Wonder Woman has Ares. But no, Aquaman doesn't have any villains.

Hopefully DLC rectifies this with Black Manta, and also a villain for The Flash; Mirror Master or Weather Wizard would be cool.

Aquaman's villain is the mainstream perception.

Ha!

You're whining about Aquaman and Wonder Woman (who has a villain) when Flash, who has an extremely respectable Rogues Gallery doesn't have any?

Sadly this is true....one day Aquaman....one day.

Well, it was never meant to be equal. You run down a slippery slope when you start asking for equality. Beyond the typical race and feminist cards, it'd lead to a pretty lame roster in comparison.

Say each character gets 1 villain. Well, that means Bane, Harley, and Catwoman(even though she's not really a villain per say, she's listed on the villain side) go bye bye. That's 3 popular recognizable beloved characters we won't receive. Doomsday as well, though, less popular and recognizable.

So those 4 would get you your villain equality:

Aquaman: Black Manta
Flash: Captain Cold

But wait, can't stop there, if you want equality, you can't just exclude other heroes in the game:

Green Arrow: Merlyn
Hawkgirl: Hath-Set
Nightwing: Blockbuster

Well, that's pretty lame if you ask me. Sure, equality is nice, but you can't just ask for equality for 2 characters. I'd like a Flash and Aquaman villain, don't get me wrong, but what we got is the better option. In story terms, gameplay terms, and pure drawing power of the casual fans and comic book fans alike.

But on the equality kick, then you have to ask yourself, why are there 2 Teen Titans and 2 BAtman heroes in the game? Let's drop Cyborg(there's the only black guy being taken out...) and Nightwing(as well as Blockbuster) out in favor of 2 additional heroes. Martian Manhunter and Firestorm. Firestorm would match up with Killer Frost, and Martian Manhunter obviously has the fan support. But then, we need a Martian Manhunter villain, who better than White Martian?

Meanwhile, we probably took out certain characters that play an important role in the story(they all do, otherwise they wouldn't have been picked), unique gameplay that isn't being replaced by a similar styled character, and were overall more popular and recognizable than the ones replacing them.

Let's take a look at what we got though:

Batman - Joker
Superman - Lex Luthor
Wonder Woman - Ares
Green Lantern - Sinestro
Flash - Captain Cold
Aquaman - Black Manta
Shazam - Black Adam
Raven - Deathstroke
Green Arrow - Merlyn
Hawkgirl - Hath-Set
Firestorm - Killer Frost
Martian Manhunter - White Martian
???? - Grundy

Well, Grundy is kind of lonely. He can't be the only one without a counterpart... He doesn't have a direct counterpart, other than Alan Scott the original Green Lantern, so Grundy gets dropped in favor of a straight forward hero and villain pair. We'll go with Black Canary and Abnegazer.

Ok, so obviously this is a really pointless example of why equality can be bad, and I know I am taking it way further than you ever intended. But it's how the argument of equality can go. And I don't think the roster would be better if it were done in a fashion where all the main heroes have a villain counterpart. That's a bit cheesy and cliche, but mainly because some of the heroes have really poor villains, that wouldn't have the best gameplay, and wouldn't appeal to many fans. Right now, the roster is stacked, the story looks great, and each character looks to have amazing gameplay potential. People will love this game. The roster is just the right mix.

If you read this far...you're a good sport.

Well said BC. Honestly I'm happy about the roster, just the right mix of heroes and villains. Not to mention the possibilities with DLC...after Martian Manhunter of course.

Wonder Woman and Aquaman are the kinds of problem characters who despite being around for like 70 years, they've built up barely any rogues gallery at all. I don't know why, everyone knows "a hero is only as good as the villains they fight"...

Aquaman has literally TWO supervillains. That's friggin' it. And neither one's very impressive. Black Manta's just a human scuba diver with laser-eyes and Ocean Master fills the "evil version of the hero" trope, sure, but has one of the silliest looking costumes ever.

