Face Heel Turn / The DCU

The DCU

Face–Heel Turn in this franchise.

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Comic Books

Comic Books

• Green Lantern
  • Hal Jordan undergoes a psychotic break and becomes the evil Parallax, a being seeking to reshape all of existence, after the destruction of Coast City. However, in Green Lantern: Rebirth was explained he was under the real Parallax's influence.
  • The Guardians of the Universe, having been Slowly Slipping Into Evil ever since Green Lantern: Rebirth, finally crossed the Moral Event Horizon following the New 52 — they lobotomize Ganthet to get him back on their side, seemingly kill Hal and Sinestro, and begin a campaign of removing free will from the universe by absorbing all life into their Third Army.
• Two-Face was once District Attorney Harvey Dent, one of Batman's closer allies who ended up going mad after the left side of his face was horrifically scarred.
• Batgirl: Cassandra Cain, who during her book was a compassionate character with high moral standards, was turned into a cold-hearted killer for no real reason. Later it was revealed that she was brainwashed by Deathstroke the entire time.
• Batman: Last Knight on Earth sees a clone of Batman go up against Omega, who's a Fallen Hero. More specifically, he ends up being the original Batman, having suffered Being Tortured Makes You Evil.
• Captain Atom: In a particularly bad example of Executive Meddling, DC planned to turn Captain Atom into supervillain Monarch. When readers guessed the plan ahead of time, they changed their minds at the last minute and made the character Hawk murder his partner Dove and don Monarch's armor. Then, in a series of decisions years down the line, they effectively reversed it, giving Hawk the new handle of Extant, putting Captain Atom into Monarch's armor and creating a new Hawk and Dove team.
• Convergence: In issue #6, Superman and the rest of the heroes from Kingdom Come. While the story they come from arguably ended the Dark Age of Comics and brought back idealistic heroes, these versions agree to serve the openly Tyrannical Deimos and fight the heroes of Earth 2 if it means their own city surviving. This is turned back immediately after Parallax murders Deimos, as they had no reason to be evil anymore.
• Death of the Family: Subverted. Harley Quinn is blackmailed into helping the Joker when he threatens to destroy Deadshot's corpse (Harley doesn't know that Deadshot is not dead though), after realizing Harley has feelings for Deadshot and is quite pissed off about it. If you did not read Suicide Squad, you would not know about it and think she had gone evil again.
• Earth 2: Jimmy Olsen is introduced as an ally to the new generation of heroes, but by the events of Earth 2: Society he becomes the villain Dr. Impossible.
• Mandrakk, the Dark Monitor from Final Crisis, was a Lovecraftian Horror ultra-vampire who wanted to feed on the life blood of existence itself until it had been bled dry. Saying he was the Ultimate Evil is not pushing the envelope. If what has been suggested — namely that he originally was the Monitor, the heroic mentor figure who laid down his life so the Universe might live in Crisis on Infinite Earths — is true, then this might be the ultimate FHT in comics.
• Infinite Crisis did this to Alexander Luthor, Jr. and Superboy-Prime, two of the heroes from Crisis on Infinite Earths. Alex turned due to jealousy towards Prime and Kal-L, the Golden Age Superman; both were able to have a childhood and future Alex did not. Alex later convinces Prime to help him with the idea that he could revive Earth-Prime and save his family. Prime ends up fully turning after he knocks Pantha's head off.
• Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths does this to Pariah, yet another hero from the original Crisis. Like Superboy-Prime and Alexander Luthor Jr, he too grew tired of seeing the DCU live on in prosperity while his original world was never restored. To ensure his world is restored, he rebuilds the Antimatter Chamber and tries reversing it. That instead brings the Great Darkness into the Post-Crisis multiverse. Oblivious to this threat, Pariah attempts to recreate perfect worlds for every hero to break the cycle of destruction. However, he is planning on remaking the Pre-Crisis omniverse all along.
• Shazam!: Mary Marvel, who used to be a pure-hearted teen girl, was turned evil shortly after Infinite Crisis. Even her clothes turned black. However, her turn was undone in Final Crisis.
• Superman:
  • The Coming of Atlas turned Atlas into a villain. An obscure character created by Jack Kirby in 1975, Atlas was conceived as a Conan the Barbarian-like fantasy barbarian who was not exactly squeaky clean, but was opposing a despotic warlord. When he was brought back in 2008, it is revealed he had became another power-hungry conqueror after killing his nemesis and taking over his kingdom.
    Chagra: Atlas was, once, though. My hero. The hero to many. The hero to all.[...] He was bold then, brave, pure of heart and spirit. I joined him in his quest to avenge his tribe's slaughter at the hands of Hyssa, ruler of the Kingdom of the Lizard. He— We found Hyssa. We— He killed him. And his rotting skull still adorns a vane upon the roof of Atlas' summer house by the water. Atlas took Hyssa's city and defends it when he must.. But the good has left him. People fear him as much as they love him.
  • The Plague of the Antibiotic Man: Nam-Ek travels to Earth to warn Superman of Amalak's scheme to unleash a plague; but when Superman seems to doubt his old enemy's non-involvement, not only does Nam-Ek refuse to explain anything but also he violently turns against Superman and sides with Amalak.
• The Multiversity:
  • The chief antagonist of the series is a former "cosmic defender". Nix Uotan. He gets better in the last issue.
  • In The Just #1, Alexis Luthor turns evil as a result of reading the Gentry's evil comic book and reprograms Superman's peacekeeping robots into weapons.
• Teen Titans: Name a Teen Titan. Chances are good they tried to kill the other Titans at some point. Raven, Jericho, and Beast Boy (yes, even BB) are some of the better known ones.
  • Raven and Jericho have frequently gone insane and/or evil to the point that it has practically become a Running Gag.
  • Rose Wilson was drugged into becoming the Ravager by her father Deathstroke.
  • Roy Harper became a psychotic anti-hero after he was mutilated and lost his daughter.
  • Donna Troy was revived and brainwashed by the Titans of Myth after she was killed by the Superman robot.
  • Cyborg nearly lost all his humanity when he became Cyberion and almost destroyed the moon.
  • Osiris was forced to kill people in order to revive his sister, but by then he embraced a new love of killing and turned into a psychotic Spoiled Brat.
  • Duela Dent's fractured mind means she's constantly switching from good, evil, and in-between. Her last appearance before she died had her attempt a kidnapping of a famous young actress.
  • Risk turned against the Titans due to the resentment of being abandoned by them after losing his right arm. Although an early issue said Risk turned to petty crime after his Titans team disbanded.
  • Power Boy turned out to be a Stalker with a Crush obsessed with Supergirl, and he tried to kidnap her and hold her captive.
  • Golden Eagle tried to kill and replace Hawkman as revenge for his father's death.
  • Deathwing, the supposed future version of Dick Grayson who belonged to the Team Titans, was brainwashed by Raven and raped Mirage. Even after the supposed brainwashing wore off, he remained a bad guy.
  • Hank Hall, the first Hawk, went completely off the deep end when Dawn Granger died, becoming Monarch and later Extant. It turned out Hank had some help from Mordru the Merciless, but as a revived Dawn stated, Hank moved well beyond Mordru's control and turned evil on his own.
  • Enigma, the Riddler's Daughter, first started out as a member of the Teen Titans before switching to Deathstroke's Titans East. We were never shown Enigma's tenure as a hero, but we do know she joined Slade's group because he promised to help get her recognized by her supposed father.
  • Jason Todd, the second Robin, became the murderous Red Hood after he was brought back from the dead, and constantly switched from an anti-hero to a straightforward villain.
  • Addy Kane, Deathstroke's first wife, was driven insane by a blood transfusion she received from her husband, gaining his immortality and becoming the new HIVE mistress.
• Young All Stars: Tigress, after her death and resurrection at the hands of Gudra the Valkyrie, which was meant to explain her origin of becoming the Golden Age villain the Huntress.
• Robin (1993): After Dodge gets knocked into a coma by the tech he stole in order to be able to teleport malfunctioning he turns from a wannabe superhero to a supervillain hoping for a battle with Robin, mostly because he's decided to blame Robin for teleporter fusing with him despite it being caused entirely by his own actions.
• Wonder Woman (1987): By all indications the White Magician was once a true hero, but by the time Diana meets him he's maintaining his veneer as a hero through Engineered Heroics and selling experimental weapons and other tech stolen from Star Labs on the black market. He then becomes an outright supervillain in his quest for power and out of his anger at Diana stealing the spotlight as a superhero in his town.

