Anti-Villain/Web Comics

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• Arguably, Max Powers of PvP, although it's tough to pin down if he's a villain at all, or if Cole and Brent just take their frustrations out on him.
  • It's definitely the latter: eventually, it is revealed that the sole reason Cole hates Max is that he's jealous that Max is a much better person than him.
    • *Ahem* That was a blatant Retcon (viz. Max's inability to see Skull as a sort of manifestation of impurity). After a while, readers realized that, apart from being a bit of an annoying douchebag, Max really hadn't done anything to earn the scathing hatred that Brent and Cole had for him, and Kurtz created a storyline involving gay rumors and eavesdropping specifically to rehabilitate Max as a character.
    • Wrongo. Ever since he was introduced, he seemed to be a pretty nice guy and never really did anything that bad. Cole's reason for hate seems pretty obvious from the beginning, but he simply refused to admit it. Brent never really hated Max either, until Jade got involved. Also, the reason Max was unable to see Skull was just speculation done by the cast. Being impure wouldn't explain being able to see Skull after Shecky slugs Max in the face.
    • Max doesn't necessarily do anything villainous, but his overbearing personality is undoubtedly annoying and he sometimes lacks understanding of social convection. When his magazine merged with PvP and shifted into game development, he was approving of the idea that he could use the magazine to generate favorable reviews of the games his sister company produced. It is worth noting that, at one point, it is explicitly stated that Max can't see Skull because he is "not pure of heart". Commentary for an earlier comic even claims that Max is, in fact, the only character who has trouble seeing Skull outright, while others are more likely to perceive him as a fellow person or animal.
      • Still, Max can see Skull after his recent comeback to the strip, when he came back from a "self-discovery" trip, apparently a somewhat changed man.
      • Max Powers is a prime example of the Sitcom Arch Nemesis in that he antagonizes the main characters without ever actually doing much wrong. Websnark even did a somewhat famous piece on him.
• Fuschia in Sinfest has been undergoing massive Character Development from Chaotic Evil Horny Devil to Chaotic Neutral Noble Demon post Crimeny influence.
• Baron Klaus Wulfenbach from Girl Genius. He doesn't want to rule most of Europe with an iron fist (in fact, he hates his job and wishes he could retire to his lab), but his empire is the only check against mad science-induced anarchy. If not for his employees and his willingness to experiment on Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!)'s brain, he wouldn't even be a recognizable villain.
  • Even the "recognizable villain" bit can be debated, given that Othar is a homicidal genius, and Klaus's experiments were specifically about the nature of mad scientist-hood and how it might possibly be cured -- and Klaus let Othar escape after threatening him. As with all characters of sufficient complexity, the villain-hood of Klaus is questionable, and all depends on what you believe is more important: a sort of forced world peace or people's right to be all that they can be.
    • The problem with the "all they can be" part is that when Sparks are involved, "people" really means Sparks only, as their insane behavior and dangerous inventions tend to kill anyone else not a Spark around them, even if by accident. Klaus is the only thing keeping the Sparks in check and actually allowing normal people to live relatively calm and safe lives.
  • Even more than Klaus, his son Gil fits this trope brilliantly. Klaus is still thrown into a villain's role even with his good qualities, but Gilgamesh spends most of his screentime acting as and alongside a good guy, and if not for the unfortunate fact that he is, in fact, loyal to his father, the villain, he'd fit in perfectly among the protagonists himself. He is in love with the protagonist and she had trouble not feeling the same way; it's tough to be both a legitimate enemy and a legitimate love interest. Foreshadowing says he will, in fact, eventually outright join the protagonists, but so far, he's still a functioning member of Team Antagonist. He does suffer from occasionally channeling his father's method of dealing with minions.
    • Klaus's method of dealing with minions involves letting them question his orders (the lackya, regarding Zulenna) and giving surrendered enemy soldiers a month's pay or the chance to join his own army. Gil terrorized Wooster (who'd been spying on him) but it's not clear whether he would actually boil England.
    • He gave the invading army a fair warning and a chance to shoot first, but after he opened his can of whoopass in the form of the lightning generator, he gave no quarter until they surrendered. Also, he is one of the most powerful Sparks in the series, so, yes, we can assume that he would boil England if he had a reason.
