In DC Comics, as in real life, tragedy can have dramatic effects on a person. For many of DC's characters, terrible loss, difficult circumstances or bad parenting can spur a commitment to prevent such tragedies in the future, as it does for heroes like Batman, Cyborg, and Raven. Unfortunately, it can also make a person hateful enough to inflict similar pain on others.

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Some of DC's more tragic villains just happen to have heartbreaking backgrounds. While their sad backstories do not excuse various villains' efforts to murder and maim, they do provide the characters with dimension, allowing readers to identify or sympathize with even the worst of the worst.

This article discusses such topics as sexual assault, abuse and ethnic cleansing.

10 Cheetah's Abilities Come At A Cost

Cheetah wields the Godkiller sword

Forever torn between her humanity and her animalistic nature, Barbara Minerva's internal struggle is sad and sympathetic. In her first incarnation, being in her human form causes Minerva severe physical pain.

Minerva's Rebirth incarnation is also quite sad. The gods Deimos and Phobos force her to "marry" the god Urzkartaga and turn her into the Cheetah against her will, though she attempts to contact Wonder Woman to prevent this. Minerva is devastated to be transformed into a bloodthirsty creature and turns on Diana as a result.

9 Zoom Inflicts Tragedy In Part To Force Others To Experience His Pain

Wally West as the Flash racing Professor Zoom against a striped black and white background that implies forward momentum

The revelation of his father as a serial killer was just the tip of the iceberg for Hunter Zolomon. When he inadvertently causes his father-in-law's death and then experiences paraplegia, Hunter begs Wally West to use the cosmic treadmill to prevent these events. West refuses, worried about the consequences on the timestream, so Zolomon breaks into the Flash Museum, uses the Cosmic Treadmill and, given the power of superspeed, runs back in time and causes Linda Park to miscarry her and Wally's twins.

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Zolomon, operating under the alias Zoom, justifies his cruelty by arguing that heroism is only borne of tragic circumstances. It's clear to readers, however, that Zoom inflicts pain on others because he resents his own.

8 Killer Frost Did Not Want Superhuman Powers

Killer Frost fires deadly icicles from her fingers in DC Comics.

Dr. Caitlin Snow never asked for cryokinetic powers. She gained her abilities when H.I.V.E. agents infiltrated the Arctic outpost where she was stationed, and she attempted to fend them off by ripping the coolant system off of the thermodynamic engine on which she was performing repairs.

Many of Snow's first exploits as Killer Frost were intended to reverse her condition. She begins to come to terms with her powers, and today functions more often as a hero than a villain. Still, even when her ways were murderous, the sad nature of her origin made Frost's motivations understandable to many readers.

7 Bizarro Has Virtually No Agency

Bizarro grimaces in DC Comics

Lex Luthor has used Superman's genetics to build clones to challenge or replace the Man of Steel multiple times. Few of these projects have outcomes as sad Bizarro's.

Because Luthor can replicate Bizarro, he sometimes treats the clone as disposable. Given Luthor's highly manipulative tendencies, Bizarro often views his existence this way as well. Further, the poorly-tested biotechnological processes Luthor uses to make clones causes Bizarro to be largely reliant on others to make decisions, stripping him of any agency. All in all, Bizarro's plight is caused by a sad abuse of biotechnology.

6 Mirror Master Is A Coping Mechanism For Evan McCulloch

Evan McCulloch as Mirror Master from DC Comics

Evan McCulloch grew up in the orphanage where he was left as an infant. When he was eight, another boy in the orphanage sexually assaulted him. McCulloch killed his assailant, and, never caught for it, turned to mercenary work as a young adult.

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As a contract killer (and later Mirror Master specifically), McCulloch feels he can reclaim some of the control he lost as a child through his abandonment and the violation of his bodily autonomy. Readers can sympathize with McCulloch's eventual transformation into Mirror Master, even if they do not agree with it, especially since he proves to still have some good in his heart.

5 Two-Face's Psychiatric Condition Resulted From Childhood Trauma

Two-Face cocks a gun and flips a coin in DC Comics

Already a widely misunderstood condition, Dissociative Identity Disorder apparently turns Harvey Dent into a murderer. However, Dent's more recent incarnations accurately portray the condition's development and illustrate the tragic circumstances that can influence its incidence.

DID usually occurs as a trauma response in early childhood, with different alters (personality states) acting as protective mechanisms for an individual's psyche. In Dent's case, his father's abuse gave rise to the "Two-Face" alter. Dent's present-day obsession with chance stems from his sense of free will, or lack thereof, due to this abuse.

4 Harley Quinn's Whole Situation Sucks

Harley Quinn holding a gun in Batman: Hush DC Comics

No matter her incarnation, Harleen Frances Quinzel's life story is absolutely devastating. Her parents were neglectful at best and abusive at worst. With such examples to shape her lovemap, Harleen must unlearn these patterns in adulthood, which, understandably, takes a while.

Harley Quinn's love for the Joker fits the picture of romance she learned in childhood. She tolerates his abuse since she never witnessed an alternative, which is deeply sad and painful. Today, many fans are relieved to watch Harley's relationship with Poison Ivy develop, which is much healthier and more supportive.

3 Bane Grew Up In Prison As Punishment For His Father's Crimes

Bane Shows His Might

A child should not be held responsible for a parent's sins. Yet, sadly, Bane is an example of such an occurrence. Prisoner Edmund Dorrance, AKA King Snake, managed to escape Santa Prisca, so his son was forced to carry out his father's sentence. Even with the guidance of many teachers and mentors within Santa Prisca, the boy still considered Osito, his teddy bear, his only friend.

After he began using the name "Bane," Santa Prisca's guards forced him to act as a test subject for a drug called Venom, to which Bane became addicted. The loneliness and medical abuse Bane experienced are terribly upsetting, even if it does not excuse the harm he often perpetuates.

2 Cheshire's Parents Sold Her Into Slavery

Cheshire (Jade Nguyen) battles Aquaman in DC Comics.

"A rough childhood" does not begin to describe Jade Nguyen's early years. Her desperate mother sold her into slavery, and it was only when she killed her master that she was able to experience freedom.

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Informally adopted by a guerilla fighter, Nguyen trained as an assassin, learning to defend herself. Her eventual romance and daughter with Arsenal actually made matters even sadder. Knowing he wouldn't be able to turn Nguyen into the authorities, Arsenal instead left her, though he ended up raising their child, Lian, until she was four. Things took an even darker turn for Cheshire when Lian seemingly died during an attack on Star City.

1 Nyssa Raatko Is A Holocaust Survivor

Ra's al Ghul explains away his involvement in the Holocaust to an imprisoned Nyssa Raatko in DC Comics

Nyssa Raatko is easily one of the most tragic villains in DC's multiverse, having experienced humankind's worst firsthand. Born to a Russian Jewish woman in 1774, Nyssa spent her childhood in poverty. She sought out her father, Ra's al Ghul, as a young woman, and, believing she would give birth to an heir, he allowed her the use of a Lazarus Pit.

Tragically, the Lazarus Pit kept Nyssa alive to witness and experience the Holocaust. Though she begged her father for help, Ra's insisted the Third Reich's horrific ways were a means to an end (his own agenda to decimate the human population). As a result, she watched the Nazis slaughter her children and was herself imprisoned and experimented upon in a concentration camp. This catastrophe makes her eventual transformation into the next Ra's al Ghul all the more confusing.

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