We have all seen many times when A villain reforms and becomes a hero. But have there been any times when A hero becomes a villain? I would like some examples of that. Thanks in advance.
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We have all seen many times when A villain reforms and becomes a hero. But have there been any times when A hero becomes a villain? I would like some examples of that. Thanks in advance.
Hal Jordan
Just beaten to it there but, yeah, Hal Jordan.
This was during a story-line called Emerald Twilight from the 1990's. It's intention was to reinvigorate the Green Lantern franchise for DC in the same way that Death of Superman and Batman: Knightfall had done for those respective characters. It turned out to be nothing more than a character assassination that took a decade to properly correct.
That period has so much to answer for.
Other than that I thought it was fantastic.
[QUOTE=tbaron;4462030]We have all seen many times when A villain reforms and becomes a hero. But have there been any times when A hero becomes a villain? I would like some examples of that. Thanks in advance.[/QUOTE]
- Nightwing: The New Order
- Batman: Under the Hood
- JLA : Earth-2
- Tales of the Multiverse: Batman-Vampire
- Civil War
Have fun with that to start with
In the late 1960s, Sargon the Sorceror showed up in THE FLASH, having now become a villain. But a little after that, in the early 1970s, he helped out in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, in their fight against Starbreaker, where he was shown to muse about his shifting ethics.
The Enchantress, when she debuted in STRANGE ADVENTURES, was a good woman. It was only many years later that she went over to the dark side.
When Talia first appeared in DETECTIVE COMICS 411, she was pretty much a victim and not portrayed as a villain.
Captain Atom was supposed to turn bad in "Armageddon 2001" and become the Monarch, but DC changed that plot at the last minute and had Hawk (of Hawk & Dove) make the heel turn to the Monarch.
Superboy Prime was originally a good guy, but was later corrupted and became the bad guy. He later still became the Time Trapper--who has been many different people in different timelines, including Cosmic Boy in a distant future.
[QUOTE=WillieMorgan;4462091]Just beaten to it there but, yeah, Hal Jordan.
This was during a story-line called Emerald Twilight from the 1990's. It's intention was to reinvigorate the Green Lantern franchise for DC in the same way that Death of Superman and Batman: Knightfall had done for those respective characters. It turned out to be nothing more than a character assassination that took a decade to properly correct.
That period has so much to answer for.
Other than that I thought it was fantastic.[/QUOTE]
I get that Hal has many fans, but I wouldn't have picked up any GL if not for Kyle's debut. I liked the idea that Hal thought he was doing what was right, his eventual sacrifice, and new role as the Spectre.
However, I totally get that Hal fans found this to be woefully out of character and hated it. Possibly how many Wally West fans feel right now... I didn't like Hal's return to GL status, though, but that's due to the writing of his character and Geoff Johns, IMO. He came off as so obnoxious to me. Reading back issues, I found I liked the old Hal okay pre-Emerald Twilight. I think the weaving of the stages of mythos and stuff worked well to bring him to status quo *and* Kyle's still around, so hooray!
Long way to a point, Sinestro also fits the bill technically, given that he started out as a GL... and didn't Parallax possess someone else later? I forget.
And since Knightfall was brought up, Azrael/Azbats (Jean-Paul Valley) also totally counts.
There was the semi-minor villain from Wonder Woman known as The White Magician who was supposed to have been a minor hero back in the day, but I forget if that was a front or not. Either way, he sure wasn't a hero by the time he and WW clashed.
If elseworlds count, Captain Marvel went bad due to Luthor's machinations in "Kingdom Come."
Triumph was retroactively (Zero Hour shenanigoats) a superhero and founding Justice League member who went villainous.
Matrix-Supergirl went villainous too when the artificial lifeform part separated from the part that would be Linda Danvers/Earth Angel Supergirl.
Heatwave from Cyberforce. This happened during the Marvel/Top Cow crossover event known as [I]Devil's Reign[/I].
