Summary
- Even Marvel’s most iconic heroes can fall from grace and become villains, adding depth to their character arcs.
- Through tragic events or manipulative forces, heroes like Johnny Blaze and Archangel have succumbed to darkness.
- A fallen hero doesn’t always stay that way – many eventually find redemption, offering a compelling storyline for fans to follow.
Marvel’s iconic superheroes have become synonymous with the very concept of heroism. From the freedom-fighting Captain America to the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, the heroes of Marvel stand as symbols of hope and peace. However, not all heroes remain infallible in the face of evil. With just the right push, even the most noble of Marvel’s characters can succumb to the darkness.
It can be a tragically heartbreaking experience to watch a favorite hero turn against their principles and embrace a life of villainy. But it can also be exhilarating. When a hero falls from grace, a deeper appreciation for their previous heroics is formed. Eventually, most heroes-turned-villains find their way back to the righteous path. A fallen hero means the potential of a great redemption story. While Marvel has frequently explored these moments of lost morality, some heroes fall harder than others. Here are 10 Marvel heroes who abandoned their good nature to become villains.
1 Johnny Blaze, The King of Hell
Damnation: Johnny Blaze – Ghost Rider by Christopher Sebela and Phil Noto
Johnny Blaze has been through Hell, literally. Armed with his Spirit of Vengeance, the titular Ghost Rider spends his life hunting down Hell’s greatest demonic threats. Following the events of Doctor Strange: Damnation, Johnny seizes the throne of Hell for himself. In an effort to usurp Mephisto and end his reign of terror over Las Vegas, Blaze decides to don the burden of damnation to save the Earth from its destruction. However, the demonic energies of Hell prove to be a corrupting force that not even the Ghost Rider can resist.
Johnny, in an effort to amass more power, begins hunting down the other Ghost Riders to challenge them for their Spirits of Vengeance. When Blaze turns to his brother and fellow Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch, for help with his mission, Ketch rejects the offer. Worried that his brother had fallen too far, Danny attempts to reason with the King of Hell, who promptly returns to Earth to strip his brother of his Spirit of Vengeance. Danny would later return as the Spirit of Corruption to purge the demonic energy from his brother for good.
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2 Archangel (Warren Worthington III)
X-Factor #18 by Louise Simonson and Walter Simonson
Once known as Angel, a white-winged paragon of justice, Warren Worthington was a founding member of the first class of X-Men. Burdened by his father who despised mutant kind, Warren served as a symbol of peace for his mutant brethren. During Louise and Walter Simson’s X-Factor series, Angel’s wings become critically injured and later amputated. Feeling lost and without purpose, Warren is approached by Apocalypse, who tempts an offer to remake the no-longer-winged mutant whole. Angel accepts and Apocalypse rewrites the hero’s mutated genetics, causing Warren’s skin to turn blue and new razor sharp metal wings to sprout from his back.
Now dubbed Archangel, Warren assumes the role of the Horseman of Death in Apocalypse’s apocalyptic strike force. Archangel quickly asserts himself as the Horsemen’s strongest mutant and thus becomes their de facto leader under Apocalypse’s rule. When Warren finally reveals himself to his previous team members, who believed him to be dead, they are devastated to see their once-ally on the other side. Archangel would eventually return to the X-Men after believing that he had caused the death of Iceman, one of Warren’s oldest friends.
3 Chasm (Ben Reilly)
The Amazing Spider-Man #93 by Mark Bagley, Patrick Gleason, and Sara Pichelli
Ben Reilly has lived an incredibly tragic life. A clone of Spider-Man designed by the Jackal to replace the Wall-Crawler, Reilly was born with all the memories of his progenitor. After discovering that he was indeed a clone, Ben continues to hold onto his false memories as they help him feel whole. The clone later adopts the alias “Scarlet Spider” and assumes a similar role as his genetic brother. Reilly eventually lands a job with the Beyond Corporation as a corporate-sponsored Spider-Man and is reunited with his long-time love interest Janine Godbe AKA Hallows’ Eve.
