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Dark Is Not Evil / Comic Books

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  • All-Star Squadron has the superhero Obsidian, son of the Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott. He had a Face–Heel Turn for a while, but he's back now.
  • Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld: House Onyx, like all the other houses, has good and evil members; their aesthetic is just dark.
  • Avengers: The Initiative: Trauma is a half-demon who can shapeshift into a person's worst fear, invoking responses that range from a freakout session (Armory and Cloud 9) to reliving one's worst personal shame (Yellowjacket) to ending up in a mental institute (Trauma's mother). That being said, Trauma himself is a pretty nice guy who seems to have found a calling in helping people overcome their fears.
  • In AXIS, a lot of the Marvel Universe's heroes and villains get Swapped Roles, so a few normally Jerkass or outright Dark Is Evil villains (known as the Astonishing Avengers) become this.
    • Most notable off the bat is Carnage, usually an Ax-Crazy Red and Black and Evil All Over Serial Killer monster, becomes a tragic Terror Hero filled with endless remorse who saves lives in New York even if he can't help killing crooks and scaring people in his desire to do good. This Carnage even pulls a Heroic Sacrifice wrapping himself around the Gene Bomb which would've killed anyone who wasn't a mutant.
    • Doctor Doom, usually a Anti-Villain or straight-up Tin Tyrant, becomes an incredibly humble and regretful man who makes a speech to the people of Latveria apologizing for how he has used and exploited them to serve his ego and tells his people he will make their country a democracy instead of dictatorship. He's still a Genius Bruiser with scary appearance and disfigured face, but utterly lacks his usual megalomania. He even resurrects Cassie Lang, who he killed in Avengers: The Children's Crusade, undoing his own Moral Event Horizon.
    • Sabretooth goes from very unpleasant Beast Man Jerkass to a still very unpleasant Beast Man Jerk with a Heart of Gold, who manages to stay as a Good Is Not Nice Anti-Hero long after the events of AXIS end, before eventually getting turned back into a gruesome villain again.
    • Mystique, normally a sadistic Dark Action Girl with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, becomes a still evil-looking All-Loving Hero and genuine Mama Bear who is filled with remorse for how many people she's hurt and does everything in her power to look after her now evil children Nightcrawler and Rogue.
    • Absorbing Man goes from The Brute to The Cape, still with his Bald of Evil appearance, but going around beating up criminals. Funnily enough, Creel's days as an Anti-Hero wouldn't end there, as seen in the more recent Immortal Hulk series.
    • Amora the Enchantress turns from an evil Vain Sorceress to a Femme Fatale-looking Magical Girl who hates the prospect of having to switch back to her "rotten self" when the inverted villains complete their mission.
    • The Hobgoblin and Jack 'O Lantern both become Creepy Good, with the former becoming a Tony Stark-like Jerk with a Heart of Gold Philanthropist who saves children (albeit in Attention Whore fashion).
    • Red Skull becomes White Skill, still a Skull for a Head scary looking man in a black trench coat, but a deeply remorseful character who ironically becomes close friends with old man Cap before getting reverted back to his red-headed horrible old Nazi self, though this was probably due to Charles Xavier regaining control.
  • Batman:
    • The Dark Knight himself is often one of the best barometers of what the writer wants you to think is morally acceptable in all of comicdom, despite his black clothing, bat-motif, and fear-based methods.
    • Batman's looks are lampshaded in Justice League/Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Zack and the other Rangers attack Batman due to the fact that despite being a good guy, he's a man dressed as a bat and looks scary as all hell. When everything is settled, Zack complains about how Batman looks despite being a good guy. The other Leaguers lightly rib on Bats for it.
    • The Hellbat Armour which Batman dons in the Batman and Robin series is this trope taken to its logical extreme. It looks straight-up evil and demonic◊ and can actually vampirically suck the lifeforce out of people. But since Batman uses it to mount a glorious One-Man Army siege on Apokolips to retrieve his son's body and resurrect him, it's more awesome than sinster.
    • Nightwing dresses in black (with either red or blue) but is a friendly Nice Guy. In fact, Dick's lighter personality is so clashing with The Cowl archetype that during his stint as Batman, Two-Face was able to figure out that he wasn't the original Dark Knight simply due to the fact that he was smiling while fighting crime.
