherlock.” A more direct mirror image of Holmes in this version, calling himself a “consulting criminal,” Scott knocks the erratic evil right out of the park:
Matt Clayton 
My favorite villain is Lex Luthor. Luthor, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1940, first appeared in Action Comics #23. Luthor is my pick because he’s a perfect counterpart to the greatness of Superman. Superman is everything that is good in the world, a beacon of light that kind of hero needs a complex anti-hero to make him relevant.
He was envisioned as Superman’s dual opposite; morally depraved and corrupt, relying on brain power over physical power. Originally Luthor was a mad scientist but has since been rewritten as a Machiavellian industrialist and white-collar criminal. For a brief period in the early 2000s, he was president of the United States.
I’ve always the best version of Lex Luthor was the performance from Gene Hackman in “Superman,” “Superman II” and “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.” In the films, Luthor plays more of a used car salesman type bad guy, but his respect for Superman is what makes him such a great villain. He understand what makes Superman great and what it takes to defeat him.
Chris Moore 
When it comes to villains, that prize must go to Eddie Brock AKA the first Venom. Spider-Man may have bigger arch-nemesis that he faces more regularly like Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus, but the thing that puts Venom above them is that he is his rival as well. Venom can pretty much do anything that Spider-Man can, but does it with more power and more lethality. The thing that really makes him so scary is that Venom is comprised of both Eddie Brock, a man that hates Peter Parker and the alien symbiote that was meant for Parker, but which he ultimately rejected. The symbiote then grew a hatred for Parker equal only by Brock’s hatred making the pair a great combination.
To add to the character’s frightening demeanor, since the symbiote was originally a part of Peter Parker, it can counteract his Spider-Sense making him finally susceptible to sneak attacks; a feat no other villain can really do. After fights with Venom, it always leaves a mark on Parker. He knows Venom is out there and feels he can attack at any moment. He watches his back a bit more, he worries for his loved ones a bit more. Venom makes Parker feel fear and that fear stays with him whenever he has to face him.
Anna Codutti 
One thing about villains: They tend to lose in the end, and that's how we generally like it. So the "best" villain, I think, has to be someone who wins. The best villain is someone you want to hate but find yourself unconsciously rooting for. It's using these criteria I'm going with Hannibal Lecter as the best villain.
Yes, I once spent a summer with a lifesize wax figure of Hannibal the cannibal at this amazing house I rented. Lecter is a genius with a tragic childhood (think Dexter, but way worse), a dynamic personality who knows his profession (psychiatry) so well he basically has unfettered access to the minds of everyone he comes in contact with. He earns his villain cred in "Red Dragon" when he turns on the FBI agent who was foolish enough to trust him after Lecter nearly disemboweled him. He's still a bad guy in "Silence of the Lambs," but we see a softer side as he develops feelings for Clarice Starling. You've doubtless seen the film, so you know the awesome methods he employed to gain his freedom. The dude MacGyvers one fountain pen and works it so he doesn't even have to leave detention under his own steam. Brilliance. By "Hannibal," we learn the man is a polyglot, plays the theremin and oh, by the way, exacted his personal brand of justice on a sadistic rapist/pedophile. So he's not all bad. Sure, he gets a little freaky with Starling, but in the end he bests the other bad guys, gets the girl* and retires to Argentina (a popular spot for villains both real and fictional to rebuild their lives). Now that's winning.
*Note: The "Hannibal" filmmakers thought no one would buy Starling becoming Lecter's lover, so they mutilated Harris' ending.James Royal 
The Joker. He's always been one of my favorite comic book characters and hands-down my favorite bad guy. Like the best comic villains, he's the polar opposite of his main protagonist -- the sadistic, chaotic yin to Batman's upstanding, orderly yang. And unlike villains such as Magneto, there's no moral justification for the Joker's acts, no back story that makes you understand the atrocities he commits. He kills and robs simply because he wants to create chaos and challenge Batman physically and mentally. Sometimes, that means setting up an elaborate deathtrap for the Caped Crusader. Sometimes, it means putting a bullet in Barbara Gordon's spine or killing Robin.
And that's what makes the Joker such a great villain. Everyone and everything is just a means to the same end. Nothing has any value beyond his never-ending struggle with Batman, so the Joker might just as easily kill one of his flunkies as he would a passerby on the street. While there was a lighter version of the Joker during the 1950s and '60s, for the majority of his more than 70 years of existence in comics, movies, television and video games, he has been the darkest figure in a Gotham City underworld teeming with deranged villains. As another DC super-villain, the Trickster, once said, "When super-villains want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories."
Michael Dambold 
My choice for best villain is Marvel's Apocalypse.
Born thousands of years ago, he's regarded as the first mutant who 'evolved' by infusing himself with a starship, making him immortal. He then began plans for world domination and even turned a beloved X-Man into a horrible villain.
He can't be killed, and on top of being nearly unstoppable he is one of the best chessmasters in the Marvel Universe and even had all of the X-Men titles change in the 90s to the alternate reality of Age of Apocalypse.
Micah Choquette 
Ra's Al Ghul.
This guy immediately came to my head first, but I had to do some online research of a few others to make sure there wasn't some blaringly obvious baddie I was missing. There are plenty of contenders: Joker, Doc Ock, Dr. Doom, Galactus, the list goes annoyingly on. But Ra's Al Ghul, stands out to me, ever since the first time I saw him in Batman: The Animated Series (what a wonderful show that was). He was seemingly immortal, relying frequently bathing in "Lazarus Pits" to keep him young and healthy while he carried on his own crusade to give the world a fresh start. The problem? This "fresh start" would require the death of pretty much everybody you know. Obviously, Batman has problems with this.
The reason Ra's stands out to me as the ultimate villain, is that he brings a certain amount of sanity and reason to his agenda. A quick glance at the evening news or across the pages of today's newspapers can tell you that humanity is often our own worst enemy. The way that Ra's so eloquently describes the situation and how he plans to deal with it makes his terrorist agenda seem almost...plausible. I'll never forget the conversation he had with Batman, describing his latest plot to end the lives of, well, a lot of people:
Batman: But that will cost COUNTLESS lives!
Ra's Al Ghul: Actually, Detective, we have counted - 2,056,986,000.
See? Ra's is so strategic and mathematical about it, he seems calloused to the idea of doing in over 2 billion people. He's not raving mad or trying to get revenge or any of that. He's just very determined and methodical. To this day, his endgame has not changed. It makes him about as real and creepy as any of the other villains out there.
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