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* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003''
** David Slack, Amy Wolfram, and Glen Murakami, the writers and producers of the show, considered their version of [[Characters/TeenTitans2003Terra Terra]] to be [[http://titanstower.com/source/animated/behindglens12345.html "a tragic character."]] [[MisaimedFandom The fans]] [[DracoInLeatherPants had]] [[RonTheDeathEater their]] own interpretations...
** The Witch from "[[Recap/TeenTitansS4E2CyborgTheBarbarian Cyborg The Barbarian]]", who is truly the one responsible for the monster invasion and Cyborg being pulled into the past. Despite this she creates a time portal to return to the present, even after Cyborg discovers Krall's plot. She also never directly does anything harmful to Cyborg or the villagers, and only really causes trouble because she's bound to serve Krall.
** David Slack, Amy Wolfram, and Glen Murakami, the writers and producers of the show, considered their version of [[Characters/TeenTitans2003Terra Terra]] to be [[http://titanstower.com/source/animated/behindglens12345.html "a tragic character."]] [[MisaimedFandom The fans]] [[DracoInLeatherPants had]] [[RonTheDeathEater their]] own interpretations...
** The Witch from "[[Recap/TeenTitansS4E2CyborgTheBarbarian Cyborg The Barbarian]]", who is truly the one responsible for the monster invasion and Cyborg being pulled into the past. Despite this she creates a time portal to return to the present, even after Cyborg discovers Krall's plot. She also never directly does anything harmful to Cyborg or the villagers, and only really causes trouble because she's bound to serve Krall.
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* ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'': Rubberband Man is this in his first appearance. He's out to get revenge on the people who swindled him out of the royalties to music he produced but otherwise isn't interested in hurting people or stealing stuff the way most other Bang Baby criminals are. He undergoes a full HeelFaceTurn in his second appearance, having abandoned crime to live as a professional rap musician and ends up turning himself into the police to serve out the remainder of his sentence. The only conflict left after that point comes from Static not being willing to believe he's changed [[spoiler: and Ebon blackmailing him]].
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* [[BigBad General Zod]] in ''Film/ManOfSteel''. [[spoiler: While he is willing to commit genocide on the human race he sums himself up magnificently in a single quote, "Every action I take, no matter how violent or cruel, is for the good of my people." He was [[DesignerBabies bred]] to be a warrior, to defend his race no matter how monstrous he had to be to do so.]]
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* [[BigBad [[Characters/DCEUGeneralZod General Zod]] in ''Film/ManOfSteel''. [[spoiler: While he is willing to commit genocide on the human race he sums himself up magnificently in a single quote, "Every action I take, no matter how violent or cruel, is for the good of my people." He was [[DesignerBabies bred]] to be a warrior, to defend his race no matter how monstrous he had to be to do so.]]
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** [[WellIntentionedExtremist Ra's al-Ghul and Poison Ivy]] are willing to kill nearly every other human being on the planet, if it meant saving Mother Earth.
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** [[WellIntentionedExtremist Ra's al-Ghul al-Ghul]] and [[Characters/DCAUPoisonIvy Poison Ivy]] are willing to kill nearly every other human being on the planet, if it meant saving Mother Earth.
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** About the only really heinous thing about the DCAU version of ComicBook/HarleyQuinn is her undying crush on ComicBook/TheJoker. When she isn't around him, she's still an obnoxious {{Tsundere}}, but she rarely tries to harm anyone unprovoked, and she legitimately cares about a few others, such as Poison Ivy (mentioned above) and her pet hyenas.
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** About the only really heinous thing about the DCAU version of ComicBook/HarleyQuinn [[Characters/DCAUHarleyQuinn Harley Quinn]] is her undying crush on ComicBook/TheJoker. When she isn't around him, she's still an obnoxious {{Tsundere}}, but she rarely tries to harm anyone unprovoked, and she legitimately cares about a few others, such as Poison Ivy (mentioned above) and her pet hyenas.
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** Superman enters this territory in ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon''. As a leader of the USSR, he is a huge threat to the US and ends up ruling huge portions of the world population. But he still retains most of his heroic qualities, is attempting to create a utopia, and is very reluctant to actually do wrong. This is opposed to ComicBook/LexLuthor, an AntiHero who is America's only hope, but also a Machiavellian egotist; he doesn't actually care what happens to America, just as long as he can get one over on Superman.
** Some depictions of ''Comicbook/LexLuthor'' have portrayed him as an anti-villain whose sin is an excess desire to keep the Earth safe from alien invasion coupled with excess pride. It's fairly common now to find Lex and Superman finding common ground and working together, especially in non-canonical stories.
** Some depictions of ''Comicbook/LexLuthor'' have portrayed him as an anti-villain whose sin is an excess desire to keep the Earth safe from alien invasion coupled with excess pride. It's fairly common now to find Lex and Superman finding common ground and working together, especially in non-canonical stories.
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** Superman enters this territory in ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon''. As a leader of the USSR, he is a huge threat to the US and ends up ruling huge portions of the world population. But he still retains most of his heroic qualities, is attempting to create a utopia, and is very reluctant to actually do wrong. This is opposed to ComicBook/LexLuthor, Lex Luthor, an AntiHero who is America's only hope, but also a Machiavellian egotist; he doesn't actually care what happens to America, just as long as he can get one over on Superman.
** Some depictions of''Comicbook/LexLuthor'' ''[[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]]'' have portrayed him as an anti-villain whose sin is an excess desire to keep the Earth safe from alien invasion coupled with excess pride. It's fairly common now to find Lex and Superman finding common ground and working together, especially in non-canonical stories.
** Some depictions of
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* Creator/MilestoneComics:
** ''ComicBook/{{Hardware|1993}}'': Edwin Alva genuinely believes the world would be better off with him in control and contributes to a wide variety of philanthropic ventures, but is essentially crooked to the core, responsible for all types of illegal activity such as political corruption, drug money, and weapons dealing and essentially created Hardware by taking a young ChildProdigy and turning him into his own personal lapdog with a no-leaving contract. After spending dozens of issues ruthlessly pursuing our hero, [[spoiler:he dies saving the lives of hundreds of people.]]
** ''ComicBook/{{Hardware|1993}}'': Edwin Alva genuinely believes the world would be better off with him in control and contributes to a wide variety of philanthropic ventures, but is essentially crooked to the core, responsible for all types of illegal activity such as political corruption, drug money, and weapons dealing and essentially created Hardware by taking a young ChildProdigy and turning him into his own personal lapdog with a no-leaving contract. After spending dozens of issues ruthlessly pursuing our hero, [[spoiler:he dies saving the lives of hundreds of people.]]
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** The original Black Spider originally became a SerialKillerKiller after he killed his own father during a drug-induced episode and wanted to make up for it. Keyword being "originally", as after he came BackFromTheDead, he also TookALevelInJerkass and started hanging out with the same criminals he swore to kill in ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis''.
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** The original Black Spider originally became a SerialKillerKiller after he killed his own father during a drug-induced episode and wanted to make up for it. Keyword being "originally", as after he came BackFromTheDead, he also TookALevelInJerkass and started hanging out with the same criminals he swore to kill in ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis''.''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis2004''.
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* Bizarro from ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''. A flawed [[CloningBlues clone]] of Franchise/{{Superman}}, he has a good heart and just wants to help, since he truly believes (at first) that he's the real Superman, it's just his help involves stuff like "saving" a building being lawfully demolishing and "fixing" a movable bridge.
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* Bizarro from ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''. A flawed [[CloningBlues clone]] clone of Franchise/{{Superman}}, he has a good heart and just wants to help, since he truly believes (at first) that he's the real Superman, it's just his help involves stuff like "saving" a building being lawfully demolishing and "fixing" a movable bridge.
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* The Ultra-Humanite, as he appears in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''. His grand list of crimes is as follows: 1: breaking Lex Luthor out of prison and saving his life from kryptonite poisoning so that Ultra can get a huge donation to Public Broadcasting ([[spoiler:and then foiling Lex's plot and turning both Lex and himself in once Batman gives him a better offer]]), and 2: planning to demolish a [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible modern art museum]] during the ChristmasEpisode (when, of course, nobody would be around to be caught in the crossfire), only to quickly declare a Christmas Truce with The Flash and help him give ''Christmas presents'' to ''orphans'' (ok, so he modified the toy so it recited ''The Nutcracker'', [[WickedCultured complete with musical score, instead of blowing raspberries]]). He isn't seen in another villain role after that.
