10 Best Times Superheroes Became Villains

7. The Maker - Ultimate Fantastic Four

The Maker Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics/Alex Ross

The Ultimate Universe was something of a flash in the pan moment for Marvel. It came around at the turn of the century to galvanise the publisher with modernised takes on classic characters, with Spider-Man and the Avengers benefitting the most. However, things started to fall apart slightly as the years dragged on, exemplified in full by the sheer balls-to-the-walls craziness of events like Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum.

For a while, Spider-Man was the only thing keeping the mythos going, and it became clear Marvel were making moves to pull the plug on the imprint completely ahead of 2015's Secret Wars, which went on to bring Miles Morales to mainstream Marvel continuity. Central to this whole storyline was a foe known as The Maker, the Ultimate universe's version of Mister Fantastic who... kinda... sorta went off the deep end.

So, what caused this version to go evil? Well, basically - when you live through an event as messed up and traumatic as Ultimatum, it's kind of forgivable that you'd go a bit nasty, which is what happens to Reed. He starts collaborating with evil aliens and he ultimately develops into a sinister figure, one intent on destroying his own reality and finding a new one to call home.

Maker proves successful in his endeavour, surviving Secret Wars and making it across to 616 continuity, where he's continued to be a pest ever since.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.