12 Best Powerpuff Girls Villains Ranked

When Craig McCracken created "The Powerpuff Girls" for Cartoon Network, he looked to the 1960s Adam West "Batman" show as a model for multigenerational entertainment: a series that would work as an exciting superhero action series for kids, while simultaneously playing as ridiculous comedy for adults. 

Creating a worthy rogues gallery for Blossom (Cathy Cavadini), Bubbles (Tara Strong), and Buttercup (E.G. Daily) to battle was key to the cartoon's success; the villains had to be threatening on one level but hilarious at the same time. Some of these individual enemies leaned heavier towards danger while others went more for laughs, but this balanced approach resulted in one of the most eccentric and creative collections of bad guys we've loved to hate in any cartoon.

We've gone through and ranked the best villains from the original 78-episode run of "The Powerpuff Girls" from 1998-2005, including all of the show's recurring enemies or teams as well as some unforgettable one-off antagonists. This is based exclusively on their characterization in the original series and does not account for the very different interpretations of some of these villains in the 2006-2007 anime "Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z," nor the divisive 2016-2019 reboot series. And don't even start asking about the human version of Mojo Jojo in the abandoned CW live-action pilot.

The Amoeba Boys — Bossman, Slim, and Junior (all three voiced by Chuck McCann) — were the first villains the Powerpuff Girls fought in Craig McCracken's original "Whoopass Stew" student film. They were semi-competent bank robbers in that short, but by the time "The Powerpuff Girls" became a full series on Cartoon Network, they became by far the least threatening of any recurring villains in the series. Single-celled organisms don't have much in the way of brains, so despite their criminal ambitions, these gangster wannabes can never think of any crimes to commit more serious than littering or ignoring a "Keep Off the Grass" sign.

Basically, they suck at being villains ... but sucking at villainy is also the whole point of their existence as characters, so we can't really hold it against them. They're purely a joke as bad guys, but the joke is a funny one. While this trio is easily outshone by every other recurring "Powerpuff Girls" nemesis and several one-off ones, their pathetic nature has given us enough laughs for them to just narrowly make this list.

"See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey," a rock opera musical episode originally made for "The Powerpuff Girls" Season 5, became infamous as the cartoon's controversial banned episode, never airing on American TV and missing from streaming on Max (though it is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and for digital purchase). The official reasons for its banning never really made a lot of sense (something about a hippie townsperson resembling Jesus?), but then again, making sense isn't really a priority for this extremely weird episode.

The Gnome (Jess Harnell, doing a spot-on Jack Black impression) is summoned by the Powerpuff Girls' prayers for peace, offering said peace by eliminating all villains in exchange for the girls giving up their powers. He doesn't really do much that's explicitly evil onscreen, but convincing the people of Townsville to mindlessly worship him as part of a rose cult is suspicious enough that the Professor convinces the girls they need to fight him.

The Gnome dies in an "Akira"-esque explosion caused by his own existential angst, after being confronted with the philosophical impossibility of his utopia. Again, it doesn't make a lot of logical sense, but neither did The Who's "Tommy" nor most of the other rock operas the episode pays homage to, so best to just dig the psychedelic journey.

Lenny Baxter, from the Season 2 episode "Collect Her," is perhaps the show's most scarily realistic villain: an obsessive nerd who wants to keep his objects of fandom all to himself and ends up hurting what he claims to love as a result. When he fills his collection with every single piece of Powerpuff Girls merchandise in existence, he still wants to acquire more, so he starts stealing objects from the girls' house and eventually kidnaps the girls themselves.

The whole city of Townsville must team up together to rescue their beloved superheroes from Lenny Baxter. Kids anger him by taking his toys out of their boxes, and Professor Utonium (Tom Kane) persuades him to reveal the girls' location with a patriotic speech about how this kidnapping violates the spirit of "true fandom." This is one of many examples of '90s cartoons making fun of the worst parts of their own fanbases, with others including Comic Book Guy in "The Simpsons" and the "Please, Please, Please Get a Life Foundation" from "Animaniacs." Sadly, such jokes have aged awfully well in this age of toxic social media fandom.

Most villains in "The Powerpuff Girls" have some sort of likable quality to them, however slight, that makes them extra entertaining. Not so with Professor Dick Hardly (Jeff Bennett) from the Season 4 episode "Knock It Off." Professor Utonium's old roommate was a greedy sleazebag back in his college days, and he only gets worse. Using stolen Chemical X in his "Evil Abandoned Factory," he creates grotesque copies of the Powerpuff Girls, sold around the world as "Powerpuff Girls Xtreme." When the originals try to stop him, he turns himself into a monster and drains them of their powers, refusing to even consider Professor Utonium's self-sacrificing offer to save the girls. He's ultimately killed by own creations, who are angry to have never received love from their father.