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* The Ultra-Humanite, as he appears in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''. His grand list of crimes is as follows: 1: breaking Lex Luthor out of prison and saving his life from kryptonite poisoning so that Ultra can get a huge donation to Public Broadcasting ([[spoiler:and then foiling Lex's plot and turning both Lex and himself in once Batman gives him a better offer]]), and 2: planning to demolish a [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible modern art museum]] museum during the ChristmasEpisode (when, of course, nobody would be around to be caught in the crossfire), only to quickly declare a Christmas Truce with The Flash and help him give ''Christmas presents'' to ''orphans'' (ok, so he modified the toy so it recited ''The Nutcracker'', [[WickedCultured complete with musical score, instead of blowing raspberries]]). He isn't seen in another villain role after that.
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*** Silver Swan II's entire motivation was her desire to be loved, and she was taken advantage of and abused by those running a meta-human experiment which worked on her, adding metal augmentations as well. After she was made to see the truth of her situation she left those driving her to attack Wondy and after helping fight against Circe once retired to a normal life.
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*** Silver Swan II's entire motivation was her desire to be loved, and she was taken advantage of and abused by those running a meta-human experiment which worked on her, adding metal augmentations as well. After she was made to see the truth of her situation she left those driving her to attack Wondy and after helping fight against Circe once retired to a normal life.
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---> '''Terry''': We have to get out of here, Freeze! This whole place is gonna go!
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---> '''Terry''': '''Batman''': We have to get out of here, Freeze! This whole place is gonna go!
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--->'''Bruce''': Let me tell you about a woman named Selina Kyle...
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--->'''Bruce''': ''[smiles]'' Let me tell you about a woman named Selina Kyle...
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* Comicbook/{{Shade}} shifts from AntiVillain to AntiHero as it suits him. He protects Opal City to an extent and has a soft spot for kids but is largely disinterested in the fate of everywhere else and sometime picks fights with ComicBook/TheFlash or the entire ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica out of boredom. That one time he tried to destroy the world has been retconned to not have been his fault, which makes sense as it would have been really difficult to stop him if he'd really wanted to.
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* Comicbook/{{Shade}} Comicbook/{{The Shade|DCComics}} shifts from AntiVillain to AntiHero as it suits him. He protects Opal City to an extent and has a soft spot for kids but is largely disinterested in the fate of everywhere else and sometime picks fights with ComicBook/TheFlash or the entire ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica out of boredom. That one time he tried to destroy the world has been retconned to not have been his fault, which makes sense as it would have been really difficult to stop him if he'd really wanted to.
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** The Elseworlds ''ComicBook/BatmanVampire'' trilogy essentially made Batman himself this in the final novel, ''Crimson Mist''; having become a vampire to fight Dracula in the first book in the trilogy, the second book concludes with Batman defeating the remaining vampires, only to succumb to his bloodlust when he kills and drains the Joker. After experiencing SanitySlippage while [[AndIMustScream trapped in a living death in his own coffin]], once restored to mobility Batman ruthlessly slaughters his remaining rogues, such as Penguin or Scarecrow, draining their blood and chopping off their heads so they won't return as new vampires. He's only stopped from being an outright villain as every one of his human victims were already killers themselves, but the vampire Dark Knight is aware that he'll eventually start to prey on innocents if he isn't defeated for good, forcing James Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth to form an EnemyMine with Two-Face and Killer Croc for a final stand in the Batcave.
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* Ocean Master, ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'s evil brother and ArchEnemy was made into one of these in the ComicBook/New52. Typically portrayed as a [[EvilPrince usurper]] and EvilSorceror who sold his soul to the devil, post-Flashpoint he was repackaged as a NobleDemon and [[WarriorPrince warrior king]] who ruled Atlantis fairly well, actually seemed to genuinely love his brother, and whose most villainous actions were the result of him being manipulated by outside forces. He isn't a good person by any means, he's an Atlantean supremacist and smirking, [[SmugSnake arrogant prick]], and he’ll kill anyone who gets in his way, but you could make the case that he was often doing what he believed was right. Aquaman admits that when he first came to Atlantis, Orm welcomed him with open arms and happily abdicated, and begged him to stay when he went back to the surface. When he is imprisoned on land for his part in Atlantis' attack on Boston, after he joined forces with Arthur against [[spoiler:Vulko]] and believed they had mended fences, you almost feel sorry for him.
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* Ocean Master, ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'s evil brother and ArchEnemy was made into one of these in the ComicBook/New52. Typically portrayed as a [[EvilPrince usurper]] and EvilSorceror who sold his soul to the devil, post-Flashpoint he was repackaged as a NobleDemon and [[WarriorPrince warrior king]] who ruled Atlantis fairly well, actually seemed to genuinely love his brother, and whose most villainous actions were the result of him being manipulated by outside forces. He isn't a good person by any means, he's an Atlantean supremacist and smirking, [[SmugSnake arrogant prick]], and he’ll kill anyone who gets in his way, but you could make the case that he was often doing what he believed was right. Aquaman admits that when he first came to Atlantis, Orm welcomed him with open arms and happily abdicated, and begged him to stay when he went back to the surface. When he is imprisoned on land for his part in Atlantis' attack on Boston, after he joined forces with Arthur against [[spoiler:Vulko]] and believed they had mended fences, you almost feel sorry for him.
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** During the ''ComicBook/ForeverEvil'' event, during the mass escape from Blackgate Prison, while all the other inmates go crazy attacking the surrounding areas, Orm just walks to the shore hoping to go home, and abandons that to save a single mother and her son from a gang of escaped supervillains.
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** During the ''ComicBook/ForeverEvil'' ''ComicBook/ForeverEvil2013'' event, during the mass escape from Blackgate Prison, while all the other inmates go crazy attacking the surrounding areas, Orm just walks to the shore hoping to go home, and abandons that to save a single mother and her son from a gang of escaped supervillains.
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!!Franchise/TheDCU
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!!Comic Books
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* Adam Susan of ''ComicBook/VForVendetta.'' He's a Fascist dictator whose regime has killed countless people. However, he sincerely believes in Fascism and has some moments (particularly towards the end) that make him into an absolute JerkassWoobie.
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* Adam Susan of ''ComicBook/VForVendetta.'' He's a Fascist dictator whose regime has killed countless people. However, he sincerely believes in Fascism and has some moments (particularly towards the end) that make him into an absolute JerkassWoobie.JerkassWoobie.
!!Films
* [[BigBad General Zod]] in ''Film/ManOfSteel''. [[spoiler: While he is willing to commit genocide on the human race he sums himself up magnificently in a single quote, "Every action I take, no matter how violent or cruel, is for the good of my people." He was [[DesignerBabies bred]] to be a warrior, to defend his race no matter how monstrous he had to be to do so.]]
!!Live-Action TV
* Once it kicked off, most of the villains on ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' fall into this, to the point its probably easier to count the ones who don't. Deadshot, Huntress, Malcolm, Deathstroke, even Oliver's parents all count as this. It generally falls into the show's theme that anyone can be corrupted, and no one is irredeemable.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'':
** Lex Luthor evolved from an {{Antihero}} into an {{Antivillain}} in Season's 4 & 5, retaining most of his sympathetic qualities, but becoming directly antagonistic. Eventually, he lost those as well, and evolved into the CorruptCorporateExecutive and sociopath we all knew he'd eventually be. His father, Lionel, evolved the other way. Beginning the series as an unrepentant BigBad, Lionel became an {{Antivillain}} in the later seasons, as his crush on Martha, revelations about his past, and attempts to make up for his many mistakes humanised him. Some would argue that he even managed to become an antihero (Type IV) before his Season 7 exit.
** Before her HeelFaceTurn, [[BrokenAce Tess]] was this, as both a JerkassWoobie and a WellIntentionedExtremist. [[spoiler: AntiVillain must run in the Luthor family tree.]]
** A non-Luthor example would also be Major/General Zod, in an interesting twist as he's essentially simultainiously given AdaptationalHeroism ''and'' AdaptationalVillainy. He ultimately just wants peace, justice, and freedom for the Kryptonians, is a FatherToHisMen, respects Kal-El/Clark and still holds his former best friend Jor-El in high regard, and while he leads a ruthless coup, he's motivated by the fact his family was killed in the destruction of Kandor, and his plea to clone his son was rejected, pushing him over the edge. However, unlike most depictions, he was almost successful in taking over Krypton, and when he learnt his cause was lost, he decided to destabalize Krypton's core and, essentially, is the one responsible for its destruction. Ultimately, he's just trying to cope with the death of his son, but doesn't do it in a healthy means.
