Bruised Fruit...The Top 10 Good Characters That Went Bad (even if just for a little)

It happens occasionally, unless you’re Magneto where it happens all the time, heroes switch to villains or vice versa.  Even in the most recent Ant-Man movie (which I LOVED) you have to question whether Ant-Man is good or bad.  You know it’s true. You may think him the hero, but he was doing some underhanded stuff.  Cool underhanded stuff, but underhanded nonetheless.  We see him as the hero but you could argue he’s a little....questionable.  No matter how you look at Ant-Man there are those who made the switch completely.  This list looks at the bruised fruit of the batch.

The Comic Whisperer’s Top 10 Good Characters That Went Bad (even if just for a little).  This list is in no particular order:

10.)  Superboy Prime:  An obvious choice for the list.  Here was Beaver Cleaver that wound up picking up a cleaver.  You remember what happened.  He was trapped in a dimension with a couple of loved one but cracked under the pressure.  He supposedly hated how dark things were becoming earth wise but wound up turning dark himself.  He pushed planets out of orbit, killed heroes, junked the JLA Watchtower, and even started voting for the Democrats (no hate mail please, I dropped all the political parties in a hat and I drew the Democrats).  After that there was no stopping him.

9.)  Hal Jordan:  You can put Hal in the flip-flop category because although he killed untold numbers of people he’s back with the good guys now.  The interesting part of him turning evil was that he just snapped.  After recreating his beloved Coast City, without the express written consent of the Guardians, he just went berserk.  All was forgiven when he sacrificed his life to reignite the Earth’s Sun.  A pretty easy way to be forgiven if you ask me.  I could reignite the Sun....if I wanted to.

8.)  Jason Todd:  One of my favorite conversions, Jason Todd’s history is probably more to blame than anything for his “bruising”.  The reason for my love is that Jason never really fell over the line into true villainy.  True, he doesn’t mind killing, wreaking havoc, or other mischievous things, but he still can be considered on the hero side...kindof.  The most interesting thing about Jason Todd is that his Robin character was killed off not as a choice of the publisher but as a choice of the fans.  At one point DC had a number you could call to vote whether Jason’s Robin lived or died.  I don’t know how you do a “thumbs down” motion over the phone, but he got tons of ‘em.

7.)  Omni-Man:  Who?!?!  You know...Nolan Grayson!  The Viltrumite sent to protect the Earth.  (It seems like there are alot of races that think the Earth needs a single protector)  You might know him better for his son Mark, the hero Invincible.  In a soap opera like twist, Nolan revealed himself as actually playing for the enemy team and gave his son a near fatal beating.  Sure, Omni-Man played the Magneto role by fluctuating back and forth as hero and villain, but he was a turn-coat.  Thankfully his son Oliver liked him enough to become “Kid Omni-Man”.  Not a very catchy, or original, name.  He could have picked “Kid Bruised Fruit”...Nah.

6.)  The Plutonian:  Yes, a completely original, Superman-like, solo protector of Earth.  (They multiply like bunnies...yeesh)  The title Irredeemable pretty much says it all as this hero-turned-villain snaps because he feels under appreciated.  Oh, boo-hoo.  Join the club.  So, instead of just moping and going to bed early like most of us he kills dozens and sinks Singapore.  As of this writing he has yet to repent for his sins and still falls into the category of Irredeemable.

5.)  Jean Loring:  Everyone’s favorite whack job, Jean Loring went from the wife of a hero, to the ex-wife of a hero, to the killer of a pregnant wife of a hero.  That’s quite a transition.  I used this picture in a previous blog, but the artist truly captured her insanity with this one.  Not to add further unpleasantness, but she didn’t just shoot the Elongated Man’s wife, she shrunk down and caused a brain aneurysm in her.  She left no clues and drove the super hero investigators absolutely insane for dozens of pages.  She’s now at the Dark Phoenix Memorial Rehabilitation Center.

