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From twisted timelines to corrupted icons, these comic book heroes got a nightmare makeover. We’re counting down the most unsettling alternate versions of legendary superheroes, where familiar faces like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash become tyrants, monsters, and moral disasters. Which dark take on a classic hero creeped you out the most? Let us know in the comments below!
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00:00Huh? Superman, don't!
00:02Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the darkest versions of comic superheroes.
00:08We'll be digging deep into the twisted mirror images, corrupt timelines, and nightmarish alternate realities
00:13that have taken our most beloved heroes and turned them into something altogether terrifying.
00:17With this weapon, I can fulfill my true purpose.
00:23Number 20, Marvel Zombie Spider-Man.
00:25What could be worse than losing your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?
00:28How about getting him back? But he has a hankering for your brains.
00:31Don't eat me, don't eat me, don't eat me, don't eat me.
00:33In the 2005 Marvel Zombies storyline and its sequels, Peter Parker is infected by a mysterious extraterrestrial virus
00:39that transforms Earth's mightiest heroes into flesh-craving undead.
00:46What makes this version particularly gut-wrenching is that the zombified Spider-Man retains just enough of his original consciousness
00:52to feel horror at his own actions, including devouring Mary Jane and Aunt May.
00:56That tragic self-awareness, combined with the grotesque visual of a rotting, web-slinging Spidey,
01:01makes this one of Marvel's most unsettling what-ifs ever committed to the page.
01:05Number 19, Red Sun Superman.
01:07Imagine if the rocket-carrying baby Kal-El had landed 12 hours later, not in Kansas, but in Soviet Ukraine.
01:13We in the Soviet Union do not oppose the citizens of the United States.
01:18We only oppose the government that oppresses you.
01:21That's the chilling premise of Mark Miller's 2003 Elseworlds masterpiece, Superman Red Sun.
01:27Rather than fighting for truth, justice, and the American way, this Superman serves Stalin,
01:32eventually becoming the benevolent but terrifyingly authoritarian ruler of a global Soviet empire.
01:49He genuinely believes he's making the world better, which is precisely what makes him so unnerving.
01:54His iron-fisted utopia leaves no room for free will, dissent, or individuality.
01:59The road to dystopia, Miller seems to be saying, is paved with the best of super-powered intentions.
02:04But I finally do see that this is humanity's world, and they have to be free to make their own
02:11mistakes.
02:12Chart their own course.
02:14Number 18, Shadowland Daredevil.
02:16Few heroic falls from grace have been as painful to witness as Matt Murdock's descent in the 2010 Shadowland crossover
02:22event.
02:23After years of loss, trauma, and psychological torment, Daredevil accepts leadership of the Hand,
02:28a deadly ninja cult he once opposed, and constructs a fortress in the heart of Hell's Kitchen.
02:32Possessed by a demonic entity called the Beast of the Hand, he murders Bullseye in cold blood.
02:38When did Daredevil lose his mind?
02:39So he's not Daredevil anymore.
02:40Well, in this book.
02:41Then, Matt declares himself above the law he once sacrificed everything to uphold.
02:45Andy Diggle's story forces readers to confront just how thin the threat has always been
02:49between Matt the hero and the darkness that constantly nips at his heels,
02:53especially when an evil entity influences him.
02:56Number 17, Superior Iron Man.
02:58Tony Stark has always walked a morally complicated line.
03:01Textbook narcissism?
03:06Agreed?
03:07Yet 2014's Axis storyline pushed him somewhere genuinely sinister.
03:11A moral inversion spell flipped the ethical compass of dozens of heroes and villains,
03:16leaving Stark as a narcissistic, manipulative predator, draped in a sleek, symbiote-inspired armor.
03:21He relocates to San Francisco and releases a perfected version of Extremis, first for free,
03:26then for a steep subscription fee, essentially holding the city's population hostage to their own physical perfection.
03:32To make it worse, if that's possible, he also forcibly gave Daredevil his vision back and then took it away.
03:38With his ego turned up to a hundred, this version of Stark weaponizes his genius not to save the world,
03:43but to control it.
03:44Is it better to be feared or respected?
03:47And I say, is it too much to ask for both?
03:50If you want to be like Superior Iron Man but without all the evil,
03:53then we have just the place where you can grow your pop culture intelligence.
03:56The WatchMojo 24-7 livestream.
03:58Be a hero and scan the QR code on screen to fly over for some non-stop pop culture delight.
04:03Are you ironing, Matt?
04:04Fuck off.
04:06Number 16, Flashpoint Wonder Woman.
04:08When Barry Allen rewrites the DC timeline in the Flashpoint arc, virtually every hero becomes something darker,
04:14and Diana Themyscira was one.
