10 Shockingly Dark Origins Of Comic Villains

Villains rarely need a reason to turn to evil other than simple greed. They want something, they don’t want to work for it, so they take it. In the world of superheroes, it sometimes involves the extra step of creating, discovering, or acquiring powers or weapons and a colorful costume to conceal their identity.

For some people, however, their lives are visited by such extreme hardships and such harrowing circumstances, it is little wonder that they want to make someone pay for what happened to them. Especially if they don’t have a specific person to direct their vengeance on. If they can’t rise above what happened to them, that person may see no choice but to direct all their hurt, anger, and rage out onto the world.

It is often said that villains are the heroes of their own stories. Some of these villains are beyond the concepts of human morality and are more akin to forces of nature, but it is their actions and their choices that brand all of the villains, no matter their origins. In even the darkest night, there is light and there is always a choice to be made. Though they would justify them in some noble way in light of the terrible things that have happened to them, these villains chose to break bad. And those choices not only define them, but scar any sympathy people might have for the circumstances of their lives.

Dex-Starr was a blue but otherwise ordinary house cat named Dexter. His owner was a single woman and he loved her as much as she loved him. Someone broke into their home one day and, despite the loyal cat attacking the intruder with both teeth and claws, he was unable to prevent the brutal murder of his owner.

When the police arrived, Dexter was chased from his home because they didn’t want him destroying any evidence. The sad cat found a place near a dumpster to sleep but a couple of punks tied the animal in a sack and threw him into the river. Rage filled the tiny cat’s heart as the bag sank, and that rage was felt across the cosmos by Atrocitus, who offered to induct the Dexter into the Red Lanterns as “Dex-Starr” - an offer which the enraged feline agreed to.

Empowered, Dex-Starr makes the two men pay for trying to drown him. He then flew to his former home and cuddled next to the corpse of his deceased owner. The angry cat told her that he was a good kitty and he would find who did this to her and kill them. From there, he eventually joined his new owner Atrocitus as one of the most brutal and ruthless members of the Red Lantern Corps.