    • Probably the most extreme example of this is Cassandra Cain as Batgirl. She's a former Tyke Bomb with a ridiculously tortured and abusive past, who wears a full-face mask that has strong BDSM overtones. However, she's also probably the kindest and most dedicatedly altruistic of all the Bat characters.
    • Jason Todd a.k.a. Red Hood has become this during transition from Fallen Hero (Post-Crisis) to Anti-Hero (New 52 and DC Rebirth). He's still a violent Gun Nut who likes to Pay Evil unto Evil, but he genuinely cares about protecting innocent life and does love his adoptive family. This best seen in the aforementioned Batman and Robin series, in which Jason selflessly joins Barbara and Tim in helping Bruce get Daimen's body back from Apokolips. Red Hood's Outlaws team, namely Artemis and Bizzaro, also fall under this.
    • Huntress is a zigzagging case of this. Despite her appearance, she is ultimately a good person and does plenty of heroics in the Birds of Prey comics, even acting as Cool Big Sis and Team Mom for the Bat-Family in some Post-Crisis comics. However, a lot of writers tend to nudge Helena into He Who Fights Monsters territory due to her willingness to kill criminals, which is something Batman and Barbara lambaste and demonize Helena for in-universe.
    • Catwoman overall is a case of this. While often self-motivated and has willingly worked alongside Ax-Crazy members of Batman's Rogues Gallery for the sake of getting rich, she will save innocent bystanders such as little children if they are caught up in the conflict and has helped Batman save all of Gotham on more than one occasion. Funnily enough, Selina's first appearance was a case of Dark Is Evil being a creepy and menacing cat-headed woman, it was only later on that she got the traditional Classy Cat-Burglar look and was made to be more of Anti-Hero thanks to her romance with Batman.
    • The Creeper is a yellow-skinned, green-haired giggling madman who looks eerily similar to the Joker and possesses a laugh terrifying enough to physically paralyze anyone who hears it. He's also one of Gotham City's vigilantes and was present alongside the other heroes who came to oppose Hush following Batman's death, described by Dick Grayson as "trusted allies sworn to preserving my father's legacy". (Depending on the Writer, the Creeper is often perfectly rational, but pretending to be insane because it scares the willies out of criminals; Batman himself uses a different approach, but to much the same end result.)
    • Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn become this in New 52 and DC Rebirth. They're still violent characters with Nightmare Fetishist streak who have few qualms about killing or dealing out Disproportionate Retribution, but now they are allies of the Bat-Family and Justice League who care about protecting the world from evil.
  • BIONICLE:
    • One of the only examples of this in the series is Takanuva after he survives a shadow leech attack. As for everything else, Greg Farshtey seems hell-bent on averting this trope.
    • In a literal sense, Onu-Matoran generally wear dark colored armor, live in nigh-unreachable caves and enjoy darkness, and some Earth Toa actually look pretty frightening (Onua with his humongous claws, likewise Nuparu, who also had a punk-themed mask decorated by spikes). Yet they're among the nicest of characters.
  • Eric Brooks a.k.a. Blade. Normally, the dude swinging a sword around who has the Sinister Shades, a goatee, a black trench coat and is British would be the bad guy. However, unless you're a vampire drinking the blood of innocents or your name is Morbius, Blade is a pretty chill guy who usually gets along well with Marvel's heroes. even if he much prefers his own company.
  • Natasha Romanov, a.k.a. Black Widow. Femme Fatale Spy? Check. Sinister arachnid theme? Check. Massive body count? Check. Morally dubious? Check. Villainess? Only in her initial appearances before a Heel–Face Turn. Nat is really a compassionate person when given the chance and spends most of her modern appearances fighting espionage as an Avenger. Her 2020 mini-series even reveals Nat to be an affectionate mother to her baby son Stevie whilst still making clear◊ how ruthless an assassin she is.
  • Played with regarding The Boys. In typical Garth Ennis manner, the titular heroes Billy Butcher, Mother's Milk, Frenchie, The Female and Hughie are dressed in black trenchcoats and are fighting againist the Bright Is Not Good Smug Super costumed heroes. However, by the end of the comic, Butcher becomes Dark Is Evil after having killed the main sadistic superpowered bastards of the world, leaving himself the only one left, and he goes on a killing spree of anyone who has taken Compund V, murdering his own teammates Mother's Milk, Frenchie and The Female before being put down by Hughie.