* ''[[Series/WonderWoman1975 Wonder Woman]]'':
** In "Spaced Out", Kimball played by Creator/ReneAuberjonois, steals the [[MacGuffin lenses]], hogties a guest star at the Convention, and escapes Wonder Woman by threatening to throw a large flowerpot on a group of innocent civilians - all with a smile, and joke, and a laugh. He even teams up with Wonder Woman to foil [[BigBad Simon Rohan's]] plans, [[spoiler:but makes his escape once again in the confusion]]
** In "The Queen and the Thief", Evan Robley played by Creator/DavidHedison, is hired by [[BigBad Ambassador Orrick]] to steal the crown jewels, [[spoiler:and is duped by the fakes,]] but [[HeelFaceTurn joins the good guys]] helping Wonder Woman foil the evil plot [[spoiler:and even gaining a Royal ambassadorial appointment in the process!]]
!!Western Animation
* Mr. Freeze from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' is one of the deepest and most sympathetic villains within the ''[[Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse DC animated universe]]''. Notable in that, before his acclaimed appearance in ''Batman: TAS'', in the comics, he was more or less a typical villain, and his tragic backstory has [[CanonImmigrant since been integrated into his comic incarnation]].
** Later subverted with his JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope in "Cold Comfort." Though his actual final appearance before ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' (an issue in the comic Gotham Knights) didn't even have him commit any crimes, instead, the crimes pinned on Mr. Freeze were actually done by a robotic duplicate made by Nora's stephusband, and Freeze even pulled a HeroicSacrifice in the end.
** In his ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' appearance, he tries to [[spoiler: kill hundreds of innocent people to get vengeance on two]], but in the end pulls an EnemyMine with Batman when Blight unveils himself, and [[VillainsDyingGrace sacrifices himself to tell Batman to get out of there]] when the facility was collapsing. In the end, Freeze goes back to being an AntiVillain.
---> '''Terry''': We have to get out of here, Freeze! This whole place is gonna go!
---> '''Freeze''': Believe me, you are the only one who cares.
** Freeze is far from the only Batman villain to feature this trait. There's Catwoman, who is a ClassyCatBurglar, definitely a criminal, but far from a violent psychopath like most of his other enemies. She's frequently portrayed sympathetically and is a major (many would say, [[DatingCatwoman THE major]]) love interest for the hero, sometimes nudging her into AntiHero territory.
** Matt Hagen, AKA Clayface, is an actor-turned-shapeshifting monster whose main purpose is [[IJustWantToBeNormal to get back to looking human again]] and get revenge on the people who turned him into Clayface. It ''was'' partially his own damn fault that he got mixed up with them, but don't expect him to acknowledge that. He ends up JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope in ''The New Batman Adventures'', though, and unlike Mr. Freeze, doesn't recover from it.
** The Riddler has shades of this as well in several incarnations, considering, most of the time, his entire gimmick is based on pathetically making it easier for Batman to catch him, and his crimes are relatively benign ones...right about now, he's spending more time reformed than not. Notably ''not'' the case in the DCAU where he successfully [[TookALevelInBadass takes the level in bad-ass]] and has intentions that (while sympathetic) are clearly murderous.
** Then we have little Mary Dahl, a 30-something former sitcom star who is trapped in the body of a 5-year-old due to a rare genetic defect. After failing to be taken seriously as a dramatic actress, including attempting to play Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'s wife in a stage play, she snaps and reverts to her TV persona, going so far as to capture her old castmates to re-create a birthday party episode "ruined" by Cousin Oliver (according to script, of course). Seems standard fare...but then they hit [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUtLTxBYZHw the hall of mirrors]] when she tries to escape from Batman. A bit of [[VillainousBreakdown mind breakage]] is kind of expected, in a situation like that.
--->'''Mary''': (''sobs'') I didn't mean to.
** [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond Terry]] gets his own DatingCatwoman moment with Ten, member of ''Beyond'''s version of the Royal Flush Gang. She's significantly more reluctant and less ruthless than the rest, acting more out of familial loyalty than malice or greed. At the end, we get the delightful CallBack from Bruce:
--->'''Terry''': This kind of thing ever happen to you?
--->'''Bruce''': Let me tell you about a woman named Selina Kyle...
** Two-Face/Harvey Dent. Granted, in ''Batman: TAS'', he had the split personality beforehand...but then, the guy suffers from a split personality!
** [[WellIntentionedExtremist Ra's al-Ghul and Poison Ivy]] are willing to kill nearly every other human being on the planet, if it meant saving Mother Earth.
** And in the movie, ''WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm'', we have the Phantasm, or [[spoiler:Andrea Beaumont]]. [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Given her reasons for doing what she does,]] it's practically impossible not to have sympathy for her.
** The Penguin entered this territory in the episode "Birds of a Feather". He decides to reform and actually goes through with it. Two socialites decide to play a trick on him and the female one pretends to be in love with him; but the Penguin takes it seriously and saves her from muggers. Ultimately, though, [[spoiler:he finds out about their original intentions to mock him, snaps, convinced that society will never accept his reform, and kidnaps her. It seems to go without saying that attempting to make a ButtMonkey of a recently reformed criminal is a [[TemptingFate VERY bad idea]].]]
** About the only really heinous thing about the DCAU version of ComicBook/HarleyQuinn is her undying crush on ComicBook/TheJoker. When she isn't around him, she's still an obnoxious {{Tsundere}}, but she rarely tries to harm anyone unprovoked, and she legitimately cares about a few others, such as Poison Ivy (mentioned above) and her pet hyenas.
** Arnold Wesker, aka the Ventriloquist, is a calm, quiet person [[GollumMadeMeDoIt bossed around by his other personality, Scarface.]] He's actually a great example of how people with mental disorders suffer from their illnesses. [[spoiler:Fortunately, in "Double Talk" he finally gets rid of Scarface for good, making him one of the few Batman villains to successfully reform.]]
* Even ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' has examples of AntiVillain such as Clayface who had his back story changed as to become horribly [[MindRape mind raped]] by ComicBook/TheJoker after already having to deal with hell from DaChief, and to make it worse, he was a childhood friend of Batman, and one of his few supporters on the Gotham Force.
** Also the Riddler, who is even more sympathetic than usual, who only wanted to help increase intelligence only for one experiment of his to be sabotaged by his co-worker who he had a crush on.
** Poison Ivy, particularly in the spin-off comic series ''The Batman Strikes!'' She just wants to make the world a better place....for plants.
** Harley Quinn also counts, for all the same reasons as her DCAU counterpart.
** One-shot villain Francis Grey, who was so unlucky that stealing a watch in order to make ends meet for his family caused a chain event of freak accidents that resulted in him getting locked in jail for [[DisproportionateRetribution much longer than his actual crime warranted.]]
* The Ultra-Humanite, as he appears in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''. His grand list of crimes is as follows: 1: breaking Lex Luthor out of prison and saving his life from kryptonite poisoning so that Ultra can get a huge donation to Public Broadcasting ([[spoiler:and then foiling Lex's plot and turning both Lex and himself in once Batman gives him a better offer]]), and 2: planning to demolish a [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible modern art museum]] during the ChristmasEpisode (when, of course, nobody would be around to be caught in the crossfire), only to quickly declare a Christmas Truce with The Flash and help him give ''Christmas presents'' to ''orphans'' (ok, so he modified the toy so it recited ''The Nutcracker'', [[WickedCultured complete with musical score, instead of blowing raspberries]]). He isn't seen in another villain role after that.
** The Trickster is implied to be this. A harmless prankster villain, his hero/villain relationship with Flash seems to mainly consist of Flash making sure he's keeping up on his mental health needs, such as taking his medication and turning himself into the proper authorities so he can get the help he needs. The Trickster seems to enjoy this relationship mainly due to how nice Flash is to him, versus the harsh treatment he would have gotten from Orion or Batman. The closest he gets to being dangerous in the one episode he appears in is him ranting about using exploding props, which we never see him carry out. In fact, Flash talked him out of a fight entirely and convinced him to tell him the Rogues' villainous plan.
* Many (if not most) of the villains in the first season of ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' qualify. Goodfellow invented the GEEC so as to free mankind from tedious chores, then offered it as a free service to everyone on Earth. The ocean-polluting aliens were filtering silicon from Earth's seas for fuel, because they were stranded and their space ship ran on silicon. The global-warming aliens were heating up the Earth because their own planet had frozen over[[note]]admittedly, by their own industrial air pollution[[/note]] and they needed a new home.
