The general rule is that villains lose in comic books. They do their best to fulfill their plan, even causing losses to the heroes sometimes, but in the end, they don’t get to celebrate their victory. Except for the fact that sometimes it’s the opposite.
RELATED:Video Game Villains Who Got Away With It
Sometimes no matter how evil their actions are, comic book villains get away with them and leave the scene unpunished. In several cases, the heroes caught up with the villain later but by the time they did so, the damage was already done. Just like in the real world, the good doesn’t always win in the comics either, as these villains' actions prove.
5Magneto: Ruled Genosha
Magneto’s goal for the longest time was to rule a landwhere his mutant brethren could live in peace and not fear for their lives. While this goal itself was admirable, the way Magneto decided to achieve it wasn’t as noble, and he caused a lot of pain to others during his mission. He finally got what he wanted in theMagneto Warstoryline. He promised he would keep on destroying the world with an electromagnetic storm. The United Nations conceded and let Magneto rule Genosha.
That happened despite the fact that the X-Men stopped the storm in the end and that by triggering it, Magneto used a part of his part, making himself weaker in the process. One of the most likely reasons why Magneto got away with it is that the United Nations didn’t want to risk the considerable loss of life, and they also knew that if they didn’t give Magneto what he wanted, he would only try it again later.
4Doctor Doom: Ruled The World (As Long As He Actually Wanted)
For many comic book villains, their ultimate goal is to rule the world. Doctor Doom was one of them. Many of his world domination plans failed, usually thanks to the shared efforts of the Fantastic Four. However,Doctor Doom succeeded in the storylineEmperor Doom. He kidnaped Purple Man who has the power to influence other people’s actions (as seen in the MCU seriesJessica Jones). He then constructed a device that allowed him to use Purple Man’s powers and make the entire world do what he wanted, except for a few individuals with the strongest or most stubborn minds.
RELATED:The Best Villain Origin Stories In DC Comics
Even though Doctor Doom didn’t manage to subjugate every single person on the planet, he still ruled it successfully. Until he finally decided that ruling the world was boring, so he let the Avengers break his machine and returned to smaller-scale plans. It’s one of the few rare examples when a villain let himself be defeated, rather than simply losing.
3Joker: Killed Robin
One of the most brutal scenes in the comics is when Joker kills Jason Todd aka Robin. He beats him with a crowbar and then locks him up in a building that’s about to blow up. Robin tries to get out of the building despite his injuries but is too slow. Batman is too far away and by the time he gets to Robin, the boy’s already dead and Batman is seen cradling his broken body.
Joker goes on his merry way and is never truly punished for his crime, as he always escapes Arkham Asylum in the end, making his internment there invalid. Even after Jason comes back from the dead asthe vigilante Red Hoodand wants to get rid of Joker, Batman stops him, making it even more difficult for the young man to come to terms with what happened to him.
2Thanos: Snapped Half The Universe
A bit similar to Doctor Doom, Thanos is another Marvel villain who let himself be defeated. Bothin the comics and in the MCU, albeit differently, Thanos got his hands on the Infinity Gauntlet and used it to kill half of all life in the universe, erasing millions of beings from existence. No matter how hard the superheroes tried to stop him, Thanos succeeded in his plan and got away with it too. He was even able to kill several superheroes.
RELATED:Best Villain Origin Stories In Marvel Comics
The person who stopped him, in the end, was Adam Warlock, one of the most powerful Marvel superheroes, but as the comic books revealed, Thanos let him win. A similar thing happened in the MCU. Once Thanos had fulfilled his plan, he didn’t fight anywhere near as hard as he could have when the Avengers came to kill him at the beginning ofAvengers: Endgame(2019). By that time, the damage was already done and Thanos had won.
1Ozymandias: Killed Millions Of People
Ozymandias initially posed as one of the good guys, that’s what made his actions even more devastating for his former allies. A bit similar to Thanos, theWatchmencharacter decided to kill millions of people, and he succeeded. He managed to persuade the worldan alien invasion was going on(spoiler alert: it wasn’t) and the number of victims paralyzed the world.
The worst thing is Ozymandias saw himself as the good guy since he did what he did to unite the world and stop them from going to war. As such, he’s one of the truly morally gray comic book characters, and the fans continue to discuss his actions and motivations to this day.
