History TragicVillain / ComicBooks

* Almost every ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' villain has a tragic motivation (ComicBook/TheJoker being a notable exception), but the most archetypical AntiVillain is ComicBook/MrFreeze. His main motivation is to find a way to save his dying wife, no matter what it may be. A major factor in his introductory appearance in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' is that a CorruptCorporateExecutive directly caused his FreakLabAccident that nearly killed both him and his wife.
** Prior to the aforementioned animated series, Mr. Freeze was just a generic [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] kooky tech-based villain: ''[=B:TAS=]'' came up with the idea of Mr. Freeze as a man simply wanting to restore his wife and every incarnation since (except for the one in ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'') has [[LostInImitation adopted this aspect]].
** Although in the ComicBook/New52, [[spoiler:Nora isn't his wife, she's a frozen woman from the '40s with a heart disease. Freeze is just crazy, [[DoubleSubverted which is just as tragic when you think of it.]]]] As of ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'', she's back to being his frozen wife.
** DependingOnTheWriter, fellow Batman foe Killer Croc can also be seen as one of these. Yes, he's a homicidal cannibal, but he is often portrayed as having little to no control over those urges. His increasingly bestial appearance and the gradual loss of his own humanity (again, DependingOnTheWriter) makes it impossible for him to have any sort of life other than that of a villain. In his appearance in the ''[[ComicBook/TeenTitans Titans]]'' series, he mentions that all he wants now is to be left alone.

** Harley Quinn counts as well (although she first appeared in The Animated Series before becoming a character in the comic as well). She was just a normal psychiatrist who developed an [[LimaSyndrome unhealthy infatuation]] for the Joker, and became a supervillain as a result. Even worse, the Joker doesn't really love her, treats her horribly, and [[TheSociopath basically just sees her as a tool he can use to his advantage by playing on her love for him.]]

* ComicBook/WonderMan, long-time Avenger, has been straying into this. After being revived, he's become increasingly disillusioned with the perpetual cycle of superhero-supervillain violence. After repeatedly asking the Avengers not to re-assemble, he puts together a team of similar malcontents (including a new Goliath, angry over his uncle's death during ''ComicBook/{{Civil War|2006}}'') who attack Avengers Mansion and Stark Tower, demanding that the Avengers be disbanded.
* ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' has the Coolflames. They are people whose planets were invaded and conquered, had their intelligence and emotions drained out of them, and are now forced to work for the race who invaded and conquered their homes.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', Lillie and Tristan were heroes back in the early twentieth century, but then a gang war killed all their friends and caused Lillie to lose the only man she ever truly loved and also left Tristan badly deformed, and the two of them spent the next century engaging in organized crime in order to gather the resources to send the Runaways back in time to change the past... [[spoiler:which is actually what sparked the gang war in the first place]].
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' villain Dmitri Smerdyakov aka Chameleon. Born the bastard son of an aristocrat in Russia, his family despised him from the start and he was TheUnFavorite who was tormented, neglected and abused simply for being born. The only member of his family to acknowledge him was his half-brother [[ComicBook/KravenTheHunter Sergei Kravinoff]] and he bullied him often and had no real love for him. Dmitri used his talents with disguise and mimicry to impress others, but by the time he became an adult, he couldn't stand to look at his own face, nor could anyone who knew him before his criminal days even ''remember what he actually looked like''. Chameleon's SanitySlippage in the 1990s run of the comics due to his immense trauma is also played very tragically.
