10 Comic Villains With The Best Motivations

5. Loki

Loki Mighty Thor
Marvel Comics/Russell Dauterman

There are few characters in Marvel's library that are as Shakespearean as Loki Laufeyson, and though he was treated somewhat one-dimensionally before Tom Hiddleston burst onto the scene in 2011's Thor, there's no denying his motivations have always been compelling.

Since the beginning, Loki has struggled with the nature of being the God of Mischief, versus the nurture of being raised on Asgard. He is the son of both Laufey, the King of the Frost Giants, and of Odin, his adoptive father. He's being pulled towards one destiny whilst wrestling with his own identity, and for someone who believes he's the rightful heir to Asgard, that's a lot to deal with.

It is this conflicting personality that has more recently seen Loki act as an anti-villain of sorts, operating on both the side of good evil, but no matter how hard he tries he always seems to get pulled towards the wrong side of the divide, whether out of jealousy for Thor, his ties to Laufey, or even his very title.

Yes he holds a soft spot for his mother, and even his brother on occasion, but there's a tragic sense of inevitability surrounding the character, one that's been explored to immense success in Kieron Gillen's Journey into Mystery, as well as Jason Aaron's stint on The Mighty Thor.

Advertisement
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.