5 Marvel Villains Who Made Fans Question Who the Real Heroes Are, and the MCU Has Never Dared to Go There

Marvel Comics set itself apart from their distinguished competition in 1961, making their heroes more human. This would also become something they did with their villains as well. Marvel villains were some of the most complex out there; sure, there were purely evil bad guys like Red Skull, but there were also some who had more going on under the hood. Creators found these facets and expanded on them, leading to many of them getting more and more popular. This popularity saw them grab more of the spotlight, with some of them even finding redemption, at least to an extent, fighting against the kind of evil that they would have perpetrated.

Redeeming villains isn’t all that weird in fiction, but Marvel always takes things a step further. Many times, these redeemed villains end up proving that they are just as good as the people they used to fight. This made them even more complex and made readers question whether they were pure evil or could have been on the same level as the heroes they fight. These five Marvel villains’ redemptions made fans question who the real hero was, and the MCU will never explore these facets of villains.

5) Moonstone

The Thunderbolts made a huge splash, a “new” group of heroes with a terrible secret. They were the Masters of Evil in disguise, with Baron Zemo acting as their leader Citizen V, with Moonstone acting as his second in command Meteorite. Before, Karla Sofen was a manipulative, evil woman who constantly lied and cheated her way through life. However, as Meteorite, she found that she liked being a hero. She liked helping people and she liked the fact that people actually respected her, instead of constantly treating her like she was scum. Moonstone ended up being one of the chief movers against Zemo on the team, eventually leading them in battle against him. She’d become second in command again when Hawkeye joined the team at the returned Avengers’ behest. She completely left behind her past as a villain, which was why when she returned to her old characterization in the mid ’00s, fans were puzzled. Moonstone had changed, leaving behind her past and becoming a true hero, and it was a shame that she was regressed.

4) Sabretooth

Sabretooth might not seem like he belongs here, because most of the time any of his “redemptions” have proven to be short-lived tricks, allowing him to get close to his enemies and tear them apart. However, fans started to question Sabretooth’s evil when he was shown as a hero in “Age of Apocalypse”. In this universe, he ended up joining the X-Men after years of working with Apocalypse, becoming a hero who was more like Wolverine than the monster we were used to. There was a good person somewhere in Victor Creed and we’d often get glimpses into him that showed that he wasn’t a complete monster. One of the better examples of this came after AXIS, when Sabretooth had his morality inverted. He ended up joining the Avengers and the X-Men, fighting against the worst threats and earning the trust of those around him. He unleashed the good person inside of himself; it wouldn’t last, but it was a different view of the villain. Deep down, there is a good person who wants to help people inside of Victor and it’s led readers to often question exactly who he is on the inside, under the years of abuse and monstrous actions.

3) Norman Osborn

Norman Osborn recently had a stint as Spider-Man, showing that there was always more to the Green Goblin than just the insanity. Readers would get the first glimpse of this in the days after Civil War. He was put in charge of the Thunderbolts, riding herd on the villains. While he was still pretty brutal, he was definitely devoted to the work of saving the world. This would be proved again in “Dark Reign”; he was put in charge of the Superhero Initiative and SHIELD, becoming the “top cop” of the world. While he did play his normal villain games, he was still working hard to do the right thing for the majority of people, at least in his own way. Recent years have seen his evil eaten by the Sin-Eater and he’s become one of Peter Parker’s most stalwart allies. Norman has been changed fundamentally as a character, to the extent that it’s surprising just how heroic he always could have been. For years, we thought Norman was just a greedy monster, but there was always someone good under it all.

2) Apocalypse

Apocalypse has long been thought of as the Thanos of the X-Men side of Marvel, an all-powerful force of evil. However, much like Thanos, there would be facets added to the character. This was revealed in the Krakoa Era; we learned that he had once been a leader of the mutant society on Okkara, the living mutant supercontinent that would eventually be sundered into Krakoa and Arakko, with his wife Genesis. She made his Darwinist beliefs even more extreme and when the hordes of Amenth attacked the mutants and broke Okkara, she made him promise that he would created the strongest army ever in order to battle the demons if they ever returned. Basically, all these years of Apocalypse fighting the X-Men have been because he was trying to make sure that they were strong enough to survive the Amenth if they attacked. On Krakoa, he basically became everyone’s mutant grandfather; he was hard on people, but he was all about making them stronger, better mutants. This retcon cast his entire existence into doubt; he was altruistic the whole time and it makes a lot of his old methods seem asinine. He could have told everyone the truth and may have been able to ally with the X-Men, helping make mutants into the force they should have been.

1) Doctor Doom

Doctor Doom is Marvel’s most storied villain and is about to get his biggest spotlight ever in Avengers: Doomsday. Doom started out as a rather simple evil villain – bad guy monarch who hates Reed Richards with a passion – but creators have added more and more facets to him as the years have gone on. Instead of being the monstrous dictator, he was cast as a king who loved his people, providing everything they could want in exchange for complete loyalty and obedience. He wants the best for everyone, as long as they do everything they say. He’s saved the universe several times, all in an effort to prove to everyone that he is the best. He’s even taken up the mantle of Iron Man, showing that he could be a hero like the people he usually fought. It has often been said that if Doom wasn’t obsessed with himself, he would become the greatest hero on the planet. Look at One World Under Doom; he created what amounts to the perfect society for the world and defended the Earth rather well as Sorcerer Supreme. Sure, he fueled his power with the life force of Latverians, because he was still evil, but it’s actions like these that make fans question just how truly evil Doom is. Add in his sweet relationship with Valeria Richards and Marvel has expertly muddied the waters of Victor Von Doom, making him an amazing character.

What Marvel villain’s actions make you question their evil? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!