If there is a superhero, then his story has to have a super villain as well. That’s how things work in the world of comics.
While the Comic book superheroes are famous for being the ray of hope, the vigilantes and the protectors who keep the evil guys at bay and protect the innocents by using their extraordinary powers, they have equally powerful villains too. However, the thing about the villains is that not all of them are purely vicious and destructive like Darkseid or Mephisto.
There are some of the villains who have a certain degree of compassion and nobility about their actions, and at times, you wonder why they are even being beaten. Some of them are misunderstood by the society or cross the threshold of law while not being bad at heart. This thought made us scan the comic book history and bring forward the list of 11 supervillains who are also nice guys.
11. Magneto
Magneto first appeared in the 1963 comic “Uncanny X-Men #1” and went on to become the most renowned anti-hero of the X-Men. Max Eisenhardt was captive in a Nazi concentration camp, and he witnessed the murder of his parents. During the time that the world revolted against the mutants, he got inspired by the Nazi racism’s outcome and became the supervillain. He got mutants together and launched a war on humanity. However, he is not evil at heart, and his goodness was seen in 2008’s “Marvel Spotlight: Uncanny X-Men 500 Issues Celebration”. As per Stan Lee, Magneto is more of a guy who doesn’t hesitate to use violence for his causes, rather than someone who loves violence.
During the 1981 comic “Uncanny X-Men #150, he didn’t kill the child mutant Kitty Pryde. He was shown on the heroes side in the 1984 comic “Secret Wars.” Currently, he is leading Uncanny X-Men in their bid to protect the mutants from being killed.
10. The Lizard
The Lizard debuted in the 1963 comic “Amazing Spider-Man #6”. He was originally a scientist Curt Connors who lost an arm during the war and tried to regrow the limbs. He used experimental drugs, and though he got his arm back, he was mutated into a hybrid of a human and a reptile. His mission is to wipe out the humans and make it a planet of reptiles.
However, his half human half lizard body has dual personalities too, and while he hates humanity as a lizard, he has also aided Spider-Man on some times as a human. In the 1966 publication, “The Amazing Spider-Man #32-33” he created a formula which saved Spider-Man’s aunt from poisoning and also helped Spider-Man fight the Rhino and cured him at the time when his spider powers mutated him. He has repeatedly made efforts to regain his full human form and regrets the destruction he causes as the Lizard.
9. Ozymandias
Adrian Veidt AKA Ozymandias appeared in the 1986 graphic novel titled “Watchmen.” He was regarded as the smartest man in the world, and he used his incredible physical and mental powers to counter crime. Post-retirement, he was fascinated by heroism and tried to send a lab-bred monster into New York to create the scenario of an alien invasion. Things went awry, and millions got butchered in a battle which saw the world become united to fight the imaginary aliens. He didn’t want to kill people; rather he aimed to save them. He loves humanity and global peace, and he considered the death of those millions as the price of saving billions. Since he wasn’t exposed, his cause might have found resonance in others.
8. Venom
David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane created Venom who had his first full comic book appearance in the Amazing Spider-Man #300 in 1986. Venom was originally Eddie Brock, a photographer at Daily Bugle who hated Peter Parker and his hatred found a good ally when he stumbled upon symbiote which was an alien parasite and shaped like a black Spider-Man costume. Together they became Venom, a violent and deranged creature determined to kill Spider-Man.
Similar to the Lizard, Venom also had a personality split between symbiote and Eddie Brock. While the alien is evil and murderous, Brock is, in fact, a nice guy. In the 2007 comic “Sensational Spider-Man #38, he defied symbiote and didn’t kill Aunt May. Even Symbiote could become a good guy and in the series “Venom: Lethal Protector,” Brock and symbiote agreed to a truce with the Spider-Man and agreed to follow the law.
7. Galactus
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created Galactus in the 1966 comic “Fantastic Four # 48”. He is a fearsome natural force and of demi-God status. He has predated the Big bang and thus, is older than the 616 Marvel Universe. He traverses galactic space destroying and eating up planets as food. However, he is not a happy murderer and is compassionate. He normally deploys super-beings such as the Silver Surfer to discover uninhabited planets that he can eat without killing billions of occupants of inhabited worlds if he has a chance.
Galactus is a natural evil necessary to sustain the universe. When Silver Surfer killed him in “Galactus the Devourer” (1999-2000), evil guy Abraxas escaped from the eternal prison and started blowing up alternate universes. He was brought back to life in the 2002 comic “Fantastic Four”#49 by Franklin Richards and Mister Fantastic etc. working in tandem to revive him.
6. Harley Quinn
Harley Quinn had a humble beginning as a side character in “Batman: The Animated Series” which was created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm in 1992. She was an ordinary psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum when she got associated with Joker, and soon she went dark after falling in love with him. She helped him escape the asylum and now is the Joker’s assistant, sidekick and support system who is party to his demonic activities.