When Ben learns that the Beyond Corporation has been slowly stripping him of his memories as Peter, he undergoes a catastrophic identity crisis. Reilly, desperate for his memories’ return, lures Spider-Man into a trap in an attempt to steal the memories from Peter Parker completely. Chasm is defeated and, resigned to die under the collapsing Beyond Corporation, is consumed by quantum-shifting mutagens, thus transforming him into an enhanced psionic force of destruction. Chasm’s singular goal as a villain is a simple one: take back Peter Parker’s memories.
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4 The Maker (Ultimate Reed Richards)
Ultimate Comics Ultimates #30 by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Carmine Di Giandomenico
This version of the shape-shifting scientist originally hails from Marvel’s Ultimate Universe. Much like his 616 counterpart, Ultimate Reed Richards’s life followed a familiar pattern. However, this version of Reed’s life changes for the worst when Kang the Conqueror, secretly a future version of Sue Storm, shows Mr. Fantastic a premonition of the Multiverse’s upcoming destruction. Driven to madness, Reed buries himself in his work hoping to find any way to stop the events of Secret Wars from happening. His dive into chaos is a sudden and jarring one to accept for his former allies.
Richards, now named The Maker, fakes his death, kills his family, and unleashes a demonic horde on Earth-1610. Convinced by the future Sue Storm that his world’s destruction would be its salvation, the Maker nearly beats his time’s Sue to death, believing that she will return to him again in her future to kick-start the events that led him to this point. After the incursion event, the Maker now lives in the 616 universe where he seeks to establish a new multiversal order with an authoritarian fist.
5 Alex Wilder
Runaways #17 by Brian K Vaughan and Adrian Alphona
When the young Alex Wilder discovers that his parents are part of an eldritch cult called Pride, he gathers the children of Pride’s other members and the group flees from their supervillainous parents. Dubbing themselves the Runaways, the team was originally formed to oppose their parents, however Alex would reveal his true nature only a year into the series’s publication. Alex divulges that he had actually discovered the their parents’ evildoings well before he ever told the Runaways and that he had spent the year preceding the series researching the organization’s occult activities.
He further explains that he discovered that four of Pride’s members, the Hayes and Dean families, were planning a coup. Fearing the human-hating traitors would kill his parents, Alex instigates the creation of the Runaways so that he can amass enough power to save his parents by killing the two traitorous families, including their children. Wilder, still committed to his original plan, continues to monitor his old allies so that one day he, his family, and the Minoru family can be accepted into the paradise that the Pride’s true eldritch leaders promised.
6 Red Hulk (Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross)
Hulk #1 by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness
A once respected Air Force Lieutenant General, Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross has been a long-time leading antagonistic force for the Hulk and the rest of the gamma-powered menagerie. Despite being a frequent enemy of the Hulks, Ross’s goals were originally noble ones; he must protect the innocent from the threat of future Hulk rampages. In The Incredible Hulk #466 by Peter David and Adam Kubert, Thunderbolt Ross’s entire life collapses when his daughter Betty, already dying from exposure to the Hulk’s gamma radiation, is killed by the Abomination. Thaddeus sinks into a vicious battle with depression and alcoholism until presented with an opportunity to exact his revenge.
During the events of World War Hulk, Ross teams up with the villainous M.O.D.O.K., the Leader, and the Hulk’s former ally, Doc Samson. Together, the team siphons some of Bruce Banner’s gamma powers and transplants the energy into Thunderbolt Ross. Thaddeus transforms into a familiar hulking beast with bright crimson skin calling himself the “Red Hulk.” Having completely rejected the system of law he once defended, Red Hulk would remain an agent of chaos fueled by his thirst for revenge and the death of the Hulk.
