Comic Book Questions Answered – where I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com).

Reader Cy T. wrote in to ask, "Who was the first reformed DC and Marvel Super Villain?"

WHO WAS THE FIRST MARVEL SUPER VILLAIN TO REFORM?

Okay, this obviously comes down to what you think about Namor. Was Namor a super-villain when he debuted?

In Marvel Comics #1 in 1939, Bill Everett introduced the world to Namor and the dude was just flat out MURDERING people!

However, his people were at war with the surface world and Namor had been raised to kill humans, so it's kind of tough to call him an outright super-villain...

He DID have a famous fight with the Human Torch, but again, Namor was more like an anti-hero during that period.

In any event, very soon, Namor reformed to team up with the humans to destroy the greater threat - the Nazis!

So I don't know, folks. Does Namor count? If he counts, then there ya go.

If not, then we would have to go forward to X-Men #11 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Chic Stone), where the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver decided that they no longer want to be part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants...

Them quitting villainy in X-Men #11 allows them to beat Hawkeye to the punch, as he stopped being a villain in Avengers #16 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Dick Ayers), when he wanted to join the Avengers...

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver join the Avengers that same issue...

So if you don't count Namor, then I would go with Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

WHO WAS THE FIRST DC SUPER VILLAIN TO REFORM?

This one is easier, but is also super bizarre.

In Sensation Comics #4 (by William Marston and H.G. Peter), we meet the villain Baroness Paul Von Gunther, who keeps women as SLAVES, people! She murders people, she does all sorts of bad stuff...

However, we're talking about William Marston here. He was ALL about people getting chained up and dominated and so, in Wonder Woman #3, Marston and Peter set out to redeem Paula!

First, she reveals that she was coerced into being a bad guy due to her losing her daughter...

So Wonder Woman frees her daughter...

Then Paula sacrifices herself to stop a bomb. She doesn't die, but she is badly disfigured...

Wonder Woman is so touched that she decides to come up with a plan that will get Paula ruled not guilty for all of her awful crimes and Wonder Woman even restores Paula's good looks!

Paula even kind of sort of keeps her slaves (they WANT to be with her)! It's all sort of really twisted.

Still, however logical it was, Paula was a good guy for the next few decades.