Why do we love anti-heroes?

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that something has made the mainstream lexicon when it’s featured in a Taylor Swift song. “It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero,” the songstress sang on her 2023 track, aptly titled ‘Anti-Hero’. However, anti-heroes have been around since Homer – the Greek, not the Simpson*. Whether it’s Renaissance literature or Japanese fables, the concept has been alive as long as humans have been able to tell stories. Yet the modern anti-hero didn’t really find its footing until minorities made it so. Not surprising, when you consider those who have been historically marginalised and disenfranchised having an innate gift for creating characters that also reflect those same experiences. If you can be it, you can quite literally – and literary – see it.

Lord Byron’s work has been identified as the birth of the modern anti-hero, yet it’s more likely that was simply the case of a man who was an asshole writing what he knew: assholes. Instead, it was someone in his orbit who refined the concept: the OG teenage Goth, Mary Shelley, with Frankenstein (1818). Doctor Victor Frankenstein is said to be a mirror of the Byron-esque men around Shelley at the time of writing and it’s his obsession with becoming God that makes Victor the genuine antagonist of the story. Whereas Frankenstein’s monster – massive, misunderstood, manslaughtered a few causal people – is the one the audience empathises with despite his many missteps on the journey to comprehend the agony of being alive. In his electrified footsteps came other classic monsters like the Wolf Man and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, both inspirations for iconic comic book characters we still champion today such as The Hulk.

In fact, at the turn of the 20th century anti-heroes found new life on the comic book page where, according to the author of MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios (2023) Joanna Robinson, the ongoing nature of the stories saw readers crave a journey where “a hero can become a villain or a villain can become a hero”. “The reason the anti-hero is so popular is because we really enjoy watching characters on an arc,” Robinson says. “If a character is good and stays good – or a character is evil and stays evil – that’s not as interesting to us… I think especially over the course of longform storytelling that’s true, so you find the popularity of that particular archetype in television and with comic book storytelling, which can go on for decades.” It’s that flexibility between moral absolutes that has seen comic book characters like Deadpool translate so well to the big screen, most recently alongside another fan favourite Marvel anti-hero in Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). “Surprise! This is a different kind of Super Hero story,” says the merc with a mouth in the opening minutes of Deadpool (2016) which – despite previous attempts – is perhaps the most successful archetypal anti-hero to break into the mainstream. It’s ironic that Deadpool’s closest competition was Wolverine, with Hugh Jackman’s scene-stealing portrayal in the X-Men films eventually leading to his own spin-off franchise in which Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool made his first appearance.

X-Men in and of itself is a franchise populated almost entirely with anti-heroes, even the two leaders of warring mutant populations in Charles Xavier and Magneto being justified and unjustified in their actions in equal measure. They’ve become two shining examples of the complexity that characters coloured in grey rather than bold black or white can inhabit, even amongst Marvel’s deep bench of anti-heroes. “For someone like Loki or Bucky – who was put in a villain space against his own will – it’s so easy for us to watch them and be emotionally invested in their moral journey,” says Robinson, who also serves as a podcaster and cultural critic for The Ringer. “We see these characters arcing towards good. Loki especially is a case that has been very compelling for Marvel fans, MCU fans, comic book fans – and there’s this tension. You want them to be good, they want to be good sometimes, will they or won’t they?”

It's a trend that has grown within Disney’s universe of characters as well, with classic villains like Maleficent, Cruella and Scar all shifting from antagonistic roles in their first appearances to more sympathetic, anti-heroic figures as their stories have become fleshed out with solo films. For Nicola Scott – who has spent a career shaping the perception of heroes and anti-heroes on the comic book page and screen as an artist on titles such as Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman, and The Secret Six – it’s no coincidence that all three of those Disney anti-heroes resonate with those from underrepresented groups. “Cruella’s endurance is absolutely to do with her drag queen-esque schtick,” she says. “There’s always an arch-ness to Disney villains that leans camp and that’s a big part of their appeal, regardless of whether you recognise the coding or not. The more drag influenced they are the better.” From the pages of Dodie Smith’s 1956 novel to the two-dimensional cartoon villain depicted in the 1961 animated film, when Cruella has crossed over to live action, two of the best actresses of their generations – Glenn Close and Emma Stone – have been able to add additional layers to the de Vil persona through their performances. Stone, in particular, got to bring a punk rock, eat the rich, fashion anarchy to Cruella with the 2021 film of the same name. Giving her a backstory that viewers could empathise with, it reinvigorated the character for a whole new generation while still feeling familiar to those who adored the previous iteration. “I think what made her so fun was that her goal is so incredibly vacuous and fleeting, but she’ll still stop at nothing to get it,” says Scott of the classic Cruella. “It has nothing to do with vanity or power or survival, she just wants a fabulous spotted coat. What’s not to love!”

Every great villain believes they’re the hero of their own story, or so the saying goes, and never has that been more accurate – or nuanced – than with Marvel Studios’ Black Panther’s Erik Killmonger. He has become a go-to pop cultural example of a character whose means may have justified the ends and for Hunter Page-Lochard – who played the first Aboriginal superhero on screen in Cleverman – part of what makes Erik Killmonger an iconic anti-hero is the “real-life” inspirations. “The trauma that [he] experiences – being displaced from his culture and then ultimately rejected by it – is something many POC go through,” says the AACTA Award winner. “We can sit back and understand exactly where his anger, fear and pain come from. He’s the classic example of a foot in each world, but a heart in none.” Portrayed by Michael B. Jordan in the 2018 film, it’s not the only anti-hero the actor has played – albeit in a very different genre – with Jordan also giving new life and depth to the Rocky franchise as the son of Apollo Creed across three films: Creed (2015), Creed II (2018) and Creed III (2023). All produced and the last directed by him as well, Jordan has made anti-heroes his brand and business behind-the-scenes: something Page-Lochard has drawn inspiration from as a filmmaker with his own production company, Djali House. “We want to tell stories across genres – sci-fi, horror, comedy – that are commercial, but still layered and interwoven with profound themes around culture,” he says. “Michael B. Jordan is finding new ways to do that and we’re trying to do the same by redefining the idea of an ‘angry black man’. We’re considered anti-heroes in the real-world, so showcasing that black men and black anger can be understood and nurtured in the creative space… it’s a new era.”

The era of the anti-hero is far from over – in fact, the only thing better than one anti-hero is a bunch of them. Whether it’s a Western like The Magnificent Seven, a heist film franchise such as Ocean’s 8 to 13, or a rag-tag group of comic book characters in The Suicide Squad, Guardians of The Galaxy or the upcoming film Thunderbolts*, there’s enduring entertainment value to watching prickly characters with complicated baggage bounce off each other. It’s not just confined to fiction, with real historical criminals like Ned Kelly and Bonnie and Clyde being antagonistic figures for law enforcement but cult heroes that embody the classic signatures of narrative anti-heroes to the public. We see this mirrored in our popular culture, too, with anti-heroes able to transcend genre like Hannibal Lecter, Walter White and Tony Soprano just as memorable to audiences as Scarlet Witch, Professor Snape and Black Widow despite differences between crime media and fantastical films. While heroes and ‘good guys’ are confined to an ethical code and story rules, our anti-heroes have endless potential to smirk and saunter and sashay through a journey that’s undeniable. “We also just like watching people misbehave, that’s part of it,” says Robinson. “It’s fun to watch people lose that battle. Emotionally we want them to arc towards good but sometimes when they lose the fight, that’s fun too.”

– Maria Lewis

* Homer Simpson is also an anti-hero when you think about it.

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