Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-2059440-20160506190434/@comment-1705775-20160509184622

as far as good-intentioned villains go here's a general rule..

a vigilante is considered a villain when they start willingly endangering civilians, remorselessly kill criminals even when criminals may surrender and generally becoming terrorists.. they serve as a foil to heroic or even neutral vigilantes as they show a dark reflection of the hero themselves.

a patriot may be a hero if he's someone like Captain America, who loves his country's ideals but not necessarily its government and laws (if said laws / government go against the ideals) - compare to "patriots" that will happily massacre innocents and see any form of mercy as traitorous (famous example is the General in Justice League to Shining Knight "then you're a bad soldier!" (because he refused to kill innocent people) ).

guys like Magneto and David Xanatos may seem rather neutral but you'd be a fool if you truly believed they were actually good guys or even true neutrals.. they are criminals and will harm innocents and cross moral lines no hero would (even anti-heroes).. they just do so in a less openly evil manner than others.

finally we get guys like Kratos who are the "hero" of their story but do unspeakable acts, far exceeding the need for vengeance, the Punisher falls into this in some stories as well.. after avenging their loved ones they should move on, they don't.. instead they go on a roaring rampage of revenge and often cause far more misery in their setting than good (even if Punisher does kill people much more evil than he is even Marvel has firmly established he is a psychotic character and will never stop killing.. he's a serial-killer with good publicity).