Everyone’s the hero of their own story. No one goes through life thinking their worst moments are a product of the evil within them. No, there are reasons for the things we do, and that’s also true for the villain of a story. They may be cast as the bad guy, but in their minds, their motivations are pure and their actions are justified. They are not the villains in their minds. They are the heroes.

At the same time, maybe the good guys aren’t quite as noble and virtuous as the story makes them seem; maybe the villain is just misunderstood. Throughout the many movies produced by Marvel, there are several villains whose motivations are understandable. Their perspectives aren’t always mainstream, their plans don’t always have the best results, and sometimes they take things a little too far, but the reasons behind their supposedly evil deeds are clear. And sometimes their reasons make them better, more honest, more thoughtful people than the heroes that work to thwart them. After all, these villains are striving for justice, while the heroes simply want to maintain the status quo. The following group of so-called "bad guys" are trying to right wrongs and make things better, in their own way. Put yourself in their shoes.

15 HELA

Hela in Asgard in the MCU's Thor: Ragnarok

Hela, Odin’s eldest child and the big bad from Thor: Ragnarok, is justified in her anger. Through bloody war, Hela conquered the Nine Realms with Odin. But when Odin decided he wanted peace instead, he cast Hela out, imprisoning her and erasing any trace of her existence from Asgard. Odin claims Hela became too violent, but it was Odin who was responsible for making her that way. Imprisoning her alone for millennia just gave Hela time to think about all the reasons her ambition to rule the world made sense — and how awful Odin was for turning on her after embracing her skills in battle for so long.

If the people of Asgard thought things through, they would realize Hela is simply claiming what should be hers. What's wrong with that?

Hela believes it is her destiny to rule Asgard and the Nine Realms. She earned it, and was then denied the privilege by her own wishy-washy father. Odin may have kept her existence from Thor and Loki, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t justified in her pursuit of the throne. Yes, perhaps she has to kill many of her own citizens to meet her objective, but if her brothers and the people of Asgard just thought things through, they would realize she's simply claiming what should be hers. What's wrong with that?

14 ADRIAN TOOMES

Michael Keaton as the Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming

If it wasn't for Tony Stark, Adrian Toomes wouldn’t have gone bad and become Vulture. In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Toomes starts off as an average blue-collar worker. As the owner of a salvage company, he won a lucrative contract to clean up New York City after large parts of it were destroyed during the Avengers’ battle with the Chitauri. But before his crew could get started, he was ordered to leave by the Department of Damage Control, a partnership between Stark and the United States government that takes over the job. Toomes is backed into a corner, so in order to maintain his livelihood and provide for his wife and daughter, he decides to sell the Chitauri technology he possesses on the black market. Basically, Toomes did what he could with what he had.

The creation of the Department of Damage Control was an abuse of wealth and influence of Stark’s part. Not only did his Avengers destroy the city, they also get paid to clean up the mess they created? That doesn’t seem fair. Not to mention, the wealth and influence Stark enjoys was a product of the weapons he sold to the government. In Toomes’s mind, he’s not doing anything terribly different by making a profit off of the alien technology he’s salvaged. As the little guy, he got run over. Selling the technology he found let him take his power back.

13 LOKI

Loki

Throughout the Thor movies, Odin’s omissions of truth consistently have a negative impact on his family. Two out of his three children are on this list and the third had to be banished to be taught a lesson, so Odin’s track record with his kids isn’t great. Loki, his youngest child, starts out as a tricky, manipulative jerk, but he doesn’t become a full-fledged villain until he learns that he was lied to about his parentage his whole life. Odin never told him he wasn’t an Asgardian at all. Instead, he was a Frost Giant, the Asgardians’ enemy, and was adopted by Odin as a baby.

His whole life Loki felt like he was different, like he didn’t quite fit in. And he sought the approval of his father his whole life, often coming up short.

Discovering his true parentage meant there was a concrete reason for his troubles. Learning about his nature made it clear to Loki that fitting in with the Asgardians and making Odin proud weren’t realistic possibilities for him. Loki is constantly conflicted between his love for his adopted brother and his rage at the cards he was dealt. Sometimes that means he’s worked against Thor and sometimes that means he’s worked with him. In a world where Loki is many things but those things don’t quite make sense together, Loki is just trying to find his place.

12 ULTRON

age of ultron finale

Yet another baddie Tony Stark is responsible for is Ultron. After he almost died during the Battle of New York, Stark became obsessed with ways to keep the planet peaceful and safe from alien invaders. To meet that objective, he started developing Ultron, an artificial intelligence that could command a robot police force that would protect the planet. In Age of Ultron, Stark’s best laid plans go out the window after he and Bruce Banner use Loki’s scepter to take Ultron to the next level and Ultron suddenly becomes self-aware. In the process, Ultron realizes the key to keeping Earth peaceful is to get rid of all the violent humans.

