DC Comics has introduced its fans to some of the greatest villains in pop culture. Antagonists like Lex Luthor and the Joker are very popular, and they are the tip of the spear when it comes to the amazing villains of the DC Multiverse. One of the most interesting parts about supervillains are their motives. Sometimes, those motives are rather simple. Many villains just want to be rich, and they’ll do whatever they have to do to make sure that becomes a reality. Others want to take over the world, for a variety of reasons. However, we’ve also been introduced to numerous villains over the decades whose motives are anything but simple.
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In fact, there are some villains whose motives are actually correct. Their actions are evil, and should be fought against, yet they make good points. These are some of the most interesting villains out there, and DC has many villains who fit this description. These seven DC villains were right, they just went about it the wrong way.
7) Alexander Luthor
Infinite Crisis was a blockbuster event, built meticulously over a span of years. It was revealed that all of the terrible things that had happened to the heroes were the work of Alexander Luthor, the son of Earth-Three’s Lex Luthor. He had survived Crisis on Infinite Earths, and watched the darkening of the Earth that he had helped save, desiring to create the perfect Earth. Luthor wasn’t wrong about the problems with the world. It had become more dark and brutal since the end of the old multiverse. The problem was that he decided on his own to take action instead of going to the heroes and work with them, like he did in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
6) Black Adam
Black Adam was the first servant of the Wizard Shazam, using the powers of the gods to protect the weak. Right from the beginning, Adam was no hero; he killed his young cousin so that he could have all the power for himself and brutally slaughtered thousands of over the years, even creating his own kingdom. He returned in the modern era (there are several different versions of that particular story which we don’t really need to get into). Eventually, he decided that he wanted to be more heroic again, after years of being a villain and battling Shazam/The Captain. Black Adam’s whole MO is that he kills bad guys because killing bad guys saves the lives of those they would kill. He’s correct. If you kill someone who is known for mass murder, they won’t mass murder anymore. It’s not morally right, but it is right.
5) Deathstroke
Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths is an underrated event, and it had two different villains, both of whom were right. The first we’re going to look at is Deathstroke. He led Pariah’s Dark Army on Earth, meant to defeat the heroes defending the world so that Pariah could use the Justice League’s energies to power his devices and remake the old multiverse. Deathstroke, however, wanted to destroy everything. He wasn’t right about that, but he was right about himself. See, he wanted to destroy existence because he was a terrible father who destroyed his family. This is completely correct. Slade Wilson is a monster; he’s ruined the lives of every member of his family, his best friend Wintergreen, Terra, and nearly every person who has gotten close to him. Obviously, this isn’t a reason to want to destroy everything, but Deathstroke is an arrogant fool, who thinks he’s better than everyone.
4) Pariah
Pariah was cursed to follow the Anti-Monitor’s trail of destruction in Crisis on Infinite Earths. He helped the heroes battle the multiversal destroyer, but the loss of his Earth and seeing countless deaths drove him mad. He’d hang around for a while in the new singular universe before disappearing and being killed by Alexander Luthor’s Society. At some point, he was resurrected, and his madness took him over. He decided to rebuild the old multiverse, which isn’t a bad thing. However, he teamed with the Great Darkness, the personification of entropy, and wanted to use the power of the Justice League to remake everything. He took control of villains and used them as his army. Much like Alexander Luthor before him, Pariah was right about what he wanted to do, he just went about it in the worst way imaginable.
3) Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor hates Superman with a passion. This stems from his arrogance, and his need to be loved more than anyone. However, when you look at what he says his motives are, you can’t argue too much with them. Luthor likes to point out that having Superman around makes the people of Metropolis and the Earth complacent; that since the Man of Steel can save anyone and beat anything, people won’t use their minds and will become less creative as time goes on. This is the same argument against something like AI art, and it’s not exactly wrong. Skills atrophy when they aren’t used, something we’ve witnessed over the history of humanity. Now, Lex’s motives are as much about aggrandizing himself as making sure humanity does better in the universe, but his stated motives are honestly pretty correct.
2) Poison Ivy
Poison Ivy has had an interesting few years. She’s become something of an anti-hero, working with Harley Quinn and the Gotham City Sirens. However, this hasn’t changed her main motivation. She believes that humanity is destructive to the Earth, and will spell the end of plant life as we know it. This is correct. Human beings don’t care about plants, or the good of the planet, if it means making their lives more difficult. Humans have been destroying the lungs of the world for years now, all so we can have more grazing room for cows, wood, and places for humans to live. Poison Ivy is completely right about humans, she’s just wrong about killing people all the time.
1) Ra’s al Ghul
Ra’s al Ghul has been around for centuries, gaining more and more power. The Demon’s Head’s motives are similar to Poison Ivy’s. He believes that humanity will destroy the natural world, and wants to make sure that doesn’t happen. Of course, the way he’s tried to stop that destruction is by committing genocide on a massive scale. Like Ivy, he’s also right. Humans have proven that they will destroy everything in name of progress and greed. He wants to save the Earth, he just wants to do it by destroying the vast majority of the human race.
Which DC villains do you think are right? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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