Marvel didn’t create the superhero or supervillain, but they helped perfect the concepts. The publisher’s heroes and villains were unlike anything that readers were getting at the time, and they found new ways to use these concepts that spoke to readers. One of the best examples of this was the villain redemption story. Honestly, they may have been the first to present this kind of story — Golden Age Namor wanted to destroy the surface world, and then sided with the heroes he fought to take on the Nazis. Over the decades, they presented the best villain redemption stories ever, taking villains, redeeming them, and often making them into A-list heroes.
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Marvel was able to make many of their villains so popular and beloved that fans wanted to see them redeemed, which is no easy task. There are many villains in the Marvel Universe whose redemption stories are some of the greatest of all time, and the best part is that they still have a lot of villains who could be redeemed. These seven Marvel villains could have excellent redemption stories, making them even more compelling.
7) The Leader
The Hulk’s villains don’t get enough credit. The Green Goliath is usually the villain, or at least antagonist, of his stories, so his rogues gallery doesn’t get much attention. This honestly would make several of them perfect for redemption, with the Leader topping that list. Samuel Sterns’ powers made him evil, but before that he was just a simple janitor. Gamma radiation gave him great power but ruined his morality, and he’s spent years trying to destroy the Hulk and take over the world. However, he’s a smart guy; he should see by now that his plans never work, and that he would be better off as a more heroic character. Seeing him make peace with the Hulk and the world and becoming a force for good could be the kind of story that makes him more popular than ever.
6) Helmut Zemo
Baron Heinrich Zemo was a Nazi who battled Captain America back during the war. He survived as a member of Hydra and had a son Helmut. After Heinrich’s death, Helmut took up the mantle of Baron Zemo. He’s battled Captain America, the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, and the Avengers many times over the years. Helmut getting a redemption story would come out of left field; no reader would ever expect it. Maybe we learn that his father used science to brainwash his son or something of that nature. Maybe someone uses a Cosmic Cube to change his mind or history. There are all kinds of ways it can happen, and any of them would be so shocking that fans couldn’t look away.
5) Batroc the Leaper
Batroc the Leaper is such a fun character, and deserves a redemption. He’s one of the few Captain America villains who isn’t a member of a racist organization; he’s just a mercenary. It would be simple for creators to pull a Taskmaster with him, having him become a merc who works against the villains instead of working with them. The master of savate, the French kick-boxing martial art, has always been way cooler than he gets credit for, with an amazing costume to boot. He would make such an awesome member of the Avengers or the Thunderbolts or basically any other non-mutant team, playing off the other characters very well.. Batroc wouldn’t be difficult to redeem and it would pay dividends.
4) Toad
The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are a powerful team, having battled the X-Men for years. A very interesting thing about the group is that a lot of members have been redeemed over the years, starting with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. In fact, nearly every major member of the team has been redeemed, so it’s about time that Toad got his chance. Toad was abused by Magneto for years, and has become something of a joke. However, Toad’s powers are pretty cool, and he has a lot to prove. The best way to prove that he isn’t just the butt of all of the jokes is to redeem him. Marvel has toyed with redeeming him a few times over the years, but it’s about time they went all the way.
3) Grim Reaper
The Avengers have battled terrifying villains, but few of them are as horrifying as the Grim Reaper. The brother of Wonder Man, Eric Williams was always a ne’er do well and eventually became a supervillain, using technology and necromancy to battle his brother and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The undead villain — much like his brother, Eric also comes back to life after every death through various means — deserves a chance to be a star and the best way to do so would be to redeem him. Maybe brotherly love will see him change his spots or maybe he’s just tired of dying. Regardless, the character has more potential as a redeemed villain than he does as a villain with the same MO over and over again.
2) Nimrod
So, this one would be very interesting. Nimrod is the ultimate Sentinel, created to be the perfect mutant killing machine. However, Nimrod is just a machine (although the recent Krakoa Era version did have his mind based on that of a dead human), and that means a redemption story is honestly pretty easy. Imagine a Nimrod unit that realizes that what it’s doing is monstrous and decides to battle against the other Sentinels and the bigots who created him. We’ve seen Sentinels that have become heroic before, so getting a redeemed Nimrod would be par for the course (bonus points if its the Krakoa Era Nimrod, returned to function somehow, because he at least had a personality).
1) The Hood
I’ve always thought Marvel in the ’00s was overrated, but that doesn’t change how many great characters and concepts came about in that decade. One of the best parts of the ’00s was the Hood. Parker Robbins found a magic cloak that allowed him teleport, starting out as a heroic character, and became a criminal. He eventually discovered the demonic origin of the cloak, and used its power and his own cunning to become the top superpowered crime boss in New York City. However, Parker was just a normal guy at one point; he could have become an anti-hero type, but instead turned to crime for self-aggrandizment. Seeing him getting a redemption story would be awesome, because he’s such a cool character to begin with. The Hood has always had a lot of potential, and being a hero would allow him to reach that potential
What Marvel villains do you think should get redemption stories? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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