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7 Beast (Hank McCoy)
Wolverine #27 by Benjamin Percy and Juan José Ryp
Another founding member of the X-Men, Hank McCoy, AKA Beast, has long been considered a diplomat and peaceful political activist for mutant rights. Beast has frequently promoted Charles Xavier’s dream of a peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants. But in his pursuit of justice, McCoy on numerous occasions has turned his back against his better moral judgment. The worst of his crimes came during his tenure as leader of the Krakoan intelligence service named X-Force.
As X-Force’s leader, Beast becomes overwhelmed by his new responsibilities. Obsessed with the security of the mutant nation, Hank secretly turns to more radical means to secure the sovereign state’s freedom. In Wolverine #27, Hank kills Wolverine and uses the Krakoan reincarnation process to create a primal and manipulable reiteration of Logan that is designed to serve as a new Weapon X. Soon armed with a small army of Weapon-X Wolverines, Beast lethally turns against the X-Force once they discover his extremist machinations.
8 Blade (Eric Brooks)
Blood Hunt #1 by Jed Mackay and Pepe Larraz
Introduced in Tomb of Dracula #10 by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, Blade has remained Marvel’s greatest vampire hunter for over five decades. While still in the womb, Eric’s mother was feasted on by a vampire, thus imbuing her unborn child with vampiric abilities. Part human and part vampire, Blade has all the abilities of a vampire without the heavy effects of the curse. That is, until recently.
Launching Marvel’s Blood Hunt event, it is revealed that Blade has succumbed to his vampiric tendencies and now leads a ravenous horde of feral eldritch vampires. Under Blade’s leadership, a new group of god-like vampires called the Bloodcoven enacts a plot to plunge the Earth into eternal darkness, allowing for a full-blown vampire revolution. To protect his regime, the vampire-hunter-turned-vampire-leader targets Earth’s mightiest heroes as his first victims to be turned into creatures of the night.
9 The Goblin Queen (Madelyne Pryor)
Uncanny X-Men #234 by Chris Claremont and Marc Silvestri
Unbeknownst to herself when this character first debuted, Madelyne Pryor is the clone of famed X-Men member Jean Grey. Designed by Mister Sinister as a tool to conceive a child with Cyclops that could later serve Sinister’s needs, Madelyne’s existence was reduced to nothing when the truth of her origin is revealed in X-Factor #1 by Bob Layton and Jackson Guice. When Cyclops learns Madelyne is not Jean Grey, he abandons her and their child to reunite with Jean. Madelyne, confused, attempts to follow but is shot down by Mister SInister as he takes her baby from her dying arms.
Maddy survives this encounter but is left with nothing but questions. When she finally learns the full truth of her existence and why Scott had abandoned her, Pryor falls unconscious as the full weight of her grief catches up with her. In her dreams, Maddy is approached by a demon named S’ym. Feeding off of her grief, S’ym latches onto Madelyne’s resentment toward the X-Men and imbues her with his demonic dark energies. Now warped by black magic, Madelyne currently reigns as the Goblin Queen of Limbo.
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10 Captain America (Steve Rogers)
Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 by Nick Spencer and Jesus Saiz
No hero represents the American ideals of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” better than Captain America. A paragon of selflessness and justice, Steve Rogers has stood on the front lines against some of Marvel’s greatest threats. However, everything changed for Cap during the highly controversial Secret Empire event. As it becomes well-known that the Nazi organization Hydra had covertly infected all levels of the United States government, Rogers reveals one of the most shocking twists in modern comics when he delivers a convicted “Hail Hydra.”
Once an anti-fascist icon who was able to land a punch on Hitler, Captain America turned against everything he stood for, leaving readers baffled by his sudden change. It’s revealed in Captain America: Steve Rogers #2 that this version of the First Avenger is actually an alternate-timeline version of the hero whose existence had been written over his original self. Created by Hydra and by the power of a sentient Cosmic Cube, the new iteration of Cap was a covert agent for the Nazi scientist organization well-before his service in World War II.
