Most Sympathetic and Unsympathetic Villains in Comic Book Movies

[The Overlord]

Who is the most sympathetic villain that has appeared in a comic book movie?
Who is the most unsympathetic villain that has appeared in a comic book movie?

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Unsympathetic - The Joker in his various incarnations. It really doesn't matter which one. He's never even remotely sympathetic.

Sympathetic - Dr. Octopus from Spider-Man 2. While a few villains have quite sympathetic backstories (ex. Two-Face, Magneto), Dr. Octopus takes it one step further by not even really being in control of his own actions. If not controlling him outright (probably not since Peter can get through to him at the end), the Tentacle AI is at least heavily affecting his mind.

 

[The Joker]

Most unsympathetic:

- The Joker
- General Zod
- Obadiah Stane
- Deacon Frost
- Venom
- Sebastian Shaw

 

[Lantern Venom]

Sympathetic:

1. Winter Soldier-This shouldn't need explanation. Decades of psychological and physical torture made a heroic WW2 vet into a monster.

2. Sandman- more desperate than evil.

3. Magneto- became fanatical and vicious, but it wasn't difficult to understand how he came to that point.

Unsympathetic:

1. Red Skull- took life as emotionlessly as he took breath. He believed his vision to be more important that human life itself. Evil to his very core.

2. Joker (TDK)- insanity personified. Killing wasn't enough, derived pleasure from making victims kill other victims.

3. Eli Damaskinos- willing to sacrifice his own children to knock humanity down a peg on the food chain. It doesn't get much worse than that.

*Also, he's not in a movie, but Kilgrave/Purple Man was a particularly abhorrent villain too.

 

[4thWallBreaker]

Magneto has my sympathies.

The Joker (specifically The Dark Knight version) does not.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Unsympathetic:

• Mephisto and his son, Blackheart - Ghost Rider movies
• Pierce, and everyone Hydra - The Winter Soldier
• Octopus - the Spirit
• Mandarin/Aldrich Killian - Iron Man 3
• Hector Hammond - Green Lantern (I think he was supposed to be sympathetic, sure didn't feel like it)
• Rico - Judge Dredd
• Xander Drax - the Phantom
• Shiwan Khan and Farley Claymore - The Shadow
• Electro - The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (he scared Gwen away before turning blue, and wanted to choke Smythe for mentioning the webhead)
• Lex Luthor - Superman movies
• William Stryker - X-Men movies

Sympathetic:

• Norman Osborn - Spider-Man 1
• Harry Osborn - The Amazing Spider-Man 2
• Guss Gorman - Superman III
• Two-Face - The Dark Knight

 

[Schlosser85]

The Joker is one of the CBM villains who can most be called evil. He does twisted things for no reason other than his own capricious whims and entertainment.

As for sympathetic, Two-Face in TDK was very much a tragic figure. And Loki in the first Thor. Magneto in X-Men to an extent.

You could also add The Winter Soldier, but I don't really consider him a "villain". The above characters had free will.

 

[Guard82]

Most Sympathetic:

- Magneto
- Dr. Octopus
- Mystique
- The Winter Soldier
- Catwoman
- Two-Face
- The Green Goblin
- Sandman
- The Lizard

Most Unsympathetic

- The Joker
- The Red Skull
- General Zod
- William Stryker
- Sebastian Shaw
- Sabretooth
- Ronan
- Hydra as a group in general

Most Ambiguous (Sympathetic In Some Ways, Unsympathetic In Other Ways -- Biggest Gray Area)

- Loki
- The Penguin
- Aldrich Killian
- The Mandarin
- Ra's al Ghul
- Ultron

 

[CaptainWagner]

Personally, I've always felt some sympathy for Zod in MOS. At the end of the day, he was doing what he was bred and programmed to do: Preserve Krypton at all costs. His pain when Superman destroys the Genesis chamber was particularly resonant.

 

[Guts]

Joker in Batman.
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The fact that he was going to murder a kid while smiling tells you how evil he is.

 

[P Supreme]

Personally, I've always felt some sympathy for Zod in MOS. At the end of the day, he was doing what he was bred and programmed to do: Preserve Krypton at all costs. His pain when Superman destroys the Genesis chamber was particularly resonant.

totally agree with this

most Sympathetic I would go with Winter Soldier and Magneto

Unsympathetic Joker hands down in TDK and Batman 89

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

Most sympathetic would be either Doc Ock or Magneto.

Least sympathetic: (in no order)

Loki (Avengers onwards)
Joker TDK
Abomination
Ronan
Obadiah Stane
Blackheart
Bullseye
Bolivar Trask (He didn't even hate Mutants he just wanted a common enemy for all nations to fight)
Deacon Frost
Mandarin
Malekith

_______________

Stryker (X2) I'd place in the ambiguous zone. He's motivated by his Mutant Son torturing his Wife into suicide so I can understand his hatred of Mutants

 

[Decepticonus]

I cannot sympathize with DeVito Penguin at all. Nothing but a poon hound who never had any idea of what a "plan" is. He wanted to fit in yet really made no attempt to I don't know not dress like an egg in onesie, brush his teeth, perhaps learn some basic, half-way, decent social skills. No, instead I need to refer to my dick as an umbrella and talk about filling women's voids.


