DC Comics heroes aren’t always purely good. Sometimes, due to outside forces, personal loss, or difficult decisions, even the most beloved heroes fall from grace and end up fighting their former allies. These shifts in character keep the stories interesting, as even familiar faces can unexpectedly become major threats.
When a beloved character experiences a significant downfall, the specifics are crucial. Storytellers usually build these shifts around key moments – perhaps a dramatic event, a change in power, or a difficult moral choice – that alter the character’s behavior and motivations. The following sections examine the turning points for each character, exploring what made them so impactful, the powers or circumstances involved, and whether these events led to a comeback or a further descent.
Hal Jordan
As a huge comic book and movie fan, the story of Hal Jordan becoming Parallax always struck me as incredibly tragic. After Coast City was obliterated, he desperately tried to use the power of the Central Battery to bring it back. But instead, he was overwhelmed by this ancient fear entity, Parallax. It was a total takeover – he absorbed the energy of countless Lantern rings and the Battery itself, systematically destroyed the entire Lantern Corps structure, and ended up fighting all the remaining Lanterns throughout the universe. It’s a really dark turn for such a traditionally heroic character.
It was later discovered that Parallax wasn’t a being, but a force that fed on Hal Jordan’s sadness. Through a journey of overcoming his grief, Hal was able to regain his role as a hero. This also led to a new understanding of the emotional spectrum, which explained how fear had fueled his most damaging moments and reshaped the history of the Green Lanterns.
Sinestro
Thaal Sinestro started as a highly respected Green Lantern from the planet Korugar, but he believed in maintaining order through strict control. After being removed from the Green Lantern Corps and exiled to Qward, he learned to harness the power of yellow energy and built a following of recruits who used fear as their primary weapon.
He created the Sinestro Corps and focused his attacks on the Guardians and their systems. The resulting battles pushed the limits of the Corps structure, demonstrating how someone familiar with its inner workings, now turned against it, could disrupt Lantern activities.
Jason Todd
Everyone believed Jason Todd was killed by the Joker, but he secretly survived and spent years training. He came back to Gotham as the Red Hood, using military strategies and high-tech weapons to fight crime. Unlike Batman, he focused on taking control of criminal operations instead of simply shutting them down.
Being revived by a Lazarus Pit and dealing with past trauma led him to become more ruthless. He often wavered between being a villain and a reluctant helper, but when he first came back to life, he immediately clashed with Batman and his team, disagreeing with their approach to fighting crime.
Superboy Prime
Superboy Prime, the sole survivor of a destroyed Earth, believed a different timeline had taken the life that should have been his. Fueled by this belief and his immense Kryptonian abilities, he attacked the Justice League and the Titans, causing widespread destruction that ultimately required a fix spanning multiple universes.
Keeping him contained required blocking out red sun radiation, using special dimensional prisons, and equipping armor that filtered solar energy. Every time he broke free, new security measures had to be implemented, because his immense power and recklessness meant even short escapes were incredibly dangerous.
Raven
Raven’s powers of empathy and connection to the mystical world come from her father, Trigon. However, when Trigon’s influence takes hold, she can unintentionally worsen negative feelings, control her friends, and create openings for demons, forcing the Titans to intervene and close those pathways.
Honestly, watching her journey felt like witnessing a deep spiritual cleansing. It wasn’t just about fixing things on the surface; it was a real purification of her very being. There were layers of magical protection built up around her, and she clearly relied on guidance from some incredibly experienced mystics. What’s really fascinating is looking back at her past – you see this repeating pattern of being corrupted, then somehow restored, and it always seems to coincide with specific rituals or celestial events. My team and I are carefully documenting all of this, hoping to predict what might happen next and be ready for any future dangers.
Mary Marvel
Mary Bromfield changed after making a deal with a powerful, shadowy figure. This connection warped her thinking and personality, making her stronger and faster, but also driving her to make harsh decisions that turned her against her old friends.
Getting back to being a hero meant dealing with the thing that was negatively influencing her and reconnecting with the source of her powers from the Marvel family. This situation shows how being magically supported can impact a person’s moral compass, and how responsible guidance can help restore things to normal.