* Bizarro from ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''. A flawed [[CloningBlues clone]] of Franchise/{{Superman}}, he has a good heart and just wants to help, since he truly believes (at first) that he's the real Superman, it's just his help involves stuff like "saving" a building being lawfully demolishing and "fixing" a movable bridge.
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!!Films
* [[BigBad General Zod]] in ''Film/ManOfSteel''. [[spoiler: While he is willing to commit genocide on the human race he sums himself up magnificently in a single quote, "Every action I take, no matter how violent or cruel, is for the good of my people." He was [[DesignerBabies bred]] to be a warrior, to defend his race no matter how monstrous he had to be to do so.]]
!!Live-Action TV
* Once it kicked off, most of the villains on ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' fall into this, to the point its probably easier to count the ones who don't. Deadshot, Huntress, Malcolm, Deathstroke, even Oliver's parents all count as this. It generally falls into the show's theme that anyone can be corrupted, and no one is irredeemable.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'':
** Lex Luthor evolved from an {{Antihero}} into an {{Antivillain}} in Season's 4 & 5, retaining most of his sympathetic qualities, but becoming directly antagonistic. Eventually, he lost those as well, and evolved into the CorruptCorporateExecutive and sociopath we all knew he'd eventually be. His father, Lionel, evolved the other way. Beginning the series as an unrepentant BigBad, Lionel became an {{Antivillain}} in the later seasons, as his crush on Martha, revelations about his past, and attempts to make up for his many mistakes humanised him. Some would argue that he even managed to become an antihero (Type IV) before his Season 7 exit.
** Before her HeelFaceTurn, [[BrokenAce Tess]] was this, as both a JerkassWoobie and a WellIntentionedExtremist. [[spoiler: AntiVillain must run in the Luthor family tree.]]
** A non-Luthor example would also be Major/General Zod, in an interesting twist as he's essentially simultainiously given AdaptationalHeroism ''and'' AdaptationalVillainy. He ultimately just wants peace, justice, and freedom for the Kryptonians, is a FatherToHisMen, respects Kal-El/Clark and still holds his former best friend Jor-El in high regard, and while he leads a ruthless coup, he's motivated by the fact his family was killed in the destruction of Kandor, and his plea to clone his son was rejected, pushing him over the edge. However, unlike most depictions, he was almost successful in taking over Krypton, and when he learnt his cause was lost, he decided to destabalize Krypton's core and, essentially, is the one responsible for its destruction. Ultimately, he's just trying to cope with the death of his son, but doesn't do it in a healthy means.
* ''[[Series/WonderWoman1975 Wonder Woman]]'':
** In "Spaced Out", Kimball played by Creator/ReneAuberjonois, steals the [[MacGuffin lenses]], hogties a guest star at the Convention, and escapes Wonder Woman by threatening to throw a large flowerpot on a group of innocent civilians - all with a smile, and joke, and a laugh. He even teams up with Wonder Woman to foil [[BigBad Simon Rohan's]] plans, [[spoiler:but makes his escape once again in the confusion]]
** In "The Queen and the Thief", Evan Robley played by Creator/DavidHedison, is hired by [[BigBad Ambassador Orrick]] to steal the crown jewels, [[spoiler:and is duped by the fakes,]] but [[HeelFaceTurn joins the good guys]] helping Wonder Woman foil the evil plot [[spoiler:and even gaining a Royal ambassadorial appointment in the process!]]
!!Western Animation
* Mr. Freeze from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' is one of the deepest and most sympathetic villains within the ''[[Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse DC animated universe]]''. Notable in that, before his acclaimed appearance in ''Batman: TAS'', in the comics, he was more or less a typical villain, and his tragic backstory has [[CanonImmigrant since been integrated into his comic incarnation]].
** Later subverted with his JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope in "Cold Comfort." Though his actual final appearance before ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' (an issue in the comic Gotham Knights) didn't even have him commit any crimes, instead, the crimes pinned on Mr. Freeze were actually done by a robotic duplicate made by Nora's stephusband, and Freeze even pulled a HeroicSacrifice in the end.
** In his ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' appearance, he tries to [[spoiler: kill hundreds of innocent people to get vengeance on two]], but in the end pulls an EnemyMine with Batman when Blight unveils himself, and [[VillainsDyingGrace sacrifices himself to tell Batman to get out of there]] when the facility was collapsing. In the end, Freeze goes back to being an AntiVillain.
---> '''Terry''': We have to get out of here, Freeze! This whole place is gonna go!
---> '''Freeze''': Believe me, you are the only one who cares.
** Freeze is far from the only Batman villain to feature this trait. There's Catwoman, who is a ClassyCatBurglar, definitely a criminal, but far from a violent psychopath like most of his other enemies. She's frequently portrayed sympathetically and is a major (many would say, [[DatingCatwoman THE major]]) love interest for the hero, sometimes nudging her into AntiHero territory.
** Matt Hagen, AKA Clayface, is an actor-turned-shapeshifting monster whose main purpose is [[IJustWantToBeNormal to get back to looking human again]] and get revenge on the people who turned him into Clayface. It ''was'' partially his own damn fault that he got mixed up with them, but don't expect him to acknowledge that. He ends up JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope in ''The New Batman Adventures'', though, and unlike Mr. Freeze, doesn't recover from it.
** The Riddler has shades of this as well in several incarnations, considering, most of the time, his entire gimmick is based on pathetically making it easier for Batman to catch him, and his crimes are relatively benign ones...right about now, he's spending more time reformed than not. Notably ''not'' the case in the DCAU where he successfully [[TookALevelInBadass takes the level in bad-ass]] and has intentions that (while sympathetic) are clearly murderous.
** Then we have little Mary Dahl, a 30-something former sitcom star who is trapped in the body of a 5-year-old due to a rare genetic defect. After failing to be taken seriously as a dramatic actress, including attempting to play Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'s wife in a stage play, she snaps and reverts to her TV persona, going so far as to capture her old castmates to re-create a birthday party episode "ruined" by Cousin Oliver (according to script, of course). Seems standard fare...but then they hit [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUtLTxBYZHw the hall of mirrors]] when she tries to escape from Batman. A bit of [[VillainousBreakdown mind breakage]] is kind of expected, in a situation like that.
--->'''Mary''': (''sobs'') I didn't mean to.
** [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond Terry]] gets his own DatingCatwoman moment with Ten, member of ''Beyond'''s version of the Royal Flush Gang. She's significantly more reluctant and less ruthless than the rest, acting more out of familial loyalty than malice or greed. At the end, we get the delightful CallBack from Bruce:
--->'''Terry''': This kind of thing ever happen to you?
--->'''Bruce''': Let me tell you about a woman named Selina Kyle...
** Two-Face/Harvey Dent. Granted, in ''Batman: TAS'', he had the split personality beforehand...but then, the guy suffers from a split personality!
** [[WellIntentionedExtremist Ra's al-Ghul and Poison Ivy]] are willing to kill nearly every other human being on the planet, if it meant saving Mother Earth.
** And in the movie, ''WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm'', we have the Phantasm, or [[spoiler:Andrea Beaumont]]. [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Given her reasons for doing what she does,]] it's practically impossible not to have sympathy for her.
** The Penguin entered this territory in the episode "Birds of a Feather". He decides to reform and actually goes through with it. Two socialites decide to play a trick on him and the female one pretends to be in love with him; but the Penguin takes it seriously and saves her from muggers. Ultimately, though, [[spoiler:he finds out about their original intentions to mock him, snaps, convinced that society will never accept his reform, and kidnaps her. It seems to go without saying that attempting to make a ButtMonkey of a recently reformed criminal is a [[TemptingFate VERY bad idea]].]]
** About the only really heinous thing about the DCAU version of ComicBook/HarleyQuinn is her undying crush on ComicBook/TheJoker. When she isn't around him, she's still an obnoxious {{Tsundere}}, but she rarely tries to harm anyone unprovoked, and she legitimately cares about a few others, such as Poison Ivy (mentioned above) and her pet hyenas.
** Arnold Wesker, aka the Ventriloquist, is a calm, quiet person [[GollumMadeMeDoIt bossed around by his other personality, Scarface.]] He's actually a great example of how people with mental disorders suffer from their illnesses. [[spoiler:Fortunately, in "Double Talk" he finally gets rid of Scarface for good, making him one of the few Batman villains to successfully reform.]]
