10 Marvel Villains Who Are Ready for Redemption

Alongside its beloved superheroes, Marvel Comics has gained great fanfare for its dynamic supervillains who don’t always adhere to objectively ‘evil’ archetypes that the Golden and Silver Ages of Comics purveyed. Several Marvel villains have successfully changed courses to become anti-villains and even heroes; those like Venom, Doctor Octopus and Mystique have famously had times when they have committed to heroism thanks to a desire to change or in response to the ever-changing status quo of the Marvel Universe.

Many more Marvel villains have made great strides as characters, bringing them close to possible redemption, but they’re just not there yet. These villains have shown they can turn over a new leaf, but they need the right story to give them the final push.

10 Lady Deathstrike Has Found Herself Unsatisfied With The Life She Leads

Weapon X-Force And Alyssa Wong’s Deadpool Show Lady Deathstrike’s Capacity For Change

When first introduced as one of Wolverine’s many arch-nemesis, Lady Deathstrike was a largely shallow and one-dimensional villain who fought the X-Men out of obligation to her father, Lord Dark Wind. Her unrelenting hatred for Wolverine became a core part of her identity for several decades without change. It almost became comical how obsessive Lady Deathstrike could become over her desire to kill him. Despite this, in the late 2010s, some nuances were introduced into her character, showing her capacity to change.

Her appearances in Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente’s 2018 Weapon X-Force storyline created a duality between Lady Deathstrike and Sabertooth. They were both highly trained mercenaries created by Weapon X who had a vendetta against Wolverine; however, the story showed Deathstrike become increasingly abhorred by how obsessed Sabertooth was and how his century-spanning war with Wolverine has brought him nothing but suffering. This change was expanded in Alyssa Wong’s Deadpool, which saw Lady Deathstrike retain her desire to work up the mercenary hierarchy but with added showings of heroism and comradeship with Deadpool, showing that Lady Deathstrike could become a long-term ally to the Avenger.

9 The Spot Was Never Really A Malignant Personality

The Spot’s Crimes Were Motivated By A Sense of Inferiority Or To Protect His Family

Doctor Jonathan Ohnn, better known as The Spot, is an interesting character within the Spider-Man mythos as he has never truly been depicted as ‘villainous’. While he certainly has committed nefarious acts, they rarely hold the same gravitas as those committed by the Green Goblin, the Kingpin or the Sinister Six members. Except for such stories as 2009’s Amazing Spider-Man: Marked and 1994’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series, The Spot has been regarded as a ‘joke villain’ who, despite having immense power, was a bumbling buffoon.

This, however, makes The Spot far closer to attaining redemption than nearly every other Spider-Man villain, as his actions rarely come from a place of malignant intent. Most of the time, he commits low-level crimes to nurse his inferiority complex, or he’s bullied into it by more dangerous villains. Truly, the only time wherein The Spot acted as a truly threatening villain was when his son was hospitalized by the Russian Mafia, prompting The Spot to seek vengeance for his son by targeting the mafia. With that being the case, given that his deepest emotional investment as a villain came when his family was threatened, The Spot is a character who could easily make the turn to heroism if prompted.

Madame Masque Is Married To Her Role As Mob Boss – But She Could Still Transform Into An Anti-Villain

Whether she goes by ‘Madame Masque’ or ‘Big M,’ Whitney Frost has been one of Iron Man’s most difficult opponents to fight. This is not because of how big of a threat she is –although she is arguably one of the Golden Avenger’s most dangerous foes– but rather because of how tragic her story is. Even before she became the head of the Maggia, Madame Masque was an extremely socially paranoid person. Yet, she still longed for an emotional connection with someone, such as Agent Jasper Witwell or Tony Stark. Still, through repeated tragic losses or perceived betrayal, Madame Masque’s mental state descended dramatically.

While past incarnations of her in the 1970s and 1980s saw Madame Masque long for a normal life, the Modern Age of Comics has seen her abandon that option in place of aggressively expanding her criminal empire, whether by aligning with The Hood amidst the Superhuman Registration Act or by going to war against Kingpin and Tombstone during the Gang War crossover event. Still, even while being committed to her role as a crime boss, Madame Masque occasionally shows a rare sense of honor and comradery to those who stick by her. It may be impossible for her to give up life as a crime boss, but she could shirk towards becoming a benevolent anti-villain, not unlike Catwoman in DC Comics’ Batman: The Gotham War.