  • Captain America:
    • Bucky Barnes a.k.a. the Winter Soldier becomes this after being cured of his brainwashing. He's still a darkly dressed, long haired "emo assassin" with a robotic arm and a bitter personality due to years of Forced into Evil, but now is firmly on the side of good once again. Fittingly, Bucky isn't afraid to get his hands dirty in some wet works or just be put in morally dark situations as a hero that by comparison the more squeaky-clean Captain America wouldn't be placed in.
    • The image of the black-costumed and usually anti-heroish USAgent being able to wield Mjölnir in Journey into Mystery #83 is less surprising once you learn that it's actually Steve Rogers wearing John Walker's outfit.
    • USAgent is this in general. While he is a politically incorrect jerkass compared to Cap, he still fights on the side of good and has been on multiple Avengers teams.
  • Cloak and Dagger: Cloak, for all his broodiness, withdrawn nature, dark look, and overall intimidating manner, is really a nice guy once people get to know him.
  • The Crow, might as well as be the Trope Codifier for this. Eric looks an evil mime or the Joker going through his Goth phase, and with the sole exception of Sherri, he freaks everyone who meets him out. While he is a Terror Hero, given that his Back from the Dead Roaring Rampage of Revenge was triggered over some human garbage shooting him in the head and gang-raping his Too Good for This Sinful Earth fiancée Shelly before killing her, rooting for him is very easy.
  • Batman's Marvel counterpart, Daredevil, also counts. He dresses up like the devil and inspires tremendous fear in criminals due to his intense bravery and vicious fighting style but is a hero who stands up for the oppressed both as a hero and civilian and sacrifices himself for others on multiple occasions. Daredevil's on-and-off girlfriend Elektra at her best is also this, being an Anti-Hero — she even got her own devil costume after convincing Matt that her villain days are done.
  • In the 1997 Marvel mini-series Daydreamers, starring Franklin Richards post-Onslaught, a menacing figure made entirely of darkness pursues Franklin Richards and friends through realms of imagination. The dark being is just Franklin's pain and grief for losing his parents in the Onslaught'' crossover, and he just wants the boy to accept the fact instead of trying to supress it.
  • The DCU has a realm called the Great Darkness, which is sometimes referred to as the Darklands or Shadowlands. To make a long story short, when God said "Let there be light," this inadvertently created something called the Great Evil Beast, a creature composed of darkness and shadow on par with God itself. While this creature did go on something of a small rampage on account of not knowing its own nature, when it got to the gates of the Silver City, it merged with God to create a sort of yin-yang creature. However, the part of reality where it had formed was left over, and is called the Great Darkness. Many heroes and villains in the DCU make use of this realm and its power to manipulate shadow and create shadow constructs.
  • Deathlok the Demolisher is basically an undead cyborg whose face is no friendlier than his name. There are multiple versions, but they've all got that in common. They're also the good guys. The first version debuted in The '70s; we're talking long before The Dark Age of Comic Books and the heyday of the '90s Anti-Hero. He was far from what a good guy was expected to look like, and that was a selling point.
  • Doctor Strange:
    • Strange is a haughty, goateed sorcerer who often unleashes Lovecraftian Superpowers and taps into The Dark Arts, which — along with his occasional darker wardrobe — makes him look positively evil. However, Strange does truly care about saving innocent lives, cares deeply for his wife Clea and Wong and will do whatever it takes to protect humanity. He's saved the Marvel Universe from countless mystical threats that most other heroes would be hopeless against and even safeguards the fate of Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson when Mephisto bets that Peter will die. He's definitely a Big Good, though a Good Is Not Nice one.
    • Kaluu, an Evil Sorcerer and one-time foe of Strange, accompanies him on a mission to defeat the dark magic Strange had inadvertently loosed in the world. Over the course of their misadventure Strange was forced to admit that Kaluu was also a hero working on the side of good, even though his pragmatism and readiness to sacrifice some to save others bothered him.
  • Etrigan is basically the embodiment of this trope. He's a demon from hell, but he's still a good guy... sometimes. It might be more accurate to say that he often falls into a kind of a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation with the actual "good guys", and that they sometimes have compatible goals... in the short term, at least. His animated adaptions are a much straighter example.
