History HeWhoFightsMonsters / ComicBooks

** [[AntiVillain Mr Freeze]] perfectly represents this fear and this trope in the animated series with the gusto he goes after those responsible for what happened to his wife, Nora. Freeze wants vengance at any and all costs, not caring one bit about collateral damage.

** A fact that former Nazi Red Skull pointed out. [[ArsonMurderAndAdmiration It should be worth noting, though, that RedSkull was sincerely trying to praise Magneto.]] [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame He somehow didn't know that he was a Holocaust survivor.]]

** Sinestro is this even more. To bring order to his planet, he established a totalitarian regime, becoming the symbol of tyranny in a star system. Once Hal Jordan took him down, he decided that Guardians are not up to the job of bringing order and defeating crime in the Universe and swore to destroy the Green Lantern Corps and replace it with his own order. He has no problems teaming up with several DCUniverse villains and, in the end, created his own corps, openly acknowledging that most of its members are of the same kind as those he once fought. [[spoiler: When his daughter, Soranik Natu, had to become ruler of their native planet, Sinestro was more than interested if she is gonna follow the same path as him]].

* While Comicbook/{{Superman}} rarely comes close to this trope, he is very aware of it and {{lampshade|Hanging}}s it on several occasions, mostly in response to {{Anti Hero}}es who are just as bad as the villains they fight. He even occasionally criticizes his own actions in the newspapers as Clark Kent when he does veer dangerously close to this territory as Superman.

-->'''Superman''': I want the means to kill me to be in the hands of a man I trust with my life.

* Megatron in the [[TheTransformersIDW IDW comic books]] was this. He initially formed the Decepticons to try bringing equality and justice to Cybertron, the Cybertronian society having become so corrupt and fascistic that Autobot thugs freely handed out beatings to innocent Cybertronians for no reason and the Autobot senate's answer to dealing with peaceful protests was to have all of the protestors shot. However, over the course of four millenia of war, as well as the brutal things he did to gain power in the first place, he's become exactly the kind of heartless and vicious tyrant that he originally despised.

* {{Monstress}}'s Maika is constantly on the edge of this.

* ComicBook/ThePunisher from Creator/MarvelComics is often presented this way whenever he makes a guest appearance in more idealistic books like ''Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}'' or ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}''. However, in his own books, he's portrayed as a profoundly messed up individual, more tortured machine than man. (Although, the Punisher told Spidey ''to his face'' once that Spider-Man could have wound up the same and still could, ''especially'' if he didn't have super-powers; Spidey didn't get the point, as clear as it was.)

* In ''ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderSmokeAndShadow'', [[spoiler:Azula]] states that [[spoiler:her]] purpose is to be the monster that Zuko fights. Rather than becoming Fire Lord, [[spoiler:she]] will constantly threaten the Fire Nation and force Zuko to be more ruthless and authoritarian until he becomes the second coming of Ozai.

* In ''ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderSmokeAndShadow'', [[spoiler:Azula]] states that [[spoiler:her]] purpose is to be the monster that Zuko fights. Rather than becoming Fire Lord, [[spoiler:she]] will constantly threaten the Fire Nation and force Zuko to become more ruthless and authoritarian until he becomes the second coming of Ozai.

** [[AntiVillain Mr Freeze]] perfectly represents this fear and this trope in the animated series with the gusto he goes after those responsible for what happened to his wife, Nora. Freeze wants vengance at any and all costs.

* In ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' comics and especially [[Film/{{X-Men}} the movie trilogy]], {{SelfDemonstrating/Magneto}} - a survivor of the Holocaust - [[WellIntentionedExtremist is so determined to ensure that what happened to him never happens to his fellow mutants]] that he becomes increasingly xenophobic and genocidal towards unpowered humans, quite happy to wipe them out in order to ensure mutantkind's supremacy. Magneto ultimately winds up little better than those who prompted him to begin his fight.

** {{Storm}} once warned BlackPanther that he might turn out like Magneto, as like T'Challa, Magneto started off as a good man who only wanted to protect his people. She claimed that if T'Challa didn't ease up with his ruthless methods, he might one day become just as evil as the villains he faces.

* Reed Richards of the Comicbook/FantasticFour blatantly averts this trope when dealing with his ArchEnemy, DoctorDoom. To this day, he still doesn't outright hate Doom, no matter what horrible things Doom inflicts upon him. In fact, in one storyline where he was exceptionally pissed off, Reed told himself that he really had to kill Doom this time, only to break down in grief and pity when he confronted him, and wound up pleading with Doom to reform.

* ComicBook/ThePunisher from Creator/MarvelComics is often presented this way whenever he makes a guest appearance in more idealistic books like ''Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}'' or ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}''. However, in his own books, he's portrayed as a profoundly messed up individual, more tortured machine than man.

* In ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' comics and especially [[Film/{{X-Men}} the movie trilogy]], {{Magneto}} - a survivor of the Holocaust - [[WellIntentionedExtremist is so determined to ensure that what happened to him never happens to his fellow mutants]] that he becomes increasingly xenophobic and genocidal towards unpowered humans, quite happy to wipe them out in order to ensure mutantkind's supremacy. Magneto ultimately winds up little better than those who prompted him to begin his fight.