-->'''Chameleon:''' I'm nothing... I'm nothing... I'm ''nothing''...
* [[DependingOnTheWriter Some versions]] of the comics portray ''the Red Skull'' of all people as this. Yes, THE [[TheSociopath Red]] [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating Skull.]] While most of the time the writers play up how irredeemable and monstrous he is, certain stories go out of their way to remind the audience that Johann Schmidt has had a '''miserable''' life. His mother [[DeathByChildbirth died giving birth to him]] and his own father tried to drown him shortly after (he ultimately committed suicide), which left the Skull an orphan who lived [[FriendlessBackground an isolated and lonely childhood]]. After spending most of his life in poverty and failure, he was taken in by ''Adolf Hitler'', who shaped him to becoming his personal {{Ubermensch}}. He initially had traces of goodness still in him, but what little there was got [[PunishedForSympathy beaten out of him by his fellow Nazis]] and further indoctrinated him into becoming the remorseless psychopath he is now. The Red Skull genuinely believed in his cause and he was devastated to see all he had worked for crumble to ruin and remain absolutely loathed in the modern world. It's possible had circumstances been different, Johann Schmidt may have been a different man.
* ''ComicBook/{{Spook}}'': Mr. Nobody is heavily embittered by the way his father attempted to use and dispose of him as part of his long-term infiltration of NATO, causing him to seek revenge on the whole world to make himself feel better.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}''
** As a baby, Doomsday was killed thousands of times over throughout a period of decades, and had every single death recorded into his memory. This caused him to grow up to be an insane monster that hated all life. At his core, he's a traumatized infant in an adult's body who thinks he has to kill everything in order to stay alive.
** Initially at least, despite the monster he would become, ''[[Characters/SupermanSuperboyPrime Superboy Prime]]'' started out as an innocent kid who just wanted to help people and be like Superman. If the ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' hadn't happened, he probably would have been a great hero. It's hit on very hard when he's imprisoned in the Speed Force by the Flashes and he screams "Don't you understand?! I'm a hero! When I grow up I'm going to be SUPERMAN!!". However as time went on, his atrocities became severe enough that all sympathy that could be given to him was destroyed, especially when he grew to accept the role of a villain.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Curt Connors was a dedicated army surgeon who lost his arm in service. Wanting to repair his arm to get back to normal, he next took up studying reptiles to figure out how they regrew limbs. He came up with an experimental mixture that he thought would restore his missing limb. And it worked, but the side effects turned him into the villainous Lizard. Something Connors fears and hates, but which he has little to no control over without any antidotes to losing his arm. The Lizard has repeatedly put Curt through extreme trauma, but over 50 years later, and he's no closer to putting the Lizard behind him.
* ''[[ComicBook/THeIncredibleHulk The Incredible Hulk]]'' has some TragicMonster types who can count as one of these.
** For instance, the Glob, a SwampMonster formed from the corpse of a man who'd only wanted to see the woman he loved one last time before she died. The poor thing fails, dies, then dies again, and is resurrected, only to be controlled by the villains. The monster also never even meant any harm -- though it does attack sometimes -- it simply mistakes other people for its lost loved one and wants to reunite with them. Or destroy everyone for getting between them. Or mistakes people for its tormentors and seeks revenge, even though everyone it had known in life is actually long dead. Basically, a very sad life and an even sadder after-life.

