Twisted Comic Book Villains With Surprisingly Tame Backstories
From the Riddler to Thanos, some comic book villains have acquired cult status for their dreaded forms of villainy. Be it in modern comics, movies, or TV shows, these foes have been worthy opponents with both their brains and brawn. Still, when comic book nerds take a deep dive into their origins, they would find out some of these villains had comparatively tamer (or even funnier) backstories.
There have been villains who plan to use their best skills and gifts just to be petty robbers while there are others who are ready to destroy half of the universe just to win over their love interest. These backstories end up showing readers how these otherwise-threatening comic book characters have evolved over the years.
Mac Gargan is the most popular incarnation of Scorpion but the character debuted in Spider-Man comics as Monster Scorpion. The origin of the latter is as over-the-top as the name sounds. Monster Scorpion is quite literally a scorpion that gains the consciousness to mutate and kill the human race, turning them all into scorpions, of course.
As can be predicted, the origins of this scorpion can be traced from a generic "experiment gone wrong" storyline. While Monster Scorpion died after a hypnotization process, the mantle of the villain passed on to humans like Mac Gargan who turned out to be way more terrifying.
The Riddler has got an all-new edgy persona, thanks to recent comics and a stunning portrayal by Paul Dano in The Batman. However, when the character started his stint in Detective Comics, his origin was much simpler. Instead of being an orphan-turned-mass murderer, Riddler was just a mischievous child who loved solving puzzles.
Having a relatively normal childhood, he set out to work at a carnival. Once he had cheated enough customers with his puzzles and mental tricks, his insatiable desire to outsmart others drove him to deceive Batman. The rest is history and Riddler went on to engage in some grievous crimes but his origin is still pretty light-hearted as compared to other classic Batman comic book villains like Bane and the Joker.
The master of mystical illusions was once a man who harbored dreams of making it big in Hollywood. A gifted special effects artist, he soon gave up his dreams of stardom when he realized his skills could be used way better if he found an easy way out to make money i.e. a life of burglary.
So, all in all, Mysterio's greed got the best of him, and his elaborate magic tricks just got reduced to robbery traits. In fact, his first encounter with Spider-Man was also in the middle of a museum heist. Obviously, Mysterio went on to play a more major role in other Spider-Man comic book storylines but one wouldn't imagine the special effects wizard to be just another robber.
The mad Titan found new life in pop culture when Josh Brolin lent his husky voice to the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Wearing the weapon known as the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos' plans to save the world (at the cost of half of humanity losing their lives) were highly twisted.
On the other hand, the Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity War comics find Thanos as a lover who is ready to do anything for Madame Death. As he is smitten with her, he is ready to destroy the universe with the gauntlet so as to offer her the dead souls as a gift. It is definitely an unexpectedly hilarious storyline for one of Marvel's most powerful comic book villains.
Created by powerful Superman villains like Lex Luthor, Bizarro is quite a threat to Superman as he is designed to replicate the Kryptonian's powers. No matter how lethal his powers might be, Bizarro is still a mind-controlled copy of Superman and this is what adds to his naivety.
In fact, Action Comics #254–255 detail a wholesome origin for Bizarro. Questioning his existence as an imperfect Superman clone, Bizarro even falls in love with Lois Lane. Taking pity on his plight, Lane ends up cloning herself with "a duplicating ray" creating a "Bizarro Lois." Subsequently, a few more clones are created who plan to leave Earth and find a new planet for themselves.
While the Hulk acquired superhuman strength after exposure to gamma radiation, The Leader became a "megamind" of sorts with an enhanced cranium to accommodate a super-brain. The Leader would go on to wreak havoc with his calculative ways but his initial villainy was quite petty.
After gaining superhuman intelligence, The Leader's powers increased subconsciously as he desired to outsmart his brother Philip who worked as a scientist in the same lab facility as him.
Introduced as a femme fatale in the Batman comics of the 1940s, Catwoman is just a robber whose skillset includes agile fighting and quick disguises. She outsmarts Batman while posing as an old woman and committing a jewel burglary. Charmed from the first time he met her, Batman also encountered her once at the Batcave where she reveals that she's an amnesiac flight attendant who was compelled to choose a life of crime.
Batman even buys the story only to be outwitted by her yet again as she reveals that it was all a ruse. Catwoman's challenges with Batman and other villains increase but as for her Golden Age origin, she didn't stand out much apart from being Batman's romantic interest.
As far back as Detective Comics #58, Oswald Cobblepot aka Penguin was a skilled but petty thief. He started his criminal career by stealing paintings and rolling the canvases inside the handle of his umbrella. His eventual adventures against Batman and Robin found him stealing statues.
In fact, one of the Batman comic book storylines from that time finds Penguin blaming the heroic duo for even insurance fraud. It is only much later that he went on to train actual penguins to follow his orders and unleash terrorist attacks.
Basil Karlo was once a talented B-movie actor who was delighted when one of his classics was getting remade. However, when he finds out that the remake wouldn't cast him in the lead, he gets disappointed beyond belief. So, while donning the costume of Clayface (one of the characters that he had played in a previous movie), he sets out to kill all his rival actors one by one.
It is only in later comics that Clayface got his enhanced shapeshifting powers but as for his Golden Age origin, it is a fairly simple murder mystery.
New York native Herman Schulz was particularly gifted in his engineering skills, allowing him to build gadgets and gizmos at his own expense. Rather than pursuing a life of science, Shocker went down the same road of burglary as Mysterio. Apart from fighting Spider-Man, most of his early exploits involved cracking safes, robbing banks, and breaking out of prisons, thanks to his air blasting gauntlets.
Shocker went on to play a pivotal role in future Spider-Man storylines as well as the animated series from the 1990s. But it can't be denied that initially, he was just another superpowered bank robber.
Source: Screenrant
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