And Wonder Woman...man, you'd think someone based on Greek Myth would have a lot more bad guys by now. But no, she fights the God of War and the sorceress from the Odyssey who likes to turn people into animals, which is cool and all. But after them? Her archnemesis is Lara Croft as a Furry. Wonder Woman is as powerful as Superman and she mostly fights a catgirl? How is that a challenge?
How does that happen? How do you get published once a month every month from 1940 to 2013 and have so few repeating bad guys? I mean Green Arrow is in the same boat but with him you at least have the excuse that he tends to shoot people fucking dead...
P.S. blackcyborg, "White Martian" isn't a single character, it's a race. And they don't have a single famous leader character with a name or anything like how the Tarkatans have Baraka. J'onn doesn't actually have any recurring bad guys either because he almost never has his own book, he usually just appears in team books, like, as a member of the Justice League. He has an evil brother, "Malefic", they had him appear in the animated movie JL: Doom, but that guy I think really only showed up like once in the comics. You could maybe pair him off with the JLA villain Despero since they both have psychic powers.

To be fair, I consider Deathstroke to also be a villain for Cyborg, Nightwing and Green Arrow. Grundy is also an enemy of Batman and Superman.

That said, I am hoping for Black Manta and Mirror Master to be DLC or in the sequel. Maybe also add more Superman and Wonder Woman villains. I feel that Conduit would be a good addition but might play a bit too much like Iron Man in the MvC games but Circe would be a very cool character who'd rely heavily on teleport spam and projectiles. Also, Flash needs a villain. Captain Cold and Mirror Master are my top choices.

Really great responses and I do understand that some characters would be less recognizable than a Wonder Woman Flash or Aquaman villain, but there are 6 Bat-Characters and ONE for Wonder Woman Flash and Aquaman.

Cheetah for SURE should have been in place of Catwoman
Joker and Harley are the same character, and I would have preferred keeping Harley in place of Joker.
Black Manta scared me so much as a kid I loved the idea of getting to play him in the game as a primary playable character. They did an amazing job with Aquaman I think.
Flash has a HUGE roster of great and quirky bad guys. I was expecting Captain Cold up front right away.

We cant increase popularity of the villains of Flash Aquaman and Wonder Woman if Batman is always the focus of everything.

Then again I have to remember its about the money Warner Bros can make so they want to draw in NON-Comic people too so it's Bat characters all around.

I'm glad to see Hawkgirl and others that dont get a lot of airtime but I'm not holding my breath for DLC to be more than 4.

Overall I'm going to LOVE this game. I'm pumped to try playing Raven. VERY different character to put in the roster.

I'm hoping they have about 5+ sequels to this game in this or other "realities".

To be honest I really don't get the inclusion of Killer Frost. She's not really a big time rogue, if NRS needed another female as some have speculated they could have used Circe over Ares, or if they wanted an Ice based character they had Captain Cold or even Mr. Freeze.

I seriously don't get how she a jumped ahead of Captain Cold, Black Manta, MM (but we all know that's a business play), Lobo, Mirror Master, or Pied Piper.

Maybe DC has plans with her? I know (or guess, at least) that almost every added Marvel character in Ultimate MvC3 were in because of promotional reasons. Ghost Rider because of the 2nd movie. Rocket Raccoon and Nova because of the new Marvel NOW comic book series. Hawkeye because of The Avengers. Etc...

I cannot for the life of me understand why you guys think Aquaman and Flash's z-list rogues would make it in this game. I can't even think of who the Pied Piper is.

Did you seriously refer to the Flash's Rogues as Z-list and Not Killer Frost?

Captain Cold has been Flash's main rogue since 1957! He's the de-facto leader of the Rogues, he's faced off against the Justice League, and he killed Bart Allen. Beyond that he made #27 on IGNs list of Greatest Comic-Book Villains.

Pied Piper has been an enemy and friend of the Flash since 1959, and he's faced Batman and Green Arrow numerous times to the point of almost being a general DC rogue. He's also been one of the few Rogues to remain straight (funny use of terms concerning), being an ally to Wally West. Pied Piper also played an integral part in the Countdown to Final Crisis story arc. And beyond all of that, he is also notable for being DC's first openly gay character.

