The Question: The Best Queer Villains in Comics
The heroes of fiction tend to conform to a certain type — straight, cisgender, male — and the quests that they go on tend to share common elements. 'Boy meets girl' is a familiar phrase because we expect a male protagonist to meet, seduce, and try to save a female love interest as part of his 'quest'. And because finding a mate is so often part of the hero's journey, villains often get to represent a counterpoint; they challenge the narrative, subvert the norm, and... queer things up. With so much fiction being heteronormative, villains often get to play with gender and sexuality in ways that heroes don't.
The queer or queer-themed villain is a trope that has led to some frustrating and upsetting stereotypes, but it's also led to some rich, compelling, and magnetic characters — characters that sometimes have a lot to offer to audiences hungry for representation and uncomfortable with the expectation of 'boy meets girl'. A villain's methods may be questionable, but their desire to overturn the accepted order can hold some appeal.
To celebrate Villain Month on ComicsAlliance, and to mark that intersection of villainy and queerness in fiction, we've asked our writers, 'Who is your favorite queer comics villain'?