Normally, fans of comics, television, and movies know what to expect from their favorite heroes and villains. The villains are going to sneer, monologue, and threaten to destroy the planet. Meanwhile, the heroes are going to pose, shout a catchphrase, and ultimately save the day. It’s a good formula and it’s been working for nearly a century. However, it’s always nice when your favorite franchise throws you for a loop. And you don’t have to look too closely to find plenty of examples where these tropes are being turned on their ear! It’s true: there are days when the bad guys end up being the ultimate hero. Sometimes, they have selfish motivations, and at other times, they’ve become heroic on their own “road to Damascus” journey. Regardless, they end up being the unexpected heroes of the piece.
Conversely, there are times when our heroes are anything but heroic. Whether they become a full-on villain or simply don’t pay enough attention to the damage they are causing, these “heroes” end up destroying countless lives. And at this point, it can often be difficult to not simply root for the villain. Don’t know what we’re talking about? Well, you could always do a deep dive into the last hundred years of pop culture history. If that doesn’t sound like your bag, though, then we’ve brought you the hook-up in the form of a colorful and comprehensive guide. Ready to have your preconceived notions completely rearranged? Keep reading to discover 10 Times Supervillain Saved Us All (And 10 Times Superheroes tried to end Us)!
20 VILLAIN: LIGHT SIDE OF DARKSEID
Normally, we think of Darkseid as the ultimate bad guy. He’s basically a dark god who rules Apokalips, and on a good day, he can go toe-to-toe with Superman himself. However, on one occasion, this villain actually fought alongside the collective might of the heroes.
This was back during the infamous "Crisis On Infinite Earths". A villain named The Anti-Monitor was threatening to destroy the universe and rebuild it in his image. When he understood how much was on the line here, Darkseid joined with heroes like Superman to help defeat the Anti-Monitor. Sadly, this wouldn’t be the last time the universe heard from this villain.
19 HERO: NOT SO SUPER, MAN
This example of a good guy who nearly destroyed us all is pretty well-known. In fact, it was a center of controversy for many years. Nonetheless, it’s worth putting it front and center -- Superman in Man of Steel was an existential threat to Metropolis and the entire planet.
His “god vs. god” fight with Zod was visually impressive. But it involved punching each other through countless skyscrapers and other inhabited structures. How many millions of people do you think were injured or ended in this major metropolitan area? This was so bad that it’s enough to make you think Lex Luthor was right about this alien menace!
18 VILLAIN: LEX LUTHOR, SAVIOR?
Lex Luthor has changed a bit over the years. First, he was portrayed as a kind of mad scientist. Later, he became an amoral businessman. However, in all these incarnations, he was always a bad guy who put himself before others. That is, until he saved the world!
In the "Forever Evil" storyarc of DC comics, the world is taken over by a kind of evil Justice League from another dimension. Moreover, the actual league is completely out of commission. So, Lex Luthor ends up assembling his own team of bad guys and saving the Earth! It was simultaneously cool and tragic, as it reminds us that Lex, minus the Superman obsession, could be one of Earth’s greatest heroes.
17 HERO: NAMOR THE NULLIFIER
Namor is a hero with a problematic past. Once upon a time, he was a bit of an eco-villain, but he softened into a hero who has worked with the X-Men and the Avengers. However, when all of reality is threatened, he was able to indulge the dark impulses of his past.
In Jonathan Hickman’s epic (and epically confusing) run on Avengers, our heroes our confronted with different realities trying to crash into their own. They run out of good ideas early on, and eventually they are forced to destroy other realities to save themselves. Namor handles some of this himself, and later forms a Cabal of bad guys (including Thanos) to destroy several more realities!
16 VILLAIN: THE CHOSEN ONE AWAKENS
If you’re looking for a story where the ultimate bad guy turns into the ultimate good guy, then look no further than Star Wars. In many ways, the entire series is about the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker, who later becomes Darth Vader in service to the evil machinations of Emperor Palpatine.
At the end of Return of the Jedi, Palpatine thought he had a foolproof plan: either Luke Skywalker would slay Vader and join the Emperor, or Vader would slay Luke and renew his loyalty to Palpatine. When the Emperor begins torturing a defenseless Luke, though, Vader picks up his unsuspecting boss and tosses him down a shaft. Unfortunately, this effort also costs Vader his life.
