Terribly reviled about nothing, initially seeming villains (9)

'villains' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?

'terribly reviled about nothing initially seeming' is the wordplay.
'terribly' is an anagram indicator.
'about' says to put letters next to each other.
'nothing' becomes 'O' (looks like zero - 0).
'initially' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'seeming' is 's'.
'reviled' put after 'o' is 'oreviled'.
'oreviled' with letters rearranged gives 'evildoer'.
'evildoer'+'s'='EVILDOERS'

Can you help me to learn more?