History WellIntentionedExtremist / ComicBooks

** Bioterrorist Poison Ivy wants plants to be respected. It's the ''"and completely dominant"'' part that causes trouble.
** Mister Freeze is probably the straightest example: he just wants to save his wife and cure his disease (which makes him [[AndIMustScream have to live in a cold suit 24/7 and never be able to have human contact or die.]]) As he's fine with killing innocent people and doing other bad things, he's still a villain.

* Franchise/{{Superman}}:
** General Zod, long-time enemy of Superman, was reinvented in the ''World of Comicbook/NewKrypton'' storyline. Normally a conquering madman, he was named military commander of New Krypton and was devoted to protecting the new planet by any means necessary, but he was shown to be fairly honorable and decent. He cracked down on his sadistic minion Gor, promoted Superman in his place when he was incapacitated by an assassin, and came to appreciate his former enemy while still maintaining views that are much harsher than those of Superman's. [[spoiler:When New Krypton was destroyed]], [[UnstoppableRage all bets were off]].
** Actually, Zod and General Lane are only W.I.E.s at first glance (advancement of New Krypton and protection of Earth from aliens, both of which are understandable). Posterior developments, however, showed that they aren't this at all. Lane's actions [[spoiler:are purely antagonistic and uncoerced for the most part. While he has a point about being prepared and protected against alien invasions, he has done all he can to provoke a war with the Kryptonians.]] And all of this is largely due to the subtle notion that [[spoiler:he is disgusted that his daughter, Lois, is attracted to Superman.]] Zod is no better, as he [[spoiler:sent his own spies, composed of Phantom Zone criminals and army grunts, to invade Earth and more-or-less complimented Lane's actions]]. The whole reason Zod's doing this? It's because [[spoiler:he hasn't forgotten his blood-vendetta against the Son of Jor-El and his house and had his pride wounded by being beaten on Earth before]].
** It's a good thing that Superman is smart enough to be freaked out by the possibility of becoming this trope, since his power would make fulfilling any goals he may set pretty easy.
--->'''Superman:''' "I'm not a soldier of any kind... It's only a short step from there to calling yourself a crusader, or something equally dubious. Too many powerful people make these silly declarations... then it's all "holy war" and "sacred destiny". That's generally when the trouble starts."
** On the other hand, when the Eradicator took over as Superman during ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'', he had no qualms about using deadly force and thought he was doing what Superman would do. However, he's shown to be shaken by Guy Gardner's admiration and a couple of WhatTheHellHero speeches from Comicbook/LoisLane and Comicbook/{{Steel}}.
** And in ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'' where Superman was raised under the belief of communism, he does just this. Taking over Russia and becoming a Dictator to protect the people. He tries to do this to the whole world but is stopped by ''Comicbook/LexLuthor'' with a simple [[ArmorPiercingQuestion note]] that makes him realize he is no better than Braniac trying to put the world in a bottle.

* In the ''[[Comicbook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog Sonic The Hedgehog]]'' comics, we have [[MadScientist Dr. Finitevus]], who views the world as corrupt and wants to "purify it with fire".
** [[spoiler: Geoffrey St. John]] was recently revealed as one as well. His FaceHeelTurn and subsequent aiding of [[EvilSorcerer Ixis Naugus]] in [[spoiler: becoming king]] is explained as him honestly believing that it's for the Republic of Acorn's own good. He's since seen what Naugus is capable of when Sonic and his friends can't actually stop him, and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone regrets what he's done.]] His attempt to appeal to Naugus's better judgement to make amends for what they've done [[GrandTheftMe didn't go so well.]]