4.)  Terra (of The New Teen Titans):  Former semi-squeeze of Changeling, Terra turned out to be extremely powerful and extremely tight with Deathstroke.  She apparently was planted there from the start to be a mole in the organization.  Is it merely a coincidence that the “mole” was also the one that had control over the earth itself?  Hmmmm.  I don’t want to tell you how she died, but she was crushed by a building.

3.)  Jericho (also of The New Teen Titans):  Jericho was a bigger turn-coat as he actually saved the Titans THEN turned on them.  Now THAT is a way to be undercover and be convincing.  Save the group you are trying to destroy, then destroy them.   Jericho, it turns out, was Deathstroke’s son and was supposedly possessed by spirits.  Likely excuse.  He apparently was able to fight them off long enough for Deathstroke to kill him.  How’s that for a reward for fighting off your demons.  “Dad, I did it!  Ugh!”  (Ugh! is the sound someone makes when they die)  

2.)  Wolverine:  An obvious choice for the list, James Logan Howlett has fought against his own teammates on the X-Men a number of times.  It would seem like dozens of mind-wipes and reprogramming and having adamantium fused to his skeleton left him mentally fragile.  In his defense, he usually became a bad guy when he was brainwashed to do so.  He was possessed by demons in Hell, brainwashed by Apocalypse and the Horsemen, and even taken over by Hydra and the Hand.  This poor guy probably doesn’t know who he is anymore, well, and the fact that he died doesn’t help either.

1.)  Jean Grey:  I didn’t have this in any particular order but she has to be number one.  Starting off as an innocent girl in green and yellow (blue and yellow, black and yellow....whatever) she wound up as a planet swallowing bird made of flames.  It didn’t happen overnight.   Jean’s transformation took many forms and even looked like it may not happen thanks to Professor X and his mental “walls”.  Alas, Jean couldn’t handle all the power (like a long line of U.S. Presidents) and wound up losing control of her own reality.  This lack of control was nudged a little by the members of The Hellfire Club.  That Jason Wyngarde, the women love him.

A betting person would say that the line of characters changing from good to bad is not at it’s end yet.  It’s a twist, that if done properly, can make even the most ardent of collectors do a double take.  It’s also a reminder that heroes are only human.  They snap too.  They just have a little bit more power to play with than you and I do.

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The Top 10 Superhero Deaths

I wrote a blog yesterday about 10 deaths in comicdom that made quite an impact.  Today I will remain on the topic of death (don’t ask me why) but shift to strictly superheroes that died.  This wasn’t easy as many have died over the years, but I think we can all agree that some just stunned us and left a hole in our hearts.  I won’t repeat the Flash or Jean Grey as they are from the other list, but they do deserve to be here.  So, let’s get started.

Here is The Comic Whisperer’s Top 10 Superhero Deaths:

10.)  Nightcrawler:  This one hits close to home because Nightcrawler was always the witty, winsome, swashbuckling hero.  He wasn’t hard edged or gritty but he did get the job done.  Believe it or not Nightcrawler was gone for more than 3 years before his triumphant return.  The mystery of his true mother and father still remains...

9.)  Captain Marvel:  There may have been many Captain Marvel’s but only one died of cancer.  When Jim Starling put together The Death of Captain Marvel, with it’s classic cover, he did a stellar job.  The most touching part to me was all of the heroes getting together for his passing.  Carol Danvers, our current Captain Marvel, has added a pleasant twist to the character.

8.)  Ted Kord/Blue Beetle:  I don’t mind telling you that this one came out of nowhere to me.  I thought he would take a beating from Maxwell Lord then it would be done.  Then, the panels I will never forget from the Countdown to Infinite Crisis, that showed him being killed.  It’s interesting to note that Ted Kord was not very popular on his own as Blue Beetle, but if you paired him with Booster Gold you had a great combination.  Funny, light-hearted, and neither of them being powerful in their own rights, they were heroes because of their suits.  Who can forget Booster Gold wearing logos to make money?  To see the Blue Beetle taken down like this was a blatant reminder that he was human underneath that mask.

