The 10 Most Important Times A Superhero Turned Bad, Ranked

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Superheroes turning evil is a staple of the comic book genre. From long falls from grace to sudden heel-turns, a hero succumbing to corruption is a time-honored tradition. It can breathe new life into a struggling comic, spark massive controversy, and drive sales. But what are the short- and long-term effects of turning a beloved hero evil? And what does it take to bring them back to the light?

Whether the result of years of storytelling or a desperate move to shake things up, these moments leave a lasting impact on comic book history. For a fall from grace to truly matter, it can’t be the result of mind control. It has to be a genuine, in-continuity shift that challenges both the character and their world.

10

Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern

This Green Lantern Had a Decade-Long Fall from Grace

Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern introduced in 1959, is perhaps the most famous character to wield the ring. His success on the printed page helped pave the way for the Justice League and, eventually, the Marvel Age of Comics. Despite his popularity as a hero and the vast Green Lantern Corps he introduced to readers, writers have often admitted that Hal was a difficult character to write. As the letters page of Green Lantern Vol. 3 #50 (1994) states, “Let’s face it: In all the years that Hal has been in existence, there has been little change, if any, to the character… Even Denny O’Neil, who told great stories with the character, admits it was hard to tell stories about the character.”​​​​​​​

By the 1990s, the Green Lantern comic was in desperate need of a shake-up, and editors turned to up-and-coming writer Ron Marz. Following the destruction of Coast City, Hal Jordan was consumed by grief and took his rage out on the Guardians themselves. In the aftermath, he destroyed the Central Battery, killed most of the Guardians, and rebranded himself as Parallax, becoming a villain to the universe at large. While Kyle Rayner carried the torch as the sole Green Lantern, Hal embarked on a complex path to redemption, ultimately sacrificing his life to reignite Earth’s dying sun. He was later resurrected and restored as a Green Lantern, with much of his villainous past seemingly erased from the minds of audiences for the time being.

9

Superboy-Prime

This Forgotten Variant of the Man of Steel Has Fallen Very Far Indeed

Superboy-Prime is a remnant of DC Comics’ original Multiverse, debuting shortly before the universe-restructuring events of Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985. Hailing from the “real world,” a universe where he is the only superhero and everyone else exists in comic books, he was found as a baby in the woods by Jerry and Naomi Kent. Named Clark Kent as an homage to Superman, he later discovered he shared the same powers as the Man of Steel and took on the mantle of Superboy. He eventually met the Earth-One Superman before being drawn into the Crisis, where every alternate universe, including his own Earth-Prime, was destroyed by antimatter.

In the aftermath, Superboy-Prime and a few others were placed in a paradise dimension meant to serve as a happy ending, until writer Geoff Johns revealed that Prime had slowly gone insane. In 2006’s Infinite Crisis, a sequel to the original event, Superboy-Prime slaughtered heroes in a desperate attempt to restore his lost world before being imprisoned by the Green Lantern Corps. His irredeemable nature makes him a compelling villain, but legal issues surrounding the character have essentially kept him out of comics, aside from a brief return in Dark Nights: Death Metal in 2019.

8

Daredevil, Leader of the Hand

Matt Murdock’s Descent In Shadowland Was a Dark Chapter In His Life

When does Matt Murdock truly hit rock bottom? When does Daredevil, as a comic, reach its lowest point? The answer to both lies in Shadowland. Since Marvel relaunched Daredevil under the Marvel Knights imprint in 1998, the series explored just how far Matt Murdock could fall. From publicly lying about his identity to interfering in federal investigations and even declaring himself the new Kingpin of Crime, his downward spiral was relentless. By the time writer Andy Diggle took over after Ed Brubaker’s run, Matt had hit a new low, leading the Hand, the notorious ninja cult introduced by Frank Miller in 1981.

Diggle’s run saw Daredevil fully embrace villainy, attempting to seize control of New York, clashing with former allies, and brutally killing Bullseye in revenge for Elektra’s death years prior. Eventually, it was revealed that Matt was possessed by a demon known as the Beast, forcing him to take his own life to end the threat. Thankfully, Matt recovered, and with the Marvel Knights era ending, Marvel Editorial saw the need for a fresh approach. In 2011, Mark Waid’s run brought a brighter, swashbuckling tone back to Daredevil and brought some much-needed fun to his otherwise oppressively dark world.

