Almost a full century now, first publishing was 1938.
Ignoring the non movie media that have actually tried to line up other villains than Lex, the only other options have been
Steppenwolf, "Doomsday", Batman, Zod, Nuclear Man, Tay a supercomputer, and Zod again.
They've never bothered with any other options despite the sheer volume of source material out there of not only other main threats for Superman to face down the line, but also ones that have served as initial threats so other names can come in later.
Man of Steel killing Zod in the same film was a waste of the character, even more so when the nearest comic source to it didn't bring Zod in until the third part of the series. It was some random alien(s) responsible for the destruction of Krypton first, then Parasite, and then finally Zod.
There's also Brainiac, Mongul although that name may not fly these days, Solomon Grundy, and ofc Bizarro. All of which can serve as purely physical challenges in the case of the latter 4, and a more complex challenge for Brainiac depending on how it's designed for a particular adaptation. 3 of those are even repeatable villains since Brainiac can be rebuilt, Grundy is a magically powered zombie, and Bizarro just needs recloned. So they wouldn't even be wasted were they first time shows only to be quickly popped by the end of the film.
Then if done properly DC could actually try building up to a threat rather than blowing everything too fast because Marvel got ahead of them ages ago and DC has been playing catch-up ever since while also fighting its own inherent retardedness since the execs clearly have zero fucking clue about the stories.
Darkseid is one of the more final villains for Superman, so Justice League at least did something ok with using Steppenwolf instead initially although the movie was a mess for so many other reasons.
Luthor is too consistent a villain for Superman from the comics so he's not ideal to only use once no matter how unrealistic at times it comes across he gets out of jail for some of the things he tries. Superman Returns at least did this well by pointing out the fact Superman being off-world meant he couldn't testify against Luthor so the trial falls apart due to technicalities even though it's probably assumed by most he tried to nuke California back in the first Reeves movie.
But as the constant reboots show DC just can't pull off a wider movie franchise/universe because the films they shit out are a mess of execs and other idiots fucking around with things known to work for reasons stemming from ego, THE MESSAGE, other idiotic SocJus, and simple stupidity from many that flat out aren't capable of actually producing a good quality product.
Other villains aren't so great, either. In my view, Superman should mostly deal with 'out of space' threats. It would make the character roster more promising. Superman is overpowered. So it stands to reason that he should deal with world ending threats. Most earth-based villains aren't capable of achieving such a feat.
Here are additional notable Superman villains, excluding Darkseid, Doomsday, Lex Luthor, Brainiac, and Parasite:
Livewire: A former broadcaster struck by lightning, gaining electrical powers that make her a serious threat to Superman. She can transform into living energy, manipulate electricity, and has come close to killing Superman
.
Toyman: A villain who uses deadly toys and gadgets to challenge Superman. Often underrated but dangerous, he has a creepy and inventive modus operandi
.
Silver Banshee: A supernatural foe with a deadly sonic scream that can kill if she knows a victim’s name. She nearly defeated Superman with her voice-based powers
.
Master Jailer: A villain with the ability to create containment units and later revealed to know Superman’s secret identity. He uses his powers to imprison and trap others, posing unique challenges
.
Hobby Robber: An obscure villain who steals people’s hobbies and related items, including Superman’s clock collection. Though minor, he represents a quirky and unusual threat
.
Blue Matt: A lesser-known villain who can turn himself and objects invisible, making him a tricky adversary
.
Cyborg Superman (Hank Henshaw): A tragic and dark villain who is a cyborg clone of Superman, driven by hatred and revenge. His half-machine, half-Superman appearance is visually striking and menacing
.
Ultra-Humanite: A brilliant mad scientist who transfers his mind into different bodies, including an albino gorilla, using intellect and physical prowess against Superman
.
Mister Mxyzptlk: A mischievous imp with reality-warping powers, providing a whimsical but challenging foe who bends reality itself
.
Most only work as second or fourth film villains, or even the setup pieces, after establishing what Superman can do.
Livewire was a hilarious disaster in the animated cartoon where an angry young woman gained superpowers and immediately started trying to kill people. Imp couldn't write a more deranged character if he tried. Any live action adaptation would suffer hard from having to avoid being too accurate to the cartoon version simply so it doesn't get torn to shreds for how awful the character is as a person, even before going full homicidal maniac after getting powers.
Toyman would only work if existing knowledge of Superman's powers was in place, otherwise Superman would just look through the entire city and find Toyman in under a minute.
Silver Banshee is a very, very boring superpowered character that would only serve as a minion or setup piece of something worse.
Master Jailer would trap Superman all of once then get overpowered because again he doesn't know anywhere near enough to stop someone as powerful as Superman without knowing what he can do. The most likely scenario would be trapping Superman as if it was anyone else, expecting that to work, finding out it doesn't, and then being taken out at superspeed before getting a chance to try again.
Hobby Robber: As you mention it would be a minor threat, and again requires Superman to already be established to even have a hobby collection in the first place to steal from.
