Superheroesare nothing new. The most popular ones based on DC and Marvel comic books have shaped the modern perception of superheroes as larger-than-life figures in capes and tights. But even before that, storytelling was full of individuals with extraordinary abilities fighting to save the say, from Hercules to Sherlock Holmes to Rambo.
As superhero movieshave become the reigning champions of the box-office, filmmakers have sought to redefine the limits of the genre in various ways. One such way involves asking what would happen if a superhero was to go bad. Let us take a look at some movies that try to answer this question to varying degrees.
16Superman 3
Modern comic book movies like the MCU owe a lot to1978’s Superman: The Moviefor showing the potential of what such a franchise could do. By the timeSuperman 3starring Christopher Reeve rolled around, the makers were looking for ways to shake up the story formula by having their cheerful and optimistic Man of Steel discover his dark side, quite literally by battling his inner demon.
RELATED:15 Movies That Portray Character Struggles In The Best Way
This is done by introducing a fresh, imperfect version of kryptonite that does not kill Superman, but turns him bad. The new, grumpy version of the superhero engages in acts of destruction around the globe, and perhaps even more scandalously, heavy drinking in broad daylight. Matters come to a head when the true Superman physically disengages from his evil self, and the two opposing halves have an epic battle in a junkyard.
15Spider-Man 3
Sam Raimi’sSpider-Manmovies from the early 2000s proved just how sophisticated and enjoyable CGI-heavy superhero movies could be without losing out on the human connection thatso many modern superhero films suffer from. Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker aka Spider-Man encountered a lot of problems while swinging around his city fighting super villains, until he unexpectedly became one himself inSpider-Man 3.
The whole trouble begins when an alien symbiote crash lands near Peter’s scooter and attaches itself to him in secret. Peter feels a new surge of power from the symbiote, but it also makes him more violent and callous. This new, black-suited Spider-Man is much more brutal towards criminals and even physically attacks Mary Jane. Thankfully, Peter soon realizes the danger posed by the symbiote and discards its power as well as its evil nature.
14Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
While Peter Parker is the first Spider-Man that comes to mind for general audiences, another popular version of the character is Miles Morales. The character has gotten his own highly-acclaimed superhero movie series that started with 2018’sSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The film explores the idea of various Spider-Mans from different realities coming together to save the day.
A sequel was released in 2023 titledSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Once again Miles needs to team up with other Spider-People from different realities. This time, however, a threat is posed by a Spider-Man gone bad, Miguel O’Hara aka Spider-Man 2099. This version of the superhero has gone overboard in his attempts to keep the multiverse safe. He is willing to kill people, including other Spider-Folks, leading to a direct conflict with Miles and his allies.
13Brightburn
Superman is generally acknowledged to be the most powerful superhero in comics, even ifthat is not really the case. Still, Superman’s immense power has long fascinated audiences with the question of what would happen if the heroic Man of Steel was to go bad? This question gets explored inBrightburn, which is a riff on the classic Superman origin story with a much darker edge.
Brandon is a quiet kid living with his parents in a small town in Kansas. Unknown to the general public, Brandon crash-landed onto his parents' property inside a spaceship when he was an infant. As Brandon grows up and goes through puberty, he starts developing superpowers. Unfortunately, he also starts being brainwashed by his spaceship to become a world conqueror like his alien forefathers. Thus, the stage is set for a terrifying new kid villain with Superman’s powers who murders people without mercy on his path to conquering Earth.
12The Avengers
By the time 2012’sThe Avengersrolled around, most of its main superheroes had already appeared prominently in the MCU to give time for the audience to get to know them. One superhero who had not had any substantial screen time was Clint Barton aka Hawkeye. The movie needed to establish Hawkeye as a force to be reckoned with before letting him become a part of the superhero team.
This is achieved by having Clint be mind controlled by the main villain Loki at the start of the movie. The brainwashed, evil version of Hawkeye manages to do a lot of damage, from attacking the SHIELD helicarrier to almost killing Black Widow before he is brought back to his senses. This mini story arc nearly brings Hawkeye into the central narrative of the film, and also gives him a reason to join the Avengers to get revenge on Loki.
11Batman: Under the Red Hood
General audiences know Robin as Batman’s colorful young sidekick. But what many don’t know is that there have been quite a few Robins over the years, and some of them ended up going bad. One of the most tragic arcs belongs to Jason Todd, who started out as Robin, before being apparently killed brutally by the Joker, and finally returning from the dead to exact vengeance as the anti-hero Red Hood.
All of this gets explored in the 2010 animated movieBatman: Under the Red Hood. We get some backstory with Jason Todd as Robin in the past, before cutting to current Gotham where a violent new vigilante named Red Hood has started upstaging Batman. It is soon borne upon Bruce Wayne that Red Hood is his old protege returned as a murderous psychopath. The Dark Knight is forced to grapple with his personal feelings towards Jason, and the new threat posed by Red Hood.
10Injustice
It’s not justThe BoysorBrightburnthat have explored the idea of a Superman gone bad. TheInjusticevideo games take place in a world where Superman has become a merciless tyrant. Following the success of the games, a comic series based on the idea was produced which ran for several years. And then finally audiences got anInjusticeanimated movie in 2021.
After Joker pulls a successful bomb attack on Metropolis that kills Lois Lane and all his loved ones, Superman concludes that he has been failing the world by not taking a hard stand against criminals. Aided by some of the superheroes and villains who share his views, Superman goes on a planetary rampage to impose a new world order that would result in the swift elimination of any undesirable members of society. Facing off against tyrant Superman is Batman and his team of renegade heroes/ villains who refuse to accept the new status quo.
This is getting a bit repetitive at this point, but what if Superman was to turn evil? Once again, this question is posed by a comic book movie, which in this case happens to be the MCU’sEternals. We start with the titular group of super powered beings created by a race of celestial gods, who have been left behind on Earth to oversee the development of mankind and act as their secret guardians.
There is a traditional enemy in the movie in the form of a “Deviant” race that stands in opposition to the Eternals. But by the end of the movie, it is revealed that the true main enemy all along had been the leader of the Eternals, called Ikaris, who is very similar to Superman but does not follow the latter’s strict moral code.
8Avengers: Age of Ultron
After the groundbreaking success of 2012’sThe Avengers, comic book movies changed forever. Suddenly it was no longer enough to have one or even two superheroes in a single movie. The MCU followed up the success ofThe Avengerswith its sequel,Avengers: Age of Ultron, which introduced three new superheroes into the mix.
However, two of the three heroes start out as bad guys. Pietro and Wanda Maximoff are super powered twins with a burning hatred for Tony Stark. This makes them team up with the main villain Ultron to take down the Avengers. Wanda causes the most damage by brainwashing Bruce Banner into losing control as the hulk and trashing a city until Iron Man stops him. Fortunately, the Maximoff twins have a change of heart by the end of the movie and team up with the Avengers to stop Ultron.
7Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
After the runwaway success of the MCU, DC Comics knew they had to really bring it to the competition. Thus the DCEU was born, kickstarted withMan of Steel. Instead of building up their fledgling cinematic universe with solo movies before the big team up film, the DCEU decided to change things up by having its second movie be an epic showdown between Superman and Batman.
Batman v Supermansees a young and unsure Man of Steel facing off against an older and embittered Dark Knight. The increasingly paranoid Batman is convinced that Superman poses too great a threat to humanity and must be stopped before he can turn evil. This leads Batman on a quest to kill Superman with the help of his gadgets and kryptonite. It takes amuch-memed about moment of clarityfor Batman to finally see Superman as a good guy, jus in time for the two heroes to face off against Lex Luthor and Doomsday.
