10 Best Evil Versions Of Famous Heroes

The idea of an evil version of a popular hero is a time-honored tradition in movies and TV, with many standout examples over the years. Some of the most famous protagonists of all time have had a dastardly body double, with the concept being a well-worn trope for many years from sources as early as the Silver Age comics of the 1940s. Not every attempt at manifesting a villainous reflection of a staple hero has gone well, but just as many have become top contenders for the evil hall of fame.

There are a variety of vectors by which evil versions of popular heroes can be introduced into a franchise. Evil clones, variants from alternate timelines, robotic duplicates, or even simply the normal character going off the deep end with a villainous arc are all valid choices, and the best dark reflections of popular heroes use them to varying degrees. There’s a reason that the trope of the evil counterpart isn’t likely to go away any time soon.

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10

Goku Black

Dragon Ball Super

Anime franchises have also latched on to the concept of an evil duplicate quite vociferously, as demonstrated by one of the most iconic anime series of all time, Dragon Ball. As such a kind, pure-hearted hero, it’s difficult to even imagine an antagonistic version of Goku, who has become an icon and inspiration to fans all over the world. Yet in Dragon Ball Super, the series manages to weaponize the beloved martial artist’s image via Goku Black.

The tyrant known as Goku Black is an alternate timeline version of the Dragon Ball series’ Zamasu, a Kai, supreme beings that rule over a designated quadrant of their home universe. Using the Super Dragon Balls to swap bodies with the mighty Goku, whose strength rivaled even the Supreme Kai, Zamasu officially became Goku Black, beginning his genocidal plan to create a “beautiful utopia” of a universe free of mortal life. With his signature pink and black Ki and deadly techniques like Black Kamehameha or Sickle of Sorrow, Goku Black quickly became one of the strongest Dragon Ball villains ever.

9

Dark Willow

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

In many cases, more popular than Buffy herself, Willow Rosenberg is a fan-favorite member of Buffy’s “Scooby Gang”, her team of teenagers who frequently aid her in her never-ending battle against supernatural forces. Eventually becoming a powerful magician, Willow is one of the few members of the Scooby Gang who can hold her own in dangerous situations on the same level that Buffy can, making her a potent ally. More of a socially awkward girl-next-door compared to Buffy, Willow’s dark side is eventually unleashed in season 6 of the series.

Dark Willow comes out when Willow begins to become addicted to magic use, abusing her talents to delve into increasingly darker forms of spellcasting. The death of her romantic interest, Tara, is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, causing Willow to officially lose herself to a ferocious, malicious, and just as powerful persona. Nearly summoning an apocalypse that destroys the Earth, Dark Willow is one of the most compelling arcs in the later seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

8

Evil Ash

Army of Darkness

The Deadites of the Evil Dead series fame are capable of appearing in a wide variety of forms, from possessed human corpses to twisted, gnarled monsters. It’s no wonder that one of the spirits is eventually able to assume the form of the protagonist himself, Ash Williams, in Army of Darkness. During his quest to recover the Book of the Dead, Ash finds himself supernaturally cloned by the machinations of the book, resulting in an evil version of himself that prances around, hurling insults and injuries.

Though Ash is initially able to overcome his doppelgänger with a faceful of buckshot, his twisted visage rises from the Earth once more to attack his good counterpart. Not only that, but Evil Ash has the ability to command vast legions of undead foot soldiers, laying siege to the medieval castle Ash had been temporarily calling home. Whether he looks like a carbon copy of Bruce Campbell or a twisted necromancer warlord clad in bony armor, Evil Ash is one of the series’ most powerful Deadite foes.

7

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Owlman

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

No series has relied as heavily on the idea of evil versions of famous superheroes as DC Comics, a universe which boasts multiple evil versions of its famous heroes. The animated film Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths explores the idea of a topsy-turvy universe in which the Justice League is instead a global crime syndicate made up of analogous versions of the original recipe, with Batman analogue Owlman being by far the most interesting. Like Batman, Owlman has no real superpowers, instead relying on gadgets and trickery to enact his profane goals.

It’s revealed that Owlman’s goal reaches far beyond petty crime, wanting to extinguish human life in all universes to end the chaos of the multiverse. His speech professing as much, calling his decision “the only choice that matters“, is one of the most chilling confrontations in DC’s lengthy animated history. Such a nihilistic foil to Batman is an endlessly fascinating character, nevertheless defeated by his heroic counterpart.

6

Bizarro

Superman & Lois

Batman isn’t the only member of the world’s finest to have a famous evil body double. Though Ultraman is actually Superman’s equivalent in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, his infinitely more famous evil clone, Bizarro, is a much more interesting case study. Perhaps the best live-action version of Bizarro is that of Superman & Lois, which recently released its final season.

