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We never root for the villain who kills or the antagonist who lacks a code of ethics, so why is it that we often find ourselves on the side of the anti-heroes? Their ambiguous morals may make us uncomfortable, but usually, it is their motivations or their personality that make fans love them so much.
Venom
The 2018 film Venom reinvented the Venom-Eddie Brock relationship by turning them into unwitting friends. This strange friendship may seem like it comes out of nowhere, but it’s endearing and makes them an anti-hero worth rooting for. Fans would never find themselves on the side of the Spider-Man 3 Venom because all we got to see was the terrifying monster. With the perfect casting of Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and the tentative sentimentality the symbiote has for its host, Venom (2018) gave fans an anti-hero movie to enjoy.
While the symbiote does have a craving for humans, we get to watch Venom learn from Eddie Brock. Audiences can sympathize with the journalist who just wants to expose the dark truth behind shady companies, and, as it turns out, so can Venom. Even though he can (and does) eat humans in one bite, we root for him because he starts to understand and agree with Eddie’s motives. And, of course, Eddie convinces him to only eat the bad guys.
Harley Quinn
Harley Quinn is a well-known and well-loved foil of Batman in the comics, and single-handedly carried the failure that was Suicide Squad. But the character was brought back as an unstable, wonderfully erratic anti-hero in Birds of Prey. Margot Robbie’s pet project is imbued with her passion for the character, and it comes across in a way that makes the psychotic Harley Quinn lovable. Fans can’t help but root for her and her slapped-together team of women criminals.
She may break people’s legs with a single kick and bash men’s heads in with a mallet, but ultimately she’s a woman looking to get her power back. The Birds of Prey Harley Quinn is a powerful feminist icon that may not be the best role model in terms of how to react to a breakup but definitely is easy to root for as a badass woman. Once she collects her ragtag team of lady killers, it’s hard not to cheer when they come out on top—leaving dead men behind in their wake.
John Wick
The John Wick trilogy features stunning fight choreography, brilliant score and sound, and the unfortunate acting of the one and only Keanu Reeves. Entertaining fight scenes mixed with utter brutality and the unnecessary murder of a puppy makes audiences root wholeheartedly for this trained assassin. He has very few lines and commits many, many violent murders, but somehow John Wick can fix himself firmly in the hearts of the fans.
Flashbacks of his wife dying of cancer make it impossible not to sympathize with John Wick, but there’s more to the fans’ love for him than that. It’s how terrified powerful mafia members are of him, how much recognition he has among other assassins and the fact that he left all of that behind for love, that makes John Wick so compelling. Sure, he’s a feared assassin known for that one time he killed a man with a pencil, but he’s also human just like the rest of us.
Ghost Rider
Though the Nicholas Cage film goes largely unrecognized by Marvel fans, the Ghost Rider referred to in this list is from the ABC show, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Robbie Reyes is on the path for vengeance after he was attacked and killed by a gang in a fight that left his brother disabled. With the power of hell on his side, he turns into the anti-hero, Ghost Rider. His tragic backstory, and his newfound friendship with Daisy, get fans emotionally invested in his story.
For starters, his biker jacket and the mysterious flip of his keys around his fingers just makes him look cool. But then we see how he acts around his brother, the protective side of him that is really the only reason he became the Ghost Rider at all. Robbie bonds with Daisy over feeling alone and misunderstood, a couple of misfits trying to do right by their families. He’s willing to drag his enemies down into hell, and though that may not be acceptable to the heroes of the show, fans can see that it’s not altogether uncalled for.
Adelina Amouteru
The Young Elites by Marie Lu is a unique young adult novel that features an anti-hero narrator: Adelina Amouteru. She has terrifying power and a twisted mind, but it’s difficult not to be on her side at times after witnessing the abuse from her father and the constant bigotry and hatred she faces from society. Lu creates the perfect anti-hero in Adelina. You believe at first that she’s the hero, but it’s not until it’s too late and she’s already your favorite character that you start to realize she may have more malicious intent than it first seemed.
Adelina punishes her torturer, the man dedicated to wiping out people like her, and she feels no guilt over the pain she causes him, and it’s likely the fans don’t either. She kills her abusive father, rips through the soldiers that try to take advantage of her, and begins a revolution fueled by hatred of the people that have been putting her down her entire life. It’s not just that an anti-hero narrator is unique compared to most other young adult novels, but that Lu takes topical issues like bigotry and oppression and gives us a character fed up with a world that refuses to accept her.
Punisher
Another character with a tragic backstory that makes the audience completely understand his need for vengeance, Punisher is the epitome of an anti-hero. Frank Castle makes his first television appearance in Marvel’s Daredevil as the amoral mirror of Daredevil himself. Fans fell so much in love with the terrifying and utterly depressed anti-hero that he got his own spinoff series. He gets bloody revenge for the death of his wife and kids, and fans cheer him on the whole gory way.
He’s depressed and utterly shattered after his family is murdered, and fans can’t blame him. After all, John Wick goes on a murder spree for his puppy, so the realm for what fans will support after a gang shootout ends up killing three innocent bystanders is unending. We know he’s been severely damaged by loss and no longer has a moral compass to guide him, and still, it doesn’t matter because his crusade started when his stable happy life was unjustly ripped from his grasp.
Number Five
With the recent launch of season 2 of The Umbrella Academy, it would be remiss not to mention the 50-year-old anti-hero stuck in a 13-year-old’s body. Five is sarcastic and charming, and much like the rest of his family, impossible not to like despite his murderous tendencies. He is a trained assassin with the power to teleport (and travel through time occasionally), with the personality of a crotchety old man. Still, he’s fun and endearing, especially when he sets his ego aside to help the people he begrudgingly loves.
Unlike other anti-heroes on this list, Five doesn’t have the tragic backstory that makes him sympathetic. His motives are almost always completely selfish—or so he likes to let people believe. He has a caring streak hidden underneath all his arrogance because he was alone for fifty years and finally has a family again. Fans recognize how desperately he needs positive relationships and forgive the times when he jumps to murder as the solution for all his problems.
Deadpool
Last, but most certainly not least, the anti-hero you all were likely waiting for: Deadpool. Ryan Reynolds takes his flawless comedic timing, childish and vulgar sense of humor, and absolute adoration for the character to turn Deadpool into everyone’s favorite anti-hero. He breaks the “superhero” rules by calling out his own faults and those of other superheroes through breaking the 4th wall, by brutally murdering his enemies, and by getting himself maimed and fatally wounded constantly.
He has selfish motives but always wants to save the woman he loves. He’s terrible to most everyone he meets but ultimately has a desire to be loved. Deadpool has a self-awareness that villains lack that allows him to land safely within the realm of the anti-hero. Deadpool is hilarious, entertaining, and so painfully honest, and, because of this, he is a definite fan favorite.
Are You An Anti-Hero Fan?
If you love one or more of these anti-heroes, you should definitely check out the rest. There are plenty more wonderfully written anti-heroes out there that didn’t make it to this list for you to dive into. But one thing is for certain, the ones on this list are so successful because, despite their ambiguous morals, they usually wear their hearts on their sleeves, and we can’t get enough of them.