  • In the Adventures in Olympus arc of Flare, Aphrodite tells Pan that "Nyx is not evil. But she does hate Eos."
  • The Ghost Rider is a burning skeleton riding a motorcycle made of hellfire. He's also the hero of his story, and in one storyline is actually revealed to be an angel.
  • The Shadowdog from Hellblazer was the Guardian Entity that protected humanity from The Beast by attacking its human hosts (who were already dead due to the possession) before it could drive all mankind mad. Due to its fearsome appearance, its violent methods of dealing with the Beast's hosts, and the fact that it always showed up whenever the Beast started causing strife, people wrongly believed the Shadowdog was the threat.
  • Hellboy: This quote is from the end of the movie, not the comic book, but it applies:
    "What makes a man a man? A friend of mine once asked. It's the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he finishes them."
    • Not that it's especially easy to find any actual light-aligned entities in his setting, and he tends to slaughter the dark ones he meets with extreme prejudice, although since he finds them by following the bodies there's a certain sampling bias and if it's not a whole army of skeletons or similar he treats folks like folks... mostly. But, as an Anti-Anti-Christ, he's trope-worthy for sure.
  • The very, VERY obscure comic Hybrid has Nocturns.
  • The Incredible Hulk:
    • The Hulk is a terrifying green rage monster, feared and hated by most of the MU for being a Person of Mass Destruction. In actuality, Hulk is a big Bruiser with a Soft Center and has helped saved the world from multiple massive threats like Onslaught and Xemnu.
    • Grey Hulk a.k.a. Joe Fixit (a persona of Hulk's Split Personality) is a malcious, scummy, tommy-gun-toting professional Las Vegas mob enforcer and who, while smart, is pretty much The Brute. However, Joe has served on the second Fantastic Four and Took a Level in Kindness in the Immortal Hulk series, helping to save the day from General Ripper Fortean and the One Below All while still being somewhat of a sleazy mobster. The same comic explains that Joe comes from Bruce watching a Film Noir as a kid after getting beaten by his father and created Joe as his idea of an adult: someone who talks tough and cracks wise but will kick the ass of anyone who deserves it.
    • Devil Hulk is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: a demonic creepy Hulk persona that only comes out at night, has creepy glowing eyes, weaponized Body Horror and does plan to end the entire world. However, Immortal Hulk shows that he's really a Terror Hero who does care about innocent life, growling at a bystander woman during his fight with Abomination: "Well, what are you waiting for? A third monster? Move it, lady!". Devil Hulk also genuinely loves Bruce and Green Savage Hulk and is fiercely protective of them, being the subconscious caring father figure Bruce always wanted.
    • Betty Ross has become this of late, namely in her Red She-Hulk and Red Harpy forms. She has red skin, wears black, and has a cruel and violent temperament. When she first appeared as Red She-Hulk and her identity was a mystery, she was a straight-up Dark Action Girl, but in later comics, Betty becomes an Anti-Hero and (as Red Harpy) a Creepy Good Humanoid Abomination like Devil Hulk who protects her husband when the Avengers grab the Conflict Ball.
    • Downplayed with Red Hulk a.k.a. Thaddeus Ross. He's a big red bully with a chip on his shoulder, but regardless, he still fulfills the position of The Big Guy among the Avengers during Bendis's run and at his best becomes a case of Affably Evil. Even when he's Red Venom Ghost Rider, Ross is still technically a hero since his opponent at the time is Blackheart.
    • Hulk's son Skaar has long, black, matted hair, black, jagged torso markings, and wields a nasty-looking sword. He even starts off as a villain before reconciling with his father Bruce and becomes The Mole and Token Good Teammate of the Dark Avengers.
    • Amazingly, both Carl "Crusher" Creel/Absorbing Man and his wife Mary MacPherran/Titania become this in Gamma Flight, despite spending the previous decades as major thorns in the sides of Marvel's heroes and working for Doctor Doom. They turn over a new leaf in Immortal Hulk upon coming to the conclusion that Good Feels Good and actually help Hulk fight against his father Brian Banner, who is the avatar of the One Below All, as well as save the world from Dario Agger's Eldritch Abominations. They're still brutish and jerky, but are firmly on the side on the angels.
