Bond villains vs. Batman villains

This is just a curious little topic that have recently come to my mind. From time to time I’ve seen people in popular media make comparisons between James Bond and Batman. First time I encountered this comparison was in an episode of Friends long ago. And I see people in social media make comparisons of these two popular characters all the time. Both are trained professionals in their field relying on their wits and skills. Both have cool gadgets and vehicles. Both work under secrecy. Both are ladies men etc, etc.

But the question that hits me is “what about the villains from both these character's respective fictional universe”? There’s quiet an amount of similarities between Bond villains and Batman villains. Sure, some of Batman’s villains have superpowers, but far from all of them do. And you could argue that some of Bond’s villains have superpowers of their own in a sense. Dr. No from Dr. No (1962) has crushing powers due to his powerful hand prostethics, Renard from The World is Not Enough (1999) is completely incapable of feeling pain due to the bullet wound through his head that permanently damaged his nervous system, Jaws from The Spy who Loved me (1977) and Moonraker (1979) is seemingly unkillable as he survives certain death after certain death.

Going back to Jaws, comparing this old popular Bond villain to a Batman villain such as Killer Croc. They both are henchman type villains who are both very huge and very strong. They both bear resemblance to a famously feared animal, and of course, they both have a thing for biting things. One over-arching difference between Bond villans and Batman villains of course is that Bond villains tend to have a lot more resources and work on a higher scale of villainy – being terrorists, or governmental operatives gone rogue or international, criminal masterminds - as opposed to Batman villains which are exclusively city outlaws, with Ra’s al Ghul as an exception of course.

Another difference is that Batman villains tend to all have a psychosis theme going on about them, which aren’t often seen among Bond villains. The ones I can think of having such a theme behind them is Raoul Silva from Skyfall (2012) - psychologically broken from being abandoned and left for dead by M, whom he saw as a mother figure - and Max Zorin from A View to a Kill (1985) - being psychologically unhinged from birth due to being the product of a biological experiment - and also, I think, Maximillian Largo from Never say Never again (1983, and yes, I'm talking about the non-canon Bond film) - acting like he's Italian when he's clearly Austrian.

I thought this should be enough to get some talk going on this funny, little topic.

So what are your thoughts? Can you come up with more similarities/differences between Bond villains and Batman villains? Would you perhaps like to see a crossover event with these characters take place in some fashion?

I’ll be expecting your comments below^^


Helixfinger Out!