Have Marvel Villains Become Better-looking?

[MichaelC]

There was also a tendency to draw villains as the devil, with the saturnine features, and even horns on their helmets like Magneto, Mandarin, and Loki.

Those who weren't drawn as the devil were often drawn as some other image of evil. The Mandarin was often drawn with acromegalic features, suggesting brutishness.
He's essentially an Uruk-Hai with the jewelry of an exploiting aristocrat or exploiting pimp.

Doctor Doom is, of course, an image of the grim reaper.


Kingpin is an ogre.


And so on. If you look at most supervillains, they are images of the devil, or savagery, or death, or grotesque wealth. Or even a combination.

[JudicatorPrime]

Well, as the lore goes, Satan/Lucifer was one of the most beautiful angels to behold. Evil should be seductive in that way. The female villains for the most part always were gorgeous. The men are finally catching up, it seems.

We should also give some credit to the artists back in the day for making us love those villains, even though some of the were downright heinous in features and form. Even if you'd never read a single comic, when you looked at the panels you had no problems figuring out who the bad guys were. They conveyed it unmistakably.

[Michael Watkins]

There was also a tendency to draw villains as the devil, with the saturnine features, and even horns on their helmets like Magneto, Mandarin, and Loki.

Those who weren't drawn as the devil were often drawn as some other image of evil. The Mandarin was often drawn with acromegalic features, suggesting brutishness.
He's essentially an Uruk-Hai with the jewelry of an exploiting aristocrat or exploiting pimp.

Doctor Doom is, of course, an image of the grim reaper.


Kingpin is an ogre.


And so on. If you look at most supervillains, they are images of the devil, or savagery, or death, or grotesque wealth. Or even a combination.

that explains the Green Goblin. not sure what Osborn's wavy hair is supposed to represent, though.

[Michael Watkins]

Well, as the lore goes, Satan/Lucifer was one of the most beautiful angels to behold. Evil should be seductive in that way. The female villains for the most part always were gorgeous. The men are finally catching up, it seems.

We should also give some credit to the artists back in the day for making us love those villains, even though some of the were downright heinous in features and form. Even if you'd never read a single comic, when you looked at the panels you had no problems figuring out who the bad guys were. The are conveyed it unmistakably.

i wasn't sure whether i wanted to pick at that wound. but almost all supervillainesses are depicted as "hot." there a few stray Grapplers who are the exception. but a few of them have become better looking over the years. it's weird to me that someone like Ruby Thursday would dress seductively. her personality would suggest that she's not big on being judged for her looks.

[Michael Watkins]

The thing you need to consider is that ugliness in comics can be a visual indicator of the morality of the character.

then I'm glad that they've somewhat moved away from that. costumes are one thing. I'm all about a good devil horn on a costume. but it's a bad message to have every evil person be dog ugly (and the reverse).

[MichaelC]

that explains the Green Goblin. not sure what Osborn's wavy hair is supposed to represent, though.

His widow's peak is likely a Satan thing. I don't think the waviness is supposed to represent anything, at least not consciously. Rather, I think, as others have suggested, that his hair is "nappy". His hair texture resembles Nat King Cole's, a black man who used product. I would guess it is likely that many people with afro hair texture used product to have a similar look in the sixties, including many Jewish people. The creators of comics, being either Jewish themselves, or seeing Jews on a routine basis in New York, would have seen this hair texture routinely. That's not to say that Osborn was intended to be black or Jewish, just that that hair texture would have been in the backs of their minds when considering options.

[Raye]

then I'm glad that they've somewhat moved away from that. costumes are one thing. I'm all about a good devil horn on a costume. but it's a bad message to have every evil person be dog ugly (and the reverse).

Yeah, I think in the old days it was mostly just visual shorthand, ugly=evil. Some of that is just because the printing quality back then was so poor that they tended to rely on fairly broad caricatures and archetypes to make things clearer. A lot of the prettifying villains was likely just the priting becoming better and art becoming more detailed in response to that. At the same time, the writing and characterization was becoming more nuanced. Villains kind of stopped being gleefully evil mustache twirlers, in favor of more layered characterizations. I guess it at least partly comes down to people like attractive people, and if the creators want people to like the character, they tend to make them better looking. As villains characterizations became a bit more nuanced and sympathetic, their appearance softened as well. A little problematic, maybe, but it's what tends to happen. I also think popular entertainment in other mediums contributed. Movies saw more handsome villains, because actors tend to be good looking, and anime/manga contributed to the rise of attractive (though, sometimes in a more androgynous way) villains as well.

