Hicks is not an villain. He is more of an obnoxious, blow hard, cheating idiot. Storm is not that close, but he is more of an arrogant bully just like McQueen before he was redeemed in the first film. Storm can be redeemed if he learns about humility, respect, and sportsmanship. Axelrod is an mastermind of an terrorist group of lemons and he is responsible of putting a bomb on Mater, so he can silence Mater from revealing his plans and motives. Axelrod doesn’t care if the citizens are in the way of Mater’s suicide bombing. Professor Zundapp is way worse than his boss. He is sadistic, torturous, and cruel. Zundapp is responsible of blowing up the engines of the race cars to the brink of either hospitalization or death which killed two of them.