7

Cyclops, the Mutant Revolutionary

Scott Summers Went Down a Controversial Road

The Avengers and the X-Men share a long history but have rarely overlapped. While mutants like Wolverine and Storm have been members of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the relationship between the two teams was forever scarred by Avengers vs. X-Men. When the Phoenix Force, a cosmic entity representing the heartbeat of the universe, returns to Earth, the Avengers and X-Men are divided on how to handle it. Captain America and the Avengers, seemingly driven more by the needs of the story than actual character motivations, want to capture and destroy it. Cyclops, on the other hand, sees it as a chance to reignite the dwindling mutant population.

As the Phoenix Force is split among multiple mutants, it becomes a race against time until only Cyclops remains, fully empowered and facing down his lifelong mentor, Charles Xavier. The encounter ends with Cyclops killing Xavier, cementing his fall from grace and pushing him into the role Magneto once held, as an insurgent unwilling to play by humanity’s rules. While Marvel framed this as a villainous turn, public sentiment has actually shifted in Cyclops’ favor, considering the very real hypocrisy of Professor Xavier’s teachings and the very real disdain Marvel has towards its merry mutants. Much in the same vein as Magneto, Cyclops was right.

6

The Superior Iron Man

This Was the Worst of Many Character Turns In Iron Man’s History

In 1995, something terrible happened to Iron Man. The Crossing, a storyline in Avengers, revealed that Tony Stark had secretly been an agent of Kang the Conqueror for years. Practically overnight, his entire history and character were retconned beyond recognition, alienating fans and readers alike. To stop this suddenly villainous Tony, the Avengers traveled back in time and recruited a teenage version of him to fight his older self. In the aftermath, the adult Iron Man was killed, and “Teen Tony” took his place as the new Golden Avenger. However, both “Teen Tony” and The Crossing were among the most abruptly abandoned storylines in comic book history.

The idea of an evil Iron Man resurfaced in 2014’s AXIS, where a morality-inverting event turned heroes into villains and vice versa. Unlike most, Tony’s shift remained permanent, leading to Superior Iron Man. This version of Tony embraced his worst traits: he resumed drinking, flaunted his ego, and deliberately contaminated San Francisco’s water supply with the Extremis virus, granting citizens superpowers but charging them daily to keep them. Superior Iron Man remained until 2015’s Secret Wars, where he died alongside his universe, battling Captain America one last time.

5

Reed Richards, the Maker

This Dark Take on Mister Fantastic Is a Great Character Study

In 2000, Marvel launched a new publishing initiative known as Ultimate Marvel. Designed to offer fresh, modernized takes on classic characters, it became a hit with fans and critics alike. Series like Ultimate Spider-Man and The Ultimates showcased the earnest character work and political subversion that defined the imprint. But while Spider-Man and the X-Men thrived with detailed revamps, Marvel’s First Family struggled to find their voice, leaving them completely fractured when the Ultimatum Wave hit. Published in 2009, Ultimatum could have marked an unceremonious end to the Ultimate line, as Magneto used Thor’s hammer to flood New York, killing dozens of heroes.

Among the dead was Franklin Storm, father of Susan and Johnny. Having already caused his friends’ mutations and later being tricked into the Marvel Zombies universe by his own variant, Reed Richards’ ill-timed proposal at Franklin’s funeral finally broke him. Cut off from his former allies, Reed abandoned heroism and effectively took Doctor Doom’s place as a ruthless despot. Renaming himself the Maker, he became a global threat, attempting to reshape humanity before the multiversal destruction of Secret Wars in 2015. After years of trying to return home, the Maker has recently used time travel to alter the history of Earth-6160 and created a new Ultimate Universe that was now under his cruel control.

4

Wanda Maximoff, the Disassembled Scarlet Witch

Scarlet Witch Stepped Into the Roles of a Hero and a Villain

Contrary to popular belief, the Avengers haven’t always been an A-tier property for Marvel Comics. Before the MCU propelled them to global recognition, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes often struggled to stay afloat in the comics. This was especially true in 2004 when writer Brian Michael Bendis was brought in to revitalize The Avengers. Drawing from an old storyline where Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, used chaos magic to create children only to lose them, Bendis pushed her into full-blown madness. Practically out of nowhere, Wanda unleashed her powers against the Avengers, destroying the Mansion and killing longtime members Scott Lang and Hawkeye.