Also, it should be noted that with a couple of them, the change of looks was something that wasn't just art styles shifting, it was actually written into the story. Doom got a new face, so he didn't feel the need to hid behind a mask all the time any more, Loki was reincarnated into a whole new body that was much younger than the one that he had when he died. But in both cases there, the changes went along with a face-turn, which returns to the original good=attractive/evil=ugly point, which may be a bit... enh.... if you over think it. And while I am sure Hiddleston had a bit of an influence there when Loki was aged up from a kid to the Asgardian equivalent of vaguely early 20's, it should be noted that story began BEFORE the movies hit the screen, and he probably would have ended up looking very similar even if the movies had never happened. Partly because face turn, but also logically given the situation. I mean... put yourself in his position, you are mentally an adult but stuck in a body of a 13 year old, and then you then get the opportunity to be instantly aged up again to an adult and skip having to go through puberty again (and in his case, re-acquire his magic power, or at least that's what he assumed at the time). 'Adult' covers a lot of territory, and if given the chance to be any age you wanted, would you honestly choose to be older, in his case I'd say at least 50+ based on appearance (though he may have appeared older than he was, too many hammers to the face or something, I dunno), or would you want to give yourself some extra years and remove any old injuries etc. and have your body be in it's prime? i mean...

[leokearon]

From this:

To This:

[MichaelC]

I find it interesting to deconstruct what villains represent visually.

Modok is a giant baby.

Kingpin is an ogre in the clothes of a rich businessman

The Mandarin is an Uruk-Hai with the jewelry of a pimp.

The Green Goblin is, of course, a goblin, and a goblin is an image of laughing cruelty, and reckless industry.

Thanos is an image of rot and bloat.

Vulture is an image of age and decay.

Doom is the Grim Reaper merged with Soviet industry.

Magneto is the Devil.

Loki is also the Devil.

Sabretooth and Venom are images of utter savagery.

Red Skull is an image of pain, rage, and death.

Killmonger is an image of savagery and vanity.

Generally speaking, villains aren't simply "ugly". Ugly is oversimplifying them. Rather, they are images of evil that also tend to be ugly.

[MichaelC]

What I find interesting about Doctor Octopus is, despite his name, he actually moves more like a spider, a really creepy one like a daddy-longlegs. Even his glasses are much less evocative of octopus eyes than they are of spider eyes. He really is the Evil Spider-Man, a creepy long-legged patient predator.

[Sutekh]

There's also the trend towards villains becoming heroes (or at least, anti-heroes?, or just hanging out with heroes?) and getting a makeover. Namor is much better looking than he used to be, as is the Punisher.

And then there's Marrow, who explicitly transformed to become prettier while hanging out with some X-peeps. (Ditto Callisto, ever so briefly.)

Emma Frost, for that matter, wasn't ugly, but she was quite a bit less buxom, and described by Claremont & Byrne, IIRC, as being in her late 40's, early 50's, and more of a contemporary of Charles Xavier than his 'strangest teens of all' students (and, like Destiny, another older lady who dressed in a bikini, surprisingly well moisturized for her age...). And then she joined the X-team and suddenly had hooters the size of her head, which a later writer declared to be surgical enhancements (much like Heather Hudson, who started out a scrawny lass, under Byrne's pencil, and quickly went to the Power Girl school of ever-expanding-bustlines).

On the topic of Alpha Flight, Madison Jeffries was not even a little bit attractive, at first. Then he graduated up from secondary background character to potential boyfriend for the team leader, and suddenly he was hotty mchotstuff.

[JudicatorPrime]

I wonder if we'll ever see an X-Men team where all of the members are of the nonstandard human/hideously deformed mutant variety?

[Danileriver23]

I'd say yes, but its more the result of a modern art style reflecting a modern point of view.

[Phoenixx9]

Absorbing Man
Toad
Sabretooth
Mastermind

[Havok83]

how do you improve on this?

Give him a new body



To answer the question though, I think art in general has changed. Its alot less rough and cleaner these days. I think characters are more attractive across the boards bc of current trends. As someone mentioned, we've had alot of villians become heroes so that also plays into it. Lord knows most of the classiv X-villians have joined the side of good at some point in the last decade