Originally Posted by
Revolutionary_Jack
These examples don't have a lot in common and it's extremely debatable to argue that "villain has outgrew the hero" in any instance (save for maybe Thanos).
-- Mephisto started as a villain in a Silver Surfer comic sure, but his best stories is the one where he menaced Doctor Doom in Triumph and Torment. But in either case, Mephisto hasn't become a more famous character than Silver Surfer. Surfer is still a far more famous character than Mephisto. Mephisto has also become an embarassing character as a result of being tainted with association with the worst comics story (OMD).
-- In the case of Klaw, I guess you could say that but it doesn't mean a great deal since he's still a fairly minor villain, and certainly not bigger than BP.
-- Kingpin's two major live action appearances are as Daredevil villain, but he was never a very significant Spider-Man villain before he crossed into Miller's corner.
-- In the case of Thanos, he appeared as a minor villain in Iron Man comics before becoming a cosmic level threat to Adam Warlock, Silver Surfer, Captain Marvel (aka Mahr-vel). In his case you can argue that he's outgrown Warlock, Surfer, Marvel and become a bigger character than them.
In a lot of these cases, you have fairly minor villains becoming much bigger than they were previously, you have minor villains reused and repurposed and so on.
There's not a lot of grand statements to be made here.