Egomaniac ruler who spins themselves as a king who operates his pawns, comes back to become an on again off again ally who also Luffy doesn't trust at all. Who views people like objects to use for their greater good, Frieza being directly based on a real estate analyst or whatever he was based on, and Crocodile literally throwing Alabasta away to get Pluton.
Crocodile was the sworn villain who joined forces with Luffy at impel down and marineford, and who will have a somewhat similar experience later on as well. Doflamingo is cool, Enel is cool, Lucci is cool, etc, but Crocodile is Luffy's Hades. Luffy infiltrating impel down directly parallels Zeus going into tartarus (6 layers to the greek underworld) during tie titanomachy to free allies (100 armed ones and cyclopes) for the war. Magallan being Campe (poison dragon/snake attacks and all). Luffy through level 6 got two allies, jinbei, a fishman who has ties with the actual ancient weapon poseidon, jinbei is luffy's poseidon, and as a crew member, it matches cuz poseidon was an olympian but hades wasn't. Hades being tied to pluton, is Luffy's Hades (Luffy is zeus). King of the pirates parallels king of the gods, that zeus becomes post titanomachy, with the world government representing the titans. (elemental admirals representing elements and aspects of the world, and all)
Kid is a rival.
Crocodile is something greater to Luffy, someone he despises, but works with.
Crocodile is Frieza
Lucci is Cell
Unsure who to give the majin buu moniker too, or even if it fits anyone. Moriah is probably closest to like a Demon King Dabura.
Ultimately speaking, Crocodile is Luffy's most iconic villain, and he'll likely stay that way. Blackbeard is Luffy's Cronus, and he'll be a higher leveled fight than when luffy fought crocodile clearly, but crocodile is honestly an important piece that makes up one piece.
This scene these literally goku x frieza to a T:
compare them to stuff like:
Luffy when he met Crocodile in impel down literally had a ptsd flashback of him and hard refused to side with him until ivankov essentially talked him into it with stuff like "i have his weakness, I can keep him in line"
He showed more hate/fear for crocodile in that moment than he did when akainu and blackbeard were brought up in fishman island.
Not to mention let's be honest, alabasta is a namek saga tier arc, any arc that crocodile is in is kind of great. From alabasta to impel down and marineford, he's one piece at it's best. Even if luffy and crocodile don't like it, their fates are extremely tied, Crocodile even saving his life.
But Crocodile also has the literal whole timeskip to get more powerful, grow his reputation, etc.
Kuma shouldn't have a bounty or be wanted cuz he's on their side.
But yeah, Mihawk's bounty is going to be more perospero leveled tbh.
But let's not sleep on crocodile, he's been active on the timeskip, him going into the new world was directly paralleled with the supernova going into the new world, except he before was slumming it safely for years in paradise and now he's serious again. Crocodile is Luffy's Frieza, considering Lucci pretty much stayed somewhat comparable to Luffy, I'm only expecting even more from Crocodile (like I'd say luffy beatrs lucci, but crocodile outright is luffy's equal)
I fully expect crocodile to be a future yonkou.
Crocodile gets things done, and I think he's going to scheme less and go full big dick from now on. He's a show stopper.