In general a popular comic trend in recent years has been to subject female villains to this as a way of compensating for the general scarcity of female superheroes. DC has been especially enthusiastic about revamping their back catalog of villainesses (Harley Quinn is a particularly notable example), but Marvel isn't too far behind the trend.
Whenever there's an Alternate Universe or Continuity Reboot, expect to see lots of this.
Adaptational Heroism in Comic Books.
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- The Mega Man (Archie Comics) comics do this with the Robot Masters from the original game, with Mega Man's attempts to talk them out of following Wily's orders convinces them to help him, and later join and serve his supporting cast when Wily's programming to them is undone, though this is more because they were already Dr. Light's robots to begin with. This trope rings truer when half of the Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3 Robot Masters pull a Heel–Face Turn.
- Also from Archie, Sonic X, the title character had his Aloof Ally, Übermensch, and Brilliant, but Lazy traits dropped in the comic tie in, becoming a goody two-shoes. Of course, he was already a hero and (usually) a friendly guy in the Anime, so this a downplayed case.
- Beast Wars: Uprising: Rampage in Beast Wars is a Serial Killer with a disturbingly sadistic streak. In Uprising, he proves genuinely self-sacrificing and willing to protect others; while certainly the death wish is a factor there, he still does things like several other bots from dying in a fall by serving as a living crumple zone that his BW counterpart would never do. Even when he kills his creator, he plans a slow, painful death, and then changes his mind and goes for a Mercy Kill with a rocket launcher.
- Mad Madame Mim from Disney's The Sword in the Stone was a genuinely villainous character who tried to kill Arthur because, as she made no effort in hiding, she's evil. In the Disney comics that later featured her, she was more of a harmless witch or occasionally even a heroic one.
- The comic for Dino Crisis Has Dr. Kirk portayed more sympathetically than in the actual game.
- Dynamite Comics brings us Phaidor in their Warlord of Mars title. While in the John Carter series, she is a White Martian princess who possesses all her people's negative traits such as god delusion, racial superiority, jealousy and cannibalism — though admittedly she had been Obliviously Evil all her life over all these things — the comic downplays all those traits and makes her more sympathetic. Though she still attempts to kill Dejah Thoris in a fit of jealousy because she is married to the man Phaidor loves, she ends up regretting the attack and befriends the princess while they are both imprisoned inside a dungeon, ultimately coming to Dejah's defense when Phaidor's father assaults her and admits before John Carter that she will never earn his affection, in contrast to the book version, where she remains loyal to her father and gloats to Carter's face that he can't save his wife.
- Hasbro Comic Universe has taken many villains and given them a more sympathetic bent.
- The Decepticons downplay this, as they were formed as a protest group against the corrupt government, before devolving past He Who Fights Monsters and becoming even worse (even the government thugs got hired into their group).
- Cyclonus, while usually a Noble Demon actually pulls a Heel–Face Turn in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye and becomes a hero.
- Most of the Scavengers are villains outside of The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, with the exceptions of Grimlock, who's an Autobot, and Fulcrum and Nickel, who are original to MTMTE. Even at the start of their career in the Hasbroverse, they're less "villains" and more "bums", and eventually they commit to doing good full-time...at least when they can afford to.
- In The Transformers: Robots in Disguise has Tankor pull a Heel–Face Turn and later join the security forces as one of Ironhide's allies. Previous depictions of Octane/Tankor were villains or betrayed the Decepticons for selfish reasons.
- Megatron and his three main lieutenants underwent this. Megatron's reasoning for starting the war, over throwing the caste system, are more sympathetic and ultimately he pulls a Heel–Face Turn and becomes an Autobot. Shockwave was a senator who campaigned for a more equal society before the corrupt leaders reprogrammed his mind to lack empathy and even then he snapped out of that and performed a Heroic Sacrifice. Soundwave received a more sympathetic play as an outlier and in the present has made a Heel–Face Turn to become one of Optimus's main allies in his quest for peace. Starscream, while still played as the least ethical, ultimately does receive more of a sympathetic edge as he becomes a Byronic Hero who is at least trying to help Cybertron.
- Knock Out and Breakdown were Decepticons in Transformers: Prime; Knock Out defected for pragmatic reasons, and Breakdown died a Decepticon. In The Transformers: Till All Are One, Knock Out and an unnamed bot with Breakdown's designnote are instead a married couple who hail from the unaligned world of Velocitron, which has a speed obsession. Knock Out is still a vain jerk, but he's a vain jerk who's willing to relocate from his home to Cybertron because his less speedy husband is happier there, and "Breakdown" doesn't do anything villainous at all — a considerable improvement on the "Mad Doctor" and "murderous thug" characterisations they received in Prime, and ones that probably leave them higher up the Karma Meter than several fully-qualified Autobots, such as Prowl, Getaway and Whirl.
- Jem and the Holograms (IDW):
- Rio is no longer exceedingly jealous like he was in the cartoon. He's also firmly just dating Jerrica, and is pissed off when she forgets herself and kisses him as Jem.
- Jetta lost a lot of her attitude towards her bandmates. In the cartoon she went as far as to try and scam Pizzazz out of millions, and she was always fighting with Roxy. In the comic Roxy and Jetta are friends and Jetta gets along better with the others.
- The comics have tried to humanize Pizzazz more. While she still frequently throws fits over little things she has Hidden Depths and cares for business.
- Overall The Misfits are portrayed more realistically. In the cartoon they casually would do stuff that would end them in jail or with restraining orders. In the comics they don't attempt to physically harm the titular band or crash random events.
- Lady Death was originally conceived as a villain protagonist whose end goal was the complete destruction of mankind due to a curse placed on her by Satan that she could not return to Earth as long as humans walked on it. Subsequent re-imaginings and interpretations of the character made her more traditionally heroic or tried to. In the Avatar Press/Boundless continuity, she serves as guardian and protector of the Labyrinth even if she could be a nasty about it.
- Monica's Gang: There is nothing particularly heroic about the Boiúna from Brazilian Folklore, as it's mostly portrayed as a cunning snake that lures people to the rivers in order to devour them. In Tom-Tom's (Papa-Capim in the original) graphic novel, Boiúna is the Big Good, granting the protagonist supernatural powers in order to fight against the villainous White Night.
- Muppet King Arthur gives this treatment to King Arthur's Evil Nephew Mordred (portrayed by Kermit's nephew Robin), who coerces his uncle into surrendering his kingdom solely to see if his uncle is truly worthy of the throne and commends his uncle for proving that he deserves to be king by being willing to put his people above himself.
- King Sombra in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW) is played very sympathetically as a Tragic Villain at worst, accompanied by a Morality Pet, and is ultimately (and abruptly) redeemed by The Power of Love complete with a Happily Ever After type ending, in stark contrast to the source material that has consistently portrayed him as an irredeemable darkness-wielding villain.
- In Noob, Gaea negotiated for her guildmates' (except Omega Zell) immunity from Tenshirock's "attacks" as part of her frequent cooperation with him. The webseries and novel storylines have that immunity be Tenshirock's personal initiative while the nicest things Gaea ever said or did fell into Jerk with a Heart of Jerk.
