ITT: Comic villains that have undergone genuine character development

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IDW Megatron, Soundwave, and Starscream have gotten excellent development.

>>93766340
Magneto is also a pretty big example. In the 60s he was just a megalomaniac "take over the world, fuck humans, fuck mutants that don't bow before me" villain with no redeeming qualities. Claremont turned him into a more complex character with more understandable motivations and less evil methods, and ever since then Magneto has been more of an anti-hero that helps the X-Men more often than he fights them. It's why people were so pissed off by Morrison's portrayal.

>>93766372
How exactly did Megatron change?

>>93767239
He was a bot with an agenda. He was gonna correct the injustices. However instead of working with Optimus, he fought against him. Then he died, became Galvatron, and became even more of a selfish prick.

Decpticons don't deceive one another. Galvatron does.

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Although not every story allows for room or reason to show it, Dredd's character development over his forty years of existence is the most compelling long-running subplot in comics right now for me.

>>93767612
Dredd is a villain?

>>93767239
Don't listen to this anon >>93767297
because he is deceiving you.
IDW Megatron and Galvatron are two different people. Galvs is an ancient warrior and Megatron is Megatron.
Megs pretty much went from being space Stalin to a slightly better person attempting to redeem himself- He's an autobot now.

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>>93767637
Every now and then.

>>93766340

Arguably we're talking about a different Loki here.

>>93766340
Sandman until the random mind alter thing.
>Be a heavy hitting Spider-Man villain
>Meet Ben Grimm on fair terms
>Ben notices that Flint is a crook, but one with a heart
>Gets Flint to become a hero, even becoming a reserve Avenger

>>93766340
This whole meta Loki was taken right out of Earth-X where he's the first to come to realize that Asgard gods are merely shapeshifting beings defined by what others believe of them. It's neat how they incorporating more ideas from it into the mainline universe.

>>93766528
>people were so pissed off by Morrison's portrayal.
Even though I like anti hero magneto, I never got the hate for Morrison's portrayal, he let him an easy out since Magneto was using the drugs that had Sublime in them and as shown in the future arc Sublime can pretty much take over a person they're inside of as seen by Beast. They really didn't need such a complex retcon about Xorn being some guy who thought he was magneto.

>>93767637
>the year of our lord two thousands seven and ten
>anons don't know the judges are a necessary evil
Come on man.

>>93766340
Luthor.

Went from trying to kill baby superman to telling Zod, Cyborg Superman, Eradicator, Mongol and Blanque that they would have to kill him to get to superman.

>>93767637
>fanatically devoted to an authoritarian regime hellbent on asserting it's control via "justice"
>can (and does) systematically execute anyone for deviation from the norm

He's a villain in a world where EVERYONE is a villain. Dredd's world is such a hellish shithole he kind of has to be villainous just to survive the day.

>>93767944
>Went from trying to kill baby superman
Was that in new 52?

>>93766340
Baron Zemo, but a lot got reverted thanks to Hopeless and Remender.

>>93767948
Nah, if he's a villain then he's the villain with a code that he wont break. And that is what makes him better than the common trash and thugs he puts down.
Villains with a code are always awesome

>>93766340
I think Flash Thompson has had one of the best consistent character arcs in comics. He went from bully to friend to teacher to alcoholic to soldier to super hero. Rarely regressing, only briefly getting reset to zero after his truck accident, and getting more mature and thought out along the way.

I know lots of people like Brock Venom but honestly I thought Flash being Venom was a great place for the character.

>>93768001
Agreed, none of those transitions ever felt forced or against the character's mold or personality.

Constrictor. His reformation and struggle to stay on the path was engaging. And then they killed him off-panel.

The Thunderbolts, the last "new" Marvel property to become iconic after Deadpool.

Vandal Savage. Started out as extremely generic golden age villain and went on to become a very interesting and faceted character while still a villain.

Bronze Tiger. Went from best buddy of Richard Dragon to brainwashed assassin to honest reformation and stayed reformed.

>>93767944
Its gonna be a sad day when they inevitably make him evil again

>>93768528
I don't know. I think they might stick with this one, at least for a long while. They may bring back and emphasise an antagonistic relationship with Superman, but I think Lex being on the side of the angels could last. I really hope so at least. If he does turn evil then you can tell me ya told me so, but I'm optimistic.

>>93768571
I fear that Superman's recent fusion and timeline retcon will be used to rewrite Lex into just pretending to be heroic.

>>93768571
There is no way in hell that LEX LUTHOR stays a good guy.

>>93766340
Mag-fuckin-neto

>>93766340
Ronan the Accuser changed a lot as a character from Annihilation onwards, and Royals seems to be continuing his development. He's less of a villain and more of an anti-hero that cares deeply about his people and their laws.
The same thing happened with Kl'rt the Super-Skrull.

>>93767902
Because it wasn't just "oh he's under control of Sublime", it was the decapitation, killing Jean and killing a bunch of people on op of it. Morrison clearly does not like the X-Men and had no concept of them past, at best, the Dark Phoenix Saga and because he's obsessed with the Silver Age and Magneto was a crazy one note villain in the Silver Age then so too must his Magneto be. That's the entire point of Xorn: the heroic, sympathetic Magneto was a lie because in Morrison's eyes he will always be a "mad old terrorist twat".

Kind of like what was done with Bishop where it wasn't just that something was changed but that they went out of their way to try and completely ruin the character and make hem beyond redemption.

>>93766372
anyone got a reading list for idw formers? I read a little when Hot Rod took of in the ship and Bumblebee was just on cybertron and it seemed good. Is there a lot?

>>93767975

What did Remender do? I think Brubaker trying to do something with him started the downhill slide into the shell of what he used to be. I still think it can be explained away in some sort of Hobgoblinesque situation in which the Zemo we've seen is that shitty cousin at the end of Born Better. Then again maybe at the end of Secret Empire we can get the soft reboot we should've gotten after Secret Wars and someone will have actually read his appearances in Thunderbolts.

>>93768217
>Constrictor. His reformation and struggle to stay on the path was engaging. And then they killed him off-panel.

Totally this, I think he's been struggling almost since he was introduced. It's been a cool little ride reading his appearances everywhere from MCP to Deadpool to the Avengers Academy book.

>>93768001
Eddie Brock also went through character development, but most of it seems to have been thrown out the window. At least now he's more heroic and doesn't seem to hate Spider-Man much anymore.

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>>93769742
Zemo's usage in SteveCap was fantastic.

>>93767986
>Don't worry I won't be raping your baby
>On Tuesdays

Man... so cool.