Super Villains Showed Human Side:
For ages, we have seen the bad guys in movies and books as the ultimate form of evil. They laugh and smile and grin as they rain chaos and destruction on innocent lives. They are the anti-thesis of Order. They thrive on people screaming in awe and fear at their sights. But most people forget that every villain was not born a villain. Villainy, very much like greatness, is a concept that was thrust upon a person due to him or her having that elemental “One Bad Day”. Villains have emotions too. They too have wants and needs. They might be planning for taking over the world but sometimes even they make us cry. We would be more than happy to prove that to you.
1. Mister Freeze loses his wife
Mister Freeze was no always a villain. He started out as a good guy. As a respectable scientist and a model citizen, Doctor Victor Fries was one of Gotham’s pioneering researchers in the field of Cryo-Genic sciences. After his wife, the love of his life – Nora Fries, contracts a disease that makes her terminally ill, Victor looks for a cure throughout the world. Even his extensive medical knowledge was of no use. Then he moves to his last resort and freezes his wife in a cryo-chamber until a cure for her disease could be developed. He becomes Mister Freeze to finance his expenses. The company he was siphoning money out of to fund his wife’s life support systems discovers the treachery and pulls the plug on Nora, which kills her and makes Victor Fries’ skin allergic to sunlight. The man loses everything.
2. The Kingpin loses his fortune and his family
In Daredevil, the Kingpin is a villain that can hardly be ignored. After Season 1, when the Kingpin is caught and put in jail, all his assets are frozen. He no longer has the money and power he used to have before. In prison, he is just an average guy. The butt of all jokes, the Kingpin screams at his lawyers to help him get out of the hell-hole and get back to Vanessa, his one true love. It is then revealed that the Kingpin had only a miniscule amount of cash left and he had to choose either to fund his criminal proceedings or use that money to hire more bodyguards for Vanessa. He chose the latter.
3. The Vulture fails to take care of his crew
The Vulture is given a really human origin story in Spiderman: Homecoming. He is not just an old man trying to unlock the secret to eternal youth like in the comic books. This time, the Vulture is just one guy trying to keep his company afloat and to keep his men, who are family men and have mouths to feed, employed. He decides to get into a life of crime so that the company does not go bankrupt. He is not doing what he is doing for himself. All that has happened to him and his men is the result of the Avengers messing things up. When another Superhero meddles in his new way of life, which is itself a result of another group of superheroes screwing things up in the past, the Vulture loses his cool. He is caught in the end and arrested and his company is ruined.
4. Erik Killmonger’s final scene in Black Panther
One of the very few Marvel villains we could sympathize with the Marvel Cinematic Universe was Erik Killmonger. Erik was not a regular villain. He chose the wrong way to do the right thing. Erik wanted to make the world bend over and ensure racial equality and harmony were agreed upon globally and he was ready to use force to make that happen. His methods were wrong and he did end up doing more damage than he wanted to. His final fight with T’Challa aka the Black Panther led him into being defeated and killed. He was on Orphan whose life was a series of unfortunate events. And his sole purpose in life – to make the world a better place, was prevented by his blood brother. His death shook millions in the theatres.
5. The Death of Thanos in Endgame
The Mad Titan wanted to gain the Infinity Stones and complete the Infinity Gauntlet not because he lusted for power or wealth. Thanos did all that and went through all that pain to bring the balance back to the universe. He was a first-hand witness as to how life if kept unchecked, could destroy the ecosystem of an entire planet. His words fell on deaf ears. His people died and he became the last of his kind. He did not want the rest of the universe to suffer the same fate. In Endgame, after he did what he aimed for, he became a farmer. It is revealed later that the Snap had sucked all life out of him and he was a shadow of his former self. When Thor beheaded Thanos, there was no grief in his eyes, only satisfaction.
6. The Riddler realizes he is insane
Edward Nygma aka the popular Batman Villain the Riddler first debuted in the comic books in the 1940s. His use of riddles and puzzles to make Batman use the entire might of his brain to get to him made for interesting storylines but it also med to people questioning his sanity. The Riddler was later diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (which he claimed to be untrue). In Gotham #11, the Riddler leads the charge in Gotham City and commits a series of heinous crimes. Batman has no clue how to stop him and lays defeated. But when Batman decides to give a final chase to catch the Riddler, he sees the Riddler weeping. Edward Nygma discovers he was subconsciously leaving clues everywhere. He finally accepts he is mentally unstable.
7. The Joker reveals he is doomed to stay alone forever
In Batman: The Killing Joke, the Joker commits some of the most gut-wrenching acts in comic book history. He murders, rapes and paralyzes people for fun. Not even Batman had thought that the Joker could go down to such a level. After the Joker is caught and he delivers his infamous ‘Killing Joke’, Batman laughs. But many do not know the metaphor behind that. The joke explains how a mental asylum escapee is not ready to get out of his prison even if someone shone a path of light for him. The joker is trying to say that as an outcast of society, he is scared of society and will never truly be whole as a human being.
8. The Never-Ending Ballad of Ozymandias
In Alan Moore’s The Watchmen saga, Ozymandias and Doctor Manhattan agree to the global conspiracy hatched by the former to make the world into thinking that Doctor Manhattan was the reason of a series of powerful energy blasts that happened all over the world and killed millions. Ozymandias’ intention was to unite the fractured world by manipulating the world into coming together to fight a common enemy – which was Doctor Manhattan. But Ozymandias later asks Manhattan “I Did Right. Didn’t I?” To that, Manhattan, who can see the future, responds that “Nothing Truly Ever Ends.” This means that Ozymandias ended up killing millions of innocent lives and that was all for naught.
9. Loki – You will never be a God
He has done some pretty terrible stuff. But Loki of the MCU had managed to get on our good side after Thor: Ragnarok. He was no longer a power hungry supervillain trying to get the attention of his mommy and daddy. He was a genuinely caring God, albeit with some personal flaws that I am sure he would have worked out if given enough time. Loki’s death at the hands of Thanos, and his final words to the Mad Titan “You will never be a God” will forever echo in the hearts of men.
10. Kite Man discovers he will always be a joke
Long bearing the brunt of many jokes, Kite Man was never a villain to be taken seriously. In The War of Jokes and Riddles, it is revealed that Kite Man’s son was killed and he became a supervillain in honour of his child, who loved kites. Kite Man played a vital role in turning the tables for the Joker. The Riddler captures Kite Man and reveals that he was the one who killed his son and he did it for the most trivial reasons. The Riddler killed Kite Man’s son because he wanted to make the Joker laugh. The big reveal was so disturbing that Batman, who has a strict No-Kill policy, almost killed Nygma to death for doing this.
