10 Best Times Supervillains Switched Sides

10. Doctor Octopus - The Superior Spider-Man

Dan Slott finally drew his stint on The Amazing Spider-Man to a close last year, ending a decade's long association with the character to pursue a new challenge in the Fantastic Four. Whatever your thoughts on the writer's run, it's probably fair to say that its transformation into the Superior Spider-Man - a storyline that saw Dock Ock take control of the wall-crawler's body - made for a refreshing take on the character.

Doctor Octopus became the new, 'superior' Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man #700, having recently acquired Peter's body for nefarious purposes. The original Peter has his mind placed in Octavius' original, failing body, but is able to transfer all his memories to Ock before passing away. With this knowledge in hand Ock reaches an epiphany, seeing the value in his old enemy's heroics and then deciding to not only continue Peter's identity, but to innovate it in every way possible.

With this being comics a return to the status-quo was always inevitable, but Ock still managed to make one heck of an impression as the new Spider-Man. He had a cracking red and black costume, a set of mechanical arms that harkened back to the Iron-Spider design from Civil War and a ruthless edge absent from other versions of the web-slinger.

After Peter reclaimed his own mind, Ock began a cycle of death and rebirth before once again assuming the identity in December 2018, vowing to outdo his past tenure as the friendly neighbourhood arachnid.