7 Dog Logan Could Have A Place As A Mentor

Dog’s Hatred Of Wolverine Has Mellowed Thanks To The Hellfire Academy

Dog Logan has had a complicated relationship with his half-brother, Wolverine. Throughout his time as a character, he started as Wolverine’s childhood friend. Still, issues of 19th-century Canadian classism and his abusive father drove a wedge in their relationship until Wolverine’s activated mutant gene caused him to kill Dog’s father and permanently scar Dog when he raided Wolverine’s family home. This led to Dog Logan spending much of his adult life trying to track down Wolverine across British Colombia for decades to kill him; this goal expanded to over a century as he went as far as to track Wolverine to the dinosaur-infested Savage Lands just to end their feud.

However, since their encounter in the Savage Lands, Dog Logan has given up on his mission to kill Wolverine after the Hellfire Academy scouted him to help teach mutant children who chose to abstain from joining the X-Men’s schooling system. There, Dog found a new calling as a teacher and coach for young children; while he was strict and occasionally brutal in his P.E. regiment, he showed himself to be a far greater mentor to the kids than his abusive father ever was to him. While he still fought Wolverine and the X-Men when Mystique and the rest of the Hellfire Academy deemed it necessary, it truly seems that Dog is unconcerned with Mystique’s vendetta and just wanted to give the kids a good second chance, showing an immense capacity for redemption.

6 Gang War Showed Tombstone Isn’t Unreasonable

Tombstone Learned To Bury His Feud With The Robertsons For His Daughter – What Else Is Possible?

While a brilliant mobster, Tombstone has been consistently depicted in Spider-Man comics as rash and prone to letting his emotions put him in tunnel vision. No example is more evident than his tumultuous relationship with Joseph ‘Robbie’ Robertson, who was Tombstone’s old friend turned mortal enemy at the epoch of his turn to criminality; almost whenever Robbie or a member of his family gets roped into Tombstone’s life, he is guaranteed to go all-out just to destroy their lives.

This, however, dramatically changed thanks to Amazing Spider-Man: King’s Ransom and Amazing Spider-Man: Gang Wars; both stories have a major side-plot involving Tombstone and Robbie realizing that their children are in love with one another in a Romeo & Juliet forbidden-love situation. While Tombstone was initially violently livid at such news, throughout the two aforementioned storylines, his relationship with Robbie began to change thanks to Tombstone almost dying were it not for him and Tombstone rekindling his relationship with his daughter. These events created a significantly more mellow and rational Tombstone who could realistically begin to take steps to atone for his violent past.

5 Stilt-Man’s Character Arc On Megiddo Showed He’s Rather Complex

While Stilt-Man Took Over Megiddo For Selfish Reasons, He Did So For A New Lease On Life

Similarly to The Spot, Stilt-Man has often fallen into the ‘joke villain’ category because of his outlandish gimmick that doesn’t hold up to the same caliber of other villains. But one thing that is forgotten is that Stilt-Man is still an incredibly intelligent person who longs to be recognized as more than a man who can turn his arms and legs into stilts; initially, when the Superhuman Registration Act saw to pardon Stitl-Man as long as he worked for S.H.I.E.L.D, he took his new lease on life with glee and wanted to work for the organization until Punisher murdered him. However, the greatest example of his capacity to be redeemed –while conversely an example of why he isn’t yet– was within Christopher Cantwell’s Iron Man comic series.

There, being sick of his life on Earth, he created and governed a near-utopic civilization called the Megiddo Colony; as ruler, he showed a benevolent side of him who wanted to preserve a fragile display of pure goodness in the vast Marvel Universe. However, the reason he isn’t considered ‘redeemed’ already is because Stilt-Man’s fear of losing Megiddo caused him to begin reprogramming ancient Ultimo robots to attack Megiddo every so often so the colony could never expand beyond his control; it was this that prompted Iron Man and Avro-X to arrest Stilt-Man. Still, despite his incredibly warped actions with the Ultimos, Stilt-Man showed he doesn’t want to be a villain anymore and yearns for a higher calling.

4 Trapster Showed That He Can Be Far More Successful As An Anti-Villain

Trapster’s Time As A Freelancer Proved That Being A Supervillain Was Never His True Calling

Trapster — or as he was originally known, ‘Paste Pot Pete’ — followed the long line of villains never taken seriously. His overly alliterative debut name and adhesive guns didn’t leave much for the superhero community to take as a genuine threat despite numerous attempts to make a name for himself as a long-time member of the Frightful Four. Eventually, however, Trapster found that his life as a supervillain was unfulfilling and led to constant mockery and instead chose to start a new life as a mercenary; this life began through his employment under Latverian Prime Minister Lucia von Bardas in 2004’s Secret War but expanded when he took a retainer working for the Roxxon Corporation.

