Superheroes are stories about selflessness, kindness, and, occasionally, redemption. Being a superhero doesn’t just mean beating the bad guys, it means saving the day. Doing that requires putting people first and the hero doing everything in their power to help everyone. The best heroes don’t just save innocents, they save their villains. However, there’s a flipside to that. DC’s pinnacle of heroism is the incorruptible Superman, but not everyone can be the Man of Tomorrow. Sometimes, the constant trials and sacrifices push heroes over the edge until they snap and become the very things they once fought.
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Heroes can become villains, and today, we’re going to take a look at seven times that some of DC’s best heroes fell to the dark side. We’re going to rank seven of these falls from grace based on a combination of how good they were as a hero, how good their heel turn is, and how great they were as a villain. As a disclaimer, we’re overlooking situations that only lasted for a single story arc or so. We’re only considering heroes who spent a decent amount of time as villains. With all that said, let’s vault into these turns to villainy.
7) Triumph
Triumph was introduced as a long-lost founding member of the Justice League who was wiped from the timestream. He eventually reemerged and was ready to protect the world once again. Unfortunately for Triump, he was the rare character who was hated by everyone, even DC editorial. He always felt out of sync with other heroes in the worst way, was generally a pompous jerk, and had a tendency to always be infuriatingly right. The extra founding member quickly became a laughing stock, and he even descended to villainy before his ignoble end. Triumph’s story always makes me sad. There could be something here if he were handled properly, but unfortunately, he ended as a villain.
6) Batgirl
Cassandra Cain is the second Batgirl, and probably the person most dedicated to Batman’s mission beyond the Dark Knight himself. Her dedication to preserving all life is just as strong as, if not stronger than, Bruce’s. That’s what made her sudden jump to being the head of the League of Assassins so shocking. It happened after the “One Year Later” timeskip and was done exclusively for shock value. Adam Beechen had gone on record saying that he was told to make Cass evil by DC Editorial and given no reasoning, meaning he had to make it up as he went along. It was eventually settled on her being brainwashed by Deathstroke, but the damage was well beyond done.
I love Cass. Frankly, she’s my favorite character on this list and one of my favorites of all time, but there is no bias when I say that this decision is still one of DC’s most baffling. Batgirl acted nothing like herself as a villain. All of her iconic traits, from her refusal to kill to her trouble speaking, were just forgotten about to make her a miny Lady Shiva who flirted with Robin, for some reason. This is the perfect example of how not to turn a hero evil. There’s no story here, just the desire to make a quick buck with a shocking twist.
5) Maxwell Lord
Maxwell Lord was once the financial backer for the Justice League International. However, Countdown to Infinite Crisis revealed that he always planned to betray the League, and even tried to murder every metahuman on Earth before Wonder Woman killed him. Ever since, Lord has been a recurring villain aiming to purge the world of superpowers. Unfortunately, Lord lost the one thing that made him unique. On the surface, he had every reason to be another rich jerk like Luthor, but he legitimately believed in heroism, which was so interesting to see play out. As a villain, all he’s done is ruin Wonder Woman’s reputation with his infamous death scene, convincing everyone she kills way more than she does. Frankly, other rich villains do everything Lord does, but better.
4) Hawk
Hank Hall served as a hero alongside his partner, Dove, but the horrible future of Armageddon 2001 showed that he would go insane and become the villainous Monarch. The future Monarch killed Dove, putting Hawk on the path to taking over the world. It’s a classic tale of a hero going insane and trying to remake everything to fix it, just like he later did when he teamed up with Parallax and renamed himself Extant. Unfortunately, Hawk’s turn to villainy will always be tainted by the fact that it wasn’t supposed to be him.
Monarch was set up to be Captain Atom, but when that was leaked, DC changed it at the last minute to be Hawk, even though it made zero sense and actually broke the story. Captain Atom would eventually become Monarch, but it was never the same. Hawk’s turn could have been interesting, but everything that could have been fun about it was overshadowed by the complicated behind-the-scenes drama that forced him into the role. Frankly, if Monarch’s identity could change so easily, it doesn’t say much about how good a villain he is.
3) Parallax
Another famous victim of character assassination is Hal Jordan, who went off the deep end when his home of Coast City was blown off the map. He destroyed the Green Lantern Corps and absorbed all the Central Power Battery’s strength, becoming Parallax. He traveled throughout space and time, obsessed with rewriting history or remaking the universe to undo his mistakes and return things to how he thought they should be. This was later retconned to Parallax being the Entity of Fear possessing Hal, but this was still a classic hero going crazy for years. At the very least, Parallax was a very interesting villain in concept, and set up the incredible replacement Lantern in Kyle Rayner. Parallax is a very cool piece of Hal’s history and was a serious threat for a very long time.
2) Red Hood
Jason Todd’s return from the dead and subsequent dedication to lashing out at Batman are the perfect example of how to do a hero-goes-bad story right. Jason loved being Robin, and he loved Bruce, so when he came back to find that Bruce never got revenge for his murder, he took that as the ultimate betrayal. Jason thought Bruce’s refusal to kill the Joker meant that he loved Bruce more than Bruce loved him, and that thought, combined with the trauma and grooming by the League of Assassins, shoved him over the edge. Jason returned full of hatred built on dead love, and his clashes with Batman were filled with the perfect emotional depth.
The reason that Red Hood doesn’t take top place on this list is that no story after “Under the Red Hood” remembered why Jason went bad. He’s usually painted as hating Bruce and his morality because Jason failed, and sure, that’s a part of it, but that overlooks the most interesting reason Jason turned evil. Also, the constant flip-flop between overcoming his trauma and joining the Bat-Family, then going evil again, is a disservice to everyone. Jason could be a great villain or a great hero, but they’ve gotta pick one. Still, his original villain turn is one of the best there is.
1) Superboy-Prime
Superboy-Prime was introduced as a living relic of the Silver Age. With Crisis on Infinite Earths destroying the multiverse, every era of DC banded together to fight, and Prime represented that age of unlimited power and optimism. He was a comic book fan who found inspiration and comfort in Superman, and his own powers literally just awakened when he was thrown into the fight. Prime was the pure essence of that youthful joy of comics, which made it that much harder to accept when he went rogue. He didn’t just become a villain, either. He went off the deep end.
Prime was a kid who lost everyone and everything he loved in an instant, so when Alexander Luthor manipulated him into thinking he could get back home, he did anything he had to do to get back home. Everything positive about him turned negative, with him representing every toxic and edgy trait of the darker side of the comic book fandom. His absurd strength and over-the-top insanity made him a villain you dreaded but loved seeing. A huge part of why his redemption arc works so well is because of how monstrous he was. If anything, this just proves that Superboy-Prime is the king of fallen hero and redemption arcs.
Which hero did you hate to see become a villain? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts on the ComicBook Forum!
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