Crime, due to the nature of the genre of Superhero comics, has always been one of the defining and most prominent themes of comics. Some of the most loved characters in comic books are villains and anti-heroes, a trend which is observable even in Indian comics to some extent (Doga, one of the most identifiable character in Indian Comics). Joker, the arch-enemy of Batman, is one of the most iconic and recognizable characters across all mediums and formats. The buck however does not stop there as there are a whole lot of other characters that are memorable and loved inspite of being the bad guys in a format of story-telling primarily aimed at catering to kids.
It is a clear trend in comics in the western hemisphere that the villains are usually grey characters instead of black. Joker's origin story included him being disfigured and rendered insane after falling into a vat of toxic chemicals the same day his wife died. Dr. Freeze's crimes are motivated by his quest to revive his wife and find a cure for her illness. Kingpin (Marvel Universe, Spiderman / Daredevil), inspite of being a crime lord has a soft spot for his wife Vanessa which makes the character a lot more human. The case however is not so ambiguous in Indian comics.
The villains in Indian comics are evil. End of discussion. There is no moral ambiguity, no shades of grey and no motivations beyond money and/or power. Attempts have been made a few times to give justifiable motivations to characters but they are not significant enough to be mentioned and certainly no such villain has come even close to being iconic. Most of the villains aren't even given a proper back-story. Majority of the villains have a life of one or two issues followed by their convenient vanishing or incarceration. Out of all the villains featured in Super Commando Dhruv comics, only Grandmaster Robo has appeared in more than 10 stand-alone issues. Nagraj's villains have a better rate of re-appearances but the motivations there are flimsier than the villains in Dhruv. Nagpasha simply wants the treasure, Nagina wants to rule Nagdweep etc. In the recent years, there have been attempts to retrofit the villains with sympathetic backstories but the efforts have usually fallen flat in the eyes of the general readership, with absolutely no increase in the liking or sympathy towards the character.
It is also noteworthy that the villains in Indian comics, like many of the heroes, have been influenced by the more iconic villains from the USA but their backstories have still been left out. Robo's backstory sounds suspiciously similar to Wilson Fisk's and he is the only character in Dhruv's comics who is even given an origin story. The other major villains like Chumba (Magneto), Bauna Vaman (Toyman) and Dhwani Raj (Banshee) have not even been graced with those. They are evil because they are, end of discussion.
One of the obvious reasons is the same old demographic argument. The comics were written for kids and therefore the villains had to be unambiguously bad for the kids to know who to root for. However, the argument is not so strong when you consider the amount of violence depicted in the comics. People have been literally torn apart, burnt alive, beheaded with wooden swords and much worse in these comics. So obviously the writers had more faith in the wisdom of the kids back then to differentiate between fictional and real violence than they do now.
The primary reason I believe is the lack of characterization. The comics, during their early days, were severely plot driven. Very little time was spent on minor, or even secondary characters as the writers had a lot of ground to cover in the usual 30 odd pages. It is clear in the Golden and Silver Age comics which had exposition, 2-3 fight scenes with minions and then an exciting and drawn out climax with the main villain. With such a packed story-board the writers could not squeeze in musing on the morality of the actions of the villains, it was much easier to allow the villain to simply be bad to save space. This trend has been changed to some extent in the contemporary age, with writers focusing on stories spanning multiple issues, giving them more space to deal with fleshing out of characters but as the influences of the new generation of writers has been the golden and silver age comics, the morally ambiguity is not as pronounced as it has been for many of the iconic characters in the west.
The independent comics scene however, has seen a rising trend in the recent years. For example, "Ravanayan", a graphic novel series published by Holy Cow Entertainment, treats Raavan, the quintessential Indian villain, as the protagonist and focuses on his motivations. There have been other titles too, which focuses on anti-heroes, characters whose actions lie in moral grey area but as they are the protagonists, we, the readers, end up rooting for them anyway. "Odayan" and "Aghori" are relevant to an extent (published by Level 10 comics and Holy Cow Entertainment respectively).
In conclusion, during the Golden and Silver age, the villains were bad without spelling out any reasons whatsoever, do which could have ended up in the reader possibly sympathizing with the villain. carried the risk of the villains being sympathized with. The reason was usually the plot-driven stories and the limited frame space available and to an extent self-righteous censorship by the writers and publishers. The trend however has seen some changes in the recent years, with a rise in negative characters, anti-heroes and morally ambiguous and even likable villains. These comics usually are aimed at teenagers and adults and in the comics aimed at kids, the villains still remain morally and inexplicably bad to this day. But in order for the comics to truly have memorable and iconic characters, a lot more needs to be done in order to make these characters appear humans instead of villains.
