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10 Bone-Chilling Villainous Legacies


There are tons of cool hero legacies to look up to. But villainy can also be passed down from generation to generation too. Some of the most fascinating villains are the ones that leave legacy. It’s a chilling reminder to all of how enduring evil can be. Even when a villain dies or otherwise disappears, someone is there to take after them.

When it’s a child following in the footsteps of a parent, it’s a lesson in how a villainous person can negatively influence the people close to them. Some of the best stories of redemption are when these “children of villains” realize they don’t have to become their parents.

So let’s take a look at some of the most enduring and fascinating villainous legacies fiction has to offer. Are there any you’d like to add? Say so in the comments!

  1. The Legacy of the Sith Lords

    The Sith Lords may be the ultimate example of legacy villains. In order to resolve the issue of internal power struggles, The Sith instituted “The Rule of Two”. This rule stipulated there only be two Sith at a time- a master and an apprentice. They would work toget to undermine the republic. When the master died, the pupil would take over. In fact, it was almost expected for the apprentice to “graduate” into masterhood by successfully murdering their mentor and taking their place. Then they would take on an apprentice themselves. Through this method, evil was passed down from generation to generation.

    Of course, not everyone followed that rule. For instance. Palpatine, aka Darth Sidious kept multiple apprentices, including Darth Vader. Palpatine was the one who corrupted Anakin Skywalker and manipulated him to the Dark Side. Vader ended up killing Sidious, but not to take his place. He did it to protect his son and died soon afterwards himself after renouncing his allegiance to the Dark Side.

    However, this didn’t stop Vader from inadvertently leaving his own villainous legacy. Vader’s grandson, Kylo Ren, vowed to finish what Vader started and wipe out the Jedi. This is probably one of the most tragic examples of a legacy of evil because Vader’s last moments show us he would not want to see his grandson follow in his footsteps or finish his work. But even though he repented with his last breath, he couldn’t erase his villainous acts. And so that evil spread to others and inspired them, whether he wanted it to or not.

  2. The legacy of the Joker and Harley Quinn

    Batman Beyond shows that even if the Joker dies, his legacy will still remain. Year after the Joker’s death and Bruce Wayne’s retirement from being Batman, gangs modeling themselves after the Joker still persist. They call themselves “The Jokerz” and the new Batman, Terry McGinnis, is their foil. The imitation of the Joker was shown to be so persistent that we see three separate Jokerz gangs throughout Batman Beyond.

    The first gang of Jokerz Terry encounters only do petty crimes and pranks, but a second gang was introduced later that was a bit more dangerous, committing arson and whatnot. Then there was a third gang that was introduced in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. This gang included the granddaughters of the Joker’s former girlfriend and partner-in-crime, Harley Quinn. However, this appears to be another unwanted villainous legacy, as she scolded them for committing crimes and said she had tried to make a “good home” for them, which indicates she reformed.

    Notably, Bruce Wayne wasn’t very impressed by the gang of Jokerz and managed to kick their asses despite being geriatric, so they don’t measure up to the original guy at all. However, it is impressive how enduring and inspiring the Joker was to the no-good of Gotham.

  3. The Legacy of Venom

    The Venom symbiote is an alien creatures that seeks a host to take over, so naturally, several people have hosted the symbiote and committed villainous deeds as Venom. The parasite was first bonded to Spider-Man, but he rejected it when he realized it was trying to become a permanent part of them. The symbiote then fled and bonded with Eddie Brock, a journalist who blamed Spider-Man for ruining his career. With the symbiotes help, Brock became Venom and attacked Spider-Man.

    The symbiote later bonded to Marc Gargan, a villain who had been known as the scorpion before that. The symbiote would take over Gargan completely, even causing him to resort to cannibalism. It also bonded with Eddie Brock’s ex-wife, letting her become (ugh) She-Venom and leading her to attack men who had previously hurt her. A Mafioso also tried to kill Spider-Man when bonded with Venom.

    Weirdly enough, the symbiote also fulfilled the “parent-child villainous legacy” deal in addition to all this. It had an offspring it was completely indifferent to, and THAT offspring bonded with a serial killer and became Carnage. Carnage was such a remorseless and dangerous villain that Venom/Eddie Brock put his hatred for Spider-Man aside and teamed up with the hero to stop him. Carnage also bonds with some other folks.

