10 Times Supervillains Quit
Tired of scheming, plotting, killing, and kidnapping? Take a hot five. You deserve it.
The way things are going these days, we could all do with a bit of a break. The world is a crazy place, and it's only getting crazier. Sometimes it feels inescapable: with the rise of the internet and social media, it can feel like there's never any excuse to stop working, socialising, or keeping up with current events. Like someone looking for the worst Bond movies in a DVD store, it's hard to find even a quantum of solace these days.
Spare a thought then, for the supervillains of the comic book world. With the planet in as much turmoil as it already is, what are they expected to do? It's not like they can contribute any more madness. It's extremely hard to be your chaotic self when the global community is already dealing with an over-saturation of excess chaos. You can't help but feel sorry for these guys and gals: if we, the people, don't need any help feeling miserable, we've basically taken each villain's entire raison d'être away from them.
All I'm saying is, if we were megalomaniacal madmen with dreams of world domination, we'd be feeling pretty darn worthless right now. In fact, we'd probably just give up, and quit the whole 'bad guy' shtick altogether.
And that's exactly what these ten supervillains did.
10. Doctor Octopus Settles Down - Spider-Man: Life Story
Spider-Man: Life Story is a decades-spanning epic with an excellent premise: what if Spider-Man, along with everyone else in the Marvel Universe, aged in real time? The fact that Peter Parker began his crime-fighting career in 1962 but remains in his mid-twenties in 2020 is efficient for maintaining a certain status quo, but ignores a plethora of intriguing storylines that come with a superhero growing older.
One idea that Life Story really focused in on was the fact that, as the world changes around them, people change too. It's not just a case of giving each character grey hair and wrinkles: writer Chip Zdarsky ensures that everyone gets a complete character arc, showing how they are affected by the ups and downs of everyday life.
Inspired by an actual storyline in which Doctor Octopus tried to marry Peter's Aunt May, Zdarsky decided to give Otto Octavius a brief period of retribution in his life. After suffering a heart attack in the seventies, Doc Ock realises that there's more to life than using his big metal tentacles to rob banks and fight Spider-Man. He is reformed into a respectable citizen, taking up a job in Reed Richards' laboratory and settling down with his newfound love, May Parker. For a while, Peter and his 'Uncle' Otto even work alongside each other as lab partners!
Sadly, this doesn't last forever. The death of Aunt May has a profound effect on Otto, and by 2019 he's back to his villainous, octopus-themed ways.