I can symphatize with Zod a bit, as he was designed to protect Krypton and his people. He was not raised on Earth with its people, so why should he care what happens to it. He didn't come off as wanting to outright kill the people of Earth for the hell of it. It was really his last resort in order to secure his own people.

Harry Osborn in ASM2 got a ****** deal. My dad crapped on me, the business I got crapped on me for doing the right thing more or less and then turns out my best friend who lied to me about being able to save me and lied to me about being Spider-Man but who was open and honest about it with a girl he's been seeing for a year when I've known him since we were kids and we were best friends. Yeah, rotten deal there.

 

[Victarion]

Prince Nuada Silverlance, from Hellboy II, is the villain I can most sympathize with. Zod from MoS also has my sympathy. Both had to deal with leaders that would rather die than do their duty.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

Nuada was quite similar to Magneto now I think of it. Both feel their races are/were second to Humanity and hated that position and treatment at the hands of humanity and seeked to change it

 

[gildedmuse]

Also, he's not in a movie, but Kilgrave/Purple Man was a particularly abhorrent villain too.

On the TV side of things, Cal (Mr. Hyde) was a particularly sympathetic villain the more we got to know him. So much so that by the end they spared him the usual Marvel villainous ending and sent him packing with the worst case of amnesia this side of soap operas. Then you have Ward who the spent a nearly a whole season trying to get audiences to emphasize with and...seriously, screw that guy.

Kilgrave was just straight up evil as far as I'm concerned. His only redeeming quality was being played by David Tenant.

 

[metaphysician]

Being fair, I don't think the writers intend for Ward to come off as sympathetic. They intend for him to come off as a terrible sociopathic monster whose deliberately trying to be "nice", and failing at it utterly.

 

[Mr.T]

Sympathetic - The big headed guy in the horrible Green Lantern movie. Just seemed like he was in the wrong place at the wrong time...

 

[Lantern Venom]

On the TV side of things, Cal (Mr. Hyde) was a particularly sympathetic villain the more we got to know him. So much so that by the end they spared him the usual Marvel villainous ending and sent him packing with the worst case of amnesia this side of soap operas. Then you have Ward who the spent a nearly a whole season trying to get audiences to emphasize with and...seriously, screw that guy.

AOS really turned the tables on both of those characters, didn't they? Cal seemed so sinister for awhile and Ward seemed like the brooding, complicated hero. Both of those are really amazing arcs.

Sympathetic - The big headed guy in the horrible Green Lantern movie. Just seemed like he was in the wrong place at the wrong time...

Hector Hammond, and he is indeed a sad case. I thought it was a nice touch that Hal stood up for Hector prior to the helicopter scene.

 

[gildedmuse]

Being fair, I don't think the writers intend for Ward to come off as sympathetic. They intend for him to come off as a terrible sociopathic monster whose deliberately trying to be "nice", and failing at it utterly.

After his big reveal, yeah, but prior to that they spent most of those early season one episodes trying to make Ward sympathetic. Even after the mess has hit the fan, everyone gets over their shock, and the team figures out, hey, that guy's a total creep Ward still thinks of himself as a sympathetic, redeemable villain. And if the writer's hadn't gone full psychopath they could have easily tried to play up that "poor abused Ward!" card to get us to see his reasoning. Instead they showed us those reasons and rightly said, "you know what, that's crazy. This dude is crazy. Don't try and understand and empathetic with him, he'll probably just use that crap against you." A much better move on their part.

Still, Ward started out as a character that was presented as your typical tough guy that deserves sympathy (hence all the emotional and backstory he was constantly pretending not to share), and even after his turn he keeps trying to play that card. Not that we're suppose to fall for it, but it's there. So, no, he was never intended to be a sympathetic villain, but he was presented originally as a character the audience was meant to feel for and he often plays the sympathetic villain card himself with his own team mates, who usually respond by calling him crazy and shooting at him.

 

[Herofan]

Most unsympathetic: The Red Skull, Venom or McMahon-Doom.
Most sympathetic: TDK Two-Face, BR Catwoman.

 

[Frankeh]

I thought Catwoman in Batman Returns was a very sympathetic villain.

 

[AbradolfLincler]

What about Ozymandius? He's not sympathetic in the sense that he's broken or lost, but in the sense that his intentions are based on logic many would be sympathetic to.

 

[DACrowe]

Unsympathetic:

1.

Nihilism and malevolence personified.

2.

Spare us the mom and pops sad story. He was a rapist psycho, who never realized how monstrous he truly was.

Sympathetic:

1.

A good man who did the right thing and risked everything. And then even despite winning, he still lost it all and snapped and did horrible things. A truly tragic character in The Dark Knight.

2.

He might have been a good man in a different life, but he saw too much evil and despite good intentions, he has let that evil spread to his own soul and continue the vicious cycle of violence. This is made most poignant in X-Men: First Class.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Spare us the mom and pops sad story. He was a rapist psycho, who never realized how monstrous he truly was.

If anything, his parents were the sympathetic ones.