Episode #31 – Breaking Good: Villain Face Turns

In the world of superhero storytelling, the villain is crucially important. While providing the hero with something to fight against they also offer a countering point-of-view to contrast against the good-natured purity of the hero. Over the years though, audiences have gotten a glimpse into the mindset of the bad guy as villains’ motivations and philosophies have been explored. In some cases readers can discover that the bad guy might not actually be all that bad.  This can sometimes be the first signal for the villain to make the jump from bad guy to good guy. For today’s episode, the panel looks at when bad guys go good.

Credits

Panel:
Zack Slater
Frank Melman (on Twitter)
Tommy Smithereens (on Twitter)
Clifton (on Twitter)

Produced by Zack Slater

Produced/Edited by Clifton (on Twitter)

Engineered by Mike BlueLion209

Music: Arpy – Dan Henig  
Support by RFM – NCM: https://bit.ly/2xGHypM

Episode Notes

Namor: The Sub-Mariner – possibly the earliest face turn in superhero comics

… before turning heel again soon after

Rogue as a bad guy from Avengers

Rogue and Magneto – Uncanny X-Men #274

Hawkeye in Iron Man #57

Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

Sinestro’s Backstory

Deathstroke

Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender

Glossary of Professional Wrestling Terms

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_professional_wrestling_terms

face
Also babyface.
A wrestler who is heroic, who is booked to be cheered by fans.^[1]Heels are the opposite of faces, and faces commonly perform against heels.

heel
A wrestler who is villainous, who is booked to be booed by fans.^[1]Faces are the opposite of heels, and heels commonly perform against faces.

tweener
A morally ambiguous wrestler who is neither a face nor a heel (an in-betweener),^[1] also sometimes describes a heel who is usually cheered or a face who is usually jeered, especially when two faces or two heels face each other.

rub
Helping a less popular wrestler get over by associating them with a more prominent or popular wrestler.