->"Imagine. I now possess the power to end hunger. To abolish disease. To eliminate crime. To establish a perfectly content, perfectly ordered world - all under the benevolence of MY IRON WILL!" - ''Comicbook/DoctorDoom''
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** Buffy Season Eight reveals that all of [[spoiler: Angel's]] actions as Twilight (including being the head of an anti-Slayer military organization and putting Buffy and her crew through all sorts of hell) were all to prevent anything like the Fall of Los Angeles (as detailed in [=IDW's=] ''After the Fall'') from happening again. Of course, the higher being that convinced him to do so had also duped him into thinking it was good when it [[GodOfEvil wasn't]].
** Likewise, both Buffy Season Eight and ''[[Series/{{Angel}} Angel and Faith]]'' feature Whistler as one, first with his involvement in the Twilight apocalypse (which he freely admits to Angel would have resulted in the deaths of at least two billion people), and later his plan to "evolve" the world with a magic plague. Despite the heavy casualty risk in both plans, Whistler truly believes that what he's doing is necessary to preserve the BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil and save the world. Angel is actually sympathetic to his cause in the latter, but simply refuses to help him harm any more innocents or cause any more collateral damage than he has already.
* ComicBook/LexLuthor in ''ComicBook/GothamCityGarage'' is confident that he can save the remains of mankind not wiped by the apocalypse, but he can only achieve this if everybody follow his orders, so he keeps people mind-controlled and caged inside "his" walled city and represses dissenters brutally; and then he doesn't get why people rebel against him.
* [[ManipulativeBastard Alexander Luthor Jr.]] was willing to kill an uncountable number of people to reach his goal during the ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis. His goal? To find and create the [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Perfect Earth, free of Crime, Grime, and, possibly, super powers]].

* ComicBook/{{Magneto}} in ''ComicBook/XMen'' is one of the archetypal examples in the medium. He wants peace and safety for mutantkind--but he's willing to achieve it at the expense of humanity at large. Magneto's characterization varies wildly depending on who is writing him, but the most influential version is the one envisioned by Chris Claremont and fits this trope to a tee.
** Comicbook/{{Cyclops}} took this role after the events of ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', having [[spoiler:killed Professor X]] and dedicated himself to starting a new Mutant revolution. He's been explicitly compared to Magneto by both supporters and detractors and was already a fully fledged MagnificentBastard -- which is more than a little comical since a reformed Magneto is a member of Cyclops' team of rogue X-Men, having joined because he genuinely admired Scott, and in which capacity he occasionally remarks on how Scott sounds like him, or reprimands him for it.
** Dr. Bolivar Trask, the renowned anthropologist, became an early X-Men villain when he publicly voiced his fears that superhuman mutants might take over the world and enslave humanity. [[BewareTheSuperman Considering]] what mutant supervillains have been up to before and since in the Marvelverse, [[NoMereWindmill it's not quite fair]] to say that he was [[StrawmanHasAPoint entirely wrong]]. Nevertheless, his proposed solution -- to launch an army of [[HumongousMecha Sentinels]] to contain and neutralize the mutants -- qualifies him for this list.
** Trask's son Lawrence basically continued his father's plans, with the added motive of revenge for his father's death. Later, government scientist Steven Lang launched an operation similar to Trask's, for much the same reasons.
** Wolverine also qualifies as this. While he does tend to have good intentions he tends to use murder, mauling, and more murder to achieve them. He once stabbed Rachel Summers in the heart and lungs to keep her from killing Selene. Keep in mind that Selene is a millennia old unrepentant murderer and an energy vampire, who then went on to immediately kill more people right afterwards! Wolverine also set explosives on an island that not only contained the entirety of the mutant race at the time, but also incapacitated people in the infirmary and multiple prisoners. He did this in order to try and blow up a killer robot, but still, what would have happened if everyone hadn't been evacuated on time?
** Arguably, ''most'' human X-Men villains qualify, as they're basically Magneto in reverse: Ordinary humans looking after human interests and not wanting to be dominated or exterminated like rats by a super-powered caste of mutant overlords. (Which has actually happened or nearly happened a number of times in the comics over the years.) Though like the mutant supervillains, some are less "well-intentioned" and more "extreme" than others, and vice versa.
* In ''ComicBook/AvengersAcademy'', Jeremy Briggs unveils "Clean Slate," a formula that will take away superpowers which at first seems great as it allows Mettle and Hazmat to be human again. However, Briggs reveals he plans to fire off missiles to spread Clean Slate around the globe and take away ''everyone's'' superpowers. He says this will stop the massive battles and destruction of cities and he'll give powers back to those he thinks are worthy. Of course, the fact that Briggs is a sociopath and his view of "worthy" is warped to say the least, the team realize they have to stop him, no matter how right he claims to be.
* ComicBook/SpiderMan's enemy, the Vulture, is a good example of the other type of this trope. Many years after his debut, he was given a backstory in which an unscrupulous business partner cheated him out of the proceeds from his inventions. He wrecked said partner's business, stole back his money, and discovered that he enjoyed the thrill. Eventually, the partner surfaced, and the usually not-murderous Vulture went after him; Spidey stopped the Vulture but taped the partner's confession.
** Spider-Man has often fought a high-tech KnightTemplar called Cardiac who targets people who commit evil and immoral acts, but find legal loopholes to escape justice. And let's face it; a lot of people would take Cardiac's side here. His victims are [[AssholeVictim horrible men]] who rob people blind and cause innocents to suffer, but find ways to legally do it, always with selfish goals in mind. Even Spider-Man, who tries to stop him when he can, can't help but admire him a little sometimes.
* [[spoiler: Cinderella's fairy godmother, as well as Geppetto]], in ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'' embodies this trope. [[spoiler: The fairy godmother just wanted people to be happy, and Geppetto didn't start out ''intending'' to conquer the world.]]
* Creator/GrantMorrison's ''Marvel Boy'' is a good example of this. The miniseries' alien protagonist, the extradimensional Kree, Noh-Varr, has his ship shot down and the rest of his crew killed by a supervillain that wants to make a profit off of his technology and dissected remains. As such, he winds up understandably pissed at the human race (to the extent that he knocks down buildings to spell out "F#$k you" to the human race in letters several blocks high, though he herds the inhabitants away so there will be no casualties). Noh-Varr finds Earth's social ills to be ridiculous and unreasonable and intends to make war on Earth and "{{terraform}}" it to be like his home planet, Hala. He would be a classic VillainProtagonist, but genuinely does seem to believe that what he's doing will better Earth for its inhabitants.
* ComicBook/NormanOsborn during the ''Comicbook/DarkReign'' saga saw himself as this, as we see in his [[spoiler:"monologue"]] at the end of ''Comicbook/{{Siege}}''. He says that his idea was to make a safer world by not letting just anyone put on a costume and decide to save the world by themselves, since they would end up causing more harm than good, knowing that, someday, the mutants would turn against mankind, or the Hulk would snap and go on a rampage that could kill millions. And he used the Superhuman Registration Act in his attempt, since it would be the perfect excuse - whoever was against him was automatically labeled as "non-sanctioned" and hunted down.
* Professor Fairfax in ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures''. The problem: as the years go on, overpopulation and dwindling natural resources will become more and more of a problem. The solution: using earthquake machines to raise a large section of the Pacific Plate above sea level, freeing up space for new cities and farms. Never mind that the ensuing earthquakes and floods will all but wiped out the entire west coast of the United States. As one character puts it: "If you think about it, his plan isn't illogical at all: he's simply willing to kill millions of people to give ''billions'' of people a better future."

* ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'': A very {{spoiler}}ish example, but: [[spoiler:Ozymandias? Possibly the most successful Well Intentioned Extremist in fiction. He kills three million people to achieve world peace... and, as far as the reader can tell, ''it works,'' though the last panel opens up the possibility that it may have all been for nothing.]]
** Another example would be Rorschach, whose violent and murderous behavior towards criminals is fueled by his own twisted desires to protect the world and defend the good. However, due to mental trauma, he tends to view almost everything and everyone as bad and needing punishment, making him come off as a SociopathicHero.
* V from ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'' is the poster child of this trope. He wants to free England... by causing riots and crippling the government.
** The head of said government, Adam Susan, is ANaziByAnyOtherName who may be the only thing keeping order in a nuclear wasteland.

** In ''Comicbook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'', Atrocitus - leader of the Red Lantern Corps - is determined to avenge injustice... by killing whoever he finds guilty.

* Franchise/{{Batman}} himself comes close to this from time to time, especially in the Creator/FrankMiller variations. It's implied that the reason Batman sticks so close to [[ThouShaltNotKill his code of no killing]] is because he's afraid that once he crossed that line, he would become this.
* John Horus, from Creator/WarrenEllis's ''ComicBook/BlackSummer''. As many characters note, he just wants everyone to be good. It's fine that he thinks the US government has perpetrated an illegal war, and as a condoned costumed vigilante, he may be expected to act against it, but he decides the best way to deal with this is to kill the president.
* Rainmaker from ''ComicBook/PS238''. The namesake of the Rainmaker program, which was intended to discover the cause of superpowers by experimenting on metahumans that couldn't fight back, he was treated more as a lab rat than a child to be taught, and ran away after a lab accident gave his powers a boost. After finding out that the titular school has re-instituted the Rainmaker Program, the Rainmaker invades the school facility and disables several of the teachers and students in an attempt to 'rescue' the participants in the program. The Rainmaker program turns out to have changed a bit in 40 years and is now a volunteer school program for grooming metahumans with non-combative abilities for work in the private sector.
** In Rainmaker's defense, though, he had been, ah, influenced by the head of Dr Irons, who was not acting with the best of intentions.
** Also, the Headmaster of [[AcademyOfEvil Praetorian Academy]] just wants to keep metahumans from evolving to the point where they're powerful enough to destroy the world.