Hank Hall
Hank Hall originally fought crime as Hawk, but later became the Monarch due to his belief that a strong, controlling hand was needed to ensure success. As the Monarch, he became armored and confrontational, aggressively challenging those he worked with and the structures around him, convinced they lacked the necessary direction.
As his power grew, Extant gained the ability to manipulate time, allowing him to attack from different eras. The superhero community countered this by developing technologies like chronal dampeners, devices that limited his time jumps, and containment zones designed to neutralize his time-based abilities.
Captain Atom
In another version of events, Nathaniel Adam transformed into Monarch after a disruption in reality. He then gained the ability to tap into quantum energy, allowing him to gather armies from different dimensions and begin a scheme to take complete control.
The defenses centered around trapping attacks, rerouting power, and using weaknesses in the armor’s systems. Records show this version differs from the original, and suggest that having almost unlimited energy is driving its desire for domination.
Martian Manhunter
Okay, so something crazy happened to J’onn J’onzz! A psychic shock basically unlocked this really old, powerful part of him called Fernus. It was like all his usual restraints just vanished. Suddenly, his telepathy and shapeshifting were way stronger, but the biggest surprise was this new fire ability he developed – and it didn’t even affect him like his other weaknesses usually do! It was seriously intense to watch.
Instead of relying on fire-based defenses, the incident involved using chemicals and psychological strategies to control the situation. As a result, the League improved its telepathic training procedures and created new safety measures to protect against mental attacks.
Billy Batson
In the Kingdom Come storyline, Billy Batson, while under someone else’s control, used the Shazam powers to fight against other superheroes. Manipulated into being a weapon, he carried out schemes that endangered Superman and his allies.
I was really impressed by how the story showed that sometimes, you need to forcefully break someone free from being controlled, especially when a lot of people are in danger. It highlighted that you can manipulate someone even without directly controlling them, and that can lead them to do terrible things. Thankfully, it also showed a way to disrupt that control – a blast of magical lightning, which was a really clever solution!
Superman
After a devastating personal loss, Superman took control of the world in the Injustice storyline, establishing a strict, worldwide government. He maintained order through force, using powerful individuals and advanced Kryptonian technology to suppress any resistance.
Underground resistance groups used advanced technology like red sun emitters, powerful magic, and secret teleportation to operate. A deep division among heroes led to a dangerous competition for power, which reshaped old friendships, created new enemies, and ultimately solidified a long-lasting, oppressive government.
Kara Zor El
An event involving kryptonite led to the creation of Dark Supergirl, a separate personality defined by her aggression and rejection of self-control. She retained all of Supergirl’s powers but acted without any of the usual hesitation.
Bringing her back to a stable state meant first identifying what caused the problem and then calming her mind. Experts from science and medicine determined the root cause, allowing them to create methods for spotting and stopping future breakdowns.
Jaime Reyes
As a follower of Blue Beetle, I’ve learned the scarab isn’t just armor – it’s packed with Reach technology that can actually take over its host. When that happens, the suit activates dangerous weapons and starts seeing anyone who isn’t Reach as an enemy. It’s terrifying because it basically turns whoever wears it from a protector into a weapon of conquest.
Our approach blends supernatural assistance with technical sabotage at the core system level, and focuses on helping Jaime regain control. Detailed records cover equipment updates and specify which weapons deploy automatically when threatened.
Bruce Wayne
The Batman Who Laughs comes from a grim alternate world. He’s Bruce Wayne, but poisoned by a twisted version of the Joker’s toxin. This gives him Batman’s smarts and skills combined with the Joker’s chaotic, ruthless mindset – meaning he has no moral boundaries.
He gathers twisted versions of Batman from other realities, creates dangerous poisons and advanced weaponry, and attacks key pathways connecting different universes to our own. The only defenses against these attacks involve rare Nth metal, magical assistance, and specially designed countermeasures.
Donna Troy
Throughout her time with the Titans, Donna Troy dealt with betrayals that led her to become Troia. She challenged her old allies, using her Amazonian power, resilience, and experience as a long-time Titan to overcome them.
The team helped her recover by uncovering the truth about her past, fixing gaps in her memories, and using spiritual cleansing to deal with the complexities of where she came from. They also carefully recorded any weaknesses caused by her changing history, so they could be prepared if problems resurfaced.
Tell us which turns shocked you most in the comments.
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2025-10-09 04:35