Ultron has a point. He was programmed with a very specific job to do and he plans to do it — even if it’s not in the manner his creators intended. Stark is brilliant, but he hasn’t learned the lesson of so many other robot-gone-bad movies: when robots sift among historical data, they tend to come to the conclusion that the easiest way to help the Earth is to eradicate humanity. Ultron’s conclusion is no different. Robots aren’t people and can’t sympathize with our horror at the idea of the demise of our species. Ultron’s willing to do what he must to save the planet.

11 HELMUT ZEMO

Helmut Zemo from Captain America: Civil War

Zemo lost his whole family when the Avengers battled Ultron in Sokovia. Zemo blames the Avengers for his loss and wants to avenge the deaths of his loved ones. In Captain America: Civil War, his plan plays out. Zemo knows he can’t kill the Avengers, but he can divide and destroy them. Zemo frames the Winter Soldier for a terrorist attack and uses meticulous timing and carefully gathered information to drive a wedge between the group, especially its two leaders: Iron Man and Captain America.

Zemo’s loss was tragic and unnecessary, and his desire for revenge is understandable.

Many people have been collateral damage during the Avengers’ bruising, destructive battles. Earth’s mightiest heroes have good intentions -- they even attempt to evacuate civilians during their fights --- but their violent clashes with Ultron and other bad guys still put many an unsuspecting citizen in the cross-hairs. Defending the world from an evil robot or an alien invasion is important, but luring said evil robot or alien invasion to a less populated area should really be part of their objective. Zemo’s loss was tragic and unnecessary, and his desire for revenge is understandable. His plans required some collateral damage, sure, but it’s no less than the Avengers wrack up when they’re saving the world.

10 SANDMAN

Sandman from Spider-Man 3

Few people remember Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 fondly, but the movie did have a tragic villain in Flint Marko, the Sandman. Marko became a small-time crook in order to pay for treatments for his sick daughter. One night while attempting to evade the police, Flint falls into a particle accelerator and his body becomes fused with sand, leaving him with shape-shifting abilities. He uses his new abilities to rob banks and acquire more money to help his daughter.

When he learns that he was responsible for the death of Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben, however, he expresses genuine remorse. After being startled by his partner, Marko accidentally fired the gun that killed Uncle Ben. And he wants Peter’s forgiveness for what he did. Marko is a man with few good options and understandable motivations for the decisions he makes and the crimes he commits. The confession he makes to Peter about Uncle Ben’s death and his desire for forgiveness show that he is not truly evil and regrets the worst act he committed. Had his circumstances been different, it’s unlikely Marko would have turned to crime at all. But with a sick daughter relying on him, he had few options. This makes Marko easy to sympathize with despite his criminal history.

9 THANOS

Thanos from Avengers: Infinity War

Thanos really wants to save the universe. The fact that he has to kill half of all life to do so is just an unfortunate side-effect of his otherwise compassionate goal. When Thanos’ planet, Titan, became over-populated he proposed that half the population be eliminated. But his idea was dismissed and ridiculed. Meanwhile, Titan was drained of its resources and became nearly uninhabitable, and its citizens died anyway. After seeing what happened on his planet and knowing the rest of the universe was suffering from similar issues, Thanos resolved to implement his idea to remove half of the population everywhere.

While Thanos has a point about the devastation of over-population, he’s also more than a little short-sighted.

It’s an objective Thanos pursues with single-minded obsession. He starts small, going from planet to planet and eliminating half the beings on each one. Then he decides to collect the Infinity Stones. When he finds them all in Infinity War, he snaps his fingers and carries out his plan in the blink of an eye. Thanos isn’t in it for fame or fortune. He genuinely believes he can make the world better and that he’s the only one with the strength to do what must be done. While Thanos has a point about the devastation of over-population, he’s also more than a little short-sighted. He never considers alternative ideas or thinks through other ways to use the Infinity Stones to improve the lives of everyone, instead of only half of life at the expense of the other half.

8 HARRY OSBORN

James Franco as Harry Osborn in Spider-Man 2

At the end of Spider-Man, Harry Osborn learns that Spider-Man killed his father. Then in Spider-Man 2, Harry learns that his best friend, Peter Parker, is Spider-Man. By the end of that film, Harry is having hallucinations in which his dead father urges him to avenge his death. In the process of trying to deny his father’s demands, Harry finds his father’s Green Goblin gear. By Spider-Man 3, Harry is using the gear to attack Spider-Man and exact his revenge. When Harry learns that it wasn’t Spider-Man but his father that was responsible for his own death, Harry joins Spider-Man in his fight to get back a kidnapped Mary Jane. During the violent conflict, Harry sacrifices himself to save Peter, and dies with Peter and Mary Jane by his side.