* The Deacon from ''Comicbook/GhostRider'' just wants everyone to go to Heaven and be at peace. So he kills them to expedite the process.
* ''Enginehead'' is extremely simple in his "programming", with the single-minded directive to "fix" humanity by eliminating "flaws". When he sees that someone is "broken", he "fixes" them by tearing them limb from limb. His genuine inability to fully understand the ramifications of his actions causes Dr. Grass to peg him as not a superhero, but a new breed, here to save us all by scorching the earth until none are left standing.
** To give an example: when he discovers his brother romancing a schoolgirl, he realizes that he's "broken" and "fixes" him by rearranging his face, tearing off his genitalia (and legs), and crudely stitching his body back together before altering his brain so he can't commit violent acts. Sam was a freak, but god''damn'', overboard much? Later, when he hears of a drought in New Jersey, he fixes it up to the point that it becomes an equally debilitating water ''surplus''.
* The ''ComicBook/SquadronSupreme'' limited series was built on this trope, as the Squadron vows to use their super-powers to cure all of society's ills -- even if it requires restricting civil rights and individual liberties to do so.
* Baron Helmut Zemo is a rarer example where we actually see him become this from an outright villain. His original motivation was to avenge his evil Nazi father, and general take over the world shenanigans, he saw this change during his time on the ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}''. He had put this team together with the idea of faking being heroes to take over the world. Yet when most of his team mates genuinely liked becoming heroes, he changed his motives. While not reforming in standards to be a true hero, he found a lot of his ideas as a "take over the world" plan could instead be a "save the world plan".
** Problem of course with this being he's not nice enough to be a "hero" per se even though at times he has clearly chosen to do the right thing. But in the ultimate showdown, when he had the power to actually go about changing the world his teammates turned on him over not trusting him to actually do what he was saying he meant. His could have been last words interestingly were more of "I wouldn't hurt the world" instead of a "screw you" had he really just meant to go all bad again.
** Despite this CharacterDevelopment when the decision came to make him more straight villain than he had been they went about it in a standout way. He leaked ComicBook/BuckyBarnes' identity to the press and essentially ruined his life...because he had genuine moral outrage over the fact that a former Soviet assassin was being allowed to wear the ComicBook/CaptainAmerica costume. Especially after everything he had done since the Thunderbolts to his favor, yet Bucky was seemingly forgiven so much easier. Yes, you read that right, Zemo's back in the villain chair because he had a very bad reaction to a WhatTheHellHero moment.
** He's been ping-ponging back and forth on this. He later tried to use a virus created from an [[Comicbook/TheInhumans Inhuman]] boy to sterilize most of the humans around the world, sincerely reasoning that this would put an end to the problems caused by overpopulation and the planet's dwindling resources.
* Subverted in ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}''. The members of the Pride keep talking about building a better future for their children, but it turns out that [[spoiler: their plan is to help some ancient monsters wipe out all of humanity in exchange for granting their offspring eternal life. Plus, the original deal was that half of ''the Pride'' would get to live forever in paradise, so their motivations were purely selfish to begin with]]. Only one couple, the Yorkes, seem to genuinely think that they're doing the world as a whole a favor.
-->'''Stacy Yorkes:''' Before my dolt of a husband totaled our 4-D portico ''permanently,'' we visited ''thousands'' of possible futures, each worse than the last...The next generation deserves something ''new''...and that's exactly what we're going to give them.
* The Leader, EvilGenius ArchEnemy of the Comicbook/IncredibleHulk, is most often portrayed as this. He wants to conquer the world and solve all of its problems (in some cases, he doesn't even want to conquer the world, just set up his own utopia). Depending on the writer, he may or may not want to turn everyone in the world into a gamma monster like himself and the Hulk, as well.
* NewspaperComic ''ComicStrip/MinimumSecurity'' has Kranti, who thinks the best way to save the earth is to [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans eliminate 99% of humanity and return to a hunter-gatherer society]] (well, mostly gatherer since {{Talking Animal}}s exist). Anyone who wants to do anything less is considered weak and ineffective. Fortunately, Kranti herself is weak and ineffective, and probably crazy, now that she's decided to [[spoiler: murder the CEO of a power company to stop a nuclear power plant being built]].