Wanda’s instability continued in House of M, where she used her reality-warping powers to reshape the world into a mutant-led society with Magneto as its ruler. When that reality unraveled, she lashed out again, depowering 98% of the mutant population. In the years following Disassembled, Wanda regained her sanity and even rejoined the Avengers, but the lingering threat of her returning to villainy has left a mark on her character. Even superheroes can’t simply reset after repeatedly reshaping reality, but Wanda’s ongoing struggle for redemption keeps her one of Marvel’s most compelling figures.

3

Jason Todd, the Red Hood

Batman’s Second Robin Came Back With a Vengeance Most Foul

Have you ever been brought back to life by someone punching reality? In the world of DC Comics, it’s not as uncommon as it sounds. After all, that’s exactly how Jason Todd returned after being murdered by the Joker. Jason debuted as the second Robin shortly before Crisis on Infinite Earths and was initially portrayed as nearly identical to Dick Grayson. With Crisis, DC saw an opportunity to make him more distinct, reimagining him as a street orphan abandoned by his mother and left fatherless after Two-Face killed his dad. The problem was that DC overcorrected, turning Jason into a foul-mouthed, cigarette-smoking, rebellious Robin who was undoubtedly an adult’s idea of a “cool kid.”

After Jason was voted to die in 1988’s Death in the Family, he was resurrected years later by writer Judd Winick, who revealed that the forgotten variant Superboy-Prime had been punching the walls of reality, causing sudden changes in the universe. Where Jason had once been a corpse, he was now alive and seeking retribution for his unavenged murder. Taking up the Red Hood identity, he confronted Batman’s hypocrisy in letting the Joker live, exposing his failures as a hero. While later writers have muddled Jason’s motivations, the best version of his return remains 2010’s animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood.

2

Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier

Bucky Went from a Golden Age Sidekick to a Modern-Day Assassin

IIn what would prove to be the better version of an old sidekick returning as a villain, Ed Brubaker’s acclaimed Captain America run centered on the mystery and redemption of James “Bucky” Barnes, Cap’s original World War II partner. As the mystery unfolded in the early issues, readers were stunned to learn that Steve Rogers’ shadowy new adversary was none other than Bucky himself, who was now a Soviet assassin who had been kept in suspended animation for decades. This shocking reveal served two key narrative purposes: to challenge Steve on a deeply personal level and to establish a long-running plot thread that would shape the series.

Eventually, Steve used the Cosmic Cube, an object capable of granting wishes, to restore Bucky’s mind and personality, but Barnes, overwhelmed by guilt, fled. After Steve was seemingly assassinated, Bucky reluctantly took up the mantle of Captain America, wearing a mostly black variant of the uniform and joining the underground New Avengers. However, his time as Cap was short-lived, cut short by editorial mandates and his own unresolved trauma from his years as the Winter Soldier. Perhaps tragedy is Bucky’s true legacy, as his resurrection in 2004 has only led to more suffering.

1

Jean Grey, the Dark Phoenix

Jean Grey Blazed the Trail of Villainy and Redemption That Others Still Walk.

Jean Grey’s descent into villainy is perhaps the most influential example of a hero turning bad. Shortly after the X-Men’s 1975 revamp introduced new members like Wolverine, Storm, and Nightcrawler, incoming writer Chris Claremont set out to develop Jean beyond her role as the team’s token female member. During a mission in space, the X-Men were forced to navigate a deadly radiation belt, with Jean sacrificing herself to save her teammates. But Jeans death quickly gave way to rebirth when she emerged as the Phoenix, a cosmic entity that granted her unimaginable power.​​​​​​​

That power was soon manipulated by the Hellfire Club, a group of mutant elites who sought to use the Phoenix for their own ends. However, Jean’s transformation spiraled beyond their control, and she ultimately lost herself to the force within her. In a moment of unchecked destruction, she consumed an entire star, annihilating billions of lives and prompting the X-Men to fight the Shi’ar Imperial Guard in a desperate bid to save her. In a fleeting moment of clarity, Jean recognized the devastation she had caused and took her own life to end the conflict. Though originally intended as the final chapter of her story, Jean Grey has returned again and again, making her journey from life to death and back an essential part of her legacy.

“}]] From Hal Jordan to Reed Richards, superheroes turning bad has led to many incredible comic book storylines.  Read More