Triumph from [I]Justice League League Task Force[/I] and [I]Justice League International[/I]. Created by Christopher Priest, he was hotheaded and self-righteous hero who had been founding member of the Justice League, but was then trapped in a limbo that erased everyone's memory of him. Eventually rescued by JLTF, he joins the Justice League but becomes increasingly embittered because no one remembers him and he feels that he has been denied his legacy. In the last issue of JLTF, a complicated series of events results in him accidentally losing his soul to Neron. His subsequent appearances portray him as a villain (or, at best, an extremely dark antihero), until his eventual death.
As a sidenote, Priest would reveal years later that Triumph was partially based on Neal Pozner, DC's Director of Creative Services: "His shtick was: Triumph was always right... it was what made him so annoying to his fellow heroes. ... Neal, write this down someplace, was always right. He was. At the end of the day, Neal would be proven right. That fact, more than anything else, annoyed many staffers beyond reason."
[QUOTE=foxley;4463618]Triumph from [I]Justice League League Task Force[/I] and [I]Justice League International[/I]. Created by Christopher Priest, he was hotheaded and self-righteous hero who had been founding member of the Justice League, but was then trapped in a limbo that erased everyone's memory of him. Eventually rescued by JLTF, he joins the Justice League but becomes increasingly embittered because no one remembers him and he feels that he has been denied his legacy. In the last issue of JLTF, a complicated series of events results in him accidentally losing his soul to Neron. His subsequent appearances portray him as a villain (or, at best, an extremely dark antihero), until his eventual death.
As a sidenote, Priest would reveal years later that Triumph was partially based on Neal Pozner, DC's Director of Creative Services: "His shtick was: Triumph was always right... it was what made him so annoying to his fellow heroes. ... Neal, write this down someplace, was always right. He was. At the end of the day, Neal would be proven right. That fact, more than anything else, annoyed many staffers beyond reason."[/QUOTE]
Neal Pozner also was creative director for this album cover, years before joining DC:
[IMG]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0c/Phyllisfall.jpg[/IMG]
The cover is, dare I say it, a TRIUMPH.
While she wasn't a superhero, Vanessa Kapatelis started out as a friend and semi-sidekick to Wonder Woman during the George Perez era, before being brainwashed and transformed into the Silver Swan.
Quality Comics had a feature called [B][I]Alias the Spider[/I][/B] back in the Golden Age.
[img]https://i67.servimg.com/u/f67/18/91/37/14/alias_10.jpg[/img]
Many years later, James Robinson and Geoff Johns used the character in modern stories where he was retconned to supposedly have been a villain pretending to be a hero.
Phil Urich, nephew of Ben Urich, was originally a heroic version of the Green Goblin ... but, I guess nobody is interested a heroic Goblin, so yeah, just became another bad one, pretty quickly.
They also brought back Ben Reilly, the first Scarlet Spider, as a villain ... but, eventually he became an anti-hero I think ... because, I guess nobody is interested in an evil Peter Parker, but his anti-hero spin-off characters sell all over the place.
Iredeemable by Mark Waid.
The entire series that ran 37 issues or so is basically what if Superman snaps and goes evil and then the rest of the Justice League has to try and stop him which is especially hard since Superman kills Batman in the first issue. Its not actually the DC characters, the Superman who goes evil is called the Plutonian here, but you'll recognize the obvious analogues. It drags a bit midway through the series but sticks the landing at the end.
There also was a companion series called Incorruptible which was about a villain who ends up going good to try and help stop the Plutonian. He takes a very absolute black and white view of good though deciding that if he's going to redeem its going to be all the way without compromise.
From the big two there is Magneto. He's a stereotype mustache twirling villain when first introduced but as his character was developed over the years and his past explored its revealed he was a hero and friend of Professor X who would eventually take a different path toward protecting mutants which put him in the "villain" category.
Polaris spent some time being possessed by Malice. Quicksilver's done so many hell-turns, the poor mutant must be dizzy.
I can't believe nobody's gotten around to Cyclops yet.
The Silver Scarab.
This may be stretching it since they were introduced as villains, but both Black Adam and Sinestro were created as heel-turned heroes.