** Kranti is the strip's ''protagonist'', not a CloudCuckooLander or {{Anti|Villain}}/IneffectualSympatheticVillain, and the only character who regularly encourages her is Bunnista, an [[KillerRabbit anarchist bunny rabbit who loves]] StuffBlowingUp. [[spoiler: Recently, her brother's boyfriend has joined her cause, as has a revolutionary guinea pig, although they're far more reasonable than Bunnista]]. Her creator shares this view, even though she knows she wouldn't survive whatever kills most of humanity, or live off the land afterward.
* Issue 20 of ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueGenerationLost'' shows us why Maxwell Lord is willing to do all the horrible things he does: he sincerely believes that if he doesn't take dictatorial control of the metahuman community, the inevitable result will be the sort of spandex genocide we saw at the end of ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''.
* In the ''[[Comicbook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog Sonic The Hedgehog]]'' comics, we have [[MadScientist Dr. Finitevus]], who views the world as corrupt and wants to "purify it with fire".
** [[spoiler: Geoffrey St. John]] was recently revealed as one as well. His FaceHeelTurn and subsequent aiding of [[EvilSorcerer Ixis Naugus]] in [[spoiler: becoming king]] is explained as him honestly believing that it's for the Republic of Acorn's own good. He's since seen what Naugus is capable of when Sonic and his friends can't actually stop him, and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone regrets what he's done.]] His attempt to appeal to Naugus's better judgement to make amends for what they've done [[GrandTheftMe didn't go so well.]]
** Dr. Ellidy in the post-reboot universe is a minor one. His daughter Nikki was dying of an incurable disease and Professor Charles the Hedgehog (that's Uncle Chuck) couldn't get the roboticizor working in time. Thus, he used his digitizer in a desperate attempt to preserve her mind, only for it to fail and end up with an emotionaless AI. On the plus side, that AI was given to a young Princess Sally, who would help lead to the AI's evolution into Nicole the Holo-Lynx.
* ''ComicBook/{{Foolkiller}}''. After all, who doesn't sympathize with a guy who kills fools? Just make sure you're not one. To give you an idea of how AxCrazy he is, when he fought Franchise/SpiderMan, the hero started to trounce him good, and an onlooker commented that the guy was a fool for thinking he could beat Spider-Man. Apparently, the Foolkiller thought the guy had a point, and tried to turn his weapon on himself. (though, fortunately for him, Spidey stopped him and he was hauled to an asylum.) The thing is, Foolkiller is not one person; ''several'' criminals have held the identity over the years, and each one has a different definition of what a "fool" is. It's ''very'' doubtful they'd all agree with each other if they were all in one place.
* The ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' villain Flag-Smasher thinks that the only way to end humanity's problems is to dissolve all governments and unite Earth in a OneWorldOrder. Unfortunately, he chose terrorism as the way to get his views accepted, doing things like destroying national symbols, assassinating world leaders (especially symbolic leaders, like monarchs) and naturally, fighting Captain America, the living symbol of America. During his first fight, Captain America tried to talk him into becoming a hero; let the world see how his world government views inspired him to acts of heroism, much like Cap's own views did for him. He didn't listen. Even worse, he leads a whole organization of lunatics with this belief named U.L.T.M.A.T.U.M.
** To be fair to Flag-Smasher, he is ''very'' devoted to his ideals; he once worked with Captain America to thwart ''his own scheme'' after he realised that he'd received subtle support and resources from the Red Skull, as Flag-Smasher felt that accepting aid from a national symbol like the Skull would have made him a hypocrite.
** The ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'' take on Nuke is basically the Ultimate Marvel Flag-Smasher. Essentially created as the ComicBook/CaptainAmerica for the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar, he eventually felt his country had betrayed him and the very values it claimed to stand for, walking off into the jungles and disappearing. When he resurfaced, he was trying to create SuperSerum to give a new army of super soldiers with which to tear down the irredeemably corrupt America that had arisen, and deliberately tried to break Captain America by confronting him with all of the atrocities that the USA has performed and the corrupt governors that have arisen, including UsefulNotes/RichardNixon and his illegal campaign of carpet bombing in Cambodia and Laos and the C.I.A.'s ousting of a democratically elected president of Chile to install the corrupt regime of Augusto Pinochet.
* In IDW [[ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW Transformers]], there are a band of aliens called the Reapers (not those [[Franchise/MassEffect Reapers]]), who all seek to end war in the universe by eliminating any violent races and destroying any thing worth fighting over.