    Venom’s widespread legacy and ability to corrupt and take over other people makes it one of the greatest threats to humanity in the Marvel Universe, according to SHIELD. That’s one heck of a legacy!

  4. The Legacy of Professor Zoom

    The Reverse Flash deserves a shoutout for creating a retroactive villainous legacy due to time travel shenaningans. Professor Zoom, aka Eobard Thawne, was born in the 30th century. However, he’s a time traveler, so he’s tangled with the heroic Flash of modern times as the villainous Reverse Flash.

    Wally West told his friend Hunter Zolomon about the villain, so when Zolomon decided to become a villain himself, he patterned himself after Professor Zoom (simply calling himself Zoom).

    The Professor eventually met his paradoxical successor and was super amused by how well that fit with his theme, saying “I’ve created a legacy five centuries before I’ll even be born. It’s backwards. It’s in reverse!”

  5. The Legacy of the Green Goblin

    The Green Goblin is another huge villainous legacy in the Spider-Man franchise and a sad example of how a villainous (and frankly abusive) parent can damage their child. Norman Osborn fought Spider-Man as the original Green Goblin. His son, Harry had no idea of his father’ villainous activities, but his erratic behavior messed Harry up enough that he began abusing drugs.

    When Norman died while fighting Spider-Man, Harry, who was pretty unstable at this point, found out about the whole thing and blamed Spider-Man for his father’s death (his despair only intensifying when he discovered Spider-Man was his best friend, Peter Parker). He therefore took up the mantle of Green Goblin.

    Harry is captured and sent to receive psychiatric treatment, but his psychiatrist, Bart Hamilton, then decides to become Green Goblin after learning the Osborn secrets through hypnosis. Harry actually has to stop him. He dies and later Harry dies too (he does eventually get better- both in the not-dead sense and in the moral sense). Yeah, the legacy of the Green Goblin is definitely a twisted and tragic one. 

  6. The Legacy of Baron Zemo

    Baron Heinrich Zemo was a Nazi scientist who fought Captain America and the gang during World War II. He even (supposedly) killed Cap’s teen sidekick, Bucky. He eventually died, but he had raised a son, Helmut, to believe in his Nazi ideals.

    After his father’s death, Helmut became the new Baron Zemo and went up against the newly returned Captain America. Once again, a sad example of how a parent can negatively influence a child.

  7. The Legacy of Ra's Al Ghul

    Ra’s al-Ghul is another villain with a huge legacy. In leading the League of Assassins, he’s created a lot bad guys. That’s nothing to say of the influence he’s had on his children. His daughter, Talia Al Ghul, was often torn between following in her father’s footsteps and her attraction to the hero Batman. She could be either an ally to justice (by helping Batman) or carry out her father’s will.

    However, Ra’s other daughter, Nyssa, was abused so horribly by Ra’s that she had no compunction about killing him and taking over the League herself. She also tortured Talia enough to mentally break her and cause her to go full supervillain, so Talia joins her in taking over the family business. These days, the only one who bucks the Al Ghul legacy of villainy is Ra’s grandson, Damian, who chooses to be hero alongside his father, Batman.

  8. The Legacy of Jigsaw

    Jigsaw is a villain that knows how to plan ahead. Dying of terminal cancer, John Kramer got the bright idea to test people’s “will to live” by trapping them in deadly, horrible games. He dies in the third Saw movie, but trains four apprentices who continue to carry out his plans for him. Chillingly, these apprentices include his former victims, such as Christina Young, who comes to see him as a savior and mentor after surviving his traps.

  9. The Legacy of Captain Boomerang

    The Flash villain Captain Boomerang aka Digger Harkness felt bored and obsolete as a supervillain. In his ennui, he actually reached out to the son he abandoned, Owen, and bonded with him for this first time. Then the Captain up and died. (How did he die, you ask? In the course of killing Robin’s dad. With a boomerang) which inspired his kid to take up the mantle of Captain However, after a brief flirtation with villainy, Owen became more of an anti-hero rather than following his father’s path, even attempting to make amends with Robin.

  10. The Legacy of the Royal Flush Gang

    The Royal Flush gang is a card themed supergang that not only managed to persist, but reformed several times with new members taking up the mantle. Amusingly, each incarnation of the gang has a different card-themed name- the first gang was Clubs, the second was Spades and then an expanded organization called All Suits. 

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