Most sympathetic and least sympathetic villains in comics

The Overlord

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2005
Messages
2,464
Who is the most sympathetic villain in comics? Who is the least sympathetic villain in comics?
 
Both the most sympathetic and least sympathetic villain in comics is this guy.

nh02a8.jpg


Seriously, though, I think the most sympathetic (and I'm gonna get some crap for this) is Superboy-Prime. The kid had his entire universe literally torn away from him, then he spent 20 years in solitude, only to find himself in a twisted variation of the world he used to read about in comic books. They're analyzing that in Legion of Three Worlds now, with Superman saying how he wants to redeem SBP.

Least sympathetic is Norman Osborn. He's a sick bastard with absolutely no tragedy, no remorse, or anything else to make you empathize with him.
 
To me, the Most sypathetic villain would be Magneto, when he's written well. Sadly with time marching on, it's harder to write him as a Holocaust survivor without making him an infant, but honestly when used right, he's a wonderful character, hero or villain.



Least sympathetic, hmm, it's a tie. Luthor and Hush. They're such BS characters, especially Luthor. I'd love to see a rule at DC where neither of them could be used for 24 months. Then after that, they could only be used sparringly.
 
To me, the Most sypathetic villain would be Magneto, when he's written well. Sadly with time marching on, it's harder to write him as a Holocaust survivor without making him an infant, but honestly when used right, he's a wonderful character, hero or villain.



Least sympathetic, hmm, it's a tie. Luthor and Hush. They're such BS characters, especially Luthor. I'd love to see a rule at DC where neither of them could be used for 24 months. Then after that, they could only be used sparringly.


But without Luthor Superman would be lonely.


Anyway, to me the most sympathetic villain is Carnage. He gets a bad rep for being a killer and really we've all killed in cold blood at one point or another.:p


Least Sympathetic i guess would be Annihilus since there is nothing nice about him.
 
To me, the Most sypathetic villain would be Magneto, when he's written well. Sadly with time marching on, it's harder to write him as a Holocaust survivor without making him an infant, but honestly when used right, he's a wonderful character, hero or villain.



Least sympathetic, hmm, it's a tie. Luthor and Hush. They're such BS characters, especially Luthor. I'd love to see a rule at DC where neither of them could be used for 24 months. Then after that, they could only be used sparringly.


Ah, you are conteding Lex is a smug snake, instead of a Magnificent Bastard, I would disagree with that regarding Lex and in general smug sankes are unsympathetic because they are annoying. A complete moster is the truly unsymapthetic villain, the audience doesn't sympathize with them because they are pure evil.
 
Ah, you are conteding Lex is a smug snake, instead of a Magnificent Bastard, I would disagree with that regarding Lex and in general smug sankes are unsympathetic because they are annoying. A complete moster is the truly unsymapthetic villain, the audience doesn't sympathize with them because they are pure evil.

Exactly. It's like in a recent arc, there was the whole "Lex, if you really cared about the world, you would have saved it while I was gone" line. I think that's why Luthor annoys me, he's gotten to the point where his only purpose is to be a thorn in Superman's side.
 
Exactly. It's like in a recent arc, there was the whole "Lex, if you really cared about the world, you would have saved it while I was gone" line. I think that's why Luthor annoys me, he's gotten to the point where his only purpose is to be a thorn in Superman's side.

I don't think Lex is a complete monster though, he isn't as evil as Joker or Red Skull.
 
I don't think Lex is a complete monster though, he isn't as evil as Joker or Red Skull.

Exatcly.



Is nothing else he really does love his daughter(assuming she's still in canon).All things considered he isn't all that bad when compared to Joker.
 
Last edited:
Magneto is probably the most sympathetic super-characater ever in context of his origin (Read X-Men: Magneto Testament and disagree with me I dare you)

least.......

The Cop-Robot guy from Nextwave, his name escapes me at the moment
 
You know DCUA Mr. Freeze is pretty sympathetic.

Least, the Red Skull, at least Joker has maddness as an excuse and may have been a nice person at one person at one point, the Skull, has no excuse. He's a racist, genocidal, sadistic, psychopathic Nazi with no redeeming values what so ever and he's proud of it. He even tortured his own daugther, for no reason, for her entire life and almost killed her at birth. There is nothing good you can say about him.
 
You know DCUA Mr. Freeze is pretty sympathetic.

Least, the Red Skull, at least Joker has maddness as an excuse and may have been a nice person at one person at one point, the Skull, has no excuse. He's a racist, genocidal, sadistic, psychopathic Nazi with no redeeming values what so ever and he's proud of it. He even tortured his own daugther, for no reason, for her entire life and almost killed her at birth. There is nothing good you can say about him.

Yeah, Even the Zemo's have good qualities the second Zemo even sorta becoming an Anti-Hero.


I would also put Arim Zola on the same league as Red Skull.
 
Yeah, Even the Zemo's have good qualities the second Zemo even sorta becoming an Anti-Hero.


I would also put Arim Zola on the same league as Red Skull.

Of course the Skull gets more panel time so he gets more time to be unlikable. Baron Helmut Zemo is an anti hero, but baron Heinrich Zemo was fairly unlikable.

There was a Batman/Captain America crossover in the 90s, where even the Joker thought the Skull was vile. Serioulsy almost no one likes him, not other villains, not his daugther.
 
Of course the Skull gets more panel time so he gets more time to be unlikable. Baron Helmut Zemo is an anti hero, but baron Heinrich Zemo was fairly unlikable.

There was a Batman/Captain America crossover in the 90s, where even the Joker thought the Skull was vile. Serioulsy almost no one likes him, not other villains, not his daugther.

Even Kingpin has refuesed to work with him in the past.



And Magneto really really doesn't like him.

Least Sympathetic: Venom


Gargan or Brock?

Because Beock has mellowed out after he sold the suit.
 
Last edited:
To me, the Most sypathetic villain would be Magneto, when he's written well. Sadly with time marching on, it's harder to write him as a Holocaust survivor without making him an infant, but honestly when used right, he's a wonderful character, hero or villain.



Least sympathetic, hmm, it's a tie. Luthor and Hush. They're such BS characters, especially Luthor. I'd love to see a rule at DC where neither of them could be used for 24 months. Then after that, they could only be used sparringly.

Hush has been used pretty sparringly so far.
 
There are quite a few villains who are sympathetic because they could be decent people if it weren't for their own insanity: Two-Face, Ventriloquist, Typhoid Mary and Gladiator (Melvin Potter).

Another choice for least sympathetic is Purple Man, he's a serial killer rapist.

An obscure choice for least sympathetic is the Marvel version of Scarecrow. He once killed a mother and her baby with a pitch fork for fun, once tried to make a house out of people and has an unhealthy obsession with children.
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top