Redemption arcs are a staple of superhero stories, but it’s the exception to the rule when villains who turn into heroes stay that way, and longtime Marvel villains, especially the most iconic among their ranks, are often too good at being bad to be permanently redeemed.

In Brevoort’s latest Substack post, the Editor, who has been with Marvel for decades, responded to a question about the several characters who had been on the path to redemption “reverting back to villainy.”

Brevoort noted that in the specific case of Thunderbolts’ Baron Zemo, he never expected a lasting reformation, while also pointing out what makes it difficult, in general, to turn a bad character good and make it stick. Of course, Marvel has many memorable deviations from this rule, but it does explain the propensity for most villains to backslide when offered a shot at redemption.

Marvel Senior Editor Explains The Reason Why Most Villain Redemptions Don't Last

Tom Brevoort Calls It "An Uphill Battle"

To put it simply, Tom Brevoort boiled the idea of villain redemption arcs down to a matter of branding; successful villains have a certain degree of brand recognition as antagonists, and consequently, it takes a great investment of time and effort, on the part of both Marvel creators, and Marvel readers, to "flip" a villain in a sustainable way. Even more simply, most redemption arcs undertaken by Marvel Comics aren't meant to be permanent, or even long-lasting, but rather serve to add additional dimensions to characters.

Brevoort explained it this way, using Baron Zemo as an example:

I think rehabilitating villains, especially long-running villains, is an uphill battle. Because if a villain is that popular, then eventually you’re going to want to pit them against their recurring nemesis again. So while Fabian did a lot over the years to make Zemo a more fully-realized character, I never really thought that any of it was going to be redeeming him—as opposed to, say, Songbird or MACH-V, Zemo was the most irredeemable of the Thunderbolts, and it was only going to be a matter of time before somebody was going to want to pit him against Captain America and the Avengers again. The best case would be to make him sympathetic enough that it added additional gravitas to that eventual clash.

In other words, in many cases, a Marvel villain can benefit more from a "failed" redemption than readers would from the villain's "successful" redemption. The best outcome of many "rehabilitation" storylines for villains, such as Baron Zemo, is that they become a more complex character, without taking a recognizable foe off the table for classic heroes. Beyond this, it can also be argued that a proliferation of unsuccessful redemptions makes the ones that last that much more impactful.

X-Men Has Successfully Redeemed Legendary Villains Before, But That Doesn't Make It Easy

Examples Of The "Uphill Battle"

One thing that makes Tom Brevoort's comments on redemption arcs for Marvel villains especially notable is the fact that he is the Senior Editor in charge of the X-Office, overseeing all the publisher's X-Men titles, and the X-Men franchise arguably boasts the greatest success rate when it comes to "rehabilitating villains." Among the most prominent examples are Magneto, the franchise's original villain, and Juggernaut, a stalwart bad guy for decades, who lately have become definitively heroic mutants, with little sign of regression to come in the future.

Tom Brevoort's explanation of why most redemptions don't hold stands as a valuable insight into a general rule of Marvel storytelling.

Another example is Kid Omega, who originated with a memorable run as an antagonist in Grant Morrison's New X-Men, but has in the last several years become a key member of the X-Men. Still, the circumstances of his character's trajectory are different from most Marvel villains. In other words, Tom Brevoort's explanation of why most redemptions don't hold stands as a valuable insight into a general rule of Marvel storytelling, one fans can for the next time a villain starts to trend toward the heroic side of the continuum.

Source: Tom Brevoort, Man With A Hat (Substack)