It was while working for Roxxon that a more heroic side of Trapster began to emerge as he was sent to help the corporation eliminate a resistance movement in Al Waziribad but, thanks to the pleas of Deadpool, chose to betray Roxxon and help defend the people of Al Waziribad alongside the Merc With A Mouth. Even after being tortured by Omega Red, Trapster remained loyal to his newfound moral sense. This surprising turn for Trapster has not been built upon since it occurred in Deadpool #43 (by Gary Duggan, Brian Posehn, Salvador Espin, Val Staples and Joe Sabino), even though the story practically reinvented Trapster as a character that set him up to take a more chivalrous career path.

3 Kang the Conquerer Has Been Conflicted Regarding His Past Agenda

Kang the Conquerer Is Still Very Much A Villain, But His Desire To Protect The Multiverse Could Make Him More

While Kang’s modus operandi for numerous decades has been to conquer, he has always been more complex than that; from his past as Pharaoh Rama-Tut, he sought to conquer the 40th Century out of a misguided belief that he could save it and turn it into a utopic society that would make his ancestors –which included the heroes Reed Richards, Sue Richards and Franklin Richards– proud. While this resulted in him becoming a galactic-level dictator, he never lost that connection to heroism, which often caused him to travel back to the Modern Age to battle the archetypal superheroes that became historical icons in his world. However, it was the events succeeding his death in 2006’s Young Avengers by his heroic alternate self, Iron Lad, that Kang truly began to show signs that he was more than just a villain.

This began in 2010’s Avengers: The Heroic Age, which had him try to rally an army of superheroes from across the multiverse after he learned of a future wherein Ultron causes armageddon; he continually fails but maintained an almost heroic stubbornness that caused him to keep trying until he eventually succeeded with the help of the Avengers. Later in 2013’s Uncanny Avengers, Kang became instrumental in trying to stop the Apocolypse Twins from destroying the multiverse; at first, he reasoned to do this by controlling them, but when this failed, he helped rally a coalition of heroes to vanquish these threats and save the multiverse. As it stands, Kang is still the most evil character on this list, but the fact that he is always put on the path of defending the multiverse could mean that he could find a more benevolent existence by embracing heroism.

2 Armadillo Is A Simple Man Who Wants An Out

Armadillo Just Wants To Be Loved And Will Take Any Avenue To Stop Being Treated As A Monster

Armadillo is a largely uncomplicated supervillain, but he’s always been a sympathetic one; even when he debuted, his reasoning for becoming a supervillain was out of a desire to save his wife from a terminal illness by allowing himself to become Karl Malus’ lab rat in return for saving his wife. The reasoning for his criminal actions after then was little more than him lashing out at the world after learning that his wife was cheating on him, thus creating a vicious cycle of him being beaten by superheroes, causing him to become even angrier.

He truly wanted to be accepted, which Armadillo eventually received when he met his new girlfriend, Daisy Schilling after Armadillo was pardoned through the Superhuman Registration Act. Daisy became the rock in Armadillo’s life, and while he still occasionally committed crimes, he tried to keep his temper in check. Most recently, in Jessica Jones #18 (by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos, Matt Hollingsworth and Cory Petit), Armadillo was finally convinced by the titular Jessica Jones to stop using crime as a way to find fulfillment in a world that makes fun of him and instead be grateful for the love that Daisy has shown his over the years. With that, Armadillo has entered a new, healthier existence; since he hasn’t made any major appearances, the door is open for Armadillo to go even further and truly commit to a proper redemption.

1 Beast Was Never Meant To Be A Villain

Beast’s Time As A Villain Ended When He Died In 2024’s X-Force – It’s Time To Return To Form

As one of the founding members of the X-Men, Beast is a fan-favorite among Marvel Comic fans; his kind personality, scientific curiosities, and famed catchphrase “oh, my stars and garters” made him incredibly endearing to readers. In a sense, he became the kind uncle of the entire X-Men team, often being a mentor to the younger members while a brother-in-arms to the more senior X-Men, all the while remaining fiercely loyal to the mission of Professor X.

This made it incredibly disheartening when, in 2022’s Wolverine: The Beast Agenda, he devolved into a sociopathic madman who conspired to create a police state in Krakoa, brainwashed Wolverine into becoming his servant, and led an army of clones of himself to destroy the United Nations. This culminated in his eventual death after a battle with one of the surviving clones of himself; Beast did, however, manage to show a hint of his true self within the malignant mess he had become by having his last act to save Wonder Man’s life. Very few fans liked seeing the beloved Beast turn into such a barbaric person, and given his final act was heroic, it is better that he returns a hero and leaves his time as a villain behind.