5 Most Sympathetic Villains in DC Comics

Villains are a key part of superhero comics. After all, the heroes need someone to go up against and stories are far more entertaining when there’s an established conflict and regular foe. However, while there are villains who are bad or evil simply for evil’s sake (or are at least portrayed that way,) there are also villains whose stories and rationale for their villainous deeds are understandable. That’s not to say villainy is ever excused — being the “bad guy” isn’t the answer — but some villains have stories that make you at least sympathize with their plight even if the hero does still need to intervene and stop them.

Here are five of the most sympathetic villains in DC comics. These villains do bad things, but their reasons and the road that led them to their bad guy (or girl) status are things that we can understand and perhaps even identify with. And, in the case of at least one villain, leaves hope for redemption.

5) Mr. Freeze

Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze might be the most sympathetic villain in all of DC Comics. Mr. Freeze as we best know him first appeared in Batman: The Animated series in 1992. A brilliant Gotham City scientist, while trying to cryogenically preserve his terminally ill wife, Nora, he suffers a terrible lab accident that transforms him and gives him his cold/ice related powers. He ends up turning to crime, using his powers to carry out his schemes, but it’s his reason for all of it that makes him sympathetic. Mr. Freeze is simply trying to continue to fund his research all in the name of trying to cure his beloved wife.

While Mr. Freeze’s criminal efforts bring him into conflict with Batman and his crimes do come with a significant amount of harm and property damage and aren’t something that a hero can just turn a blind eye to, Mr. Freeze isn’t simply a villain causing mayhem for mayhem’s sake or personal gain. He’s just a man who wants to save the woman he loves.

4) Deadshot

Over the course of his comics history (the character was first introduced in Batman #59 from 1950), the character has had various backstories and origins and, to be clear, as a mercenary and one of the deadliest assassins in DC, Floyd Lawton has done a lot of bad things, but it’s the modern version of the character who is a core member of the Suicide Squad that is perhaps the most sympathetic, at least in terms of the missions he gets put on for that team.

Floyd is surprisingly and tragic complex character. Floyd ended up sliding into villainy because of a terribly dysfunctional childhood, one where he grew up dealing with neglect, abuse, and constantly being in his older brother’s shadow. Eventually, when his mother tried to get Floyd and his brother to kill their father, a series of events transpired that ended up with his brother dead, his father paralyzed, and Floyed responsible for both, sending him down a path of darkness. Later, as part of the Suicide Squad, Lawton is among a group of supervillains that the government coerces into taking on and carrying out black ops missions. In exchange, they get reduced prison sentences. For Deadshot, doing these missions means getting support for his daughter, Zoe. Deadshot’s crimes may be awful and he may be doing some pretty nasty things for the government, but the fact that he’s motivated by his daughter is relatable.

3) Cheetah

Archaeologist Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva was once close friend of Wonder Woman, but that changed when she transformed into the Cheetah thanks to a curse (the specifics of which change depending on which origin you follow.) Even with the details of how the curse came to be shift depending on era, the result is the same. Dr. Minerva undergoes a terribly physical transformation, leaving her without her humanity and turned into something much more animalistic.

Because Wonder Woman was unable to save her friend from the curse, Dr. Minerva as Cheetah ends up her adversary, to an extent blaming Diana for her fate. The curse, the physical transformation, and that horrible feeling failed by her best friend all make Cheetah a relatable and sympathetic villain. It also makes her one of the most interesting characters in Wonder Woman’s mythos as, depending on the story, her friendship with Wonder Woman is written as not necessarily being ruined beyond repair. Cheetah is complicated and tragic and she’s become a fan favorite character for a reason.

2) Harley Quinn

Another villain with multiple origin stories that shift various details of her life before crime, Harley Quinn has one very consistent element in her history and it’s the manipulation and abuse she endures at the hands of the Joker. Even at her most villainous, Harley had been through a lot and while some of the things she did with and for the Joker might be unforgivable, Harley is a character who is consistently shown as trying to be a better person and, maybe, even become a hero.

It’s that constant effort to do better and be better that makes Harley a relatable and sympathetic character. She knows that she’s done awful things and she doesn’t try to avoid her responsibility for them or even act like they didn’t happen. Instead, Harley simply tries to shift her skills and hijinks to being better. She fails a lot, but she keeps trying and that’s something a lot of people can identify with.

1) Black Manta

Like just about every character in comics, Black Manta has had a myriad of origin stories, but most of them follow a similar thread. As a young boy, he ends up enduring terrible abuse be it from being kidnapped and enslaved by pirates or being subjected to horrific experiments at Arkham Asylum as an orphan. In the origin where he’s kidnapped by pirates, Black Manta sees Aquaman with his dolphins and tries desperately to get the hero’s attention and help. However, he is unable to do so, which turns into Black Manta having to take matters into his own hands, an act that leads him down the road of villainy — and permanently makes Aquaman his nemesis.

His bitterness over not being saved ultimately hardens into not only his criminal career, but his ongoing fight with Aquaman. While we can’t condone his behavior or his action, there’s something sympathetic about carrying long-held rage for the hero whose help you desperately needed but did not get.

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