10 Best ‘Supergirl’ TV Show Villains Ranked by Importance

‘Supergirl‘ series ended in 2021 after six seasons, presenting us with Kara Danvers’s origins as the Girl of Tomorrow and the protector of National City. Arrowverse Kara Zor-El was a mix of New 52, DC Rebirth, and Pre-Crisis comic book characters of the same name, and Melissa Benoist did a really good job portraying Supergirl. Of course, during six seasons, we saw Kara becoming the best superhero she could be and on her journey fighting some really dangerous enemies that marked her for the rest of her life.

This article will focus on the ten most important villains of Supergirl from the TV show and explain each entry on this list. If you are interested, stay with us until the end.

10. Red Tornado

Red Tornado is the first big villain of the superheroine. At the beginning of the first season of Supergirl, Red Tornado was a $1 billion investment by the United States Army and an android that was intended to failsafe against rogue Kryptonians like Supergirl and Superman.

However, when Supergirl beats the android in the fight, Red Tornado becomes sentient and escapes. Eventually, Supergirl faces an android once again and is almost defeated. But, the superheroine blasts Red Tornado with her heat vision, making it explode, which causes Kara to lose her powers temporarily. Quite a good starting villain of the series.

9. Indigo/Brainiac-8

We stay in the show’s first season and present you with Indigo, also called Brainiac-8. This villain was quite significant for Kara since she was the most notorious prisoner of Krypton’s maximum security prison, Fort Rozz.

Indigo is a Coluan, a techno-organic species that is really powerful. In the show, we learn that Indigo was stuck in the Phantom Zone with young Kara Zor-El, and was responsible for their eventually arriving on Earth. However, the villain wanted to wipe out all humans on Earth, and Kara, with the help of J’onn J’onzz, eventually defeated the powerful alien. Indigo was quite a handful and one of the main villains of season one, hence why she is so important for Kara’s journey as Supergirl.

8. Anti-Monitor

This might be a bit of a “cop-out” since Anti-Monitor is the villain of the whole Arrowverse, but that doesn’t mean we cannot mention this character in the context of Supergirl. The ‘Crisis of Infinite Earths’ is a major storyline of DC comics, and all Arrowverse shows had a major crossover to retell this storyline on TV.

The cataclysmic destruction of Multiverse was a huge event in Arrowverse, impacting Kara immensely. One of the big tragedies was her sister Alex Danvers dying. Of course, Oliver Queen created a new Multiverse, and consequently, Earth-Prime, which erased the deaths of important characters, but still, Anti-Monitor Crisis was huge for our Supergirl.

7. Astra Zor-El

After Indigo in season one, another major villain of that season was Astra In-Ze, Kara Zor-El’s aunt. Astra was a twin sister of Kara’s mother, Alura, and a wife of Non, and both of them were criminals and inmates in Krypton’s Fort Rozz. Of course, her story is quite interesting since she and Non tried to prevent the destruction of Krypton, but they succumbed to crime and eventually became traitors.

When Fort Rozz crashed on Earth, Non, and Astra escaped and dedicated their efforts to the Myriad program, which would brainwash everyone on Earth. Eventually, Alex actually kills Astra, but her death affects Kara immensely since she and her aunt were pretty close in her youth. Astra’s importance is underrated in the ‘Supergirl’ show, so we put her on this list.

6. Daxamites – Queen Rhea

In season two of the show, we saw Kara being in a relationship with the Daxamite Mon-El, and the arrival of Lena Luthor, who will eventually become Kara’s close friend. However, Daxam was mostly feuding with their sister planet Krypton, so their reputation was far from good with other aliens. During season two, we meet Rhea, Mon-El’s mother, who led her people to invade Earth and seek revenge against Supergirl, who turned her son Mon-El against her.

The day was saved by Lena Luthor, who spread lead into the Earth’s atmosphere, which caused Daxamites to retreat. Nevertheless, this conflict was quite hard for Kara since Mon-El had to leave the Earth and preserve his life against the lead. Queen Rhea was definitely a ‘piece of work,’ hence why she is on this list.

5. Maxwell Lord

Now, Maxwell Lord had a slight change of heart later, but at first, he was considered a villain, an anti-government millionaire, and the creator of Bizzaro Supergirl, who caused Kara trouble in the first season. Lord’s agenda was noble initially, but it turned out to be twisted since he didn’t mind sacrificing everyone for the “larger” picture, despite vowing he would protect people from harm.

He was an interesting character who was later retconned as being more of an anti-hero in the second season, but nevertheless, his impact was felt later in the show. He also created Red Kryptonite, which made Kara delirious at one point in season one.

4. Lilian Luthor

Before Lex Luthor arrived in National City, his mother, Lilian, was a menace, or better yet, a terrorist responsible for various attacks in National City and Supergirl. Lilian hates aliens, especially Kryptonians (Superman included), which send her to jail multiple times in the series.

She was also a stepmother to Lena Luthor, who didn’t want to have anything with her adoptive mother and tried to do good by Luthor’s name. Lilian was also the leader of Cadmus, an infamous research lab for all its sinister experiments, mostly used against Supergirl and Superman. She was Lex before Lex himself came to the show, and her scenes with children and Supergirl were always the best parts of the series. She eventually mellows down a bit, but not enough to see that her son Lex is in the wrong.

3. Worldkillers and Reign

Lillian Luthor tested Supergirl with Metallo, Cyborg Superman, and other menacing villains, but Reign was a true test for Kara Zor-El. When Samantha Arias arrived with her daughter Ruby in National City, she could never predict what would eventually happen to her.

Reign was created by the Children of Juru, an ancient and secret cult on Krypton, using a mystical black rock called Harun-El. This artifact was full of dark magic, which genetically engineered Kryptonian warriors. The cult created Worldkillers and Reign, who was sent as a baby to Earth, and eventually lived as Samantha Arias. Supergirl really struggled against Reign and almost died, but after she used Harun-El to split Reign from Samantha Arias and after several revivals, Reign was killed by the cult that created her, banishing her forever.

2. Agent Liberty

Every superhero needs to have an extremist villain, and Ben Lockwood was definitely one of them. After seeing his parents and family disintegrate during Reign’s destruction of Earth, Ben Lockwood decides to take revenge on aliens, predominantly, Supergirl. He began working with Mercy and Otis Graves, the leader of the anti-movement called Children of Liberty.

He eventually takes over the mantle of Agent Liberty and vows to destroy all aliens and extraterrestrials from Earth, making humans superior on their planet. Ben Lockwood eventually realizes that he and his movement were pawns in Lex Luthor’s scheme. Of course, he was later defeated by Supergirl and her crew, but his extremist plot was something that deeply affected Kara and was only a prologue of what Lex Luthor had in store for the Woman of Tomorrow.

1. Lex Luthor

Surprise, surprise, Lex Luthor is Supergirl’s most important villain. Not just because he is an iconic villain of the Kryptonites in the comics but because he really impacted Kara as a character and superheroine. Lex Luthor is a known anti-alien who is in jail for most of the series, but in the fourth season all the way until the sixth, Lex Luthor becomes the main villain of the ‘Supergirl’ show.

He almost destroyed Kara’s friendship with Lena Luthor, created Red Daughter, and almost led his sister on the same path as him toward the darkness, but she “pulled through” in the end. Lex’s legacy in Supergirl’s life is major, hence why he is her most important villain in the series.

What are your picks for the most important ‘Supergirl’ villains? Let us know in the comments below!