  • Invincible:
    • Cecil Stedman is a typical man in black working for The Government who makes many morally questionable choices and has an ugly scar on his face. However, Cecil is remarkably caring, looking after Debbie's livelihood after her husband Nolan reveals his world-conquering plans, and despite his jerky qualities, he does provide aid to Mark and the rest of the heroes whenever he can.
    • Monster Girl. In her transformed state, she's a horrible ogre-like muscular creature, but she's really a good person and hero, being as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside when not transformed.
    • Mark Grayson, the titular Invincible himself, becomes this later on. Even his second costume is black and blue, Nightwing-style, and as the stakes get higher and higher, he is prepared to deal out brutal violence to protect his loved ones and innocent people, which usually ends with him getting covered in blood. He's still The Cape, but one who will headbutt a Galactic Conqueror's face into a bloody pulp to save the day.
  • Iron Man:
    • War Machine, whose armor is gray and black and packs lots of guns, but is piloted by the decent and disciplined LCOL James Rhodes.
    • In fact, Iron Man himself is capable of going kinda dark in storylines like Armor Wars, or keeping some pretty harmful secrets from the others, while Rhodey can be his conscience and voice of reason. War Machine is The Cape at times when his red-clad partner is being The Cowl.
    • Tony's Model 42 Powered Armor is mostly black and has red eye lights. Looks pretty evil but it was actually the armour Tony primarily used when he was being The Atoner as well as when he was The Leader of the Avengers during AXIS. When hit with Doctor Doom and Scarlet Witch's inversion spell, Tony has a Evil Costume Switch into the Endo-Sym Armor, which is Light Is Not Good.
  • Lady Death wears black and is a goddess of Hell. While she did start out as a villain but evolved into an antihero over time. Her Cross Gen incarnation is easily the most heroic and sympathetic take on the character.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes:
    • Shadow Lass can create fields that block out all light, and she's a superhero.
    • Night Girl has strength roughly equal to a Kryptonian, but only in the dark. In light, she's a regular girl, but she's a superhero.
  • Martian Manhunter: Miss Martian's true White Martian form is just as hideous and fearsome as any other White Martian, but she's actually a good person who wants to help and protect people.
  • Marvel Comics' Daimon Hellstrom, the Son Of Satan, is the Half-Human Hybrid son of one of the Lords of Hell who wields a Devilish Pitchfork and calls upon the fires of Hell in battle, is perpetually clad in either black leather and chains or a High Collar of Doom, and has a pentagram emblazoned on his chest. He's also an Anti-Anti-Christ who has served on various superhero teams such as The Defenders and the Midnight Sons.
  • The Mighty Thor: In Thor: God of Thunder (2012), the titular Prince of Asgard during the Final Battle absorbs Gorr's weapon All-Black the Necrosword into his body and looks pretty scary◊. But even with the dark makeover Thor is still the heroic God of Thunder and uses All-Black for good, defeating Gorr with its power amping his own.
  • Mistress Death is a necessity for the Marvel Universe if not the Marvel Multiverse. It's just that her "boyfriend" Thanos takes things a tad too far. Take her out of the equation, and you're gonna have problems. Cancerverse-sized problems.
  • Morbius Depending on the Writer is either this or a Tragic Monster despite being a vampire (a science one) he is fully capable of heroics and has aided the Midnight Sons as a Terror Hero however his bloodlust is so uncontrollable he tends to backslide into the villain role especially when up against Spider-Man or Blade. It’s important to note Morbius himself doesn’t want to be evil at all and is constantly looking for a cure for his condition which makes him quite The Woobie.
  • Subverted in Powers with Queen Noire. Although a good guy, the source of her powers certainly isn't, which then proceeds to kill her entire team and then some.
  • Project Superpowers: Black Terror wears a black costume with a skull and crossbones logo. He is still a good guy.
  • The Punisher is an Anti-Hero example who only kills bad guys and he has black clothes with a skull... Depending on the Writer. Oftentimes, it's pretty clear that he's a psychopath who is only conveniently aimed at people that are (usually) worse than he is. Unsurprisingly, 90% of Marvel's heroes can't stand him. Overall, Frank shows that while Anti-Heroes fight vileness, they often aren't any less vile themselves.
