“All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive
to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.”
This quote from Batman: The Killing Joke says a lot about
heroes or good people who go down a dark path. Sometimes, an event will happen
in their lives that will irrevocably change them. Mostly, they can find the way to keep their
wits and continue to fight the good fight. Heck, how has someone like
Spider-Man not gone totally dark after what’s happened to him? Other times,
they fall so far off the wagon, you wonder if they were even on the wagon to
begin with. You’ll see this trope everywhere in movies, TV, books, and video
games. So, here are some good characters that turned dark. They’re not
necessarily in order either.
1. Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars)
That’s right, folks. One of the best villains in movie
history was once one of the good guys. It always has to start like that, don’t
it? Even though the prequels weren’t perfect, they and Star Wars: Clone Wars
showed how a “mostly good” Jedi would go evil. Because of Palpatine’s influence
and Anakin’s own fears, he became Darth Vader and helped tighten the Empire’s
grip for years. I’ll touch on his ultimate end next time, though.
In the 90’s, big changes were being done on DC’s side.
Superman died, Batman got broken, and Hal Jordan went crazy. During “Reign of
the Supermen,” Coast City (Hal’s hometown) was destroyed by Mongol and Cyborg
Superman. In an act of desperation, he tries to re-create the city using his
ring, but the Guardians put a stop to that. Because of this, Hal loses it and
goes into space to get all the power he can get. He ends up destroying the
Green Lantern Corps, drains all the power from the Central Power Battery, and
renames himself as Parallax. He was
behind the event known as Zero Hour.
This is a controversial one. Heck, any story that handles a
well-known superhero like this would be considered controversial. I definitely
understand why Geoff Johns retconned the idea of Parallax in 2004. Still, I
kind of like this version of Hal. It was actually my first viewing of Hal
Jordan. I still remember picking up Zero Hour #1 and seeing him knock out
Superman like it was nothing. At least Hal did come back the good side.
3. Dark Phoenix (X-Men)
Just about every member of the X-Men has went bad at one
point. Still, I doubt any of them destroyed a solar system. During the early
years of Chris Claremont’s run, Jean Grey received a power upgrade (eventually
retconned to be a cosmic entity called the Phoenix Force) became the Phoenix.
For a while, things were good and Jean had control of the power. Unfortunately,
Jason Wyngarde (Mastermind) of the Hellfire Club used his powers to make Jean
embrace her darker side. The power overwhelmed her and she became the Dark
Phoenix.
Dark Phoenix went on a rampage and it ultimately ended up in
the destruction of an inhabited galaxy. With the help of the X-Men, she was
able to regain control, but the Shi’ar wanted her to answer for her crimes. A
trial by combat ensued and it actually ended with Jean committing suicide in
order to keep the Dark Phoenix from returning. This was one of the best
storylines from that era and it is still a favorite of mine. Even though Marvel
would eventually retcon all of this and bring Jean back, this was still a good
story.
4. Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
When Angel first appeared on BTVS, he was the vampire ally
to the team and in love with Buffy. What the others didn’t know was that Angel
had a dark past. When he was first bitten, he became the souless vampire known
as Angelus and did some horrible things. Some gypsies put a curse on him that
brought back his soul and that pushed him toward the becoming a better guy. The
curse had another part, though. If he ever felt great pleasure, his dark side
would come back. So, guess what happened in the second season? When that
happened, he and other vampires went on rampage and almost destroyed the world.
Even though Angel got his soul back, things weren’t really the same between him
and the Scooby Gang.
5. Lex Luthor (Smallville and Superman in general)
Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. Lex Luthor was
good? Yeah, kind of. In the Silver Age, he and Superboy were friends until some
accident led Lex to villainy. On
Smallville, Lex was pretty much in the morally gray area. He tried to be good,
but his upbringing didn’t help him out. Plus, Clark was
keeping his secret from him. To be fair to Clark, I couldn’t blame him. While
Lex switiched back and forth between good and evil, he ultimately went dark
when he killed his father, Lionel Luthor. Not only was his descent handled mostly
well, Michael Rosenbaum played that role well.
6. Big Boss (The Metal Gear franchise)
When Metal Gear first hit shelves, Big Boss was pretty much
the villain of the story. All we knew about him was that he was the father of
Solid Snake. It was the later games that really fleshed out his backstory. We
found out that he was known as Naked Snake and that he was a war hero. He saved
lives and even got to keep a cold war from becoming a hot one twice. He wasn’t
a fan of government though, so he went to establish his own nation: Outer
Heaven. He also formed the Patriots with other allies. Let’s just say it got pretty complicated. If
anything, he really straddled the lines between anti-hero and villain
throughout his time.
7. Gaeta (Battlestar Galactica)
Gaeta was a
supporting character on the rebooted Battlestar Galactica. He was one of the
good ones. He served under Adama and he was Baltar’s President Aide/Undercover
Resistance fighter on New Caprica. In the later seasons, he went through some
major stuff. When Adama made some controversial decisions involving the Cylons,
he teamed up with former terrorist-turned politician, Tom Zarek, and caused a
mutiny. It was a pretty major shock if you followed Gaeta and those two pulled
some messed up stunts. It was pretty interesting to see where that character
would end up.
8. Michael Eddington (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Eddington was
introduced in the third season as Starfleet’s security officer. He was mostly
around in the background and pretty harmless. It wasn’t until the fourth season
where he turned against Starfleet and joined the Maquis, a rebellion group in
opposition against the Cardassians. Not only did he turn against Starfleet, he
pulled the wool over Captain Sisko’s head. He even got Kassidy Yates, Sisko’s
girlfriend, involved. While The Maquis may not be evil villains, they did tick
off Sisko. Don’t tick off the Sisko because he’ll come after you and he did
that with Eddington.
9. Harvey Dent (the Batman franchise)
District Attorney Harvey Dent was one of the good spots in
Gotham City. He did his best to combat the crime and corruption in the city.
Unfortunately, that crime came back to bite him in a major way. Whether he’s
splashed in the face by a mob boss or is scarred thanks to an explosion, Dent
got screwed big time and Batman couldn’t stop it. Because of the incident, Dent
developed a mental disorder (or fell deeper into his hidden mental disorder)
and became Two-Face. He’s one of the villains you kind of feel sorry for since
he was one of the good guys.
10. Superman (Injustice and other stories)
Superman has had his brushes with his darker side but
they’re usually only temporary. There’s mind control, brainwashing, and certain
types of Kryptonite that can turn him dark. When it comes to non-continuity
stories or alternate universes, the chains are off! We see this in stories like
Superman: Red Son where he’s a communist dictator and Multiversity where he’s a
Nazi dictator on an alternate Earth.
Then, there are the Injustice video games and comics where Superman
becomes a dictator after he kills the Joker for pretty much destroying his
life. While I’m not necessarily a fan of seeing Superman go dark (it happens a
lot more these days), it is interesting to see.
……………………………………………………………………
I think I’ll stop it there. There are other characters out
there but these are the ones that really came to mind. If you have any others,
let me know. So, since I looked at good guys gone bad, guess what’s coming
next? Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there. A lot of stuff’s
going on these days, so put that Tekken Training to use!
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