Made around the peak of the series' popularity, "Knock It Off" could be viewed as a commentary on the producers' dissatisfaction with some of the ways "The Powerpuff Girls" got marketed and merchandised, distinguishing the love that Utonium (and the animators) gave their creations from the carelessness of Dick (and the marketing people). It was also an excuse to say "Dick" as many times as possible in a TV-Y7 cartoon (confirming the intended innuendo, his last name, "Hardly," is said only once in the episode to maintain plausible deniability).

In the Season 1 episode "Mime for a Change," Rainbow the Clown (Tom Kenny) gets in an accident with a truck full of bleach, draining him of color and turning him into the silent black-and-white supervillain Mr. Mime (not a reference to the Pokémon of the same name). Jealous of those who possess what he's lost, he uses his new powers to drain the sound and color from everyone and everything around him. Even Blossom and Buttercup fall victim to his bleaching, but Bubbles saves the day with the power of rock 'n' roll, leading a performance of "Love Makes the World Go Round" that restores color to the world and returns Mr. Mime to his old Rainbow self.

Mr. Mime is arguably the most memorable of all "Powerpuff Girls" one-off villains, thanks to his visually distinctive abilities, his defeat via a catchy musical number, and his "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" duality. As one last ironic note, after saving Rainbow, the girls immediately have him thrown in jail for his alter-ego's crimes. Fortunately it was not a long sentence; Rainbow went free by Season 2's "Birthday Bash." Maybe this is what "Joker: Folie à Deux" should have been about.

Sedusa (Jennifer Hale) is, as her name suggests, a seductive femme fatale — not to be confused with another Jennifer Hale-voiced "Powerpuff Girls" villain named Femme Fatale — with snake-like prehensile hair reminiscent of Medusa. A mistress of disguise, her notable criminal plots include seducing the Professor under the unconvincing alias "Ima Goodelady" in the Season 1 episode "Mommy Fearest," impersonating and fighting Ms. Bellum (Jennifer Martin) in Season 2's "Something's a Ms.," and transforming into an actual snake-haired gorgon with stolen Egyptian artifacts in Season 6's "Aspirations."

Beyond those three episodes, she mostly just made a lot of cameos. Elevated to "major" villain status largely on the frequency of these cameos, it's been claimed by fan wikis that the writers had trouble coming up with stories for her, with Princess Morbucks (another character voiced by Jennifer Hale) ultimately overtaking her as the series' most notable female antagonist. While we couldn't verify these claims, it makes sense that the writers would struggle with making kid-friendly plots about a seduction-based villain. Sedusa didn't show up at all in the 2016 reboot, which faced controversy for phasing out the similarly "sexy" character of Ms. Bellum.

Right in the middle of the list feels like fair placement for a team of mid-level villains. The Gangreen Gang are a group of five green-skinned teenage delinquents — leader Ace (Jeff Bennett), trickster Snake (Tom Kenny), raspberry-blowing Grubber (Bennett), ditzy Big Billy (Bennett), and childish Lil' Arturo (Kenny/Carlos Alazraqui). None of them have superpowers, so you might feel a little bad for them as they get repeatedly beaten up by the Powerpuff Girls ... but not too bad, given how much trouble they cause.

They're hardly the most serious threat compared to the show's other multicellular recurring villains, but as recurring nuisances, they have distinctively freaky designs and offer material for some good stories. They're able to stir chaos by being underestimated, whether faking redemption to take advantage of Buttercup's crush on Ace or conveniently hiding their bullying actions from Ms. Keane (Jennifer Hale). Another fun piece of trivia: Ace was canonically the bassist for the 2018 Gorillaz album "The Now Now" while Murdoc was in jail ("Powerpuff Girls" creator Craig McCracken and Gorillaz creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett are mutual fans of each other).

Just as Professor Utonium made the Powerpuff Girls from sugar, spice, everything nice, and Chemical X, Mojo Jojo (Roger L. Jackson, aka the voice of Ghostface in the "Scream" movies) created the Rowdyruff Boys — Brick (Rob Paulsen), Boomer (Paulsen), and Butch (Jackson) — from snips, snails, a puppy dog tail, and Chemical X (from a prison toilet). Having all the powers of the Powerpuff Girls and then some, these boys want nothing more than to fight their female counterparts, and they put up an intense battle. But they also have their own distinctly macho weaknesses to cooties — before they get a cootie shot — and threats to their masculinity.