04:16He's resisting the lasso of truth.
04:18How is that possible, Queen Diana?
04:20It's not.
04:21In this fractured reality, Wonder Woman leads the Amazons in a brutal military conquest against Aquaman,
04:28including transforming Great Britain into new Themyscira after slaughtering over 30 million people.
04:33Far from the compassionate ambassador of peace readers know and love,
04:36this Diana is a warmongering conqueror,
04:39locked in a catastrophic arms race with Aquaman's Atlanteans.
04:42Several heroes are killed by her directly, including Meera,
04:45afterwards Diana wears her helmet, Steve Trevor, and even Billy Batson.
04:49What's more disturbing isn't the violence itself,
04:51but how recognizable her warrior instincts remain,
04:54twisted just enough to produce a figure of genuine terror rather than inspiration.
04:58You murdered my wife, Diana.
05:00She tried to assassinate me, Arthur. I was protecting myself.
05:04Yet you wear her helmet like a trophy.
05:06No! A warning!
05:08Number 15, Flashpoint Aquaman.
05:10Speaking of Flashpoint, the other big bad of the universe is Aquaman.
05:13What I do now, I do for the good of all.
05:17As do I.
05:19In this broken timeline, after kidnapping Brian Markov and weaponizing his power,
05:23Aquaman sinks Western Europe beneath the ocean in retaliation for Wonder Woman killing Meera,
05:28killing over 60 million people in an instant.
05:31The era of the land dweller is at an end, hero.
05:38Your metal scarf will decorate my great hall.
05:42With a harsher upbringing than usual continuity,
05:45Aquaman's grief has curled into something cold and pitiless,
05:48transforming the King of Atlantis into a weapon of mass destruction wearing a crown.
05:52Yet, he also directly gets his hands dirty.
05:54When Arthur Curry confronts Deathstroke on his boat,
05:57he brutally takes the lives of several characters, enjoying himself as he goes.
06:01No survivors.
06:03Number 14, Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe.
06:06Now, let's talk about something that sounds like a joke, but is anything but.
06:10Ah! Fake laugh!
06:12Hiding real pain.
06:13In Dalibor Tlajic and Colin Bunn's 2012 miniseries,
06:16Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe,
06:18Wade Wilson is subjected to a psychic treatment that doesn't cure his madness.
06:22It focuses and opens his mind.
06:24With the usual jokey voices silenced,
06:26and a sudden, crystalline awareness that he's a fictional character being written for others' entertainment,
06:31Deadpool concludes the most merciful thing he can do is end the Marvel Universe entirely.
06:36And he does, methodically, brutally, and unfortunately for them,
06:40and our eyes, very, very creatively.
06:42He kills the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the X-Men, even cosmic characters.
06:47Wade later goes further, sliding into the Ideaverse and murdering his way through historical fictional characters.
06:53Oh, that is so not practical!
06:55Number 13, Maestro.
06:57Peter David's 1992 future imperfect introduced one of the most terrifying what-ifs in Hulk history.
07:02A future where nuclear war has wiped out virtually all superheroes.
07:06That universe's version of the Hulk, now calling himself the Maestro,
07:09absorbed massive amounts of radiation that amplified his strength,
07:12and kept Bruce Banner's intelligence while in his Hulk form.
07:15I know.
07:16You're thinking you can't trust me.
07:18But I'm you.
07:20Can't you trust yourself, Hulk?
07:23I spent half my life not trusting myself.
07:25Instead of someone emerging who could save the planet,
07:28we get a cruel, hedonistic tyrant who rules his broken world with absolute power.
07:32Yes! Destroy him!
07:35He would wipe us all out, Hulk!
07:37The entire world!
07:38He even keeps a trophy room filled with items belonging to fallen heroes who were once his friends.
07:43To make it more terrifying, yep, that's possible.
07:45Despite seemingly being killed multiple times,
07:48Maestro constantly returns to wreak havoc again and again.
07:51They want to control the world.
07:53They try to destroy us.
07:55All because we tried to lead, to save the Earth.
07:58Number 12. The Dark Phoenix
08:01Jean Grey has always been one of Marvel's most powerful and emotionally complex characters.
08:05So, it stands to reason that her dark side would be among the most devastating forces in comics.
08:10Look at me, Jean.
08:12I can help you.
08:14Look at me!
08:15In Chris Claremont and John Byrne's legendary Dark Phoenix saga,
08:18Jean is gradually corrupted by the Cosmic Phoenix Force until she becomes Dark Phoenix,
08:22an entity of near-limitless destructive power with no empathy to temper it.
