In a few short days, the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will arrive on Disney+ and hopefully it’s great! In the meantime, I figured we could talk about bird super-villains! Why not? Birds are neat! The Falcon is a bird! In fact, the Falcon topped my previous List of Six on the best bird superheroes in comics!

But we’re not here to talk about superheroes! There are apparently enough bird-themed characters that a bunch of them are villains as well! And I’m not just talking about characters named after birds. Nah. These villains really go all-out in being birds. It’s fun! So why not put them in list form? I considered doing a winter themed list, but I already did one of those! Enjoy that as well!

Then join me after the jump for the best bird-brained super-villains in comics!

6. Condor and Swan

Hawk and Dove are a famously heroic bird pair, and they made my earlier list as well. So how about their evil counterparts, Condor and Swan! Created for the New 52, they are also avatars of war and caused a lot of trouble for Hawk and Dove. And they were in a weird, creepy villain relationship? I think? Anyway, they were some pretty bad villains, got their butts whooped and then immediately disappeared into the ether. That may not make them all that great, but just the idea that Hawk and Dove have a pair of evil bird villains is funny to me.

5. Bird-Man

Why did the Ani-Men never take off? A bunch of chuds dressed up in matching yellow outfits with animal masks and gimmicks. That’s the Ani-Men! And good old Henry Hawk was chosen to become Bird-Man. Clearly whoever put together the team had a sense of humor when they picked Henry Hawk. Get it? But anyway, he was a Daredevil villain for a bit before the whole team — including Frog-Man, Cat-Man and Ape-Man — was mutated into real animal mutants. That’s crazy, but that’s also comics.

4. Court of Owls

The best new Batman villains in the modern age, the Court of Owls are just plain awesome! They are an ancient secret society from the early days of Gotham City, who secretly inserted themselves into the very foundation of the city. They wear creepy owl masks and use undead assassins named Talons to fight their bad guys, the Court of Owls are spooky and cool! So of course they were immediately blown out of proportion and put into too many things.

Speaking of owls…

3. Owl

Everybody’s got a gimmick! You can’t just be a regular mob boss in the Marvel Universe. You need a look. You need a gimmick. So isn’t it great that a guy named “Leland Owlsley” looks like an owl? Leland then leaned into that really hard, by taking a serum that allows him to fly, and getting some other powers resembling claws and whatnot. He’s a longtime Daredevil villain, and even made it into the Daredevil TV show on Netflix. But the funnest bit of Owl trivia is that he was originally planned to be the mysterious bad guy in the original X-Factor comic, but the new creative team came on board and decided to invent Apocalypse instead! Neat!

Speaking of owls…

2. Owlman

In an alternate universe, Bruce Wayne never became Batman! Instead, his older brother, Thomas Wayne, became Owlman! Because that’s how alternate universes work! Owlman has had a bunch of different histories over the years, but he always usually comes back to being the evil Batman of Earth 3, which has an entire evil Justice League. I suppose that’s a good gig if you can get it!

1. Vulture

They don’t get much more classic and bird and villain than the Vulture! He’s been terrorizing Spider-Man since the Web-slinger’s earliest days! Despite being, like, 104-years-old! We don’t get man geriatric super-villains either, but Vulture was really ahead of the game. He’s had some imitators over the years, but Adrian Toomes always manages to strap on that bright green bird suit and get up to some kind of mischief! Did you know he’s got a granddaughter now? Good for him!

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