** Megatron. "Peace through tyranny." The words he's written imply that he's fighting to bring down the corrupt Cybertronian regime that condones abuse of second-class citizens. He claimed that he would never remove his fusion cannon until he no longer had to fight. It's difficult to figure out if he actually believes his own words or just uses them as an excuse to fight and kill.
** Prowl has become one in recent storylines. [[spoiler: Destroying the incriminating dataslug that Ironfist sacrificed himself for in Last Stand of the Wreckers]] for instance is a great example of how far he's wiling to go to end the war. This is greatly expanded upon in the current ongoing.
* Amanda Waller, from ''Comicbook/SuicideSquad''. She's a tremendously shrewd politician and a MagnificentBitch in the dog-eat-dog world of DCU politics, who often has to battle her possessiveness and prejudice to do what really's right. Deep under the IronLady and the BlackBossLady, she's still human, even if she mutes her conscience on a daily basis.
* Headmaster Gentis from ''[[ComicBook/DarthVader Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison]]'' was motivated with the desire to stop the constant warmongering of the Galactic Empire under Palpatine's command after he witnessed several dead imperials being incinerated by the minute. His method of doing so was by orchestrating a MilitaryCoup against the Emperor with {{False Flag Operation}}s, one of which also involved releasing a poisonous gas that severely wounded Palpatine; it didn't kill him thanks to his use of the Dark Side of the Force.
* In ''ComicBook/HelOnEarth'', all H'el wants is to ressurect his home planet, Krypton. Unfortunately, Earth has to be destroyed for him to bring back Krypton.
* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel
** [[ComicBook/TheMaker Ultimate Reed Richards]] is willing to kill his own family to fake his death, attacks organizations that he feels are repressing science's potential for their own corrupt reasons, and tries to TakeOverTheWorld so that he can finally "fix things" the way he always knew he could. Afterwards, he creates a utopian civilization in another dimension, then brings it back and tries to ''wipe out humanity'' to replace it with this "better" version.
** ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'': Gregory Stark's big goal is to get current S.H.I.E.L.D. leadership out of the way so no one can intervene in his planned revolutions to overthrow the dictatorships in the Middle East and North Korea.
* ''ComicBook/{{Shakara}}'': Dr. Lara Procopio was convinced to design the [[SyntheticPlague Red Death virus]] to wipe out the Shakara only because of the merciless way that they had [[KnightTemplar imposed their own rigid sense of order on the rest of the universe]], and she thought it would be better off without them. She became TheAtoner when the alliance that originally opposed the Shakara proved to be far worse than them.
* Dark Annisia is introduced in ''ComicBook/RedSonja'': ''Queen of Plagues'' at the head of an army aggressively fighting a mysterious plague ravaging the land. They do so by slaughtering entire cities if anyone shows signs of infection to prevent it from spreading.
* In ''ComicBook/BlackMagick'', Aira is a [[TheWitchHunter witch hunting organization]] that executes witches on their own authority, but they acknowledge that magic is not inherently evil and explicitly only target ''[[BlackMagic black]]'' [[BlackMagic magic users]].
* ''ComicBook/LegendsOfTheDeadEarth'': In ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' Annual #20, the Old Gotham Warden Harvey Bent came to believe that it was not enough to banish criminals to the hell of Arkham but that they should be put to death. The Bat-Man refused to consider this as he believed that it would make them as bad as the criminals that they fought. Bent resigned as Warden in protest. In order to end the battle between good and evil raging inside of him, Bent tried to burn the evil out of himself. This only served to make things worse as the resulting disfigurement turned him into [[ComicBook/TwoFace Split-Face]], who resorted to bribery, perjury, evidence tampering and even murder to bring criminals to justice (or at least his idea of it).
* ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWIssue63 All in Moderation]]", Temperance just wanted to stop people from feeling as sick and unhappy as she did when she first had sugar, but her mission turned into a fanatical crusade to ban all sugar everywhere. She eventually comes to realize her warped standards of healthy living are causing people to be both unhappy ''and'' unhealthy.