7.)  Hal Jordan/Green Lantern:  The Parallax storyline is one of the best in the history of Green Lantern lore.  It sent ripples through the DC Universe that are still seen today.  The short version is that Hal Jordan went crazy before dying and became Parallax.  He killed the Guardians, the Green Lantern Corps, etc. etc.  He was a bad guy all around.  He then goes on a quest for redemption and winds up giving his life in the process.  If you haven’t read it, do so.  

6.)  Kara/Supergirl:  As deaths go this one was not only expected, but necessary.  Part of Superman’s charm and uniqueness was the fact that he was the only survivor of Krypton and that he was a “lonely alien”.  Supergirl’s presence took all of that away.  Not only that but DC never really capitalized on Supergirl that much.  She was in and out of comics but never really caught on.  Her death signaled the end of an era and the return of Superman to the status of “lonely alien”.  Please understand, her death was well written and traumatic, but it was also the streamlining of the Superman Family.

5.)  Jason Todd and Damian Wayne/Robin:  Yep, just like the last “Death List” I am cheating by putting two in one, but they are both Robin, right?  As a comic book reader I am not sure I have ever seen comic books that made me look away for just a second.  Just a heartbeat.  These panels were the ones responsible.  What you may NOT know is why the two Robin’s died.  Jason Todd’s death was a result of a DC Poll that was taken that drew gobs of attention, and criticism, from the public.  Damian’s death, however, was well planned out by Grant Morrison who put together the best Batman run of all time.  Feel free to look away...just for a second...during the death of Damian.

4.)  Peter Parker/Amazing/Ultimate Spider-Man:  Two Spider-Mans, Spider-Men, you know what I mean, in two different universes dying made huge ripples throughout comicdom.  Dan Slott killed off Spider-Man at the end of 2012.  Things got so bad for Dan that he started receiving death threats.  It was in 2011 that Brian Michael Bendis killed off the Ultimate universe Peter Parker, apparently for good, and replaced him with Miles Morales.  No matter which Peter Parker you were a fan of the ending came as a shock.

3.)  Logan/Wolverine:  It would be hard to argue that there has never been a character more dominating than Wolverine when it comes to popularity.  He doesn’t mind killing, he heals from just about anything, he has adamantium laced bones,  and he has that arrogant, cocky attitude.  He’s the total package.  His death in 2014, however, was no surprise.  Dying was the only thing he hadn’t done yet and you could be sure that, in one way or another, he'd be back.  This is a Joe Quesada variant of a Death of Wolverine cover.

2.)  Steve Rogers/Captain America:  There were two things that made Captain America’s death significant.  First, he was Captain America.  His death made headlines around the country.  My death won’t make headlines around my block.  The second thing is that Captain America died fighting for the rights of his fellow heroes.  He died for what he thought was right.  He died like we thought Captain America would die, in the name of a cause he believed in.  Since then he has returned and he is an old man having had his super serum negated.  I will say, on a personal note, that the new Captain America is TERRIBLE and has made the Marvel Universe tilt, just a little bit, in the wrong direction.  Captain America is a character who should remain just as he is...Captain America.

1.)  Clark Kent/Superman:  Superman is the consummate superhero.  He is the superhero who stands up for superheroes.  He makes a Boy Scout look dishonest.  He was the hero every hero is compared to.  “Yea, he’s tough, but he’s no Superman” or as my doctor puts it, “You have a Superman Complex, you think you have to do everything for everyone”.  He has a point, but I digress.  This gambit by DC Comics in the 90’s was the ultimate gamble.  If it didn’t pay off they had very little else that they could do to sell comics.  Superman’s reincarnation was both expected and popular with the comic reading public.  Besides that Doomsday was an awesome villain.  In the end it wasn’t the best written comic but it may be the most collected.  When I am with comic novices, or part time collectors, the question always comes up, “Do you have the one where Superman dies?”  Yes...yes I do...and I’ve got the armband as well.  Enjoy this pictorial tribute to my favorite, the Man of Steel.

Thanks for taking this journey with me.  Heroes dying always leaves me asking two questions:  What was the reason for their death and when will they be back?  

Superman’s back, that means all is well.