Which DC Heroes Could Break Bad?

[ducklord]

It's a worn-out idea that "one bad day" is all that separates a hero from a villain.

And yet, heroes in the DCU don't seem to go bad very often, and even then, usually only for a limited time before the next retcon, death, or inevitable redemption arc.

Hawk went bad for a while, but was eventually restored (although the wherefores of his redemption remain murky).
Triumph went bad and died.
Tarantula II went down a dark path and died.

With that in mind, which DCU heroes do you think a plausible candidates for slipping towards the Dark Side? Not just anti-herodom, but full-on villainy?

I'll open with a couple of obvious candidates:

Hawk
He always seems kind of on the verge of losing it.

Creeper
It's not a reach to think that Jack Ryder could fall so far down the conspiracy hole that he'd end up storming the Capitol.

Captain Atom
I mean, he *was* supposed to be Monarch.

I just realized these are all Ditko co-creations. That's, um, odd, man.

[Alpha]

Plastic Man. Not a violent criminal, but probably a thief.

[sifighter]

Wasn’t captain atom both the monarch and the villain in Countdown arena where he had multiverse characters fighting each other?

[James Cameron]

Wasn’t captain atom both the monarch and the villain in Countdown arena where he had multiverse characters fighting each other?

Both Hawk and Captain Atom were Monarch.

[mathew101281]

All of them. The very point of a lot of alternate universe tales is that most of these heroes can turn villain with minor or major changes to their lives.

[ducklord]

All of them. The very point of a lot of alternate universe tales is that most of these heroes can turn villain with minor or major changes to their lives.

Yeah, but which ones are likely candidates to go canonically bad in ye olde prime universe (whatever we're calling it this month)?

I'd half-forgotten Captain Atom's heel turn in Countdown ('cause really, who *hasn't* tried to erase that from their memory). How did that get unwound?

[James Cameron]

Yeah, but which ones are likely candidates to go canonically bad in ye olde prime universe (whatever we're calling it this month)?

I'd half-forgotten Captain Atom's heel turn in Countdown ('cause really, who *hasn't* tried to erase that from their memory). How did that get unwound?

The simplest explanation is amnesia

[Jackalope89]

Prior to New52, and after Under the Red Hood, Jason was made almost insanely bad. Countdown series started a sort of redemption, but then doubled back on it.

[Stanlos]

What qualifies as "bad" in 2022?

[Hypestyle]

i don't want to see this trend anymore.

[Digifiend]

Crush, taking after her father Lobo.

Red Arrow. She already came close to killing Deathstroke once, and she snuck onto the Earth-3 mission recently.

Robin. Due to him being half-Al Ghul.

Catwoman and Harley Quinn, as these two were villains originally before doing a heel face turn.

[ducklord]

i don't want to see this trend anymore.

But is it really a trend? I mean sure, in alt-universe/Black Labelly things, characters are going bad (mostly at the hands of Tom King, but that's another conversation), but in the main, how often do bona fide heroes totally go bad? Like, robbing a bank/trying to take over the world bad?

Mark Shaw has recently flipped from anti-hero to full-on "running a country like Dr. Doom" villainy (for reasons that have, as yet, to be adequately explained), but let's remember that he's kind of ridden the line between good guy and bad guy for a while now (he was the Star-Tsar, for pity's sake!)

[K7P5V]

Definitely, my choice would be...

Walter West/Dark Flash

[NaVi]

Superman (Clark), it's very obvious that at least before that was a very big possibility, especially with Jon as the new Superman.
Some Flash, DC doesn't know what to do with them.
GL for the same reason as Flash.
I think the big ones would be the ones with the most possibilities.

[captchuck]

All of them. The very point of a lot of alternate universe tales is that most of these heroes can turn villain with minor or major changes to their lives.

That's exactly what I think as well.