10 Comic Book Supervillains Who Should Actually Be Heroes

Are these villains really that bad? ... yeah, kinda.

By John Kerr /

We've all heard the adage that every villain is the hero of their own story. But what does this mean?

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Well, everyone thinks that they're on the right side of history. And, sometimes, assurance of our own righteousness can lead us down a dark path. That's definitely what happens for most comic book villains.

Sure, sometimes comic villains can be a bit mustache-twirly. The Joker's only real motivation is to sew chaos and create destruction in the world. But, other baddies are a little more complicated than Joker. They have legitimate reasons for the horrible acts they commit.

While many of these wrongdoers may act out in violent and extreme ways, we might agree with their reasons. Some bad guys only want to bring peace to the world. Others only want to save their people from the hate of society.

These are some supervillains who actually might be heroes, if not for a few (or maybe a lot of) bad decisions.

10. Amanda Waller

We all know Amanda Waller as a heartless bureaucrat with a dark and paranoid worldview. She's willing to send people to their death without a second thought because she sees her soldiers as expendable. She's even teamed up with the likes of Lex Luthor in pursuit of her own political power.

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But, take a look at Waller's backstory, and you'll discover a powerful motivation behind all her actions. Waller was raised by her grandmother but was kicked out at the age of fourteen. She was later married and had two children. However, she resided in a dangerous Chicago Project, and Waller saw her entire family die at criminals' hands.

Waller later, or perhaps in a different timeline, joined the Army. On a special ops mission, her entire team was killed. This is where she began developing the idea for the Suicide Squad. Waller wanted a special ops squadron of entirely expendable people. Who better to send on dangerous missions than a bunch of hardened supercriminals?

Sometime after the death of her children, Waller pursued a degree in political science. She pulled herself out of a life of abject poverty and personal trauma to become a smart and powerful force in Washington, DC. Waller then used her power to end the cycle of violence that plagued her youth.

So, she's basically the female version of Batman when you really stop to think about it. Except she didn't have the benefit of billions of dollars at her disposal.

So... better than Batman??

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