It is a clear trend in comics in the western hemisphere that the villains are usually grey characters instead of black. Joker's origin story included him being disfigured and rendered insane after falling into a vat of toxic chemicals the same day his wife died. Dr. Freeze's crimes are motivated by his quest to revive his wife and find a cure for her illness. Kingpin (Marvel Universe, Spiderman / Daredevil), inspite of being a crime lord has a soft spot for his wife Vanessa which makes the character a lot more human. The case however is not so ambiguous in Indian comics.
The villains in Indian comics are evil. End of discussion. There is no moral ambiguity, no shades of grey and no motivations beyond money and/or power. Attempts have been made a few times to give justifiable motivations to characters but they are not significant enough to be mentioned and certainly no such villain has come even close to being iconic. Most of the villains aren't even given a proper back-story. Majority of the villains have a life of one or two issues followed by their convenient vanishing or incarceration. Out of all the villains featured in Super Commando Dhruv comics, only Grandmaster Robo has appeared in more than 10 stand-alone issues. Nagraj's villains have a better rate of re-appearances but the motivations there are flimsier than the villains in Dhruv. Nagpasha simply wants the treasure, Nagina wants to rule Nagdweep etc. In the recent years, there have been attempts to retrofit the villains with sympathetic backstories but the efforts have usually fallen flat in the eyes of the general readership, with absolutely no increase in the liking or sympathy towards the character.
It is also noteworthy that the villains in Indian comics, like many of the heroes, have been influenced by the more iconic villains from the USA but their backstories have still been left out. Robo's backstory sounds suspiciously similar to Wilson Fisk's and he is the only character in Dhruv's comics who is even given an origin story. The other major villains like Chumba (Magneto), Bauna Vaman (Toyman) and Dhwani Raj (Banshee) have not even been graced with those. They are evil because they are, end of discussion.
One of the obvious reasons is the same old demographic argument. The comics were written for kids and therefore the villains had to be unambiguously bad for the kids to know who to root for. However, the argument is not so strong when you consider the amount of violence depicted in the comics. People have been literally torn apart, burnt alive, beheaded with wooden swords and much worse in these comics. So obviously the writers had more faith in the wisdom of the kids back then to differentiate between fictional and real violence than they do now.
The primary reason I believe is the lack of characterization. The comics, during their early days, were severely plot driven. Very little time was spent on minor, or even secondary characters as the writers had a lot of ground to cover in the usual 30 odd pages. It is clear in the Golden and Silver Age comics which had exposition, 2-3 fight scenes with minions and then an exciting and drawn out climax with the main villain. With such a packed story-board the writers could not squeeze in musing on the morality of the actions of the villains, it was much easier to allow the villain to simply be bad to save space. This trend has been changed to some extent in the contemporary age, with writers focusing on stories spanning multiple issues, giving them more space to deal with fleshing out of characters but as the influences of the new generation of writers has been the golden and silver age comics, the morally ambiguity is not as pronounced as it has been for many of the iconic characters in the west.
The independent comics scene however, has seen a rising trend in the recent years. For example, "Ravanayan", a graphic novel series published by Holy Cow Entertainment, treats Raavan, the quintessential Indian villain, as the protagonist and focuses on his motivations. There have been other titles too, which focuses on anti-heroes, characters whose actions lie in moral grey area but as they are the protagonists, we, the readers, end up rooting for them anyway. "Odayan" and "Aghori" are relevant to an extent (published by Level 10 comics and Holy Cow Entertainment respectively).
In conclusion, during the Golden and Silver age, the villains were bad without spelling out any reasons whatsoever, do which could have ended up in the reader possibly sympathizing with the villain. carried the risk of the villains being sympathized with. The reason was usually the plot-driven stories and the limited frame space available and to an extent self-righteous censorship by the writers and publishers. The trend however has seen some changes in the recent years, with a rise in negative characters, anti-heroes and morally ambiguous and even likable villains. These comics usually are aimed at teenagers and adults and in the comics aimed at kids, the villains still remain morally and inexplicably bad to this day. But in order for the comics to truly have memorable and iconic characters, a lot more needs to be done in order to make these characters appear humans instead of villains.
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