Harry’s actions throughout the original Spider-Man trilogy were all understandable. The information he had was incomplete and because of that, he reached some incorrect conclusions. Harry’s motivations weren’t evil. He wanted vengeance for his father’s death, but once he learned what really happened, it changed his perspective and how he used his father’s Green Goblin gear. Harry’s reasons for becoming Spider-Man’s antagonist were unfortunate but justified, so were his reasons for giving his life to save his friend.

7 IVAN VANKO

Whiplash from Iron Man 2

Ivan Vanko never had much of a chance in life. His father, Anton Vanko, helped Howard Stark invent the Arc Reactor, but when Howard discovered Anton was trying to sell the technology for profit, he had Anton deported and he was sent to prison in the Soviet Union. Destitute and disgraced, Anton became an alcoholic and abused his son. Ivan grew up being told that the Starks were responsible for his circumstances. In Iron Man 2, Anton died after he and Ivan witness Tony Stark coming out as Iron Man and Anton once again tells Ivan he should have everything Tony does.

Bringing down Stark Industries was a justifiable goal, given how Howard Stark brought down the Vanko family

Ivan vows revenge and becomes Whiplash in an effort to not only kill Tony but to disgrace him. As Ivan observes, “If you can make God bleed, people will cease to believe in him…” Taking on Tony as Iron Man and beating him will disgrace the Stark name and bring down Stark Industries, a justifiable goal given how Howard Stark brought down the Vanko family. Much like others on this list, Ivan resents Tony’s ability to wield his wealth and power, while he and his father spent their lives penniless and struggling. Tony had all the advantages while Ivan had none, although Anton claimed Ivan and Tony should be equals. Ivan’s crusade for vengeance is fueled by decades of injustice and hardship.

6 CABLE

Cable from Deadpool 2

Cable comes back from the future in Deadpool 2 to prevent his family’s deaths. It’s been argued that if someone built a time machine, the first thing they should do is go back to the early 1900s and kill Hitler when he was a child — before he could murder millions during the Holocaust. Cable is operating off the same logic, though on a smaller, more personal scale. Cable’s family was murdered by an evil mutant named Firefist who has pyrokinetic powers. But in our time, he’s just an angry kid named Russell who hasn’t decided how he’ll use his mutant abilities. Cable uses a time-traveling device to get to our time in order to kill Russell before he commits his first murder and officially becomes a villain.

While killing a kid is an especially egregious crime, Cable has a pretty good reason for his strategy. If he can kill Russell, he’ll not only save his family, he’ll also save all the people Russell eventually murders when he goes full Firefist. When Cable realizes he can work with Deadpool and prevent the act that causes Russell to turn to the dark side, he gives up on his quest and does things Deadpool’s way. Despite his scary demeanor and ace fighting skills, Cable is a big lug who just wants to make the future a better place — and who wouldn’t want that?

5 KAECILIUS

doctor-strange-kaecilius

Kaecilius is willing to commit horrific acts of violence throughout Doctor Strange, but he has a good reason for it. He believes the death he causes is only temporary if he can meet his objective: bring Dormammu from the Dark Dimension to Earth in order to rid the world of time and death. After suffering terrible loss, Kaecilius is mentored by the Ancient One at Kamar-Taj and becomes a powerful sorcerer. When he discovers that the Ancient One has lengthened her life by channeling power from the Dark Dimension while warning others of its evil, he breaks away from her and starts his own sect.

Kaecilius believes the Ancient One is a hypocrite and is wrong about Dormammu and the Dark Dimension.

He believes he can make humans immortal by bringing Dormammu to Earth and sharing the power of the Dark Dimension instead of selfishly keeping it only for himself like the Ancient One has. Kaecilius is driven by grief and betrayal, a combination that makes him vulnerable to Dormammu’s influence. But his intentions were good, if misguided. He believes he’s working towards a vision of a better world, something the Ancient One was trying to keep from him and the rest of the planet.

4 NEBULA

Nebula from Avengers: Infinity War

Nebula got a raw deal in life. Adopted by Thanos as a child, she was trained as a warrior. Gamora was the only one of her adopted siblings she could stand, but Thanos pitted them against one another in battle. Gamora won each match and when Nebula lost, Thanos would replace a part of her body with machinery because he wanted to make Nebula as strong as Gamora. Given her upbringing, it’s no surprise that Nebula wants to kill both Gamora and Thanos for the wrongs they committed against her. And in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, she allies herself with anyone who’ll help her get her revenge, whether that’s Ronan the Accuser or the Ravagers.

