Superman predates Batman by almost a year, but chances are, you know Batman better. Don't believe me? I bet you can name half-a-dozen Batman villains off the top of your head: the Joker, the Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Bane, and so on. But what about Superman's villains? Unless you're a big comics fan, Lex Luthor might be the only one you can name.
Brooklyn's Pop Chart Labs wants to fix that. As a companion piece to their popular map of every Batman villain ever, Pop Chart has grouped all of Superman's villains into distinct kingdoms, phyla, and genuses, all according to their weird similarities.
The truth is, Superman's pretty much invincible, which probably helps to explain why his foes are lesser known. I've come across some of them: General Zod, Bizarro, Doomsday and Cyborg Superman among them. But the Kryptonoid, Faora-Hu-Ul, Duke Duvvil, and Kuku the Klown? No idea. Which is sort of the charm of this poster.
In all comics, there's a strange taxonomy that dictates the universe, and Pop Chart Labs does a great job of illuminating it here. For example, Superman tends to fight a lot of "men of certain type" (i.e. super men), like Kryptonite Man, Futureman, Moonman, and Glowman. Because he basically is a modern update of one, Superman also tends to face off against a lot of mythological figures, like Atlas, Titano, Sodom, Gomorrah, and... Socrates? And then, of course, there's my favorite category of villains, those with Unpronounceable 5th-Dimensional Names. This is my favorite category of Superman villains, including the legendary impster, Mr. Mxyzptlk (which is not quite so unpronounceable: Mix-Ee-pit-a-lik). But there's also Ferlin Nyxly, Vyndktvk, and Nyzkmulk to learn to pronounce.
Available in a gorgeous print designed around bold primary colors, the Myriad Monikers of Metropolis Menaces is available for purchase from Pop Chart, starting at $20. But you can also buy it as part of a World's Finest set alongside the similar infographic for Batman villains, starting at $36.