** This fear is what made him give a piece of kryptonite to Batman.

** Ozymandias could count toward this as well, seeing as [[spoiler: his solution to keep Russia and America from wiping each other out with nuclear strikes was to kill three million people before the missiles could be launched. Veidt strongly hints in his last conversation with Jon Osterman that he has nightmares of being taken into a ghost ship to be surrounded by murderers, in exactly the same manner as the ending to ''The Black Freighter.'']]

** Sinestro is this even more. To bring order to his planet, he turned it into a totalitarian regime, becoming the symbol of tyranny in a star system. Once Hal Jordan took him down, he decided that Guardians are not up to the job of bringing order and defeating crime in the Universe and swore to destroy the Green Lantern Corps and replace it with his own order. He has no problems teaming up with several DCUniverse villains and, in the end, created his own corps, openly acknowledging that most of its members are of the same kind as those he once fought. [[spoiler: When his daughter, Soranik Natu, had to become ruler of their native planet, Sinestro was more than interested if she is gonna follow the same path as him]].

* Rorschach from ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' describes this in great detail, recounting how he became a dark and gritty AntiHero first (though he had a violent childhood) by brutally taking out his anger and disgust on a [[spoiler:kidnapper who had butchered and fed a little girl to his dogs]] by [[spoiler:setting him and the entire building on fire with kerosene and watching ffrom afar for over an hour.]] It even affects Rorschach's psychologist. The chapter in which we learn this is even called "The Abyss Gazes Also" and ends with the Nietzsche quote above.

* In ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' comics and especially [[Film/{{X-Men}} the movie trilogy]], {{Magneto}} - a survivor of the Holocaust - [[WellIntentionedExtremist is so determined to ensure that what happened to him never happens to his fellow mutants]] that he becomes increasingly xenophobic and genocidal towards unpowered humans, quite happy to wipe them out in order to ensure mutantkind's supremacy, and ultimately winds up little better than those who prompted him to begin his fight.

* Rorschach from ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' describes this in great detail, recounting how he became a dark and gritty AntiHero first (though he had a violent childhood) by brutally taking out his anger and disgust on a [[spoiler:kidnapper who had butchered and fed a little girl to his dogs]] by [[spoiler:setting him on fire.]] It even affects Rorschach's psychologist. The chapter in which we learn this is even called "The Abyss Gazes Also" and ends with the Nietzsche quote above.

** Played for laughs in at least one comic where Batman is goaded by a serial killer he's just apprehended, who accuses him of being only hop, skip and jump away from this trope, and gloats that Batman must obviously feel the same bloodlust he does and it's only a matter of time before he snaps and gives into it. Batman calmly points out that if this is true, then his first victim is likely to be any serial killer who might happen to be standing next to him insulting him by calling him a bloodthirsty psychopath. The serial killer decides it might be [[ShuttingUpNow a good time to shut up.]]

** It's also why Batman so strictly adheres to ThouShaltNotKill: having that as a [[TheFettered line that he]] ''[[TheFettered never]]'' [[TheFettered crosses]] is a [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope barrier to slipping over the edge]] and becoming as much of a monster as the psychos he fights; he himself has stated that if he starts killing, he fears he won't be able to stop. Out of all his enemies, the Joker manages to be the one who makes him come very, '''very''' close to breaking his one rule...and that's because the Joker goes out of his way to make him break it.
*** Batman has had to be restrained more than once from killing the Joker in a few stories, like the ''[[ComicBook/BatmanHush Hush]]'' storyline when he thought the clown had murdered a childhood friend of his.

** It's also why Batman so strictly adheres to ThouShaltNotKill: having that as a [[TheFettered line that he]] ''[[TheFettered never]]'' [[TheFettered crosses]] is a [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope barrier to slipping over the edge]] and becoming as much of a monster as the psychos he fights. Out of all his enemies, the Joker manages to be the one who makes him come very, '''very''' close to breaking his one rule...and that's because the Joker goes out of his way to make him break it.

** {{Sinestro}} is this even more. To bring order to his planet, he turned it into a totalitarian regime, becoming the symbol of tyranny in a star system. Once Hal Jordan took him down, he decided that Guardians are not up to the job of bringing order and defeating crime in the Universe and swore to destroy the Green Lantern Corps and replace it with his own order. He has no problems teaming up with several DCUniverse villains and, in the end, created his own corps, openly acknowledging that most of its members are of the same kind as those he once fought. [[spoiler: When his daughter, Soranik Natu, had to become ruler of their native planet, Sinestro was more than interested if she is gonna follow the same path as him]].

** A fact that former Nazi Red Skull pointed out. [[ArsonMurderAndAdmiration It should be worth noting, though, that Red Skull was sincerely trying to praise Magneto.]] [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame He somehow didn't know that he was a Holocaust survivor.]]

*** Batman has had to be restrained more than once from killing the Joker in a few stories, like the Hush storyline when he thought the clown had murdered a childhood friend of his.

* ''ElfQuest'' has the Go-Backs as an example of a whole culture falling prey to this. All they wanted was to follow the call of the souls of their ancestors to the Palace of the High Ones, but the Frozen Mountain Trolls fought a war to keep them away from it. The Go-Backs didn't only grow into ruthless warriors, but also took up a habit of their enemies that disgusted even other trolls: eating the bodies of the enemies they killed in battle.

* In ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', Orion has killed {{Darkseid}} and became ruler of Apokolips. In order to maintain peace, he has to make many questionable choices and Superman notes that he is now more like his father than ever before.