* ComicBook/RasAlGhul's intention in the ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' comics (and ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'') was to stop mankind's destruction of the environment. This could be accomplished by wiping out roughly 2 billion people. In the movie ''Film/BatmanBegins'', he attempts to make Gotham an example of crime and decadence in order for the world to see its horror.

* In the ''[[Comicbook/UltimateFantasticFour Ultimate Enemy]]'' trilogy, [[spoiler:Ultimate Reed Richards is willing to kill his own family to fake his death, attacks organizations that he feels are repressing science's potential for their own corrupt reasons, and tries to TakeOverTheWorld so that he can finally "fix things" the way he always knew he could. Afterwards, he creates a utopian civilization in another dimension, then brings it back and tries to ''wipe out humanity'' to replace it with this "better" version]].

** In the ''[[ComicBook/BatmanVampire Batman: Red Rain]]'' sequels, Batman does exactly this. He drains Joker of blood and stakes him to prevent him from coming back as a vampire. He then has Alfred stake him to keep himself from coming back. It doesn't work, though, and he comes back, decapitating and draining the blood from many of his old enemies.

** Problem of course with this being he's not nice enough to be a "hero" per se even though at times he has clearly chosen to do the right thing. But in the ultimate showdown, when he had the power to actually go about changing the world his team mate turned on him over not trusting him to actually do what he was saying he meant. His could have been last words interestingly were more of "I wouldn't hurt the world" instead of a "screw you" had he have really just meant to go all bad again.

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}''. The members of the Pride keep talking about building a better future for their children, but it turns out that [[spoiler: their plan is to help some ancient monsters wipe out all of humanity in exchange for granting their offspring eternal life. Plus, the original deal was that half of ''the Pride'' would get to live forever in paradise, so their motivations were purely selfish to begin with.]] Only one couple, the Yorkes, seem to genuinely think that they're doing the world as a whole a favor.

** The ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'' take on Nuke is this. Essentially created as the ComicBook/CaptainAmerica for the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar, he eventually felt his country had betrayed him and the very values it claimed to stand for, walking off into the jungles and disappearing. When he resurfaced, he was trying to create SuperSerum to give a new army of super soldiers with which to tear down the irredeemably corrupt America that had arisen, and deliberately tried to break Captain America by confronting him with all of the atrocities that the USA has performed and the corrupt governors that have arisen, including UsefulNotes/RichardNixon and his illegal campaign of carpet bombing in Cambodia and Laos and the C.I.A.'s ousting of a democratically elected president of Chile to install the corrupt regime of Augusto Pinochet.

** Problem of course with this being he's not nice enough to be a "hero" per say even though at times he has clearly chosen to do the right thing. But in the ultimate showdown, when he had the power to actually go about changing the world his team mate turned on him over not trusting him to actually do what he was saying he meant. His could have been last words interestingly were more of "I wouldn't hurt the world" instead of a "screw you" had he have really just meant to go all bad again.

** In the ''ComicBook/Supergirl2005'' story arc "Way of the World", villain Aftermath wants to turn the public against super-humans because he thinks good people always gets screwed when they fight. So he kidnaps a couple to blackmail their daughter into putting a mind-control hex on ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, intending to mind-control Supergirl into causing mayhem until everybody hates her.

* ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'':

** In the ''ComicBook/Supergirl2005'' story arc ''Way of the World'', villain Aftermath wants to turn the public against super-humans because he thinks good people always gets screwed when they fight. So he kidnaps a couple to blackmail their daughter into putting a mind-control hex on ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, intending to mind-control Supergirl into causing mayhem until everybody hates her.

** In ''ComicBook/Supergirl2005'' story arc ''Way of the World'', villain Aftermath wants to turn the public against super-humans because he thinks good people always gets screwed when they fight. So he kidnaps a couple to blackmail their daughter into putting a mind-control hex on ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, intending to mind-control Supergirl into causing mayhem until everybody hates her.