  • Runaways: Nico Minoru is fond of wearing black, homemade "goth" outfits, is the daughter of supervillains, has to cut herself to use her black magic powers, and would be pretty scary... if it weren't for fact the fact that she starts out as a Perky Goth Ordinary High-School Student (albeit one who hardens as time goes on), wasn't the Team Mom, and wasn't very committed to doing good in order to counteract the mess her parents' supervillainy caused in LA.
  • The Sandman (1989)'s Death of the Endless, or, for that matter, Dream of the Endless, though Dream can be kind of a jerk when he doesn't get his way. Technically speaking, they're cases of Above Good and Evil in the grand scheme of things, but there's plenty of occasions when both Death and Dream express their distaste for real evil and do genuinely care about the innocent.
  • The "Nega-Scott" in Scott Pilgrim does look like an evil doppelganger of the title character, but he's got a much bigger and more significant purpose than that. He's a manifestation of all the mistakes that Scott has made and is meant to make Scott learn from said mistakes to become a better person. As such, Nega-Scott is absorbed into Scott so that he could make a better influence on his girlfriend and his other friends.
  • The Shade, one-time villain of the Golden Age Flash. He ended up as a mentor to Jack Knight, a.k.a. the hero Starman, so the Shade probably counts for this trope. He gained his power during a human-sacrifice-demon-summoning Gone Horribly Wrong (or Right, depending on how you interpret the vague hints) in Victorian England that killed 104 people. Shade is probably far and away the most powerful of any of the DC characters that draw power from the Great Darkness, as not only is he ageless and immortal, but he has far more control over his shadow abilities and can directly travel between normal reality and the Great Darkness at will. Notably, he's been said to be capable of standing up to The Spectre (also known as the physical personification of the Wrath of God) and at one point, a future incarnation was able to transport Jack Knight centuries and light-years across time and space.
  • The Shadow (including his previous magazine/radio series before his comics) is most certainly the Ur-Example having helped inspire Batman’s creators and The Cowl concept in general. He was designed from the outset to be a hero with traits usually reversed for a villain. Modern writers have a lot fun reapplying the Shadow compared to the standards of comic heroes today, in particular even Batman in their crossover Batman/Shadow: The Murder Geniuses finds the Shadow’s methods concerning Pay Evil unto Evil utterly horrifying. Shadow while chiding the Dark Knight for merely acting dark as he spares villains still considers Bruce part of his Dark Is Not Evil Vigilante Man legacy.
  • Shadowpact:
    • Blue Devil, especially after a Deal with the Devil turned him into an actual devil and he obtained a powerful Evil Weapon. He's still a superhero and a devoted churchgoer even though being in a church literally burns his flesh. Somewhat deconstructed when he learned that he had received a place in Hell's hierarchy as a Rhyming Devil because his heroic deeds have given Hell good publicity — he's made Hell "cool".
    • Nightshade has shadow powers she inherited from her mother Maureen, the queen of the Nightshade dimension.
    • Ragman can take souls but only from villains. If they atone for their crimes, Ragman releases them.
    • This was actually the source of conflict between the above mentioned three members and a superhero team known as the Congregation.
      Ragman: But we're the good guys!
      Congregation member: A demon from hell, a notorious soul-stealer and a witch who conjures living darkness? Don't make me laugh!
      Congregation member: It's plainly obvious you're foul to the bone.
  • Spawn is an Anti-Hero with demonic powers and a horrifying origin. He is deliberately contrasted with the Redeemers, villains with angelic powers. One of them is his Arch-Enemy Jason Wynn, and he is as vile as they come.
  • Spider-Man:
    • Zigzagged with Spidey in his iconic black Symbiote Suit which was a historic departure from his usual primary red and blue. Originally this was played straight when he first picked it up in Battle World it was just an extra cool suit that could provide its own webbing and shapechange and Peter was no less heroic when he wore it. It was only after Peter rejected the poor thing when he learned it was alive and it bonded with Eddie (see below) that it became Dark Is Evil instead (before Eddie and the Symbiote own’s eventual Heel–Face Turn). Adaptations however starting with Spider-Man: The Animated Series and followed by Spider-Man 3, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 make the suit a Superpowered Evil Side for Peter. When Spidey bonded with it again in the comics it was against the unmistakably evil Red Goblin ultimately playing this straight.
