For as long as storytelling has existed, audiences have been taught to understand that the antagonist of every story is pure evil, plain and simple. However, more recent stories, especially modern superhero movies, have challenged that concept.
These days, the best kind of “bad guys” are the ones that the audience, and even the heroic lead, can relate to by having somewhat justifiable reasons for wanting to send the world into turmoil. The question is, which of the best superhero movie villains are most deserving of a reevaluation?
The Riddler Wants To Be Batman
Image via Jonathan Olley / Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection
Matt Reeves’ 2022 blockbuster, The Batman, sees Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight taking on a version of The Riddler who appears to be no more than a cold-hearted serial killer based on his frighteningly torturous methods of murder. However, the brainteaser-obsessed criminal, played by Paul Dano, is on a mission similar to that of Bruce Wayne’s alter ego.
Edward Nashton, as The Riddler is revealed to be named, wants to punish Gotham’s corrupt authority figures and even gives Wayne a special place on that list because, while he was also an orphan, he never received the same treatment as the wealthy heir. Not realizing how Wayne spends his night, Nashton becomes convinced that he and Batman are on the same side, but fails to realize that taking lives is not part of the vigilante’s modus operandi.
Starro Has No Business Being On Earth
In 2021’s The Suicide Squad, writer and director James Gunn’s widely preferred follow-up to David Ayer’s supervillain crossover flick from 2016, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) assigns a new version of Task Force X on a mission to destroy an experiment called “Project Starfish.” Following some witty speculation regarding the meaning behind the codename, the laboratory is revealed to house a giant alien (typically depicted as a Justice League villain in the comics) that, indeed, resembles the star-shaped aquatic animal.
The creature, called Starro, escapes and causes the deaths of many people in Corto Maltese by releasing mini Starros that attach to their faces and infect them with a hivemind, during which it reveals that it was brought to Earth to be experimented on against its own will. In that regard, its temper tantrum is perfectly understandable, even though it results in a massive death toll.
Vulture Wants To Support His Family
The cold open for 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming introduces former Batman actor Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes, who is tasked with cleaning up the aftermath of the battle against the Chitauri in 2012’s The Avengers. That is, until a new unit specializing in such tasks and appointed by Tony Stark himself is brought in, costing Toomes and his coworkers their jobs.
To keep himself and his employees financially secure, the husband and father turns to crime and uses alien technology to construct cutting-edge weaponry that he sells on the black market. Even Peter Parker (Tom Holland) cannot deny that the criminal, otherwise known as Vulture for using a flight suit, has a good reason for pursuing an otherwise despicable means of income. That, on top of Keaton’s childlike performance, makes him one of the best Spider-Man movie villains yet.
Mr. Freeze Wants To Save His Ailing Wife
Mr. Freeze has become an enduring and fascinating villain since writer Paul Dini’s Batman: The Animated Series episode, “Heart of Ice,” reinvented Dr. Victor Fries as a tragic character. He turns to crime to fund his research to find a cure for his wife’s mysterious illness, while he keeps her frozen in the same substance that accidentally made him fatally resistant to temperatures above freezing.
This aspect of the character is also essential to the plot of 1997’s Batman & Robin, which unfortunately bogs the character down with ridiculous puns and other egregiously cartoonish characteristics. At least one could argue that Arnold Schwarzenegger is entertaining with a fun performance in the disappointing superhero movie.
Thanos Wants To Restore Balance To The Universe
Image via Marvel Studios
In the popular Marvel Comics crossover event that inspired Avengers: Infinity War, Jim Starlin’s The Infinity Gauntlet from 1991, Thanos obtains all the Infinity Stones and completes the eponymous device, which he uses to erase 50% of all living beings. His motivation: to appease Death itself, on whom he has an unrequited crush.
This often criticized plot element is thankfully reworked for Joe and Anthony Russo’s 2018 blockbuster, starring Josh Brolin in the role of the Mad Titan, who believes his ultimate goal to create a more balanced universe makes him the hero of the story. Of course, there is still no justification for genocide in any case, but in a world where population control is an oft-cited issue, it is hard not to understand where Thanos was coming from.
Zemo Wants To Avenge His Family
What makes 2016’s Captain America: Civil War one of the most refreshingly complex comic book movies of its time, if not of all time, is the way it makes a compelling argument for either side of its main conflict. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) believes the Sokovia Accords are constraining, while Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) feels they are necessary to prevent collateral damage.
One such victim of that collateral damage is Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl), whose wife and children were killed during the Avengers’ battle against Ultron in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Anyone else in his situation would probably have the same desire to formulate an elaborate plan that would have a team of the world’s greatest heroes at each other’s throats.
Gorr The God-Butcher Is A Victim Of Selfish Celestials
Christian Bale went from being an Academy Award-winning superhero actor, having played Batman in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, to an Academy Award-winning supervillain actor when he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His performance in Thor: Love and Thunder as Gorr the God-Butcher is also considered one of the best things about Taika Waititi’s 2022 sequel.
Shortly after the tragic death of his young daughter, Gorr seeks help from a group of godly beings who prove to be anything but godly and instead look down on the poor man without even the courtesy of pity. It is no wonder he quickly develops an insatiable hate for celestials, but would fail to realize that there are still some decent beings of the like, such as Chris Hemsworth’s title hero.
Prince Nuada No Longer Wants To Live In Hiding
If there is one reason to criticize Guillermo del Toro’s first adaptation of Mike Mignola’s hit Dark Horse comic, Hellboy, it’s the main antagonist, Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden). While he’s an interesting fictionalization of a historical figure, he’s relatively one-note in execution. Thankfully, the sequel would improve on the 2004 original with a more compelling villain in Prince Nuada.
In 2008’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the elvish royal, played by Luke Goss, wishes to resurrect the eponymous mechanical soldiers to help him wipe out the human race so that creatures like him, forced to live in the shadows, can be free. If only he had worked toward a harmonious agreement between man and “monster,” the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense would have been willing to listen to him.
Ozymandias Wants Peace On Earth
One of the best arguments for why writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen is the greatest graphic novel of all time is its brilliant ending. Former vigilante Adrian Veidt, otherwise known as Ozymandias, plans to achieve a peaceful, global society by giving the world a common enemy in the form of a giant, grotesque creature he releases onto Manhattan.
Zack Snyder’s 2009 adaptation amends this iconic moment by having Matthew Goode’s portrayal of Ozymandias orchestrate a catastrophic explosion that claims the lives of millions of New Yorkers. Either way, his philosophy that the world would more willingly work together if collectively faced with the same threat certainly holds water.
Killmonger Wants To Give Power To The Oppressed
Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger sitting on the throne of Wakanda in Black PantherImage via Marvel Studios
For years, the MCU was criticized for introducing villains who lacked complexity and a compelling motivation for their dastardly actions. The franchise would eventually solve this problem by incorporating some of the most acclaimed supervillains to hit the big screen, with one of the most compelling coming from 2018’s Black Panther.
Michael B. Jordan stars in Ryan Coogler’s mega-hit as Eric Killmonger, who successfully usurps the throne of Wakanda from his cousin, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), intending to overturn the country’s decision to hide their resources from the rest of the world and use them to help oppressed minorities. Even though Killmonger tried to kill him, T’Challa, after defeating the tyrant, goes on to make his goals a reality, agreeing with his belief that “in times of crisis, the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers.”