** In ''Comicbook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' Atrocitus - leader of the Red Lantern Corps - is determined to avenge injustice... by killing whoever he finds guilty.

** After Hal Jordan's home town was destroyed, he was driven insane and became the supervillain known as Parallax. His goal was the [[OmnicidalManiac destruction of the universe-]] to [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans rebuild it and make it better,]] and in particular to save all the people that had been killed. It was noted several times by other characters that Hal believed he was acting for the right reasons, but had simply lost his way. Eventually, he would regain enough of his former morality and nobility to sacrifice himself to save the world and redeem himself, and it was later retconned that he had been [[DemonicPossession possessed]] the entire time.

* ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'': A very {{spoiler}}ish example, but: [[spoiler:Ozymandias? Possibly the most successful Well Intentioned Extremist in fiction. He kills three million people to achieve world peace...and, as far as the reader can tell, ''it works,'' though the last panel opens up the possibility that it may have all been for nothing.]]

** In ''Comicbook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' Atrocitus -leader of the Red Lantern Corps- is determined to avenge injustice... by killing whoever he finds guilty.

* In ComicBook/AvengersAcademy, Jeremy Briggs unveils "Clean Slate," a formula that will take away superpowers which at first seems great as it allows Mettle and Hazmat to be human again. However, Briggs reveals he plans to fire off missiles to spread Clean Slate around the globe and take away ''everyone's'' superpowers. He says this will stop the massive battles and destruction of cities and he'll give powers back to those he thinks are worthy. Of course, the fact that Briggs is a sociopath and his view of "worthy" is warped to say the least, the team realize they have to stop him, no matter how right he claims to be.

** Dr. Bolivar Trask, the renowned anthropologist, became an early X-Men villain when he publicly voiced his fears that superhuman mutants might take over the world and enslave humanity. [[BewareTheSuperman Considering]] what mutant supervillains have been up to before and since in the Marvelverse, [[NoMereWindmill it's not quite fair]] to say that he was [[StrawmanHasAPoint entirely wrong]]. Nevertheless, his proposed solution -- To launch an army of [[HumongousMecha Sentinel robots]] to contain and neutralize the mutants -- qualifies him for this list.

** Wolverine also qualifies as this. While he does tend to have good intentions he tends to use murder, mauling, and more murder to achieve them. He once stabbed Rachel in the heart and lungs to keep her from killing Selene. Keep in mind that Selene is a millennia old unrepentant murderer and an energy vampire, who then went on to immediately kill more people right afterwards! Wolverine also set explosives on an island that not only contained the entirety of the mutant race at the time, but also incapacitated people in the infirmary and multiple prisoners. He did this in order to try and blow up a killer robot, but still, what would have happened if everyone hadn't been evacuated on time?

* Headmaster Gentis from ''[[ComicBook/DarthVader Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison]]'' was motivated with the desire to stop the constant warmongering of the Galactic Empire under Palpatine's command after he witnessed several dead imperials being incinerated by the minute. His method of doing so was by orchestrating a MilitaryCoup against the Emperor with FalseFlagOperations, one of which also involved releasing a poisonous gas that severely wounded Palpatine; it didn't kill him thanks to his use of the Dark Side of the Force.

* Mr. Freeze might be well known for his cold and calculating demeanor, killing all who get in the way of his goal. But after you read his backstory you can feel sympathy for him, which makes him fall under a Tragic Villain role. Mr. Freeze started villainy after his wife contracted a fatal disease called MacGregor's Syndrome (Compared to Lung Cancer by Film Theorist Matpat). To buy more time to save his Wife, Dr. Victor Fries (Mr. Freeze's Previous Persona) froze his wife. However, after a falling out with an executive of the company he worked at caused a freak accident where Dr. Fries would be forced to take up the name of Mr. Freeze and pursue the path of villainy if he had any hope of saving his wife. His backstory is in stark contrast to other villains in Batman's Rouges Gallery.

* Issue 20 of [[ComicBook/BrightestDay Justice League Generation Lost]] shows us why Maxwell Lord is willing to do all the horrible things he does: he sincerely believes that if he doesn't take dictatorial control of the metahuman community, the inevitable result will be the sort of spandex genocide we saw at the end of ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''.