Marvel has always been a trailblazer in the comic community in numerous ways. Take Namor, for instance. He started out as a more villainous character, battling the Human Torch at times, while being more heroic in his own stories. He was one of the first villainous characters to become heroic, but he would be far from the last. In the Silver Age, villains like Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Hawkeye, and later Black Widow would all become heroes. The House of Ideas was all about moving characters from one side to another, and has even taken the next step when it comes to this kind of thing.
Over the years, many heroes have been replaced by other characters, but sometimes, these replacements weren’t just supporting cast members or other heroes. Some of them were actually the hero’s own enemies, these former villains joining the side of angels for a variety of reasons. These five Marvel heroes all were replaced by their enemies, with all of the consequences that could entail.
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5) Beast
Beast currently has a bad reputation, but that wasn’t always the case. From the ’60s to the ’00s, he was played as a more happy go lucky hero, an acrobatic quipper more like Spider-Man than Wolverine. “The Age of Apocalypse” introduced readers to a more evil version of the character, and this version was able to escape to the 616 universe. He hid in the shadows for a time and was able to lure the 616 Beast to him. The evil Hank McCoy was able to take out the good one, and took his place on the X-Men. He’d end up joining Onslaught, and then went into hiding, the old 616 Beast taking back his place, and slowly becoming like the AoA versions who had taken his place in the mid ’90s.
4) Iron Man
Iron Man has changed a lot over the years, but his biggest change came after Civil War II. This story saw the hero not take the side of fascism for once in his heroic career, standing against using the powers of the Inhuman Ulysses to arrest people before they committed crimes. This led to a climactic fight between Iron Man and Captain Marvel (or as climactic a fight as Brian Michael Bendis could write; he’s not all that great an action writer) and Iron Man was left in a coma. There was a vacuum in the hero world, and someone most unexpected stepped up: Doctor Doom. Doom had started to look at the world in a new way after being God in Secret Wars, and decided to pay homage to his old enemy Tony Stark by taking up the Iron Man name. Victor was Iron Man for almost two years before going back to his old armor and name.
3) Charles Xavier
Charles Xavier had a dream of human/mutant harmony, and did everything he could to make that possible. He traveled the world trying to help people before opening a school for mutants and forming the X-Men, a team meant to show humanity that mutants could be heroic. However, an old friend of Xavier would stand in his way: Magneto. The mutant master of magnetism was much more pragmatic than his friend, not believing that humanity would ever accept mutants and the two battled for years. However, the villain would soften and after Uncanny X-Men #200’s “Trial of Magneto”, he took Xavier’s place at the Xavier Institute. Magnus never became “Professor X” in name, but he did the same job of his old friend for years.
2) Wolverine
Wolverine has been replaced by his own enemies several times, with both Daken and Gorgon joining the Dark Avengers as Wolverine, although since Logan was still around back then, they weren’t technically replacements. However, this next one technically counts. Wolverine became an Avenger, fighting alongside Earth’s Mightiest Heroes against all-comers. After Avengers vs. X-Men, the mutant joined the Avengers Unity Squad, fighting against Red Skull/Red Onslaught and the Apocalypse Twins. However, he would lose his healing factor during this period and died stopping Weapon X from creating new weapons from innocent people. The battle against Red Onslaught ended with several villains with their morality inverted, including Sabretooth. Victor Creed wanted to prove that he could be like Wolverine, and ended up taking his place with the Avengers Unity Squad. Much like Magneto, Sabretooth didn’t take the name, but he did take the ol’Canucklehead’s place.
1) Spider-Man
Spider-Man is Marvel’s most relatable hero, and has battled some of the best villains in the Marvel Universe. He’s also been replaced by his own enemies more than once over the years; in fact, that’s currently happening in The Amazing Spider-Man. “Kraven’s Last Hunt” saw the titular villain beat up the Wall-Crawler, take his costume and bury him, then don Spider-Man’s fighting togs to prove that he could do everything that Peter Parker could do. There was also that time that Scorpion, wearing the Venom symbiote, became the Spider-Man of the Dark Avengers (there was also later Ai Apaec, a Mesoamerican god, becoming the second Dark Avengers Spider-Man, but he wasn’t a Spider-Man villain). The next time came in The Amazing Spider-Man #700, when Doctor Octopus took over his body. However, as he died, Peter showed Otto Octavious his life and that convinced Otto to use the body for more heroic purposes. Finally, Peter went to space with his new job and asked Norman Osborn to take his place and protect New York City.
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