*Contains minor spoilers of Star Trek Into Darkness*

Unlike our own Zoe Chevat and Jill Pantozzi, I was actually very happy with Star Trek Into Darkness overall. Having been a Trekkie for as long as I can remember, I understand that it doesn’t have the philosophical weight of some past Trek stories, as well as the contention that it heavily recycles old characters and plot points. But personally I look at the “Abramsverse” as a complete remake, and my view of the new films is that they’re made differently but extremely well.

That’s not to say that I don’t agree with the gender issues-related criticisms of the film. The now-infamous Carol Marcus undressed scene was, to be sure, gratuitous, offensive and completely inexcusable. I was equally disappointed by the scene of a Starfleet Command roundtable which shows a 20-person group that’s between 70-75 percent male. But where equality appears even farther away, in Hollywood as a whole, is among another realm of film characters: villains.

DC Comics teased a single picture this week, under the title “What’s New in The New 52 – Joker’s Daughter?!” (I’ve put the full picture below the jump.) And while a lot of you are probably thinking “ugh, what a trite idea for a female character,” I was thinking “Oh, neat, are they really going to bring back Duela Dent?

Now at this point some of you are probably going “Dent? Like… Harvey Dent? And Duela is “two”… but she’s the Joker‘s daughter?”

Yes. Come, lets talk about weird shit in comics, and a strange female character who maybe is getting a comeback, who knows?

Well we already knew they weren’t going to make Jamie Foxx dress up in a yellow and green supervillain costume for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 but I’m not sure this is what anyone expected Electro to look like. Those lights might be tracking dots with the added value of creating some electric glow to help with post-production but what do you think of the look? Looks like they’re taking the mutated villain route again. I’m assuming this is an in between look and that he’ll have a full costume later in the film.

(Daily Mail via Collider, photo by Doug Meszler/Splash News)

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Artist Rafa Toro somehow made the villains of Gotham City look casual. Which, if you’ve ever seen one, they’re anything but. Anyway, Toro created GIFs of Batman’s Rogues and we’ve arranged them from the Tim Burton years through Christopher Nolan. I have just one question, are these villains walking toward Batman or away from him?

Italian artist Giovanni Costa has a cool style and has used his talents this time around to turn Gotham into the Wild West. See how he’s transformed Two-Face, Catwoman, Nightwing, and more.

(Giovanni Costa via Project: Rooftop)

Why yes, that is a mash-up of Gotham City’s Bane and Killer Croc! Or Banecrocodile, if you will. The following are creations from the mind of DeviantArtist Gingashi who’s paired together Batman’s Rogues Gallery in some unusual ways. Who else will get stuck together?

(via So Geek Chic)

Justin-mctwisp created a small series of portraits last year featuring several major Disney villains (all women, naturally), lounging around like the cat that caught the canary. And no wonder: this is his idea of what all these ladies would have looked like if they’d succeeded in their plans of kidnapping, impersonation, murder and seduction. So, they might be a little old, in internet time, but it’s the first we’ve seen of them, so we’re putting them up here. You’ll just have to deal with that.

Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph is a veritable who’s-who of video game history. We saw several classic characters in the first trailer and a few more (heroes and villains) in the second trailer but one is conspicuously missing – Mario! You may be thinking it has something to do with property rights (and you’re not alone) but then why is Mario’s nemesis Bowser in the film and our favorite plumber is not? Producer Clark Spencer explains while revealing just how crazy video game companies are.

Hey, remember that Marvel Villains design contest I was chosen to judge along with Loki himself, Tom Hiddleston? The results are in! And guess what? Eighty percent of the winners were women!

Artist Kerrith Johnson has taken our favorite comic book characters and revealed what they were always meant to do – inspire. His intent with this “Believe” series was, “Keeping Heroes iconic but positive.” Take a look at a few examples of the series that breaks down both heroes and villains to their base affects on humanity.

(via Superherologist)