Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Difference between revisions
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* Rainbow Raider in ''[[The Flash]]'' became this, once going so far as to attend a villainy motivational seminar in a futile effort to stop losing all the time. Neron once sent him an invitation to his [[Not So Harmless|upgrades-for-souls meeting]] just so the Trickster could steal it from him.
* Asbestos Lady is a villain who fits this Trope in hindsight. This gal was a thief who thought it was a good idea to fight the Human Torch (not Johnny Storm, the original one) with an asbestos costume. This made perfect sense back in [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]] before anyone knew that asbestos was a dangerous carcinogen. Later in the modern era, it was confirmed she had died of cancer, done in by her own costume, and that she had been secretly funded by the U.S. government to combat the perceived threat superhumans posed, sort of a precursor to the Superhuman Registration Act during the ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]''. In effect, poor Asbestos Lady had become [[Aesop Collateral Damage]] in a [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|precautionary tale]] of how a corrupt government could ruin the lives of its own employees for selfish personal agendas.
** There was also Asbestos Man, another foe of the Torch. When he appeared a second time - quite a bit later, in ''[[The Fantastic Four|The Fantastic Four Vol. 5 #1]]'' - he also suffers from cancer and has to carry an oxygen tank around with him even as he commits crimes. This ironically makes him more successful, as everyone he tries to rob is terrified at the thought of getting the disease. Despite this, he is miserable, as he now has no purpose (he came out of retirement seeking revenge on the Torch, only to find out he was dead) and thinking that if anyone remembers him at all, it will be as a lame fool who was defeated by his own poor judgment. Fortunately, the Great Lakes Avengers (the heroes who oppose him in this story) are no strangers to being regarded as lame, and promise they will remember him and spread the word about how notorious a villain he is, if he simply turns himself in. He agrees, and passes away soon after.
* Codpiece, from ''[[Doom Patrol]]''. This crook started his criminal career when he was rejected by a girl in high school who said he wasn’t “big enough”. She meant height but he thought she meant [[Teeny Weenie|something else]], and it inspired him to build… [https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Codpiece_(New_Earth) eh, this]. Even worse was the way he was defeated - rookie heroine Coagula was trying to make a name for herself after the Justice League rejected her application, and figured fighting this villain would help, but because she didn’t have a costume yet, she bought a cheap frog mask from a convenience store and took him down in a… [[Groin Attack|rather humiliating manner]]. It did indeed gain Coagula a spot on the Doom Patrol, but Codpiece wasn’t so lucky. He hasn’t been seen since.
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