      • Played straighter with the cloth version of the black suit seen in Kraven's Last Hunt, the Firelord fight and Back in Black Spidey is just as heroic though it’s often a clear visual indicator events will be far Darker and Edgier than the usual lighthearted crimefighting affair.
    • Black Cat is a case of this, especially given that her long-standing love interest Spidey is a Primary-Color Champion, so Felicia looks like a villain in comparison. She was actually a villain initially, but even then, she just broke the law to free her father from prison and in later comics actually helps Spidey fight crime. When Dan Slott turned Felicia into a genuine villain during his tenure, the outcry from fans was clear and one of the first things to be undone when Nick Spencer took over.
    • Nightwatch wears an all-black costume, but is otherwise heroic.
    • Spider-Man Noir being a Film Noir pulp hero is The Cowl in a black Badass Longcoat and a Superhero Packing Heat. This version of Peter is most certainly an Anti-Hero who kills his villains and isn’t particularly friendly or nice unlike mainstream Peter who’s an All-Loving Hero. However thanks to a more heroic portrayal in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse later Noir Spider-Man comics made him more a Knight in Sour Armour instead.
    • Hobbie Brown aka The Prowler looks sinister but is The Cowl and has aided Spidey and other street heroes. His Ultimate Marvel version however, Aaron Davis uncle of Miles... not so much.
    • Spider-Man 2099 aka Miguel O’Hara is a case of this. He’s got a more sinister outfit than Peter and has vampiric traits such as fangs and sometimes feral white eyes. Regardless he’s still a hero (albeit an edgy one) whom was even worthy of wielding Mjölnir and in many ways just as much The Cape as Peter himself. Though granted putting Miguel in an antagonistic role for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse took little work.
    • Spider-Gwen usually a case of Light Is Good gets De Powered and forced to use her version of the Venom Symbiote which makes her very scary looking but she’s still as heroic and compassionate as ever. She uses the shapeshifting abilities of the Symbiote to appear in her usual white hoodie suit though.
    • Kaine Parker aka Scarlet Spider, is a Anti-Hero Substitute compared to Peter his originator but thanks to Character Development he’s become an actual hero though he still wears a menacing black and red variant of the Spider-Man suit and has Punisher-level brutality towards villains.
  • Spider-Woman: The Shroud is a a dark and brutal vigilante, wearing all black and having the power to generate darkness thanks to a connection to the Darkforce, but he is ultimatly on the side of good.
  • Swamp Thing:
    • Swamp Thing overlaps with Creepy Good. He looks like the standard Nightmare Fuel horror film monster and is totally prepared to rip a man to shreds using vines, but he's actually a Friend to All Living Things and protecter of the innocent. As a Mysterious Waif accruately and poetically puts it in her thought boxes as Swamp Thing saves her from albino crocodiles in "Roots of Terror":
      There are monsters on this side too. Souls so broken, guardians at the gates that deny themselves their piece of Heaven to wage war on Hell.
    • The Rot was originally treated as a dark force of evil. It's really just the natural force of death and decay which is vital to the cycle of life but was corrupted by Anton Arcane. Abigail Arcane, Alec Holland and Swamp Thing's love is able to use it as a force of good again.
  • Teen Titans: Raven has darkness based powers, and a Dark and Troubled Past, but is at heart a hero — unless she's in one of her "daddy's girl" phases, which unfortunately happens a lot.
  • From the story "Our Neighbor's House" in the anthology Through the Woods, there is a man with a wide-brimmed hat and toothy smile begins haunting three young sisters several days after their father fails to return from hunting. From what little is shown of him, he is dressed entirely in black, including his hat. The middle sister and viewpoint character, Beth, fears him because he seems to leave no trace in the snow outside and both of her sisters mysteriously vanish after encountering him. It's fairly strongly implied that he's actually The Grim Reaper, come to take the girls into the afterlife after they die during the blizzard. Furthermore, if he is Death then he's a fairly kind reaper; both Mary and Hannah say kind words about him, and are cheered by his presence, and furthermore he is seen tenderly hugging Hannah when he takes her. Beth is afraid of him and tries to flee from him, but she seems to accept him when they meet at the neighbor's house, possibly symbolizing her accepting that she's dead and is now able to reunite with her dead family.