08:26In her most chilling act, she devours a star,
08:29wiping out an entire inhabited solar system without a second thought,
08:33taking billions of lives.
08:34While it was later retconned that Jean was in a cocoon,
08:37and the Dark Phoenix had copied her,
08:38that certainly wasn't the initial intention,
08:40as the usually warm Jean became a genocidal monster.
08:49Number 11. The Maker
08:50Most people know Reed Richards as the brilliant,
08:53if occasionally oblivious, patriarch of the Fantastic Four,
08:56who always wants to protect humanity.
08:58You need to control yourself and think before you act.
09:01But in the Ultimate Universe, his story takes a sharp, devastating turn.
09:05After his teammates reject his vision for a better world,
09:08and he's left scarred and broken,
09:10Reed reinvents himself as the Maker,
09:12a coldly brilliant supervillain who views humanity less as people to protect,
09:16and more as variables in an equation to be optimized.
09:19He's willing to commit genocide,
09:20manipulate entire realities,
09:22and dismantle civilizations in pursuit of his warped, ideal future.
09:26The Maker is the nightmare version of scientific genius,
09:28a man convinced that being the smartest person in the room,
09:31means never having to be accountable to anyone.
09:34Number 10. Spider-Man Noir
09:36Who is this madman?
09:37And most important,
09:38who can stop him?
09:41That would be me.
09:43Set on Earth 90214,
09:44Noir takes place during the Great Depression,
09:46where Uncle Ben served as an activist,
09:48and the Goblin acted as a New York mob boss.
09:51This Spider-Man isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
09:53Unlike the typical friendly neighborhood web-slinger,
09:55this Spider-Man has no qualms with killing anyone deemed to deserve it,
09:59a characteristic that is further cemented by Peter's choice in weaponry.
10:03Armed with pistols and seeking to cut down any villain in power,
10:06Noir presents a twisted version of Spider-Man that is undeniably captivating.
10:11Howdy, fellas. Can I get you a drink?
10:15Number 9. The Dark Knight Returns
10:18You're under arrest, mister!
10:19You just crippled that man!
10:21He's young, he'll walk again.
10:23But you'll stay scared, won't you, punk?
10:26Proving to be extremely influential, for better or worse,
10:29Frank Miller's depiction of the Caped Crusader ushered in a new age of adult-oriented comic books.
10:34Batman was always somewhat prone to violence and obsessive in nature,
10:38but The Dark Knight Returns amplified these traits,
10:40while turning Gotham into a dystopian wasteland due to the vigilante retiring ten years prior.
10:45Old and overwhelmed by guilt,
10:47Bruce returns to crime-fighting to stop a mutant gang and a relapsing Harvey Dent.
10:51Opting for a more hyper-realistic tone,
10:53The Dark Knight Returns questions Batman's definition of morality,
10:56as heroes and villains are depicted, with positive and negative traits.
11:00Who are we kidding?
11:02They couldn't fix me.
11:05Nothing can change what I am.
11:08You and me both.
11:11Number 8. Dark Beast
11:12Inaugurated during the Age of Apocalypse crossover event,
11:16this deranged version of Hank earned the denomination of Dark Beast.
11:23A sadistic geneticist who has yet to meet a mutant that is not worth dissecting,
11:27Earth-295's Henry McCoy purposely experimented on himself to transform into a grey monster.
11:32A twisted madman that frequently engaged in torture,
11:35Dark Beast ended up hitching a ride to Earth-616,
11:38and temporarily posed as the normal beast,
11:41although evil Hank still found time to carry out a couple of bloody experiments.
11:44I'm gonna paint this whole room with your blood!
11:48Though limited, your vocabulary is certainly colorful.
11:53Number 7. Old Man Logan
11:54Oh, how did things get so bad?
11:57You want to die.
12:01Charles Tony.
12:06What else do you tell her?
12:08Do not let you.
12:10A highly regarded comic book event sent 50 years after the fall of the heroes,
12:14Old Man Logan presents Wolverine as a broken old man,
12:17driven to pacifism due to playing a part in handing the world over to the supervillains.
12:21While Wolverine has never shied away from slaughtering a couple of baddies,
12:24this older Logan is far more desperate,
12:26and the passage of time has weakened his healing ability.
12:29The event that triggered this timeline is also heartbreaking,
12:32as Mysterio tricked Logan into believing that the X-Men were actually villains,
12:36attacking Xavier's school,
12:37resulting in Wolverine wiping out his allies.
12:40Oh, that's gonna need some coconut oil.
12:43Number 6. Out-of-time Flash
12:45Barry Allen's selfishness triggered Flashpoint and helped launch DC's New 52,
12:50leading to the Flash's darkest timeline.
