Superheroes typically are the symbol of hope and justice in their worlds. They tirelessly work to ensure that their homes are free of all crime and hatred. Heroes have worked together to form massive teams to take down cosmic threats and allow the Earth to continuously express its freedom. People aspire to be like superheroes and use them as a foundation of character. However, even the greatest superheroes can fall harder than the rest of the human race. Harvey Dent said it best in The Dark Knight: you either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

While many of the standard superheroes have remained good and noble for several years, there are many realities that exist within the Multiverse. Within those alternate universes are many of the same superheroes that we have come to know and love. However, different circumstances led to different decisions. As a result, many of the classic heroes are some of the nastiest villains in both their regular world and in completely different ones. Some of these darker versions of heroes have even gone as far to conquer their respective worlds. Whether it was to try and bring peace to the rest of the universe or because they were truly evil, there are many universes in disarray thanks to how those heroes used their powers. It's a terrifying look at what the standard reality could look like, or sometimes what the regular continuity has become when a hero decides (brainwashed or not) to become a supervillain.

19 MAESTRO

Perhaps the poster boy for evil alternate reality superheroes is Maestro. This future version of the Hulk lived to see a nuclear war in the world. Just about every other hero died, but Banner lived thanks to him already being affected by gamma radiation. After the world was in shards, he decided to take over the ashes and rule with an iron fist.

Maestro decorated himself with the equipment of dead superheroes and was a tyrannical and powerful ruler. Everyone knew not to mess with him, as he was nearly unbeatable. He reached new heights with his power that no one else knew how to battle.

18 RED SON SUPERMAN

"Superman: Red Son" is one of the best Superman stories ever created. It reimagines a world where the Man of Steel landed in the Soviet Union rather than in the United States. He still fights for truth and justice, but tries to uphold the ideals of Communism along the way. What makes this version so cool is that he isn't evil.

Eventually, Superman sees that there is mismanagement with the Soviet Union, so he decides to take it over himself. He then tries to lead Russia into its glory days with only the United States in the way.

17 THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS

Bruce Wayne has always stayed ahead of the Joker, until we travel to Earth-22. The Clown Prince of Crime had succeeded in stopping all of the Dark Knight's other foes, Jim Gordon, and practically all of Gotham City. Batman was desperate and finally ended the Joker to let the madness stop. The Joker was prepared, though.

He released a toxin that slowly turned Bruce Wayne into a new version of the Joker. Becoming the Batman Who Laughs, Bruce Wayne laid waste to everyone who stood in his way and ended up leading the Dark Nights Metal in a war against the main Justice League.

16 HUNTER SPIDER-MAN

Kraven the Hunter was a silly foe until "Kraven's Last Hunt." He tested the limits of Spider-Man and tried to bring down everyone he lived before murdering him in the end of it all. Spider-Man eventually won and had the chance to kill Kraven, but thought better of it.

However, a What If? issue imagined a world where Spider-Man killed Kraven. After that, he started to lose his mind and became a hunter himself, killing just about any other villain that came in his path. He lost everyone he loved in the process, but gained the whole world at his fingertips.

15 INJUSTICE SUPERMAN

Superman of Injustice: Gods Among Us had it all: a beautiful wife, a city that adored him, and a little girl on the way. In just one day, though, that was all taken from him by the Joker. Metropolis was a crater, and Lois Lane passed away along with the baby in her stomach. Superman decided that there was only one way to guarantee it would never happen again.

The Man of Steel killed the Joker and became the leader of the entire Earth with an entire Regime behind him. It took the intervention of another reality's Justice League in order to defeat him.

14 CRIME SYNDICATE

Earth-3 is a scary place, and it showcases what the Justice League could do if they were all villains. The team was known as the Crime Syndicate and was one of the most powerful forces known to the Multiverse. After essentially taking over their own world, they set their sights on other realities, where they would come face to face with the true Justice League.

Being even matches with the rest of the League, they were nearly unstoppable. However, the Crime Syndicate eventually lost the fight and were sent back to their own universe with a few casualties. They made a serious impact on the League.

13 SECRET EMPIRE CAPTAIN AMERICA

When Captain America returned to the Marvel Universe, everyone was ecstatic. That excitement quickly turned into fear when it was revealed that he was actually an agent of HYDRA. Because of this, he became the leader of HYDRA's army and helped them to take over the world.

The "Secret Empire" version of Captain America had all of his powers, but was fitted with impressive tech to boot. Due to HYDRA's inexhaustible resources, he gained a suit similar to Iron Man's on top of his super strength and agility. Don't worry though, it was all a case of weird Cosmic Cube interference... or something like that.

12 DEADPOOL KILLS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe is a look at what Wade Wilson could do if all of the voices in his head told him to kill everyone in the universe. The Merc With a Mouth murders everyone and eventually takes on the literary characters that inspired their creation.

At the end of it all, Deadpool rewrote history to become the leader of it all. Instead of a standard reality, everything was Deadpool in his own universe. He was eventually stopped by a Deadpool that was created as a result of his actions. He was also long past the point of being crazy: he was downright insane.

11 GREEN LANTERN 

Hal Jordan is one of the noblest Green Lanters in existence and has a lot of reverence from the rest of the DC Universe. However, even he lost his mind when Mongul came to Earth and destroyed all of Coast City: his home. In order to compensate, he goes crazy by recreating the city and his friends and family with the Lantern Ring.