* In ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', TheAntichrist [[spoiler:is revealed to be none other than Literature/HarryPotter, with all of his [[EngineeredHeroics heroics being engineered without his knowledge to set up his global conquest]]. [[GoMadFromTheRevelation After learning of this]], he then proceeds to single-handedly RapePillageAndBurn [[WizardingSchool Hogwarts]] before hiding from the world, burying himself with anti-depressants.]]
* ComicBook/{{Magneto}} could be the poster boy for this trope in comic books; he was a Jewish boy who had the grave misfortune of growing up in Germany during [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany the rise of the Nazis]] (and being born a mutant - albeit one whose powers hadn't yet manifested - didn't help his case). Witnessing and enduring the [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust absolute worst of humanity during WWII,]] he ended up being the SoleSurvivor of his entire family, and after finally being granted his freedom and settling down with a woman, he was made to suffer even further by ignorant humans (who prevented him from rescuing his daughter from a fire and being forced to watch her die). Virtually every miserable thing that has happened to him is due to bigotry and human violence. [[HumansAreBastards Little wonder why he hates non-mutant people so damn much.]] His crusade to build a utopia where mutants reign supreme is born of the idea that he could make a world where no one need suffer as he has.
* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor:'' Gorr the God Butcher. His ''entire life'' has been a TraumaCongaLine as long as the Praia do Cassino Beach, all because of the "gods" refusing to help him in his darkest hour (and the poor guy's had A LOT of those) and his own people turning on him for ''daring'' to suggest the gods either don't exist or don't care (he's wrong about the former, but tragically right about the latter), which led to the Necrosword finding him and twisting him into the murderous savage who becomes one of Thor's [[ArchEnemy greatest foes]]. At the end of the day, Gorr is a desperate and broken man who lost everything dear to him all because of the gods, directly or not.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'':
** Doctor Psycho was initially born deformed, bullied all of his life because of it, framed for a crime that he did not commit, had his fiance stolen from him, and was led to believe that she was complicit in the FrameUp. As the years went on, though, he became crueler and unbearably sadistic and sympathies dwindled accordingly.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Debbie Domaine had no motivation to become a supervillain, nor any interest in becoming one. Kobra, however, wanted a ComicBook/{{Cheetah}} for himself, and targeted Debbie since she was the niece of the original. He kidnapped, tortured and drugged her until she was suitably BrainwashedAndCrazy for his use, and she never recovered from his project, becoming unstable and unable to control her emotions and outbursts. She lived out the rest of her life in Arkham.
** In ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth'' the new version of ComicBook/{{Cheetah}}'s origin story turns out to have been masterminded by Diana's enemies, who not only arrange for her unwanted painful transformation but ensure she thinks Diana abandoned her. In reality, they rendered the communicator Diana gave her useless.
** Pretty much every version of Silver Swan ended up a villain due to tragic circumstances, lies, and manipulation. In at least [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 one case]] Silver Swan was forcibly made out of a kidnapped teenage girl, and the modifications were killing her before Diana was able to find a doctor capable of saving her life.
** In ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfWonderWoman2016'' Tomas Byde was DrivenToSuicide by Ares' manipulations, and then pulled into making a deal with Ares who twisted his grief into fury while he was near death. Once he realizes the deception and betrayal that went into turning him into the Duke of Deception, he is horrified and overcome with guilt at all the deaths he has caused due to his own weakness and permitting himself to be led on in this way.
** Diana herself in ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'' was heavily manipulated by her traitorous peers into making war on the Atlanteans. She was devastated by the destruction of the conflict and having to fight her former beloved Aquaman. She had no knowledge of the most heinous acts of her people and when she learned of the atrocities being committed in her name, Wonder Woman had a full scale HeelRealization.
* ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'' turns King Sombra, originally a GenericDoomsdayVillain, into one. As a foal, he was found in the snowy wastes outside the Crystal Empire and taken in by an OrphanageOfLove, where he met his OnlyFriend, a filly named Radiant Hope who didn't judge him for being a bit weird. Throughout his childhood, however, there were signs that he was not like other foals; When they first saw the Empire's ArtifactOfHope, Radiant saw herself as a beautiful [[DeityOfHumanOrigin alicorn princess]], while Sombra saw his future as a horrific monster, though the benevolent princess Amore assures him that his fate is not set in stone. Then, every year on the Empire's greatest festival, he would fall sick, unable to even leave his bed, and at one point would have died if not for Radiant's talent for magical healing saving him. Despite all of this, he grew up to a fine young stallion, until the day Radiant Hope received a letter inviting her to attend Celestia's academy in Equestria. Terrified both of losing his only friend and that this would mean the vision they saw as children would come true, Sombra ran out into the snowy field where he was found as a child, and there found what would ultimately doom him. A voice spoke to him, and told him his true origin; He was an Umbrum, an AncientEvil long imprisoned by the magic of the Crystal Empire, created in the shape of a pony so he could leave their prison and free them. Broken by the revelation that he had never been anything other than a monster, and that Amore had known all along and done nothing to help, Sombra accepts his destiny by killing her and enslaving the Empire, leaving only Radiant Hope to bring word to Equestria. The final entry of his journal recounting all of this says that he knows that [[PhysicalGod Celestia and Luna]] are coming for him to do what they do best; [[ThenLetMeBeEvil Vanquish monsters]].
* The ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' special ''[[ComicBook/PowerRangersSoulOfTheDragon Soul of the Dragon]]'' has its BigBad, the Witch[[spoiler:/aka Scorpina]], imply at one point that she regrets not being in the Main dimension when the Zordon Wave hit the Universe, [[HeelFaceTurn purifying many villains]], feeling she missed her chance to be a better person.