While she is committed to Joker and crime, but, she isn’t a psychopath like him. She is just a woman manipulated by an extremely smart criminal. The 2001 series “Harley Quinn” showed her giving up on Joker and joining the ranks of Poison Ivy. The series showed her compassionate side, and in the New 52 revival of that solo series in 2013, she took over the role of an anti-hero instead of a villain and also formed a team of crimefighters in issue #14 of that series.
5. Bizarro
Bizarro is a mirror image of Superman from an alternate Earth which is opposite to our planet in every way. He has powers like Freeze Vision and Heat breath, talks backwards and commits crimes. His urge is to destroy things.
However, he has no intentions of being a mega-villain. His weird logic sees himself as the hero and Superman as the bad guy. Many times the Superman has even managed to talk him out of destruction. In the 1994 comic “Superman” #88, he kidnapped Lois and kept her at a warehouse which had a phony Metropolis inside and various dangerous scenarios. He did all this only to stage the drama of saving her. He is not bad at heart, but, someone who wants to be as popular and loved as the Superman is. His problems are extreme stupidity and clumsiness. To sum it up, he is a hero to himself.
4. Doctor Octopus
Doctor Octopus came into being in the 1963 comic book “Amazing Spider-Man #3” by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. He was a scientist Otto Octavius who got four extremely powerful metal arms attached to his body due to a radioactive accident. In his new physique, he became Doctor Octopus, a mighty criminal, and a famous Spider-Man enemy. He led Sinister Six, a bunch of enemies with a common mission of killing Spider-Man. In the 2012 comic “Ends of the Earth”, he tried heating up the planet so that mass extinction will happen and he will become a legend after his death.
In the “Amazing Spider-Man” #698, he switched from his decaying body into the body of Peter Parker and vice versa. Thus, Peter Parker died in Doc Octopus’s body while he became Spider-Man. It was feared that with his evil powers and Spider-Man’s body, he would unleash more chaos and bring disrepute to the Spider-Man. However, things turned out to be the opposite.
Peter Parker’s consciousness hung around and convinced him to end his criminal life, and he took an oath to be an even better Superhero than Peter Parker. Despite being more violence prone, he showed his good and emotional side, and in the end, he gave the body back to Peter Parker’s consciousness and eliminated himself in a great gesture of self-sacrifice.
3. Poison Ivy
Poison Ivy came into being in the 1966 comic “Batman” #181 created by Robert Kanigher and Sheldon Moldoff. She was a botanist Pamela Isley who suffered chemical poisoning and became immune to all poisons. She had a deadly toxic kiss and had this insane belief that plants should rule the world. She is on a mission to purge the world of humanity and has the power to control or grow plants as well as various other mind control powers.
Despite being a supervillain, she didn’t lose her human element totally. The 1998 comic “Batman: No Man’s Land Secret Files and Origins” #1 showed Gotham City being destroyed by a massive earthquake and the remnants being overtaken by supervillains. Poison Ivy converted Robinson Park into a wildlife sanctuary. However, when she stumbled upon 16 children who got orphaned due to the quake, she didn’t kill them, rather cared and protected them from the other gangs. Batman allowed her to keep the children and she aided humanity by growing and serving food to the earthquake survivors.
She just wanted to live in a world of plants, far away from humanity and that’s what she got in the 1997 comics “Batman: Poison Ivy” as she settled on a deserted island near Nicaragua.
2. Bane
Bane is a creation of Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, and Graham Nolan. He is among the mightiest supervillains in the comic world, and he also has a great chunk of humanity left in himself. His first introduction was in the 1993’s “Knightfall” when he nearly killed Batman.
In the 1998 publication “Batman: Bane of the Demon,” Bane felt that he was Bruce Wayne’s stepbrother and his quest for the proof of this made him a superhero who fought criminals in tandem with Batman. In the 2004 comics “Batman: Gotham Knights #49”, Bane found out that his father was the villain Snake. In the battle between the two, Bane saved Bruce’s life by taking a bullet aimed at Bruce. Batman saved Bane’s life by putting him in a Lazarus Pit and then Bane redeemed himself.
1. Doomsday
Doomsday is one villain who can’t give up his dark side. He debuted in “Superman: The Man of Steel” #17 in 1992. He was an alien monster set to destroy all life on our planet and unleashed a massive trail of destruction till the time he killed Superman. He had even slaughtered whole worlds before he arrived on Earth.
If there’s any villain on this list who seems truly irredeemable, it would be Doomsday. In his first appearance in “Superman: The Man of Steel” #17 in 1992, Doomsday was a rampaging alien monster determined to destroy any and all life. He created a trail of destruction across Earth until he beat Superman to death. And he laughed while he did it. Later issues show Doomsday massacred the population of entire worlds before arriving on Earth. Later the 2001 Superman tale “Doomsday Rex” showed that Doomsday had developed intelligence, fear, pain, etc. He further evolved and developed the emotions of Love and kindness. He returned to Earth in the 2005 “Action Comics” #825 and helped Superman against the supervillain Gog. He briefly became a compassionate hero.
