10 Superhero Movie Villains Who Considered Themselves The Hero

This is an important trait of many superhero movies, as it is in other genres. This tactic creates a sympathetic villain, someone who is either wronged or who believes it is their job to save a world that won't save itself. When a villain truly believes they are doing something noble, it makes it harder to really hate them, even when the heroes are doing everything to try to stop them from achieving their goals.

This has been a hugely successful tactic in movies, as it was a big reason that Black Panther was so well received when it was released, and Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger remains one of the most popular villains in Marvel Cinematic Universe history. It explains why Avengers: Infinity War can be seen in a very different light when Thanos is seen as the actual hero of that particular story.

The Riddler

The Riddler has always been a low-level Batman villain, a comic nemesis who forces Batman to solve riddles to stop him. However, that is not the character that Matt Reeves introduced in his 2022 movie The Batman. Instead, Paul Dano's version of the Riddler was a young man who grew up in poverty in the foster care system, and he believed in Thomas Wayne's idea for a Renewal platform in Gotham City.

However, when someone murdered Thomas and Martha Wayne, it broke the young man, and it radicalized him. What makes the Riddler such a tragic villain is that he thinks he and Batman are on the same side, even as he convinces Gotham City residents to commit terrorist acts. At the same time, he hates Bruce Wayne, who he feels lives in luxury while others suffer. His goal is to uplift the disenfranchised, but he went about it the wrong way.

Baron Helmut Zemo

Baron Zemo is the main antagonist of Captain America: Civil War. While the movie is remembered as the moment that severs the Avengers, this is all thanks to the machinations of Helmut Zemo. He abducts Bucky Barnes and uses programming in his brain to force Bucky to act on his behalf, which causes Iron Man and Captain America to fall out.

However, Zemo is acting in reaction to the fact that his wife, son, and father died during the Avengers' battle with Ultron in Sokovia. That incident is what directly led to Captain America becoming a fugitive. He blames the Avengers, and he believes that eliminating superheroes will keep the world a safer place. His actions are terrible, but he considers the heroes to be the true threats to the world.

Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor is the ultimate DC villain who has always believed he is the hero the world needs. He hates Superman simply for being an alien and having powers that are unlike those of other humans. In his mind, he has to stop Superman before the Man of Steel turns evil, because Luthor knows Superman has the power to enslave the entire world if he so chooses. Luthor believes he is the only man smart enough to stop him.

There have been many times when Luthor was portrayed as an ordinary criminal, such as in the first Superman movie and even in Superman Returns. However, in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, he moves further into his role as a genius who wants only to stop Superman, and in James Gunn's Superman, he actually works with the government to help find ways to stop superheroes.

Thunderbolt Ross

General Thunderbolt Ross is a complicated figure. In the first Hulk movie, he wants nothing more than to stop Hulk from rampaging and terrorizing populated cities. In The Incredible Hulk, Ross takes it one step further when he actually creates a supervillain to fight Hulk, making Ross a villain himself. However, he never faces punishment, and he is even rewarded for his bad deeds.

Ross believes he is the hero in his story, and the United States government rewards him for it with promotions, a high-ranking government position leading to the Sokovia Accords, and eventually helps him win the election to become President of the United States. Ross was never a good person, but he always thought he was the hero the world needed.

Namor

Namor, the Sub-Mariner, is the main villain in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. However, just like in Marvel Comics, Namor is someone who is the fierce protector of the undersea kingdoms. In the comics, he rules Atlantis, and in the MCU, he is the king and protector of Talokan, a hidden underwater civilization. While Namor acts in violent and unpredictable ways, it is all to protect his people from the surface world.

In the comics, he is an arrogant and self-centered antihero, but in the MCU, he is a king who only wants to protect his culture and tribe, and he is not interested in personal gain. He is also a villain who tries to work with Wakanda at first, and then only attacks when he realizes they would endanger his people. His preemptive war is, to him, necessary, and it makes him an antagonist to Black Panther rather than a genuine villain.

Loki

There was little redeemable about Loki when he appeared in The Avengers. However, take a close look at the Thor movies to see why he is such a tragic figure. The first Thor is a Shakespearean tale, with a king who forces one son to prove his worth, while always dismissing his other son as not worthy. Thor receives the chance to prove himself, and Loki is always pushed aside. This is shown even more in Thor: The Dark World.

Loki is someone who just wants a chance, and when he sees the opportunity to take control of Asgard, he does so. Interestingly, the movies make it appear that Loki is a better man than even Odin when it comes to leading the people of Asgard, although he proves in Thor: Ragnarok that he is not able to hold onto that role. Loki is, by far, the most tragic villain in MCU history.

Thanos

Thanos is a world-destroyer who believes he is doing it for the betterment of the universe. In his own mind, he believes he is a savior, helping to purge the weak from the worlds he encounters to prevent overpopulation and leave the worlds with stronger people to help carry them on. He believes everyone will die if he does not act, which makes him the hero in his own mind, even by killing countless individuals.

In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos believes he is the good guy, as he puts together the Infinity Gauntlet and then snaps out half of existence in the universe. This is random, so it goes against his survival of the strong, but he believes this is better since it doesn't take into account status and makes him not responsible for who dies. However, what he considers a mercy killing is still murder, and he has to be stopped.

Ozymandias

Ozymandias is similar to Thanos in that he believes that killing countless innocent people will make the world a safer place. In Watchmen, Ozymandias is the smartest person in the world, and he has control of the only superhero in that universe, Doctor Manhattan. The world is on the brink of World War III, and with escalating tensions, Ozymandias realizes that the countries are about to destroy everything in a nuclear war.

As a result, he creates a fake attack on New York City. It is a giant squid in the comics and a staged Doctor Manhattan incident in the movie. By faking these events, the world suddenly joins together to work in unity against a common enemy, and he averts World War III and an apocalypse at the expense of millions of innocent lives. This is a case where his plan worked, and Ozymandias is a hero, albeit a mass murderer at the same time.

Magneto

Magneto is the main villain in the first X-Men movie and a secondary villain in the third. However, he has the most tragic story of any villain in comic book movie history. He was a child in World War II, and he was imprisoned at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. He watched the horrible things that humans did to anyone they considered different, and he set out to create a world where it wouldn't happen to mutants.

What makes Magneto and Professor X different is that Charles Xavier believes mutants and humans can live together in peace, and Magneto knows that is impossible. Magneto is a villain because he has his villainous Brotherhood to force his will on humans, knowing that if he doesn't show his power levels and the threat he brings, humans will come after mutants. In most cases, Magneto is right.

Killmonger

Killmonger has every right to hate Wakanda and the Black Panther. As a child, he was the son of N'Jobu, the brother of King T'Chaka. That makes him a Wakandan prince, but when T'Chaka learns that N'Jobu was betraying Wakanda, he murders his own brother and leaves his nephew stranded in America, where he is placed in the foster care system. In Black Panther, Killmonger wants what he believes belongs to him.

Killmonger even does it the right way at first, when he challenges T'Challa for the throne and wins the fight. That is Wakanda's custom, and Killmonger earns it the right way. However, when Killmonger begins to weaponize Wakanda to attack the rest of the world, that is when his motives turn dark, even though he sees himself as a freedom fighter fighting for all who are oppressed.