Mirror Master first appear in '59 as well. And like Pied Piper he has been involved with scrapes with multiple DC heroes, including Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, and Green arrow, Most recently, Mirror Master played in important part in the Gorilla Warfare Story-arch, as well as appeared in the DC Cartoon- DOOM as part of Vandal Savage's team to destroy the world.

Just because Batman garnered a cartoon show and a movies doesn't make him and his rogues any more important than Flash's. Flash isn't a secondary character; he's one of the DC elite and he shouldn't have to play second fiddle to Bruce Wayne. This game, which looks to be more rooted in comic-lore than The Animated Series of the 90s, should pay respect to Rogues which have made their name just as famous as the Joker's within their universe.

His rogues are not. One of them might show up as DLC. Maybe.

Flash's rogues tends to be extremely cool and popular with people who have read The Flash and thus know and appreciate what they're really capable of despite their seemingly cartoonish names and costume designs...but not a lot of people read The Flash.

I thought Gorilla Grodd was a Flash villain? I might be mad though. But it doesn't seem he is going to be playable.

I mean that's who'd I have what with his DCAU version kicking so much arse.

As for Aquaman and Wonder Woman. I think its very hard for most normal people to name a good villain for either of them.

I mean Ares and Circe technically are Greek God/Goddesses so I'd say he and she aren't exclusive WW villain. And the Nazis dont count.

I mean of all the heroes that need a "Banesday" character it really is Wondie.

Yeah Grodd is a Flash villain but I think a lot of other people know and like him for things outside of that.

I think even some people might now Cheetah from the old Super Friends cartoon but yeah Ares, Cheetah, and Circe are pretty much it for Wonder Woman.

Im pretty sure Killer Frost was picked over Captain Cold for one main reason, special moves! Put yourself in NRS's shoes. Killer Frost and Icicle Jr are cryokinetic. Whereas Captain Cold, Icicle Sr, and Mr Freeze use a gun to freeze things. Killer Frost is capable of so much more than just a "freeze ray" attack... she can Ice slide, make ground spikes, Ice-Swords/Blades, an arctic omni-blast, snow-storm, a freezing parry move, etc.

And Yes i know that the New52 Captain Cold has been retconned to be cryokinetic. I guess DC finally realized that "Ice Guns" are lame as hell.

I still believe that Flash and Aquaman will have a hidden "villain skin" being Zoom and Ocean Master.

I searched up Black Manta and Ocean Master, I'm grateful not everyone got a rogue...

^^^ Try reading an issue with them. You may find that you like them

To be honest I really don't get the inclusion of Killer Frost. She's not really a big time rogue, if NRS needed another female as some have speculated they could have used Circe over Ares, or if they wanted an Ice based character they had Captain Cold or even Mr. Freeze.

I seriously don't get how she a jumped ahead of Captain Cold, Black Manta, MM (but we all know that's a business play), Lobo, Mirror Master, or Pied Piper.

Lol this made me think of Robot Chicken DC with the cold theme characters scene

Wonder Woman also has Genocide, Giganta, Dr. Poison and Dr. Cyber.
And as far as Flash villains go, most of them suck. I'm not even a fan of Grodd. The only ones I actually think are decent villains are Mirror Master, Zoom and Weather Wizard. That said, Captain Cold's New 52 look won me over. I could never take him seriously due to the costume.
Aquaman on the other hand only does have Black Manta and Ocean Master.
The problem with The Flash is that he needs cooler villains. A talking gorilla and a guy who throws boomerangs aren't really threatening to me, they're just funny. Aquaman needs more villains since his stories are limited by a low number of characters. Wonder Woman actually does have a respectable rouges gallery and some great storylines, I suggest picking up a few issues. Grant Morrison and Gail Simone write her the best IMO. Oh, and Green Lantern and Green Arrow in recent years have gained a number of interesting villains.