  • Thunderbolts: The Thunderbolts were initially a team of "fake good" villains orchestrated by the second Zemo to fill the void after Avengers were presumed dead, but after Zemo's plan was foiled, the Thunderbolts have become a more virtuous team who has been led by the likes of Hawkeye, Luke Cage, and the Winter Soldier. Even some of their members such Mockingbird have turned from villains to genuinely compassionate heroes.
  • Ultimate X Men: Colossus' primary costume color is black, unlike regular Colossus, who falls under Red Is Heroic.
  • The Umbrella Academy are a grand display of this. Most of their costumes are dark, they have Good Is Not Nice and Good Is Not Soft tendencies, and at the end of the second comic arc, they assassinate JFK (albeit under threat from the Time Police). Out of the siblings, the ones who most embody this are Klaus a.k.a. Seance, a pale-skinned weirdo who can talk and raise the dead but at worst is a snarky Jerk with a Heart of Gold and who in the first comic series saves the day with his Psychic Powers, and Five, a Creepy Child (actually a 60-something old man stuck in a 10-year-old body) and Sociopathic Hero who despite his behaviour does care about saving the world. Then there's their fallen brother Ben a.k.a. the Horror, who had a disturbing Lovecraftian Superpower but was undeniably The Cape and easily the nicest member of the family.
  • Vampirella is not only a heroic vampire, she is the daughter of Lilith, who is the ruler of a section of Hell. Her ally, Pantha also qualifies as a dark-skinned woman who can shapeshift into a black panther.
  • Venom: The Venom symbiote is a black Blob Monster that takes the form of a twisted version of Spider-Man's costume, plus a huge maw full of razor-sharp fangs (usually, anyway). Various incarnations have been all over the alignment grid, but some versions have been genuinely heroic - the most notable being Flash Thompson, Agent Venom, who kept the symbiote under control as much as possible and barely let it eat anyone, eventually finding a way to at least temporarily purge it of its wrath. (It didn't last, because Status Quo Is God, but it was worth a shot.) Mostly averted by the rest of the Symbiote race — it is noted that Venom is one of the nicest ones. Justified since the Symbiotes are a Living Weapon race created by a primordial god of darkness who wants to wipe out all life and other gods in existence.
  • Played with in V for Vendetta with its titular character V. While a self-proclaimed villain who wears black and wields knives and is by all accounts a murdering terrorist, V is still ultimately The Cowl who is taking vengeance upon the fascist Neo-Nazi British government Norsefire. Nonetheless, in typical Alan Moore fashion, exactly how heroic and righteous V is (much like Rorschach below) is up for debate, given the anarchist damage V creates and what Evey gets put through by them.
  • In the comic version of Winx Club, a witch named Shilly is convinced by the Trix to make a love potion to break up Stella and Brandon (since the Trix were still going through their awkward "we want to be bad guys but aren't quite sure how" phase at this point). Once she realizes how miserable Stella is without Brandon (who has consequently fallen for her, due to the potion), she and Bloom make an antidote to the potion. She ended up being friendly with the Winx since then, though she didn't get that much face time after that story.
  • Watchmen: Rorschach at his best is this. He's a Unscrupulous Hero and brutally violent Vigilante Man in a trenchcoat and mask who has a bad case of Black-and-White Insanity and is pretty much detested by everyone who meets him (with the sole exception of Nite Owl II) for his horrible demeanor and even less pleasant views on humanity, yet he still utterly cares for innocent civilians, especially children, and will do anything to make sure that child-killers and sex offenders get what's coming to them. This sets him apart from Hidden Villain Ozymandias, who is Light Is Not Good, having all the positives traits Rorschach lacks (attractiveness, politeness and wisdom) but unlike Rorschach inhumanly treats three million innocent lives as merely a necessary statistic to achieve peace and build his False Utopia upon.
  • Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Persephone, dread Queen of Hades and the dead, is a rather compassionate and loving individual in most contexts who just happens to wear dark, spiked armor, a helm that brings a skull to mind and deeply love the morally questionable Hades. Despite this no one is foolish enough to casually call her by name, even her own mother addresses her as Kore; the name Persephone is for her King or her subjects and her subjects are dead.
  • X-Men:

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