Eventually, the Green Lantern Corps stepped in and had him stand trial. However, he wasn't having any of it. He quickly resorted to renaming himself Parallax and killing all of the Green Lantern Corps, putting him on top.

10 THE HOUSE OF M

Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Magneto are a pretty screwed up family. It gets even worse when you remember that Quicksilver and Magneto took advantage of Scarlet Witch's mental breakdowns. After it was revealed that her children never existed, she started to lose it again. That's when her brother and father helped convince her to rewrite reality where they were on top.

That's when the House of M was born. It was a new universe where the Magneto family was at the center. Despite everything they had, though, Scarlet Witch was still extremely unhappy and later restored the universe to normal.

9 FUTURE FLASH

Barry Allen has it rough, but it turns out that he can only take so much. A future version of the character lost Wally West in battle. Because of this, he decided to compensate by ridding the universe of all of his villains. He began running through time, killing all of his rogues, until he came to present day.

This is where Future Flash met up with present-day Flash. The two quickly began battling it out, but it was the Future Flash that came out on top. It seemed that there would be no stopping this unhinged, more skilled version of the Scarlet Speedster.

8 THE AUTHORITY

The Authority was a new team of characters created by DC under a new branding. The team had several different interpretations from a few different writers. What most people agree on, though, is that the team did become pretty sadistic after a while.

This team of superheroes had no qualms with killing villains, as a matter of fact, they deemed murder necessary in order to save the world. This put them on top, but it also meant that no one had any say as to whether they lived or died. If the Authority decided that their time had come, then they better make arrangements.

7 JEAN GREY

Jean Grey is one of the most powerful mutants in existence, but it also makes her one of the most dangerous. Having something inside her known as the Phoenix Force, she is a loose cannon just waiting to be let out. Unfortunately, that happened and turned her into the Dark Phoenix.

As the Dark Phoenix, she was nearly unstoppable by the rest of the superheroes in the Marvel Universe. She could easily take over the world if she wanted to. The only thing that stopped her from ruling for a long period of time was that Jean was still in the body fighting at every turn.

6 PROFESSOR X

Professor X has done some questionable things in his time, but none more so that going through Magneto's mind and wiping him like a clean slate. Unfortunately, this would go to bite Xavier in the butt, as he would pick up on the negative emotions that the former X-Men villain held in his brain.

This would eventually turn Charles Xavier into one of the most sinister villains of all time: Onslaught. Having the evil mind of Magneto and the immense powers of Charles Xavier, Onslaught was determined to conquer the world at any turn. It took the might of all the Marvel Universe in order to bring Onslaught down.

5 CYCLOPS

Cyclops is no one's favorite character. After he was introduced as the leader of the X-Men, it wasn't long before he started doing pretty detestable things. One of them was cheating on his wife, Jean Grey. That said, he was bound to have more connections to the Phoenix than just being romantically involved.

There was a time when the Phoenix Force was deemed to be too powerful to be kept around. Because of this, Iron Man split it into sections that were given to a few individuals. One of them was Cyclops. As you might expect, he let all of that power go to his head and killed all of the other Phoenixes.

4 THOR (THE REIGNING)

Thor is an Asgardian and only gets stronger as he gets older. This would eventually cause the strife in Earth 3515. In this reality, Thor moved Asgard over New York to be closer to Earth, but the humans didn't like it. They eventually attacked Asgard, so Thor retaliated with extreme prejudice.He rebuilt Asgard and combined it with New York to create a city that lorded over.

After that, things only got worse. Thor's slowly growing strength allowed him to take control of the entire planet in just over 100 years. There was nothing anyone could do to stop him, though there are several people that still tried.

3 WONDER WOMAN (FINAL CRISIS)

Darkseid is one of the nastiest foes of the DC Universe, and he is determined to rule all of the creatures in existence. During the "Final Crisis" event, he nearly succeeded, having his control over several superheroes. One of those superheroes was Wonder Woman, who became the commander of his armies and was turned into a fearsome beast to better reflect the dark armies of Apokolips.

Wonder Woman fought right next to Darkseid and was determined to give an inch. Eventually, she was cured from her evil state, but that was after the two had ruled over most of the world.

2 SUPERBOY PRIME

Superboy is known as Connor Kent and the noble yet emotional understudy to Superman. However, there was another reality where Superboy was the only hero on Earth. All of the other superheroes like Batman and the Flash were nothing more than comic book characters. Because of this, Superboy had total control over the Earth and what he did in it. He was known as Superboy Prime.

After "Crisis on Infinite Earths," his own reality was taken away and he came to the main timeline. It was there that he developed a superiority complex and felt that there could only be one true Superboy. Cue the war between him and the Justice League.

1 JUSTICE LEAGUE: GODS AND MONSTERS

Justice League: Gods and Monsters was an animated movie where the Trinity of the Justice League was a bit different. Superman was, instead, the son of General Zod and tried to fulfill his father's legacy. Batman was the scientist Kirk Langstrom and a deadly vampire. Wonder Woman was just a tyrannical ruler.

Together, the three of them managed to control the world in the hope of re-shaping it into a utopia. However, most people knew that these so-called "superheroes" had their own agendas in mind. Most of the public didn't even like them and thought they ruled over the world like tyrants.