Live-Action Films

Films

• Harvey "Two-Face" Dent in The Dark Knight. After Rachel dies, he kills four people (at least two of whose deaths were confirmed onscreen) and nearly kills Gordon's son all on the basis of coin flips.

Live-Action TV

Live-Action TV

• Slade Wilson starts out as a hero in Arrow, but after he learns of Ivo pulling a Sadistic Choice on Oliver that results in Shado's death, combined with the Mirakuru's effect on his mind, he turns on Oliver, blaming him for what happened more than he does Ivo.
• In Smallville: Oh you highlighted this. For shame!
  • Other FHT include Davis Bloome/Doomsday, Jason Teague, and after a round of Heel–Face Revolving Door, Major Zod.

Video Games

Video Games

• Injustice: Gods Among Us has Superman doing this after the Joker blows Metropolis to kingdom come with a bomb he attached to Lois, detonating it by drugging Superman into thinking Lois was Doomsday. When Lois's heart stopped, boom. Superman, in a fit of rage, tears the Joker's heart out, ignoring Batman's attempts to stop him. Afterwards, the good-hearted boyscout superhero was no more, and he became a cold-hearted, paranoid tyrant that is seemingly unstoppable except against another Superman from another universe who hadn't experienced such trauma and still stayed on the side of good.

Western Animation

Western Animation

• Harvey Dent going from the respected attorney he was to the dangerous criminal Two Face in Batman: The Animated Series is done as a serious Tear Jerker. He had already been an established and likable character beforehand who suffered from anger issues until a disfiguring injury pushed him over the edge and made his psychotic alternate personality become dominant, and Batman has never once stopped regretting being unable to save him or given up on swaying him back to being a good guy.
• Mirroring Harvey is Detective Ethan Bennet in The Batman who, due to an abusively Bad Boss, being "clowned with" by The Joker, and a harsh dose of mutagenic gas, becomes the amorphous shapeshifter Clayface. Unlike Harvey he struggles much more with morality, initially only being out for revenge, trying to live a normal life, and even attempting to use his powers for good, before his degrading sanity makes him decide Being Good Sucks and he'd rather be a criminal. He eventually does get better for good, helping Batman take out the much more dangerous Clayface II and being cured in the process.
• Green Lantern: The Animated Series: This happens to Aya after she shuts down her emotions and takes over the Anti-Monitor's body, becoming a Knight Templar bent on eliminating all organic life to the pointat she goes back in time to rewrite the creation of the universe. She comes to her senses when she accidentally nearly kills Razer.
• Aqualad/Kaldur'ahm in Season 2 of Young Justice (2010), after he becomes embittered at his former friends for letting Tula die during a mission gone wrong and his own mentor, Aquaman, for hiding the truth about his real, supervillain father, Black Manta. Kaldur ends up joining him.
  • Turns out he only faked his turn and is deep undercover for the Team.

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