DC Comics created the comic book supervillain as we know it, with bad guys like Lex Luthor, the Joker, the Ultra-Humanite, Per Degaton, Vandal Savage, Catwoman, and many more defining what it meant to be a villain in comics. Over the years, the publisher has taken their bad guys in various directions, with the best of them surviving the vagaries of the comic industry. When you have villains with decades of history, it eventually starts to get hard to do new things to them, which has led to the villainous redemption. Getting to see villains in a new light is always a lot of fun and seeing some as heroes has made them more popular than ever.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Sometimes, villainous redemptions work out for the best and the villains become more popular than ever. However, there are other times when redeeming the villain is a big mistake. Some villains just don’t work very well as heroes, while redeeming others can make them seem less evil when they shouldn’t. These five DC villains never should have been redeemed, with one of them derailing one of Green Lantern’s greatest foes.
5) Red Hood
Jason Todd has lost his way. The second Robin was first introduced as a wannabe Dick Grayson, down to having a similar origin, but that didn’t work to make him more popular. Post-Crisis DC would see Todd become the mouthy, violent Robin, which fans also didn’t like, leading to them voting for his death in “Death in the Family”. He’d return in the mid ’00s as the Red Hood, trying to take control of the Gotham underworld, get his revenge on the Joker, and figure out why Batman never avenged him. This time, fans actually liked him. The two tangled and Red Hood became a constant thorn in his side. After his “death” in Final Crisis, Jason would try to take the mantle of Batman, fail, and became a new kind of Red Hood, one that was more Batman-inspired, just with more killing.
However, Bruce’s return would see Jason finally give up evil completely. Since then, he’s basically become the Punisher of Gotham City, replacing Huntress as the overly violent Gotham vigilante. Todd is a fine anti-hero, but he was much better as a villain. He could have become a new Batman arch-enemy, but instead they made him a hero again. While his current turn in Teen Titans has potential, he would have been a much better villain.
4) Deadshot
Deadshot first appeared as a Batman gimmick villain in the ’50s. Back then, he was basically a riverboat-gambling dandy, known for his keen marksmanship and quick draw skill. He wasn’t at all popular, but would return in the ’70s. Gone was the suit and six-shooters; in their place, he became a high-tech killing machine, an assassin working for the highest bidder and battling Batman. He was a solid B-list villain, which would lead to him joining the roster of the Suicide Squad. Suicide Squad (Vol. 1) is basically flawless, partly because of him, but putting Deadshot on the team has become a problem.
While Floyd Lawson is still ostensibly a villain, he’s one of the ones who is mostly used in the books where villains act as heroes, like the Squad and the Secret Six. Deadshot is a cool sympathetic villain, but keeping him in the Squad/Six orbit has robbed numerous DC characters of a great villain. It would be one thing if he used the Squad as a springboard to become the new Deathstroke, but instead he just stays there and it’s getting to be disappointing.
3) Captain Cold
The Flash’s Rogues are some of DC’s greatest villains. They are one of the few supervillain teams where all the bad guys seem to like each other and actually work together. They’ve learned that teamwork makes the dream work, becoming some of the most successful villains out there. A huge reason for this is Len Snart, the villain known as Captain Cold. The master of absolute zero is a ruthless man, but he understands that there’s strength in numbers and that a person should surround themselves with people they can depend on. He’s forged the Rogues into the force they are today. He doesn’t get the credit that the Joker or Lex do, but he’s one of comics’ greatest villains.
Cold has become more and more popular as the years went by and this led to DC making a baffling decision in the mid ’10s. After Forever Evil, it was decided that several villains should join the Justice League and Captain Cold was one of them. It’s not so much that he was bad as a hero, it’s more that he didn’t really do anything. No one really knew what to do with him after he joined the team. Most fans couldn’t even tell you he was a member of the group, which proves that it was a waste of time.
2) Deathstroke
Deathstroke came to prominence alongside the New Teen Titans, quickly becoming their biggest villain. He was the mastermind behind “The Judas Contract”, which has gone down as one of the greatest DC stories ever. Fans loved Slade Wilson and wanted more of him, which led to him becoming one of the premiere anti-heroes of the ’80s. He got his own solo book and was honestly rather popular for a long time. However, the years in his own book did a lot of damage to his standing as a villain, mostly because he wasn’t really around fighting heroes. It wouldn’t be until the ’00s that he returned to prominence and since then, he’s went back and forth between being a villain and being an anti-hero.
However, when it come right down to it, Deathstroke should never have been redeemed. To begin with, there’s the whole thing with Terra. He manipulated a teenage girl, started a romantic relationship with her, and used her issues to control her. Wilson is a monster of the highest order and casting him as any kind of heroic person is kind of disgusting honestly. That was one of the best parts of the DC Rebirth Deathstroke series from Christopher Priest; the whole point of the book was that you weren’t supposed to look up to Deathstroke and that he’s inhuman.
1) Sinestro
Sinestro is Hal Jordan’s most storied villain and has become more popular than ever in recent years. Thaal Sinestro killed the Korugarian that should have gotten the Lantern ring and became the Green Lantern of Sector 1417. He would go on to become the “best” Green Lantern, his sector the most orderly in the universe. He ended up training Hal Jordan, the two of them becoming best friends. However, this was the seed to his downfall, as Jordan learned that his friend was a fascist who used fear to get his people in order. He was stripped of his ring and found his way to the anti-matter universe of Qward, where he forged the first yellow ring of fear.
Since then, Sinestro has become the biggest villain in the Green Lantern mythos. He’d return alongside Jordan in the mid ’00s, founding the Sinestro Corps, and has since become more popular. However, there’s been a problem with Sinestro lately – it’s basically whitewashing a fascist. He’s been cast as this guy who just wants to enforce order, but he’s actually just a fascist. Making him some kind of honorable hero is exactly what you should never do with a fascist character because, in the end, they are fascists.
Which DC villain redemptions do you think shouldn’t have happened? Do you disagree with any of mine? Sound off in the comment section below.
5 Best Superman Miniseries That Every DCU Fan Should Read (That Aren’t All-Star Superman)
More Comics
-
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics Comics
20 hours agoMidnight Spider-Man Harkens Back to Two of Spider-Man’s Strangest Eras, but Here’s Why It Could Be Better Than Both
-
Image Courtesy of DC Comics Comics
1 day agoThis Is ’90s DC’s Most Influential Story (And Everyone Learned the Wrong Lesson From It)
-
Image Courtesy of DC Comics Comics
1 day agoDC Comics’s Cosmic Corner Is Missing One Final Piece (and It Makes the Green Lantern Mythos Look Tame)