15 HERO: DAMMIT, BARRY
Since it was adapted to the small screen Flash TV show (and will soon be adapted to the big screen), everyone knows about "Flashpoint". This is when Barry Allen’s well-meaning attempt to go back in time and save his mother’s life ends up altering all of reality, mostly for the worst.
In the show, these changes were relatively mild. In the comics, however, Barry inadvertently caused a bloody war between the Amazons and the Atlanteans. Their conflict consumes entire nations, with Amazons and people and Atlanteans sinking continents. In this way, Barry very nearly destroyed the entire planet, all because he was feeling overly sentimental!
14 VILLAIN: DOC OCK SHOCKER
There are many reasons that fans keep coming back to Spider-Man 2 as the ultimate comic movie, even after all these years. One reason is that we get a genuine arc from Doctor Otto Octavius. He goes from gentle scientist to brain-controlled monster, but he eventually pays for all his sins.
During a kind of lucid moment near the end of the film, he tells Spider-Man how to shut off his reactor that was threatening the entire city. Our hero can’t do it alone, however, and Doctor Octopus ends up giving his life in order to save everyone in New York. After such a performance, it’s no wonder people were disappointed by the villains in Spider-Man 3.
13 HERO: ANGEL TO DEVIL
Angel of the X-Men has had a really rough life. First, he was transformed into Archangel and forced to serve the villain Apocalypse. And many years after he thought he had that under control, the Archangel persona takes over his body, and Angel ends up nearly destroying humanity.
In many ways, it wasn’t his fault. It turns out Apocalypse turned him into Archangel with a “death seed,” and these seeds cause their bearer to gather the Four Horsemen and become the new Apocalypse if the original is gone. Fortunately, Psylocke and the X-Men are able to stop Angel with a “life seed,” but it gives him extreme amnesia... which was a bit of a blessing after all the terror he caused.
12 VILLAIN: BAD TIME TO GO GREEN
As everyone knows, Spider-Man 3 was a troubled film, as it was packed with too many villains, meaning that no one character got a chance to shine. However, to finish out his arc, we were happy to see the younger Green Goblin cease his villainous ways and ultimately save the day.
This character became Green Goblin when he found out that his Peter Parker was Spider-Man, and he suspected Spider-Man of claiming his father’s life. He tries to permanently take Peter out, and then the symbiote-infected Peter ends up deforming him. However, the villain still helps to save Mary Jane at the end, and helps stop Sandman and Venom before they can threaten any more innocent lives.
11 HERO: PROJECT IN (THEIR) SIGHT
Sometimes, these moments where the good guys put the world in danger are accidents. In the case of Nick Fury, though, he went in with eyes (or eye in his case) wide open. And in Captain America: Winter Soldier, he ends up threatening the planet in an absolutely unprecedented way.
As you’ll remember, he tried to institute “Project Insight.” This was a computer algorithm that tracked threats to world safety, and it was linked to three helicarriers that could take these threats out no matter where they were. This “the ends justify the means” idea blew up in his face when Hydra took over, and Captain America had to destroy the entire project.
10 VILLAIN: MAGNETIC SAVIOR
X2: X-Men United was a movie where the X-Men franchise really came into its own. It had better effects, more characters, and improved action. On top of that, we see something fans have been clamoring for: Magneto and his crew teaming up with the X-Men.
To casual fans, this may have seemed impossible. In reality, though, Magneto is always down to deal with threats to mutantkind, and that includes the Weapon X program being run by William Stryker. This baddie wanted to wipe out all of the mutants on Earth, and Magneto helped prevent this from happening, saving countless lives.
9 HERO: SHE’S THE PHOENIX
At first glance, X-Man Jean Grey hardly seems like a threat to humanity. She is a kind and gentle telepath, and when she goes to war, it’s to save lives. However, she has the most dangerous dark side on the planet in the form of Dark Phoenix.
The Phoenix is a cosmic force of nearly unstoppable power. And when Jean is possessed by it and loses control, she has wiped out entire planets. And if not for the intervention of the X-Men, then she would have wiped out the planet Earth (something we even saw happen in an old What If…? comic).
8 VILLAIN: SQUAD GOALS
If you’re looking for movies where bad guys do the right thing on an epic scale, Suicide Squad is a great example. This collection of thugs and mercenaries was assembled to take on threats like a rogue Superman. However, their first real mission pits them against one of their own in the Enchantress.
