5 DC Heroes Whose Parents Were Their First Villains

DC Comics has given readers some of the best origins ever. Characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have some of the most iconic beginning in faction, allowing them to become legends that everyone can find something to empathize with. However, they didn’t just give them perfect origins and call it a day with the rest of their characters. DC kept giving readers amazing origins, using various tropes from fiction to create heroes that would become legends. If you look at DC heroes, all of the best origins involve parents in some way. Sometimes, they’re dead, sometimes they’re the best people you can imagine, and sometimes they are the worst of the worst.

Many DC heroes have had bad parents, but some of them had to contend with parents who were basically their first arch-enemies. They were beyond just being “bad” parents; they were complete and total monsters. These heroes had to get through childhoods with parents who often wanted them dead, not caring about them in the slightest. These five DC heroes’ had parents who were their first enemies, hitting new lows of parenting.

5) Cassandra Cain

Cassandra Cain is the best Batgirl and a big reason for that are her horrible parents. She was the child of two of the best assassins in the world – David Cain and Lady Shiva. Cain decided to train her to be the best killer in the world. He didn’t teach her how to speak, instead having her master reading the body language of others. This allowed her to basically predict their actions, making her almost unbeatable, especially as Cain trained her in multiple martial arts and numerous weapons. Breaking away from Cain and going to Gotham City saw her finally learning how to speak, which led to her losing some of her body language skills but becoming better than ever. Cain was one of her main villains, with Lady Shiva acting as the other. Cass and Shiva had several fights, with the daughter actually bearing her mother in battle, which is something that Batman can’t do every time. Some DC heroes have one bad parent, but Cass takes the cake.

4) Orion

Orion is one of the most powerful forces in the DC Multiverse, which makes sense when you look at his parents. The Dog of War is the son of Darkseid, the God of Evil, and he was traded to Highfather, the leader of the New Gods of New Genesis, in exchange for Highfather’s son Scott, a peace deal meant to end the war between the worlds for a time. Orion was raised on the world of the gods, given love and care that he never would have gotten on Apokolips, even making friends with Lightray. He became New Genesis’s most savage soldier, tearing through his father’s army like a hot knife through butter, turning back the tide of invasion numerous times. It’s almost impossible to have a worse father than Darkseid, but when you think about it, Highfather wasn’t much better. He was willing to trade his son to Hell, take the son of the devil and train him to become a soldier, and then point him at his father, hoping the Dog of War fulfilled the prophecy of Darkseid’s death. Orion got the short end of the parental stick from both sides, both bio and adopted.

3) Red Hood

Jason Todd first appeared as Robin in the early ’80s, after Dick Grayson had become the full-time leader of the New Teen Titans. His pre-Crisis origin was basically the exact same as Dick’s – acrobat parents killed while working for the circus because the owner owed the mob money – but that would change with the death of the multiverse. Post-Crisis Jason Todd was abandoned by his parents, forced to fend for himself in Gotham City, leading to him trying to steal the tires off the Batmobile and putting him on the road to becoming the Boy Wonder. It would have been bad enough just to have abandoned him, but things got worse when his mother returned. She spun him a sob story and pulled him in, leading to him being ambushed by the Joker. He was beaten to death because his mother was willing to work for the Clown Prince of Crime. She was already a bad parent, but she decided that she wanted to be a mega-terrible one and followed through.

2) Ravager

I think there’s one thing that ever DC fan can agree on – that Deathstroke shouldn’t be allowed around kids. He was constantly trying to kill the New Teen Titans, the whole situation with Terra, and then, of course, there are his own children. Grant became the first Ravager, following in his father’s villainous footsteps, which led to his death. Joe had his throat cut by his dad’s enemies, losing the ability to speak, joining the Titans, and getting possessed by demons, leading to his father killing him and numerous resurrections. And then there’s Rose. She was the youngest, mostly growing up after her father left the family and she came to idolize him. He decided to use her as a weapon against the Teen Titans, and she cut out her eye to be more like him. He brutalized her to make her tougher, but the Teen Titans would be able to break his hold on her. She’d become her own person and join his enemies, spending the years since trying to make him pay for what he’s done.

1) Raven

The Teen Titans created amazing heroes, with the most powerful being Raven. Her magical powers have grown to amazing levels, beyond what her father Trigon ever could have wanted. Raven was meant to be his ace in the hole, a daughter that he could forge into a universe-conquering weapon. She escaped his hellish dimension looking for help and a chance at a new life, bringing together the New Teen Titans to protect her. Trigon is one of the most evil beings in the DC Multiverse. A powerful demon lord, he has his own hellish dimension and demonic army, and has proven to be one of the most formidable beings in any universe. In his mind, Raven isn’t really a person; she’s a battery. Her power is the only thing that he wants from her and he’ll do anything to get his hands on her again. There are bad parents and then there’s all-powerful demon lords who want to use as a weapon.

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