So I got bored and pulled out my copy of the comic book "Wanted" recently and it got me to thinking. Anyone know any good Superhero stories that are written from the point of view of the villain? Being the bad guy would open all sorts of interesting possibilities and would allow for a really interesting character arc.
I, too, would be interested in seeing such a story. I have tried to write two Westerns from that angle and could not get beyond chapter 3. I just could not make the story hold together without a strong hero. Very quickly, the story shifted to one about the hero and not the villain, and that was not the original idea, so I abandoned the effort.
I have tried to write two Westerns from that angle and could not get beyond chapter 3. I just could not make the story hold together without a strong hero.
What you could try is rather than a serious villain, make the MC an anti-hero or anti-villain.
An antihero, or antiheroine, is a protagonist in a story who lacks conventional heroic qualities and attributes such as idealism, courage, and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes do the "right thing", it is often for the "wrong reasons" and because it serves their self-interest rather than being driven by moral convictions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antihero
An Anti-Villain is the opposite of an Anti-Hero — a villain with heroic goals, personality traits, and/or virtues. Their desired ends are mostly good, but their means of getting there are evil. Alternatively, their desired ends are evil, but far more ethical or moral than most villains and they thus use fairly benign means to achieve it, and can be heroic on occasion. They could also be someone or something whose desired ends or means are not necessarily "evil" at all, but their actions simply conflict with that of whoever seems to be the protagonist.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AntiVillain
One simple way to set up an anti-villain is to have an MC who has a strong personal moral/ethical code, but one that is seriously at odds with the society they live in.
I thought about it too sometimes. The problem as I see it, is the development of a truly evil protagonist. His actions and motives would have to be despicable and if he isn't a total failure in his chosen profession the story would become despicable as well.
Hmm,
For a character, that that is morally dubious, there is Leylin from Warlock of the Magus World http://www.wuxiaworld.com/wmw-index/
A 1200 Chapter completely translated Chinese novel about a man who gets transferred (reincarnated) to a magical world with his AI Chip, which helps him immensely to power up and remember stuff. Not really Superhero genre, but really just the same overall with magic instead of superpowers.
The protagonist isn't evil per se, he just does everything from a standpoint of power and convenience. If there is an innocent getting murdered, he would just go away. If the attacker is weaker than him and has items the protagonist can use than he would attack him.
If he is in a life and death situation and the guy who bullied him needs rescue, he just smiles and lets the bully get killed.
for real Superhero genre from the point of a villain is "Worm" https://parahumans.wordpress.com/
It is a long webseries that finished at 1,680,000 words. (sequel started some months ago)
It is about a bullied girl that came into her superpowers while stuffed into a locker. She tries to get recruited into the junior program of the local superheros, but things happen and she runs into some lowlevel villain group and gets recruited while telling herself, she will be a spy for the superheroes.
Her powers also aren't really superhero-ie. She controls bugs.
Also, the story is dark... very dark. (no sex scenes)
Worm is also one of the very few non-published works that has a massive fan-fiction base. With thousands of stories based on the lore and cast.
Conscience of the King by Alfred Duggan is a fictional autobiography of Cerdic, the founder of the Kingdom of Wessex. He is not evil in that he seeks to do harm, but is totally amoral in that he will do anything (including murder and other acts) to achieve what he wants. I believe it is only available as a used book.
Try out Mirikon aka Stuart Grosse's works, some are free, some not, he referred to Wanted as one of his inspirations. If you don't mind LitRPGs his Royal Road works are pretty good even if they are officially in an VRmmorpg setting the real world rarely interferes. On Amazon, his Frozen Soul and Void Traveler series feature an Villain MC who should be up your alley.
Then there is Defection which has a rather tame Villain protagonist, more of a prankster than someone really evil.
'Chances Are...' by Stultus, although the villain ends up being a hero.
There's another one I'm trying to remember. The protagonist was a supervillain, with sidekicks, only the things he did ended up being good. Unfortunately I can't remember either the title or the author :(
AJ
Another one by Stultus: https://storiesonline.net/s/59103/and-soon-my-evil-plan-will-be-complete
Super Sales on Super Heroes by William D Arand has a morally ambiguous MC. Everybody Loves Large Chests by Exterminatus (Royal Road or Amazon) has a pretty villainous MC.
Another thing to consider is what is defined as "good". An uptight and hidebound Society may consider someone who doesn't see things in black and white as evil.
I suppose colt45 synergy is a sort of anti-hero story. https://storiesonline.net/s/68471/synergy
And Howard Faxon's Evil Overlord
https://storiesonline.net/s/14345/evil-overlord
https://storiesonline.net/a/Howard_Faxon