10 Comics Superheroes With The Best Motivations

"I can do this all day."

Captain America Alex Ross
Marvel Comics/Alex Ross

It's not difficult to create just any old superhero. It does, however, take something truly special to create one who feels genuine. Not just someone who 'exists', but one who lives and breathes, and does what they do for a compelling reason.

For as long as there've been supervillains with evil designs motivated by greed, revenge, or some fascist ideology, there've been heroes there to meet them. However, just as the evil-doers of the world are compelled to villainy for a myriad of reasons, so too are their biggest rivals. Whether it's because they feel a need to avenge their loved-ones, to live up to a given legacy or even for their own personal gain, superheroes rarely ever suit up for the same reason.

Naturally, a lot of these motivations happen to be more interesting than others. Also worth noting is just how much these motivations diverge between Marvel and DC, with the former's stories typified by flawed, but well-intentioned protagonists, and the latter more-so by classic heroes compelled to act out of a sense of duty.

It's not the case that it's one rule for one publisher and one for the other, but no character is the same and all have their own personal histories that've inspired them to do good. Here are those with the most compelling backstories of all.

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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.