Why Do We Love...No, OBSESS Over Supervillains?

[Hobgoblin]

I'm as guilty of this as anyone. Norman and Harry Osborn are definitely my favorite comic book bad guys. I swear I could sit and discuss their psychologies all day. I know I'm not alone in this. Many fanboys are almost cult like in their fascination with Dr Octopus, the Joker, Venom, Carnage, Two Face, Lex Luthor or any number of other fictional nut jobs. Sometimes I swear people like the villains more than the heroes.

Back in the day, I saw the Osborns (Norman anyway) as something to strive towards. Powerful, rich, influential, brilliant and free to do damn well what they want free of consequence. No one but the Green Goblin could make Spider-Man's life a living hell and walk away, knowing the bug would do nothing about it. He was like Gordon Gekko or the President, but tossing high explosives.

Other people I've noticed have had almost a "big brother relationship" with their villain of choice. I saw a Carnage tribute video on youtube where the maker had a line written on the pictures "This person is under the protection of a psychopath. If you mess with them, I will tear you to shreds." Another person that used to IM me wanted me to role play as Eddie Brock and be mean to everyone she she created in her story, but I couldnt be mean to her. I wonder if thats the kind of mentality that women who write love letters to serial killers have.

So who is your favorite comic book psycho and why do they fascinate you? Why do you think other people get fascinated by their favorites?

 

[Silvermoth]

well, I remember when 9/11 happened an American politician (I can't remember his name) said "good guys will always loose to bad guys because mentally the bad guys can go to a place the good guys can't even imagine".

I think that's the same with comics. We read about evil people so that we can understand something we can't possibly comprehend.

That or it's a standard power fantasy.

 

[Hobgoblin]

So its like being taken some place new, you're saying? The mentality of a nut is so different from the rest of us that the newness of the villains life intrigues us. Interesting.

 

[The Question]

I think that's part of it for some people. The mind of a social devient is so alien to the average person that it can be fascinating. Like a puzzle to unlock. That is part of the appeal for weirder villains like The Joker, trying to figure out what would make a person behave like that. I suppose it's the writer in me. It even carries over into my personal life. I know, personally, two people who've both, sperately from each other, commited some truly disturbing sex crimes, and along with the anger that comes naturally, I find myself very curious about how they got to the point where they made those choices.

 

[SuperFerret]

Bad guys get to have more fun, but it's at a price: they have to lose in the end.

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

I always enjoyed Madcap. Something about not feeling any pain and sharing that with others seems altruistic, yet instead the people become crazy PCP nut jobs who enjoy mutilating each other. Shut up Anubis.

 

[DannyDash]

The good guy is the bad guy in the villain's mind. I suppose the villain is interesting. We can speculate what has happened to make them make the decisions that they do and pity them because they don't have the resources and people to help guide them like the super heros did (like Superman did with his parents or Batman did with his money)

 

[Sinestro]

It's fun to love the bad guy

 

[E-Man]

I think it is because of the fact that villains rage against a society that we're not satisfied with. Everyone has their own issues with society, so a villain gives us a chance to see someone "go too far" to try to correct it. We want things to change, but we're not willing to do the dirty work. We'll just sit back and let something ****ed up happen so we can say, "Yeah! I told you that was going to get us in trouble!" We won't root for the villain all the way because we're not completely crazy, but it would be nice to see them win once to see a bit of change in the way things are done. I think that's why zombies are so popular. If the zombie apocalypse happens all of our roles change dramatically. No more being held back by politics or fading into obscurity. The zombies tore down everything you hated, and now you've got a chance to make your own destiny without relying on anybody else.

The best villains are also sympathetic, and one of the reasons for that is because we don't see them as often as the heroes. You may love Spider-man, but we know his tragedy already. We were there when Uncle Ben got killed. We saw him fail to save the Stacys. We see this guy every issue so we're more accustomed to his suffering. Norman Osborn doesn't show up in every issue though, so when we see him it's the first time seeing him deal with his issues in a while. It makes him more sympathetic to some people.