* Even ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' has examples of AntiVillain such as Clayface who had his back story changed as to become horribly [[MindRape mind raped]] by ComicBook/TheJoker after already having to deal with hell from DaChief, and to make it worse, he was a childhood friend of Batman, and one of his few supporters on the Gotham Force.
** Also the Riddler, who is even more sympathetic than usual, who only wanted to help increase intelligence only for one experiment of his to be sabotaged by his co-worker who he had a crush on.
** Poison Ivy, particularly in the spin-off comic series ''The Batman Strikes!'' She just wants to make the world a better place....for plants.
** Harley Quinn also counts, for all the same reasons as her DCAU counterpart.
** One-shot villain Francis Grey, who was so unlucky that stealing a watch in order to make ends meet for his family caused a chain event of freak accidents that resulted in him getting locked in jail for [[DisproportionateRetribution much longer than his actual crime warranted.]]
* The Ultra-Humanite, as he appears in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''. His grand list of crimes is as follows: 1: breaking Lex Luthor out of prison and saving his life from kryptonite poisoning so that Ultra can get a huge donation to Public Broadcasting ([[spoiler:and then foiling Lex's plot and turning both Lex and himself in once Batman gives him a better offer]]), and 2: planning to demolish a [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible modern art museum]] during the ChristmasEpisode (when, of course, nobody would be around to be caught in the crossfire), only to quickly declare a Christmas Truce with The Flash and help him give ''Christmas presents'' to ''orphans'' (ok, so he modified the toy so it recited ''The Nutcracker'', [[WickedCultured complete with musical score, instead of blowing raspberries]]). He isn't seen in another villain role after that.
** The Trickster is implied to be this. A harmless prankster villain, his hero/villain relationship with Flash seems to mainly consist of Flash making sure he's keeping up on his mental health needs, such as taking his medication and turning himself into the proper authorities so he can get the help he needs. The Trickster seems to enjoy this relationship mainly due to how nice Flash is to him, versus the harsh treatment he would have gotten from Orion or Batman. The closest he gets to being dangerous in the one episode he appears in is him ranting about using exploding props, which we never see him carry out. In fact, Flash talked him out of a fight entirely and convinced him to tell him the Rogues' villainous plan.
* Many (if not most) of the villains in the first season of ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' qualify. Goodfellow invented the GEEC so as to free mankind from tedious chores, then offered it as a free service to everyone on Earth. The ocean-polluting aliens were filtering silicon from Earth's seas for fuel, because they were stranded and their space ship ran on silicon. The global-warming aliens were heating up the Earth because their own planet had frozen over[[note]]admittedly, by their own industrial air pollution[[/note]] and they needed a new home.
* Bizarro from ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''. A flawed [[CloningBlues clone]] of Franchise/{{Superman}}, he has a good heart and just wants to help, since he truly believes (at first) that he's the real Superman, it's just his help involves stuff like "saving" a building being lawfully demolishing and "fixing" a movable bridge.
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* ''ComicBook/OneHundredBullets'': While The Trust are an ancient conspiracy controlling America behind the scenes many of them just seem to be along from the ride (due to the hereditary nature of the organization) and are being manipulated by [[TheChessmaster Augustus]] and ruthlessly hunted down and killed by the Minutemen. It's implied that a few of the oldest members and the fathers/grandfathers of the rest had Kennedy killed but the worst thing some of the present generation do is simply try to get rid of their hired assassins in an effort to become ''less'' violent and law-breaking.
* Ocean Master, ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'s evil brother and ArchEnemy was made into one of these in the ComicBook/New52. Typically portrayed as a [[EvilPrince usurper]] and EvilSorceror who sold his soul to the devil, post-Flashpoint he was repackaged as a NobleDemon and [[WarriorPrince warrior king]] who ruled Atlantis fairly well, actually seemed to genuinely love his brother, and whose most villainous actions were the result of him being manipulated by outside forces. He isn't a good person by any means, he's an Atlantean supremacist and smirking, [[SmugSnake arrogant prick]], and he’ll kill anyone who gets in his way, but you could make the case that he was often doing what he believed was right. Aquaman admits that when he first came to Atlantis, Orm welcomed him with open arms and happily abdicated, and begged him to stay when he went back to the surface. When he is imprisoned on land for his part in Atlantis' attack on Boston, after he joined forces with Arthur against [[spoiler:Vulko]] and believed they had mended fences, you almost feel sorry for him.
** When Aquaman's friends start being attacked and killed for their Atlantean relics, Arthur and Orm secretly meet in a shipwreck deep under the sea. Arthur asks Orm if he is behind it, and Orm replies that if he wanted the relics he would just ask Arthur for them, and says he [[VillainsNeverLie would never lie]] to his brother, which Aquaman doesn't contradict.
** During the ''ComicBook/ForeverEvil'' event, during the mass escape from Blackgate Prison, while all the other inmates go crazy attacking the surrounding areas, Orm just walks to the shore hoping to go home, and abandons that to save a single mother and her son from a gang of escaped supervillains.
** Recently, he has repackaged himself as a champion of the downtrodden, creating a new underwater city as a refuge for Atlantis’ underclass of homeless, mutants and outcasts, as well as handing out free food and medicine to the poor while railing against the failings of the Atlantean government. It’s a nakedly cynical rabble rousing to undermine his enemies and anyone who comes to him for help has to pledge unthinking fealty, but at the same time, he’s A. [[JerkassHasAPoint fairly accurate]] in his assessment of Atlantean society and governance, which is horribly unequal and has a lot of significant structural problems and generally only functions well if a forceful, charismatic leader like him, Arthur or Mera is running the show, and is stubbornly resistant to any change or progress (Mera is shown having to browbeat her own ministers into carrying out social welfare projects to improve the lives of Atlantis’ poorest citizens); B. he genuinely cares about the assorted social refuse flocking to his banner; and C. regardless of motives, he’s the only one offering much-needed humanitarian aid.
* In an old ''ComicBook/TheAtom'' comic, the title character encountered the 2-D Man, able to shrink on his horizontal axes, but not his vertical. Slowly shrinking on that axis, "dwindling away to nothing," in his own words, he stole the high-tech equipment he needed to save his life, and continue his research into a leukemia cure, using another product of the same accident that gave him his powers. When he's cured of his shrinking problem, the judge essentially gives him probation so long as he actually works on this cure.
* A vast majority of Franchise/{{Batman}}'s RoguesGallery regulars are anti-villains of some kind. Examples include:
** Clayface, a former actor who just wants to be normal again (although some of his counterparts are egotistical assholes who deliberately turned themselves into monsters).
** ComicBook/RasAlGhul, who is nothing if not a WellIntentionedExtremist, wants to ensure ecological stability... by [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans destroying most]] [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters of humanity]].
** ComicBook/MrFreeze. Victor Fries was a scientist and a doctor whose wife, Nora, had a terminal disease. He put her in cryogenic stasis until a cure could be developed, but an "accident" that followed turned him into a mutant that can only survive at sub-zero temperatures. Afterwards, he dedicated himself to trying to find a way to save Nora and take his revenge on the people who ruined his life (until New 52 that is, where he was turned into a crazy man who just imagined his marriage... up until Comicbook/{{DC Rebirth}} came along, making Nora his wife once more).
** The ComicBook/RedHood, Jason Todd, the second Robin, who was resurrected following his infamous murder by the Joker and now seeks to kill him, or more accurately force Batman to. He seems to waver between AntiVillain, JerkassWoobie, KnightTemplar, and AxCrazy depending on [[DependingOnTheWriter who writes him]].
** The original version of ComicBook/TwoFace was portrayed this way. Because he would only commit crimes when his coin landed scarred-side up, he was only evil half the time, and when the coin landed face-up he would do good deeds. His portrayal gradually shifted away from this to BlackAndGrayMorality, where his "good side" merely became "less evil" and cowered under his dominant evil personality.
** Comicbook/PoisonIvy can be this from time to time, DependingOnTheWriter. She would gladly wipe every human being from the face of the earth to protect the natural world, but has had a number of significant PetTheDog moments. In particular, she has a soft spot for children and Harley Quinn. When she and Harley team up, she acts as her CoolBigSis (and [[LesYay maybe more]], again DependingOnTheWriter), and seeks to end her self destructive relationship with the Joker. As for the children, when [[ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand the quake]] devastated Gotham, she took up residence in Robinson Park and adopted sixteen children who had been orphaned by the disaster. She cared for them like a mother, and made a deal with Batman to grow food for the people of Gotham if he would let them be. After the city was rebuilt, the cops tried to evict her with a defoliant, and she was prepared to martyr herself for the park. But when one of the children was hurt she surrendered peacefully to get her medical aid. Even Batman acknowledges that deep down Ivy's still more human than plant.
** ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} is an interesting example, in that a lot of the time she's an unapologetic jewel thief, but when push comes to shove she'll usually help Batman and do the right thing. The fact that she's one of the few Batman villains whose various plans usually do not end with lots of people dead or critically injured probably helps as well.
** Killer Croc in the Post-Flashpoint universe is this in spades, especially when written by Tim Seeley. He protects Gotham's cast-aside and disenfranchised in his own personal underground sewer kingdom, will fight magical monsters from another dimension if just one of them is endangered, sponsors Roy Harper for Alcoholics Anonymous, hunts down corrupt cops when he sees them kill somebody who was nice to him, and joins up with Catwoman when she becomes Gotham's criminal kingpin, recognizing her as the lesser of all evils in the city.
** The original Black Spider originally became a SerialKillerKiller after he killed his own father during a drug-induced episode and wanted to make up for it. Keyword being "originally", as after he came BackFromTheDead, he also TookALevelInJerkass and started hanging out with the same criminals he swore to kill in ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis''.
* ComicBook/BlackAdam, traditionally seen as the bad guy to [[IAmNotShazam Captain Marvel's]] position of hero, made big changes under Creator/GeoffJohns. He led a team of anti-heroes including Atom Smasher and an at the time reformed Eclipso to overthrow a dictator of Adam's ancestral home. Adam made himself the dictator, but used his super powers to enforce a system of even handed justice, personally executing super criminals to the cheers of millions; he also created treaties with China and Russia during ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'' to further his nation's place in the world; built a ton of infrastructure, freed slaves, and battled organized crime; and created his own team of side kicks, his wife Isis and brother-in-law Osiris... [[OhCrap Then Osiris and Isis got murdered]]. Black Adam massacred a middle eastern country in a battle with a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Cyborg Angel of Death]] and then tried to wipe China off the map and ended up in a fight with everybody.
* La Dama, a female crime lord and [[LampshadeHanging supposed nemesis]] of ComicBook/{{Blue Beetle}}. She's happy to stay a more or less regional mob boss, but at the start of the series is trying to gain a bit of control over the magic and metahuman communities as well. She figures out Blue Beetle's secret identity at the same time as he figures out that she is the aunt of his best friend Brenda, custodial after the suspicious death of her father. So they actually keep each other's secrets for a while. Throughout the series she's a mob boss, although any actual illegal activities [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything fall out of the picture eventually]], but she was never seen as all ''that'' bad to begin with and has definitely given Brenda a healthier home life than she had before.
* Franchise/GreenLantern:
** Creator/GeoffJohns has been working to turn former alien despot Sinestro into this. Formerly a rather one-dimensional villain obsessed with power and revenge, his Post-Crisis origin gave him a bit of humanity, so to speak, suggesting that he was the ruler of his planet out of necessity rather than choice. Then Geoff got hold of him, gave him a dash of WellIntentionedExtremist and a few gentle [[RetCon retcons]], and now he's barely recognizable from his first appearances.
** It's worked so well that when Sinestro appears in the animated ''Emerald Knights'', set sometime before his FaceHeelTurn (which is hinted at during the story about Abin Sur), he is seen as a heroic and noble figure without any problem at all.
** Atrocitus is another one. You'd assume the leader of the Red Lantern Corps and the embodiment of Rage would be as clearcut a villain as you'd get: you'd be wrong. This is mainly because what the rage-powered Red Lanterns are, well, ''raging'' against is injustice--every Red Lantern was wronged greatly in some way, and harbored great rage and resentment over it. The Red Lantern rings are noted as taking the place of their bearer's hearts--they give themselves over to it, though Atrocitus seems to have his own rage mostly under control.
* Earth-10's Overman from ''[[ComicBook/TheMultiversity Mastermen #1]]''. He feels immense guilt for the lives lost in the creation of his psuedo-utopia, to the point of [[spoiler:becoming TheMole for the Freedom Fighters]].
* Many of the ComicBook/SecretSix in the comic book of that name--it may be the entire point of the title. In particular, Catman often displays noble qualities--ComicBook/{{Deadshot}}, Scandal Savage, and ComicBook/{{Bane}} to a much lesser extent. Ragdoll is pretty-much outright evil by comparison, but affable in his way.
* Comicbook/{{Shade}} shifts from AntiVillain to AntiHero as it suits him. He protects Opal City to an extent and has a soft spot for kids but is largely disinterested in the fate of everywhere else and sometime picks fights with ComicBook/TheFlash or the entire ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica out of boredom. That one time he tried to destroy the world has been retconned to not have been his fault, which makes sense as it would have been really difficult to stop him if he'd really wanted to.
* Franchise/{{Superman}}:
** Superman enters this territory in ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon''. As a leader of the USSR, he is a huge threat to the US and ends up ruling huge portions of the world population. But he still retains most of his heroic qualities, is attempting to create a utopia, and is very reluctant to actually do wrong. This is opposed to ComicBook/LexLuthor, an AntiHero who is America's only hope, but also a Machiavellian egotist; he doesn't actually care what happens to America, just as long as he can get one over on Superman.
** Some depictions of ''Comicbook/LexLuthor'' have portrayed him as an anti-villain whose sin is an excess desire to keep the Earth safe from alien invasion coupled with excess pride. It's fairly common now to find Lex and Superman finding common ground and working together, especially in non-canonical stories.
* ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'':
** ''Comicbook/DemonSpawn'': ''Technically'' Nightflame wants to save her world and its denizens... by destroying Supergirl's soul, taking over her body and doing evil things.
** In ''Comicbook/SupergirlRebirth'', Zor-El only wants to save his family and his city. In order to accomplish this goal, though, he makes choices which are morally dubious at best (such like sending an innocent man to an eternity of ghostly imprisonment because he was potentially dangerous), and his sanity decreases with each failure.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'':
** Even ''Ares'' can fall here, since he's a product of what he is and can never truly reform. Once Diana shows him the full truth of his plot to start WWIII and he immediately calls it off and ''melts'' the humans who'd invoked him. Afterwards he will aid her on occasion and definitely does not want the destruction of the human race but he's treacherous and slippery at the best of times and it's been established that too much power drives the Olympians mad, and he's got plenty streaming in.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'':
*** Circe. After her stint as Donna Milton she can't forget the true friendship she and Diana once shared, and while she hates that she can no longer be what she was ''or'' Donna Milton ever again and still viciously attacks Di she'll also go out of her way to save her and absolutely adores and loves the daughter she had during this period. Many of her attacks after this are attempts to get her daughter back as she was taken in to be raised and protected by the Amazons.
*** Giganta transferred her consciousness to an innocent woman killing her in the process in order to save her own life from a painful terminal illness. She can't return to civilian life as a known murderer and she refuses to cooperate with the justice system so she's a PunchClockVillain. It helps that the new body came with superpowers.
*** Silver Swan III was a huge fan of Wonder Woman and had long been her friend before being kidnapped, tortured, experimented on and MindRaped via magic and telepathy into becoming a villain. She was saved by Wonder Woman who was able to find doctors who could remove her "augmentations" and went on to graduate college and lead a normal life.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'':
*** Hypnota turned to using her newfound powers for theft because she developed them after the person she trusted the most in life, her twin sister, shot her in the head. It was an accident but Hypnota thought she'd tried to kill her and it broke her ability to trust. The later revelation that she'd also become a human trafiker makes her considerably less sympathetic, but it's noted that the physical brain damage of getting shot in the head has altered her personality.
*** Pre-Crisis Paula von Gunther only worked for the Nazis because they were holding her daughter Gerta hostage. Once the girl was rescued, Paula defected to Paradise Island with Gerta in tow.
*** Silver Swan II's entire motivation was her desire to be loved, and she was taken advantage of and abused by those running a meta-human experiment which worked on her, adding metal augmentations as well. After she was made to see the truth of her situation she left those driving her to attack Wondy and after helping fight against Circe once retired to a normal life.
*** Zara's hatred towards humanity was born from being sold into slavery as a child.
* ''ComicBook/AstroCity'':
** The Mock Turtle has it all - frequently insulted by others, repeatedly denied the opportunity to [[IJustWantToBeSpecial be special]], stealing from the rich in order to support a poor neighbourhood and not, as far as we know, ever actually killing anyone.