* Magenta in ''[[ComicBook/RoguesDC Rogues]]'' has the least reason out of all of [[ComicBook/TheFlash the Rogues]] to want to go back to a life of crime. Particularly because her powers are starting to go out of her control without medication. But because living on parole doesn't help cover the medication anymore, she's roped into joining the job by Captain Cold.

** The Abomination. Once Emil Blonsky, just another communist spy doing his job of infiltrating an American Military base. Unfortunately he stumbled upon and out of curiosity, activated a gamma ray machine buit by Bruce Banner. Blonsky became a monstrous reptoid who'd be known as the Abomination, and while he at first reveled in his newfound power, [[BeingEvilSucks his life soon became a spiral of misery and loneliness, arguably ''even moreso'' than Banner's.]] The Abomination longs to return to his wife Nadia, but can never become human again, and it only fuels his resentment of the Hulk for having the life he desired. Anytime Emil gets a chance at a normal life, it's ripped away from him. He becomes human again, he gets forcibly changed back in a few days. He finds companionship with a homeless community to see them destroyed by the police. The Abomination soon [[ThenLetMeBeEvil embraced his lot in life]] [[KickTheDog and fatally poisoned Bruce's wife Betty to bring the Hulk down to his level.]] Too top it off, after Hulk gives him a ''brutal'' NoHoldsBarredBeatdown, Banner [[KickThemWhileTheirDown forces Emil to watch a video on loop of his wife Nadia,]] tormenting him with how far he's fallen.

* ''[[ComicBook/THeIncredibleHulk The Incredible Hulk]]'' has some TragicMonster types who can count as one of these. For instance, the Glob, a SwampMonster formed from the corpse of a man who’d only wanted to see the woman he loved one last time before she died. The poor thing fails, dies, then dies again, and is resurrected, only to be controlled by the villains. The monster also never even meant any harm -- though it does attack sometimes -- it simply mistakes other people for its lost loved one and wants to reunite with them. Or destroy everyone for getting between them. Or mistakes people for its tormentors and seeks revenge, even though everyone it had known in life is actually long dead. Basically, a very sad life and an even sadder after-life.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' villain Dmitri Smerdyakov aka Chameleon. Born the bastard son of an aristocrat in Russia, his family despised him from the start and he was the BlackSheep who was tormented, neglected and abused simply for being born. The only member of his family to acknowledge him was his half-brother [[ComicBook/KravenTheHunter Sergei Kravinoff]] and he bullied him often and had no real love for him. Dmitri used his talents with disguise and mimicry to impress others, but by the time he became an adult, he couldn't stand to look at his own face, nor could anyone who knew him before his criminal days even ''remember what he actually looked like''. Chameleon's SanitySlippage in the 1990s run of the comics due to his immense trauma is also played very tragically.

* ''ComicBook/TransformersLastBotStanding'': The The Survivors for the most part are ultimately shown to simply be Cybertronians desperate to see their DyingRace survive another day, even if it means making biofuel out of any sentient life they come across. Their leader Steeljaw, however, is revealed to have never given up on his Decepticon mindset upon showing his true colors.

* ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'': Omni-Man was initially TheMole on Earth for the villainous Kryptonian-like race known as the Viltrumites, sent to lower Earth's defenses and prepare it for conquering. However, Omni-Man [[HumanityIsInfectious instead ended up taking a liking to Earth]] and even had a wife and son whom he loved dearly. When the time came for him to finally conquer the Earth however, he ended up being torn between his family and his duty to Viltrum. [[WhatHaveIDone It took him nearly killing his own son to finally realize how far he'd gone.]] This eventually leads to a HeelFaceTurn and he becomes the official {{Deuteragonist}} of the rest of the series.

** Although always sympathetic in some way, as is with almost all Batman supervillains, ComicBook/PoisonIvy became this when New 52 altered her backstory. After spending the majority of my childhood gardening, then finding my mother murdered and buried in the garden, she'd become pretty distrustful and misanthropic too. Some stories have portrayed her as straight-up evil (for example, remember the Harvest?), but the majority revolve around her simply going to EXTREMES to aid the environment, something she has a supernatural connection to.

* ComicBook/WonderMan, long-time Avenger, has been straying into this. After being revived, he's become increasingly disillusioned with the perpetual cycle of superhero-supervillain violence. After repeatedly asking the Avengers not to re-assemble, he puts together a team of similar malcontents (including a new Goliath, angry over his uncle's death during ''Comicbook/CivilWar'') who attack Avengers Mansion and Stark Tower, demanding that the Avengers be disbanded.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': As a baby, Doomsday was killed thousands of times over throughout a period of decades, and had every single death recorded into his memory. This caused him to grow up to be an insane monster that hated all life. At his core, he's a traumatized infant in an adult's body who thinks he has to kill everything in order to stay alive.