I've been having a problem with this recently, I'm writing a more… comedic story where the protagonists are a group of supervillains who rise up against the heroes who ostracize them (kind of spoofing the classic archetypes of villain characters), but I'm having a hard time coming up with motives for these characters that are genuinely sympathetic. Any ideas?
One approach is to give your villains a sense of injustice or mistreatment by the heroes or society in general that the reader can sympathize with. Perhaps they were once good-hearted individuals who were ostracized or unfairly treated, leading them to turn to villainy to get their own justice. Alternatively, maybe they are victims of circumstance, such as being born into poverty or experiencing a traumatic event that unfortunately led them down a darker path.
Another strategy is to focus on their positive traits or motivations. For example, maybe your supervillains are trying to take down the heroes because they genuinely believe they're doing the right thing. Perhaps they see themselves as misunderstood heroes, or they're trying to make the world a better place in their own twisted way, or a better place for some specific subset of people, often at the detriment of others. They can be oblivious to the downsides of their plan (common in current villains) or just think it's "worth it anyway", which I think makes a more compelling villain.