Here, Bizarro is quite comic-accurate, with his pale, geometric face, backwards “S” symbol, and odd inversions of Superman’s powers like frosty eye-beams or the ability to belch fire. After leaving his home reality of Inverse World, Bizarro is trapped on Superman’s Earth, his rage and frustration gradually being built upon. Superman & Lois made the daring choice to merge his character into that of the famous Kryptonian-killing monster, Doomsday, thanks to experimentation by Lex Luthor.

5

Evil Bill And Ted

Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey

The Wyld Stallyns may not seem like a particularly heroic duo at first glance, but that doesn’t stop them from having some of the most memorable evil counterparts in movie history. In Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, the dastardly future villain and former gym teacher Chuck De Nomolos hopes to thwart the perfect utopia created by Bill and Ted’s music by sending two evil robot duplicates of them to the past to kill them. Simply known as Evil Bill & Ted, this cybernetic duo nearly brings about the premature breakup of the Wyld Stallyns.

Despite being machines, Evil Bill and Ted have adopted many of the hilarious mannerisms of their original models, their lackadaisical vocabulary and jargon almost being funnier when said in the context of an evil plan. Ted’s robotic counterpart stating he has a “full-on robot chubby” when seeing a picture of the real Ted’s girlfriend is one of the funniest beats of the film. But the clear acrylic skulls of the robots’ true form is surprisingly unsettling as well, making the pair of villains great for balancing the fine line between funny and threatening.

4

X-24

Logan

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Ending Hugh Jackman’s long journey as Wolverine before being literally dug out from his grave in Deadpool & Wolverine, Logan is a beautiful conclusion to the mutant hero’s arc in the original Fox X-Men movie timeline. Part of what makes the film work so well as a character study is the fact that Logan is forced to literally confront his past self face-to-face, with the vicious villain X-24 overtaking the third act. Though X-23 may have been deemed a failure by her creators, their next attempt at a weaponized Logan is far more successful.

X-24 is, in essence, a feral younger version of Wolverine who unerringly carries out his horrible mission, cruelly killing Professor X. Seeming to have little to no ability to think for himself, X-24 presents Logan with an uncomfortable mirror image, not too dissimilar from the violent antisocial personality of his past self. It also says a lot that X-24 is one of the few evil clones of a famous hero to actually succeed in killing his good counterpart.

3

Nega-Scott

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Scott Pilgrim vs The World is unique for its titular hero being something of a bad person, with Scott realizing his own flaws being a huge central theme of the original comic and live-action movie adaptation. This makes the concept of an “negative” version of the character similar to the video game foils that inspired it an interesting point, as Scott himself has better odds of being the evil counterpart. Nega-Scott doesn’t show up for very long in Scott Pilgrim vs The World, but what he represents leaves a big impact.

After finally defeating Ramona’s seventh evil ex, Scott finds himself up against one more villain of his own creation, Nega-Scott. In the film’s hilarious anti-climax, Scott emerges from his supposed battle unharmed moments later, confessing that him and his evil clone simply “shot the sh*t” and made plans to get brunch in the near future. The fact that Scott has so much in common with his evil counterpart says a lot about the protagonist’s baseline sense of right and wrong.

2

Shadow the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Calling Shadow a strictly evil version of his more famous hedgehog counterpart might be a bit harsh, but as dark foils of a popular hero go, Shadow is hard to beat. Debuting in the video game Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow is introduced as a artificial clone of Sonic bioengineered to be the ultimate life form. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 changes Shadow’s origin to be a crash-landed alien amnesiac, but the character doesn’t lose any effectiveness as an edgy foil to the lighthearted Sonic.

Keanu Reeves is excellent as the tortured black hedgehog, tearing through human soldiers and Team Sonic alike with fierce impunity. However alike he may be to Sonic on the surface, Shadow is in a league all his own in terms of tragic backstories and raw chaos energy. It’s hard not to enjoy Shadow in either the games or the latest live-action movie.

1

Symbiote Spider-Man

Spider-Man 3

Sonic the Hedgehog isn’t the only sunny hero to have a hilariously edgy dark counterpart. Like most famous comic book heroes, Spider-Man has seen his fair share of evil doppelgängers, but it’s hard to beat the exploration of Peter Parker’s own dark side thanks to the black symbiote suit. Both the Insomniac Spider-Man games and animated series like Spectacular Spider-Man both explored the idea quite well, but it’s hard to beat Tobey Maguire’s adaptation of the famous symbiote arc in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3.

Coming across the gooey alien organism, Spider-Man begins to give in to his anger and frustration with the world, acting on his wildest impulses and becoming a reckless hooligan that dances in the street, demands cookies and milk from his landlord’s daughter, and even hits Mary Jane. As much of a low point as this period is for Peter Parker, so-called “emo Peter” is a joy to watch even years later, whether he’s taking things too far in his civilian or costumed life. Few movies have been able to pull off evil versions of a famous hero quite so well.

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