Why are villains written like antiheroes these days.

[protege]

Not that I'm a Shazam fan or anything, but lately, black adam and even Mary marvel are getting more attention than captain what's his name.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Err, some examples besides Black Adam?

Because if anything, villains are more vile and needlessly cruel these days. Most rarely miss a chance to kick a puppy

[batnbreakfast]

Suicide Squad and secret six and Jonah Hex are my favorite things DC has done. Yay, villains.

[HeartofTheStoriesWeTell]

Any good batman writer can do at least 1 story per villain that the villain mirrors some part of bruce.

[marhawkman]

Any good batman writer can do at least 1 story per villain that the villain mirrors some part of bruce.

Ah yes, the real villain in Batman stories was the hatred festering inside Bruce all along.

But seriously, you can write a villain to be understandable and relatable... and still BAD. you just write them as looking at the morally wrong choice and doing it anyways.

[LordMikel]

Err, some examples besides Black Adam?

Because if anything, villains are more vile and needlessly cruel these days. Most rarely miss a chance to kick a puppy

Mr Freeze, "I'm just doing evil things to help my wife."

[Sandy Hausler]

You can blame the Harley Quinn and Venom writers.

Although Venom is great though.

You are right. It has nothing to do with relatability. The comic companies are hoping to hit on a character which they can turn into a franchise. And villains who are not all bad are better for that purpose. I am not a fan of either Harley or Venom, so I disagree with this trend -- but I see where it comes from.

[caj]

It's the same way with soap operas.

Writers today either don't know how to write for heroes or don't want to. They find villains more interesting. But they can't have them be completely bad so they mellow them out some.

[LifeIsILL]

Any good batman writer can do at least 1 story per villain that the villain mirrors some part of bruce.

I seriously wonder what the Human Eraser mirrors, or The Ten Eyed Man.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Mr Freeze, "I'm just doing evil things to help my wife."

For a while, they just reduced Freeze to a deranged stalker. But again, I don't recall him ever being treated as an anti-hero. Just tragic at best.

Villains need depth. We know they're gonna lose, that they won't kill the hero or conquer the world. So if we see them as people, it makes it easy to suspend disbelief.

But comics, DC and Marvel, really haven't done that.

Villains kick puppies, and wave through pools of blood of Non-pcs to gain 'credibility'. That, of they're given some connection to an existing character (Fill in the blank's daughter), as if that were reason enough to care.

[scary harpy]

And what do people think of the latest version of Ten Eyed Man in Arkham City: The Order of the World?

I seriously wonder what the Human Eraser mirrors, or The Ten Eyed Man.

A fair question...

[Jim Kelly]

Suicide Squad and secret six and Jonah Hex are my favorite things DC has done. Yay, villains.

If anyone's an anti-hero, it's Jonah Hex. He was never written to be a villain. He was a morally ambiguous man in a morally ambiguous world. He shouldn't really be written as a hero or a villain.

However, I have a problem with the word anti-hero, because it's been exploited to such a degree that it loses its meaning. Any time they want to get a super-villain off the hook for all the murdering and raping and stealing, they pull out the old anti-hero defence.

If everyone is an anti-hero (where heroes and villains both turn heel), then that makes the super-hero world like the morally ambiguous world of the Old West. You can't root for anyone because there is no right or wrong, just a lot of relative ethics. Which is fine for cowboy stories, but I want super-hero fantasy to exist in a morally defined world.

And there are lots of super-villains that are best described as sociopaths. They are lacking that basic element of humanity. It doesn't matter how much we know about their back story, they are never going to be virtuous. And forcing us to identify with them seems pointless. It only works if the writer thinks that everyone is a sociopath and we're all going out murdering and raping and stealing every night. Which given the cynicism of some writers, that might be what they think--who knows what they get up to at night, with that kind of philosophy.

[LordMikel]

In my opinion, for a good example of what the OP is talking about, we can look at the Superman movies.

Superman 2.
"I am Zod, you are all weak, kneel before Zod."

Man of Steel.
"I am Zod, I am here to save all of Krypton. You must sacrifice yourself Kal to do that."

The first Zod is evil while the second one isn't evil, but forced to do bad things for the greater good. Or at least his perception of the greater good.

[Lightning Rider]

I like anti-villains but it's a fine line; it can sometimes be too tempting/easy at times to turn them into a loveable badass anti-hero. Deathstroke and Black Adam in particular.

[scary harpy]

Versatility is the key to any character's success...including villains.

They need to be able to fit into most superhero genres: from comedic to action to gritty.

If they can't, then they end up on a shelf in limbo until someone remembers them.