I think well fleshed out villains is something the DCU has always done well too. I honestly can say there’s not many I don’t think we’re great. Maxwell Lord is probably the worst of the bunch but default as you say.
My favorites are:
Zod and the Kryptonian’s. Whilst the plot point of putting them into the Phantom Zone when everyone is about to die anyway has forever been completely silly and only there as a means for them to survive Krypton, it’s been used as Zod’s means of getting to earth since forever so that’s his backstory. But casting Michael Shannon was a master stroke. His intensity is unmatched and he comes off believably unhinged. I’d argue that the Kryptonian fight scenes in Man of Steel have become DC’s go-to blueprint now and that’s a great choice.
Lex Luthor Jr. I’ve written at length about my love for this character. It’s not Lex Luthor, it’s a completely different character. Love the Tech Guru take, loved his weedy nature juxtaposed to his gigantic ego. Loved his reasons for enacting a brilliantly complicated plan to get Superman and Batman to kill one or the other. Loved the callous disregard for even his closest assistant as he sends her into the Capitol Building to die. On the DC(E)U fan wiki page for Lex Luthor Jr they suggest that when Luthor was in the pool inside the Kryptonian ship and we see the images of Steppenwolf, that he wasn’t simply looking at the knowledge and information from thousands of worlds, but that he was in direct communion with the ship and the vast knowledge from thousands of worlds, science, technology, history, weaponry; it was all being directly planted into his brain. Criminally insane genius becomes a criminally insane super genius with the knowledge of thousands of worlds in his head and that’s how he immediately deduces that Bruce Wayne is Batman. You could go on and say, Lex Luthor Jr hired Bloodsport to assassinate Superman with the Kryptonite bullet and that’s where Bloodsport got his nano tech weapon suit from. Luthor created it for him.
Then we get to Zodsday. We can’t call him Doomsday because of a destroyed planet in the background of the Krypton scenes in Man of Steel. That planet I forget the name of was destroyed by Doomsday confirming the real Doomsday is out there somewhere. So we got Zodsday. Still a fun villain. What I really love is the evolution of growth. Zodsday starts out about twice the size of a human, then we get the first massive electrical flashes and some growth, then I think that happens maybe once or twice more, each time growing bigger and growing more horns looking closer to the original comic design. By the time he kills Superman he’s around 16 to 20 feet tall and can hold Superman in one hand. I like that this version was made from Zod because it explains why this thing wants to kill Superman so much. Zod’s hate runs deep after death.
Steppenwolf is one of my absolute favorites. An utter beast on the battlefield, tossing multiple horses around like they’re nothing. I loved Darkseid as a villain in the movie but Steppenwolf I liked even more. I love the design, I love his six fingered hands, I love that Living Armor. My head canon for why Steppenwolf has horns and weird hands and doesn’t look like Darkseid and Desaad is that the Living Armor has warped his head, body and hands into what we see in the movie over thousands of years. He used to look like Darkseid and Desaad, but once he got the armor, it sensed his pride and morphed him into the grotesque hulking creature we see in the movie.
Ares was just ok in Wonder Woman. Dr Poison was more interesting to be honest.
Orm and Dr Sivana were ok. Ewan McGregor’s Black Mask was just ok too.
Can I list Bloodsport as a favorite? He’s more of a grey area I suppose but he’s still one of my favorite characters. I love how annoyed he is at everyone around him. I love the scene with him and his daughter, fuUUuuck yoOOUUuuu! I love his weaponry (Thanks Lex (maybe)).
White Dragon and the butterflies from Peacemaker were great too.
For Black Adam, I thought Ismael McGregor was a great villain, until he became Sabbac and then it was fairly thin on the ground. Underused.
Marvel may have far more movies but a lot of their villains are the standard ‘same as the hero but evil’ thing like Ant-Man 1, Iron Man 1 etc. DC’s villains are far better on the whole I think.