Jhonen Vasquez seems to have an accidental habit of making these. His first creation Johnny C has an insane amount of fangirls who claim that he's just misunderstood and lonely. It's true: most of Nny's prominent victims are assholes, the world is decidedly Crapsack, and he does get a few Pet the Dog moments (notably with Squee). Yet this overlooks that Johnny is schizophrenic, psychotic, sociopathic, and Ax-Crazy; that he killed an entire restaurant full of people because someone said he "looked wacky"; he has entire torture chambers in his Torture Cellar that contain who-knows-how-many people; he tried to murder the one girl who really liked him and drove her to become a recluse and hide in her apartment almost 24/7 out of paranoia; and he has killed numerous people for various insane reasons.
To get into even weirder territory, one-shot character Jimmy has a surprising number of fans who adore him (and some pair him up with Nny). They ignore that Jimmy killed people to imitate Johnny's "murderous style" and to get his attention. Not only that, but he was the person who brutally raped and killed a cheerleader, which crime Johnny was accused of in an earlier issue. And there's also Johnny's distaste for Jimmy and what he's done:
"You fucking idiot!! Admire me?!! You shit!!! I'm the villain in this fucking story!"
Ragamuffin gets this treatment from fangirls who claim that he's so cute when he's a rag doll and that he is hot when he's in his human-vampire form. The first animated episode in which he appears features him eating a girl alive. Probably the Heel–Face Turn he does for Lenore convinced the fans to consider him one of the most likeable characters in the comics.
Imagine you have a teddy bear or a cute plushie that you carry around all day. Now, what if that plushie has a life on its own, and it's a mysterious young guy who protects you from bad things? What if that guy is a good-looking vampire? For some, this may be terrifying; for others, this is pure fetish fuel.
Miracleman: Lampshaded with the "Bateses", a subculture that identifies itself with the supervillain Kid Miracleman/Johnny Bates. This idolization occurs after Bates personally murders most of London and the surrounding countryside in grotesque and grisly fashion. We're talking grade-A horrific here, easily. This is likely a parody of real-life skinheads and Neo-Nazis, who became popular in Britain and greater Europe a generation or so after WWII.
Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Since Anti-Sonic became Scourge, he's been getting plenty of this. Fans are now hitching onto the shades and leather jacket and saying all he needs is a bit of love, despite the comic not even trying to hide the fact that he's a remorseless womaniser who once tried to beat an unconscious old echidna to death with a rock. He'll take your lovin', and that of every other girl in the line. And he's got even less chance of changing than Shadow, thanks to having arrogance that is cranked up.
This trope is very apparent with Sonic the Comic fans. Super Sonic is the most popular character outside of the more hardcore fandom, despite it repeatedly being shown he's a sadistic, sociopathic, and arrogant Omnicidal Maniac. Admittedly the comic shows he's not so bad when he loses his memory or stops using his powers - in fact he's a bit of a loser. But it seems that his default action upon using his powers in any way is to try and destroy the planet with them.
The Walking Dead: Second long-running main villain Negan is arguably the comic's most loved character mostly driven simply by his charisma and intelligence. It doesn't take long on a website dedicated to the comics side of the franchise to spot numerous fans of Negan, even if the character's introduction already sees him brutally murdering fan-favorite Glenn, a character that has been with the readers since the very beginning of the series.
