The origin story is an important part of a character. So much of who they are lies in the moments that shaped their world views. Just hearing the basics of Batman's beginnings -- his parents gunned down in front of his young eyes -- makes it clear why the Dark Knight is so adamantly against guns. These details help fans connect to the character and see things from their point of view.

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And it isn't just for the heroes, either. A good supervillain has a past that readers, in some way, can relate to. Readers see how an event from these villains' past turned them into the baddie they know them to be now, and a part of us -- sometimes a big part -- understands. People feel for these villains, even as they don't agree with their actions.

10 The machine that blew up in Doctor Doom's face was meant to help him contact his dead mother

Doctor Doom looking powerful.

One of the greatest villains in comics, Doctor Doom, has a story that on the surface, seems to be one of vanity. After an accident in his lab left him scarred, Victor von Doom became filled with rage and swore to destroy the man he blamed for his misfortune; Reed Richards, better known as Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four.

But digging into Doctor Doom's past and more is revealed. The machine that blew up in Doom's face was meant to help him contact his dead mother, a woman he greatly missed. All Doom wanted was the chance to say goodbye, but what he discovered was that he would never be given that moment.

9 All Zoom Wanted To Do Was Fix His Past Mistakes & Save A Life

zoom comic villain

The son of a serial killer, Hunter Zolomon became an FBI agent as a way to try and separate himself from his murderous father. When he made a bad call on the scene, Hunter inadvertently caused the death of his fiancée's father. In the same altercation, Hunter was left with a badly damaged knee, one that would end his work in the field.

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After being paralyzed by Gorilla Grodd, Hunter Zolomon begged Flash to go back in time and change his life, but the speedster refused. Filled with rage at his lot in life, Hunter took things into his own hands and stole the Cosmic Treadmill. The Treadmill exploded, granting Hunter the power to live between the seconds of time and making him Zoom, the second Reverse-Flash.

8 Thanos Was Hated As A Child Just For Looking Different

An image of Thanos wielding the Infinity Gauntlet

An Eternal born with the Deviants gene, Thanos' mother Sui-San tried to kill him as a baby but was stopped. A pacifist in school, Thanos was picked on by the others because of his deformed appearance.

This led the Purple-Skinned Man down a nihilistic path where he first became enamored with -- and then fell in love with -- the embodiment of Death itself. Hoping to finally feel true love for the first time in his life, Thanos did all he could to make Death love him, and that included killing half of all living things in the universe.

7 Two-Face Stood Up For The Law & Was Left Scarred

Two Face Flipping His Coin As Batman And Robin Break Through The Glass Above Him

There may be nothing more tragic than seeing a good person turn evil, and that's the case with Two-Face. The District Attorney for Gotham City, Harvey Dent was handsome, smart, and was hated by the mafia for his relentless tactics to take them down.

During a trial for a Falcone Family lieutenant Sal Maroni, Harvey got a vial of acid thrown in his face, scarring one side. The incident reawoke years of abuse Harvey took at the hands of his father who would flip a coin, leaving it to chance if the young Harvey would be beaten or not, and brought out Harvey's alternate personality. On that day, Harvey Dent gave way to Two-Face.

6 The Lizard Was Working To Help Amputees When He Changed

Spider-Man villain Lizard

A gifted surgeon who chose to use his skills to help soldiers in the line of duty, Dr. Curt Conners lost his arm in an explosion when he was serving as an army medic. After returning home, Dr. Conners became convinced that the secret to limb regeneration was hidden in the DNA of reptiles. His experiments led Dr. Conners to create a serum that worked on animals, and so he tried it on himself.

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Sure enough, Dr. Conners was able to regrow his arm, but there was an unexpected side effect -- the good doctor was also turned into a man-sized reptile. When Dr. Conners becomes the Spider-Man villain known as The Lizard, he loses control of his senses, not unlike a werewolf. Now, Dr. Conners works to stay in control.

5 Dex-Starr Was A House Cat Who Witnessed His Owner's Murder

Dex-Starr Red Lanterns Green Lantern DC Comics

Those who wield Red Power Rings use their rage to give them power, and it is possible that no Red Lantern has more rage than Dex-Starr. A blue domestic cat from Earth, Dexter was living a happy life with his owner in Brooklyn when a home invasion ended with Dexter's owner being killed.

Forced onto the streets, Dexter soon found himself the captive of two street thugs who tortured the poor feline before throwing him off the Brooklyn Bridge. Dexter was so filled with rage, a Red Lantern Ring quickly found him and connected to the cat before he hit the water. Now, as Dex-Starr, this cat uses its claws to bring the pain.

4 Galactus Was The Sole Survivor Of A Cosmic Cataclysm

galactus Marvel Comics

Originally known as Galan of the planet Taa, Galactus was an explorer in the time before the Big Bang. When a cosmic cataclysm began to kill all life in the universe, Galan and the people of Taa attempted to escape death by leaving their planet on a ship. Sadly, the cataclysm caught up with the ship and everyone died. Everyone, that is, except for Galan.

For unknown reasons, Galan survived and was cocooned inside the remains of the ship for billions of years. When Galan finally emerged from his cocoon, he was Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds.

3 Doomsday Died Millions Of Times

Superman vs Doomsday feature

Best known for being the villain that killed Superman, Doomsday's story is a tragedy of operatic proportions. Created by the alien scientist Bertron on Krypton long before the Kryptonian people would evolve and take control of the planet, Doomsday was an experiment in torture and destruction.

Bertron started with a single infant that he placed on the planet's surface. When that infant quickly died from the elements, Bertron cloned it, making sure that the new infant would be able to withstand what killed the previous version. Bertron did this millions of times over decades, murdering countless children and cloning them, each one slightly stronger than the last, until he created the ultimate killing machine.

2 Mr. Freeze Wanted To Save His Wife

Mister Freeze Nora Freeze feature

When it comes to villains with heartbreaking origins, Batman is hard to beat. Mr. Freeze gained his origin not from the comics, but from Batman: The Animated Series. As the classic show told it, Dr. Victor Fries was a brilliant cryogenicist at GothCorp when his wife Nora was diagnosed with an incurable illness.

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To save his love's life, Victor decides to freeze Nora until a cure can be found, but his boss Ferris Boyle interrupts Nora's procedure and causes an explosion, forever leaving Victor in a state where he needs to be kept at sub-zero temperatures, and trapping Nora in a cryogenic freeze. Driven mad with rage, Victor became Mr. Freeze and began to plan his revenge on GothCorp.

1 Magneto Survived The Biggest Crime In Human History

Magneto the Friend and Foe of the X-Men

There is no supervillain origin more tragic than that of Magneto because it contains an all too real and horrific genocide from history. Born Max Eisenhardt, Magneto and his family were German-Jews who found themselves forced into the Warsaw Ghetto as the Nazis rose to power.

When the Eisenhardts tried to escape from Warsaw, they were captured and, along with a number of other Jews, set for mass execution. Max survived the execution order, but his parents did not. Still, the young boy's journey in hell had just begun, as the Nazis sent Max to Auschwitz, where countless Jews were murdered. Thanks in part to his mutant powers, Max survived the ordeal, but his faith in humanity was gone. When mankind began to persecute mutants, Max took on the persona of Magneto.

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