The Joker is as perfect a vllain as you can get.
Paramount to the comic book story is the conflict of mankind. Everything is a battle of humanity, and this includes man vs. beast and especially man vs. himself. But, what matters here is the core of all comic character conflicts. To build a man vs. man story, the villain must have a purpose in bringing something out in the hero. Still, down the road of a man vs. man conflict is the eternal battle between two: the righteous vs. the evil.
Instructions
1. Make choices on characters. Take for example Batman and the Joker. Batman fights against the insanity of the Joker even when he is fighting other villains, because without the Joker he would be less of a hero. What this means is the Joker is Batman's polar opposite. Joker uses guns, kills with impunity (even children are poisoned) but Batman never takes the road the Joker requires. He doesn't kill the villain who poses him the greatest of all riddles: Let the villain live on or damage one's soul by killing the evil. That is a crucial choice on character made by the writers of Batman, and a shining example on the choices you will have to make. This can be two sided: the Punisher is considered a hero in a sense, but is obviously an anti-hero because he would kill the Joker in a second. You will need to make choice on who will contradict each other in your story. Having two great heroes won't work, as you need a villain; having a simple hero with a insane villain could.
2. Using heroes and anti-heroes:So we have the perfect hero in Batman and the perfect anti-hero in the Punisher. Both are incredibly popular characters, both have many villains, but take the man vs man conflicts in different directions. You can use either; they tend to work well when written well. A good character will be at an extreme; a good villain on the opposite. Heroes and anti-heroes make it easier, in some sense, to create this basic conflict of man Vs man. Now, you need a villain.
3. Creating a signature villain:For a hero to achieve something in comic books he must have a signature villain. The writer must put a lot into penning the chaos of life, but find that in some way the good will be victorious over evil. Real life isn't like that; villains can win, the, and sometimes there isn't a way out for the hero. However, we are talking about fiction, and fiction has a different purpose in the world of comic books.
4. Using conflict: Consider starting out with your hero, then work in how the villain is his opposite. The man vs man conflict poses something for the writer of comic books: it allows him or her to explore the nature of good and evil. Study Batman and Punisher for the basic man vs man conflicts. There is a hero trying to stop an evil-simple as that. If you want something more "real," try out one of the classic graphic novels like "Watchmen" or "The Dark Knight Returns" because they offer a different view of the world of super heroes. Conflict is the thesis for all good stories, and comic book scripts are no different.