** The Junkman is a bit less squeaky-clean, but still winds up sympathetic enough that it's very easy to root for him. He was a brilliant inventor who got let go due to a mandatory retirement policy, and couldn't get a job anywhere else for being too old. Because of this, his entire supervillain career was less to make money and more just to prove that he still had value--his entire villainous motif is inventions made from scavenged trash and toys. When he manages to pull off a perfect heist, he eventually realizes that his victory had no purpose because it didn't prove anything (since they never traced the crime to him), and kicks off a crime spree just so that people can realize he pulled off a perfect heist in the SuperheroCapitalOfTheWorld while pushing eighty.
* [[spoiler: Ozymandias]] in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' who had a plan for saving the world, by [[spoiler: killing half the population of New York]].
** In the [[Film/{{Watchmen}} movie version]], he upgrades it to [[spoiler:killing half the population of ALL the world's major cities]], and [[spoiler:removing the most effective nuclear deterrent]].
** While he does physically [[spoiler:remove the most effective nuclear deterrent]], in practice he validates Manhattan's status as a [[spoiler:nuclear deterrent]], that's the whole point of his plan, making sure the world knows that [[spoiler: he'll actually do something about it]].
* Adam Susan of ''ComicBook/VForVendetta.'' He's a Fascist dictator whose regime has killed countless people. However, he sincerely believes in Fascism and has some moments (particularly towards the end) that make him into an absolute JerkassWoobie.
* ''ComicBook/OneHundredBullets'': While The Trust are an ancient conspiracy controlling America behind the scenes many of them just seem to be along from the ride (due to the hereditary nature of the organization) and are being manipulated by [[TheChessmaster Augustus]] and ruthlessly hunted down and killed by the Minutemen. It's implied that a few of the oldest members and the fathers/grandfathers of the rest had Kennedy killed but the worst thing some of the present generation do is simply try to get rid of their hired assassins in an effort to become ''less'' violent and law-breaking.
* Ocean Master, ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'s evil brother and ArchEnemy was made into one of these in the ComicBook/New52. Typically portrayed as a [[EvilPrince usurper]] and EvilSorceror who sold his soul to the devil, post-Flashpoint he was repackaged as a NobleDemon and [[WarriorPrince warrior king]] who ruled Atlantis fairly well, actually seemed to genuinely love his brother, and whose most villainous actions were the result of him being manipulated by outside forces. He isn't a good person by any means, he's an Atlantean supremacist and smirking, [[SmugSnake arrogant prick]], and he’ll kill anyone who gets in his way, but you could make the case that he was often doing what he believed was right. Aquaman admits that when he first came to Atlantis, Orm welcomed him with open arms and happily abdicated, and begged him to stay when he went back to the surface. When he is imprisoned on land for his part in Atlantis' attack on Boston, after he joined forces with Arthur against [[spoiler:Vulko]] and believed they had mended fences, you almost feel sorry for him.
** When Aquaman's friends start being attacked and killed for their Atlantean relics, Arthur and Orm secretly meet in a shipwreck deep under the sea. Arthur asks Orm if he is behind it, and Orm replies that if he wanted the relics he would just ask Arthur for them, and says he [[VillainsNeverLie would never lie]] to his brother, which Aquaman doesn't contradict.
** During the ''ComicBook/ForeverEvil'' event, during the mass escape from Blackgate Prison, while all the other inmates go crazy attacking the surrounding areas, Orm just walks to the shore hoping to go home, and abandons that to save a single mother and her son from a gang of escaped supervillains.
** Recently, he has repackaged himself as a champion of the downtrodden, creating a new underwater city as a refuge for Atlantis’ underclass of homeless, mutants and outcasts, as well as handing out free food and medicine to the poor while railing against the failings of the Atlantean government. It’s a nakedly cynical rabble rousing to undermine his enemies and anyone who comes to him for help has to pledge unthinking fealty, but at the same time, he’s A. [[JerkassHasAPoint fairly accurate]] in his assessment of Atlantean society and governance, which is horribly unequal and has a lot of significant structural problems and generally only functions well if a forceful, charismatic leader like him, Arthur or Mera is running the show, and is stubbornly resistant to any change or progress (Mera is shown having to browbeat her own ministers into carrying out social welfare projects to improve the lives of Atlantis’ poorest citizens); B. he genuinely cares about the assorted social refuse flocking to his banner; and C. regardless of motives, he’s the only one offering much-needed humanitarian aid.
* In an old ''ComicBook/TheAtom'' comic, the title character encountered the 2-D Man, able to shrink on his horizontal axes, but not his vertical. Slowly shrinking on that axis, "dwindling away to nothing," in his own words, he stole the high-tech equipment he needed to save his life, and continue his research into a leukemia cure, using another product of the same accident that gave him his powers. When he's cured of his shrinking problem, the judge essentially gives him probation so long as he actually works on this cure.
* A vast majority of Franchise/{{Batman}}'s RoguesGallery regulars are anti-villains of some kind. Examples include:
** Clayface, a former actor who just wants to be normal again (although some of his counterparts are egotistical assholes who deliberately turned themselves into monsters).
** ComicBook/RasAlGhul, who is nothing if not a WellIntentionedExtremist, wants to ensure ecological stability... by [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans destroying most]] [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters of humanity]].
** ComicBook/MrFreeze. Victor Fries was a scientist and a doctor whose wife, Nora, had a terminal disease. He put her in cryogenic stasis until a cure could be developed, but an "accident" that followed turned him into a mutant that can only survive at sub-zero temperatures. Afterwards, he dedicated himself to trying to find a way to save Nora and take his revenge on the people who ruined his life (until New 52 that is, where he was turned into a crazy man who just imagined his marriage... up until Comicbook/{{DC Rebirth}} came along, making Nora his wife once more).
** The ComicBook/RedHood, Jason Todd, the second Robin, who was resurrected following his infamous murder by the Joker and now seeks to kill him, or more accurately force Batman to. He seems to waver between AntiVillain, JerkassWoobie, KnightTemplar, and AxCrazy depending on [[DependingOnTheWriter who writes him]].
** The original version of ComicBook/TwoFace was portrayed this way. Because he would only commit crimes when his coin landed scarred-side up, he was only evil half the time, and when the coin landed face-up he would do good deeds. His portrayal gradually shifted away from this to BlackAndGrayMorality, where his "good side" merely became "less evil" and cowered under his dominant evil personality.
** Comicbook/PoisonIvy can be this from time to time, DependingOnTheWriter. She would gladly wipe every human being from the face of the earth to protect the natural world, but has had a number of significant PetTheDog moments. In particular, she has a soft spot for children and Harley Quinn. When she and Harley team up, she acts as her CoolBigSis (and [[LesYay maybe more]], again DependingOnTheWriter), and seeks to end her self destructive relationship with the Joker. As for the children, when [[ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand the quake]] devastated Gotham, she took up residence in Robinson Park and adopted sixteen children who had been orphaned by the disaster. She cared for them like a mother, and made a deal with Batman to grow food for the people of Gotham if he would let them be. After the city was rebuilt, the cops tried to evict her with a defoliant, and she was prepared to martyr herself for the park. But when one of the children was hurt she surrendered peacefully to get her medical aid. Even Batman acknowledges that deep down Ivy's still more human than plant.
** ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} is an interesting example, in that a lot of the time she's an unapologetic jewel thief, but when push comes to shove she'll usually help Batman and do the right thing. The fact that she's one of the few Batman villains whose various plans usually do not end with lots of people dead or critically injured probably helps as well.
** Killer Croc in the Post-Flashpoint universe is this in spades, especially when written by Tim Seeley. He protects Gotham's cast-aside and disenfranchised in his own personal underground sewer kingdom, will fight magical monsters from another dimension if just one of them is endangered, sponsors Roy Harper for Alcoholics Anonymous, hunts down corrupt cops when he sees them kill somebody who was nice to him, and joins up with Catwoman when she becomes Gotham's criminal kingpin, recognizing her as the lesser of all evils in the city.
** The original Black Spider originally became a SerialKillerKiller after he killed his own father during a drug-induced episode and wanted to make up for it. Keyword being "originally", as after he came BackFromTheDead, he also TookALevelInJerkass and started hanging out with the same criminals he swore to kill in ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis''.