      • The reason Gil gave that would, to his mind, justify boiling England was if the British Empire decided to enslave or otherwise harm a girl who's committed no evil ... and with whom he happens to be in love. Arguing with that justification would be ... morally tricky. Who is willing to say that enslaving or murdering an innocent is right?
    • Klaus definitely takes the term "tyrant" back to its roots - any ruler who doesn't have royal blood. The whole conflict between him and Agatha is proven a Senseless Waste of Human Life when you realize that "the despotic, iron-fisted rule of the Wulfenbach Empire" only has two rules - don't start fights and turn over all Sealed Evil in a Can for proper disposal.
  • Klaus and Gil aren't so much Anti-villains as subversions of villainhood. They have all the trappings of villainy, but not much of the substance. Gil makes their predicament explicit in this strip (link) and ever clearer on the following page. Add to that the fact that Klaus is probably at least as capable of fighting the real Big Bad as the protagonist Agatha, if not more so; or at least, he was, until he got slaver-wasped.
    • And Agatha has realized she MAY be a villain protagonist now.
• The protagonists of Narbonic are prone to attempted (and sometimes succeed) murder on each other at a moment's notice.
• The cast of The Last Days of Foxhound, excepting Ocelot and Mantis, are partially or wholly anti-villainous. Raven would never be counted as a villain by anyone aside from his involvement with the group when it goes rogue, Wolf is at worst a Punch Clock Villain and a genuinely decent human being away from her job, Octopus is often a bit slow on the draw but a laid back prankster who has never killed anyone, and while Liquid had a few Kick the Dog moments in his past, his sheer childlike dorkiness and deep seated complexes and neuroticisms tend to obscure that.
• Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus take on this role in Sluggy Freelance. They never do anything evil (well, except for accidentally destroying Tokyo that one time), they just happen to be engaged in a long running feud with the strip's resident Anti-Hero and Heroic Sociopath, Bun-Bun.
• Professor Broadshoulders from Zebra Girl counts. He wants to banish Sandra to Hell simply because she's part demon, but he honestly believes she's a threat to the people around her. He spent his life fighting demons, Buffy style, to protect people.
• Shadow the Hedgehog from the British Sonic the Comic continuity (not the games) is a clear example of this, being Sonic's Evil Counterpart. (This is in the unofficial online continuation of the original paper-and-ink comic book.) As such, where Sonic is arrogant, boastful, and hot tempered, Shadow is humble, polite, and focused, even managing to pull off a Heroic Sacrifice against the heroes in his last scenes. Sonic has become a little less of an asshole lately, maybe realising that people are having trouble working out who's the good guy.
• Gen. William Howe in The Dreamer. He really doesn't want to fight the Americans, but he has to follow orders.
• Redcloak, The Dragon and resident Well-Intentioned Extremist from Order of the Stick. Redcloak and his entire species (goblins) are the victims of Jerkass Gods who created them for the sole purpose of being XP Fodder, and declared that all goblins are evil so that the followers of those gods could then slaughter goblins guilt free. Redcloak himself is the survivor of a raid by Knights Templar paladins that slaughtered most of his family and community, and is intelligent, well meaning, has kept his standards, is repulsed by acts of Card Carrying Villainy, and, as the spiritual leader of all goblins, is trying to improve their lot in a world where, most of the time, they are attacked or killed on sight (by committing an act of Blackmail against the gods by threatening to unleash a world destroying, god killing Eldritch Abomination, as you do). To some degree, Redcloak even seems to have Word of God on his side, as author Rich Burlew has stated "Some people choose evil, and some are driven to it by what life has forced them to endure. Xykon is not one of these. Redcloak, however, might be."
  • Miko is an antivillain by Word of God - Rich Burlew actually used the word in a post on the Giant in the Playground forums: "In my mind, Miko is an antagonist, simply because she is an obstacle that the true protagonists of the story (the OOTS) must deal with/overcome. I think of her kind of as an 'anti-villain', a person in the villain's role who is not actually villainous." This sums up the trope quite nicely.
• Grace's brothers from El Goonish Shive, at first. Abraham, as well.
• King Radical of The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, as seen here. For those who don't know, King Radical is the one in the red and yellow suit. Yeah. That is the Big Bad.