I know I’m not the only one who can’t bear to seeBatman’s parents get murdered outside the theater or Peter Parker get bitten by a radioactive spider again. Yes, these heroes are great and their origin stories define who they are as heroes, but we’ve seen them dozens of times already. Thankfully we’ve hit a great point incomic book movieswhere we’re able to skip those events and get right into the good stuff when the hero is established and not waste time retreading old ground.
The same can’t be said about villains, however. Any villain that appears in a hero’s story is given a fraction of the time to establish themselves before ultimately getting beaten by the hero, which is a shame. Villains are often the more interesting characters in media, comic book or otherwise. They have a sense of swagger and delightful arrogance that makes them so fun to watch. What’s more interesting than seeing a normal person become a hero is watching a normal person dragged down into villainy. Theseamazing supervillainorigin stories finally give the spotlight to the bad guys.
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1Maleficent
Becoming the Mistress of All Evil
maleficent
It might be odd to call Maleficent a supervillain, but it makes sense when you think about it. She has magical powers, curses innocent girls, and can even transform into a dragon. Sounds like a proper supervillain to me. The Maleficent we know from Sleeping Beauty is just evil for the sake of being evil as far as we know, but this origin story gives her a lot more depth. It is a story of how a good person can fall to evil when betrayed by someone they love. I’m not saying her actions are justified, but this movie at least helps you understand how she ended up being the evil witch we know and love to hate.
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Not black and white
Sticking with the Disney villains, Cruella was a character most never expected to get any kind of origin for. After all, she was just a fashion mogul who had a strange obsession with Dalmatian fur, right? Well, that story turns out to be far more interesting than you would think. It takes a character who was already willing to cross a few lines morally and puts them in a world where they need to push the boundaries further until she loses track of who she even was to begin with. It also tries to justify why Dalmatians specifically are such a trigger for her, but that felt a bit forced and unnecessary.
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3X-Men: First Class
A class of ideologies
X-Men: First Class (2011)
The relationship between Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr (aka Professor X and Magneto) is one of the most complex in all of comic books. We only knew them as rivals who both sought the same goal—equal rights for mutants—but clashed when it came to the methods they would take to achieve it. First Class takes us back to when the two first met, teamed up, and eventually broke apart. Knowing Megneto’s past does wonders for justifying his thought process and why he takes such a more violent stance against humans. This film perfectly tracks his path from Xavier’s side to one in opposition, but still holds great respect for him. That’s not an easy feat.
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Falling into madness
Joker (2019)
One of the few supervillain origins that don’t include the hero at all, Joker is a psychological dive into the mind of a mentally ill man stuck in a system that constantly fails to help him get better. Despite Arthur’s mental condition, the way the world seems to conspire and work against this one man would push anyone to the brink of villainy. It transforms the typical portrayal of the Joker as a crazed lunatic who only likes to watch others suffer into a sympathetic man who was given no other choice than to turn to violence.
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5The Penguin
The rise of a criminal mastermind
The Penguin
While we can’t speak to the quality of the show itself yet since it isn’t out at the time of this writing, the premise is very promising. We got a small introduction to this character in The Batman, but it was the conclusion to that film that teased his true origins. Without spoiling anything, The Penguin will pick up with the titular character in a unique position to quickly become the most powerful villain in all of Gotham. Unlike a regular film, this series will give us plenty of time to see what extent this character is willing to go to take control of Gotham’s underworld.
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6Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith
No more Anakin
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Are there a ton of problems with the prequel trilogy? Yes. Does Revenge of the Sith hold up when you question several key events and motivations? No. But, the heart of the story is solid. Anakin has been told to push down and hold back his emotions, plus constantly belittled by the Jedi all his life. This finally comes to a head when he sees a vision of Padme dying and will do whatever it takes to try and save her; even go to the dark side. You have to cut through a lot of fluff, but I do believe this film succeeds in showing us why Anakin became Vader, even if the path there is a little muddled.
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