Is Spiderman’s Venom your favorite villain? What if I told you he wasn’t actually a villain at all? Dating back as far as the origins of storytelling, tales have classically divided characters into heroes and villains. The villains are typically pure evil and live simply to defy the hero every step of the way. The stories are told from the perspective of the hero, and so the villain is of course the main antagonist who simply does bad things for bad reasons. But what happens if you were to tell the same story from the villain’s point of view? What if you truly understood the cruel or tragic origin of the villain? Could you see yourself making some of the same decisions?
Enter the “Anti-Hero”. Someone who fights for something good but uses the same methods that some of the worst villains would do. The anti-hero is a main character who may do bad (or morally gray) things for mostly good and sometimes personal reasons. They may lie, cheat, or sometimes kill. But they are often driven by intense pain, a warped sense of justice, or even love, rather than an unyielding sense of honor or virtue. Anti-heroes may have the best intentions but go about achieving them in terrible ways. Batman, or the Dark Knight, is one such example of a man who seeks to protect Gotham and its citizens. But he uses fear, intimidation, violence, and often breaks laws to carry out his own brand of justice. He walks a thin line between savior and sinner, proving that morality is more subjective than one may think.

Some anti-heroes start out as villains, but by simply learning more of their backstory, the reader or viewer may begin to sympathize with their plight or relate to tough decisions they have made. Venom began as one such villain. An alien symbiote that first bonded with Spiderman but was rejected, who then bonded with Eddie Brock, a man who lost his career and blamed Spider-Man for it. Together, they were driven purely by revenge and became the arch-nemesis of Spider-man. They shared a hatred of Spider-man that made them a perfect match and were driven purely by vengeance and rage. But behind that rage was feelings of hurt and rejection. They see themselves as wronged by Spider-man and so to punish him is to seek justice. Over time, they realize that Spider-man is not purely evil, and that there are worse evils in the world. Venom becomes a vigilante, targeting murderers and criminals, but in a brutal and dangerous way. His motives become good, often trying to protect the innocent, but he is very unpredictable and violent when doing so. Venom ultimately becomes a flawed but noble defender, a self-dubbed “Lethal Protector”. Venom ends up fighting alongside Spider-Man at one point against Carnage, another symbiote who is pure chaos. Together they ultimately succeed in defeating Carnage, proving that even in the darkest corners, redemption is possible.