Marvel Universe
Heel–Face Turn in this franchise. open/close all folders
Comic Books
Comic Books
The following have their own pages:
- This is so common for The Avengers that it's been lampshaded. We have (among others) Hawkeye, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, The Vision, Namor, and Red Hulk, each of whom started off as villains before reforming and joining the team.
- Around the time of Siege, Hank Pym tries to recruit Loki by citing the large number of former villains who ended up as members of the Avengers. This prompts a What the Hell, Hero? from the rest of the team, since Loki is the fricking Norse god of evil.
- Amusingly enough given the above, the original Loki was killed during Siege, and his later incarnations have attempted a Heel–Face Turn. One did in fact join the Young Avengers.
- And since that time, though it's been a bumpy road where he's had some setbacks, he has continued to try and turn over a new leaf. Escaping the role of villain has become his primary motivation the past several years, though he felt as if he is being prevented by fate from accomplishing that. But recently, it appears he may have finally succeeded, and though he was actually shooting for a more gray area Anti-Hero thing, he seems to have over-shot. He made a deal with Iron Man to join the Avengers.... if he was able to lift Mjolnir. Tony of course was not expecting Loki to be able to do so, except Loki was actually able to lift it, so Avengers time it is, deal's a deal. He just needs to get the hammer back from Thor to actually show them. It also looks like he may be Thor's replacement as hero of the realms, now that Thor's become King of Asgard. Pym was actually on to something, it turns out. (though Pym himself then went on to do a massive Face–Heel Turn.)
- Around the time of Siege, Hank Pym tries to recruit Loki by citing the large number of former villains who ended up as members of the Avengers. This prompts a What the Hell, Hero? from the rest of the team, since Loki is the fricking Norse god of evil.
- Spider-Man:
- Venom is a classic case of a Heel Face Turn to create an "edgier" hero. Also because Venom — created and illustrated by Todd McFarlane — was, for a time, considerably more popular than Spider-Man himself, being a giant, hulking, over-designed monster with zero qualms about killing. Quintessential '90s anti-hero, essentially. Flash Thompson and Eddie Brock in his second tenure as Venom have been flat-out heroes, but still lack qualms about being more brutal than conventional superheroes.
- The Rhino eventually went legit, turning himself in, serving his time, and getting released on good behavior before settling down with a doting Russian woman. It lasted all of one more appearance. The new evil Rhino killed his wife, sending him on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. He put the costume back on, killed the new Rhino, and is back as a villain.
- Back in the 1980s, the Sandman got sick of crime and went straight. He actually joined the Avengers for a while. That lasted a good twenty years, real-world time. Then his old teammate the Wizard stuck him in a machine and brainwashed him to be evil again. Sigh.
- In Last Remains, Norman Osborn goes through this as a result of Kindred's influence and becomes The Atoner. How long this will last has yet to be seen, but he decides to become the "Gold Goblin".
- Overdrive from The Superior Foes of Spider-Man is smart enough that this trope is his entire reason for being a costumed villain. He grew up as a young boy who idolized superheroes, and reasoned that the quickest way to become an Avenger would be to start off as a villain and then eventually reform and fight alongside his childhood heroes.
- Ultimate Marvel:
- Ultimate X Men:
- Wolverine has a Heel Face Turn moment when he joins/infiltrates the X-Men to terminate Xavier... and then ends up believing in Xavier's cause and becoming a rather strong supporter.
- Toad eventually turned his back on the Brotherhood and became a teacher at the Xavier Institute after Cyclops disbanded the X-Men.
- Ultimate Spider-Man: After getting arrested twice, Bombshell was given a third chance to have a normal life. She is unwilling to continue her life of crime and begs Peter to keep her powers a secret from the other students.
- Ultimate X Men:
Films
Films
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- In Iron Man, Tony Stark sums up his new change in direction to Obadiah when he chews him out for shutting down the weapons enterprise of Stark Industries;Tony: We're not doing good enough, we can do better, we can do something else.
- Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) starts out as Thanos' adopted daughter and his closest confidante, de facto making her one of the biggest villains in the series. But her interactions with the rest of the Guardians influence her to switch sides.
- In Avengers: Age of Ultron, after Wanda Maximoff reads the subconscious thoughts of Ultron through the Vision's body while Ultron is Brain Uploading himself into it, she finds out his plan to annihilate mankind, and quickly changes sides along with her brother Pietro Maximoff.
- In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Nebula struggles with joining the Guardians and ends the film on their side, but leaves to continue her crusade against Thanos. In Avengers: Infinity War she is fully on the heroes' side, even going as far as to find the Guardians and tell them what happened.
- In the climax of Thor: Ragnarok, Loki returns to Asgard with a big spaceship to evacuate the surviving Asgardians instead of running off. At the end of the movie, he still stays at Thor's side. In Avengers: Infinity War, Loki declares himself an Odinson before sacrificing his own life to save his brother from Thanos.
- Avengers: Endgame: The alternate past's Gamora does this, helping Nebula escape and fight against Thanos. In contrast to the alternate Nebula, whose craving for Thanos' approval makes her unable to comprehend that she can change for the better, all it takes for Gamora to change sides is Nebula saying that they have become sisters in the future. It also results in Redemption Earns Life; when Tony uses the Infinity Gauntlet to snap Thanos' entire army into nonexistence, Gamora is the only one who is spared.
- In Eternals, Ikaris fights the other Eternals to ensure the Emergence comes to pass, but he ultimately can't bring himself to kill Sersi and links up with the Uni-Mind to stop Tiamut.
- In Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Darren Cross, Big Bad of the first film now turned into the creature called M.O.D.O.K., instantly switches sides when, of all things, Cassie tells him "Don't be a dick", and he dies fighting Kang.
- In Iron Man, Tony Stark sums up his new change in direction to Obadiah when he chews him out for shutting down the weapons enterprise of Stark Industries;
- X-Men Film Series
- In The Wolverine, Harada switches allegiance from Ichirō Yashida as 'the head of the Yashia family' to Mariko, who was named the head after Ichirō's faked death.
- X-Men: Days of Future Past:
- Magneto seems to have made the turn between X-Men: The Last Stand and his cameo appearance at the end of The Wolverine, because in this movie, Future Magneto is firmly on Professor X's side throughout and ultimately makes a Heroic Sacrifice against the Sentinels during the climax.
- Mystique eventually decides to give up her vendetta against Trask to prevent future bloodshed against Mutants. She also saves Nixon and his cabinet from Magneto.
- X-Men: Apocalypse: In the new timeline, Magneto turns against Apocalypse when he realizes that the people he's currently targeting (Mystique and Professor X) are the only loved ones he has left. Storm also makes one when Apocalypse begins attacking Mystique, her idol.
Live-Action TV
Live-Action TV
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. excellently subverts this. After being revealed as a HYDRA agent and killing several people, Grant Ward starts off Season 2 claiming to be making amends and clearly thinking he'll be accepted. However, it's soon made clear the team are never going to forgive him for what he did and thus his turn never takes (in large part because Ward's actual motives don't really seem to be all that pure anyway).
Western Animation
Western Animation
- Rogue in X-Men: Evolution. She initially joined the Brotherhood of Mutants, but left to join the X-Men after finding out that they recruited her to be a potential weapon. The episode in which she does this is one long Crowning Moment of Awesome for her.