Ultimately, Nebula reconciles with her adopted sister, and Gamora admits she never considered Nebula’s plight when they were children — she was also just trying to stay alive herself. Family issues are often the most difficult to overcome, and Nebula demonstrates this at its most extreme. She loves Gamora in her own way, but also deeply resents the position Gamora put her in. Understandable, given the brutality of their childhoods. Nebula chases Gamora across planets, but instead of killing her, they argue things out and join forces. Not the outcome Nebula was going for, but probably more therapeutic.

3 THE WINTER SOLDIER

winter-soldier-Badass-Villain

Unlike everyone else on this list, the Winter Soldier is not in control of his actions. When Bucky Barnes fell in battle during the second World War, he didn’t die as Steve Rogers and everyone else presumed. Instead, he was found by HYDRA, experimented on, turned into a super-soldier, and brainwashed into doing the organization’s bidding. In the process he developed quite a reputation for himself as an assassin called the Winter Soldier. While the Winter Soldier was deadly and killed without remourse, that was a product of HYDRA, not Bucky himself.

So, although the Winter Soldier was a bad guy, that side of him was brought out by circumstances beyond his control.

The Winter Soldier is sent after Nick Fury followed by Captain America. Even though Bucky can’t quite place Cap, he still refrains from killing him — quite a feat for someone who has spent the better part of the last century killing people without hesitation or question. When Bucky finally snaps out of his brainwashed stupor and starts to realize who he is, the memories of his actions come back to him. He feels guilt for what he did, and even decides to go back into crypto-sleep until a cure for his brainwashing can be found. So, although the Winter Soldier was a bad guy, that side of him was brought out by circumstances beyond his control and outside of his wishes. Hopefully now that he’s HYDRA-brainwashing free, things will start looking up for Bucky... well, provided he comes back after Infinity War, that is.

2 MAGNETO

Megneto from X-Men

The more we learn about Erik Lehnsherr’s background, the more tragic his story becomes. As a child, he survived a concentration camp, but not before one of his captors learned about his mutant ability. The man tortured and experimented on young Erik until World War 2 ended. Later, he decided to forego his life as Magneto and live among normal humans instead. He got married and had a child. But when he used his abilities to manipulate and control metal to save a fellow factory worker, the police were sent after him. In the ensuing confrontation, his wife and daughter were killed, leading him to take immediate revenge on the police.

Given his story, Magneto’s perspective on humanity is understandable. He believes human society will never stop persecuting mutants. In order to survive and thrive, the mutants can’t live as equals with humans, they need to rule over them. Magneto kills humans without remorse, and even takes out mutants who get in his way. But he’s seen people at their worst. He knows from his experiences as both a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust and a mutant that people will persecute, betray, and murder those that are different without a second thought. Not wanting the mutants to suffer the way he and his family did in the concentration camps, Magneto protects them at any cost. He is absolute in his belief in mutants and his rejection of humanity, a perspective forged from hard experience.

1 KILLMONGER

Killmonger from Black Panther

Erik Killmonger is Black Panther’s villain, but his goal is noble: to free people of African descent from oppression. His methods may be imperfect, but his heart is in the right place. Erik was born in Oakland, California to N’Jobu, the brother of Wakanda’s King T’Chaka. N’Jobu was sent to Oakland on an undercover mission. But when he learned about the persecution and hardships faced by the African Americans there, he decides to steal vibranium, the metal that made Wakanda the world’s most advanced nation. N’Jobu wanted to free oppressed Africans everywhere by sharing Wakanda’s technology with them. But T’Chaka killed N’Jobu before he could carry out his plan.

In the end, T’Challa decides to share Wakanda’s technology with rest of the world, validating Killmonger’s argument.

Left behind in Oakland, Erik takes up N’Jobu’s cause. His plan is meticulous and long-term. He becomes a Black-Ops mercenary for the United States, killing thousands brutally. Then, he allies with Ulysses Klaue, notorious in Wakanda for stealing vibranium and murdering its people. In order to gain the Wakandans' trust, Erik shows up there with Klaue’s dead body. He announces who he is and defeats T’Challa to win the throne. But before Erik can share Wakanda’s weapons with oppressed people of African descent around the world, T’Challa returns and defeats him. Erik chooses to die as a free man instead of being treated for his injuries and imprisoned. In the end, T’Challa decides to share Wakanda’s technology with rest of the world, validating Killmonger’s argument that Wakanda has a duty to help the less fortunate.