At first, the bad guys are coerced into helping out. However, when they are given an honest choice later on, all of them decide to help stop Enchantress instead of saving their own skin. This was dangerous and even cost one member his life, but they ultimately saved an entire city from the reign of Enchantress.
7 HERO: MR. BANTASTIC
They say that the best villains are the ones who think they are being heroic. But does that apply to heroes who do something dastardly? That’s a question we might have to pose for Mr. Fantastic. On one memorable occasion, he stopped saving the world and wiped out all reality!
Now, in all fairness, he did it to protect all of the multiverse from being controlled by an absolute monster named Abraxas. However, the sight of Mr. Fantastic wielding the Ultimate Nullifier and destroying everything that ever was is downright sobering. We can’t help but think that he is just one bad day away from becoming the ultimate supervillain.
6 VILLAIN: Q SAVES EARTH
The all-knowing, all-powerful Q served as the most persistent enemy in Star Trek: The Next Generation. For instance, when he introduced Picard and crew to the Borg, the incident cost many crew members their lives. As it turns out, though, this “villain” ended up saving billions of lives!
At first, the Enterprise crew thinks Q introduced them to the Borg before it was meant to happen. But their way of assimilating planets matched what had happened to some planets near the end of the first season. If Q hadn’t shown Picard the Borg, Starfleet would never have created the defenses necessary to slow them down when they attacked Earth, allowing the Enterprise to stop them at the last moment.
5 HERO: GREEN AND YELLOW
This list has a lot of good guys who ended up going bad at one point or another. However, Parallax may be one of the greatest examples of this happening. This was the alter ego of Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern when he went bad, and it so tainted his character that Geoff Johns would later do a pretty massive retcon to help redeem him.
When Hal Jordan’s hometown is wiped out by a madman, he ends up going crazy. He wipes out countless Green Lanterns and destroys the Lantern Corps, declaring himself a villain named Parallax. Eventually, “Parallax” was revealed as a parasite infecting the Lantern Corps, effectively letting Jordan off the hook for the destruction that occurred at his hand.
4 VILLAIN: DOOM AS GOD
Casual fans often don’t realize how mystical the villain Doctor Doom actually is. Most times, the villain is like a bad Iron Man, using his knowledge of technology and his fantastic suit to maintain his power. However, he is also a master of many mystical things, which ended up helping save the planet (in a very particular way).
Specifically, we see Doctor Doom become a kind of god over all reality (though this was not destined to last). He did this because all of reality was threatened, and he genuinely believed that only he could save everybody. So while we can criticize Doom’s tenure as a god, it’s tough to deny that he saved trillions of lives.
3 HERO: IS “ONE” A PRIME NUMBER?
One question has haunted many characters in the DC Universe, and for good reason. What if Superman ever went bad? What would happen if all that raw power were in the hands of an evil man? Unfortunately, we got to see that happen with Superboy-Prime.
He was once a do-gooder, the only true hero of his Earth. But when his planet was wiped out, he survived and became obsessed with becoming the one and only Superman. Able to destroy most foes with a single punch or glance, he was one of the most dangerous creatures in the universe and insanely difficult to fight.
2 VILLAIN: TRICKSTER TO HERO
One very recent example of a bad guy going good is Loki in Thor: Ragnarok. He employs a fair amount of his usual trickery and betrayal, but when his back is up against the wall, Loki decides to join his brother in taking on the threat of Hela.
Not only does this save the surviving Asgardians, but it saves countless lives across multiple planets. This is because Hela wanted to use her undead army to wage war across the cosmos. By playing a part in preventing this from happening, Loki saves countless lives. We can only hope he is remembered well for his heroism.
1 HERO: WORLD WAR HULK
Fans of Thor: Ragnarok got to see a slightly unhinged Hulk. After he crashed on a distant planet, Hulk basically stayed out and he slayed his way to champion status. While this was a bit sinister, it couldn’t compare to how this storyline went down in the comics.
In the comics, Hulk was betrayed by his friends and exiled form Earth. He landed on the wrong planet and was enslaved before liberating the population. When his new girlfriend dies, though, a rage-filled Hulk returns to Earth and basically takes over the planet. This was truly scary because at the height of his rage, nothing could truly stop him!