* ComicBook/BlackAdam, traditionally seen as the bad guy to [[IAmNotShazam Captain Marvel's]] position of hero, made big changes under Creator/GeoffJohns. He led a team of anti-heroes including Atom Smasher and an at the time reformed Eclipso to overthrow a dictator of Adam's ancestral home. Adam made himself the dictator, but used his super powers to enforce a system of even handed justice, personally executing super criminals to the cheers of millions; he also created treaties with China and Russia during ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'' to further his nation's place in the world; built a ton of infrastructure, freed slaves, and battled organized crime; and created his own team of side kicks, his wife Isis and brother-in-law Osiris... [[OhCrap Then Osiris and Isis got murdered]]. Black Adam massacred a middle eastern country in a battle with a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Cyborg Angel of Death]] and then tried to wipe China off the map and ended up in a fight with everybody.
* La Dama, a female crime lord and [[LampshadeHanging supposed nemesis]] of ComicBook/{{Blue Beetle}}. She's happy to stay a more or less regional mob boss, but at the start of the series is trying to gain a bit of control over the magic and metahuman communities as well. She figures out Blue Beetle's secret identity at the same time as he figures out that she is the aunt of his best friend Brenda, custodial after the suspicious death of her father. So they actually keep each other's secrets for a while. Throughout the series she's a mob boss, although any actual illegal activities [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything fall out of the picture eventually]], but she was never seen as all ''that'' bad to begin with and has definitely given Brenda a healthier home life than she had before.
* Franchise/GreenLantern:
** Creator/GeoffJohns has been working to turn former alien despot Sinestro into this. Formerly a rather one-dimensional villain obsessed with power and revenge, his Post-Crisis origin gave him a bit of humanity, so to speak, suggesting that he was the ruler of his planet out of necessity rather than choice. Then Geoff got hold of him, gave him a dash of WellIntentionedExtremist and a few gentle [[RetCon retcons]], and now he's barely recognizable from his first appearances.
** It's worked so well that when Sinestro appears in the animated ''Emerald Knights'', set sometime before his FaceHeelTurn (which is hinted at during the story about Abin Sur), he is seen as a heroic and noble figure without any problem at all.
** Atrocitus is another one. You'd assume the leader of the Red Lantern Corps and the embodiment of Rage would be as clearcut a villain as you'd get: you'd be wrong. This is mainly because what the rage-powered Red Lanterns are, well, ''raging'' against is injustice--every Red Lantern was wronged greatly in some way, and harbored great rage and resentment over it. The Red Lantern rings are noted as taking the place of their bearer's hearts--they give themselves over to it, though Atrocitus seems to have his own rage mostly under control.
* Earth-10's Overman from ''[[ComicBook/TheMultiversity Mastermen #1]]''. He feels immense guilt for the lives lost in the creation of his psuedo-utopia, to the point of [[spoiler:becoming TheMole for the Freedom Fighters]].
* Many of the ComicBook/SecretSix in the comic book of that name--it may be the entire point of the title. In particular, Catman often displays noble qualities--ComicBook/{{Deadshot}}, Scandal Savage, and ComicBook/{{Bane}} to a much lesser extent. Ragdoll is pretty-much outright evil by comparison, but affable in his way.
* Comicbook/{{Shade}} shifts from AntiVillain to AntiHero as it suits him. He protects Opal City to an extent and has a soft spot for kids but is largely disinterested in the fate of everywhere else and sometime picks fights with ComicBook/TheFlash or the entire ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica out of boredom. That one time he tried to destroy the world has been retconned to not have been his fault, which makes sense as it would have been really difficult to stop him if he'd really wanted to.
* Franchise/{{Superman}}:
** Superman enters this territory in ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon''. As a leader of the USSR, he is a huge threat to the US and ends up ruling huge portions of the world population. But he still retains most of his heroic qualities, is attempting to create a utopia, and is very reluctant to actually do wrong. This is opposed to ComicBook/LexLuthor, an AntiHero who is America's only hope, but also a Machiavellian egotist; he doesn't actually care what happens to America, just as long as he can get one over on Superman.
** Some depictions of ''Comicbook/LexLuthor'' have portrayed him as an anti-villain whose sin is an excess desire to keep the Earth safe from alien invasion coupled with excess pride. It's fairly common now to find Lex and Superman finding common ground and working together, especially in non-canonical stories.
* ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'':
** ''Comicbook/DemonSpawn'': ''Technically'' Nightflame wants to save her world and its denizens... by destroying Supergirl's soul, taking over her body and doing evil things.
** In ''Comicbook/SupergirlRebirth'', Zor-El only wants to save his family and his city. In order to accomplish this goal, though, he makes choices which are morally dubious at best (such like sending an innocent man to an eternity of ghostly imprisonment because he was potentially dangerous), and his sanity decreases with each failure.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'':
** Even ''Ares'' can fall here, since he's a product of what he is and can never truly reform. Once Diana shows him the full truth of his plot to start WWIII and he immediately calls it off and ''melts'' the humans who'd invoked him. Afterwards he will aid her on occasion and definitely does not want the destruction of the human race but he's treacherous and slippery at the best of times and it's been established that too much power drives the Olympians mad, and he's got plenty streaming in.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'':
*** Circe. After her stint as Donna Milton she can't forget the true friendship she and Diana once shared, and while she hates that she can no longer be what she was ''or'' Donna Milton ever again and still viciously attacks Di she'll also go out of her way to save her and absolutely adores and loves the daughter she had during this period. Many of her attacks after this are attempts to get her daughter back as she was taken in to be raised and protected by the Amazons.
*** Giganta transferred her consciousness to an innocent woman killing her in the process in order to save her own life from a painful terminal illness. She can't return to civilian life as a known murderer and she refuses to cooperate with the justice system so she's a PunchClockVillain. It helps that the new body came with superpowers.
*** Silver Swan III was a huge fan of Wonder Woman and had long been her friend before being kidnapped, tortured, experimented on and MindRaped via magic and telepathy into becoming a villain. She was saved by Wonder Woman who was able to find doctors who could remove her "augmentations" and went on to graduate college and lead a normal life.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'':
*** Hypnota turned to using her newfound powers for theft because she developed them after the person she trusted the most in life, her twin sister, shot her in the head. It was an accident but Hypnota thought she'd tried to kill her and it broke her ability to trust. The later revelation that she'd also become a human trafiker makes her considerably less sympathetic, but it's noted that the physical brain damage of getting shot in the head has altered her personality.
*** Pre-Crisis Paula von Gunther only worked for the Nazis because they were holding her daughter Gerta hostage. Once the girl was rescued, Paula defected to Paradise Island with Gerta in tow.
*** Silver Swan II's entire motivation was her desire to be loved, and she was taken advantage of and abused by those running a meta-human experiment which worked on her, adding metal augmentations as well. After she was made to see the truth of her situation she left those driving her to attack Wondy and after helping fight against Circe once retired to a normal life.
*** Zara's hatred towards humanity was born from being sold into slavery as a child.
* ''ComicBook/AstroCity'':
** The Mock Turtle has it all - frequently insulted by others, repeatedly denied the opportunity to [[IJustWantToBeSpecial be special]], stealing from the rich in order to support a poor neighbourhood and not, as far as we know, ever actually killing anyone.
** The Junkman is a bit less squeaky-clean, but still winds up sympathetic enough that it's very easy to root for him. He was a brilliant inventor who got let go due to a mandatory retirement policy, and couldn't get a job anywhere else for being too old. Because of this, his entire supervillain career was less to make money and more just to prove that he still had value--his entire villainous motif is inventions made from scavenged trash and toys. When he manages to pull off a perfect heist, he eventually realizes that his victory had no purpose because it didn't prove anything (since they never traced the crime to him), and kicks off a crime spree just so that people can realize he pulled off a perfect heist in the SuperheroCapitalOfTheWorld while pushing eighty.
* [[spoiler: Ozymandias]] in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' who had a plan for saving the world, by [[spoiler: killing half the population of New York]].
** In the [[Film/{{Watchmen}} movie version]], he upgrades it to [[spoiler:killing half the population of ALL the world's major cities]], and [[spoiler:removing the most effective nuclear deterrent]].
** While he does physically [[spoiler:remove the most effective nuclear deterrent]], in practice he validates Manhattan's status as a [[spoiler:nuclear deterrent]], that's the whole point of his plan, making sure the world knows that [[spoiler: he'll actually do something about it]].
* Adam Susan of ''ComicBook/VForVendetta.'' He's a Fascist dictator whose regime has killed countless people. However, he sincerely believes in Fascism and has some moments (particularly towards the end) that make him into an absolute JerkassWoobie.
