Animal-themed superheroes and villains are a funny thing. Sometimes they’re really kind of silly, and other times they’re arguably the two most popular heroes at their companies — I’m looking at you, Batman and Spider-Man! So what makes a good animal superhero? How does one even catch on? And why aren’t there more?

Also, doesn’t everybody love frogs?

Ribbit

I’ve done lists for bird superheroes, cat superheroes, dog superheroes, rabbit superheroes, bear superheroes and more, and I love scouring the Internets and comic books to find the best ones! This time, I’ve decided to take a look at the wartiest, slimiest, lilypaddiest frog and toad dudes in the funny pages!

Also, I’m calling dibs on creating a comic book villain based on the dreaded Surinam Toad. Don’t Google it!

6. Mister Toad

His wild ride ends with a butt-kicking from Batman

Mister Toad is the warty sidekick to Professor Pyg, Grant Morrison’s darling addition to Batman’s Rogues Gallery. No explanation is given as to why he’s literally an anthropomorphic toad person, considering Pyg was a man in a mask. But he also had a cockney accent, so at least he had that going for him. Mister Toad was later killed by the Circus of Strange, if that makes any sense. Despite this very brief career in comics, Mister Toad has appeared in no less than two Batman cartoon shows. Such is the power of a Grant Morrison creation.

Speaking of weird comic book stuff, it’s all Marvel character from here on out. Guess they’re really into frogs at the House of Ideas.

5. Leap-Frog

He’s not screaming, unlike me

Vincent Patilio was a Daredevil villain from the era when Daredevil fought guys like Stilt-Man instead of guys like Bullseye — so don’t go expecting Leap-Frog to show up on Netflix anytime soon. He was a toymaker who designed a pair of spring-based boots, which is probably ever child’s dream. Who didn’t imagine themselves bouncing all over the place by putting a spring on the sole of your shoe? Rather than be more successful than Moon Shoes, Patilio decided to dress up like a frog and go into super-crime. Daredevil put a stop to that, as he is wont to do.

4. Frog-Man 

It’s good to have friends

I don’t know how else to explain this to you, but there were apparently two separate people who decided to dress up like frogs and fight Daredevil. Does it make more sense if you know that Stan Lee was writing Daredevil at the time? Anyway, the Ani-Men are a foursome of crooks who each dress up in animal costumes to commit crimes. There’s Frog-Man, Cat-Man, Bird-Man and Ape-Man. There is absolutely no depth beyond that information. That is literally the extent of their character development. Daredevil put a stop to them, but for reasons unknown, new people keep putting on the Ani-Men costumes or taking the Ani-Men names to keep committing crimes. None has ever done anything worthy of remembrance, not even Frog-Man.

I bet ol’ Stan was going to use the name ‘Frog-Man’ for Vincent Patilio up there, but someone had to remind him that he already used the name on a completely different character only 15 issues earlier. Hence the fancier name of ‘Leap-Frog’.

3. Amphibius

‘Man-Frog’ would be a good name too!

Remember the Savage Land? With its dinosaurs and loin-clothed blonde studs, the Savage Land is a violent jungle in the middle of Antarctica. And living among the Savage Land are the Mutates, a group of tribesmen who Magneto mutated into pseudo-mutants in one of his villainous schemes. One of these poor schmucks is Amphibius, who Magneto turned into a man-frog for reasons that might become clear with our next entry. Amphibius has to live in a world where Ka-Zar also exists, which just isn’t fair. He’s a stumpy, warty little dude who has stuck around as a member of the Mutates no matter what super-villain shows up to take commend next. So at least he’s dedicated.

2. Toad

Handsome Ray Park action

Ah, Toad. A truly underrated super-villain. Toad is a mutant and an enemy of the X-Men. He was one of Magneto’s first recruits into the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, in which Magneto treated him and dressed him like a crappy court jester (which might explain why Magneto later made a Toad-esque Mutate in the Savage Land). Toad would go on to be much more awesome than that, as a slimy, often sniveling, but still potentially deadly and dangerous villain in his own right. He’s also a pretty great example of a character who was much improved when Marvel tried to make him more like his movie version. He wasn’t always this handsome.

1. Fabulous Frog-Man

Close friend of Carol Danvers

Remember Leap-Frog? Welp, he had a son named Eugene who decided to carry on his father’s legacy, but this time as a superhero! This kid has got ambition! The Fabulous Frog-Man would go on to have a bunch of pretty crummy adventures, whether he was fighting baddies like The Walrus or White Rabbit, or he was spotted in the background of some crossover or another. Or that time he threw up in front of Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman and Hawkeye during a team-up on Spider-Island. Poor old Eugene just can’t catch a break — but maybe he can catch a fly! With his tongue! Like…like a frog. Man.

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