THE MANY YEARS I have spent reading comic books have taught me one thing: Superman’s costume looks way better without the red underpants.
It’s also taught me that some supervillains are just as compelling as their superhero counterparts, and in some cases, even more so.
I’m not gonna tell you that old cliche about “every villain being the hero of their own story” because it’s redundant and very obvious. But I would like to talk about why we find it so compelling.
In fact, I would go as far to say that some supervillian origins are actually pretty damn good, if not better, than superhero ones. They kind of have to be in order to convey a somewhat decent motivation for going crazy, slipping on an animal themed costume and attempting to kill a brightly coloured wise cracking crime-fighter for decades. And that’s kind of unsettling.
It really makes you stop to think about certain supervillain origins and reflect on how tragically intricate and heartbreaking they can be. Or even just beautifully simplistic to the point where it seems like a genuine thing that an average person would decide to do one day. We all have a breaking point, after all.
The chief example of a practically perfect supervillian origin is of course, Mister Freeze. I’m sure some of you more savvy readers of this blog thought of him first too. Depending on the incarnation, the tragic tale of Victor Fries (Yes, it’s pronounced “Freeze”) is one of heartbreak, desperation and woeful denial of reality. All Mister Freeze wanted to do was save the life of his cryogenically frozen wife, but a system of abuse, neglect and a freak accident thrown in for that comic book flavour turned him into a relentless killer, determined to achieve his goal by any means necessary, losing his very humanity over the course of his futile quest. I’m not crying, you are.
On the completely different end of the spectrum is the origin of Spider-Man villain, the Shocker. While probably not as renowned as one Mister Freeze, Shocker remains to this day as one of my absolute favourite Spider-Man villains due to the fact he’s just so utterly… basic.
Let me finish: The Shocker’s simple nature is so appealing to me because he really is just the every-man of supervillains. Think Ant-Man from the MCU but without the heroic motivation of providing for his daughter, instead being motivated by pure lust for the almighty dollar.
Shocker is the antithesis of your grandiose and tragic villain like Doctor Doom or Thanos. He doesn’t want to take over the world or balance the universe’s population, nothing like that. He just wants to rob banks with tech that he built himself and that’s it. He’s a clean template for any writer willing to use him in their stories and he’s ripe for a plethora of different interpretations. It’s a shame about the name though, but he was called the Shocker before the internet.
So, taking all this into account, I believe the perfect supervillain origin should lean towards either the Mr Freeze or Shocker territory. Tragic or simple. If you want to get it any more complicated than that, then any villain you make has to stand in direct contrast to their hero in order to portray a captivating dynamic. This is where we get into Joker territory.
Hoo boy.
Now, I haven’t seen his latest movie and I really don’t want to. Not because I’m squeamish or I think it’s ‘problematic’, but purely because I don’t think it pays any heed to its source material and completely misinterprets the character or at least uses him as a stand in for other social issues that he’s only peripherally related to.
The Joker is a definitive example of why a supervillain doesn’t need a good origin to be an amazing character. The only thing they do need is a nemesis that is the complete opposite of them. Think about how many times you’ve seen a Batman origin on the screen. The list goes on. Now think about how many times we’ve seen the Joker’s origin on screen, and if it’s even comparable to the depths that Batman’s origins have been explored. It’s not even close, and that’s the way I believe it should be.
Joker’s nothing more than an agent of chaos with a sick sense of humour. At times, he represents the peak of crime in Gotham, just as Batman represents the peak of justice. And while there have been stories about Joker’s solo adventures, barely any of them have been about his origin, because that is not why we like the Joker. His origin is not what makes him interesting. Any origin stories he has had have always featured Batman or the Wayne family in some capacity. The latest Joker movie is perhaps the most conceited and tacked on way its been done yet, with Thomas & Martha Wayne being murdered in what, the last five minutes of the film?
It doesn’t take a genius to tell you that supervillains only exist because the superheroes need someone to beat up. But it takes a maniac like me to tell you that some supervillains out there have redefined what it means to be an antagonist to the point where they are just as compelling and artfully constructed as any protagonist. Black Manta. Doctor Octopus. Even Bizarro. I could go on all day, but I feel like I’ve rambled for long enough.
Basically, you don’t need to try too hard when thinking of a supervillain origin. But if you happen to latch on to a good idea, it’s a win-win situation for both reader and writer.
Manically Laughing,
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WORLD OF MADNESS 