credit: MCU
You wouldn’t think that villains could be worth much other than to serve as a reason for heroes to exist, would you? Some people identify with villains, some think that the villains are in the right at times, and it’s tough to argue against that point sometimes since the motivations that some villains are working with are easy to understand. But villains can teach lessons just as much as heroes are since some of them actually started out as teachers or students at one time before they were somehow corrupted. The fact is that many villains have a rather normal beginning since a good number of them didn’t start out being bad but were driven to it at some point. The fact that villains can also be teachers is something that we haven’t been conditioned to accept from a young age. Villains are supposed to be the bad guys, right? They’re not supposed to be able to teach us anything other than what not to do since their moral compass is skewed so far out of bounds that they no longer know how to act in society. Thankfully we know by now that this is rather inaccurate.
Here are five Marvel villains that might be great teachers.
5. Doctor Doom
credit: Marvel Comics
Let’s run down the list here and say that Doctor Doom is a genius, a ruler of his own country, a skilled sorcerer, and knows how to wield and obtain power. That might make him a better villain than a teacher, but there are likely many things he can teach people since the ruler of a country needs to know what goes in that country and how to deal with their people. Again, Doom isn’t exactly the first pick that many people would go to when it comes to learning anything. But it does stand to reason that he could run a classroom and educate people if he really felt the need, especially since he’s someone that knows so much about several different things. Plus, with an army of Doom bots, it’s fair to say that he could form his own school system, and everything would be covered.
4. Erik Killmonger
credit: MCU
Killmonger doesn’t feel like much of a teacher, does he? But it could be that he might be a great teacher when it comes to African history and various subjects that could go along with it. Plus, his life experience might be enough to give him an edge over others when it comes to being practical and straightforward in the classroom. His views on equality and uniting the world could also come in handy, at least until he described the vision he had of his position in the world, being on the absolute top. Killmonger might be better as a temp or a substitute that would come in every now and then and fill in for one teacher or another. But it does feel that he would manage to tell people the truths they didn’t want to hear and the way things were, rather than sugarcoating anything.
3. Xu Wenwu
credit: MCU
Several characters in the Marvel Universe would be great as history teachers since a good number of them are those who have been around for centuries and more, and could likely relate the true events of what happened back then, perhaps setting historians straight. Wenwu might not be much of a teacher, but if that could change, there is a great deal of what he could offer to individuals interested in learning more about the history of the lands he conquered and the cultures he disrupted so often. His martial training would be excellent if he decided to open a dojo and teach what he knows to others as well since just imagining centuries of experience being put to use when teaching others feels like it would be invaluable.
2. Helmut Zemo
credit: MCU
Something about this guy makes it sound like he might be a great psychology teacher but would also be great in a Civics class for some reason. He’s a bit condescending, so maybe he’d be better off as a college professor, but Zemo might make a decent teacher if he were given a chance. Of course, that does mean that he would need to try and help others rather than tear them down or turn them into seriously altered individuals that would flip out when specific keywords were spoken. But all in all, it’s fair to say that he’s an intelligent guy that would be able to get the job done if he had to.
1. Doctor Octopus
credit: Spider-Man 2
This is another certified genius that could probably handle a classroom without any severe issues since, to be fair, he was a balanced individual at one point in time. Despite being unhinged in the comics, it’s very easy to think that he might be able to sit down or stand up and give a dissertation on one subject or another without any difficulty. But the question is would he want to teach people in the first place since, even in the movie, it didn’t appear that he was ready and willing to share his knowledge with anyone but those who were ready to invest in his ideas? It’s thought, at least.
Villains could be teachers in some ways.