Villains with redeeming potential

Hi everyone. I made a previous post about what DC hero is most inspirational to you, and I thought I would do something similar yet different than this post. Cannot name or list any DC heroes, or any villains that don’t have a middle ground and always bad. Villains to me that are always bad are batman who laughs, darkseid, etc. Look at this from the standpoint of the comics- is there a recurring arc where character(s) seem to go against there own planned narrative? Is there a possibility that DC could make them a hero in the near future and build a new series around that? Or you can list known villains that have already been redeemed in the comics and became heroes.
When i think of redemption the villain that always comes to mind is Harley Quinn. She didn’t start off as a crazed clown lunatic: she was a very successful psychologist and had a good career, family that loved her, and friends and was only influenced to become a lunatic because of the joker. The joker bent her until she lost herself and became his henchman. In several iterations of comics, tv show, and movies she broke free of jokers hold, and with help from suicide squad she was shown value of being in a team, she was shown true friendship, and virtue. And even in her confrontations with batman and robin, even they tried to teach her that joker was just using her to get his way. There is moments where she truly believes joker is bad for her and has broken free, fought with batman or suicide squad to defeat her beloved joker. Even though she had every reason not too. Moments where her psychologist/good side breaks free from her crazy dominant clown side. I think with right mentors and enough therapy from the asylum or work from suicide squad, Harley Quinn has the most potential to be redeemed.
Which villain do you think has most redeeming potential? Post below.

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This only kind of relates but I want more stories with Sinestro as a Green Lantern. Yes he was incredibly despotic on Korugar but he, up until Hal, was known as the greatest GL and respected among the corps. He was also Abin Sur’s best friend and had a family with his sister Arin. Things like that that could “humanize” (I put that in quotes because he’s obviously an alien), but things like his paternal relationship to Soranik, or his friendship and past with Abin or as a GL that I think are worth exploring. He’s got the potential to be redeemed and I think some writers have tried to touch upon that in the past but we could always use more :slight_smile:

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I agree, as a green lantern fan, the characters I would like to see redeemed would be sinestro. In new 52 run they kind of touched on that idea as you said with Sinestros redemption from sinestro book, the End or Rise of the Third Army. He was the best green lantern before Hal Jordan’s time, even if his ideas became somewhat flawed. He always tried to do what was best in corps interest, which is why he made sinestro corps similar to green lantern corps so he could have his own version of corps. He knew of corruption of guardians before anyone knew or was able to figure it out.

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I really liked Clay Face as a member of the Bat team. The explanation that his fluid brain, inhibited the empathy part of his anatomy was a neat idea. With the development of a piece of technology that keeps that crucial internal organ in one piece, and Matt Hagen is back lucid as he was before the accident.

The end of that story was very sad.

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taddmcdivitt I’d like to believe that a vast majority of arkham villains could be redeemed with time, as some aren’t inherently evil its just a part of their mental illness. Two- face and the ventriloquist suffer from split personality disorder or multiple personality disorder. With enough therapy or construction of a device they can somehow disrupt the negative side and reinforce their positive side. I believe there was an episode in batman animated series where they had reformed the ventriloquist by getting rid of his puppet scarface, which was the dominant side personality for a while.

Agreed, many of the Arkham inmates are suffering from treatable conditions. (Amygdala is a good example)

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