Blue Matt: Invisibility doesn't stop Kryptonians.
Cyborg Superman generally only pops up after Doomsdays and any Death of Superman story, so still needs Superman established. Same with Metallo, having a character based someone, or designed to counter that someone, only works when said someone has existed for long enough for it to matter.
Ultra-Humanite isn't one I can see happening if anything Flash related ever comes about, he's too similar to Grodd.
5th dimensional Imp also only works when Superman is already established, and most likely as a 4th film comedy piece after any initial origin story film 1, gritty moral dilemma film 2, and then final waltz big fight film 3.
Edit: If Suicide Squad 2: Shitty Boogaloo hadn't used Starro I would have suggested that since it's not actually a problem you can punch most of the time since that would kill the hosts.
Master jailer could make for a good movie that shows Superman is intelligent and not just a flying brick. Parasite could also be cool for a sequel that has the supporting cast trying to find and help Superman. As he was captured by parasite. The animated series from the 90s was awesome.
That's how Parasite often gets used, after any initial outing that gets to set the stage and have Superman fight off some problem just to let the world know how powerful he is.
At that point you have various groups trying to replicate him, imprison him, blackmail him, fight him, or steal his powers.
The above list more or less means villains such as Cyborg Superman, The Preserver, Lex, Mongul, and Parasite respectively.
Frankly I think Lex is the perfect foil for Superman. Even with ultimate power, still Superman is actually a member of society, which Lex can take advantage of to confound him. It shows that physical strength isn't everything that matters, and underhanded individuals can and will find many sneaky ways to exploit a situation.
Man.. we need henry cavil. He is normal and a nerd. He was doing high profile movies like superman and mission impossible. Then he went away to do some netflix/amazon shit where he tried to fight against the woke staff and production.
Was hopeless, but valiant. Got one semi-decent witcher season. And this gave the greenlight for amazon,netflix and etc to go heavy into live action.
Also, I am sick and fucking tired of superhero flicks. They have been going on constantly since the 00s and they need to be replaced by something. Anything.
It would be great if they used Brainiac or Mongul. Or any outer space/ extra dimensional threat that Superman usually faces. Hell, introduce Lobo having been hired by somebody to come get him and then they face the real threat together. Sets up the next film, a storyline for a lotta of movies and a Lobo spin off.
My immediate response was: is 'Lex Luthor' really the best that the Superman franchise can come up with? How many decades has Superman existed.
Almost a full century now, first publishing was 1938.
Ignoring the non movie media that have actually tried to line up other villains than Lex, the only other options have been
Steppenwolf, "Doomsday", Batman, Zod, Nuclear Man,
Taya supercomputer, and Zod again.They've never bothered with any other options despite the sheer volume of source material out there of not only other main threats for Superman to face down the line, but also ones that have served as initial threats so other names can come in later.
Man of Steel killing Zod in the same film was a waste of the character, even more so when the nearest comic source to it didn't bring Zod in until the third part of the series. It was some random alien(s) responsible for the destruction of Krypton first, then Parasite, and then finally Zod.
There's also Brainiac, Mongul although that name may not fly these days, Solomon Grundy, and ofc Bizarro. All of which can serve as purely physical challenges in the case of the latter 4, and a more complex challenge for Brainiac depending on how it's designed for a particular adaptation. 3 of those are even repeatable villains since Brainiac can be rebuilt, Grundy is a magically powered zombie, and Bizarro just needs recloned. So they wouldn't even be wasted were they first time shows only to be quickly popped by the end of the film.
Then if done properly DC could actually try building up to a threat rather than blowing everything too fast because Marvel got ahead of them ages ago and DC has been playing catch-up ever since while also fighting its own inherent retardedness since the execs clearly have zero fucking clue about the stories.
Darkseid is one of the more final villains for Superman, so Justice League at least did something ok with using Steppenwolf instead initially although the movie was a mess for so many other reasons.
Luthor is too consistent a villain for Superman from the comics so he's not ideal to only use once no matter how unrealistic at times it comes across he gets out of jail for some of the things he tries. Superman Returns at least did this well by pointing out the fact Superman being off-world meant he couldn't testify against Luthor so the trial falls apart due to technicalities even though it's probably assumed by most he tried to nuke California back in the first Reeves movie.
But as the constant reboots show DC just can't pull off a wider movie franchise/universe because the films they shit out are a mess of execs and other idiots fucking around with things known to work for reasons stemming from ego, THE MESSAGE, other idiotic SocJus, and simple stupidity from many that flat out aren't capable of actually producing a good quality product.
Other villains aren't so great, either. In my view, Superman should mostly deal with 'out of space' threats. It would make the character roster more promising. Superman is overpowered. So it stands to reason that he should deal with world ending threats. Most earth-based villains aren't capable of achieving such a feat.
Here are additional notable Superman villains, excluding Darkseid, Doomsday, Lex Luthor, Brainiac, and Parasite:
.