12:52I just wanted to save her.
12:54Due to the speed force suffering a leak,
12:57Allen ended up losing time and failed to prevent a myriad of tragedies,
13:00including Wally West's death and Iris being seriously injured.
13:04Learning absolutely nothing from his past mistakes,
13:06Allen repeatedly slips back in time to right any perceived wrongs,
13:09but the hero's actions become progressively more vicious and desperate.
13:13Besides eliminating a couple of villains,
13:15Future Flash tries to fix a tear in the speed force by forcibly sacrificing his younger self.
13:20Number 5. Pappy Banner
13:22Whether referring to the Maestro or Inferno Hulk,
13:24the big green powerhouse always seems a second away from turning evil.
13:28Talking man hurt Hulk.
13:31Hulk, rip off talking man's head!
13:37My head?
13:39Oh, crap.
13:39Out of the many different alternate renditions of Marvel's anti-hero,
13:43Old Man Logan's Pappy Banner takes the cake for the most disgusting and intimidating.
13:48Serving as Wolverine's final boss,
13:49Banner turned California into Hulkland
13:51and established a family by boinking his super-powered cousin,
13:55as Jenny was the only person capable of withstanding the Hulk's thrusts.
13:58Leading a cackle of inbred ruffians,
14:00Pappy Banner enjoys cannibalism, senseless murder, and Jim Belushi movies.
14:04Hey, this is a beautiful car.
14:06Yes, sir. Top of the line.
14:07I'm a top of the line kind of guy.
14:08Number 4. Hydra Supreme
14:10Dating back to 2016's Avengers standoff,
14:13good old Cap took a walk on the wild side
14:15by serving as a sleeper agent for Hydra
14:17in the organization's bid for world domination.
14:20Prompted by Red Skull and Kobik,
14:22Roger's memories were twisted around
14:23until the superhero took up the mantle of Hydra Supreme.
14:26Things came to a head during the Civil War II crossover event
14:29when the undercover Captain America used
14:31Alyssis Kane's predictive ability
14:33to play the Avengers against each other,
14:35resulting in a full-scale war
14:36and the death of Bruce Banner.
14:38With the heroes in turmoil,
14:40Captain America and Hydra seized the planet for themselves,
14:42culminating in the Secret Empire crossover.
14:45Number 3. Parallax
14:46People grieve in many unique ways,
14:49but Hal Jordan took anger to a whole new level.
14:51It filled me with new purpose.
14:54Devastated by the destruction of Coast City,
14:56the superhero sought to use his power ring to bring back the dead,
14:59a move which went against the Green Lantern Corps' rules of conduct.
15:02Unwilling to take no for an answer,
15:04Jordan fought against his former colleagues,
15:06stole many power rings,
15:07and left the beaten lanterns for dead.
15:09This string of events resulted in Jordan embracing the villainous persona of Parallax,
15:14although DC later retconned this entire storyline
15:16by stating that Jordan was being controlled by an ancient entity.
15:22Number 2. Injustice Superman
15:25The Injustice timeline portrays the Man of Steel from a fascinating but dark perspective.
15:30Taking place in an alternate reality,
15:32Joker finally gets the last laugh by fooling Superman
15:34into believing that Lois Lane was actually Doomsday,
15:37killing them and their unborn child by flying them into space.
15:48Understandably traumatized,
15:49Superman kills the Joker and transforms into a full-blown tyrant
15:53who refuses to show any mercy to criminals.
15:55While a couple of members oppose the Justice League's former leader,
15:58Superman launches a five-year reign of terror
16:00and transforms Earth into a global police state.
16:03I gave you peace.
16:06Your peace...
16:10Your peace...
16:12is a joke.
16:15Before we continue,
16:17be sure to check out WatchMojo's 24-hour livestream.
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16:23Always on, always live.
16:25Are you not entertained?
16:27Number 1. The Batman Who Laughs
16:31I've never seen you laugh before.
16:33I don't think I like it.
16:35Blending the caved crusader with other characters,
16:38Dark Knight's metal centers around a group of evil Batman
16:40who are brought together to invade the multiverse by Barbados.
16:44Such a depraved lineup requires a truly terrifying leader to take charge,
16:47and the Batman Who Laughs is definitely up for the job.
16:51Hailing from Earth-22,
16:52this Bruce Wayne was poisoned by Joker's toxin
16:54and transformed into a villainous hybrid of the two.
16:57Armed with a wild pack of Robins,
16:59the Batman Who Laughs massacred every god, hero, and human on the planet
17:03before jumping at the chance to conquer the multiverse.
17:07If you could make a dark version of an obscure comic character,
17:10who would you pick?
17:10Let us know below.
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