The Rowdyruff Boys exploded at the end of their self-titled introductory episode in Season 1, but they were such fan favorites that they eventually got resurrected by HIM (Tom Kane) in Season 5's "The Boys Are Back in Town" and stayed in the show as recurring villains throughout Seasons 5 and 6. Thanks to this resurrection, the Rowdyruffs technically have two dads, with Season 6's "Custody Battle" addressing Mojo and HIM's co-parenting arrangement.

Now we arrive at the big four "Powerpuff Girls" villains, all members of the legendary crime band The Beat-Alls. Compared to his fellow Beat-Alls, Fuzzy Lumpkins (Jim Cummings) isn't so much evil as extreme chaotic neutral. Leave him alone and this pink hillbilly fuzzball of an indeterminate Muppet-like species probably won't do you harm — or do much of anything, given his general laziness and lack of ambition. However, if anyone trespasses on his property, even a squirrel, his rage goes out of control and he becomes aggressively violent.

Befitting hillbilly stereotypes, Fuzzy has a huge extended family of other pink fuzzballs whom he occasionally brings out to fight alongside him. Aside from this extended family, he doesn't care much for others, perpetual selfishness being his primary sin. At one point, he becomes the Mayor of Townsville with no campaign beyond telling the old Mayor (Tom Kenny) to shut up — and proceeds to abuse his executive powers by making the Powerpuff Girls do all his chores, only to later get impeached via a wrestling match. Take whatever political message you want from that.

On the opposite end of the socio-economic spectrum from Fuzzy Lumpkins, Princess Morbucks taught young viewers an important lesson in not trusting the ultra-rich. This spoiled little girl can convince her dad to buy her anything with a big enough tantrum, but she can't buy her way into joining the Powerpuff Girls. Even with Batman-style gear supplied by her father's wealth, her initial attempts at crimefighting go sideways, confirming the superhero team's concerns that it's just not safe for her to join them. After failing to become one of the Powerpuff Girls, she sets out to do whatever she can to destroy them.

Wanting to be a hero for the glory of it rather than any desire to help people is an easy path to villainy, and Princess Morbucks is as rotten as any young villain can get. How rotten? In the holiday special "'Twas the Fight Before Christmas," after the Princess tricks Santa into giving her superpowers by switching his naughty and nice lists, she ends up on the Permanent Naughty Plaque, a dishonor shared by only four other people ... one of whom is Adolf Hitler. Yep, she's that evil.

How could we not love a queer-coded crossdressing hybrid of Santa, Satan, and a lobster? The creature known as HIM (Tom Kane) — meant to be the Devil, but that name is too scary to speak aloud according to both the narrator (Tom Kenny) and the network censors — might be the strangest of an already out-there cast of antagonists, and he's certainly the most powerful and diabolically evil of the bunch. Even the other villains are scared of HIM. Is it problematic to make the embodiment of evil a flamboyant queen? Probably. Is HIM still an awesome antagonist despite that problematic nature? Absolutely.

HIM's demonic powers make him nearly unbeatable — the Powerpuff Girls might foil his schemes, but he's easily their most challenging foe. Rather than enacting evil plans through sheer force, however, he tends more towards plots of psychological manipulation, playing upon human weaknesses to turn the people of Townsville against the girls and to turn the girls against each other. Why is he so intent on messing with the Powerpuff Girls? Possibly just for the sadistic fun of it. Or maybe it's because, as seen in an alternate future from the episode "Speed Demon," HIM would take over the entire planet in a universe where the Girls go missing.

As much as we love HIM, there wasn't a chance anyone could take the No. 1 spot on this list from Mojo Jojo. This cranky giant-brained ape who talks like he's in the English dub of "Speed Racer" is the Powerpuff Girls' most iconic adversary. His schemes can be absurdly complex (such as rewriting reality by taking over the job of the show's narrator, or traveling back in time to prevent Professor Utonium from creating the Powerpuff Girls) or absurdly petty (like tricking the girls into thinking they wet their bed, or getting revenge on a hobby shop for not having the parts he wanted). No matter what direction his plans go, he's consistently one of the most entertaining antagonists in any cartoon comedy.

Originally Professor Utonium's destructive lab assistant before mutating in the same Chemical X accident that created the girls, Mojo Jojo's rise to supervillainy is at the center of "The Powerpuff Girls Movie." Though he embraces being evil, he still has moral standards of his own, and has actually saved the day himself multiple times either intentionally or by accident. In the series' 10th anniversary special, "The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!" he achieves his dream of taking over the world, and somehow manages to create world peace ... before getting bored and going back to his usual violence.