Toyman: A villain who uses deadly toys and gadgets to challenge Superman. Often underrated but dangerous, he has a creepy and inventive modus operandi
.
Silver Banshee: A supernatural foe with a deadly sonic scream that can kill if she knows a victim’s name. She nearly defeated Superman with her voice-based powers
.
Master Jailer: A villain with the ability to create containment units and later revealed to know Superman’s secret identity. He uses his powers to imprison and trap others, posing unique challenges
.
Hobby Robber: An obscure villain who steals people’s hobbies and related items, including Superman’s clock collection. Though minor, he represents a quirky and unusual threat
.
Blue Matt: A lesser-known villain who can turn himself and objects invisible, making him a tricky adversary
.
Cyborg Superman (Hank Henshaw): A tragic and dark villain who is a cyborg clone of Superman, driven by hatred and revenge. His half-machine, half-Superman appearance is visually striking and menacing
.
Ultra-Humanite: A brilliant mad scientist who transfers his mind into different bodies, including an albino gorilla, using intellect and physical prowess against Superman
.
Mister Mxyzptlk: A mischievous imp with reality-warping powers, providing a whimsical but challenging foe who bends reality itself .
Most only work as second or fourth film villains, or even the setup pieces, after establishing what Superman can do.
Livewire was a hilarious disaster in the animated cartoon where an angry young woman gained superpowers and immediately started trying to kill people. Imp couldn't write a more deranged character if he tried. Any live action adaptation would suffer hard from having to avoid being too accurate to the cartoon version simply so it doesn't get torn to shreds for how awful the character is as a person, even before going full homicidal maniac after getting powers.
Toyman would only work if existing knowledge of Superman's powers was in place, otherwise Superman would just look through the entire city and find Toyman in under a minute.
Silver Banshee is a very, very boring superpowered character that would only serve as a minion or setup piece of something worse.
Master Jailer would trap Superman all of once then get overpowered because again he doesn't know anywhere near enough to stop someone as powerful as Superman without knowing what he can do. The most likely scenario would be trapping Superman as if it was anyone else, expecting that to work, finding out it doesn't, and then being taken out at superspeed before getting a chance to try again.
Hobby Robber: As you mention it would be a minor threat, and again requires Superman to already be established to even have a hobby collection in the first place to steal from.
Blue Matt: Invisibility doesn't stop Kryptonians.
Cyborg Superman generally only pops up after Doomsdays and any Death of Superman story, so still needs Superman established. Same with Metallo, having a character based someone, or designed to counter that someone, only works when said someone has existed for long enough for it to matter.
Ultra-Humanite isn't one I can see happening if anything Flash related ever comes about, he's too similar to Grodd.
5th dimensional Imp also only works when Superman is already established, and most likely as a 4th film comedy piece after any initial origin story film 1, gritty moral dilemma film 2, and then final waltz big fight film 3.
Edit: If Suicide Squad 2: Shitty Boogaloo hadn't used Starro I would have suggested that since it's not actually a problem you can punch most of the time since that would kill the hosts.
Master jailer could make for a good movie that shows Superman is intelligent and not just a flying brick. Parasite could also be cool for a sequel that has the supporting cast trying to find and help Superman. As he was captured by parasite. The animated series from the 90s was awesome.
That's how Parasite often gets used, after any initial outing that gets to set the stage and have Superman fight off some problem just to let the world know how powerful he is.
At that point you have various groups trying to replicate him, imprison him, blackmail him, fight him, or steal his powers.
The above list more or less means villains such as Cyborg Superman, The Preserver, Lex, Mongul, and Parasite respectively.
It lacked the spark that the animated Batman series had.
Superman's best stories aren't even about the villains but his mindset and nature
Frankly I think Lex is the perfect foil for Superman. Even with ultimate power, still Superman is actually a member of society, which Lex can take advantage of to confound him. It shows that physical strength isn't everything that matters, and underhanded individuals can and will find many sneaky ways to exploit a situation.
Man.. we need henry cavil. He is normal and a nerd. He was doing high profile movies like superman and mission impossible. Then he went away to do some netflix/amazon shit where he tried to fight against the woke staff and production.
Was hopeless, but valiant. Got one semi-decent witcher season. And this gave the greenlight for amazon,netflix and etc to go heavy into live action.
Maybe Voltron will be good
It's another race swap, but this time, instead of making them all niggers, they made them Fellow Whites and hoped nobody would nosetice.
I wonder if the telia is gona start sperging about himmel again.
Also, I am sick and fucking tired of superhero flicks. They have been going on constantly since the 00s and they need to be replaced by something. Anything.
It would be great if they used Brainiac or Mongul. Or any outer space/ extra dimensional threat that Superman usually faces. Hell, introduce Lobo having been hired by somebody to come get him and then they face the real threat together. Sets up the next film, a storyline for a lotta of movies and a Lobo spin off.
We both know there's no chance in hell that they would ever actually be capable of writing Lobo well.